Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 74

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  74

Session Date-  2/7/24

Time Passed-  8 days (2/7-2/14)

Roll Call-  Stigr- F4

Rust- D1

15 Lt Cav

4 Elite Lt Cav

Adventure Log-  Godhard and party return from their travels on 2/7 and while resting, receive word that MAster has accepted the invitation to negotiations and they make arrangements to meet and exchange the magazine.  Negotiations go well, in light of the different reported troop movements representatives of Auntie and Master agree to pledge some troops to the Iron Co in case there needs to be a response to battle.  Each faction pledges a sizable contingent of troops, mounted, foot, and archers, that the Iron Co could command in the field.  Master also proposes a construction of a railway and locomotive that could travel to and from Bartertown to the nearest Cubic Gate.  The party agrees and the forces of Bartertown are unified.  

2/7-  Stigr and new party member Rust, a druid, decide to set out on a long distance journey to the Sphinx across the Sind Desert the party had encountered once before.  He hopes to ask the sphinx for the location of any places where the books containing the strange tech information may be found.  They gather 15 Lt Cav and the 4 elite Lt Cav, and prepare additional horses to travel as water carriers.  They ask Master if he will assist their expedition, and he provides them with a 2nd level cleric to assist in water creation and healing, in addition to a supply of barrels, rope, harnesses, water and rations.  They prepare to set out the next day.  

2/8-  The party heads out to the NW past the Cubic Gate and across the SInd Desert to the Sphinx, looking for several landmarks they encountered on the last time they journeyed this way.  At dusk after passing the Cubic Gate they are beset upon by hungry Blood Hawks, whose razor talons rip into the party, severely wounding 3 men at arms and dropping Rust to unconsciousness.  He is mended by the Master’s cleric, and Stigr and the troops return the attack to the hawks with a spear wall and impale more than half of the flock of 8.  They endure a few more attacks and are able to finish off the hungry birds.  Rust is revived and the wounds of the men are bound.  The next day of travel goes uneventfully.

2/10-  The party comes across the strange circle of stone wagons they encountered on their last journey.  The cleric advises they should avoid it based on the descriptions of the undead that were encountered last trip.  They give it a wide berth.

2/11-  They come across the oasis that last time was manned by the strange crabmen.  Knowing they are very prone to desiring silver, and become quite affable when offered said silver, they approach the oasis and hail the crabmen.  They produce silver and hand over a piece for each of their men.  They rest for a few hours and refill their water stores and move on when they get the sense the crabmen want them to move along.

2/12-  The party arrives at the sphinx, fortunate not to have gotten lost on the long journey.Stigr produces the large sum required to ask a question.  He asks where he could find a library or other location of knowledge for any of this strange sci-fi tech information they have been finding.  The sphinx gives him a knowing nod, and perhaps a sigh of relief as it dismounts from its stone platform perch and dissipates as a shimmering of some magical source spreads across the ground.  Shortly after, the earth rumbles and the stine platform begins to rise.  It rises and widens until it becomes a 3 story building rectangular in shape.  As the party scrambles back from the rising andwidening building, it stops revealing a wide front entrance, and a somewhat twisted metal awning out in front of it.  The letters in large print above the entrance read- North Station Metro Transit Headquarters and Northside Galleria.  The party peers in with their best light sources and sees a wide corridor leading back to a set of wide descending stairs.  They search all around the large structure, it seems to have a few large metal doors that roll up, they are still largely covered with sand, and would need to be dug out to be better investigated.  They also discover that there seems to be an underground tunnel that extends across the rear of the building.  They see metal trusses that likely indicate some kind of underground tunnel going through the building.  They return to the main entrance. Along both sides of the wide corridor are what appear to be merchant carrels, different signage adorning the space above each carrel.  The place is thick with ancient dust and the air is stale.  The party carefully moves forward to read the store carrels nearest the entrance.  They see one called Orange Julius, it seems to be a counter at the front and some kind of kitchen at the rear.  Next to that is Chess King, a store containing apparel, some of it moldy and desiccated, some still wearable.  A store called Mattresses R Us contains bedding of some kind, and they are most interested in a store called B. Dalton Bookseller, a store containing many of the strange books, some of the thin, glossy variety, and many of the thicker, softer paper, more similar to a spellbook.  They take some time cleaning off the dusty glossy magazines, looking for ones that have images of any tech machines on them, especially tech machines with wheels.  They find several and begin making a stack they will keep.  The druid finds a few magazines on nature and gardening, and they realize that they need to move on to a nearby settlement, likely Lancebrass from their current location.  They take more books that they don’t want to carry and stash them in the kitchen of the Orange Julius, and then they find that the store carrels each have a metal cage that can be pulled down at their front, and fortunately the one for B. Dalton freely moves on its track.  They pull it down and secure it with ropes and branches and debris as best they can and head out a mile away in the waning daylight to rest and head towards Lancebrass.  The 13th they reach the plains and have an uneventful day of travel.  The cleric heals a few of the mercs, and Rust rests and regains most of his health.  

