Rappan: What's in the bags?!?

 Session 323 part 1 was played on 3/15/26

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

The 10’ down (to the next level?) was not far physically, but the sense of dread that pervaded the hallway at the bottom of the ladder was heavy enough to crush a lesser party. The hallway continued before coming to a stair, leading to another hall, a room full of junk, a portcullis and black ooze trap (fireball and oil took care of that), the smell of old body odor, a room full of mud with bubbles stinking of farts. Finding no other path, the party carefully crosses the mud to a crevice in the wall. 

Beyond the crack the party discovered 8 ogres. They failed to land a blow upon the party due in large part to their recently discovered ability to deflect hits! Each of the ogres had a bag, and they had the following within:

1. 3 dead giant rats, a wheel of cheese, 140gp, 3 flasks of oil, large shiny rock
2. Body of an elf with elven chain and sword, 200gp, 6 silver tipped arrows
3. Pot of grease, only kinda sealed
4. 2’ square silver mirror, ring, 30gp, “The wanderings of Helman Hairfoot”
5. Ivory scrollcase w/ 10gp and a map, silver helm, 44gp
6. Body of a wizard, silver dagger, 4 rocks, chewed up spellbook, 60gp
7. Body of a halfling, 3 vials of holy water, 12 xbox bolts, 120gp
8. Cloak, earring, 6 iron spikes, 10 fresh oranges

The bodies were all at least a week old, if not more… where did they get fresh oranges??

Using speak with the dead, they chat with the elf, and decide to bring the elf, halfling, and wizard back to life. Morgana teleports everyone back home and Koltic gets to raising the dead. This took a couple of days, and everyone would be bedridden for a couple of weeks. The wizard was talkative, the elf ready to return home, and the halfling decided to hang out and serve as scribe for the party. Of course they all needed weeks of time resting, so the party teleported back to the dungeon once they were all safely tucked in bed with a host of kobolds at hand to help take care of them.

Upon teleporting back, it turned out the smell of the ogre’s chamber had not improved, and their bodies were crawling with vermin. 

The party pressed on…

Trash Bash Killa Kan

 Do I play 40K? 

 Not anymore

Do I have space orc minis? 

Nope

Is there a single reason I should be working on a Killa Kan for a game I don't play, to go with minis I don't have? 

Yes, Gork and/or Mork inspired me. 

 

And with that, I grabbed an old GW paint pot, and my boxes of trash crafting supplies, and got to work.

I sawed off the threads of the lid, and cut out a cardboard disk to close up the hole. 

Then I used more cardboard, the clasp of a zip tie, and some tubing to make the face. Nothing was measured beyond holding it up and seeing if it looked good. 

Next I had to decide how I wanted to make the legs. I started with a 2" base, and dug through my bits. For one foot I used the inside of a cheap toy car (the interior bit that makes up the windows) that I found on the ground at the playground parking lot, and for the other, a random bit of plastic that was used to secure a toy to a box. Add in some tubing, and you've got some legs!

 

At least the lower half of them. Then it was time for MOAR BITS! and attaching the body to the legs. This did involve some pinning, super glue and hot glue. 

Arms! We need some arms for this bad boy... One side was going to be a shoota of some sort, the other a claw. 

The claw was probably the most work of the whole build. I had to double up the thickness of the card I was using to make it, and figuring out how to make it look like it could actually move involved a lot of looking at reference pics of both miniatures and actual robotic arms. 

As for the gun, it is mostly the corner protector piece from.... something. It was plastic and boxy, and had several holes in it. The shoota barrel is the tip of a marker. The only actual piece from a miniature is the red bit on top from a Reaper Miniature CAV mini. 

What makes an orky vehicle really orky? Rivets! I ordered these flat bottom beads from amazon, and got to gluing... 

Then it was Prime Time! 

This was followed by craft smart "metallic brown" then the real painting began!  It's sloppy, and I sarted it with paint markers, but overall I'm pleased with how it came out. 

I might go back and clean up a few details, but this is good enough to post, and more than good enough to put on the table, if I had any reason to. 

