Dancing Girl part 2

I’ve mostly ignored her for the past month, letting other projects clutter up my work tray. But as they’ve thinned out, I’m trying to once again leave it clearer and get back to her. After several thin coats of increasingly more Dark Highlights, until it was pure Dark Highlights, I then looked at my options for making it brighter. Initially I was thinking about a leather color, but instead opted for Tanned Flesh.









I’m going to be honest here, that was as much because it was already on my tray, and I have 3 bottles of it, as it was a decision I spent much time thinking about. I might add in a bit of Old West Rose going forward. Just a drop to give it a bit more warmth.



I’m still pretty pleased with her face, but I think I’m going to try to add a bit of eyeliner to her along the bottom of her eye, sharpen the divide between eyeball and skin. Also, she needs some lipstick and finger nail polish.



Still very much a work in progress, but I'm more and more pleased with her.

5e: To Silverymoon

From: Fulhoff of Clan Balderk
To: Helja and Adrik of Clan Balderk

Mother and Father:

I don't even know where to start. I suppose with the good news. Joda was able to be saved, and the same cleric who brought him... her... back, was also able to restore my health. I am happy to report that I am no longer soaking in the river in Yartar. Joda's return has changed her in interesting ways. Most noticeably, she's now female. But she also talks to herself more.

Not wanting to leave any loose ends, while Joda was recovering, Bran got it into his head to investigate Lord Dryland's estate. Mostly the goal was to eliminate the issue, but Lord Dryland was nowhere to be found. Perhaps the loss of his patron (the aboleth) sent him scurrying away. It is best I don't discuss the events in Dryland's estate. Needless to say, they were not the finest hour of any of us. Jeff, a guard of the estate, was perhaps the worst off for it. We... kidnapped him... and brought him to Everlund via a teleportation circle.

I gave him a pouch of gold and send him off. I... I hope that he finds his way...

We only remained in Everlund the night, buying new mounts and heading to Silverymoon the next morning. We're hoping to find this Harthos Zymorvan with the giant killer sword... and somehow get him to agree to part with it.

Outstanding Rumors/Plot Points
Kella and Zopin and the Bat Cult are alive and last seen in Yartar
Eye of the Allfather in the Valley of Kadroon
Frost Giant w/ White Dragon Helm
Harthos Zymorvan, retired adventurer with giant slaying greatsword in Silverymoon
Fire Giants attacked Tribor and took a rod from the center of town.
Gua - Hill Giant Matriarch - Grug-Hug Village location generally described as

When was the last time we checked in with Hilda?

Stonehell:Gnarly Gnolls and Gnarlier Dorms

Session 67 was played on 5/19

Eiric, wizard 7 (Kat)
- men at arms (Koltic, Alias the Elf, Cromwell)
- linkmen (Baldash “Dash”)
- Neon (dog)
Brie, wizard 3 (Apprentice to Eiric)
A-A-Ron, Thief 6 (Henchman)
Daryll, Cleric 6 (Henchman)
Orpheus, Human Fighter 5 (Henchman)
Karl, Dwarf 6 (Julia)
- Hobart (dog)
- men at arms (Scar, GoMat, Tal)
Lex the Cheeseman, Fighter 4 (Henchman)


The next small room explored contained a broken sword, and a mostly rotted hand in a glove. Removing the hand from the glove, they found a silver ring. Then it was onto the Gnoll lair!

Barging into their guard room/entry chamber, the party lays into the gnolls, who are quickly reinforced, and just as quickly slaughtered. Even flaming oil does little to stop the party. There’s a lull in the combat, as the chieftess barricades herself into her chamber with 3 of her guards and her chained boy-toy. Meanwhile, 3 younger gnolls come out of their room and tell the party they just want to leave. Eiric shrugs and accepts their promise that they’ll leave the dungeon forever.

