Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 92

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  92 Session Date-  8/21/24

Time Passed-  3 days (8/21-22, rest 8/23)

Roll Call-  Harry- T6

Godhard- C7

2x P1 hench

Boyo- C3

Kenny- M/U5

Mayfly- M/U2 hench

Marathon- R1 hench

Rust- D4

Anjar- R1 hench

Stigr- F5

Lucky- F1 hench

10 Spearmen

Adventure Log-  The party lay sieged by Humungous and his marauder brigands for nearly 2 weeks.  During that time the Marauders  spend time sending out hunting parties and returning with various herd animals and roasting the meat over large open fires.  They begin slow, measured patrols around the fortress, forcing their gate closed but conserving energy and storing up for a siege.  The party within spends its time weighing all of its options- sneaking an advance party back through the gate to return with troops, using Papas troops to lead an attack against Humongous, and various sabotage missions that could stymie them.  Kenny also uses clairvoyance daily at various angles and heights to gather some intel.  He is able to get Humongous troop numbers and types, and the basic patrol routes they employ in the siege.  He gets a look at the main encampment where the leadership and camp followers set up, and he is able to view the ambush trench near the cubic gate and sees that it is empty of troops.  The decision is for Harry to sneak out that night and try to place caltrops under the tires of the Suburban when it is parked for rest.  He approaches under invisibility, and silence for most of his trip out to the vehicle.  Once the silence spell wears off however, he realizes he’s not being that silent in his approach.  He places the caltrops under 3 tires, and notices the sleeping driver looks exactly like the androids employed by the time traveling wizard Jagger, and also notices the weird scifi stun gun one of them had wielded previously.  Just then he is heard by the other guards camped near the Suburban, and he elects to run off, staying invisible and bolting into the night.  This triggers the guards to call out, and the android to activate the truck and wheel about to their yelling voices as they chase after the invisible runner.  One tire bursts from the spikes, and 2 others are damaged as they blindly chase Harry back to Papas fortress never getting a fix on him.  They do make a bit of a show in pulling out a spare tire and replacing the flat within view of the fort, then speed off to Humungous camp.  In response, a little while later, while the party discusses what to do next, one of the wood Juggernauts come s barreling down then badlands towards the fortress, and launches itself full speed into the trench/dry moat that surrounds Papas fort.  It lands half buried in the soft sand of the trench, spinning its tires as it digs deeper and more level with the lip of the trench.  Also 10 spearmen spring from the juggernauts structure and begin to attempt to assault the walls with ropes.  The party reacts and Kenny casts web on the assaulting troops at the wall while others leap the wall and rush into the juggernaut looking for other assaulters or possibly a means to control or shut it down.  They find a strange stone pedestal with rows of crystals inset into it.  Both Harry and Godhard identify it as somehow connected in power to the mechanisms used to train on the cubic gates.  Through various means they get some basic controls on how touching/moving the crystals operates the juggernaut.  They manage to manipulate it to a point where it sets unstuck from the sand and points in a direction where it could be accelerated down the trench and up and out of the slope, right towards the cubic gate.  In the upper loft of the juggernaut they find its treasure, piles of gold coins, thousands in number, and an amulet and 2 scrolls.  They leave it like that and climb back over the wall as Humongous and most of his troops approach and surround the fort, calling for their surrender and trying to intimidate the besieged.  The magic user with Humongous sights the upper platform of Papa’s fortress, a gangplank with lookouts and a ballista team.  The mage casts a Fireball spell and eliminates the decking, weapon, and the troops up there. Rust, patiently watching the clouds gather and a light rain begins falling, begins the lengthy process of casting call lightning, and launches the first bolt right at Humongous and his vehicle.  Zap!  Both are badly injured, as his troops react unsure what to do.  The party makes a break for it and despite the Suburban catching up to them and trying to pop off a few stun gun shots into the juggernaut, they stay buttoned up, load up all 20+ party members with as much gold and the magic items from the juggernaut and fire up the cubic gate for an arcane ride back to outside Bartertown.  They arrive back in Bartertown via the train the evening of the 22nd, and rest on the 23rd.  They manage to escape from the siege of Papagallos fortress and vow to gather aid and return to assist him.  