Rappan: Back to the dungeon

Session 322 part 3 was played on 3/14/26

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

A week after the dwarves departed, the party gears up and heads off to the mausoleum. With no gargoyles in sight, the party heads in and down, encountering a pair of black skeletons. Most of the party falls under their fear effect, and runs. After regrouping they try again, and take them down. Down on level 2 they head to the ghoul and ghast tunnels, and stick Koltic up toward the front, and he destroys them with waves of his hand, while the meatsticks keep him safe. The party then loots their lair, collecting a decent selection of treasure, including some very fancy dwarven plate mail. If only the local dwarves weren’t such dicks. 

Descending to level 3 they encounter some orcs who warn the party to “Go Back!” Needless to say, the party did not go back, but they did collect $200 their treasure. Pushing on, the party reaches the doorway to the Orcus temple complex. The dwarves want the party to take care of it, and they will…. Exploring around some of the rooms only briefly explored, the party finds a trap door in the floor, with a ladder leading down… a mere 10’. 

“Okay, who’s first?”

---

Once again, we were playing together in person, and our game session ran very late the first night, hence why I split this up into 3 parts. Expect the same for the next couple of posts.

Rappan: Dwarven Uselessness

Session 322 part 2 was played on 3/14/26

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

Blotto, somehow, ends up being the one to go out and meet with the dwarves as they arrive and immediately begin to erect a number of tents. Riding upon Esmerelda the Rust Monster, the dwarves keep a wary eye on the goblin as he approaches, but otherwise remain silent. 

“Excuse me my good bitches, what seems to be the fuck?”

The dwarves faces sour at the goblin’s words, but they remain silent, and continue their work. More residents of the keep emerge to watch the dwarves, but it’s a full day before any speak to a non-dwarf. “You have caused issues for the Davin Clan, and we will summon you when we are good and ready!” Is all Nick gets when he goes to check on them the next day.

Another day passes, and then another before they finally deign to “summon” the party to talk. By this point Nick is feeling insulted nearly beyond words. In full armor he leads the party to the main tent of the dwarves. Within is a raised platform with a long table upon it. 6 dwarves sit in fine chairs on the far side of the table. There are no chairs on the other side. They stare at the party in uncomfortable silence. 10 minutes pass. 

“No, I’m not doing this.” Nick turns and tries to leave, but the tent is magically sealed. “So help me, you will let me out or I will cut my way out through you” Morgana teleports Nick out before he can cause any bodily harm. 

Eventually the dwarves speak, and tell the remaining members of the party in the tent that the armies of Orcus are on the rise, and that it’s because of our meddling in Rappan. As such they demand that the party fix it. 

With that the party is dismissed. The dwarves pack up their camp, and march back off into the woods. “Of all the bloody useless…” Nick could be heard to yell as Morgana told him what they said. 

June ‘26 In Review

Summer has well and truly arrived. School is out for the kid, my FiL is here to help take care of him for the break, and temperatures are supposed to hit 100 this week. I can only hope the high temps and the potential thunderstorms keep the neighborhood artillery blasts to a minimum for the 4th of July weekend, but I doubt it. 

Trek Long Island was this month, and I brought the kid with me. He had a blast. I… mostly got to watch him have a blast. I suppose this is the only real way to introduce him to the Con life. Next year will be better. 

Miniatures
You ever get one of those bees in your bonnet? An idea you just can’t get out of your head, and if you don’t make it happen NOW your brain won’t let you do anything else? I got 2 of them this month. The first was building the cardboard space transport, and the other was turning an old GW paint pot into a Killa Kan. I actually finished building the Killa Kan, and have made good progress on the ship. 

 

On the paint desk, I wrapped up a bunch of wolves, a couple of trolls, the BFG Dhows, and a few other minis, and started on another set of Noble Armada ships, a Frostgrave mini, and am continuing to slowly work on converting some Space Gitz. 

Gaming
We continue bumbling our way through Old Oak city and the crazed wasps and white ants in our Beetle Knight game. While I’m enjoying it, I’m looking forward to getting back to Stonehell, though I do kinda feel an itch to play some sci-fi… something.

The Dolmenwood work game managed a couple sessions this month, and it’s delightful how players can make things just a little more complicated than they need to be. Need to shine some light on something? No, lets not just try lighting a torch, let’s go back to town, buy a dozen mirrors, and set them up to shine the sunlight in the spot we want! 

Media 
Hacks - They really stuck the landing with this one! 
Spider-Noir - Loved it!
Starship Troopers - Rewatch while scratch bashing Dana Meyers… Mmm
Sorceress - So cheesy, so bad… 

Books
Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 5, 6, 7 & 8 - I’m not sure how many tens of hundreds of pages that was, but I couldn’t put them down. 