Turning back to the chieftess’ chamber, the party smashes open the door, and Eiric Magic Missiles her to death. The 3 remaining gnoll warriors surrender. They’re allowed to take the boy-toy and leave. Searching the gnoll lair they discover some coins (silver and electrum mostly) and a big magical book.

From the gnoll lair, they head into the second set of dorm rooms and encounter:

• Statue of a naked man holding a snake aloft
• Duckpin bowling set
• Rotting fish (without heads)
• Desiccated giant beetle
• A magic ring
• 2 of pieces of jewelry
• Green slime that eats Koltic’s boots and burns his feet
• A pair of boots with a spider in them. It bites Karl, but doesn’t hurt him.
• Giant magically locked brass doors

Not being able to get through the doors, the party packs it up, and calls it a day. The trip back to town was uneventful.

In town, Orpheus has a big party for the kids in the orphanage, and Koltic goes on a bender and ends up pledging himself to the worship of Drasheeng, The Lady of the Blurry Veil, under the tutelage of Darryl.

Gains: Magic book, magic ring, several pounds of silver & electrum
Kills: Green Slime, Gnolls,
Losses: Koltic’s boots

Strange Magic - Embroidered Flesh

Magical tattoos are a fairly common type of magical enhancement. Various systems handle them in a wide variety of ways, but one of the more common ones is for the tattoo to be a temporary thing. Once its power is used, the tattoo goes away, or at least the enchantment does. 

A little while ago I was shown this website by Eliza Bennett called "A woman’s work is never done" where the artist says:

Using my own hand as a base material, I considered it a canvas upon which I stitched into the top layer of skin using thread to create the appearance of an incredibly work worn hand. By using the technique of embroidery, traditionally employed to represent femininity and applying it to the expression of it’s opposite, I hope to challenge the pre-conceived notion that ‘women’s work’ is light and easy. Aiming to represent the effects of hard work arising from employment in low paid ancillary jobs such as cleaning, caring, and catering, all traditionally considered to be ‘women’s work’.

Not only is this a fascinating project, it's also amazingly inspirational, or at least it was to me. I can easily imagine something like this being enchanted, and then being destroyed when the magic was used up.

I imagine the process both of embroidering the magical thread, and using it up would be... potentially painful?

Sunday Inspirational Image: Dawn Harbor

DawnHarbor
by kingkostas

Chainmail Dire Boar

The Dire Boar from WotC’s Chainmail game is a fairly simple mini, and I opted to keep my paint scheme simple as well. I’d primed him years ago with spray primer, and then never got around to painting him, and while most of the primer had held up, it needed touching up. I gave him a scrub to remove any dust and flaking paint in hot soapy water.



Once dry I re-primed with Brown Liner, I generously sloshed on Muddy Brown with Redstone Shadow. This also went all over the base.



I followed that up with another coat this time adding Rich Leather to the mix.Then I added Tanned Leather and gave it a gentler dry brush. I used Old West Rose mixed with the brown for the snout and around the bottom of the eyes. The teeth and horns (spikes?) were painted with Tanned Leather and a little bit of Linen White and then lightened up further near the tips with linen white. Then I gave him a clear coat to finish it off.







The base was then flocked with a combo of different materials, the same as I used with Blightfang, including a forest floor mix and basic flock. And with that? He’s done and ready for the tabletop.







Total Minis Painted in 2018: 36

5e: Over Inflated Sewer Guppy

From: Fulhoff of Clan Balderk

To: Helja and Adrik of Clan Balderk

Mother and Father:

Please forgive the water stains and smudged ink. I’m afraid it couldn’t be helped at the moment for reasons that will become clear.

The sewers of Yartar, while still relatively new, are solidly constructed. I’m rather impressed at the complexity of their waterworks, given that while it’s a city, it isn’t a metropolis like Waterdeep. Clearly they city elders realized the value of building something to last. While not quite up to the best of Dwarven construction, it’s still impressive, and for anyone from the clan who might make their way out this direction, worth a look.

