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)
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