2/14-  The party is awakened by a Lancebrass patrol who asks their business, and Stigr speaks as someone who has been here before and they are granted escort into Lancebrass.  Stigr does his banking and begins making plans for the return journey and Rust begins a week of bedrest to recover from the more serious wounds he received from the Blood Hawks.

Session Notes-  So the Iron Cos hard work is paying off.  The players have constructed a barracks, which just finished construction, that will assist them with morale and troop recovery and recruitment.  They have negotiated the peace back with Auntie and Master and have access to troops to add to their own numbers of troops in defense of Bartertown.  They are agreeable to helping build a railway to the cubic gate which would speed travel and avoid random encounters of most types.  They are also toying with the idea of securing one or more of the cubic gates with a palisade and building ramps so horses can be brought up onto the stone platforms.  Overall pretty elite level play from the current group of regular attendees.  The magazines they grabbed- I’ll have to think exactly what kind of info or history can be gleaned from them, and I’ll have to figure out at least a basic layout of this North Station dungeon, and see what if anything is attracted to the large structure that is now jutting from the ground.  There is a map issue in that the current party is in Lancebrass and will still have to reconnect with the other PCs in Bartertown, but with more spell access, there are some ways to achieve long distance communications.  Stigr the fighter did level and did have the option to train in Lancebrass, however, the player opted not to as he didn’t want to spend the time, and also he wanted to train with an Iron Co member.  I’ve been allowing current players to train with former/hiatus players PCs, and then they can reinvest that cash back into Iron Cos expenses.  It’s been many sessions since the PCs have gotten a big treasure windfall, and I think they are starting to get a little light in the coffers.  Their new gem enhancing tech has helped a bit, upping their treasure by about 1000gp this session.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters  8 Blood Hawks 224xp,  Treasure  5 gems 1560gp/xp, Weird Tech Magazines  500xp= 2284xp/ 2 PCs = 1142xp each  add % bonus if applicable.

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)

3 Spearmen to Wraiths in the subway dungeon south of Bartertown  (session 70)

1 Spearman to Sons of Kyuss in the dungeon south of Bartertown  (session 73)

Rust brought to Death’s Door by Blood Hawks while crossing the Sind Desert (1 week bedrest)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 73

 

Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #- 73 Session Date- 1/31/2024

Time Passed- 7 days (1/31-2/6) rest on 2/7 

Roll Call-  Godhard C6

Kenny M/U5

Hench- Boyo C3

Mayfly M/U1

Finnigan T1

Mercs- 20 spearmen in wagons

20 Lt Cav

Adventure Log-  1/31-  The party is very eager to try to negotiate a truce between Master and Auntie, as Master has not taken an audience since the magical darkness event.  With all the reports of troop movements in the Nappendixian Badlands, they are eager to unite the troops of Bartertown into one cohesive unit.  The ranger that was sent out to try to get an alliance with Hartford returns.  He reports that as he traveled to the NE to Hartford, he first passed an army of strange filthy humans in black and white face paint marching to the south.  He then, less than a week later, came upon an army of orcs carrying horrific, bloody heraldry and signage, it must be the scalphunter orcs marching to the SW, dangerously on course with Bartertown, should they go that far.  He opted to return and head back before crossing the orcs, not wanting to have 2 armies blocking  his way back home, plus feeling the need to report that important intel.  He reports this all to the senior leadership of the Iron Co.  Over the last few days, Kenny had cast mending and comprehend languages on the strange tech magazine, and transcribed all the strange articles to parchment.  He gathers many articles on construction of all kinds of things, from underwater treasure hunting machines to how to make plastic, to how to construct a centrifugal pump.  This is all the kinds of weird science stuff Master had been asking for adventurers to search for as he was paying top dollar for any finds.  They are hoping to parley that magazine into positive negotiations with Master and getting them allied against whatever forces may be threatening Bartertown in the near future.  They go to the Master’s quarter looking for his underworld guards to see if they can get an audience.  They are not granted any access to Master, he is still cloistered underground, but they do go to the Thunderdome and are able to speak with Dr. Dealgood, a mover and shaker in the quarter, runs the thunderdome contests, and after checking out the magazine agrees to get that info to Master ASAP in the hopes of getting some talks going between him and the party.  They do some gambling, but no one wins anything, and they wait to hopefully hear from Master in the morning.

