Rappan: Wipeout!

Session 265 was played on 9/15/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

The second draggone lands, charges past the nest and the stuck Aroon toward the door that it can’t fit through. Blotto and Lor’Koth are high as a kite, Nick is hanging on with just a couple of hit points grappling a squirming crying dragonne cub, and Aroon is trapped in the nest. Borumar and Jameth use their ranged weapons to shoot at the dragonne in the doorway.

Then reality goes sideways…  and instantly snaps back. The dragonne lets out one last cry before turning and flying off. Borumar and Jameth help Aroon out of the nest, and watch the water below the balcony drain away.

Morgana and Koltic come running up saying they need to get on the boat and get going. Borumar points out the problem with that plan.

Morgana starts the teleport ritual. Aroon and Jameth go and retrieve Blotto and Lor’Koth.  In the distance, a wall of water rises up. Everyone looks to Morgana, and the wall, and back and forth as the ritual progresses. With mere moments to spare, the wall of water now clearly made up not just of water but the entire host of the Blue Lord within it, Morgana finishes the ritual, and the party teleports away.

Gains:
Kills: everyone within miles of the temple
Losses:

Rappan: Purple Shrooms and Dragonnes

Session 264 was played on 9/8/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

After Looting the lizardmen bodies of their gold, Morgana and Koltic start talking about how they can use the final vial of the Water of Life to seal the passage down to the alien ritual site.

Meanwhile, the party goes to check out the stinky passage. Growing near the entrance were some mushrooms. Blotto smushes one into a wiggling troll larynx, and it stops wiggling. Lor’Koth takes one of the mushrooms, sniffs it, and then pops it into his mouth. A moment later he sinks to the floor, and starts drooling purple spit. Blotto tells his companions about goblin “human-tales” relating to little girls and mushrooms, and how the lesson is to leave both alone.

Blotto bravely heads in with Jameth and Aroon close behind. They encounter the mushroomfolk within. While they have no language in common, but Blotto exchanges a troll larynx for a large lump of fungus. He then warns them that “a frankly terrifying wizard and acolyte are planning on blowing up the caves. You might want to leg it” The mushroomfolk raises its hand to its face, sticks the fingers into an orifice, and extends the fingers to Blotto. Blotto sticks his fingers up his nose, pulls out some snot and extends his hand. Blotto then takes the mushroom fingers into his own nose, and the mushroomfolk takes Blotto’s fingers and inserts them into its own orifice. Blotto feels weird tiny needle-like pricks in his flesh. Blotto, Aroon, and Jameth depart. Blotto starts to see dragons in the green fungus of the walls start to move in stop motion.

Leaving Blotto and Lor’Kth to enjoy their chemically altered state, Nick, Jameth, Aroon, and Borumar head back to the dragonne balcony. Currently empty, with a big nest off to one side, they check it out. Nick tosses a rock to the nest, and a dragonne head pops out, and roars at the party, deafening them. It leaps out and bites Nick, twice, and Nick drops. Aroon and Jameth hack into it, it mauls Aroon, and then Borumar blasts it with his bow, killing it. Borumar dumps a healing potion down Nicks throat, while Aroon and Jameth check out the nest. There’s a dragonne cub within. Jameth and Aroon crawl into the nest to grab it for Morgana, and then there’s a roar! Aroon gets his foot caught and can’t get out of the next. Jameth, Nick and Borumar run for the door with the cub. Aroon ducks down, hoping to avoid notice as the cub cries out in distress.  

Gains: dragonne cub
Kills: dragonne
Losses:

Rappan: Trappers, Keepers!

Session 263 was played on 9/1/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

After finishing off the swamp monster, a large pale frog head pokes out of the far end of the swamp, and blasts Nick, Jameth, and Aroon with its icy breath. Discretion being the better part of valor, and Lor’Koth having successfully removed all valuable material from the stairs, the party retreated.

