Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 69

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Reports Chapter 5

Session #-  69 Session Date-  12/13/23

Time Passed-  7 days (12/13-18 adventuring, 19th resting)

Roll Call-  Godhard- C6

Kenny-  M/U4

Boyo- C3 henchman

Mayfly-  M/U1

Morsov- C3

20 Lt. Foot in 6 wagons

10 Lt Cav

20 Camp Followers in   

Battlewagons

4 Elite Cav

Adventure Log-  12/13-  Godhard and Kenny decide to do some research before heading off with a potentially small party.  They start off seeking an audience with Master, but are curtly told by the guards that guard his underground area that he is far too busy to meet at this time.  Stymied, they move about the Master’s quarter and stumble across Tom Sholz and his makeshift Bartertown Library.  They dig into the manuscripts available and first find some skins and hides with images and stories that tell the Bartertown origin story, and trace some family lineages up to the more current times.  They find some of the early pamphlets and periodicals that were produced throughout Bartertown’s history to find out that the Cubic Gate, the stone structure outside of Bartertown, and several other structures in the area are somehow linked and allow for some kind of fast travel.  They learn of an expedition that headed out from Bartertown ages ago that located an underground structure 30 miles to the south.  There they somehow found the knowledge to operate the Cubic Gate and use it for travel.  They decide the location is close enough for investigation, and after prepping the troops and gathering supplies, they head out south on the morning of the 16th. 

12/17-  Their over one day of travel goes uneventful, and after going 30 miles south, they spy an outcropping that has a strange depression in it with a large stone rolled into it.  They set up the followers to dig the boulder out, and the foot fan out to guard them should anything disturb the work camp.  In the excavation 2 spitting snakes are disturbed from their nest and they manage to hurl gobs of poison onto a follower and a footman poisoning both to death.  The snakes are eventually slain and the boulder removed revealing a slanting passage sloping down into darkness, upon entering the rough hole, the wide corridor is of smooth stone with shallow steps inset at the far edges of the corridor.  It descends about 2 stories and opens into a round vestibule.  At the southern end of the chamber there is a series of waist high pillars spaced a few feet apart across the opening.  Kenny begins to investigate, concerned of a type of trap, but beyond in the room 2 filthy gore caked creatures emerge, as well as 2 shadowy ghostlike creatures with glowing eyes.  They attack.  The 3 clerics gather there is some kind of undead present and pull their symbols to ward them off.  Only Morsovs attempt is successful, and the shadowy creatures seem unaffected.  They reach out and grasp one of the foot and suck the soul essence from his body leaving a husk collapsed on the floor.  Concerned, Godhard digs into his pack and produces a scroll of protection from undead, and the  wraiths retreat before any more men are killed.  They were unnerved by the fact that their weapons were totally useless, prompting the party to have a discussion on the location of magic weapons and the need to procure more silver weapons.  With the undead pushed back, the party has a minute to search the chamber, finding a kiosk of some kind in the room as well as several placards posted about.  The placards and posters seem to have signage about locations and directions and there is a poster of the cubic gate structure being operated by someone by manipulating controls in the secret compartment on the side.  They manage to tear it successfully from the wall and carefully roll it up for travel.  They also grab from the kiosk a thick book of yellow pages dense with text, 5000ep and 4000gp in sacks that the wights must have collected from their victims.  They party retreat before the protection spells wane.  They travel a few hours back home before camping and returning to Bartertown on the 18th and resting and checking out the book on the 19th.  Along the way they cross a scout party of 3 ogres heading west.  The cav, angry at the loss of the lt footmen, charge them in a rage, scoring 2 critical hits and several other wounds, skewering them and taking their heads as bounty to Auntie.

Session Notes-  Starting a new chapter, I wanted to kick off this chapter with the opportunity to develop some kind of accelerated travel for the party.  They are getting quite familiar with the Nappendixian badlands and we have been very true to the travel rules. I wanted to have the option for them to move about with less random encounter rolls but still have some constraints and follow the lore we have been developing.  I think I have it figured out, player speculation and feedback definitely drives my process.  We will see how the players figure out how to work the travel option, and what they do with it.  It will lend itself to more options and still run our shorter sessions.  I still feel we pack a lot of gaming in our 2 hour sessions.  This session also pointed out that the many magic items the party has acquired over sessions has been unrealized or unclaimed and they definitely had an eye opener on fighting monsters that only can be harmed by solver or magic.  That’s on the players however, there have definitely been a lot of items and weapons given out, there are solutions and they have the resources.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters- 2 Spitting Snakes 960, 2 Wights turned 331, 3 Ogres 495xp   Treasure- 2500ep, 4000gp, 24gp= 8310xp/ 3PCs= 2770xp each, Kenny gets 1940, his henchmen get 415 each.  Add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-  1 Lt Foot and 1 Camp Follower to spitting snakes and 1 Lt Foot to wraiths in the dungeon south of Bartertown.  (session 69)