We were not there for sightseeing, unfortunately. With Rin, Thorin, and Journey bringing the Lady Italia to the lady-thieves, we went in with 2 other members of the Grey Hand, another warlock and an alchemist.

While well built, the sewers were slick with slime, and we had to be very careful moving along the narrow walkways. Bran’s limited vision was mitigated by spending a bit to send his raven flapping around. He described what it saw, and the first thing that caught our attention was a doorway not too far from where we were, so we shuffled our way over. After passing through a short hallway we came to a room with a half dissolved body, numerous hand wheels and levers, and 4 slimes. They were obnoxiously resistant to most of our magical attacks, but succumbed readily to being bludgeoned to death. Our Grey Hand Alchemist assistant figured out how to use the mechanics to lower the water in the sewer, so we did… probably by sending it all out into the river.

Then we heard… something from out in the hallway, and glassy eyed fish-things gargled at us. Wanting to get out of the stinky sewer as quickly as possible, I charged out, lined the two of them up, and blasted them with a lightning bolt. Sadly it didn’t immediately slay either of them, and then they attacked. The first one failed to get me, but the second one tossed a disgusting net over me. Joda used the Giant’s fan to blow one away, and then the rest of the party charged out. They were carrying little besides their weapons, and knowing that sometimes creatures swallow their treasure, I gutted one, which the alchemist found disgusting oddly enough…  But no treasure.

Sending the raven back out to scout when the water level dropped discovered 3 more fishmen looking annoyed in what had been a full pool. We went over to them, ready to blast them apart when Bran revealed that he could talk to them. While I didn’t understand a word said, Bran didn’t look or sound thrilled with the answers he was getting, so I charmed the talker. Bran translated his more helpful responses. O’O’Sooth is their god, and an aboleth, who has been making people from the surface into fish people, but not like *these* fish people. Oh, and those Bat-clowns the “Howling Hatred” are involved too. They also warned us about the walls on the way into their god’s lair.

While they were talking one of the fish-things went on ahead. So… no surprise. Not that there was a great chance of that anyway. So, leaving the fish friends behind (the one would stay charmed for a while longer yet) we went deeper into the lair of the aboleth.

To set the scene… The aboleth’s main chamber was a massive hemisphere half full of dark water. The flat wall was to our backs. Spanning across the middle was a bridge, leading to a great iron door on the far wall. In the center of the bridge was a circular platform with 4 wheels mounted to short pillars. Circling halfway around the outerwall were 2 stone walkways.Sitting at the end of each was a glassy eyed merrow next to a wheel set into the wall.  

I was first down the ladder into the chamber, and on my way down spotted the Glyph. With a frustrated wave I dispelled the ward, and we continued down…

There is something particularly slimy and cold about an aboleth speaking directly into your brain. It welcomed us in, and invited us to join it in a more civilized setting. THe far door opened, and 2 fish-men came out, walked to the disk, and bowed us toward the door. We cautiously made our way and looked through the iron door. A table and chairs were neatly arranged, along with several small piles of folded clothing, and a small mound of treasure. We declined to enter the small chamber with the large iron door.

“Very well, I’ll have you as slaves instead.” and the Merrow turned the wheels. Water came gushing into the chamber, and we all ran for the center disk. Bran got their first, injuring one of the fishmen. Joda arrived next, grabbing Bran, and thunder-stepped over to one of the Merrow. The blast killed one and injured the other fish-men. Our other warlock ran up, injured the remaining fishman, and I was right behind to finish him off with poison spray. We grabbed the wheels, and started turning as the water was quickly approaching my neck.

From out of the water, tentacles came out slapping me, the warlock and the alchemist who’d followed behind. I felt something… slither in me… but knew I didn’t have time to deal with it.

