Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 71

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  71 Session Date-  12/27/23

Time Passed- 7 days (adventuring 12/27-1/1, rest 1/2)

Roll Call- Godhard- C6

Boyo- C3

Mayfly- M/U1

20 Spearmen

10 Lt Cav

  

Adventure Log-  12/27-  Godhard and Boyo continue to ponder over the strange yellow paged book that holds keys to how the cubic gate structures operate.  They consider taking the long journey out to Papagallo’s new site to see if his sage knows how the devices work.  They instead decide to visit Auntie’s sage who tells them to recount everything they know of the structures and all the information they may have gleaned from the strange writings.  They converse back and forth and the sage contacts supernatural forces and gives them confirmation on many things.  They learn that the cubic gate structure as it has become to be known in the local vernacular, is but one of many “cubic gates”  scattered around the Nappendixian badlands.  The structures serve as stations along a linear path that traverses the land.  They get confirmation that the cubic gate near Bartertown, the metal tower near the Megadungeon, The metal tower near Papa’s new site, and the structure connected to the “subway” dungeon are all stations that can be traveled to.  From any station you can travel “uptown” or “downtown” to the next adjacent station.  They also get confirmation that the gates operate with an initial input of magic by the pilot, who then uses a control panel on the side to engage a portal on the top of the structure that travelers walk through to the next station.  They are told that the machines run on the cycles of the moon, only a certain amount of uses and travelers per day may go.  Bolstered by all of this information from the sage, they decide the most important thing to do is get the spell comprehend languages so they can better attempt to get information from the book, particularly how to use magic to start the devices.  Due to their excellent reputation from the magic darkness plague, several mages are willing to trade spells so the party can learn comprehend languages.  They spend the rest of the day setting up a contact and transferring over the spell.  The next day Mayfly memorizes it and has several minutes to skim the book.  He finds it to be a repair log of sorts, different repair jobs are recorded here, and the location and type of work.  The party is able to get a few references to different spells that were cast into the operating panel on the side to begin its operation.  It seems both arcane and divine spells will start the portal, and the controller seems to have time to climb up to the top and go through the portal also, as long as a rope or ladder are set up.  Excited at the prospects of possibly figuring out how to operate these devices, they gear up their men and head off south towards the subway dungeon and the strange kiosk they found down there.  

12/29-  After travel and camping the party arrives at the subway dungeon, they employ the spearmen down into the underground while the cav guard the camp.  The chambers where they fought the wraiths are empty of any enemies, and they investigate the kiosk and find a 3 section control panel with buttons and switches.  They cast comprehend languages again to read the words written on the panels, each has a large button labeled Start/On as well as other switches that read uptown and downtown.  They elect to push the central on button and a loud rumbling shakes the whole underground complex.  The troops are shaken and dismissed back up topside while the party continues to search.  Minutes later several troops return demanding the PCs come to the surface to see what happened.  They emerge to see that a cubic gate structure has risen up out of the loose sod and now stands mostly exposed where before there was just a hole to enter the underground.  They return to the underground kiosk to see if it can be operated from there, but they can’t get any response.  They go back to the surface structure to see if it has a secret compartment on the side like the one near Bartertown has.  They search but find nothing.  That night Godhard decides to prepare locate object for the next day and try to locate a control panel on the new structure.  The following morning he is successful, and finds a 3x3 compartment on the side.  There is a curious map on the compartment and a potion.  The map seems to be of the cubic gate stations, and the party makes some notes as to guessing where the stations are located.  The map is ripped and incomplete, but a lot of information is revealed.   He decides to cast light into the compartment, and in response a swirling portal of energy forms on the top of the stone structure.  Also a panel slides back revealing a dial that can be turned, they decide to turn it clockwise, hoping that will take them to the cubic gate near Bartertown.  Godhards is able to encourage 3 spearmen to try the portal with them, And Boyo, Godhard, and the 3 step through and arrive on a different cubic gate structure after telling Mayfly and the troops to wait 1 day for them then return to Bartertown.  They get their bearings and realize they are at the cubic gate near Bartertown, as they predicted the dial would take them.  Feeling like they are starting to understand the machine, they bivouac and rest, figuring they need to wait a lunar day to operate the machine again.  The next morning they do, only this time, using the map, they figure that they can take this cubic gate one stop further east, hopefully to Papagallo’s site many days travel away.  