2/1-  Morning comes and no response from Master, so they decide to head out south to the subway dungeon they know is/was infested with undead.  They have a gut feeling that the last time they ewer there they missed something, perhaps a missed passageway or secret door.  They endeavor to delve it in hopes of finding more weird tech documents or any new revelations on the cubic gate teleport/subway system.  Due to the speed of the wagons it takes 2 ½ days to get there, but they encounter nothing of note save some errant spider webs.  However at the end of their journey, upon reaching the depression that houses the open passage down to the subway dungeon and the newly risen cubic gate, they spy 9 Lg Spiders perched outside the open passage.  They see them from a distance, and the spicers make no move to charge them, so Kenny decides it safest to fireball the poisonous creatures from a distance.  He gets them all in its blast and they are terribly incinerated.  Unfortunately the treasure recovered from the husks of their previous victims are meager, mostly copper and a few platinum.  Having arrived at midday on the third day of travel, they endeavor to enter the wide downward angled passage, deciding to search it diligently from the entrance down.  At the midpoint in the passage, Finnigan uncovers a secret door on the side wall, behind which reveals a small vestibule room with glass panels at its rear.  The glass panels and adjacent glass door connect to a much larger room, mostly empty, but containing a few bulky suits that could fit a human, also on the floor are several long metal tubes snaking across the floor, about an arms thickness.  They investigate and it appears to be some kind of training room, and they remember from the manuals that this station, known in the past as Downtown Crossing, and it was known to be the secondary training site for cubic gate operators.  The main training station they learn was located at North Station.  They begin gathering some documents, and a few laminated placards that seem to be some kind of training exercises.  Kenny casts Comprehend languages and gets the gist of the documents in the minutes the spell lasts.  The documents and training site seem to cater to the Time/palnar travel that these devices offer.  It reveals that on the full moon, the gates can be operated to send travelers to different times to have a variety of adventure experiences.  They learn that normal travel is to a random time, but trained pilots can choose where to go among the following locales/game systems-  1.  Post-Apocalypse Sci-Fi (Gamma World), Wild West (Boot Hill), 1980s SuperHeroes (Marvel Super Heroes), 1600s New England Folk Horror (Cairn), or 1920s New England Gothic Horror (Call of Cthulhu).  They also learn that the original Cubic Gate, the one nearest Bartertown that they first encountered so long ago, is the hub for receiving travelers from other times/worlds.  New arrivals will almost always arrive at the Gate.  After gathering all that info and documenting much of it in writing over several hours, the party departs the training area, ready to move deeper into the dungeon.   They are shocked but not surprised however, to encounter 2 horrific skeletal creatures encrusted with gore and worms scampering up the angled passageway to attack.  From 60’ the party forms a spear wall and holy water is retrieved and prepped for throwing.  Unfortunately as the creatures get within 30’ waves of fear assault the party and mercs and all run in terror save Godhard, Finnigan, and 1 brave spearman.  The creatures engage Godhard and the spearman while Finnigan gathers cast aside vials of holy water from the fleeing men and begins tossing them at the creatures with deadly accuracy.  Godhard attempts to turn but fails, and the creatures launch vile worms from their open mouths and strike with flailing blows.  Godhard uses his staff to cast cure disease on the creature, hoping it will reduce it in some way, and it does- the worms writhing around the creature shrivel and become inactive.  The other creature fells the spearman as it moves forward to engage Finnigan, but misses.  Finally after douses of holy water and blows from Godhards magic hammer the creatures are felled, but not before wounding Godhard badly, and the spearman is killed, one of the worms boring into his head.  The rest of the party at that time recovers from the fear and reenters the dungeon finding the combat just ended.  A gem is recovered from the palm of each creature.  They consult their divine knowledge recalling these creatures are known as Sons of Kyuss.  They exit, it is night and they move an hour away from the dungeon and camp for the night.