Joda and Bran attack the Merrow,  and his glassy eyes clear. Sadly it was a stunning blow, and the creature was unable to do anything. The alchemist ran to toward the other merrow, while the warlock and I blasted at the aboleth. With the Great Digger’s lack of give-a-damn I empowered my witch bolt, and landed a solid hit on the overgrown sewer-guppy. It laughed at us… and then swatted down Joda. He hit the wall hard… I swear I heard his skull cracking against the wall echo in the chamber.

Bran tried to swim away, and got slapped by the aboleth’s tail. Thankfully the merrow went at the aboleth, though with little success. Across the way the alchemist tried to snap the other merrow out of his charm, and only succeeded in getting it angry, and he took a painful bite from it. The warlock shot it, and that damage was enough to wake it up, which allowed the alchemist to turn off the water. The merrow jumped in and joined the fight against the guppy. The guppy then attacked, and dropped the warlock right next to me. Bran joined in and shot the Aboleth again and again, smoky black arrows sinking into the monster’s hide.

From the now draining waters we felt more than heard the rumble of something large and heavy being shifted. The alchemist began to dash around the room, trying to reach Joda, I stood next to the fallen Warlock, continuing to pump the Great Digger’s rage into this self important sewer guppy, knowing there was nothing I could do to save either Joda or the warlock, or possibly even myself… As the waters were nearly gone from the chamberI could see the escape passage now open, and the aboleth thrashing away from the merrow who were harassing it.

I was going to be sick. It was going to get away. With a mad cackle I poured every last bit of energy I could into the abomination as Bran fired off more arrows and the merrow jabbed their harpoons… and it spasmed, flailed in the muck, twitching toward escape… and died.

The alchemist cried out. Joda was dead. The warlock breathed next to me. He would recover. Then I *was* sick. Things have been a little blurry since. I’m oozing something that burns if my skin dries, so I’m sitting writing this on the muddy bank of the river, praying that there is someone who can cure me… praying more that they can do something for Joda. And if not, I pray his soul finds rest.

Stonehell: 4 part Harpy-ony

Session 66 was played on 4/14

Eiric, wizard 6 (Kat)
- men at arms (Koltic, Alias the Elf, Cromwell)
- linkmen (Baldash “Dash”)
- Neon (dog)
A-A-Ron, Thief 6 (Henchman)
Daryll, Cleric 6 (Henchman)
Orpheus, Human Fighter 5 (Henchman)
Karl, Dwarf 6 (Julia)
- Hobart (dog)
- men at arms (Scar, GoMat, Tal)
Lex the Cheeseman, Fighter 4 (Henchman)
Brie, wizard 3 (Apprentice to Eiric)

While spending their gains from last delve, Karl and Lex throw an EPIC bash. Karl ends up with a tattoo of Rocky on his left ass cheek, while Lex wakes up in a barn, wearing a saddle, with whip marks on his ass. Karl proudly displays his new tattoo, while Lex sits very quietly and gingerly for the next several days.

Eiric and Brie spend their time examining and identifying the treasure recovered, and hire on some replacement meatshields. The most colorful of the bunch is Baldash “Dash” who wears torn trousers, a leather jacket with a chain on it, and has an orange and teal mohawk.

Returning to the dungeon, the party heads directly for the Dorm, encountering on the way some hobgoblins who want nothing to do with the party. Down in the dorm, the party hears some screechy singing. Lex and Neon love it though. The harpy who’s doing the singing wants to keep one or the other of them, but Eiric declines and she’s left unmolested after talking to the party about what’s been going on.

A-A-Ron checks out the shaft, but doesn’t see anything. Eiric makes a note to research darkvision for him.

A little further along more of the screechy singing can be heard, this time in 3 part harmony. Again Lex and Neon think it’s great, as does Koltic, Dash, Hobart, and Scar. Karl goes in to talk to them. They’re uninterested in dwarf-meat, and want one of the humans, or the elf. And again Eiric and Karl decline to hand anyone over, even as they volunteer. The harpies tell the party more about the gargoyles and the happenings below. The party again decides to leave the harpies alive.