Loot
Star Trek Lower Decks art book & 3 graphic novels
Reaper minis order
Free RPG Day: 
From Here to There, an old-school hexcrawl
Dungeons & Kittens
Level 1: indy RPG anthology

Goals for July
Play rescue  scenario of Stargrave Hope Eternal
Finish March & April session reports

Rappan: Vomited Up from the Mouth of Doom

 Session 322 was played on 3/14/26

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

After returning from Rappan, Morgana and Koltic spend some time removing the curse that Jameth had fallen under, then began working on a ring of featherfall for herself. The meatsticks trained on the cleave special attack together. Koltic spent his off time making potions and also communing with his god. In his drunken stupors holy trances he was warned that a great danger was threatening all around Rappan, and would descend upon them in a matter of weeks. Using his Commune spell, he learned over several weeks that the danger wasn’t from the dragons, but would come from the Temple of Orcus within Rappan. 

Around this same time kobolds from the Mouth of Doom showed up. Things were emerging from the depths… undead and demons. They fled and reluctantly came to Nick’s keep for help. Shortly thereafter Drusilla showed up at the keep to complain about an excess of orcs and skeletons and things from the pits (demons) suddenly being all over the woods, and blaming our actions for stirring things up.

Morgana used her magic eye to check out things at the Mouth of Doom and found a full military camp set up in the field outside the mouth. Mostly skeletons, with orc command, and several frog demons over the orcs, including one on a big floating golden throne.  A total of about 200 troops… While the skeletons weren’t a big concern, at least for the party, the demons, and potentially the orcs as well. On the other hand, letting a swarm of skeletons overwhelm even the best fighter isn’t a good idea. 

Knowing the lay of the land, the party planned a quick strike against the small army. Morgana obviously serving as artillery, while the melee members of the party would close in after to mop up.  

The battle was messy. Starting things off with some fireballs worked extremely well for the mooks, and even the orcs, but the demons had the advantage of being both resistant to magic and fire damage… So Morgana tried a lightning bolt. It was moderately more effective. Unfortunately the demons chucked some fireballs back at the party, and summoned more demon friends to help them. Lor’Koth took the fireball hard, and dropped, Jameth nearly joining him. The sight of the fighters charging toward the remaining demons got the demons to charge right on back. This resulted in the demons finally clumping up just enough for Morgana to drop an ice storm on them. What that doesn’t take out, Nick, Blotto, Borumar, and Aroon finish off. 

From the various corpses a large pile of loot is recovered, including the (no longer floating) golden throne. 

Checking out the entrance of the Mouth of Doom, glowing red eyes can be seen within. Morgana chucks a pair of fireballs into the Mouth, setting them to go off one near the entrance, and the next one deeper down the main hall. 

They take the loot back to the keep. The next day kobolds rush to inform the group that a troop of 2 dozen dwarves is marching on the keep and is only a short distance away!

Cardboard Starship #4: Transport part 1

If you look back at the "cardboard starship" tag, you'll see there have been a couple of previous builds... and #3 was never updated. That's because I never finished it. I was unhappy with the foam I'd used to make it, and decided to scrap it. 

That was 5 years ago. 

Now that I'm actually playing Stargrave again, and the next official scenario requires a crashed ship with a 10x4 cargo area that the crew can go into, it's time to build my next cardboard spaceship!

The only requirement for the scenario is the cargo bay, and while I absolutely could just put a box on the table, that's just not my style. I want a full ship that I can use over and over! On the other hand I don't want to go too overboard and make something so big it'll take up the whole table. Grabbing my trusty graph paper, I got to sketching.

 

Here you can see what I came up with. To avoid it looking like a box, I decided it should be, overall, hexagonal. 45 degree angles are easy enough, right? Plus I could make some simple benches running down the length of the cargo bay. At the front, there would be an elevated cockpit, and at the rear an engineering area and the engines. 

With everything all sketched out, I grabbed some cardboard from the recycling bin in the garage, and got measuring. I wanted to minimize the number of cuts I'd need to do and so made sure the cardboard grain was running front to back to make it easier to bend the cardboard to make the 45 degree angle that I'd planned. In hindsight it was maybe not the best decision, but it worked ok. 

