#Reaper Sligg 2

 I previously painted up the Sligg Soldier from Bones 4, and this month got around to painting his companion the Sligg herder. 

Starting off with the usual soapy warm water scrub, I painted him with a roughtly 2:1 mix of Green Liner and clear coat. I find that the green liner doesn't work as well as the brown for adherence, and mixing in the clear coat seems to help.

I used a mix of Jungle Moss and Viper Green for the skin, Asmodeus Red for the back spikes, tipped with a sample orange-yellow paint. 

On the chest, I used the same sample color mixed with linen white. The yellow of the gloves is Callistra Yellow, and the metallic zapper is Retro Red Steel.

The cable is a blend of Armor and Hot Blue. The belt was painted with Earth Brown, and the eyes with Pure Black.  

I still hate the flat integrated base. I wish they'd have put some texture on it, or not attached it to a base.

 

 

Until I figure out what I'm doing with the base, I'm calling it done!

The Author is Dead (to me)

I have a number of book that I like on my shelves, both physical and digital, from authors who it turns out hold abhorrent beliefs or are just scumbags in real life. I hate that. Books that I enjoy reading, game books I liked using...

While it's pretty true, maybe universally true that everything you like is problematic to one extent or another, I want to spend my limited time enjoying things that are less problematic. I want to be able to recommend things that won't support people who's views I not only don't support, but actively oppose. 

Obviously that's easy when I know, but sometimes I don't, not until later.

And so, having supported someone that I won't going forward, I still have these books. 

I don't want to just trash them. I have a visceral revulsion to throwing away books. 

I could sell them, at least the physical ones. I could make a bit of cash for them, but I don't know that it's worth the effort. 

I can just continue to enjoy and use them, while making sure to note that the authors are crap if I have to reference them. 

I'm not sure what the answer is, or even if there is any particular answer that is right.

#Reaper Armored Vampires

 For whatever reason, April's theme was vampires for the Reaper Challenge League. I've already painted up most of my vampire minis, but digging through my collection I came upon these two fine bloodthirsty fellows. One is a warlord figure, the other was a ReaperCon mini for one of the factions a couple years back.

 

I knew I wanted to paint them in red armor, but getting the right shade was a challenge.

 

 Reds are really difficult to get right. If you aren't careful, you end up with pink, or orange, or even purple.  Looking rather flat here... I don't have a good description of what I did, since I was trying a whole bunch of things trying to get the look I wanted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I came close to what I was going for. Good enough anyway. 

 

I didn't get the face quite as condescending as I was trying for, but I'm moderately pleased with them anyway.

Stonehell: Kentucky Fried Cockatrice

 Session 168 was played on 9/17


Boris, Cleric 9 (Jeff)
Morgana, Mage 7 (Reggie)
Kili, Dwarf Cleric (Matt)

The spell slingers pack up and head to Rocky, looking for answers.

Q1. Where on the 5th level is Song’s lair?
A1. In the Space Out Of Time

Q2. Where is the area on the 5th level where people go in and don’t come out?
A2. Though the 5th level is full of dangers and death, the prison of K’Tulut is inescapable.

Q3. Who is K’Taulut?
A3. In the Before Time, K’Taulut was a power, a spirit, a god.

With these answers, and a promise to visit again soon, they head down to level 5 via the shaft from level 3, encounter a random jelly, and begin exploring the rooms and halls around the stairs. After the jelly, they find and kill a giant lizard, and collect the small stash of treasure. Then they come upon an ornate cobra throne. Not finding any traps, Morgana sits in it, and feels tingly. She jumps off, but seems okay otherwise.

In a large pillared hall, they’re attacked by a large snake that wraps Kili up and bites him. He’s squeezed tight, crunching his armor into his flesh before Morgana and Boris kill the snake and release him.  Passing through some broken doors they see some kobold writing, and ignore it. Deeper in they spy some chicken-like creatures in the darkness ahead. Pausing to decide what to do, Morgana casts lightning down the hall, frying the lizard-birds. Another pops it’s heads out angrily from a side passage, and Morgana casts “sleep” on it, which fails, and they kill it the old fashioned way. Checking around the dead and fried bodies, they find a nest with 7 eggs and some treasure. Collecting the bodies, eggs, and treasure, they head out.

Back in town, they deliver the bodies, and most of the eggs to the alchemist in return for some potions of stone to flesh. Morgana keeps one egg to try to raise it to be his familiar.

Gains: coins, gems, cockatrice eggs
Kills: Ochre Jelly, Cockatrices, Python, Tautara Lizard
Losses:

April in Review

The Pandemic continues… But I’ve now received both of my Moderna shots!It isn’t a guarantee, but it’s as close as I’m gonna get.

In addition to that, we found a new apartment and moved already, which is part of the reason this month in review is so late, and why nothings been posted on the blog in a couple of weeks now. We’re still settling in, and figuring out how to best utilize the space, but it’s so nice to have extra rooms, and 2 balconies! A real embarrassment of riches there… So far the weather hasn’t been super conducive to using it, but I’m doing my best there.

