Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 85

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  85 Session Date-  6/12/24

Time Passed-  8 days (6/12-18, rest 6/19)

Roll Call-  Godhard- C7

Roland- P1 hench

Harry- T6

Finnigan- T5

Kenny- M/U5

Boyo- C3 hench

Mayfly- M/U1 hench

20 H. Infantry

5 Longbowmen

Adventure Log-  The wagons, artisans, workers, and troops guided by Rust arrive at Outpost 31 to begin salvage operations.  In spreading out at the camp and assessing what material are recoverable, a group of guards are confronted by a curious snake with a head at both ends, it grasps itself into a  circle and rolls itself at the troops, killing 2 with poison bits, and another 2 as the rest of the troops could spear it and cause its retreat into some rubble.  The salvage ops are left momentarily stymied until later resolved.  

6/12-  The Bartertown crew assembles to see what kind of adventure or exploration they could get into this week.  They assess their funds and divvy up the payment of all the troops amongst active members of the Iron Co.  They discuss the possibility of constructing some kind of mobile base for bivouacking at wilderness locations, and a general discussion of the use of and lack of funds to fund so many of their future plans.  They consider some kind of temporary base of operations at the crevasse dungeon they recently discovered, and the possibility of exploring to find that desert of old car parts in the hopes of getting the Ford Bronco running.  Just as they are about to head in that direction, Kenny arrives and a new plan is concocted.  They plan to use his powerful Fireball spell in conjunction with a complement of troops armed with flasks of oil and flaming arrows to take out the trolls that nearly killed the party last time.  The day is spent acquiring oil and arming the troops and the party heads out the following day.  Travel by wagon is slow but uneventful, the large lumbering party making an imposing target.  They arrive on the 15th midday and send an advance party that spies a single troll at the ruined entrance and dry partly filled moat on watch.  The party sets up at 1000 yards, observes no other trolls and advances to a spot free of potential ambush at 200 yards away.  Godhard begins casting chant, and the archers begin a feint volley of arrows which gets the troll’s attention as it cries out into the ruins and rushes forward.  Kenny manages to cast Web on the troll as it moves forward, and archers and Harry and Finnigan begin to pepper it with missiles as it begins to rip out of the webs.  They approximate it will take 10 rounds to break free, and continue volleys, but 2 more trolls break from the ruins.  Again a well timed spell, Fireball, gets all 3 trolls midfield, and the already wounded one is slain in the incinerating web, while the other 2 wounded trolls clash into the party’s troops who bravely hold forth halberds.  In all 8 are slain but the party moves forward to assist wounding the trolls with magic weapons and a few Magic Missiles.  Eventually they fall, but again prove to be one of the toughest opponents the party has ever faced, doing large amounts of damage each round once engaged.  Their bodies are burned to a crisp before they can begin regenerating, and the thing is done.  Godhard casts Locate object, hoping to find some remnant of his loyal squire’s remains to resurrect it with his magic staff.  The spell indicates that there is some remnant of Jirel inside the one ruined structure within the ruined keep walls.  Harry and Finnigan sneak forward into the ruined keep building, really just a cavern at this point and spy a litter of bones and food scraps to the left and several sacks of what appear to be silver coins to the right.  Harry investigates the treasure sacks first and as he confirms the sacks contain silver, there is a quick motion of some kind right before him and a troll seems to grow from nothing before him, it swings out and strikes at him and Finnigan before they can run.  Harry notices a small stone fall from the troll's hand as it grows, and manages to remember where it lands.  Finnigan is small and deft, but Harry takes several blows to the chin from the mighty troll before the rest of the heroes can rush in to assist.  Again bravery and weight of blows wins the day for the heroes and again the troll corpse is burned.  Godhard locates a femur that the spell reveals is Jirel’s and uses one of the few remaining charges on the staff to resurrect her.  Harry and Finnigan check the coinage, and find a few sacks contain platinum, and are happy to take in a better yield of wealth on the expedition.  In all they recover 7900sp and 450pp, Kenny casts Identify on the stone that fell from the troll’s hand and it is revealed to be a stone of Diminution, it will shrink the holder as they hold it or it may be conferred to another by touch.  A powerful stealth item, it has limited charges and should be used wisely.  The party takes a much needed rest and recovery time, and heads back to Bartertown richer, but fewer in troops.  They arrive back on the 18th and rest on the 19th.  

