Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 66

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  66 Session Date-  11/1/23

Time Passed-  9 days (11/1-11/9)

Roll Call-  Stigr- F3

Kenny- M/U3

Boyo- C2 henchman

Kvam- M/U1

17 Lt Cav w/ Battlewagon

Megadungeon Team

Maximilian- F4

Godhard- C5

Tomas- F5

Harry- T5

Adventure Log-  The megadungeon crew observes that the magical darkness begins to recede from the Megadungeon on the morning of the 31st.  Before it recedes, they find that their continual light devices cancel out the darkness that filled the cave mouth. They convene with the kenku on these curious developments.

Switch to the Bartertown crew on 11/1.  Kvam reads back the records and finds reference to the location of the kenku lair.  The bartertown crew endeavors to head out to the Megadungeon and check on the PCs out there who are overdue from returning.  They also realize that the magical darkness can be erased by magical light, and set out a plan to have the heavy foot walk around the city and clear out the streets and buildings of the magical darkness.  The overall darkness does remain, however, and patrols head out to find the edge of the darkness.  Both the patrols and the party find that the darkness has receded to its first growth point.  A point Kenny was able to mathematically approximate, they realize the darkness is likely now 75 miles wide and it seems to be waning somehow.  They move past the darkness towards the megadungeon, using a low channel for cover.  They reach the cubic gate on the 3rd, and drop off the battlewagon there, hiding it in the shadow of the structure.  Moving faster without it, they head towards the megadungeon.  The lt cav spread out in formation with continual light devices, they shine their lights into the ravines darker crevices and reveal several shriekers whose wails trigger an ambush from 6 wererats and their giant rat companions.  The wererats are positioned in ambush above them in the rocks, Kenny takes out the giant rats with a sleep spell, Kvam zaps one wererat with a magic missile, and the troops dismount to receive the charge.  The wererats change their mind and decide against the fight due to the unknown amount of magic that they may receive and flee before things get messy, taking their treasure with them.  The party moves ahead, making it to within view of the eastern side of the mountain, and Kvam lights a bottle rocket in an attempt to signal the party inside with the kenku.  The kenku do witness the bottle rocket, and when they describe it to the party they realize it must be someone from Bartertown, likely their friends.  The kenku bring the party down the cliffside and they make their way back up the racky ravine in the hopes their comrades are hiding there.  They do bump into a patrol of 3 ogres, likely from the group they encountered earlier, and a melee ensues as Harry slips ahead and meets up with the other party and alerts them to the combat.  The ogres badly stab a few PCs but are slain and a sack of over 100gp is secured.  (11/5)  

11/6-  with all the parties reunited, they head back to Bartertown so Max and Harry and others can get some much needed training.  They make good time until midday when the spy 5 giant wasps on the horizon roving fast towards them.  They realize they cannot outrun them, but continue forward until the wasps engage.  One gets zapped by the wand of paralysis and a few more are tied up by the set spears of the lt cav, but one makes it into the party and nearly kills Kenny with its bite and then puts him into a death-like paralysis from its sting.  The same fate happens to Godhard the next round, and only Boyo the henchman is left to assess their wounds.  Some magical healing helps a little, but he is able to determine that they are in need of high level poison curing.  Getting back to Bartertown becomes more critical as they race towards home after slaying the very deadly wasps.  They manage to kill 4 lt cav and Godhard and Kenny must be strapped securely to horses until they can be placed in the battlewagon upon arrival at the cubic gate.  On the 7th they arrive at the border of the darkness and find it is receding again, it has completely dissipated from Bartertown by the time they arrive on the 9th.  They prepare to rest and train and divide up the 60 very valuable gems that were harvested from a collection point the giant wasps had made, likely the biggest haul the party has ever made.

Session Notes-  So several rules interactions came up this session.  2 PCs were locked out of any further xp gains due to leveling and not yet training.  This influenced session play in that it was desirable to get those PCs back to civilization where they could train.  They had however lost their horses, and had no men at arms, so the risks during overland travel were big.  They solved this problem wisely by using their other PCs to get horses and mercs and the battle transport in position to go after the stranded PCs.  It was smart paly and still travel was dangerous and costly.  Though thankfully it was very lucrative this session.  Who knew giant wasps could produce d4 x 20 gems?  And I broke their values up into 6 groups of 10 and they managed to roll 100 for one set netting 50,000gp in that group alone.  This was definitely the biggest treasure haul of the campaign, so I looked onto PC treasure division rules and they are there.  I also allowed them to spend some xp to raise some of their surviving lt cav to level 1, giving them access to an elite unit of troops and/or henchman pool.  This xp division is happily left to the PCs on my part, I don’t have time to figure all that out, but if they divvy wisely they could be able to maximize the amount of levels gained across the most PCs.  It also puts pretty much all of the currently active PCs in time jail for next session, and there is already some interest in rolling up some new PCs and starting back in Lancebrass to catch up with Zophia the druid and the mercs who fled there during the darkness spreading.  

Treasure and XP- Session 66- Monsters- 3 ogres 600xp, 5 giant wasps 2000xp= 2600xp Stigr, Kvam, and Godhard get 650xp each. kenny gets 552xp and Boyo gets 98xp. now refer to the first sentence on pg. 85 dmg. "treasure division is in the realm of player decision." 71,635gp/xp from the 60 gems and the gp from the ogres means you can divide that treasure and subsequent xp how you like. Harry and Max are locked out of xp gains, but still can receive treasure, same with Tomas and Bart due to not being present at the session. anyone else could earn up to 1xp away from double leveling. you may upgrade any of your men at arms who were on the adventure to 1st level fighters for 1000xp each, up to 1xp from 2

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)

Godhard and Kenny- placed in a deathlike paralysis for 2 days, rescued first by Boyo, then fully restored with neutralize poison by Bartertown clerics.

4 Lt. Cav killed by Giant Wasps in the wilderness near the cubic gate