 As it felt a little weak, I decided that it could use some bulkheads in the cargo bay, and so added them in as you can see above. Later I found that single thickness cardboard, cut thin like this is also kind of weak, and it buckled on me. 

 

Next I added the flooring to the cargo bay, which was simply the molded plastic of a food tray that had previously contained some peppers from the grocery store. This was hot glued in place. You can't really see it, but a couple of the spots on the trays have writing molded onto them. At this point I decided not to worry about it. I've also begin to block in the engineering compartment, and glued the ship onto a scrap piece of foam for a little extra strength and to give the engines somewhere to sit. 

 

The cockpit and the benches were added next. The middle section of the cargo bay is where the ramps/doors will be, so no benches there. The cockpit was glued together from some cut off bits of cardboard from earlier in the build. Annoyingly it's not quite level, but I doubt anyone else will notice, plus for this scenario at least it's supposed to be a crashed ship anyway. 

The engines came together quickly, largely made from paint and Yukult bottles, embellished with bottle caps and toothpaste caps. The central area is made from a beer can 6 pack ring and a pizza box support, as well as a few other scrap bits from my junk bins. 

More detailing in the next post!  

Stonehell B Team: Wafflehouse and Kidnapping Attempt

Session 321 was played on 2/22/26

Sonara, Wizard (Rob)
Adorellen, Elf (Me)
Glimmer, Kobold (Lanse)
Kessaren, Cleric  (Cindy)
Loahn, Halfling  (Josh)
5 Kobold meatshields (Pibble, VI, Rags, Suv, Zurn)
2 Hobgoblin meatshields (Vorkvul & Gralvar)

Continuing their exploration of the Asylum next brings them to a Fey WaffleHouse staffed with redcaps. They chat a bit with some of the patrons, but avoid actually eating anything. A Gentleman Ghoul is hanging out, and they sell him some of their pixies, and acquire some rumors about Fire Giants in the deep,intrigue in the  Vampire court, and among the Vryellia, and rumblings from the Plated Mage. Sonra keeps out of the Wafflehouse, standing just outside, trying to look at once menacing and invisible so no one bothers her. 

Moving on, they come to a stream cutting through a wide section of the hallway, and across it a small field of mushrooms, who invite the party to rest, relax, and enjoy a mushroom and egg omelet. They just happen to have some eggs, and a frying pan, and a premade woodpile for a fire… the party declines, but does pluck a few mushrooms, and they take the eggs and frying pan. Then Sonra fireballs the mushrooms, just to be safe.

At the next doorway, they find a grumpy old woodsman. He threatens the party, and Sonra decides to further take after Morgana, and fireballs him. It doesn’t hurt him as much as it seems like it should, so the Kobolds charge in and hack at him till he falls. Pibble, excited, tries to raise him, succeeds, but loses control of the fresh zombie, and the kobolds have to put it down again. 

They grab his ax, and decide to finish their circuit of the Asylum and get back to the Korners. Before they can make it, just outside the Korners they’re ambushed by a party of Vryllia! Half the party is magically Held, but Sonra, Kess, Glimmer, and Zurn resist the effects. Sonra lobs a fireball, dropping half of the dozen elves. Another blast of Hold spells nabs Glimmer and Zurn, but Sonra drops another fireball, despite the fact that the elves had closed in. She succeeded in dropping the remaining elves, but also caught most of the party, dropping all the kobolds and Adorellen. Kess managed to get some healing for Adorellen, but the kobolds were too fried to save. 

Sonra, looting the bodies, collected 6 wands. Later, while in the Korners, a letter is dropped off to her, addressed to Morgana. 

Gains: 6 wands (Hold x2, Fear x2, Enemy Detection, Fireball)
Kills: Woodsman, Mushrooms, Vryllia
Losses: Kobolds, Fred

Stonehell B Team: Fairy Magic, Keep Out!

Session 320 was played on 2/15/26

Sonara, Wizard (Rob)
Adorellen, Elf (Me)
Glimmer, Kobold (Lanse)
Kessaren, Cleric  (Cindy)
Loahn, Halfling  (Josh)
5 Kobold meatshields (Pibble, VI, Rags, Suv, Zurn)
2 Hobgoblin meatshields (Vorkvul & Gralvar)

Stepping into the first glen from the dungeon door, they looked around. The late afternoon sun shown down on the glade, and the party poked around, looking at the large rocks, when they heard the telltale giggling of pixies. Sonra and Adorellen both snap out a pair of Sleep spells, while the pixies try to use Web on the party. There’s a brief fight with the few conscious remaining pixies, and Glimmer ends up with several more bottles stuffed with grumpy fey. The quickly head back through the door and into Stonehell closing it behind them before the sleeping invisible Pixies wake up. Loahn writes “stupid pixies” on the door in chalk. 