Backing down the corridor to a small 5’wide passage, they follow that to a 20’ round chamber, seemingly empty. They toss a rock into the room, and hear a quiet “ow” but still don’t see anyone, nor do they see any evidence the rock bounced off of anything. Maybe a magic mouth spell? Blotto tosses a troll larynx. No effect. The floor is a little soft, and blotto pees on it. The floor shivers? Undulates? Nick pours some oil onto it, and it pulls away. Nick asks who here is good at carpet munching? Floor laying? Further bad jokes are made at the expense of the creature that is then killed from the safety of the doorway. Nick goes to check the corpse for treasure and gets the companion creature on the ceiling dropping down and enveloping him. Morgana transforms it into a newt, and carries it with her. Also collected are some platinum coins and a pair of blue diamond earrings.

With most of the party hurt, they head back to get some rest out of the alien area. In the oracle room a dozen lizardmen are entering from the other side. Morgana doesn’t give them a chance, and fireballs them.  Jameth and Aroon use their potions.

Gains: platinum coins and a pair of blue diamond earrings.
Kills: trappers, lizardmen
Losses:

Rappan: Alien Cultists Playground

Session 262 was played on 8/25/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

With the alien cultists dead, the party had a chance to look around the room. The most notable feature, aside from the 4 big bodies and the smoking cauldron, was a doorway glowing with orange light. Various things were tossed at it, including bits of the aliens (they bounced off) bits of the dead priests (they went through) bits of dead troll larynx (bounced) coins (bounced) goblin pee (splashed back). Deciding not to explore that, they head back to the wire covered doorway. Thankfully no metal spider had shown up to re-web it during the fight.

The party spends a bit of time looking at the weird obelisk. Lor’Koth doesn’t recognize the stone its made from, and tries to break off a piece. Eventually he does, but it crumbles to sand. No one can read the writing. Beyond the obelisk room, they come to another chamber with a weird blue grey crystal pyramid about 7’ tall. Electrical pulses can be seen in it. Morgana thinks at it hard, and the pulses clear, and reveal a view of dead alien cultists, priests of the blue lord, and a glowing orange door… Aroon tries and sees the deep dark void of space. Lor’Koth sees nothing, and can’t chip off a sample of the crystal.

Further along they come to a chamber with abstract metal forms (sculptures?) with plaques (?) and in the middle of the room on the floor a circular iris like hatch. Lor’Koth bangs it with a hammer. It rings nicely. They manage to pry it open, revealing a 20’ drop and a passage out to the east. Borumar checks it out. It quickly leads to a room with way too many holes in the walls and ceiling to be anything but a death trap. He comes back to the sculpture room, and the party tries one of the other passages out.

Following the long hallway, they round a turn and come to a long wide room with a raised path down the middle, and along the north and south sides are a swampy mess. The stairs down to it are covered in precious materials, and Lor’Koth gets to removing it. While he’s at it, Blotto goes fishing in the swamp and hooks a shambling mound. Lor’Koth ignores the fight, while the fighters take down the soggy monster.

Gains: precious material from steps
Kills: shambling mound
Losses:

Rappan: They're really not from around here

Session 261 was played on 8/11/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

The party descended the stairs down into the rancid pit. The rough stairs circle round and round, and open up at the bottom unto a weird worked stone(?) passage. In addition to the rancid smell, a gibberish noise can be heard, and just as the last of the party steps into the hall, the bell that the blue lord warned the party about sounds, and the gibberish gets louder and faster.

There’s no real choice on where to go, so the party follows the hall and the noise. The hall opens to a heptagonal chamber with a black obelisk in the center of it. 2 other exits head out of the room, one open, the other blocked by a weird metal wire lattice. The spidery writing on the obelisk is intriguing, but the chanting gibberish is more pressing, and of course its coming from the blocked passage. Thankfully the party quickly discovers that the wires can be yanked out of the wall with a little effort. They make a hole big enough to pass through.