Session Notes-  It was good to resolve the siege this week, the players decided against a big mass combat vs Humongous and instead opted to flee due largely to the circumstances presented to them.  I had sort of the quick and dirty retaliatory plan of Humongous responding to the damaged vehicle by trying to bury the wood juggernaut across the trench, making a primitive bridge across the trench and allowing other vehicles and horses to cross the trench and assault the fortress walls proper.  They thwarted the plot pretty handily and made it back to a more stable downtime location.  I was able to run the session with almost zero prep.  All I did was respond to some of the players' downtime planning with a basic drawing of the layout of the fortress and surrounding land, and a list of the troop types spotted and a map of their basic patrol patterns.  That was enough to get the party talking about potential plans, and the session proceeded from there with the party acting out its various plans.  I had a particularly busy week work wise with getting and starting a new job, so it was good to be rehearsed at running sessions with zero prep, making it an easy challenge.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 5 Brigands 75xp. Treasure- 10,000gp/xp, Amulet vs Crystal Ball and ESP, 2 scrolls 0xp (no xp for magic in B/X) B/X treasure table was used = 10,075xp/ divided by 4 Players= 2519xp each. Each player can distribute the xp as they wish among PCs and hench who were present at Papagallos. add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 91

 

Begin Chapter 7

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  91 Session Date-  8/7/24

Time Passed-  2 days (8/7, rest 8/8)

Roll Call-  Harry- T6

Godhard- C7

2x P1 hench

Boyo- C3

Kenny- M/U5

Mayfly- M/U2 hench

Marathon- R1 hench

Rust- D4

Anjar- R1 hench

Stigr- F5

Lucky- F1 hench

10 Spearmen

Adventure Log-  The party has been recovering in Bartertown from their extended expedition to the Wizard’s Tower.  Finnigan and Mayfly train to their next level, while Godhard cannot find a trainer for his paladin henchmen.  He considers taking them back to Lancebrass via the nearest cubic gate but that route is untested.  He remembers that a paladin was assisting Papagallo, and asks Kenny to use Clairvoyance to see if his fortress is still under siege.  He overlooks the area from above Papagallo’s fort and the nearby cubic gate and there are no Marauders seen and the fort seems in good condition and active with a population.  They also finalize their project to construct a ramp so that cavalry can be brought up onto the cubic gate platforms for transport.  They come up with a wooden design that can be carried with a few wagons or be transported on the train.  They pay for the work and it will be ready in a week.  Meanwhile Rust inquires about the strange transformation at North Station, the building and nearby land seems to have transformed into a dark spooky castle as if a different reality has evidenced the area.  He recalls all of his cubic gate training and theorizes that it is possible that the reality of another world has bled through from the cubic gate and training technology at the top of North station.  He is unsure if it is something that will retreat to its own reality on its own, or if the possibility that the change will persist or even grow.  The group decides to arm up with a very large party, equip themselves for whatever threats may be in the spooky castle, and also to drop off Godhard and the paladins at Papagallo’s to hopefully train with the Paladin there.  There they can also check on his ongoing war with the Marauders.  In addition to the massive party they plan to bring 10 spearmen and Lucky, the newly trained fighter henchman.  They take the train on the morning of the 7th and arrive at the Cubic Gate at noon.  They fire up the gate and make their first destination to Papagallos, planning on resting there a day and the bulk of the party heading to North Station the next day.  Arriving at the gate situated ⅛ of a mile from Papagallo’s fort they spy the walls and begin disembarking from the platform.  They notice several guards manning the walls trying to signal to them in an excited manner.  They look opposite the fortress, and notice a trench that has been dug into the ground, at its end it grades lightly up to ground level.  From the wide trench over 20 light cav emerge and make a bead towards the party, who is all on foot.  6 cav peel off and head towards a large rocky outcropping.  The cav is mostly light cav armed with lt crossbows, but 3 better armed sergeant types also ride with them.  The party begins fleeing trying to effect a fighting retreat but knowing they can’t outrun the cav.  Kenny is injured by a volley of arrows but responds the following round with an effective magic missile as a few others lob ranged attacks.  Kenny’s next spell is disrupted when he is injured by a second arrow, but Boyo heals some of his wounds.  The sergeants charge into melee with the party and 2 are cut down by Godhard and his Paladins, while Harry takes out one of the lt cav crossbowmen.  The final sergeant rallies his troops back, right as the 6 who broke away come into view with the rest of the Marauders who had been hiding behind the rocky outcropping.  Many of Humongous' cav and footmen charge forward, accompanied by 2 cars, 2 wood juggernauts, and 2 stone juggernauts.  All roll forward fearsomely across the badlands, the party makes a break for the fortress.  They realize they will not make it, but Kenny desperately casts Haste out of the spellbook he found on the recovered horses from the fallen.  They overload the hasted horses, Harry clutches his stone of diminution and jumps in a saddlebag.  They get within 300 feet from the fortress, when a vehicle comes out from the gate, it is Papagallo himself, the vehicle speeds to meet the party, the faster ones running, the slower ones clinging to the hasted horses.  Papa begins casting and a 60 foot expanse of blades erupts between the party and the Marauders.  More party members clutch the sides of Papas car and the whole crew high tails it back to the fortress, just as the Marauders arrive at the gates, despite the Blade Barrier, and several shots from the ballistas.  A blast from the flamethrower mounted atop the walls keeps them back.  Inside the walls they reconnect with Papa.  He tells them about the trench the Marauders began digging to lay ambush on anyone arriving by the cubic gate.  He tells them they number about 150 plus the vehicles and the juggernauts.  The Humongous has a magic user and several fighter sergeants aiding him.  Papas troops number about 100 with some chariots and a car, and 2 ballista and a flamethrower.  He also shows the party how he has finished building the drill and pump, and he can now pump a liquid energy source from the ground that can power the cars and do many other things.  They take a look at the working car, and get a sense of what they need to find to complete building their Ford Bronco.  They realize that they are under siege, and there will be no expedition to North Station until they can overcome the Marauders that currently have them penned in.  They consider several plans, including sending a stealth team back through the gate to rally some reinforcements, and some plans to sabotage the marauders' vehicles.  They are unsure how to approach the juggernauts however.  They must spend some time planning and laying out their plan, overcoming the Marauders will not be easy.  