12/31-  The small party of 5 arrives near Papagallos site at the location of the spindly metal tower.  Here however, a cubic gate structure has unearthed itself and risen to reveal another station.  There is a rocky outcropping blocking a good view of Papa’s location, but the party sees a lot of swirling dust in that direction.  They sneak to the outcropping to get a view and see Papa has built a fortress out of the surrounding debris from the wasteland and is defending as best as possible against a horde of filthy marauders riding and sieging the fortress on horse, battlewagon, chariot, and a few strange metal horseless machines and several huge wood and stone rolling structures.  Knowing they are way underpowered to do anything to help Papa, Godhard casts speak with animal on a nearby bird, and writes a note to Papa telling him they have traveled near by a strange portal, and they hope to return soon with enough men to help defeat the marauders.  The next morning, after watching a marauder patrol investigate the newly unearthed gate, the party steals to it and sets it in operation again, returning to the Bartertown gate and promptly heading back to town, happy to find Mayfly and the troops made it back alive.  Knowing they still have much to learn and prepare for they begin downtime activities on the 3rd.

Session Notes-  this session a lot happened, the small party did a lot to reveal how the gates work, they still have lots of secrets to uncover, but they now have a pretty powerful means of long distance travel that gives them a lot more options as to places they can get to without getting bogged down with random wilderness encounters.  It is also making them re-evaluate where they should be basing their operations at, wondering if these new gates need to be protected or if any constructions could aid in their use and defense.  I’m starting to see more thoughtful use of spells and more aggressive attempts to acquire useful spells.  Clerics in particular have access to lots of spells that rarely get memorized on a daily basis, but given a day of prep a cleric can really memorize a useful repertoire of spells.  Study those spell lists, and of course look up every spell at least the first 3 times you use it,  AD&D spells almost always work differently than you think.  It was definitely to get some important groundwork laid during this month of lighter attendance.  Next month should we get some of our regulars back there will be lots of new information and ideas, and I won’t have to take the lead on parsing out all that information, the players can do it amongst themselves.

Treasure and XP- Treasure-  Cubic Gate Map 2000xp, potion of treasure find 600= 2600xp/ 3PCs= 867xp each add % bonus if appropriate

Graveyard- 1 Lt Foot and 1 Camp Follower to spitting snakes and 1 Lt Foot to wraiths in the dungeon south of Bartertown.  (session 69)

3 Spearmen to Wraiths in the subway dungeon south of Bartertown  (session 70)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 70

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  70 Session Date-  12/20/23

Time Passed-  8 days 12/20-12/27 (training can begin 12/28)

Roll Call-  Godhard C6

Kenny M/U4

Boyo C3

Mayfly M/U1

20 Spearmen in wagons

10 Lt Cav

Adventure Log-  While resting on the 19th Kenny and Godhard get a better read of the book with yellow pages that they found.  It seems to be a tradesman's manual of sorts, a log book referring to different repairs at different sites as best as can be determined.  There are also several pages of parchment woven into the book that seem to be a traveling spellbook containing about 6 spells, and a few pages of explanations on how to read and interpret the yellow book, as best as the writer can figure.  It seems at some point there were different structures similar to the Cubic Gate scattered around the plains of Nappendixia and there seemed to be some kind of means of travel between the structures through some kind of portal.  They decide to head back to the dungeon with the strange railway and try to slay the undead.  With a plan of preparation including lots of holy water, bless and chant spells, and equipping the spearmen with silver tipped spears, they head back south looking to exterminate the undead.  They spend the next 2 days equipping the troops and prepping wagons for the trip.

12/22-23rd-  They travel south, encountering an errant merchant group weary and lost from the magical darkness.  The party takes an hour to share their water and reorient them on the path back to Bartertown.  Otherwise they make it to the stone they rolled back to cover the dungeon entrance and set to rolling it open.  They enter the afternoon of the 23rd.  As soon as they descend to the main room, they begin casting protection from evil, and it immediately triggers the anger of the wraiths and they attack the spearmen's shield wall and slay 2 as the party casts bless and magic missile.  One wraith makes it through the wall and reaches out at Kenny, but fails to touch him.  The party reacts and a wraith is slain, but 2 wights begin charging out of the darkness into melee.  Kenny reacts with a web spell which seriously impedes their approach.  Several volleys of holy water douse the undead and they are slain, but not before one more spearmen falls to the wraith's touch..  In the aftermath, the party searches and finds a few low quality gems and a magic mace.  They also get a look inside the wights kiosk lair and find a control panel which they elect not to touch.  They also find several posters showing some locations and names of the cubic gate stations, and some more pictures of the secret side compartment where the operator seems to be controlling the device.  They take the posters with them and pull back out of the dungeon depleted of spells.  They travel a few hours from the site and rest and rememorize spells and return the next day.  The travel and rest take the 24th and 25th and they return to the dungeon on the 25th to search it better and see if there are any more enemies down there.  They search the rear of the chamber to see that it is a descending gravel shaft with some kind of wide railway built onto it.  It descends into layers of gravel that would have to be excavated to be searched better.  There are several tight caverns that could lead to more passageways, but they decide to search the main chambers for secret doors, and find none after a thorough search.  They travel back to Bartertown on the 26-27th.  Kenny begins training on the 28th.