2/6-  They awake from their rest and decide to take the cubic gate one station uptown, fire up the gate, and step through to find themselves back at the cubic gate nearest Bartertown.  They orient the path of the gates on the old map and find this gate was called Government Center.  Now they know the orientation of the old map and where it coincides with on the current Nappendixian landscape.  They travel back to Bartertown to rest, arriving that night and resting much of the day on 2/7.

Session Notes-  So it seems a new party dynamic is forming as a new player has joined, and several of the older players who said they would return after the new year have not returned, I definitely have seen anecdotally that players who leave the campaign rarely return after any kind of lengthy absence, despite many actually making contact saying they will return.  No real commentary on this other than it's probably just people who would like to play if real life allowed, but it has happened a significant amount of times.  This is a little bit of an odd time for a new player to join as a lot of long term things that have been brewing in game are coming to a head kind of all at once-  the movements of these armies that have been organically created in game, the learning of how the cubic gate travel things work, and trying to negotiate an re-alliance with Auntie and Master make for sessions with more question/answer/roleplay/revelations than action/ exploration, but this session there was a better balance and it remained all from player choice and random tables.  I didn’t roll the sons of kyuss outright, instead the subway dungeon has already been established as being rife with undead so for that encounter I determined what dungeon level the party had stirred interest from by their meddling in the training room, then used that random monster dungeon level list (in this case I used Fiend Folio) to choose any undead on that list.  In this case I picked dungeon level 4, then referenced that list to find the only undead on the list was sons of kyuss, so I used them.  Also there’s been 2 sessions with a 1st level character mixed with higher level characters and there has yet to be a large xp dump that boosts the level 1 to 2, approaching 3.  One thing about using Fiend Folio is I find there are a surprisingly lot of monsters that are treasure type nil, which inhibits xp acquisition.  This is a good time for a new player to join us, so if you’re someone who has been reading these session reports for a while and have been thinking you may like to join this game, get in touch, we play on Wed nights at 8pm EST on Discord, i can send you the link.  

Treasure and XP- Monsters- 9 Lg Spiders 675xp, 2 Sons of Kyuss 622xp  Treasure- 2 gems 510gp/xp, 9pp/45xp=1852xp/ 3 PCs= 617xp each.  Kenny gets 431xp and the hench get 93xp each.

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)

3 Spearmen to Wraiths in the subway dungeon south of Bartertown  (session 70)

1 Spearman to Sons of Kyuss in the dungeon south of Bartertown  (session 73)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 72

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  72 Session Date-  1/17/24

Time Passed-  6 days (1/17-1/22)

Roll Call-  Kenny- M/U5

Boyo- C3 Hench

Mayfly- M/U1 Hench

Godhard- C6

Stigr- F4

Finnigan- Halfling T1

10 Med Cav

14 Lt Cav

Adventure Log-  1/17-  Kenny and Godhard start the day with some information gathering and spell acquisition in Bartertown.  The visit Beirut the mage in the common area, negotiations go well due to the Iron company’s good reputation.  He casts Clairvoyance for them and views the scene at Papagallo’s fort under siege.  Beirut views for a few minutes a scene of the marauders camped outside Papas walls, possibly parlaying with him or just taunting him.  The siege appears to continue, but Papas forces are resisting and they believe to see evidence of food and water supplies.  They then use Beirut’s Contact outer plane ability to ask the planes several questions about Papas chances to resist the siege and also they get some information that there may be more dungeon areas to explore under some of the newly risen Cubic gate locations.  Lastly Beirut bestows a scroll of Clairvoyance to Kenny, knowing it will be added to his spellbook and used to help the people of Bartertown.  Later that day they bump into Finnigan, a halfling thief adventurer who arrived from the west.  He learned of the Iron Company’s reputation and sought them out as an ideal adventuring group to join.  He reports seeing a militarized force of Gorillamen heading east, further away from the Megadungeon than they usually roam.  They also hear reports of an organized force of troops emerging from the jungles south of Bartertown, near where Stigr and his men were captured by bandits then massacred nearly to a man by dinosaurs.  The reports state there is a smaller scout force out ahead bearing the banner and heraldry they have seen before of a 2 headed snake.  They recall what they know of Resheph and his strange jungle snake cult, and decide to investigate the next day.