Session Notes- The trolls continue to be nasty opponents, they just do so much damage per round and can strike up to 3 targets each round.  The treasure rolled by the party was pretty meager, even with my added treasure roll.  I knew there had to be at least some treasure for the trolls, so I on my own rolled the 7900 silver.  Not much xp but the party has wisely been using their silver and copper as industrial metals, not precious metals.  So that gives them a nice store of silver.  I do like letting the players roll in session on the Treasure Type tables, but lately their luck has been crappy, like real crappy. So I have been supplementing their rolls when needed with the 1977 Monster and Treasure Assortment book.  I figure it’s the most “canon” source for random treasure generation, so I’ve been using it.  Even with it the players are seriously lacking on treasure hauls lately.  They have been doing better on getting xp from monsters surprisingly, using their troops as leverage to rack up xp by killing monsters despite rolling poorly on treasure found.  It is starting to backlog some of their projects, and it is interesting how their funding of certain projects over others is influencing the game.  I am also fortunate in that players are stepping up and helping run the game in helping my find rulings in the dmg, track time for downtime travel and training and things like that, and just generally being good about having conversations in the discord on what is going on in game and future plans.  The group has certainly shaped up to be very elite level players, and it is very appreciated in sustaining the game.  I am happy to dedicate the time in running the mostly no-prep sessions, with a little extra time peppered in for fun stuff like the movie references and 80s references and such, but I will also always have time to write well-detailed and analyzed session reports.  They are essential to a healthy long-lasting campaign.  

Treasure and XP-  Monster- 4 Trolls 3284xp.  Treasure 7900sp/395xp, 450pp/2250xp, Stone of Diminution= 5929xp/ 4 PCs= 1482 each, Godhard gets 1260xp, Kenny gets 1038xp, each hench gets 222xp.  Add % bonus if appropriate.  

Graveyard-  1 Lt Foot- killed by the Werebear at the rail supply depot NE of Bartertown (session 79)

2 Silver Spearmen, 4 Kazarians, 4 Shortbowmen, 3 Hvy Hobilar- killed by wereboars and wild boars 1 day outside of Bartertown. (session 80)

5 Silver Spearmen, 1 Bowman- killed by by werewolves and a weird blood thing at Outpost 31 North of Bartertown (session 81)

1 Lt Cav- killed by Ogres at the crevasse north of Bartertown (session 82)

Jirel- P1 and Maria- C/A 1/1-  killed by Trolls at Wardoof’s former ruined keep, now taken over by trolls.  Godhard and Harry brought to Death’s door (1 week bedrest) (session 84)

4 Lt Foot killed by Amphisbaena at Outpost 31, 8 H. Foot killed by Trolls at Wardoof’s ruined keep.  (session 85)

Roger Zelazny- Nine Princes in Amber 1970- Book Review

 Roger Zelazny-  Nine Princes in Amber 1970

This was my first time reading Zelazny, and this proved to be every bit of the essential classic that it is oft referred to as.  This would be up there with Jack Vance as far as formative Appendix N literature.  It introduces Corwin, and the city of Amber which is the setting and the main desire of Corwin and the other Princes who vie for control and make and break alliances in an attempt to gain control over Amber.  As stated I have not read any of the series before, so I am along for the ride as far as the big picture of the whole Amber series, but this first book is an easy quick read that really gets the series going and still maintains the qualities of a self contained story.  It begins with Corwin awakening on our Earth circa late 60s from an accident.  He cannot remember his princely heritage nor Amber, but he begins to reacquaint himself with his true nature and meets one of his fellow prince brothers.  They navigate the magical pathway back to Amber and find out the state of the other princes and their power struggles.  The crafty brother Eric has become leader of Amber, and Crowin assembles allies and a massive army to confront him.  There is a lack of heavy description in the battles and progression of the war that keeps the plot to a feverish pace and leaves the imagery up to the reader.  The description of the  magical Shadow, which one must pass through to reach Amber was vivid and eerie, as were the magical Trump cards, one with an image of each prince, that allows communication and teleportation among the princes.  These concepts clearly had a lot of impact on some of the fantastical elements of D&D.  I am excited to see how the remainder of this series plays out, it has a great sort of 70s vibe to it. There’s some lingo from that era embedded, and some social commentary of the period, for example Zelazny references radio DJs and their ability to enrapture teens in comparison to a magical effect that occurs in the story.  I also noticed and appreciated how fantasy of that era was more apt to connect the fantasy story and characters to the real world.  Much like early stories like Lost Horizons, there's a connection. The characters in the fantasy world come from our real known world, and you can actually get to the fantasy world from our world.  Maybe authors of earlier fiction felt a stronger sense to connect their characters to the real world for empathy to the reader, whereas now authors and readers are more willing to just immerse themselves in a separate fantasy world.  I‘m not sure if there’s any significance there, I do remember however that some of those early D&D games also had that concept, that the PCs were the actual players and the stats of those PCs were an approximation of the users personal stats and they were playing as if they personally were transported to a fantasy realm.  Certainly a cool concept and one that could be explored again at one's own gaming table.  In summation, I’m definitely late to the game on this one, Zelazny is one of the few Appendix N authors I never really investigated despite being a longtime fan of pulpy sword and sorcery fiction.  Perhaps I just never made it to Z at the used bookstore, but I am definitely thankful to have begun reading him later in life.  I look forward to the remainder of the series.  

