Nappendixia Campaign Session Report
Session #- 61 Session Date- 9/27/23
Time Passed- 7 days adventure, 1 day rest/light duty (9/27-10/4)
Roll Call- Harry- T5
Bart- F3/C4
Gregory- F1 henchman
Maximillion- F4
Godhard- C5
Kenny- M/U3
25 Lt Cav
4 Hvy Hobilar
War Wagon Transport
Adventure Log- The session begins with a quick recap of the recent resolution of Stigr and his failed downtime scouting mission. Already having lost 16 of his crossbowmen, he and the 2 surviving soldiers and the gorilla man come upon some filthy pilgrims who claim to be seeking the Great Milenko to the Northeast. They have nothing to share save all the water they could drink and a little food. At this point the Gorilla man rides off to the NW leaving the humans. They then come across bulette sign and move on. At dusk they are set upon by 15 wolves. Both Stigr’s companions are killed and he is terribly wounded but escapes only to find he is lost and not near Bartertown as he thought. He manages to find Bartertown the next day after backtracking, and immediately retires to the stone manor to rest and recover, lucky to be alive.
9/27- The party decides to take a ride out to the Megadungeon to see if things remain the same. They load up the warwagon with food and water and head out, fortunately arriving with no major encounters save a strange unexpected lunar eclipse that occurs the first night of travel. They take heed to the omen.
9/29- They approach the megadungeon at their usual southern approach past the spindly metal tower. They observe from the rocky outcropping they used before and see 3 Gorilla man patrols on the field before the mountain megadungeon. 6 squads of manlings are running around on the field skirmishing them. The party decides to prep the cav to charge, assemble them behind the outcropping, then have them charge forth when a patrol of gorilla men goes by. They get surprise on the squad and manage to take them out with lightning speed. They pull back behind the unit and prep to try the tactic again. The next patrol that goes by they attempt a charge, but the gorilla men are alert and get the initiative. A pair of lt cav are killed by lances, and another wounded, but the party and the cav strike back and slay the unit. The third unit however, was riding in support and they charge in next. Clash with the party, but they are slain. Thinking they are safe for a moment, they assess the scene. Bodies are looted producing just some pocket change and silver. A few horses are grabbed by the party. They look to the mountain side, thinking they had cleared a path to go investigate the hidden southern entrance to the dungeon that the Kenku told them about, but they spy about a dozen gorilla men riders assembled at the base, and another squad assembled on top using a big signal mirror signaling down the southern road. Just then they are surprised as a dozen Manlings leap from the talus onto the party and attack! Several of the party are wounded, and another lt cav falls in battle and several more are wounded. The party responds in kind however, and despite the manlings razor sharp knives, they defeat them.
9/30- Stymied and concerned about the arrival of reinforcements, they head south into the hills seeking a route to the southwest to cut off the road but still try to get to the gorilla men settlement. After a half day of travel, they realize the trip will be at least 5 days, too long and rough, so they turn around. They try to note on their map the location of where the gorilla men signal mirror was directed.
10/1- The party heads back to Bartertown, the first day passing uneventfully, but the next day they are set upon by a small party of berserkers, in a rage they charge the party with their more impressive leadership standing back. Kenny’s well placed sleep spell takes out the majority of the charging berserkers, and the responding attacks from the party takes out the rest. Max and the Lt cav rush forward to engage the leadership, one possesses a glowing magic sword, another a fine spear, and a third some quality leather armor, they have 2 divine casters with them. The cav crashes into the berserkers and they hold, amazingly none fall. The 2 strongest fighters engage Max and he quickly finds himself very wounded. Bart rushes forward to assist and Godhard and the berserker clerics begin casting. First the Berserker leader is held fast by Godhards spell, then the cleric's spells go off, first holding both Max and Bart frozen in place, and the hold on the leader dispelled. Bart and Max are quickly grabbed, and the badly wounded berserkers ransom their escape for the lives of the party members. Godhard agrees, knowing his friends' lives are more important. They flee with almost all of them very wounded, but they are able to get away. The party finds very little coin on the slain berserkers.
10/3- The party returns to Bartertown after spending many healing spells restoring Max, Harry, and Kenny among others, they return to the stone manor to rest and recover.
Session Notes- So talking about zero prep is all the rage now, and I’ve endeavored to run some zero prep games for the foreseeable future. So after my first real zero prep session, I realized the thing I needed most was organization of my DM area and use of more space, giving myself more room to spread out. I cleared off my worktable to completely accommodate my gaming setup. I made enough space to set up all my homebrewed dm screens within seeing distance of my old man eyes. This greatly cuts down on the amount of stuff I have to look up in the book, and greatly reduces fatigue/stress in game. Of course no game is complete without having some kind of difficulty in finding a rule, often one I’ve looked up many times. I also gave myself enough room to have most of my minis that I use out on the table, and I moved my laptop over to give myself more room to get the laptop cam on the dice tray where i roll live in the open, and the area where I set up minis for marching order and to loosely represent some combats. Players can view that screen live and have it open over the general chat in Discord. You can see this in action in the picture here. If you look on the left screen in the upper right corner you can see the dice and minis on screen as a player would, and still be able to see the general chat where most players roll. I use the other screen for files of saved images and stuff I like to drop into the chat while we’re playing. I have a clipboard where I record all the session details, anything generated on the fly in session gets written down there, that way it's easily findable afterwards. I have lots of clip lamps and lighting as I’m in a basement; good lighting is important. I keep a tv tray as a side table to hold all the books. They are frequently on my lap in session. I really pride myself on always keeping the game moving, my players will attest to this. I have learned to slow myself down lately, and give the players more room to guess their way through things, and also to take the time to roll stuff out in game. It’s still a process, but I highly recommend getting highly organized in your DM area.
Treasure and XP- Monsters- 15 Gorilla Men 710xp, 12 Manlings 312xp, 11 berserkers 325xp, draw with berserker leadership 905xp= 2252xp. Treasure- 46gp, 110sp= 51xp Total- 2303xp/ 5 PCs= 460xp each. Bart gets 390xp, Gregory gets 70xp. Add % bonus if applicable.
Graveyard- 16 Mounted Crossbowmen to Dimetrodon in the jungles south of Bartertown (downtime)
1 Lt Cav to Gnoll pikemen outside Wardoof’s ruined keep (Session 60)
1 Mounted Crossbowman and 1 Sgt, killed by wolves west of Bartertown (downtime)
3 Lt Cav killed in the Gorilla Men/ Manling skirmishes outside the Megadungeon (session 61)
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