The next door opens into sun dappled wood with a rustic wood cabin a short walk from the doorway. They close the door and write “More pixies - Fairy magic - Keep out” on the door. Deeper into the asylum they find a padded cell, with clouds floating near the ceiling. They nope out of that room too. 

Finally circling around to see what remains of the portal room, the answer is “not much.” The fireballs made a mess of the chamber, and everything was burned, or at least covered in ash and scorch marks. Sonra is nervous the whole time they spend in the room, expecting something to happen… The hobgoblins find a small stash of silver coins that survived the inferno. Otherwise there was nothing left to recover from the room. 

More exploring finds an illusionary floor over a pit trap, but the trap was marked on their map, so no one fell into it. Then a room with a labyrinth carved into the floor of the room. Pibble walked the spirals of it, and gains a minor boost to his necromantic powers, but with a chance to lose control of them. One of the heads he had animated on its own, says his name is Fred. 

Gains: pixies in jars, Fred
Kills: Pixies
Losses:

Stonehell B Team: Weird Water

 Session 319 was played on 2/8/26

Sonara, Wizard (Rob)
Adorellen, Elf (Me)
Glimmer, Kobold (Lanse)
Kessaren, Cleric  (Cindy)
Loahn, Halfling  (Josh)
5 Kobold meatshields (Pibble, VI, Rags, Suv, Zurn)
2 Hobgoblin meatshields (Vorkvul & Gralvar)

Departing the Korners, the party descends to The Reptile House and is immediately set upon by a squad of lizardmen! The fight lasts a little longer than expected with such a large party, but the lizardmen only manage a few lucky scratches before all being cut down. Unfortunately they weren’t wearing much, and didn’t have anything of value on them.

From the Reptile House they cross back over to the Asylum, and head straight for the Water Weird’s fount, and as soon as the door is open Kess casts Purify Water, killing the elemental creature. They retrieve Karl’s collapsible 10’ pole, and down at the bottom of the water are the sparkles of more, but it’s too far down to reach. Sonra uses her bracer and changes into a croc, diving into the water. She fish out some coins and 3 magical crossbow quarrels. She returns to her usual human-ish form and they press on.

Checking the rooms across the hall, they find a forest glen through one door… 

Gains: silver & gold coins, +3 crossbow bolts x3
Kills: lizardmen, water weird
Losses: 

May ‘26 In Review

Started the month with 3 days of jury duty. Largely a whole lot of waiting around to see if they could manage to find 18 jurors out of a pool of 170 potential picks. They did. The last person picked was # 126. I was #140. While I’m a little sad I didn’t get picked, the case was expected to run for 5 weeks! Over the 3 days I got to eat some good food from the city and read 5 books (see below). It was an unexpected break from work, but after the audit, it was kind of nice. It also really kickstarted my reading mood. I read more books this month than I usually read over 6 months!


Miniatures
I’ve already written about how I finished my trashbash tower. I also worked on a handful of BFG minis, one large imperial transport and a set of Nicassar Dhows (not quite done yet). There was also the weird assortment of a bed, a wolf, 2 skeletal canines, a troll.. And then I pulled out my greenstuff and got creative. Of course I mixed up too much, but that’s what mushroom balls are for, right?

Of course with all the reading I did, I didn’t get as much painting done this month, but the reading time was definitely worth it. 


Gaming
As I posted just a few days ago, I got in my game of Hope Eternal! It was a lot of fun, even though it’s a solo game. Gotta take better notes for the next one. I did find using the transcribe feature on my notes app helped a lot. 

My work game hit a few bumps this month, and we missed all but one session. I’d hoped to be through the intro scenario for Dolmenwood by now, but no such luck.

The Stonehell/Rappan sunday game is also on hold, but in it’s place we’ve been playing Beetle Knight, which is kinda the TTRPG version of Hollow Knight/Silksong

I also accidentally finished playing through Torchlight 2. I hadn’t realized I was on the final mission, and after I completed it, I went looking for my next quest, only to discover that there wasn’t one… I’ve been playing this game, in short little bits here and there for a couple of YEARS. 