1/18- The party brings some light and med cav, mounts up and travels south searching for Resheph’s forces.  The first day of travel goes uneventfully, nothing but the Nappendixian badlands are revealed.  After breaking camp the next day they decide to search around the area looking for tracks or any sign of the snake cultists.  The morning’s light rain ends in a misty layer of fog hugging the low ground, midday as it dissipates, 7 hungry giant geckos skulk out of the mist looking for horseflesh.  Fortunately the party spies them from 70 yards and wins initiative and hoofs it away before any combat can occur.  In their haste they speed off only to cross a group of at least 20 moving both on foot and on horse.  They follow the tracks for several hours, noticing its meandering path headed largely NE closer to Bartertown.  That night they make camp thinking they are making time on the group, hoping to catch up to them in the morning.  That night however on Finnigan and Godhard’s watch a den of 11 wolves pounces on one of the horses resting furthest away from camp.  Godhard begins rousing the troops to holler and throw debris at the wolves as Finnigan grabs a torch and tries to shoo them off.  Kenny rouses and positions a fireball to go off on the wolves, consuming the horse that was already bitten, but not hitting any other horses or party members.  The wolves are incinerated and the smoldering patch of burned ground keeps away any other intruders.  

1/20-  Following the tracks, by late morning they are on the group of about 25, 10 of which are mounted.  They see their pursuers and prepare to receive a charge, with longbowmen positioned to get off volleys of arrows from behind the footman's shield wall.  The party decides to approach cautiously, seeing if parlay is an option.  The snake cultists are silent as both Godhard and Finnigan attempt negotiations, unable to get a response despite speaking in several different languages.  They hold to negotiating, and eventually the cultists slacken their bows and the leader heads out to reluctantly negotiate.  The negotiations go surprisingly well, largely due to the cultists being a smaller and slower force.  They state they have no plans to march on Bartertown, only they have mobilized some troops in response to other troop movements in the area.  They warn of the Gorilla men to the NW and of a group to the east that worship a strange slime god and are fanatically obsessed with its odd religion.  The party remembers encountering that group and their bizarre temple and the basin of living slime.  It seems war and rumors of war are all around the Nappendixian badlands.  2 groups of cultists, the gorilla men, Bartertowns own internal forces including the Iron Company, plus the scalphunter orcs they know are out there somewhere and the siege at Papagallo’s 100 miles away, make for quite a tense situation in the area.  The party shares some intel with Reshaph’s minion and he cements the positive interaction by giving them a golden serpent charm inset with 2 gems for eyes.  It is both a  valuable trinket, but also will prove a symbol of diplomacy for any future negotiations with the snake cultists.  They depart cautiously.  

1/21-  The party heads back to Bartertown, no significant encounters occur.  They rest and recover and the following day visit the Master’s sage to get some more intel on Resheph and the snake cult.  It is known to be of ancient origin, with the historical record telling of several powerful evil persons taking the mantle of cult leader and wreaking havoc for a period.  The cults' power seems to be derived from ancient stone ziggurats hidden in the jungle.  Kenny later visits Beirut again to do some spell trading and acquires the spells of mending and floating disc. 

Session Notes-  So  the amount of factions that have been generated through both emergent play and patron play has created a situation where a wargame type experience can come about organically from session play.  The PCs have been discovering the different troops and their numbers and locations.  They have their own troops that they have been mustering and managing, and there are other Bartertown troop units they could potentially ally with.  All of this will proceed or not proceed based on player interest.  The campaign is at the point where there are so many different areas and hooks and rumors that have been generated there is no way to interact with all of them.  This sort of buffet style play allows players to poke around at whatever interests them, and the rest just melds into the background.  Should this wargame option go nowhere, if the players don’t develop much of an interest in pursuing it, then it will take place more in the background.  Maybe the PCs will stumble across battlefields of recent combat, maybe encounter rolls will be influenced by there being marching armies in the area.  As Dm I can over time find a way to simply and quickly resolve some of these army interactions, some will get crushed and others will achieve their goals and become a possible future threat.  If the players lean into this then we can move in a more wargame direction with armies being placed in real time on the map and we can track when they encounter each other and resolve combat using AD&D combat at a 1:10 scale.  Only time and player interest will tell how things develop.  To be self-critical you could argue that this type of play creates a lot of situations where a storyline develops through player interest and play, but then fizzles out due to player turnover or simply changing focus in game.  You could counter this argument however, because any errant storyline left unresolved can immediately come back to life through player autonomy, as soon as they remember, re-energize interest in that area, that aspect of the story comes back to the forefront.  Note the use of the word story in this discussion makes no reference to a DM derived story that he courses his players through, but quite the opposite.  In this type of play player interest drives the direction of the game.  It’s always a work in progress, and time and real life will always work against maintaining a robust game, but I still feel confident in saying low/no prep emergent gaming is still the best recipe for a long lived and active campaign.  It keeps things fresh and interesting for the DM because he’s not coaxing the game along on rails, but instead learning how the story develops in real time as the players respond to the world.  The DM gets to be surprised by the direction of the game as the group discovers collectively what will happen next.  Only time will tell if the wargame elements become the focus for a while, either way we will continue to have a lot of fun with this campaign.