In the next room they find a floating boulder, about 4’ around. Karl decides to push it around, and gets Orpheus to help. They push it out into the hall, and down to the pit. It hits things on the way down, but never makes the big crashing sound they expect/hope for.

Moving around the pit, the party checks out an empty store room, and then heads down the hall toward the Gnoll lair. Karl and A-A-Ron are attacked by giant ticks in the hallway. Neither is seriously hurt.

Gains:
Kills: 2 giant ticks
Losses:

Cassie the Gnome Sorceress & Fairy Familiar

Currently on my workbench are Cassie the Sorceress (in bones) and the little creepy fairy familiar (metal). My goals for Cassie and her fairy familiar are to make them both as colorful and vibrant as possible. My usual painting style is more muted, earthy, and dingy look which fits well with people who spend their lives exploring dungeons. This is my effort to push past that, and try something I'm not very good at.


This is how she looks now.

My inspiration was the official paint scheme, in large part because when I'm trying something new, I find it helpful to try to copy, or try to copy a successful example of what I'm attempting.



Without a painting guide though, I have to make up the steps to get there. I started with basing both with my Happy Seppuku Temple Courtyard base stamp, and then giving them my usual warm soapy water wash, then priming the minis with brown liner. For the skin for both the fair and Cassie, I'm using the tanned skin triad. After hitting their skin with thinned Tanned Skin, I went in and did their eyes with Linen White. I also used the tanned flesh over the wings.







The real focus though is that hair and the gem on her staff. I started with clear magenta as the base. To tie that in with the fairy, I used the same color on the gem on the base of its staff.

For the fairy’s hair, I base coated with Nightmare Black, and also used it for the edges of the wings. The interior bits of the wings I started with a coat of Clear Yellow. In spite of the name, it is anything but clear. Pure would be a better descriptor… I then painted her ‘clothing’ with a base coat of Pumpkin Orange. It’s not a color that coats well, but I like it in spite of that.





For Cassie’s coat, I started with Cyan Blue as the base, and then followed that up with a second coat of it. The trim on the sleeves was done with Clear Yellow as the base. To further tie the fairy and Cassie together, I painted the scroll case with Cyan. I’m tempted to paint the rune on the scroll case somewhere on Cassie’s coat.

At this point, I can clearly see that I’m not going to be able to match my inspiration pic, but not why (aside from a general lack of skill). So I asked for help. Over on the Reaper forum, which is both exceedingly encouraging and full of really knowledgeable people, I posted a thread, and boy did I get what I asked for.

This reply from Guindyloo in particular is well worth the read.

In short these are the main suggestions:

• Starting with a thick coat of brown liner didn’t do me any favors.
• My brush control needs work. Probably less caffeine would help with that, but that’s not gonna happen.
• I need to thin my paints more
• Get a wet pallet for better control with thinning.
• Practice, practice, practice

So… at this point I think I’m just going to work on finishing up Cassie as best as I can, and then get on to upping my game. A $3 Bones mini isn’t worth stripping down. So this is where we're at now (different angles and lighting).

Sunday Inspirational Image: Castle

Castle
By PapayouFR

Happy Captain Picard (& Free RPG) Day!

It's that most glorious day of the year where we celebrate one of Starfleet's finest: Captain Picard.

I reached out to the captain to find out his thoughts gaming...

I guess he was busy.

Upside, it's also Free RPG Day, so lay in a course for your nearest Friendly Local Gaming Store, and see what's out there!

Engage!

My Favorite Toy (part 2)

So those few other things I was stamping with the Temple Courtyard base stamp from Happy Seppuku? Two of them were miniatures that PCs in my Wednesday night game have been using as their characters. It was about time they got some attention, and bases to match those of Thorin and Fulhoff. I also based an evil little fairy familiar from Reaper's 14041: Familiars I pack, and Cassie, Gnome Wizard.