Media 
Hacks
Daredevil Born Again season 2
Maul: Shadowlord
Minecraft
Punisher: One Last Kill


Books
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. Fun, too short
Kipling's collected poems. Eh.
Beowulf. It's a classic for a reason.
Eversion by Alistair Reynolds. Such a well told story.
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Holy crap does he have a way with words!
Dungeon Crawler Carl Books 2, 3, & 4
Murderbot Diaries: Platform Decay


Loot
Stars Without Number  


Goals for June
Play rescue  scenario of Stargrave Hope Eternal
Finish February session reports

Stargrave: Hope Eternal Mission 4 The Magnificent 10

I played, but didn't do write ups for The Great Maglev Robbery and Dramatic Exit. The TLDR version are as follows:

Great Maglev Robbery - Finding the right train car went as poorly as it could have. The flying drones were more than a nuisance, and while Chelle Ren was recovered, everyone was forced to jump from the train, as the skiff was too far away to be reached due to the drones and the large mutants crawling over the tops of the cars. 

Dramatic Exit - Chella's partner Drix was being taken across town to be loaded up onto a transport shuttle and taken away. He was rescued from the guards, but only at the last moment, and I got lucky with the rolls for additional bad guys coming onto the board. 

 The Magnificent 10

The crew needed info from a dude in a small village, but first we needed to save the villagers from slavers before he'd give it to us.    

Pregame setup the villagers are scattered around the table, and the crew set up to try to protect them. The Captain commando, gunner, red, and rocket on the tower, the mate, saw and gobbo near coner 2, Chella and Drix in corner 4.

The initial groups of pirates came onto the board in the four corners. Corner 1 two ruffians one trooper one slaver. Corner 2 two ruffians one trooper one flavor. Corner three four ruffians corner four two troopers two slavers.





Turn 1
Captain coordinated fire on the Gunner troll. Gunner troll shoots at ruffians. Kills 1. Commando kills one ruffian.

Mate shoots wounds and stuns ruffian. Saw shoots and kills ruffian gobbo kills wounded ruffian

Pirate trooper shoots troll for 10. Trooper shoots gobbo for 12 

Rocket damages one slaverbot 

 

Turn 2
Two ruffians a trooper and a slaver bot in corner 2.

Troll shoots ruffian for 3.

Saw wounds trooper

Trooper injurers first mate.

Drix & Chella kill trooper


Turn 3
4 ruffians, corner 2

Saw kills wounded trooper. First mate wounds ruffian

Trooper kills gobbo


Turn 4
Trooper 2 ruffians corner 3

Troll kills injured bot

Chella kills injured trooper. Red and rocket trap slaver bot with Vel



Turn 5
Captain kills slaverbot in hand to hand. Commando injures slaverbot. Troll kills injured bot

Mate kills wounded ruffian. Saw kills ruffian

2 ruffians leave board with villagers. Trooper wounds Saw. Trooper injurers and rocket down against slave bot non lethal. drix kills ruffian


Turn 6
Captain shoots fragmentation grenade at ruffians, injures 1. Commando wounds bot. Troll kills ruffian.

Bot takes out red trooper (non lethal)

Drix kills bot w/ Vel.


Turn 7
Captain miss with grenade. Move into combat, commando joins against ruffian. Troll kills ruffian.

Saw kills wounded bot

Slavers take 3 more villagers. Trooper wounds mate. Ruffian kills commando.


Turn 8
Captain kills injured ruffian with villager. Moves into melee with trooper.

Saw wounds ruffian

Drix wounds ruffian in melee


Turn 9
Captain wounded in melee. Chella kills ruffian.

Drix injured by ruffian


Turn 10
Troll injured trooper. Mate wounds same trooper.

Drix kills ruffian. Chella wounds trooper


Turn 11
Trooper hurts Chella. Drix kills trooper

Last trooper takes villager off the board.

 The captured villagers and their captors. 

Epilogue:

The needed info is given to the crew, and the next stop is a crash landed ship under an ocean on another planet... but first, to rescue the 6 villagers taken. 

Rescuing the villagers isn't officially part of the campaign, but it feels like the right thing to do. 

