Nappendixia Campaign Session Report
Session #- 65 Session Date- 10/25/23
Time Passed- 2 days (10/25, rest 10/26)
Roll Call- Maximilian- F4
Godhard- C5
Tomas- F5
Harry- T5
Kenku ally
Adventure Log- After negotiating safe lodging with the Kenku and resting for a few days, the party watches the area of supernatural darkness grow and spread towards them on the 24th, the whole megadungeon area is bathed in darkness by the end of that day. The kenku are unnerved by this and have no knowledge as to what is going on. They are willing to send one of their own, skilled in thievery and arcane magic, off into the dungeon to see if the portal device shows any signs of activity. Fortunately for all, the magic darkness only penetrates into the megadungeon entrance by about 30 feet, the rest of it is unaffected. They move out to the green and the orange ringed sections of the dungeon, the kenku tells them they have not investigated these areas since the party was last here several months ago. Moving through the green area in the corridor they spot a strange shape in the corridor, a blob-like growth anchored in the corner near the door, and 2 whip-like tentacles spreading lazily along the walls. It is unclear if it is plant, fungal, or some other material, but it senses the party and the tentacles poise to attack. The fighters charge and missiles fly, Tomas slays the bulbous body area while the rest of the party works on the tentacles, they take some slashing damage, but when the creature dies, it gets a burst of energy and the tentacles strike out many times, landing several critical strikes. Badly wounded, they regroup and do some healing, then move on into the orange area. Things are quiet in the orange area, and when they get to the strange solar system device it is inactive, the spheres in their resting position. However it would be unable to tell if the device had activated prior as the spheres all return to their rest positions after activation. They move on to the area where they had previously fought the rock worms. They find a chamber south of there, very roughly mined out with many slabs of stone and boulders remaining. They carefully construct a 10 foot pole from a few staves, and affix Maxcalibur on the end and Max prods and pushes on the loose cobbles and boulders. He prods up at the high parts of the rough ceiling and 6 piercers drop from the eaves in response to the noisy disturbance. A little more prodding causes 2 more to fall, and they move in to slay them all before they can crawl back up into the eaves. At the rear of the cavern they find the skeletal remains of some adventurers or miners along with 3000gp in tattered split open sacks. They realize they have found the western limits of this level and move back to the portal device room and go south to where the kenku warns is jermaline territory. Harry carefully investigates the door into the area, and the party moves into a large refuse-filled room and hears the skittering sounds of rodents. They trigger a sleep gas trap on the floor somehow and a cloud of gas puts Tomas and Max out cold on the floor. Then 12 jermaline pop up and start peppering them with tiny darts. They take minor damage and rally as a crowd of giant rats moves towards them but yields due to the gas cloud. The kenku says he has a sleep spell and they pull back to the door so he can safely cast, taking more dart wounds. At the choke point they slay a few rats and the kenku’s sleep puts down the bulk of the ratmen, and the vermin are crushed. They procure a few nice looking gems from among the ratmens meager coin treasure, and move back to the kenku lair to rest and recover.
Session Notes- So I elected to start holding shorter sessions (2-21/4 hours) and still hold games weekly in light of my new job. I’m interested to see how this interacts with 1:1 time- shorter sessions conducted weekly. I’m wondering if it will feel too chunky; short periods of activity interspersed with longer periods of inactivity. This issue also intersects with the issue that comes up when the party procures a temporary downtime safe spot as they have done with the kenku. At the beginning of the session we only had 3 players and they had no henchmen or mercenaries to bring, it really limited them in that respect, and it also would/will limit the access to other PCs playing in sessions based out of the kenku lair. A player whose PC wasn’t part of the kenku negotiation would either have to roll up a new PC that was appropriate for the kenku’s level, or the DM would have to hand-wave and say ok your character was there too. Neither is an ideal solution. The same is true with shorter session play. Will PCs be up against the clock each week to get longer missions/travel done? Will they be motivated to focus on shorter term goals and more local adventuring? I’m interested to see how things may change, but it seems the best solution. Session reports are essential to a robust campaign, and you absolutely can’t get behind on session reports. Once you get backlogged it’s very difficult to catch back up. This session report is going on 2 hours of my time so far, so you can see how much they affect my perspective on the campaign. With zero prep style play, I was able to do everything I needed to do in a little over 4 hours of time commitment per week, despite having a very busy week getting adjusted to my new job. A final thing we are adjusting to is going fully RAW when it comes to training and leveling. The gp adjustment has been like a 5000gp increase from they way we have currently been doing it, so i’m interested to see how that affects the PC treasure economy. Also we have come up against the no more xp after gaining enough xp to level. Our thief has made it to level 6, but cannot train until he gets back to a settlement so therefore is frozen on more xp accrual. Interested to see how that affects the party’s decisions next week.
Treasure and XP- Monsters Whipweed 220xp, 8 piercer 704xp, 12 jermaline 132xp, 4 giant rats 48xp= 1104xp. Treasure 3000gp, 2 gems 200gp, 24cp, 36sp= 3202xp= 4306xp total/ 4 PCs and Kenku ally= 861xp each. add % bonus if appropriate.
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)
7 Lt Cav killed by wolves and bandit ambush in the badlands NE of Bartertown (session 62)
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