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 84

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #- 84 Session Date- 5/29/24

Time Passed- 6 days (5/30-6/3, rest 6/4)

Roll Call- Harry- T6

Godhard- C7

2x P1 hench

Stigr- F5

Finnigan- T5

Maria- 1/2O C/A 1/1 hench

  

Adventure Log-  Play begins with 3 rangers- Jack, Anjar, and Stewart taking a scouting mission using light horse to try to find a wagon accessible route to the Outpost 31 location.  The party hopes to strip the salvageable structures of their resources.  They head out on the 27th, and eventually find a route about 50 miles that routes to the NW side of the outpost.  Unfortunately upon discovering said route, the group is set upon by Lions, and Anjar and Jack are badly wounded, Anjar’s horse is killed and the party must retreat.  After recovering, their trip back was uneventful except when they returned to Bartertown they were shocked to find it surrounded by not just the 220 Scalphunter Orcs they had spotted previously, but the group had an additional contingency of carts, slavebearers, and additional sergeants and a sub-chief.  They began loosely encircling bartertown.  The rangers hunkered down to see how the town would react.  The rangers return on 5/30.

5/30-  the PCs inside Bartertown are alerted the previous day by Bartertown patrols of the incoming orc horde, and its added caravan of troops and materials.  The party considers many options as to how to deal with the horde- open combat, spells (they consider illusory cars driving at the orcs), parley, assassination, and trickery.  While weighing their options those party members who were weeks ago affected by the Outpost 31 Blood Monster begin to feel very nauseous.  Jirel the Paladin, Rust (who is off training with a fellow durid), and 3 Light Foot all begin convulsing, and begin to vomit forth a thick worm-like creature, so thick it barely fits out of their throats.  They are all incapacitated by the ordeal and lay prone for a turn, tended by their allies.  The wormlike creature that wriggles forth from each of them however begin to grow into a disgusting slightly man-shaped creature, each flees into the recesses as the each appear to begin  developing arms and legs and scurries off into the confusion and back alleys of Bartertown.  The chaos of the orc horde provided its own level of confusion and diaspora that made perfect cover for the strange monsters' escape.  The party vow to deal with that threat as soon as possible, but first they must attend to the horde.  They settle on the idea that Harry would use his Charisma, knowledge of the orc language and the copy of Lord of the Rings he recently read to read scenes of orcish battle over Auntie’s loudspeaker to entertain the orcs and gain their friendship.  Actually he first tries to parley with them by asking them to enter into the Iron Quarter for wine drinking and fellowship.  Their response to that was cool at best, but the reading of the story about orcs, Harry is specific to only read the parts about orcish battle, gains their fellowship as they are enraptured by the story, and they humble send forth a diplomatic party to ask if they can have some of the aforementioned wine.  They are greeted and invited in to partake, and the story reading continues.  The orcs remain respectful guests, and allow the party to suggest some possible targets for the rage of their horde.  Orcs need to fight of course.  They try very hard to get the orcs to go after the Gorilla men outside the Megadungeon, and they almost bite on the offer, but refuse because they realize the gorilla men are not truly human.  The horde is a scalphunter horde, and only the scalps of men have any value in their economy.  The party realizes that yes the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and the successful parley of the horde is a useful tool, but they are getting in bed with brutal man killers, and need to use them with discretion.  Harry uses his knowledge of the area to suggest the orcs head due east, threading them between Milenkos Juggalos to the north, and Sivor’s Slime Cultists to the South.  They don’t really want the orcs to attack either group, as both groups have innocents that could easily be harmed, however sending the orcs as far east as possible seemed a worthwhile gambit.  The showdown with the orcs happens at dusk on the 30th, and the parley goes into the night.  The orcs begin prepping to travel and leave the area heading east on 6/1.