As an aside, it was great to play on my own board with minis and terrain that were all painted by me. Of course now I need to make the crashed space ship... which is half the reason I'm going to do the rescue mission first! It'll give me more time to build it! 

Stonehell B Team: Smells so bad

Session 318 was played on 1/25/26

Sonara, Wizard (Rob)
Adorellen, Elf (Me)
Glimmer, Kobold (Lanse)
Kessaren, Cleric  (Cindy)
Loahn, Halfling  (Josh)
3 Kobold meatshields (iGor, Pibble, VI)

Continuing their exploration of the former hobgoblin redoubt, the party finds the midden, which seems to be back in use. It smells worse than before… who knew the smell could get worse? As everyone gags, Sonra decides that the best way to deal with the smell is to light a match. A really big match. She sends a mini-fireball into the room. 

Now it smelled like burning troglodyte shit. 

Making use of their new Secret Hut spell, the party climbs in and waits for the flames to die out and the smoke to clear, and hopefully the smell to be less bad. 

Eventually they climb out and continue exploring, heading around the room with the big pits, and down toward a room marked barracks. A pack of troglodyes approach the party from the other end of the hall. One of them casts a web spell on the party, and suddenly things go dark, as a magical darkness follows the web spell. A moment later Sonra throws a fireball in the middle of the troglodytes and yells “go away!”

Once again, burning troglodyte doesn’t smell any better than non-burning troglodyte. 

The sound of one troglodyte running away, screaming in pain can be heard, but not seen. 

Cutting their way free was a very slow process, both because of the darkness, but also the blades kept getting stuck in the webs. After about 10 minutes, iGor starts screaming in pain, yelling about his feet. The darkness makes it all worse, and everyone can feel the thrashing in the webs. It doesn’t take long before someone pulls out a torch and sets the webs alight. Everyone is burned, but free, and Kessaren grabs iGor, and pulls him out of the magical darkness… or what’s left of him. A grey ooze had completely enveloped him, and was now working its way up Kess’ arm. They hack at the ooze, and manage to kill it, or at least kill enough of it that it stops trying to eat Kessaren. 

Scooping up what they can of iGor and putting it in the portable hole, the party makes a run for the stairs and back up to the Korners. The party spends a week recovering, and then hires 3 new kobolds to join them, as well as a pair of hobgoblin warriors. 

Gains: 
Kills: troglodytes, grey ooze
Losses: iGor 

Stargrave Trashbash Fuel Tower part 2

With the construction complete, it was time to get to painting! Because of the use of foam on it, I used my mod podge and black paint mix on all the foam before taking it outside on the first 60+ degree day we had this year and giving it a solid coat of Rust-oleum flat black. That was back in March...

Fast forward to MAY, and I was getting sick of looking at it and it's black primer coat... Not really sure what else to do with it, I decided to use the same green on the tank as I'd used for my other trash bash industrial terrain, but first was giving everything that was supposed to be metal a coat of brown metallic craft paint. Originally I was going ot use the airbrush paint, but I wanted to test out the bottle I got from Michaels to see how it worked.

 That worked out about as well as I could have hoped for! And as it's a lot cheaper, and I don't have to have it shipped to me, this will probably be my go to for undercoating my industrial terrain. 

 The main tank got the aforementioned industrial green, leaving the metallic brown in the groves showing, and the connector bit on top got a hazard yellow ring. I also painted the logo on the tank withe the yellow as a base. 

 

Onto the wood and stucko for the build-out portion, which was painted with the usual antique white, and a random mix of browns for the wood. 

 

Then I started picking out other details, like the wires and the junction box. 

And the final steps were to make the bands around the tank and the radar dish more silvery, black hazard lines on the yellow coupling, and add some weathering using a mix of dark sepia and black wash, putting streaks where it felt most appropriate. 

It's nice to finally have this wrapped up, and now it's time to get it on the table and play with it!  

Norkers

"The little bugger bit me!" Nimble yelled, as much from pain as embarrassment. 

The pink little bugger in question was barely 3 feet tall, but had sunk it's teeth into Nimble's hip. The others giggled with their wide wet toothy mouths. 

"Don't let them get so close next time" Rathgar laughed, booting one prone and running it through with his sword. He jerked to the side just in time to avoid the tusks of the boar that went racing past him, but not far enough to avoid the mounted norker's heavy club.   