Session Notes-  We’ve been a little light on attendance this month, December usually does this between work and holidays.  We will see how attendance changes after the new year, but this is a great time for a new person to get involved.  If you’re one of the people who regularly read these reports consider getting involved even if for only a few sessions.  The players that have been showing up have been maximizing output however, making good use of mercs and henchmen.  Also there have been mostly clerics and magic users showing up to sessions, and the access to lots of spells has helped the party a lot.  They have had great success using men in small formations, last session a cav charge eliminated some ogres in 1 round, and this session they made good use of the spearman's shield wall at a choke point in the dungeon, seriously minimizing the amount of wight and wraith attacks the party had to endure.  Kenny did come very close to losing a level, but the wraith that got past the spearmen rolled a 1.  I do appreciate the real danger in game, but at the same time am glad when a PC doesn’t lose a level.  

The Pcs are doing well figuring out the cubic gate structures and how they may work.  I’ve pretty much got it figured out how it’s going to possibly work, but not without lots of in game influences helping guide the process.  It will be interesting to see if the PCs remain interested in this development, and what they will do with a potential travel aid.  With our shorter sessions I want to avoid the rut of wilderness travel- brief dungeon delve- wilderness travel back, which can be very fun and episodic and give the players lots of freedom, but a means of longer distance travel will open up more options for them.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters Wights 1325xp, Wraiths 1546xp Treasure- Mace +1 350xp, 4 gems 80xp = 3301xp/ 2 PCs= Godhard gets 1651xp, Kenny gets 1155xp, his 2 henchmen get 248xp each. add % bonus if appropriate

Graveyard-  1 Lt Foot and 1 Camp Follower to spitting snakes and 1 Lt Foot to wraiths in the dungeon south of Bartertown.  (session 69)

3 Spearmen to Wraiths in the subway dungeon south of Bartertown  (session 70)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 69

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Reports Chapter 5

Session #-  69 Session Date-  12/13/23

Time Passed-  7 days (12/13-18 adventuring, 19th resting)

Roll Call-  Godhard- C6

Kenny-  M/U4

Boyo- C3 henchman

Mayfly-  M/U1

Morsov- C3

20 Lt. Foot in 6 wagons

10 Lt Cav

20 Camp Followers in   

Battlewagons

4 Elite Cav

Adventure Log-  12/13-  Godhard and Kenny decide to do some research before heading off with a potentially small party.  They start off seeking an audience with Master, but are curtly told by the guards that guard his underground area that he is far too busy to meet at this time.  Stymied, they move about the Master’s quarter and stumble across Tom Sholz and his makeshift Bartertown Library.  They dig into the manuscripts available and first find some skins and hides with images and stories that tell the Bartertown origin story, and trace some family lineages up to the more current times.  They find some of the early pamphlets and periodicals that were produced throughout Bartertown’s history to find out that the Cubic Gate, the stone structure outside of Bartertown, and several other structures in the area are somehow linked and allow for some kind of fast travel.  They learn of an expedition that headed out from Bartertown ages ago that located an underground structure 30 miles to the south.  There they somehow found the knowledge to operate the Cubic Gate and use it for travel.  They decide the location is close enough for investigation, and after prepping the troops and gathering supplies, they head out south on the morning of the 16th. 