The Complete 6mm Sci Fi Collection

 Minis from Irregular Miniatures

Cairn Solo Session 12/9/23

 Cairn solo session today, (12/9) Nesbit Barton and his Conway henchman Merc Sara Smith hear the tales of Warwick, John, and Gringle, and decide to head into the hilly woods looking for Hooded Men. They initially befriend a Wampanoag scout in the woods, then delve deeper and battle some errant skeletons and dispatch their undead curse. they find some gp and camp so the scout can recover. the next day (12/10) they travel deeper into the wood, and that evening encounter some Hooded men beginning a ritual. Nesbit and the scout use stealth to launch a sneak attack and one man is taken out while another casts charm on the scout. He resists a round later and the party rallies and dispatches the other 2 even after 1 casts shield on himself and tries to run. the party gets a few of their leystaffs, some gold, a gem, and the 2 spellbooks which nesbit and sara split. they head back to Conway to rest and regain lost strength. resting until 12/17)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 68

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  68 Session Date-  11/29/23

Time Passed- 8 days- 11/29-12/5 adventuring, 12/6 resting

Roll Call-  Godhard- C6

Kenny- M/U 4

Boyo- henchman C3

5 Elite Lt. Cav

7 Lt. Cav

Adventure Log-  In the aftermath of the mass darkness, and the ensuing famine, the Iron Company attracts all sorts of parties interested in residing in the Iron Quarter due to their success in managing the city during the darkness.  A troop of Lt Foot join on, as well as a group of camp followers, among which 2 armorers and an engineer are acquired.  All are attracted to the Iron company’s safety and more present food source, as Godhard and other clerics in the quarter have been casting create food and water as much as possible and distributing food.  Godhard himself attracts several score of new followers to Pelor.  Thinking of the nearest source of stored food may be, the party thinks of Hartford.  Though totalitarian, they may have ample food reserves not affected by the darkness, and may want to negotiate trade.  They decide to head out on fast horse, get to Hartford as fast as possible, then try to negotiate a food caravan to be sent to Bartertown.  They head out on 11/29 with little encounters save an errant herd of cattle still disturbed by the mass darkness, and nearer to Hartford they are set upon by a hippogriff patrol of Hartford Police Force who they parley with and get escorted back to the city.  

12/1-  arriving at Hartford late that night, the party meets with Hauk and his second Remy and they offer to negotiate for a food caravan to be sent back to Bartertown.  They say there is no need for negotiations, civil cities help each other out in times of crisis, and as long as the party is willing to share everything they know about the magical darkness they will send a large food caravan and arrange for regular resupplies until Bartertown can get its crops going again.  They agree to head back in the morning to bring word back.  They rest from the long travel.

12/4- Late morning on the 3rd day of travel from Hartford, the party sees the filthy haze of Oak Crest and bears north in search of the dungeon location Shadrac and Co. gave them some intel on.  They arrive to find the exposed entrance to the dungeon reveals a tunnel descending at an angle.  They descend and find a dungeon level with 10’ wide corridors starting at a T intersection.  They go right into a large chamber with a pool of liquid in a 2’ dais at the center of the room.  Kenny approaches to investigate, and a tentacle of the liquid begins animating and lifting from the pool.  The party, fearing a water elemental quickly egress from the room the other way down the corridor.  It too leads to a corridor that turns into a descending tunnel, as they approach a Hook Horror leaps at them from a crouched position at the start of the angled tunnel.  The shield wall of the elite cav holds, and Kenny’s web spell holds the creature in place long enough for them to stab it to death.  They locate its crude lair further down the tunnel in a large crack in the masonry wall, and find some silver among the refuse.  The descending tunnel ends in a chamber, with one roughly dug passage leading west and curving into an open natural cavern.  Amongst the rocks slither 2 subterranean lizards.  They engage the party and one bites 

one

of the elite cav nearly in 2 killing him on the spot.  The other is blinded by Godhard and after settling in both are slain despite the lost man.  Their treasure is ample, with silver, electrum, and gems scattered amongst the bones and littered gear of fallen adventurers.  The party heals the injured warriors and depleted of spells decides to head back topside and returns to Bartertown the following day after nearly crossing paths with a hill giant intently heading due SW.  They make it back to Bartertown on the 5th and rest most of the 6th.  Thus ends chapter 4.  With the accumulation of the new residents of the Iron Quarter and the seeming end to the mass darkness we will begin chapter 5 with a look at how Bartertown is faring and see where the party takes things from there.