The long passage opens up into a hexagonal chamber with a large pool of steaming bubbling green… goo? Surrounding the pool, waving their tentacles, are 4… things. Standing far too tall, and adhering to no known anatomy anyone in the party had ever seen. Koltic blessed the party and casts Striking on Borumar before Morgana opened things with a fireball. The flames only fully engulfed one of the aliens. Another was burned, but the other 2 the flames failed to touch. The magic bent around them! Combat was joined.  With well practiced skill, they focused on the most injured of the aliens first. Lor’Koth is the first to drop from the alien’s mighty swings. Not only did the tentacles hurt, but they yanked various senses from the party. The loss of the sense of smell/taste was actually a blessing given the rancid smell from the pool… Burumar’s enhanced striking is dispelled as he got into melee range.. After Lor’Koth, Nick, Morgana, Blotto, and then Borumar all fall. Koltic spends the entire battle running from body to body giving them the Water of Life and getting them back on their feet, and as he wasn’t a direct threat, the aliens to their detriment ignored him.

While the party defeated the aliens, it was a desperately close thing. Another round, or another alien, and it would have been a TPK.

Gains:
Kills: 4 alien things
Losses:

Rappan: The Blue Lord

Session 260 was played on 8/4/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Looting the vault, they find coins, jewels, some magic dust, boots, a ring of the triton, and 2 potions of polymorph self.

Returning to the main hall they head south and come to a large chamber containing a huge fountain of the Blue Lord, the walls decorated with moving scenes of ocean creatures. The far wall has an open rough passage emitting a green mist. The watery light grows brighter as the party enters.

“It seems I am too late, my temple is destroyed” a voice rings out. The water of the fountain forms into a 15’ tall avatar of the Blue Lord.
“How can we help?” Borumar asks.
“Avenge the desecration of this holy place.”
“Who do we have to kill?”
“Aliens. Invaders to our world that wish to release their alien god.”
“What else do we need to know?”
“A gong will sound when the time grows short. Stop the aliens from completing their ritual before the time runs out.

Blotto asks for specifics, but the Blue Lord has few. “My magic can’t touch them, they are so foreign to our reality.

Koltic asks for a boon. The Blue Lord offers The Water of Life. While within these walls a single gulp will restore you to the condition you were in upon entering the temple, but be warned, it can only be used once. A second dose will kill you.

With that the Blue Lord sinks back into the water, and the light of the room takes on a greenish tint to match the vapors rising up from the doorway. Doing their best to ignore the rancid smell, the party headed down the passage. A long straight walk eventually brought the party to a rough chamber with 2 exits. A collapsed stair heading up, and an open one with the stair circling down. The green mist was even thicker here, and the smell worse. Blotto pees down the open tunnel.. It was hard to be sure, but it might have improved the smell.

Gains: vials of the water of life, the treasure of the vault
Kills:
Losses:

Rappan: Looting the Vault

Session 259 was played on 7/28/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Koltic spends some time with the poor broken man. He thinks he might be able to help him, but not here, and not now. With the amulet removed, and the Jinn gone, he’s not in imminent danger. They make sure he has some water and food, and leave him.

They check the rest of the VIP rooms, and find some minor treasure. Pressing on they find a big double door that opens out to a large marble platform over the main cavern with a dock down below.

They head back to the main hallway, and check out the next door off of it, finding the suite of the head priest. They search the room for treasure and more importantly, clues. Koltic finds a small secret door with a narrow passage to a vault door. Borumar checks out the passage, and fails to unlock the vault. He swaps places with Morgana who Knocks it open. Nick swaps with Morgana and opens the vault. He is immediately blinded, and placed in a silence field. With his hand still on the door, he slams it silently shut and carefully backs out.

Hours later, the spell effects wear off. Blotto and Borumar head down to the vault door. Upon opening it Borumar is magically Held. Blotto grabs him and starts to drag him back out of the way, but something stings him in the neck. Morgana Dispels Magic, revealing a Naga! Due to the confined space, Fireball isn’t a viable answer, but physical attacks work just fine. Koltic tries to use the Cobra Codex on the Naga, but the Naga makes its save. Some magic missiles, sword and spears, and blows from the goblin’s pole bring an end to the vault’s guardian.

Gains:
Kills: Naga
Losses:

Rappan: Be careful what you put down the drain

Session 258 was played on 6/23/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Exploring around the temple complex, they come to a fancily staged dining hall with a food prep area hidden behind a curtain. Blotto finds the garbage shoot, and pees down into it. There’s a weird screeching noise in response, and Blotto immediately grabs his fishing pole and drops a line down with a glowing coin attached.