12/17-  Their over one day of travel goes uneventful, and after going 30 miles south, they spy an outcropping that has a strange depression in it with a large stone rolled into it.  They set up the followers to dig the boulder out, and the foot fan out to guard them should anything disturb the work camp.  In the excavation 2 spitting snakes are disturbed from their nest and they manage to hurl gobs of poison onto a follower and a footman poisoning both to death.  The snakes are eventually slain and the boulder removed revealing a slanting passage sloping down into darkness, upon entering the rough hole, the wide corridor is of smooth stone with shallow steps inset at the far edges of the corridor.  It descends about 2 stories and opens into a round vestibule.  At the southern end of the chamber there is a series of waist high pillars spaced a few feet apart across the opening.  Kenny begins to investigate, concerned of a type of trap, but beyond in the room 2 filthy gore caked creatures emerge, as well as 2 shadowy ghostlike creatures with glowing eyes.  They attack.  The 3 clerics gather there is some kind of undead present and pull their symbols to ward them off.  Only Morsovs attempt is successful, and the shadowy creatures seem unaffected.  They reach out and grasp one of the foot and suck the soul essence from his body leaving a husk collapsed on the floor.  Concerned, Godhard digs into his pack and produces a scroll of protection from undead, and the  wraiths retreat before any more men are killed.  They were unnerved by the fact that their weapons were totally useless, prompting the party to have a discussion on the location of magic weapons and the need to procure more silver weapons.  With the undead pushed back, the party has a minute to search the chamber, finding a kiosk of some kind in the room as well as several placards posted about.  The placards and posters seem to have signage about locations and directions and there is a poster of the cubic gate structure being operated by someone by manipulating controls in the secret compartment on the side.  They manage to tear it successfully from the wall and carefully roll it up for travel.  They also grab from the kiosk a thick book of yellow pages dense with text, 5000ep and 4000gp in sacks that the wights must have collected from their victims.  They party retreat before the protection spells wane.  They travel a few hours back home before camping and returning to Bartertown on the 18th and resting and checking out the book on the 19th.  Along the way they cross a scout party of 3 ogres heading west.  The cav, angry at the loss of the lt footmen, charge them in a rage, scoring 2 critical hits and several other wounds, skewering them and taking their heads as bounty to Auntie.

Session Notes-  Starting a new chapter, I wanted to kick off this chapter with the opportunity to develop some kind of accelerated travel for the party.  They are getting quite familiar with the Nappendixian badlands and we have been very true to the travel rules. I wanted to have the option for them to move about with less random encounter rolls but still have some constraints and follow the lore we have been developing.  I think I have it figured out, player speculation and feedback definitely drives my process.  We will see how the players figure out how to work the travel option, and what they do with it.  It will lend itself to more options and still run our shorter sessions.  I still feel we pack a lot of gaming in our 2 hour sessions.  This session also pointed out that the many magic items the party has acquired over sessions has been unrealized or unclaimed and they definitely had an eye opener on fighting monsters that only can be harmed by solver or magic.  That’s on the players however, there have definitely been a lot of items and weapons given out, there are solutions and they have the resources.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 2 Spitting Snakes 960, 2 Wights turned 331, 3 Ogres 495xp   Treasure- 2500ep, 4000gp, 24gp= 8310xp/ 3PCs= 2770xp each, Kenny gets 1940, his henchmen get 415 each.  Add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-  1 Lt Foot and 1 Camp Follower to spitting snakes and 1 Lt Foot to wraiths in the dungeon south of Bartertown.  (session 69)

The Complete 6mm Sci Fi Collection

 Minis from Irregular Miniatures

Cairn Solo Session 12/9/23

 Cairn solo session today, (12/9) Nesbit Barton and his Conway henchman Merc Sara Smith hear the tales of Warwick, John, and Gringle, and decide to head into the hilly woods looking for Hooded Men. They initially befriend a Wampanoag scout in the woods, then delve deeper and battle some errant skeletons and dispatch their undead curse. they find some gp and camp so the scout can recover. the next day (12/10) they travel deeper into the wood, and that evening encounter some Hooded men beginning a ritual. Nesbit and the scout use stealth to launch a sneak attack and one man is taken out while another casts charm on the scout. He resists a round later and the party rallies and dispatches the other 2 even after 1 casts shield on himself and tries to run. the party gets a few of their leystaffs, some gold, a gem, and the 2 spellbooks which nesbit and sara split. they head back to Conway to rest and regain lost strength. resting until 12/17)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 68

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  68 Session Date-  11/29/23

Time Passed- 8 days- 11/29-12/5 adventuring, 12/6 resting

Roll Call-  Godhard- C6

Kenny- M/U 4

Boyo- henchman C3

5 Elite Lt. Cav

7 Lt. Cav

Adventure Log-  In the aftermath of the mass darkness, and the ensuing famine, the Iron Company attracts all sorts of parties interested in residing in the Iron Quarter due to their success in managing the city during the darkness.  A troop of Lt Foot join on, as well as a group of camp followers, among which 2 armorers and an engineer are acquired.  All are attracted to the Iron company’s safety and more present food source, as Godhard and other clerics in the quarter have been casting create food and water as much as possible and distributing food.  Godhard himself attracts several score of new followers to Pelor.  Thinking of the nearest source of stored food may be, the party thinks of Hartford.  Though totalitarian, they may have ample food reserves not affected by the darkness, and may want to negotiate trade.  They decide to head out on fast horse, get to Hartford as fast as possible, then try to negotiate a food caravan to be sent to Bartertown.  They head out on 11/29 with little encounters save an errant herd of cattle still disturbed by the mass darkness, and nearer to Hartford they are set upon by a hippogriff patrol of Hartford Police Force who they parley with and get escorted back to the city.  

