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