Session Notes-  It seemed like a good point to end the chapter, the party has gotten new followers, and is close to the point where they can start commanding small armies.  This is also a good time to look at construction rules, as the party hopes to improve its quarter.  So we will probably start the next chapter using the city doc I’ve prepped for Bartertown adventures.  Give the PCs a chance to organize their forces, assign roles to their new people, begin any projects and then see if there are any bigger threats in the area that may be brewing.  There’s the scalphunting orcs to the west, the Juggalos and all their dirt bum towns and ruins, the gorilla men, the avatar of the Eyeless Void, serpent cultists in the dangerous jungles to the south, any could be rising to become the new threat.  This session really showed how prepping any kind of dungeon would have been a waste of time.  I used a pair of 12 sided dungeon making dice to randomly roll out the dungeon in real time, and I used the dungeon level tables from Fiend Folio.  One of the players used a mapping program to make the awesome map you see and viola, a legit dungeon with cool monsters and treasure totally on the fly with no waiting on the part of the players and no prep on my part.  I could not have come up with anything cooler on my own and I had fun creating a dungeon story based on the die rolls.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters  Hook Horror 210xp, 2 Subterranean Lizards 1000xp + Treasure  4000sp, 1000ep, 6 gems 1220xp= 3140xp, Godhard gets 1570xp, Kenny gets 1335xp, and Boyo gets 235xp, add % bonus if appropriate.

Graveyard-  16 Mounted Crossbowmen to Dimetrodon in the jungles south of Bartertown (downtime)

1 Lt Cav to Gnoll pikemen outside Wardoof’s ruined keep (Session 60)

1 Mounted Crossbowman and 1 Sgt, killed by wolves west of Bartertown (downtime)

3 Lt Cav killed in the Gorilla Men/ Manling skirmishes outside the Megadungeon (session 61)

7 Lt Cav killed by wolves and bandit ambush in the badlands NE of Bartertown (session 62)

Godhard and Kenny- placed in a deathlike paralysis for 2 days, rescued first by Boyo, then fully restored with neutralize poison by Bartertown clerics. (session 66)

4 Lt. Cav killed by Giant Wasps in the wilderness near the cubic gate (session 66)

Godhard and 1 Elite Cav permanent loss of 2 Cha from Mummy rot in the mausoleum south of Oak Cross (Session 67)

1 Elite Lt Cav killed by Subterranean Lizards in the dungeon north of Oak Cross (Session 68)

More 6mm Vietnam from Irregular minis

 Finished my Vietnam collection with a Huey, more troops, and the chateau terrain.

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 67

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  67 Session Date-  11/15/23

Time Passed-  5 days adventuring, 1 day of rest 11/15-11/20

Roll Call-  Jack- R1

Bart- F3/C5

Godhard- C6

5 Elite Lt Cav

7 Lt Cav

Adventure Log-  11/15- While many PCs are still training, reports begin coming in from the south that the area of magical darkness has completely disappeared, retreating back into the sky.  Jack the ranger gathers info on many of these reports and the company discusses the end of the darkness and if they may have had any influence on it or if it ended for other reasons.  Godhard and Bart complete their training and they 3 decide to head out to the NE and return to Oak Cross to see how they have fared through the plague of darkness.  They gear up and prep their Lt Cav for the journey the following day.  

11/17 The trip out to Oak Cross has the party randomly bump into another adventuring party.  The 3 adventurers and their Med Cav mercs hail them cautiously and are generally friendly upon meeting.  They share some water and rations and information with Shadrac- M/U, Mishac-F, and Abendigo- M/U.  They tell them what they know of Oak Cross and that the dungeon location to the south is known as the mausoleum, and the one to the north the Tombs.  They had one good delve at the Tombs but are sure more treasure awaits.  They pass on after an hour of chatting.  That evening the party reaches Oak Cross and stays again at the tinkerer’s place, the Gleaming Pony.  Godhard buys a few cleric scrolls there and the party eats and rests, planning on heading to the Mausoleum in the morning seeing how the other adventurers had not yet delved into that location.  