12/1-  arriving at Hartford late that night, the party meets with Hauk and his second Remy and they offer to negotiate for a food caravan to be sent back to Bartertown.  They say there is no need for negotiations, civil cities help each other out in times of crisis, and as long as the party is willing to share everything they know about the magical darkness they will send a large food caravan and arrange for regular resupplies until Bartertown can get its crops going again.  They agree to head back in the morning to bring word back.  They rest from the long travel.

12/4- Late morning on the 3rd day of travel from Hartford, the party sees the filthy haze of Oak Crest and bears north in search of the dungeon location Shadrac and Co. gave them some intel on.  They arrive to find the exposed entrance to the dungeon reveals a tunnel descending at an angle.  They descend and find a dungeon level with 10’ wide corridors starting at a T intersection.  They go right into a large chamber with a pool of liquid in a 2’ dais at the center of the room.  Kenny approaches to investigate, and a tentacle of the liquid begins animating and lifting from the pool.  The party, fearing a water elemental quickly egress from the room the other way down the corridor.  It too leads to a corridor that turns into a descending tunnel, as they approach a Hook Horror leaps at them from a crouched position at the start of the angled tunnel.  The shield wall of the elite cav holds, and Kenny’s web spell holds the creature in place long enough for them to stab it to death.  They locate its crude lair further down the tunnel in a large crack in the masonry wall, and find some silver among the refuse.  The descending tunnel ends in a chamber, with one roughly dug passage leading west and curving into an open natural cavern.  Amongst the rocks slither 2 subterranean lizards.  They engage the party and one bites 

one

of the elite cav nearly in 2 killing him on the spot.  The other is blinded by Godhard and after settling in both are slain despite the lost man.  Their treasure is ample, with silver, electrum, and gems scattered amongst the bones and littered gear of fallen adventurers.  The party heals the injured warriors and depleted of spells decides to head back topside and returns to Bartertown the following day after nearly crossing paths with a hill giant intently heading due SW.  They make it back to Bartertown on the 5th and rest most of the 6th.  Thus ends chapter 4.  With the accumulation of the new residents of the Iron Quarter and the seeming end to the mass darkness we will begin chapter 5 with a look at how Bartertown is faring and see where the party takes things from there.

Session Notes-  It seemed like a good point to end the chapter, the party has gotten new followers, and is close to the point where they can start commanding small armies.  This is also a good time to look at construction rules, as the party hopes to improve its quarter.  So we will probably start the next chapter using the city doc I’ve prepped for Bartertown adventures.  Give the PCs a chance to organize their forces, assign roles to their new people, begin any projects and then see if there are any bigger threats in the area that may be brewing.  There’s the scalphunting orcs to the west, the Juggalos and all their dirt bum towns and ruins, the gorilla men, the avatar of the Eyeless Void, serpent cultists in the dangerous jungles to the south, any could be rising to become the new threat.  This session really showed how prepping any kind of dungeon would have been a waste of time.  I used a pair of 12 sided dungeon making dice to randomly roll out the dungeon in real time, and I used the dungeon level tables from Fiend Folio.  One of the players used a mapping program to make the awesome map you see and viola, a legit dungeon with cool monsters and treasure totally on the fly with no waiting on the part of the players and no prep on my part.  I could not have come up with anything cooler on my own and I had fun creating a dungeon story based on the die rolls.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters  Hook Horror 210xp, 2 Subterranean Lizards 1000xp + Treasure  4000sp, 1000ep, 6 gems 1220xp= 3140xp, Godhard gets 1570xp, Kenny gets 1335xp, and Boyo gets 235xp, 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)

Godhard and Kenny- placed in a deathlike paralysis for 2 days, rescued first by Boyo, then fully restored with neutralize poison by Bartertown clerics. (session 66)

4 Lt. Cav killed by Giant Wasps in the wilderness near the cubic gate (session 66)

Godhard and 1 Elite Cav permanent loss of 2 Cha from Mummy rot in the mausoleum south of Oak Cross (Session 67)

1 Elite Lt Cav killed by Subterranean Lizards in the dungeon north of Oak Cross (Session 68)