Treasure and XP-  Monsters-  11 Wolves 748xp,  Treasure-  Resheph jeweled serpent totem 1500gp/xp=  2248xp/ 4 PCs= 562xp each.  Kenny gets 394xp and the henchmen get 84xp each.

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)

3 Spearmen to Wraiths in the subway dungeon south of Bartertown  (session 70)

Spanish Civil War 20mm minis from Irregular Miniatures

 Started my Spanish Civil War collection by painting up these beauties from Irregular minis.  Painted up my Student Revolutionaries and Anarchists, a Republican officer, 2 clergy and 2 peasants.  

Using this awesome osprey book to approximate the uniform colors.

Happy New Year! Started a Toy Collection

 Ad&d toys

Eagle Force

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 71

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  71 Session Date-  12/27/23

Time Passed- 7 days (adventuring 12/27-1/1, rest 1/2)

Roll Call- Godhard- C6

Boyo- C3

Mayfly- M/U1

20 Spearmen

10 Lt Cav

  

Adventure Log-  12/27-  Godhard and Boyo continue to ponder over the strange yellow paged book that holds keys to how the cubic gate structures operate.  They consider taking the long journey out to Papagallo’s new site to see if his sage knows how the devices work.  They instead decide to visit Auntie’s sage who tells them to recount everything they know of the structures and all the information they may have gleaned from the strange writings.  They converse back and forth and the sage contacts supernatural forces and gives them confirmation on many things.  They learn that the cubic gate structure as it has become to be known in the local vernacular, is but one of many “cubic gates”  scattered around the Nappendixian badlands.  The structures serve as stations along a linear path that traverses the land.  They get confirmation that the cubic gate near Bartertown, the metal tower near the Megadungeon, The metal tower near Papa’s new site, and the structure connected to the “subway” dungeon are all stations that can be traveled to.  From any station you can travel “uptown” or “downtown” to the next adjacent station.  They also get confirmation that the gates operate with an initial input of magic by the pilot, who then uses a control panel on the side to engage a portal on the top of the structure that travelers walk through to the next station.  They are told that the machines run on the cycles of the moon, only a certain amount of uses and travelers per day may go.  Bolstered by all of this information from the sage, they decide the most important thing to do is get the spell comprehend languages so they can better attempt to get information from the book, particularly how to use magic to start the devices.  Due to their excellent reputation from the magic darkness plague, several mages are willing to trade spells so the party can learn comprehend languages.  They spend the rest of the day setting up a contact and transferring over the spell.  The next day Mayfly memorizes it and has several minutes to skim the book.  He finds it to be a repair log of sorts, different repair jobs are recorded here, and the location and type of work.  The party is able to get a few references to different spells that were cast into the operating panel on the side to begin its operation.  It seems both arcane and divine spells will start the portal, and the controller seems to have time to climb up to the top and go through the portal also, as long as a rope or ladder are set up.  Excited at the prospects of possibly figuring out how to operate these devices, they gear up their men and head off south towards the subway dungeon and the strange kiosk they found down there.  

