Star Trek Discovery Season 2 Red Carpet Premiere

I attended the Star Trek Discovery season 2 premiere at Battery Park. I signed up for what I thought I was getting was to see the first episode of the season on the big movie theater screen for free…

What I got what the whole friggin Red Carpet with the cast and directors and composer, swag bag, signed poster, and episode one AND two!



























And if I’d have signed up for the 8pm show instead of the 6:30 show, all I’d have gotten was to see the cast briefly, and the first episode.

It was SO MUCH FUN!!

And best of all, the first 2 episodes were great. Seriously well written TV (I only have minor quibbles) and it was so much better than the first 2 episodes of The Orville’s second season... but that's a post for next week...

Sunday Inspirational Image: Through the breach

This is very clearly an epic level adventure...


by vargasni

Frostgrave Sherwood Outlaws

I’ve been itching to assemble some plastic minis for a little while now, and with the new Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago nickstarter currently going, that’s where my thoughts have been. Going through my kits, I realized that I only had a single sprue of the original Frostgrave Soldier kit, not the whole box, like I thought. I had also picked up the Sherwood Outlaw conversion kit to make some of them into Robin Hood type bandits.So, I decided to make some outlaws…



The conversion kit ended up being a disappointment. The fit of the bits was questionable, and for some reason the heads were molded so that the connecting point to the sprue was the top of the head, not the neck. This completely ruined both the heads without hats.



The frostgrave soldier kit itself isn’t bad. There are lots of options to go along with the 5 different bodies. I wish there was a little more customizability with the bodies. Separate torso and legs would have made a lot of difference.

Probably not going to get around to painting them for a bit. I need the weather to warm up before I can spray prime them.



I’m looking forward to building some cultists next!

Happy Year of the Pig!

And in case you need some pig faced orcs to celebrate, here's a link to a nice PDF full of them! Darkfast Classic Fantasy Set One: Orc Tribe

Stonehell: Tasting the Divine

Session 87 was played on 1/19

Eiric, wizard 7 (Kat)
- men at arms (Mulligan, Holdred)
-torchbearer (Wennick)
Brie, wizard 4 (Apprentice to Eiric)
A-A-Ron, Thief 6 (Henchman)
Orpheus, Human Fighter 6 (Henchman)
Darryl, Cleric 6 (Henchman)
Karl, Dwarf 7 (Julia)
- Hobart (dog, lvl 1)
- men at arms (Vol, Nargos, RelBex)
Lex the Cheeseman, Fighter 4 (Henchman)
Koltic, Cleric 3 (Chris) (Absent)
- Grishnaz, Goblin
Kili, Dwarf Cleric 3 (Matt)
Lucrecia Thief 2 (Henchman)(stayed in town)

Opting to avoid the medusa, the party takes a side passage and finds a room with half a dozen hobgoblins fighting cyber apes. Rather than get involved, they decide to let them fight it out, and give the combatants a couple of minutes to wrap up.

Taking the other passage, they find a looted store room, and then a chapel with a glowing altar. They’re so distracted by it that Karl and A-A-Ron fail to note the gargoyles perched above the door, who drop painfully upon their backs. They hit hard, but they’re put down quickly, though not before Orpheus breaks his knife shield trying to hit them with it.

Investigating the altar revealed only that it’s divine magic, and has some sort of protective effect. When Kili went to lick it, Karl cracked him on the head, causing him to bite his tongue. The blood boiled off in under a minute. The beer Karl poured on it did the same. When Kili tried to stack stones on it, the stones were gently pushed to the floor. Karl then informed everyone he was gonna hit it. Everyone ran out of the room.

Karl flew across the room, crashing through several pews before slamming against the wall.

Leaving the chapel for later, they moved on, and found a cistern with a grey ooze. The ooze ate Karl’s 10’ pole, so he sprayed it with power thirst. The ooze didn’t seem to mind being on fire, so the party decided to just walk away. Thankfully the ooze is slow, and disinclined to leave the cistern.

Checking again, they see the hobgoblins dead, and 4 cyber apes standing over the bodies. The cyber apes shoot a pair of low powered lightning bolts at the party, dropping Mulligan and Vol. Eiric throws a fireball into the room, killing 2. Karl and Orpheus charge into the smoke and slay the remaining 2. Picking over the bodies they come away with a small assortment of coins. Looking into the room the cyber apes had come from they see a ransacked kitchen.

Leaving the double doors for when they come with mirrors, the party heads back to the circular magical chambers. Paying off Wennick, they open the blood doors, and then head south into a circular chamber with a humming 10’ clear quartz crystal. Not knowing what else to do with that, they decide to head back to town

Gains: Coinage
Kills: Cyber-Apes, Gargoyles
Losses: Mulligan and Vol

Sunday Inspirational Image: Dragon Warrens and other Traps

D&D doesn't have enough low level dragon monsters... And I never really cared for the whole hunting baby dragons... Drakes like these are perfect for that low level dragon need.


By sandara

January in Review

Somehow January is already over. Not exactly sure how that happened, but it did, and February is here.

Gaming

My Stonehell game has been continuing along, and I had a moment of brilliance this week that my players will have to deal with tomorrow.

With the end of Storm King’s Thunder, we’ve started playing in Curse of Strahd. Gothic horror is one of those tough genres to port over to D&D. There’s an element of inevitability and powerlessness in the face of supernatural evil that doesn’t typically fit the idea of D&D heroics. I’m curious to see how it’ll play out.


Miniatures

I decided to start the year off by knocking out a bunch of ne'er do wells, the Dreadmere Mercenaries from Reaper. Now, I’m not saying these guys will rob you blind, but maybe don’t go anywhere with them alone?


I’ve also been working on the Mordheim Ogre Mercenary. He’s close to done, but more to do.


And for the Curse of Strahd campaign, I needed a mini, and picked Cailleach Deargh, River Widow also a Dreadmere character from Reaper. She’s coming along… I’m thinking about replacing her with a mini from Bones 4, when that finally arrives.


On top of all that, I've also had an itch to work on some plastic kits, and have been poking a bit at the Frostgrave plastic sets... but more on that later.

Media

Books
The Maze of Malcor (Frostgrave supplement)
Central Station
Star Nomad
Honor’s Flight
Starseers
Orphans in the Black
Pirate Utopia
Central Station

Movies/TV Watched
Ant-Man and Wasp
The Orville (S2, e1+2) I have some opinions...
Star Trek Discovery (SO GOOD!)
Short Treks (1-4) (ALSO GOOD!)
Supernatural (few episodes from season 11)

Goals
Finish both Cailleach and the Ogre Mercenary.