"I can see why the village asked for our help" Feris said, knocking aside the blade of the norker poking at him. 

Norkers

Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 2+1
Move: 90 (30)
Attacks: 1 weapon 1 bite
Damage: 1d6/1d3
No. Appearing: 2d6 (5d6)
Save As: F2
Morale: 9
Treasure Type: E
Intelligence: 9
Alignment: chaotic
XP Value: 25

Monster Type: Humanoid, Uncommon

Norkers are noxious and obnoxious creatures, superficially of goblinoid stock, but twisted and nastier than the average gobbo. They organize themselves into roving bands that loot, pillage, and burn an area before either moving on for greener pastures, or being driven off. All their loot (whatever isn't destroyed) is kept at their base camp under lock and key of the norker chieftain (4+2HD) and his 1d4+1 guards (3+2HD). 

Norkers keep boars as guard animals, mounts, and beasts of burden. All roving groups of at least 5 members will have 1 mounted on a boar. 

There is a particular enmity between norkers and fairies, and norkers will always be wearing hobnail boots, and as many bits of iron as they can. Cookpot helms are especially popular and fought over among them.

---

I hadn't planned on painting them pink. Originally I wanted them to have yellow skin, but since painting yellow is a pain in the ass, I went with the paint it pink first trick. The thing is, I liked how they looked with the pink skin. They're rather cartoony already, and it felt appropriate. And if you look really close at the mounted norker's boot, you'll see a squished pixie stuck to the bottom! 

Stonehell: B Team: It Smells Worse

Session 317 was played on 1/19/26

Sonara, Wizard (Rob)
Adorellen, Elf (Me)
Glimmer, Kobold (Lanse)
Kessaren, Cleric  (Cindy)
Loahn, Halfling  (Josh)
3 Kobold meatshields (iGor, Pibble, VI)

Sonra, managing to keep lunch, uses the wand to cast Fireball on the troglodytes at the end of the hall, and the foul smell of troglodyte is replaced with a new, slightly less bad smell of burned troglodytes. Among them they had several items of jewelry, mostly made of silver and copper. 

Continuing to explore, Glimmer checks a doorway, but triggers a falling portcullis trap, getting himself stabbed by the weighty pointy gate. Adorellen grabs the gate, and holds it up while Glimmer is removed from the pointy bits and given a healing potion. Beyond the portcullis is a decently sized, if empty room. They search around and find a loose flagstone on the floor. After checking for additional traps, they lift it up and find a bag of silver coin within. 

Grabbing the torched troglodyte bodies, they drag them into the room, and Sonra writes a note “take this to Borglope, your life depends on it” along with 15 copper coins, and places it under the loose flagstone. They then leave the room, close the door, and reset the trap. 

Deeper into the level they find some dead kobolds fairly recently butchered and clearly being kept for food, and not too far from the larder, a room that had clearly been set aside as a midden. It was hard to believe that anything could smell worse than troglodytes, but troglodyte shit manages it. 

Gains: silver coins, cheap jewelry
Kills: troglodytes
Losses: 

Kalanzar the Wicked part 2

I finished painting Kalanzar a long while ago now, and forgot to circle back around to show off how I did it and how it looks all finished off.  You did get to see it in the Year in Minis post from back in 2023, but here's a detailed look at the process. 

 

I wanted to keep the palette somewhat limited, both for consistency across the mini, but also for my own sanity, so this was the selection of paint I picked.   

I started with the wings... 

 It looks really bright here... and it is, but this is just the start. 

Then it was off to blocking in the colors on the body. You'll notice the head is missing. I neglected to take work in progress pics of the head, but it was painted separately from the body. 

 There were a few small gaps, but it was big enough to bug me, so I filled them, and sculpted some kinda matching scales to blend it all in. 

More work on the body, deepening the shadows, trying to hit all the highlights. So many scales... 

I regularly plugged the wings into the body to make sure everything was still looking good. I didn't paint with the wings attached both because they got in the way, but also because it was really difficult to try to keep hold of the dragon without them. 

More highlighting...

 

The foam on the base was obviously the wrong texture, so I coated it with mod podge and sand. 

Then I got to painting the lava. Oh, and there's the head. 

And checking how Kalanzar fits on the base... 

 Turns out it needed some extra support. I added some more foam bricks and chunks and then gave them the same mod podge and sand covering.   

 And here it is, all finished up!