I don't actually have any plans for how I want to paint either the fairy or the gnome... and mostly just prepped them because I wasn't feeling up to working on the Dancing Girl's skin tones. I think I'm going to have to clear my try table and focus just on her if I want to actually get her done.

The ogre mercenary is going to probably look something kind of like this (hopefully at least half as nice). He had some annoying mold lines that I had to deal with before assembling or painting him. Hopefully I got them taken care of enough that paint will hide anything I missed.

The Dire Boar is going to be brown. Might do some pinkish on the snout and ears, but I'm mostly going with Pumbaa as my inspirational image for him. Well, Pumbaa with a few extra spikes...

One other miniature I was thinking about working on was another Chainmail mini - the war badger! Unfortunately he's missing his hand. I'm sure I have it *somewhere* but until I find it, it'll have to wait. Too bad, since I was kind of hoping to use him as a summoned animal for my wizard.

5e: Journey's Six

From: Fulhoff of Clan Balderk
To: Helja and Adrik of Clan Balderk

Mother & Father,

Sometimes I don’t even know where to begin. Our time in this river town has been eventful… And while I don’t see this excursion as getting us any closer to dealing with the giant situation, it has at least been entertaining.

We split up after breakfast to take care of various activities around town. Journey and I went shopping, although neither of us was very successful in acquiring what we were looking for. Thorin, and the rest of the party went off to learn more about the Hands of Yanda (the all-female thieves’ guild) and any connection they have with the Zhents. To that end, he also sent Bidet out to go do some recon on her own.

In an exciting development, Journey and I witnessed Joda being kidnapped, though to be fair, he was going off with the woman rather willingly. We followed them to a bar, the local hangout of the Hands. Journey was welcomed in and offered a free drink. I was… clearly not welcome. In an even more exciting development, do you remember Kella and Zopin from Nightstone? It turns out she survived the fall, and she’s a part of the Hands. Also, her lover is in town, and wearing one of those ridiculous bat cowls, or so Thorin reports. I wonder if there’s a tower we can shove them both off of?

Journey was given provisional membership in the Hand, and assigned to try to get the Lady in Purple (aka the Lady Italia – she’s got great boots, fyi) to join the hand.

That evening, we pick up our fancy clothing, get dressed, and stash everything else in our bag of holding, then off to the riverboat. Journey bluffed her way aboard as a servant, while Bran bribed the captain to get the rest of us aboard.

Mingling and drinking was the start of the fun. I mostly kept to the dining room, allowing my familiar the opportunity to scurry about. Bran flirted and gambled with the Lady in Purple. Thorin, Rin, and Not-Flint hobnobbed, and tried to figure out where the money was. Journey thought she figured it out, but the hold didn’t actually seem to hold a vault. I’m curious if the pit boss, Paw Ming, had a bag of holding that contained the casino’s coin.

Journey and Rin did manage to rob the captain’s quarters, so in the end it wasn’t a total waste. Apparently one of the sailors was used as a decoy, so suspicion wouldn’t fall on us. I don’t know if that qualifies as robbing the casino though… A good chunk of my share is going to go to charity.

Upon leaving the boat, we caught up with the Lady in Purple, and she admitted her part in the disappearance of the young scions, saying that she was forced into it. I’m… not convinced, not 100%. But Journey brought her to the Hands, and we’re heading into the sewer to go try to find the mastermind behind all this… and his fish-men allies. Still no sign of an aboleth yet. Maybe it was just aboleth poison? Or maybe there are just more layers to dig through. I have the feeling we’re going to find out soon.

Outstanding Rumors/Plot Points
Hand of Yatara - All-female Thieves Guild - Journey has made contact, and performed 1st quest
Golden Goose - Gambling boat - Robbed
House Nustrio - enemy of House Rosilio
Evil Sorcerer Whosith in the sewers
Aboleth?
Kella and Zopin and the Bat Cult
Eye of the Allfather in the Valley of Kadroon
Frost Giant w/ White Dragon Helm
Harthos Zymorvan, retired adventurer with giant slaying greatsword in Silverymoon
Fire Giants attacked Tribor and took a rod from the center of town.
Gua - Hill Giant Matriarch - Grug-Hug Village location generally described

When was the last time we checked in with Hilda?