Session Notes-  So it looks like Ch. 7 will start with the party under siege.  I’ve noticed lately that the time passed in-session is getting much shorter, 2-3 days instead of 8+ days in former sessions.  This is largely due to them using the cubic gates for travel, and avoiding having to chart travel times and roll through all the potential random encounters.  This is giving them more time for downtime activities, and is also allowing them to access different features of the map using the railroad and the cubic gates for travel instead of overland travel.  They can be more direct in their decisions in game and make better use of session time.  Our sessions are on the shorter side, and the freedom to get to a destination without the time sink of managing random encounters gives them more time per session to maximize their goals.  Not to say I don’t enjoy random encounters, or fail to see their importance, the majority of this cqmpaign’s content has come from random tables and encounters.  It is however nice that the player’s now have the option to avoid that area of the game some sessions.  It was starting to feel a little stale, plotting travel and rolling and managing random encounters at the beginning and end of every session.  The gates also bring their own surprises, the party never knows who or what will be waiting on the other side, as well as the fact that they haven’t been to all of the gate locations, adding more problems to the mix.  For example when they got to the wizard’s tower the gate was not working correctly and they were obligated to solve the problem before they could use it to get back home.  There’s definitely still more surprises and adventures connected to the gates.  I’m enjoying that the party is into using them, they were motivated to get their characters trained to use them, and their plans are starting to involve the railroad and gates to maximize their safe travel options.  They are limited however by the fact that the gates are fixed, and don’t grant accessibility to every location on the map.  They still haven’t found an easy route back to Lancebrass for example.  The campaign is at a more Advanced level, they have teased out a lot of advantage from the game world and are now approaching new situations with a higher level of analysis, always trying to get the best advantage on a situation.  It’s funny though, because  the real giant windfalls of treasure still seem to be from those random treasure rolls, which can come up during a random encounter just as easily in conjunction with a well thought out plan.  It’s been a while since they have hit some high value jewelry, that column seems to have the most potential for huge xp dumps.  Not that the game is lacking xp-wise.  The players in the 2-4th level range are advancing pretty regularly, those 5 and over are taking longer as it should.  We have one 7th level PC, I’m interested to see how long it takes him to get to 8.  The same is true with magic items, they are starting to both show up more frequently, and be better distributed and used by the party.  I always thought they were a little neglectful of using their magic items, now they are more mindful.  Summer is coming to a close for me, and although I did not pull off something big like last summer’s Escape From Bree-Yark, but we did get 2 special sessions of OD&D with Chainmail which was fun and took a bit of prep for me.  One of our players has decided to try a patronage, so that has been fun to start and see what kind of surprises it will add to the campaign.  We are also dipping our toes back into Marvel Super HeBros next week as one of the players is running a 1 shot.  I’m looking forward to being a player in that next week.  After that we will go to an every other week format as we approach session 100!  I’ve definitely never participated in a 100 session campaign before, and look forward to hitting that milestone.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters-  F3 140xp, F3 112xp, F0 15xp.  Treasure-  400gp, Cloak of Elvenkind 1000xp=  1667xp/ 6 PCs= 278xp each minus the # of hench shares.  Henchmen get 42xp each.  Add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-