12/29-  After travel and camping the party arrives at the subway dungeon, they employ the spearmen down into the underground while the cav guard the camp.  The chambers where they fought the wraiths are empty of any enemies, and they investigate the kiosk and find a 3 section control panel with buttons and switches.  They cast comprehend languages again to read the words written on the panels, each has a large button labeled Start/On as well as other switches that read uptown and downtown.  They elect to push the central on button and a loud rumbling shakes the whole underground complex.  The troops are shaken and dismissed back up topside while the party continues to search.  Minutes later several troops return demanding the PCs come to the surface to see what happened.  They emerge to see that a cubic gate structure has risen up out of the loose sod and now stands mostly exposed where before there was just a hole to enter the underground.  They return to the underground kiosk to see if it can be operated from there, but they can’t get any response.  They go back to the surface structure to see if it has a secret compartment on the side like the one near Bartertown has.  They search but find nothing.  That night Godhard decides to prepare locate object for the next day and try to locate a control panel on the new structure.  The following morning he is successful, and finds a 3x3 compartment on the side.  There is a curious map on the compartment and a potion.  The map seems to be of the cubic gate stations, and the party makes some notes as to guessing where the stations are located.  The map is ripped and incomplete, but a lot of information is revealed.   He decides to cast light into the compartment, and in response a swirling portal of energy forms on the top of the stone structure.  Also a panel slides back revealing a dial that can be turned, they decide to turn it clockwise, hoping that will take them to the cubic gate near Bartertown.  Godhards is able to encourage 3 spearmen to try the portal with them, And Boyo, Godhard, and the 3 step through and arrive on a different cubic gate structure after telling Mayfly and the troops to wait 1 day for them then return to Bartertown.  They get their bearings and realize they are at the cubic gate near Bartertown, as they predicted the dial would take them.  Feeling like they are starting to understand the machine, they bivouac and rest, figuring they need to wait a lunar day to operate the machine again.  The next morning they do, only this time, using the map, they figure that they can take this cubic gate one stop further east, hopefully to Papagallo’s site many days travel away.  

12/31-  The small party of 5 arrives near Papagallos site at the location of the spindly metal tower.  Here however, a cubic gate structure has unearthed itself and risen to reveal another station.  There is a rocky outcropping blocking a good view of Papa’s location, but the party sees a lot of swirling dust in that direction.  They sneak to the outcropping to get a view and see Papa has built a fortress out of the surrounding debris from the wasteland and is defending as best as possible against a horde of filthy marauders riding and sieging the fortress on horse, battlewagon, chariot, and a few strange metal horseless machines and several huge wood and stone rolling structures.  Knowing they are way underpowered to do anything to help Papa, Godhard casts speak with animal on a nearby bird, and writes a note to Papa telling him they have traveled near by a strange portal, and they hope to return soon with enough men to help defeat the marauders.  The next morning, after watching a marauder patrol investigate the newly unearthed gate, the party steals to it and sets it in operation again, returning to the Bartertown gate and promptly heading back to town, happy to find Mayfly and the troops made it back alive.  Knowing they still have much to learn and prepare for they begin downtime activities on the 3rd.

Session Notes-  this session a lot happened, the small party did a lot to reveal how the gates work, they still have lots of secrets to uncover, but they now have a pretty powerful means of long distance travel that gives them a lot more options as to places they can get to without getting bogged down with random wilderness encounters.  It is also making them re-evaluate where they should be basing their operations at, wondering if these new gates need to be protected or if any constructions could aid in their use and defense.  I’m starting to see more thoughtful use of spells and more aggressive attempts to acquire useful spells.  Clerics in particular have access to lots of spells that rarely get memorized on a daily basis, but given a day of prep a cleric can really memorize a useful repertoire of spells.  Study those spell lists, and of course look up every spell at least the first 3 times you use it,  AD&D spells almost always work differently than you think.  It was definitely to get some important groundwork laid during this month of lighter attendance.  Next month should we get some of our regulars back there will be lots of new information and ideas, and I won’t have to take the lead on parsing out all that information, the players can do it amongst themselves.

