Nappendixia Campaign Session Report
Session #- 102
Session Date- 7/4/25
Time Passed- 1 day
Roll Call- Kenny- M/U8
Boyo- C8
Elaine- F6
Adventure Log- Our heroes have recently returned to Bartertown and the Iron Quarter after waging a war to the east with the Slime Cultists. (More on how that all resolved to come) In the weeks leading up to Batertown Independence Day, Kenny has time to scry the lands surrounding and finds some big changes in the last months while the party was off to war.
His first significant scry is in the evening where he sees a streaking light rise from a mountain to the Southwest, it touches the firmament and is met with a second glowing streak. And both glowing streaks descend back to that same mountain. He locates the source and it is the former hilltop lair of Nelson the Dragon, though slain months ago.
His second bit of intelligence from scrying is of the Megadungoen to the west. The gorillamen have reconfigured their operations outside the megadungeon. They no longer skirmish with the little wildmen. They now have several billboards advertising the Megadungoen as an entertainment locale and they seem to be setting up facilities to accommodate visitors.
His next scry reveals that in the forests to the Northeast, near the borders with Hartford, several vehicles are spotted, and one resembles the car Humungous is known to drive. Several more troops from the marauders are spotted. It looks like they have settled here in these forests.
He looks to the west, at the edge of the desert and the end of the cubic gate line and sees that that station is still transformed into a spooky haunted house, constantly dark and stormy, with bats and wolves lurking about. A vampiric presence is still strong here, possibly getting stronger.
When looking to the north Kenny sees the Crevasse dungeon, and sees several piles of dead detritus on the grounds outside the crevasse. More scrying reveals the Headhunter orcs have moved into the crevasse and are using it as a base of operations.
Lastly, when scrying far to the north, deeper into the deserts north than he has ever scried, he spies a small desert village. It seems to have a partial palisade and some degree of trade and travelers. He decided to dispatch a patrol of horsemen to try to make it there to investigate.
7/4/25- The Bartertown Independence Day festivities are underway and Kenny, Boyo, and Elaine are checking things out outside the Iron Quarter. Most of Kenny’s crew are working on various things in his tower and in the mythic underworld dungeons below, but these 3 are out and about enjoying the holiday. The usual stands selling fireworks and crackerjacks are set up, and Auntie is on the main stage conducting the ceremonies and retelling the history. Things are a little more somber this year as the recent Slime War has resulted in many casualties and there is a need for grieving and honoring the dead. As the ceremony crescendos, and the spectators prepare for music and fireworks some strange and terrible happens. Fully ¾ of the entire city of Bartertown, citizens, soldiers, merchants, begins to twitch and shake in a horribly inhuman way, limbs distending and ripping apart in an orgy of blood. The blood thing monsters that were left to escape from Outpost 31 and subsequently Bartertown had returned and systematically taken over the town by devouring and reanimating slowly, silently, secretly over time. Auntie herself grows and distorts into what looks like a massive 15 foot tall black widow spider/alien hybrid with chainmail dress, punk haircut and massive earrings. She beings spewing acid from her mouth, melting the first 5 rows of spectators. Everything erupts into total chaos. The few remaining humans are almost immediately devoured by the blood thing monsters as they flail about with their 6 tentacles and blood spray. The smaller creepy worm blood things also lurk about pouncing on humans and beginning to transform them into more blood things. Kenny and Boyo see the overwhelming odds and know combat right now is not the right option. They notice that Kenny’s tower is not being rushed or broken into. The blood things are also curiously not bothering with the Chateau Amber, the 2 structures must somehow have enough mystical energy to ward off the blood things. They also notice that the Iron Quarter’s Stone Manor, their main base of operations has been rushed through and stampeded through the first floor, but the second floor, containing the magic items room, the records and maps room, and the quarters of all the retired former adventurers goes untouched. They are warded off perhaps by the manpower, or perhaps by knowing all of the magical and non-magical traps that have been set up there. They are comforted slightly by their retreat as they jump in the Bronco and roar out the front gates of Bartertown, a once great town now in permanent control of these disturbing blood monsters. They are comforted knowing the people in Kenny’s tower/dungeon are safe for now, as long as they can navigate the mythic underworld and find another way out. They also feel like perhaps the stone manor can be saved, at least the things and people inside. It could be accessed by the roof or perhaps by stealth and intrigue. They roar out of the city hoping that Godhard and his people were also able to escape and meet up to decide how/where to find or make a safe settlement. All of the Iron Quarters troops were lost as they were all infiltrated with the Blood things. Curiously, the troops that Kenny kept inside his tower and dungeon were not afflicted and remained human. The Iron Co. has also lost its source for recruiting new troops until they can find a new settlement to establish in.
Session Notes- This was a bit of an impromptu session I offered in between our current focus on Gamma World. I wanted to give an update to the remaining players in the AD&D game to let them know how things have changed in our few months hiatus. I just kind of went through the session reports and identified the bigger factions that had been generated over the last year or so of play. Then I just kind of imagined that given certain time and resources how they would have reacted. I kind of plotted this out on my main map, then made a one page kind of starter information sheet for each faction and where they landed, what they are up to. This way as the players investigate the different factions I have a good starting point of gathered information. I had wanted there to be a big combat of the players fighting their way out of Bartertown amid the chaos of the blood monsters, but I only had one player show up so we just kind of adjudicated it out without going round for round. I wanted to mix things up and give them a bunch of new problems to chew on and prioritize, moving the threats around the board seems to have accomplished this. It was perfect timing to have it happen on Bartertown Independence Day, a holiday we had already established in game. I definitely wanted the impact of ignoring the escaped blood thing monsters as having the most serious implications. They were able to slowly and carefully transform enough of Bartertown into blood things that they could strike overwhelmingly and take over the town. Now to see if they just raze Bartertown to the ground, or will they try to do something with it, do they possess enough intelligence to become a faction or are they just a mindless virus bent on total destruction. Only time will tell as we develop the campaign world one session at a time.
Treasure and XP- none
Graveyard- 90% of the Iron Co. troop recruits lost to the Blood Monster Coup of Bartertown