20mm Spanish Civil War Nationalists from Irregular Miniatures

 

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 90

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  90 Session Date-  7/31/24

Time Passed-  1 week 

Roll Call-  Magic User 1

Fighting Man Mercenary

Fighting Man 2

Hero, Fighting Man 4

Adventure Log-  After a few weeks in the village, the Fighting Man reconnects with the Hero and they plan another delve into the Haunted Pass.  They provision themselves, and head out to explore.  They arrive and approach cautiously, lighting a lantern and checking for traps and ambushes.  The entrance is still ajar as they left it on their retreat, and they enter carefully making it past the pit trap.  However they are met as soon as they enter with a patrol of goblins, which the mage quickly puts to sleep with his spell.  They are dispatched and a sack of silver is recovered.  They head towards the hatch down to the second level, checking the peephole on the bandits room, and finding it blocked off.  They make it down to the next level, finding a twisting series of passageways roughly hewn from stone.  They wander around the tunnels and dispatch some giant rats, despite the Hero taking a serious wound from them.  They proceed to a large chamber of cast aside mining tools and piles of rubble in a large rectangular  cavern.   skeletons armed with picks and shovels animate and surprise the party, surrounding them.  They are taken down, and the mage manages to avoid several strikes from them.  After the battle, they rest and recover a small pile of gold coins.  They snake back through the tunnels arriving at the hatch back up to the 1st level.  Hearing nothing from above, they proceed to a door they had noticed earlier.  It is stubbornly stuck, and when they finally kick it open 6 orcs are prepared and let a few arrows fly, striking the hero.  They break into melee, and both the hero and the other fighting man are grievously wounded.  They make a break for the door, slam it and run off as the orcs slay the mercenary on the retreat.  They make it back to town and spend the remainder of the weak resting and healing.  

Session Notes-  This was a continuation of a few weeks ago of trying out OD&D with Chainmail Man to Man and Outdoor Survival.  We kept things pretty loose, the PCs never even got names, but we tried out the man to man rules in several combats each session, getting more familiar with the man to man chart, and the weapon classes, seeing who would strike first, and who may get multiple attacks.  We went over how Higher HD PCs get more attack rolls per round vs 1HD creatures, and took some time to track that down in the rulebooks.  We had a random dungeon encounter, and got to see an OD&D sleep spell take effect.  I did roll for wilderness encounters on the way out to the dungeon, but we didn’t really do any wilderness adventuring, but I was ready with OS and the terrain rules and overland movement rules.  In OD&D 1 dungeon delve takes 1 week, specifically stating that time is for 1 delve only.  This delve worked out pretty perfectly for the PCs, the magic user weathered several melee attacks, in fact, we discovered spears and axes vs unarmored opponents favor the unarmored quite significantly.  Also both the Hero and FM 2 were reduced to less than 3 hp and managed to retreat from the orc combat.  However, the session only took about an hour and a half, and had we wanted to do a second delve, it would have taken a second week, thus advancing the calendar and potentially making those PCs unavailable in future sessions.  Overall, there is a complete game here, DM prep is clearly spelled out, there are random tables to roll out a map environment, Outdoor Survival rules are appropriated, there are mass combat rules, and a decent repertoire of monsters to give variety.  In light of AD&D and all it offers, the much more developed system, I couldn’t see personally running it as my main game, but it would be a fun side game and it is fun letting players see how both complete and how very different this version is from every other edition.

Treasure and XP-  7 Goblins, 3 Giant Rats, 6 Skeletons, 600sp, 150gp.

Graveyard-  Magic User 1 killed by Giant Rats outside the Haunted Pass, Fighting Man 1 Mercenary killed by Bandits in the Haunted Pass (OD&D)(session 89)