Meanwhile Nick is looking at a weird smooth wall. He grabs a wooden plate and tosses it at the wall. It sticks, and starts to smoke, and then dissolves. They decide to just leave that alone, and stay far away from that wall...

Blotto looks down the shoot, and as the line descends, sees tentacles reaching up to the coin. Everyone circles around the hole, and Nick directs them all to start pouring oil down, followed by a torch. More oil is added as the tentacles, while clearly burning, aren’t stopping. A caterpillar-like monster, fully 10’ long, plus tentacles, totally charred and mostly lifeless is thrust up out of the hole, followed by 2 more much more alive creatures.   The waving tentacles miss Blotto, but 3 hit Nick, and he’s suddenly frozen in place. The amigos shoot the one holding Nick with their crossbows, while Koltic throws more oil. Blotto lays into the other, and the burned monsters are quickly put out of their misery.

Continuing the search of the room, they turn up a couple of books that are of interest to Morgana, and then, making sure nothing else is coming up the hole, move deeper into the complex.

Around a corner they come to a series of VIP bedrooms. The first contains a pair of bodies, suicides in the face of whatever horrors were happening in the temple. The next was split by the earthquakes. Deeper in they heard raving, screaming, crying, and another voice calling out “Please! Please help my master!”

Moving to investigate they see a man clearly being tortured, with a large flaming being next to him. “The amulet, remove the amulet from my master’s neck!” The party is skeptical, but unsure what they can do, especially without prep. Koltic casts Remove Curse on the poor man before Blotto steps in to take the amulet. The Jinn swats Blotto. Koltic casts Dispel Magic on the Jinn, which fails to send him home, but does prevent it from attacking the party. Morgana tries Hold Monster, which surprisingly works! She then uses the amulet to send the Jinn home.

Gains:
Kills: 3 carrion crawlers, 1 Jinn
Losses:

September ‘24 In Review

The kid started pre-k this month. Amazingly it took 2.5 weeks before he brought home the first cold. Then it was another week before I came down with it. I also finally started on my Halloween projects for the year. This year it’s an upcycled pallet wood coffin, and a PVC giant spider.  So far I’ve got the coffin lid and bottom made, and now need to make the walls. Currently there’s a pile of disassembled pallet wood piled in my garage that needs the nails pulled out of it before I can do that step, and a pile of about a dozen more pallets stacked outside the garage for future projects. The spider hasn’t even started, but I have gotten the parts for it. We’ll see if I can get it all done over the next 4 weeks.

Gaming
My work game continues. The party has been stomping around the swamp, and going back to the caves. They’ve discovered that the goblins have moved out of their caves, which kinda freaked them out. It’s great seeing new players seeing how their actions impact the world.

The Necessary Evil campaign has continued, and our…. Protagonists have infiltrated a secret lab to acquire a teleport device and also to humiliate the guy in charge. Predictably we all forgot about the main objective and focused on the fun of humiliating the worse guy... and the lair self destruct has been turned on! 

Our months-long adventure to the temple of the blue lord in our Stonehell/Rappan game has concluded with a massive tidal wave washing away a large chunk of the land around the temple, including the nearby village… and possibly the city 3 days walk away.  Now that we’re safely back home, the party is looking to head back into Stonehell, but not right away. The spellcasters needed to make some items, and the fighter types want to get in some training and carousing.  Ever have a session that could have been a couple of emails/chats?


Miniatures
I feel like I’ve been saying “It hasn’t been a super productive month” a lot in this section. By raw numbers it is true. On the other hand, when I look at the shelf of 2024 completed minis, it’s getting fuller and fuller. Plus I’m working on a bunch of minis that will be complete next month. I did go a little crazy, and decided it was time to add an LED to my first mini, and also sculpt a big old pile of skulls for a demon to stand on, and somehow got both of those finished. I think October and November will have some fun stuff coming though.

Media
Star Trek Prodigy season 2 rewatch
Star Trek DS9 Past Tense parts 1 + 2 (So depressing…)
Star Trek V (Better than I remembered)
Agatha All Along (SO GOOD)
Dungeon Crawler Carl

Goals for October
Finish the giant spider and coffin before Halloween
Try to get at least 2 session reports written per week.