Gaming
Nick the Pike continues his explorations of Rappan Athuk, though it’s been a couple of weeks since I last played.

I also just received my Stargrave Nickstarter. I haven’t downloaded the solo campaign but I will, and I’m going to get some games in!!

Miniatures
I managed to get a few things painted before packing everything up, but haven’t touched a brush since moving. Of everything I painted, I’m most proud of the crab, and entirely because of the can of Old Bay.

I’m planning on building some Stargrave minis on Monday after work, plus I need to paint up a few things for the Reaper Challenge League.


Media
Star Trek DS9 finished season 3, almost done with 4.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier


Goals - keeping it simple this month.
Play at least 1 game of Stargrave
Paint some minis
Play some D&D

Rappan Athuk: Mouth Of Doom: Beware Shadows!

Session played on 4/18

Nick the Pike, Fighter 6 (Me)
Lada the Thief (Robby)
Darryl, Cleric (NPC)
Biffin, Fighter (NPC)
Leisha, Cleric 1 (NPC)
Cassandra, Sellsword
Cory, Sellsword
Wilsig the Mystic


After resting a few days in the village, Nick gets everyone geared up, and they head to the Mouth of Doom. Entering the dungeon, they do their usual check of the pit traps, then head around to the Iron Cobra stairs. On the way a pair of giant ants attacks, biting Biffin hard before they are killed. Dropping the rope down hey carefully make their way below.

Deciding to check out the side passage, they’re stopped quickly by a portcullis that slams down in front of them, and a demonic face on a disk in the middle of the bars laughs and taunts the party. Lada attempts to pick the lock, but the demon continues to laugh and mock his efforts. Nick promises to return with some acid.

Looping back around past Yaza’s rooms more doors are discovered and investigated. The first opened into a dusty empty room that connected to another dusty empty room, that connected to a room full of thick spider webs. Nick ask Wilsig if he has anything for this. Wilsig spends about half a minute waving his hands around and muttering under his breath, and then he releases a sheet of flame into the room… that doesn’t burn the webs… but does cause the large spiders back in the room to scream in pain. The spiders charge forward biting Wilsig, who survives their venom. They’re then cut down. Nick uses his magic ax to part the webbing, revealing 2 large cocoons. Remembering the time as a child he poked a cocoon and a ton of tiny spiders crawled out, he asked if Biffin would be willing to poke it. Nick backed away… Biffin punctured the nearer cocoon, and as Nick feared, out crawled a mass of tiny spiders.

“RUN” Nick screamed, shoving everyone out the door and slamming it behind him, saying “No, oh no, oh hell no, nope nope nope…”

Once Nick settled down, they moved onto the next door. This revealed yet another empty room… “They can’t all be empty?” Lada and Biffin poked around, finding a pair of secret doors! The first opened into a room with 3 sarcophagi and a pair of rotted coffins. The rotted coffins had long dead skeletons within. The sarcophagi seemed shut tight. Not being able to leave good enough along, Nick tries to get them open… and a gas trap is sprung. Almost the whole party dropped, retching their guts out onto the floor. While they were incapacitated, 2 of the sarcophagi opened, and out crawled a skeleton and a black skeleton.Biffin and Wilsig were the only ones not affected by the gas, and they charged in. Leisha was raked by the black skeleton, and her blood splattered across the room. Biffin took out the regular skeleton on his way to the black skeleton. Wilsig tried to put the skeletons to sleep. It failed. Biffin started to beat the skeleton, and Wilsig followed up with some Magic Missiles. Between the 2 of them, they managed to kill it before anyone else died.

It was an hour before the party could move due to the gas. On the upside, there was some treasure to be had! Jewelry worth a tidy sum was collected. The final sarcophagus was still unopened though… and why not. Keeping everyone but Nick, Cassandra, and Cory out of the room (in case of more gas) they lifted up the lid. A normal skeleton started to crawl out, and they dropped the lid onto it, killing it.

Checking out the other secret door revealed a black altar with black candles that flickered on as soon as someone stepped into the room. The room was checked, the altar avoided, and nothing of value was discovered. Back into the main hall, they continued a LONG way without seeing another door. When they finally come to one, it opens into a hallway with another door at the end. This door opens into a large chamber with a sunken floor wreathed in flames, chains hanging from the ceiling, and buttons next to the doors. Pressing the button nearest the door caused a bridge to slide out to about halfway across the room. Nick has Cassandra try to hit the button of the side door, and a bridge slides out, connecting with the already extended bridge. Thankfully the flames didn’t seem to need any fuel and gave off no heat, so they made their way around to the other door.

Beyond it was a t-intersecting hall. In both directions were doors with the same inscription “Let Those Who rest In Peace Lay In Peace”

That wasn’t gonna happen.

The first chamber explored had 5 sarcophagi. 3 were open and empty. 1 held a family of mice that were not thrilled to be disturbed. The last had a skeleton in rusty mail.