Stonehell: To the Black Pyramid

Session 65 was played on 3/13

Eiric, wizard 6 (Kat)
- men at arms (Koltic)
- linkmen ()
- Neon (dog)
A-A-Ron, Thief 6 (Henchman)
Daryll, Cleric 6 (Henchman)
Orpheus, Human Fighter 5 (Henchman)
Karl, Dwarf 6 (Julia)
- Hobart (dog)
- men at arms (Scar, GoMat)
Lex the Cheeseman, Fighter 3 (Henchman)
Brie, wizard 3 (Apprentice to Eiric)

Departing the Kobold Kaves, the party passes through the Contested Corridors, Hell’s Antechamber, and down to the Asylum. They wave to some kobolds fetching water as they pass into the Reptile house, heading toward the elevator. It wasn’t there, so they turn around to go back to the stairs in the Asylum, and run into a Mummy with some Heartless. Darryl turns them all.

Taking the stairs down to the Dorm, and following Darryl’s map, the party waves to some gnolls and stops to look into the first new room. 5 marble busts on pedestals are lined up along the back wall. While Karl knocks them over, 3 shadows emerge from the walls in the middle of the party. Lex is swarmed, while Eiric and Brie blast the monsters with magic missiles.

Following the strong wind, they’ve been feeling, they come to a massive shaft heading deep into the ground. They drop a torch down to see how far it goes. The flickering light illuminated several large winged forms that were making their way up toward the party. Eiric leaned over, yells” Suck my flaming balls of death!” and dropped a fireball on them. At least 3 of the creatures were hit by the fireball, and dropped out of the party’s torchlight.

CIrcling around the shaft the party moves onto the next chamber which contains a large black stone pyramid surrounded by columns. As the party looks around the chamber, more shadows attack, but are quickly routed. Climbing up the pyramid, Karl takes a pick-ax to the door, and is blasted by the magical trap laid upon it. Shaking the frost from his beard he cracks the door, and looks down into the pyramid. 2 sarcophagi sit in the otherwise empty black stone chamber. Karl drops in by rope, with Orpheus holding the other end. As Karl’s foot hits the floor, the 2 sarcophagi open and undead spring out, jumping for Karl, Orpheus yanks the rope up, but not before Karl is raked by their claws. He can feel the necromatic energy sucking away his life force. Once safely out of reach, the party debates what to do with the creatures. Darryl tries to turn them, but they just hiss at him. Eiric lobs a few magic missiles at them, but they then move out of direct line of sight from the doorway. Finally, in exasperation, Eiric leans over the door to the small chamber and drops a fireball in. The blast fills the chamber, and then some, burning everyone on the top of the pyramid.

Dropping back into the pyramid, Karl sees the burnt remains crumbling on the floor, and then retrieves the treasure from the sarcophagi. Sadly, the scroll was destroyed, but the magic weapons and other treasures were fine!

Departing with their loot, they’re set upon by the gnolls. From the doorway to their lair, they launched a volley of arrows at the party. Eiric returns fire with magic missiles, while A-A-Ron uses one of his magic screaming arrows. The morale of the gnolls breaks, and they retreat back into their lair, while the party runs for the stairs. They make great time getting out of the dungeon.

Gains: 2 magic weapons, ring of spell turning, bunch of gold.
Kills: 2 Gargoyles, 5 Shadows, 2 Wights
Losses:

My Favorite Toy (part 1)

Do you remember being a kid, and having that one favorite toy that you played with constantly? Well, mine currently happens to be the Happy Seppuku Temple Courtyard base stamp. I find myself pulling it out to use even for things that it isn't really appropriate for. For example, I've got this giant Dire Boar from the old (2001? 2002?) Chainmail line that was on a little tiny base, and I figured I'd put it on something more appropriate for its size. And since I was stamping a few other bases... well, I mixed up some more greenstuff and...