On the 31st the party is able to do some snooping and investigating as to the location of the weird worm blood monster spawn.  They predict that several or at least one has left Bartertown, possibly connecting with the orc horde to spread its evil or sickness, the rest they feel are here to try to attack or take over the residents of Bartertown.  Godhard finds some residue from the worm vomit event and casts locate object on it, hoping the matter will link him back to the creature.  It fails to produce any result, which in Godhard’s mind confirms that this creature was probably prevented from mingling with and/or taking over the human host due to his casting of Cure Disease on them after the initial battle with the blood monster.  He feels like because of this the creature was forced to remain completely separate and dormant until it could grow large enough to flee.  He also confirms with his paladins through detect evil that the creature is likely not demonic or evil per se, its power is not divine, but more like a natural animal but from a totally different environment.  Some kind of symbiotic creature or perhaps parasitic.  That remains unknown.  All of this investigation occurs on the 31st.

6/1-  The party sends out its first salvage caravan, 10 wagons, the Lt Cav, and a set of artisans to recover the hardware of any salvageable buildings or mechanical things they can find.  They will use the newly found route to Outpost 31 and bring the rangers with them to help find the route.  They estimate the work to take a week, making the trip take an estimated 17 days.  

6/2-  With the favor of the orc horde won, and the mystery of the blood creatures on hold for now, the party decides to go look for some treasure, as they were able to solve their current predicaments without any, and expenses are mounting.  They elect to go check out the old Wardoof ruined keep to the east, seeing if anything has moved into the location and to assess the stability of the structure.  Upon arrival, they find several trolls have staked a claim to the lair, 2 stand out front and a third lurks inside.  They hatch a plan to have Maria and Harry creep forward to attempt a sneak attack and an assassination, then rush them with the remaining party.  The attempt fails, and they are set upon by the troll and his partner rushes to aid.  The power of trolls comes to the realization of the party as they are shocked by the damage and accuracy of their blows.  In all Maria and Jirel are slain, despite the paladin duo mounting a brave defense using their sturdy armor and Protection from evil to push back the trolls to allow Godhard resurrect a deceased Harry with the Rod of Resurrection, only to fall himself to troll blows a minute later.  The remaining paladin grabs Godhard and Harry mounts a fighting retreat as the survivors escape.  The trolls feast upon the bodies of Jirel and Maria and do not pursue.  The party makes it back to Bartertown on 6/3 and rests 6/4, lamenting the loss of their comrades.  

Session Notes-  0 xp-  the session resulted in no xp.  That’s just the way it worked out, if they had dealt with the orcs differently they possibly could have earned xp from slain monsters and/or treasure.  The same with the worm monsters, there was a possibility they could have fought and slain one or some.  And the encounter at the end was just a random check to see what moved into the empty lair, trolls are very nasty and deadly and the party learned this.  The seem determined to return with troll killing tactics to take them out..  

Rewarding the 100 roll-  The reason the party’s negotiation with the orcs went so well, and why they were basically allowed to order the orcs to do whatever was twofold.  One the plan was well thought out and well executed.  It was very clever to apply the orc stories from LOTR from the recently acquired books from B. Dalton, and the remembrance of Auntie’s intercom to make an effective ploy to appeal to the orcs.  On top of that I allowed Harry’s player to roll a d100 reaction roll and he rolled a 100!  I wanted to reward both the skillful play and the super lucky roll (Harry’s player proceeded to have bad die rolls the rest of the night, but alas) so I thought in my mind that as long as the scalphunters have the prospect of fresh man scalps they would obey the party whatsoever.  In all it was an excellent session, much fun was had and many plot threads were plucked at, the party continues to have total freedom to probe the world in whatever direction they want and I will continue to respond with fair adjudication based on the original texts, and a sprinkle of gonzo creativity thrown in from shared sources of inspiration.

Treasure and XP-  None

Graveyard- 1 Lt Foot- killed by the Werebear at the rail supply depot NE of Bartertown (session 79)

2 Silver Spearmen, 4 Kazarians, 4 Shortbowmen, 3 Hvy Hobilar- killed by wereboars and wild boars 1 day outside of Bartertown. (session 80)

5 Silver Spearmen, 1 Bowman- killed by by werewolves and a weird blood thing at Outpost 31 North of Bartertown (session 81)

1 Lt Cav- killed by Ogres at the crevasse north of Bartertown (session 82)

Jirel- P1 and Maria- C/A 1/1-  killed by Trolls at Wardoof’s former ruined keep, now taken over by trolls.  Godhard and Harry brought to Death’s door (1 week bedrest) (session 84)