Nappendixia Campaign Session Report
Session #- 98 Session Date- 12/20/24
Time Passed- 5 days (12/20-23, rest the 24th)
Roll Call- Finnigan- T7
Rust- D7
Godhard- C7
2x P3 hench
10 H. Hobilar
Kenny- MU7
Boyo- C6
Adventure Log- The Iron company begins to realize their larger role in the running and maintaining of Bartertown. With Master focusing on the building of the railroad in their partnership, and Auntie taking a less prominent role in leadership, they have the job of protecting, patrolling, and maintaining the settlement. Recent reports from scouts have located a lair of large spiders along the route of the proposed railroad, close to the location of the will o wisp attraction. They party mounts up with 10 H. Hobilar to clear out the poisonous den. They track it down to a rocky outcropping infested with webbing. The manage to smoke them out of the lair and get rushed, the set spears of the Hobilar taking the brunt of the charge. 4 men fall but are quickly restored by Neutralize Poison spells smartly memorized. Only a meager amount of treasure is recovered from the spider hole, but they rest and the next day head to the nearby location of the Will o Wisp lair, they negotiate to search the bottom of the quicksand trap the wisps were utilizing. Good relations are maintained and Rust transforms himself into a large water snake and finds 2 magic weapons lost at the bottom, a hammer and a sword. After teh day of searching they return to Bartertown to find that the outrider party consisting of Dr. Dealgood and Toadie have returned from the SW. They had intended to investigate a hilltop that had sighted wispy plumes of smoke emitting, but on the way were waylaid by hippogriffs. They managed to scare off the flock and capture 4 that had been afflicted by a fear spell. They give these as a gift for future favor to the Iron Co., knowing that they had been seeking access to flying mounts. They start to think of ways to train the hippogriffs. In similar transportation news, Mayfly manages to complete the long task of repairing the flame struck Ford Bronco, so new travel options are opening up. After resting and meeting with Dealgood and Toadie, who tell them about a strange hut at the base of the smoky hilltop. Some clairvoyance and divination reveals that there is a powerful monster there and a large treasure too. Kenny scrys a primitive hut at the base, occupied with a few horses fixed outside. The top of the hilltop reveals a large stone structure mostly buried by earth, but protruding from the ground at a main entrance area, and a rear vaulted or domed area where the stone has collapsed creating a large open hole. They decide to investigate the location very soon, but they elect to first delve into Chateau Amber once more, trying to clear out another level. They cue the trump card that brings them into the Chapel area (the hobilar cannot go, only PCs and henchmen), a large cross shaped area at the rear of the chateau. They cast detect magic on the marble statues that line the room and they are magic and 4 come to life and attack! The party responds by doing some damage to them but the various statues manage to land a blow on each party member, not damaging them, but bestowing one random magical effect on them. Several party members are boosted with an ability score increase, Godhard receives a staff of striking, and Kenny is permanently blessed. Unfortunately Rust is afflicted by a debilitating curse for a Druid, his alignment is changed to LN, and he loses his druid powers. He must atone and find the path back to neutrality. After the statues magically gift/curse each person they return to their position along the wall. With the quiet after the battle, they hear scratching noises coming from the floor stones in the SW corner of the chapel They locate the source of the scratching and lift up the stone revealing a member of the Amber family frantically scratching at the stone in an attempt to escape her internment. She announces herself as Lady Madeline D’Amber, all she remembers is falling into a deep sleep long ago, and waking up buried under the chapel floor. She suspects her rival brother Charles Amber and vows to help the party in the chapel. Whe tells them of some zombified monks of the religion of Amber off to the east and west wings and the party quickly destroys them. They then head to the rooms beyond the altar after checking out the chapel organ made of singing statues. In the rear rooms They find Charles in a library and Madeline immediately attacks him in a rage. Unfortunately he immediately catches her in a hold person spell, and explains to both her and the party that he mistakenly took her for dead and buried her in the chapel, only to be tormented to insanity by her incessant scratching at the floor. He tells them that despite the bad blood between he and Madeline, there is even greater enmity between them and their other cousin Simon Amber, a truly mad, insane cleric. He tells them that if they can locate Simon and defeat him they should gain their freedom from the Chapel. He rewards the party with a magic shield and some coin. After searching a few rooms and locating a secret door they find the mad cleric in a small chamber with its own golden altar. He immediately attacks trying to get off a powerful spell, but Godhard’s silence spell is quicker and he is silenced and quickly cut down by the melee force of the party. He smolders into evil fire and brimstone, leaving a pile of treasure strewn about. Of the items they find a ring, a broom, and a snake staff along with copper and gold coins. They gather the loot and transport back to the Iron Quarter, the chapel card disintegrating, but the East Wing card remaining. Upon getting back to Bartertown, they notice a commotion. A large winged shape is approaching Bartertown. It makes a bead on the Masters Quarter, lines up a dive bomb run and spits a gout of flame down into the undercity tunnel where Master has his pig methane operation. The flame penetrated the tunnel, and in seconds the sounds of rending and bending metal are heard and a massive fireball explosion consumes all of Master’s quarter, and damages some of the Commons Quarter. The wall is destroyed, as is the Thunderdome, and most of the structures above ground in the Masters area. The Iron Company is the best candidate to take on the rescue and rebuilding efforts, as well as route out the new massive threat of the newly awakened Nelson the Red Dragon.
Session Notes- We had to look up the rules for casting spell vs spell in init order. It had been a while since such a situation has come up, but basically with spells in AD&D it goes strictly by casting time in segments. When the casting times are tied the tiebreaker is the initiative winner. It felt wrong in the moment, but that’s how I ruled it and that was correct. I guess you have to be aware as a spell caster to have an effective spell with a short casting time in your arsenal at all times as the best way to best a fellow spellcaster. The evil cleric was ported over from B/X D&D which has no casting time rules, so his selection of spells was weak in terms of short casting times. Nonetheless, the PCs need credit for good tactics, silence is very effective against spellcasters. Other than that the game flowed quickly we got a bunch of downtime/story completed, 3-4 combats, another section of castle amber complete and the setup for the finale to take place in the next 2 sessions. The party will have to gather intel, mount a force and travel to take out the dragon before it completely destroys Bartertown. Thankful to the ADDICT document for being a good source of studying the combat rules. Still trying to keep the combat rules tight consistently across the campaign. It is tough however.
Treasure and XP- Monsters- 11 Lg Spiders 803xp, 18 Zombies 648xp, Simon Amber C14 3416xp. Treasure- 154cp, 66sp, 121ep, 55gp, 11pp, Sword +1/+2 vs magic, Hammer +2, Staff of Striking 6000xp, Shield +1 250xp, potion control plants 250xp, Ring of Protection +1 2000xp, Broo, of Flying 2000xp, 10,000cp, 5000gp, 2000gp altar, Snake Staff 7000xp= 30,891xp/5 PCs= 6178xp each. Godhard gets 4324xp, the pals get 927xp each.
Graveyard- Lucky, Marathon, and Arthur- incinerated by a Falmestrike on the Bronco at the 1st Slime Cultist Battle. (session 96)
Oops, Almost- killed by Rakasta and Sabretoothed Tigers in Chateau Amber’s Inner Garden (session 97)
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