Rappan Athuk: Sticky in the garden

Session 257 was played on 6/9/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

The mimic has Blotto tight, and he can’t bring his fishing pole(arm) to bear Nick charges in, critting on the beast. Aroon hits it hard with his blade, while Jameth falls right onto the best, getting himself stuck. Dropping his (now stuck) spear, Nick pulls out his ax and crits again! Aroon drops his sword, takes a step back and pulls out his crossbow, sinking a bolt, followed by Lor’Koth doing the same. Morgana sinks a dagger into it, and Borumar crits with his bow, ending the life of the mimic. They pull their companions and their weapons free. Blotto pees on the body of the mimic.

Checking around the garden, they’re attacked by carnations. Being just annoying flowers, and not binding mimics, they’re quickly cut down, and Morgana collects seeds to plant at her manor.

Returning to the fountain room, the party rests, staying out of reach of the weird. The next morning Koltic purifies the fountain, and they collect the 2 gems.

Going back over the island, and beyond the garden, they come to a passage that heads out to a cliffside balcony… with a dragonne and its babies. Everyone agrees that they can come back to that later. Continuing into the temple’s inner areas they pass a crack in the worked stone of the hallway that smells of moldy cheese. Blotto rolls a stone into the crack. Someone (something?) rolls it back out. The party agrees that again, not something that needs to be dealt with now.

Deeper in the corridor expands, and the walls are covered in frescoes of sea life. They head west into a side corridor, and find a dusty dormitory with a nice collection of reference books that Morgana snags, and a crystal decanter of endless water! The party pauses here before exploring more.

Gains: decanter of endless water
Kills:
Losses:

Rappan Athuk: Weird things in the water

 Session 256 was played on 6/2/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

After the ringing in their ears stopped from the exploding blast spores, the party continued deeper into the sea caves, finding another dry branch. Borumar scouted ahead, and found a small cave full of mushrooms… including shreikers. Rather than mess with them, the party moved on.

In a larger cave, where the torchlight couldn’t reach the end, they spied a bridge linking an island in the caves with a hole in the wall. On the island were some sea lions. The party chased them off. Landed on the island, and headed up the bridge, planning to return and check out the other bridge linking the island to the other side of the cave. A square chamber with a large ornate fountain at the far end was at the end of the bridge. The fountain depicted a massive sea serpent… with emerald eyes. No way this isn’t a trap, but Nick went to pry them out, disturbing the water weird in the fountain. Nick avoids getting grappled (and drowned) by it, and everyone gets out of its reach. Koltic says he can take care of it later.

Crossing back over the bridge to the island, and then over to the other bridge, the party finds a flower garden. Blotto goes sniffing around, picks a planter to pee on, and discovers the hard way that it was a mimic.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Rappan Athuk: Into The Blue Lord's Temple

Session 255 was played on 5/26/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Gimble, wizard (Scott)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Back on the road, and heading to the temple of the blue lord. The first day out of town was quiet, THe party made camp. It was a dark and froggy night, but the frogs kept to themselves.

The second day was gray, dreary, and wet. The party arrived in an abandoned hamlet in the late afternoon. A note nailed to a door says “If you can make a go of it, it’s yours.” Only one spot was showing any signs of life, the inn. The party, unsettled by the other abandoned buildings, checks it out. The large inn was bright and warm and empty but for the old innkeeper. He welcomed the party, and with little prompting told his tale, how the hamlet was once a very prosperous spot thanks to the nearby temple, and all the pilgrims who came to see it. But not too long ago there was the earthquake, and after disease, and death, and strange fish beings coming up from the ocean. Now it’s just him and his ailing wife… everyone else has left. Koltic visited the wife, and sadly there wasn’t much he could do for her.

While the tale left the party with a chill, the warm food, strong drinks, and roaring fire helped put them at ease, at least for the night. Koltic tossed and turned, and woke in the predawn hours overcome with a feeling of dread.

