Nappendixia Campaign Session Report
Session #- 87 Session Date- 7/10/24
Time Passed- 3 days (7/10-11, rest 12th)
Roll Call- Godhard- C7
2x P1 hench
Finnigan- T5
Anjar- R1 hench
Rust- D3
Kenny- MU5
Boyo- C3 hench
Mayfly- MU1 hench
20(1) Silver Spearmen
Adventure Log- 7/10 During downtime, Godhard did some Divination spells on some of the locations the party has been delving for treasure and experience. He is trying to better assess the risk vs reward of the various adventure locations the party has recently found itself at. They are still seeking that big treasure score that has been eluding them for many months. He gets some information on the Undead Subway Station, The Wizard’s Tower, and the Crevasse Dungeon, and the party asks him to divine about the North Station for comparison. He does that and also Kenny casts Clairvoyance on the circle of stone wagons in the desert, and Godhard later divines that location also. Kenny sees no activity in the morning at the stone wagons, and based on all the data Godhard has gathered, they ascertain that delving the Wizard’s Tower will possibly be the most lucrative. Rust announces that he is now trained to move the party 3 cubic gate stations due to his new training gained at North Station. They look at the cubic gate map and though they never have been to the location, they see that it is 3 stops away and attempt to try to travel via the gates there. They decide to take 20 of their silver spearmen, along with the 9 party members. They also check out the newly completed Bartertown railroad, which travels on rails out to the cubic gate and back to Bartertown once a day. The train was launched on the day after Bartertown Independence Day. They take the morning train on the 11th and arrive at the gate at noon.
7/11- With the new train to the Cubic Gate, rail travel is ½ a day and avoids any random encounters, and the party arrives promptly at noon. Master is apparently obsessed with keeping the train running on time. The party has never been to the Wizards tower, they have heard many legends and rumors of it and considered trips there several times, but this is the first time the party can use Rust’s new training to use a 3rd level spell to travel 3 stops on the route directly to the Wizards Tower. He fires up the cubic Gate and the party and men at arms assemble on the platform. The party passes through first and after the first silver spearmen passes through the gate it begins to flicker and fritz out, the next troop that attempts to pass is roughly shoved back onto the platform wondering what happened to the 10 who were able to pass through. The 10 who make it through land on the other side of the magic gateway but the platform is at an odd angle and covered with piles of sand. The platform is much larger here, and built on top of it is a 3 story tower, it leans at an odd angle but remains intact, its front door largely free of sand piles. But the end of the structure that houses the circular gate when activated is partially buried in the sand, exposing only about half of the gate's area, and thus limiting the amount of travelers who could pass by that amount. The gate does not seem active from this side; it seems only partially engaged or perhaps damaged somehow. They will have to find out before using it again for travel. As they gaze out across the landscape they quickly see within ¼ mile a second tower, this one taller, likely 4 stories in the near distance among the sand dunes. They decide to investigate this tower connected to the gate first, and find the front door locked but Finnigan quickly picks it. The main floor of the tower is mostly open, a receiving room of sorts, with a fireplace, scant furniture, and 2 spiral staircases, one leading up and one leading down. They listen at both and hear nothing, and elect to go up. Godhard casts detect traps and begins viewing the stairs and 2nd level. The second floor they find a sitting room and 2 doors closing off 2 other rooms. Behind the second door the spell reveals some sensation of a trap in the room. The other door is searched and kicked open, revealing a musty old library and a crystal statue that animates and attacks upon opening the door. It is quickly dispatched however, with 2 magic missiles and a few hammer bashes. The shattered tiny shards of crystal litter the floor. Kenny begins picking up the pieces and examining the musty texts, finding one that may be repairable and have some magic in it. In the other room they find what could be the bedroom of the mage or scribe who kept the library next door. They find a secret compartment in the floor beneath the bed, and in it Finnigan finds an iron lockbox. Checking it he misses a poison needle trap and collapses near death, he is revived with a laying of hands form a paladin, and is able to fight off the poison just enough to survive, but still be in need of 1 week bedrest. The party listens at the third floor and hears nothing. Based on the locked condition of the tower, they hope to rest and recover here so Finnigan can get back on his feet and the party can complete clearing the tower and hopefully figure out how to reactivate the cubic gate.
Session Notes- So this session I told the players that I had noticed how much content has been created from all of our session play, rolling on the random tables generates a lot of stuff, and a lot of it has kind of been ignored over many sessions. I asked the players if they felt this was a problem or detriment to the game. I also offered that if there was some aspect of the game, something that had come up over the course of play and they were wondering/wanting for some kind of resolution to said topic they could tell me openly or privately, and I would invest some time in figuring out how it resolves. None seemed too deterred by the fact that so much content gets generated in play, and much of it gets ignored over time. Overall they felt the content generated is much more of a feature than the bug of having to ignore some of said content. Now a more astute and time friendly DM may have more time to keep many balls in the air in the background, I simply cannot. I have time in my week to run the session, calculate the xp, write and post the session report, and respond/follow the downtime chatter on the Discord. They seemed to not expect a bit more from me; they all were quite happy with the sort of multi-directional shape the campaign has taken. I guess this is some evidence of the pulpy, episodic nature 1:1 time play produces. What the players seem to enjoy is the following- they like a well-adjudicated but fast moving game that is basically RAW and will sometimes pause to get in the weeds on a ruling, but also tempered with some on the fly decision making. They like interacting with character advancement, maintaining a stable of PCs and henchmen, training them, hiring troops, maintaining those costs, building constructions, and casting information gathering spells on downtime. They use the chat largely for downtime activities, but also like a bit of leeway to declare/resolve some downtime stuff at the beginning of sessions. They enjoy the 80s scifi references I have thrown into the campaign in as gonzo of a style as I can, and they like seeing things play out in 1:1 time and managing all of that. Now granted this is the sentiment of my regular players who have stuck with the game for a while now. There are certainly players no longer with the game who were less committed to this style of play. But I think it demonstrates at least what this game has been able to achieve and focus on after what is approaching to be a 100 session campaign. It certainly has more staying power from both a player and DM perspective than any other style of pay I’m aware of.
Treasure and XP- Monsters- Crystal Statue 101xp. Treasure- 400sp/20xp, 200gp/xp, Scroll Protection from Lycanthropes 1000xp= 1521xp/ 4PCs= 380xp each, with one hench 323xp, 2 hench 266xp, hench gets 57xp each. 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)
Finnigan- brought to Death’s Door by poison needle trap in the lower Wizard’s Tower (session 87)
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