The other door had 3 sarcophagi behind it. These had rubies on each. The rubies were collected, then the first sarcophagi was opened. A sword wielding skeleton struck out at Nick, missing, but Nick felt his strength draining away. The skeleton then struck Cassy, knocking her down.  Darryl turned the skeleton to dust, and revealed a shadow that struck at Nick again and again. Bareilly able to swing his ax, Nick killed the shadow while Darryl healed Cassy. The fancy sword was taken by Biffin, and they decided enough treasure was had.

On the way out, a pair of stirges flew to attack. Wilsig put them to sleep. They were collected for Edrick, much to Wilsig’s grumbling. Then back at the bottom of the stairs some Kobolds were waiting to collect a toll. Nick chatted with them, and learned that the big footprints seen before were those of Vorlack the Ogre, chief of the Kobold Clan. Nick talks to the kobold about a change in management. The kobold drops a map to their camp. Nick pays the toll with the cheaper looking of the necklaces found, and then they head back to the village.

Nick spends a week recuperating under the careful ministrations of the local necromancer, who restores some, but not all of his drained strength.

Gains: magic sword, live stirges, assorted gems and jewelry
Kills: skeletons, black skeleton, shadow, giant spiders
Losses: Leisha, Nick’s strength

Rappan Athuk: The Mouth of Doom: Yowza, it's Yaza!

Session played on 4/11

Nick the Pike, Fighter 6 (Me)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Tim the Elf (Jake)
Lada the Thief (Robby)
Darryl, Cleric (NPC)
Biffin, Fighter (NPC)
Cassandra, Sellsword
Cory, Sellsword
Wilsig the Mystic

In Zelkor’s Ferry, Nick gathers up the usual suspects, and checks to see if anyone is interested in signing on. The creepy Hilgrun is again turned down, but Leisha is hired. In addition, Borumar found a pair of newly arrived wet-behind-the-ears adventurers in the tavern, Tim the Elf and Lada the Cleric. They agree to join up for half shares till they prove themselves useful.

Hitting the trail, only a short while out of Zelkor’s, they literally stumble on the warg and his pack that they’d run into just a few days before. The fight was quick, close quartered, and bloody… mostly for the wolves. One injured wolf and the warg escaped due mainly to poor archery skills from the hirelings… Something to practice on their downtime. One of the wolves had a fancy leather collar with a gem on it… and a rune. Figuring that they were close enough to the village that they could quickly sell the skins (and the gem), they returned and did just that.  The rune  was that of a crazy wizard who used to lair nearby, but had since abandoned his holdings. Might be worth looting later.

The next day, they again head out to the dungeon, getting chased by some giant bees near a field of flowers.

Arriving at the Mouth of Doom, the party sees some large footprints among the kobold prints. They go up to the MoD, but don’t seem to go in. Perhaps trading with the kobolds? A mystery for another day. Heading into the dungeon, Borumar shows Lada the ropes, checking the 2 pit traps for anything left behind. The party then circles around to the trick stairs with the iron snake statue. Tying a rope to the statue, Lada discovers that the trap is triggered by breaking a light beam between the 2 plinths. He also discovers a secret drawer in one plinth that has 3 saphiers in it! Really should have checked that last time…

Down in the Throat of Doom (aka Mouth of Doom level 2) the party follows the map to the unchecked doors. The first one opens into a round room at the center of which is a statue of a ram horned helmeted warrior. A scattering of coins is found around the statue, as if thrown from the door. The party collected the coins.

Circling back around to the weirdly trapped door that gave Borumar a weird feeling, he checks again, and decides to drink down his potion of gaseous form. Slipping through the cracks around the door, he finds it trapped with poison darts. He disables the trap, and opens the door for the rest of the party. The hallway isn’t long, and has 3 steel doors with small windows that open into small cells. The first has a coin wedged in between the stones. The third has actual treasure including a small hand mirror in gold, a silver holy symbol for a god that hasn’t been worshiped locally for over a century, and a vial of holy water.

Exploring further they come to a weirdly empty room that connects to a room covered from about 8’ up the walls down to and onto the floor with weird scribbling. The words are understandable, but they make no sense in any context. A slip of paper in the corner has more writing on it, and Tim figures it for a scroll…

Beyond that is a well kept room with a crazy man in it. The writings were his, the rantings and ravings of a twisted mind. Before the full depth of his insanity was revealed, he invited the party in and offered to read their fortunes. Tim accepted the offer. He stepped into the room and sat at the table. Nick stepped up and stood behind Tim’s chair. Yaza took Tim’s hand, and began to tell his fortune. Then Tim began to shake and foam at the mouth. Nick swung his ax, and Borumar and Darryl charged in. The fight was quick, and Darryl was able to save Tim. While searching and looting the room, and Yaza’s body (including his well made tentacle helmet that Tim took) Tim shuffled out and meditated on the writings in the other room. He fell into some sort of stupor. Dragging his unresisting body along, they decided they’d seen enough for one day, and headed back to the village. Tim seems to have shaken off whatever it was that got into his brain… but he kept the helmet.

Gains: small amount of coin, potion of healing, Mace +1
Kills: Wolves, Yaza of Orcus
Losses: Tim’s Sanity?