11/18-  They arrive the following day to a rectangular stone structure with slightly sloped sides half buried by a large mound of earth and soil.  The exposed is made of large fitted blocks and several 3x6 indentations in the outer wall are searched, seeming like they maybe could be pushed or smashed to gain access to the mausoleum.  The cav polices up a few stout logs and prods into the indentation, finding the mortar in between the bricks to give away easily, and a hole is made they all can fit through.  Inside the room reveals many shelves containing urns and sealed boxes containing remains.  In the center of the room 2 sarcophogii slowly slide their lids off and 2 Mummies rise to strike fear in the party.  Most are frozen with fear, but Godhard remind calm and pulls out his symbol of Pelor and forces one mummy back, turned.  The other strikes an elite cav and causes a horrible case of mummy rot.  Godhard is later struck and afflicted by the horrid disease also and both men lose 2 Cha permenantly, despite Godhard being able to cast cure disease.  The second mummy is also turned and they cower at the rear of the chamber while the party searches for treasure.  They find a horn, a suit of leather, a silver ball, 10 gems and a potion.  They also find a curious little paper book with lots of the strange tech writing they have found previously.  They hope Harry can attempt to read it successfully when he finishes training.  They leave before the mummies can overcome the power of the turning.  They decide to head back to Bartertown, where upon arriving Godhard cures himself and the cav as best he can the Cha loss is permanent.  They again bump into the adventurers Shadrac, Mishac, and Abendigo, and the 2 groups agree to exchange contact information and offer each other lodging in their respective settlements.  They spend 11/20 resting.  

Session Notes-  rolled a random encounter with a NPC party both on the trip out and back for this session, pretty weird coincidence, so I figured we should make something of it.  I had already mentioned a certain Beastie Boys song earlier in the session, and the party size randomly determined was 3, so after a while I realized there had to be a connection and viola, they party is now friends with the Beastie Boys, 2 mages and a fighter.  We will see if that develops into anything but it was certainly derived from randomness of the tables. 

Treasure and XP-  Monsters 2 mummies turned 1/4xp 691xp Treasure gems 5x 50gp, 5x 100gp, potion of animal control, leather +2, horn of bubbles, magic silver ball 1750xp= 2441xp total/ 3 PCs= 814xp each. add % bonus if appropriate

Graveyard- 16 Mounted Crossbowmen to Dimetrodon in the jungles south of Bartertown (downtime)

1 Lt Cav to Gnoll pikemen outside Wardoof’s ruined keep (Session 60)

1 Mounted Crossbowman and 1 Sgt, killed by wolves west of Bartertown (downtime)

3 Lt Cav killed in the Gorilla Men/ Manling skirmishes outside the Megadungeon (session 61)

7 Lt Cav killed by wolves and bandit ambush in the badlands NE of Bartertown (session 62)

Godhard and Kenny- placed in a deathlike paralysis for 2 days, rescued first by Boyo, then fully restored with neutralize poison by Bartertown clerics. (session 66)

4 Lt. Cav killed by Giant Wasps in the wilderness near the cubic gate (session 66)

Godhard and 1 Elite Cav permanent loss of 2 Cha from Mummy rot in the mausoleum south of Oak Cross (Session 67)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 66

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  66 Session Date-  11/1/23

Time Passed-  9 days (11/1-11/9)

Roll Call-  Stigr- F3

Kenny- M/U3

Boyo- C2 henchman

Kvam- M/U1

17 Lt Cav w/ Battlewagon

Megadungeon Team

Maximilian- F4

Godhard- C5

Tomas- F5

Harry- T5

Adventure Log-  The megadungeon crew observes that the magical darkness begins to recede from the Megadungeon on the morning of the 31st.  Before it recedes, they find that their continual light devices cancel out the darkness that filled the cave mouth. They convene with the kenku on these curious developments.

Switch to the Bartertown crew on 11/1.  Kvam reads back the records and finds reference to the location of the kenku lair.  The bartertown crew endeavors to head out to the Megadungeon and check on the PCs out there who are overdue from returning.  They also realize that the magical darkness can be erased by magical light, and set out a plan to have the heavy foot walk around the city and clear out the streets and buildings of the magical darkness.  The overall darkness does remain, however, and patrols head out to find the edge of the darkness.  Both the patrols and the party find that the darkness has receded to its first growth point.  A point Kenny was able to mathematically approximate, they realize the darkness is likely now 75 miles wide and it seems to be waning somehow.  They move past the darkness towards the megadungeon, using a low channel for cover.  They reach the cubic gate on the 3rd, and drop off the battlewagon there, hiding it in the shadow of the structure.  Moving faster without it, they head towards the megadungeon.  The lt cav spread out in formation with continual light devices, they shine their lights into the ravines darker crevices and reveal several shriekers whose wails trigger an ambush from 6 wererats and their giant rat companions.  The wererats are positioned in ambush above them in the rocks, Kenny takes out the giant rats with a sleep spell, Kvam zaps one wererat with a magic missile, and the troops dismount to receive the charge.  The wererats change their mind and decide against the fight due to the unknown amount of magic that they may receive and flee before things get messy, taking their treasure with them.  The party moves ahead, making it to within view of the eastern side of the mountain, and Kvam lights a bottle rocket in an attempt to signal the party inside with the kenku.  The kenku do witness the bottle rocket, and when they describe it to the party they realize it must be someone from Bartertown, likely their friends.  The kenku bring the party down the cliffside and they make their way back up the racky ravine in the hopes their comrades are hiding there.  They do bump into a patrol of 3 ogres, likely from the group they encountered earlier, and a melee ensues as Harry slips ahead and meets up with the other party and alerts them to the combat.  The ogres badly stab a few PCs but are slain and a sack of over 100gp is secured.  (11/5)  