The party has a quick breakfast, gears up, and heads out, following the innkeeper’s directions. There are plenty of boats to choose from, so the party splits up into 3 of the large row boats, and sets off along the cliff.

They come to a pair of sea caves, and begin to explore. They pause when the magic lights go out. Lighting some torches, Morgana lets loose with a fireball… that sputters out. Then something hits the boats from below! Fishmen! 8’ tall, with bubble helmets, they swarm the boats. The party quickly finds some semi-solid land to beach the boats on so that they can focus on fighting rather than drowning. It turns out that fighting on a sandbar isn’t all that much better than fighting on a boat, but at least the fishpeople were more interested in fighting the party than smashing the boats. The biggest one has a fancy opal necklace. And the cool tridents and 2 handed sword would make great trophies.

They return to the boats, and go deeper into the caves. In a side passage, they spy 3 floating orbs drifting toward the party. Nick thinks they’re blast spores, and not beholders, and tells everyone to shoot at them before they get too close. Thankfully, Nick was right.

Gains: opal necklace
Kills: 10 fishmen, 3 blast spores
Losses:

Review: Star Thugs

More and more I find myself much more interested in interesting settings than in new rules systems. I'm generally happy with the OSR and related rules systems. They do what I like, in ways I like, but that doesn't stop me from looking at other rules systems to steal ideas from.

I picked up Star Thugs at a used book store for cheap. Cover price is $17.95, and I'm pretty sure I paid $5. The PDF is currently $6.40  It's an interesting game, mechanically, drawing a lot of inspiration from collectable trading card games, with actions tapping your characters when they do their things. Each player runs their own ship, and its entire crew. The captain is the player's main character, but when it comes to actions, having a larger and more diverse crew means you can do more.Plus you can, though various means, have additional ships under your command. Because everyone is running their own ships and crew, this seems like it could get kind of cumbersome to RP everyone. In some ways this feels more like a board game, or a CCG than a traditional RPG.

Resolution mechanics are on the simple side, with a single 1d12 roll rolling equal to or above the target difficulty. If you have a skill in whatever it is you're trying, and you roll equal to or under that skill, you get to roll again and add both together to try to hit the target number.

The setting of Star Thugs is our own galaxy, and set today. There's a solid chunk of the book that describes the local sectors around Earth. Major planets/systems get write-ups of varying length. Like many sci-fi games, planets are generally looked at as homogeneous entities. It's hard to avoid when each one only gets a couple paragraphs. It also feels like a lot of these planets and systems were based on a 14 year old boy's ideas.

This just feels unnecessary. 

Overall I enjoyed reading this book, but it does have a couple of flaws that really bugged me the longer it went on. The book is almost entirely written with an in universe narrator. While I enjoy some of that, I much prefer it when those in universe bits are flavoring, rather than the meat of the book. I also kinda hate the layout. The font is a little on the small and cramped side, and the non-spaceship art is all uniformly bad (see above).

Where Star Thugs really shines though is their random tables for character background and random mission generation. These few pages alone might be worth the (highly discounted) cost of entry.

Rappan Athuk: Getting Ready to meet the blue lord

Session 254 was played on 5/19/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Gimble, wizard (Scott)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Feeling supremely refreshed, they spend more time poking about town, checking in with the local temple to learn more about what’s happened at the temple of the blue lord. The local pantheon consists of 9 gods (and a forgotten one), including the blue lord. Sadly the temple doesn’t have much more info than what Kelman already provided.

At the local provisioners, they are pleasantly surprised to find a selection of potions for sale, including a dozen healing potions, invisibility, growth, a potion and scroll of water breathing, and a scroll of resist elements. The party buys up the lot, as well as a new wagon, 2 horses, and some lanterns and torches (you never know when the magic will fail again)

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Rappan Athuk: Spa Day!

Session 253 was played on 5/15/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Blotto takes the head of the roc, ropes and stakes it in the water to allow the sea life to clean the skull for him.

Breaking camp, and getting ready to activate the elephant, they spot a trade caravan heading their way, and going eastward, the direction they’re headed. They hitch a ride to the nearest town.