In retrospect, this is silly. Not *everything* needs the Temple Courtyard base. In fact some things should have something else completely. So instead this base is going to be set aside for use with an old Mordheim Ogre Mercenary. It's a great sculpt, and I've been wanting to paint him up.

At least I didn't use the stamp for the Blightfang or the Goroloth...

And, I've certainly gotten my $5 worth out of it!

In the meantime, I'm going to put the pig on an oval base since I have a shit ton of them and haven't used one yet. And rather than use the stamp, I'll just go with a more natural style of base. Just some rocks, flock, and rough cover. I'm thinking something close to what I used for Blightfang. Since I mostly cut off the tab (and the oval bases don't have tab slots anyway) I still used some green stuff on the base to give the pig's tabs something to sit in. And I even sculpted in a hoof-print! We'll see if that'll be at all noticeable once I get it all painted and flocked.

Of course this also kind of makes me want to pull out more of my Ghost Archipelago minis, and use the warped plank base stamp on them. And I still want to get one of the sci-fi stamps... If I keep this up, I'm going to need to order more greenstuff sooner rather than later.

Sunday Inspirational Image: Aboleth

Aboleth by xtianayuni

Free RPG Day is coming!

Saturday June 16th is Free RPG Day! I'll be running... something that afternoon. I haven't settled on what yet, but there's a fair chance it'll be a DCC adventure, or maybe a 5e adventure... I really need to settle on a game and lock in my time slot...

Anyway, you should totally find your participating FLGS and plan on attending. You can snag some really cool stuff.

As usual, I'm really looking forward to the Lamentation of the Flame Princess release. Last year's Vaginas are Magic is being followed up with this glorious member:

Sadly this is the best image of it I can find...

I'm also going to grab the Goodman Games DCC adventure, and maybe their 5e one... and I want to take a look at the Starfinder one, even though I have little interest in Starfinder as a system.

It's only a week away! See you there!

Painting the Goroloth (Aboleth)

In Bones 2, Reaper had several large sea monster creatures, one of which, the Goroloth (Reaper’s answer to the Aboleth), came in the Expansion 2 set. This was one of the figures I was least interested in, and figured that if I ever got around to painting it, it would be because I was trying to finish up the set. Primordial evil fish monsters just aren’t my thing.

Of course then my DM decided to introduce one into her game… so… Now I’m painting an aboleth.

My inspiration from the 2e Monster Manual.



After digging it out of my boxes of Bones minis, I did my usual washing in hot soapy water and scrubbing with a toothbrush. Mold lines were minimal, and ignored, but I did notice that the plastic on this guy was much softer than I’m used to. Reminded me a lot of Kaladrax’s head.

Along with assembling, I went to the 5e Monster Manual to check on the size of an Aboleth. Large, aka a 2” base. Far too tiny for this mini, so I upped it to a 3” base. I glued the flying stand to the bigger base, and then covered it with blocks of cork attached with hot glue. I was picturing an underwater ruined palace. Sadly I don’t have a good statue that I could have ruined on the base.



Once the mini was all assembled, I primed it with Blue Liner, and then blocked out the colors with Deep Ocean Blue, Oceanic Blue, and Marine Teal.





The bony bits were painted with bone, as were the stripes on the tentacles, while the gills and suckers on the tentacles were painted with Monster Maw. The many eyes were painted with Heraldic Red. I then gave just about everything a wash with GW’s Leviathan Purple. It seemed appropriate.





Returning to the base I primed it with black craft paint, and then dry brushed it with Mountain Stone, with more and more linen white added to it. I then applied dots of Jade Green to look like sea moss growing on it.









Gonna call that ready for game!