Treasure and XP- Treasure-  Cubic Gate Map 2000xp, potion of treasure find 600= 2600xp/ 3PCs= 867xp 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)

3 Spearmen to Wraiths in the subway dungeon south of Bartertown  (session 70)

Nappendixia Campaign 2.0- session 70

 Nappendixia Campaign Session Report

Session #-  70 Session Date-  12/20/23

Time Passed-  8 days 12/20-12/27 (training can begin 12/28)

Roll Call-  Godhard C6

Kenny M/U4

Boyo C3

Mayfly M/U1

20 Spearmen in wagons

10 Lt Cav

Adventure Log-  While resting on the 19th Kenny and Godhard get a better read of the book with yellow pages that they found.  It seems to be a tradesman's manual of sorts, a log book referring to different repairs at different sites as best as can be determined.  There are also several pages of parchment woven into the book that seem to be a traveling spellbook containing about 6 spells, and a few pages of explanations on how to read and interpret the yellow book, as best as the writer can figure.  It seems at some point there were different structures similar to the Cubic Gate scattered around the plains of Nappendixia and there seemed to be some kind of means of travel between the structures through some kind of portal.  They decide to head back to the dungeon with the strange railway and try to slay the undead.  With a plan of preparation including lots of holy water, bless and chant spells, and equipping the spearmen with silver tipped spears, they head back south looking to exterminate the undead.  They spend the next 2 days equipping the troops and prepping wagons for the trip.

12/22-23rd-  They travel south, encountering an errant merchant group weary and lost from the magical darkness.  The party takes an hour to share their water and reorient them on the path back to Bartertown.  Otherwise they make it to the stone they rolled back to cover the dungeon entrance and set to rolling it open.  They enter the afternoon of the 23rd.  As soon as they descend to the main room, they begin casting protection from evil, and it immediately triggers the anger of the wraiths and they attack the spearmen's shield wall and slay 2 as the party casts bless and magic missile.  One wraith makes it through the wall and reaches out at Kenny, but fails to touch him.  The party reacts and a wraith is slain, but 2 wights begin charging out of the darkness into melee.  Kenny reacts with a web spell which seriously impedes their approach.  Several volleys of holy water douse the undead and they are slain, but not before one more spearmen falls to the wraith's touch..  In the aftermath, the party searches and finds a few low quality gems and a magic mace.  They also get a look inside the wights kiosk lair and find a control panel which they elect not to touch.  They also find several posters showing some locations and names of the cubic gate stations, and some more pictures of the secret side compartment where the operator seems to be controlling the device.  They take the posters with them and pull back out of the dungeon depleted of spells.  They travel a few hours from the site and rest and rememorize spells and return the next day.  The travel and rest take the 24th and 25th and they return to the dungeon on the 25th to search it better and see if there are any more enemies down there.  They search the rear of the chamber to see that it is a descending gravel shaft with some kind of wide railway built onto it.  It descends into layers of gravel that would have to be excavated to be searched better.  There are several tight caverns that could lead to more passageways, but they decide to search the main chambers for secret doors, and find none after a thorough search.  They travel back to Bartertown on the 26-27th.  Kenny begins training on the 28th.

Session Notes-  We’ve been a little light on attendance this month, December usually does this between work and holidays.  We will see how attendance changes after the new year, but this is a great time for a new person to get involved.  If you’re one of the people who regularly read these reports consider getting involved even if for only a few sessions.  The players that have been showing up have been maximizing output however, making good use of mercs and henchmen.  Also there have been mostly clerics and magic users showing up to sessions, and the access to lots of spells has helped the party a lot.  They have had great success using men in small formations, last session a cav charge eliminated some ogres in 1 round, and this session they made good use of the spearman's shield wall at a choke point in the dungeon, seriously minimizing the amount of wight and wraith attacks the party had to endure.  Kenny did come very close to losing a level, but the wraith that got past the spearmen rolled a 1.  I do appreciate the real danger in game, but at the same time am glad when a PC doesn’t lose a level.  

The Pcs are doing well figuring out the cubic gate structures and how they may work.  I’ve pretty much got it figured out how it’s going to possibly work, but not without lots of in game influences helping guide the process.  It will be interesting to see if the PCs remain interested in this development, and what they will do with a potential travel aid.  With our shorter sessions I want to avoid the rut of wilderness travel- brief dungeon delve- wilderness travel back, which can be very fun and episodic and give the players lots of freedom, but a means of longer distance travel will open up more options for them.  

Treasure and XP-  Monsters Wights 1325xp, Wraiths 1546xp Treasure- Mace +1 350xp, 4 gems 80xp = 3301xp/ 2 PCs= Godhard gets 1651xp, Kenny gets 1155xp, his 2 henchmen get 248xp 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)

3 Spearmen to Wraiths in the subway dungeon south of Bartertown  (session 70)