11/6-  with all the parties reunited, they head back to Bartertown so Max and Harry and others can get some much needed training.  They make good time until midday when the spy 5 giant wasps on the horizon roving fast towards them.  They realize they cannot outrun them, but continue forward until the wasps engage.  One gets zapped by the wand of paralysis and a few more are tied up by the set spears of the lt cav, but one makes it into the party and nearly kills Kenny with its bite and then puts him into a death-like paralysis from its sting.  The same fate happens to Godhard the next round, and only Boyo the henchman is left to assess their wounds.  Some magical healing helps a little, but he is able to determine that they are in need of high level poison curing.  Getting back to Bartertown becomes more critical as they race towards home after slaying the very deadly wasps.  They manage to kill 4 lt cav and Godhard and Kenny must be strapped securely to horses until they can be placed in the battlewagon upon arrival at the cubic gate.  On the 7th they arrive at the border of the darkness and find it is receding again, it has completely dissipated from Bartertown by the time they arrive on the 9th.  They prepare to rest and train and divide up the 60 very valuable gems that were harvested from a collection point the giant wasps had made, likely the biggest haul the party has ever made.

Session Notes-  So several rules interactions came up this session.  2 PCs were locked out of any further xp gains due to leveling and not yet training.  This influenced session play in that it was desirable to get those PCs back to civilization where they could train.  They had however lost their horses, and had no men at arms, so the risks during overland travel were big.  They solved this problem wisely by using their other PCs to get horses and mercs and the battle transport in position to go after the stranded PCs.  It was smart paly and still travel was dangerous and costly.  Though thankfully it was very lucrative this session.  Who knew giant wasps could produce d4 x 20 gems?  And I broke their values up into 6 groups of 10 and they managed to roll 100 for one set netting 50,000gp in that group alone.  This was definitely the biggest treasure haul of the campaign, so I looked onto PC treasure division rules and they are there.  I also allowed them to spend some xp to raise some of their surviving lt cav to level 1, giving them access to an elite unit of troops and/or henchman pool.  This xp division is happily left to the PCs on my part, I don’t have time to figure all that out, but if they divvy wisely they could be able to maximize the amount of levels gained across the most PCs.  It also puts pretty much all of the currently active PCs in time jail for next session, and there is already some interest in rolling up some new PCs and starting back in Lancebrass to catch up with Zophia the druid and the mercs who fled there during the darkness spreading.  

Treasure and XP- Session 66- Monsters- 3 ogres 600xp, 5 giant wasps 2000xp= 2600xp Stigr, Kvam, and Godhard get 650xp each. kenny gets 552xp and Boyo gets 98xp. now refer to the first sentence on pg. 85 dmg. "treasure division is in the realm of player decision." 71,635gp/xp from the 60 gems and the gp from the ogres means you can divide that treasure and subsequent xp how you like. Harry and Max are locked out of xp gains, but still can receive treasure, same with Tomas and Bart due to not being present at the session. anyone else could earn up to 1xp away from double leveling. you may upgrade any of your men at arms who were on the adventure to 1st level fighters for 1000xp each, up to 1xp from 2

Graveyard- 16 Mounted Crossbowmen to Dimetrodon in the jungles south of Bartertown (downtime)

1 Lt Cav to Gnoll pikemen outside Wardoof’s ruined keep (Session 60)

1 Mounted Crossbowman and 1 Sgt, killed by wolves west of Bartertown (downtime)

3 Lt Cav killed in the Gorilla Men/ Manling skirmishes outside the Megadungeon (session 61)

7 Lt Cav killed by wolves and bandit ambush in the badlands NE of Bartertown (session 62)

Godhard and Kenny- placed in a deathlike paralysis for 2 days, rescued first by Boyo, then fully restored with neutralize poison by Bartertown clerics.

4 Lt. Cav killed by Giant Wasps in the wilderness near the cubic gate