Once in town they take full advantage of being somewhere civilized, and have a spa day. They learn a bit about the town, the local area, the temple, and the big dragon they encountered. 

Nick decides he needs to upgrade the bathing facilities in his castle ASAP, up to and including having Morgana make him a magic tub.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Blood Demons

"Do you hear that grunting?" 

"Who's working out in a dungeon?"

 Looking through the doorway, the party sees a wide circular chamber that stretches down at least 60 feet, with a winding stairway wrapping around the wall. Down below, half a dozen buff red demons were busy flexing, stretching, doing one armed pushups, squats, box jumps and jump rope with a chain...  

"According to the map, we have to go down there." Allianora grumbles

"I hate gym demons" Rathgar moans. 

"Who doesn't." Feris says. "Ice storm?"

"Yeah, lets not get into their reach if we can avoid it." Nimble says, looking down at the bulging muscles

Blood Demons

Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 4* (M)
Move: 120' (40')
Attacks: 2 claws/ 1 gore or special
Damage: 2d4+1/2d4+1/1d6+1 or special
Number Appearing: 1d6 (1d6)
Save As: F8
Morale: 11
Treasure Type:
Intelligence: 7
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 175

Monster Type: Demon, lesser (rare)

Blood demons are the gym bros of the demon world. While they love the chaos and destruction that they can cause, they also enjoy psychological intimidation that their impressive physical forms can instill, and will mock anyone and anything that is less physically developed than them. Because they're so energetic, unless properly restricted by the summoning spells, they will continue to cause mayhem and destruction until banished or destroyed. 

In combat, the demons will attempt to intimidate their opponents and flex and pose to show off their physique. Anyone viewing this must make a save vs spells or be in stunned for 1d3+1 rounds. While stunned they will suffer a -2 to all attacks, AC, and saves. This effect can only be done once per day per opponent. 

Like all lesser demons, they can be turned as undead (as mummies) and have the bonus demon strenth of +1 to damage (included above), and are immune to sleep and charm spells, and are immune to fire. 

Terrain: any

---

These demons are from the Reaper Miniatures Blood Demons set, and were painted with the following reaper paints: Red Liner, Asmodius Red, Seoni Scarlet, Sunrise Orange, Dragon Copper, Carbon Grey, and Skeleton Bone

The Big 15!

15 years.

It's longer than I spent in public school. It's longer than my marriage. It's as long as I had Lucy and Alice for each. Few things in my life are as constant. Maybe only my love of Star Trek and RPGs has lasted longer.

I've got lots more of everything that's come before, plus some new things coming down the line that should be ready in time for Halloween. To all you faithful readers, thanks for coming along on this journey. I'm not done yet!

Rappan Athuk: A Roc and a wet place

Session 252 was played on 5/5/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Gimble, wizard (Scott)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

At the water's edge, they pull out the boat box, and struggle to remember the activation word. Eventually they get it in the water, and while trying to remember, say “boat” and it becomes a boat. Amazingly/Depressingly Blotto is the only member of the party with any experience with sailing, and it falls to him to direct the rest of them in getting the boat moving in the right direction.

About 4 hours after hitting the water, a giant roc is seen approaching. Crossbows and fireballs are readied, and loosed as the bird closes in. The roc is a little put off by the assault, and misses its attack on the boat. More bolts, a lightning bolt, and Blotto’s new paralyzing fishing pole arm get tossed at the roc. The fishing line hits and the roc fails its save, and drops into the water, eventually drowning. Botto ropes the corpse and they drag it on their way.

3 hours later Blotto feels some tugging on the line. Sharks are feasting on the corpse of the roc. Blotto manages to paralyze one shark, sending it to the bottom of the ocean.

5 hours later they finally make it to the far shore, and drag the boat and the corpse of the roc into the shallows. The body of the roc has been gutted, but some shark teeth are recovered from the corpse. Morgana takes some feathers.

Setting up a late camp, they attract the attention of a pack of wolves. Not wanting to bother, they chuck roc meat at them until they go away.

Gains: roc corpse
Kills: roc
Losses:

Star Trek Day 2024

Happy Star Trek Day 2024! 

 

The last few years we've gotten some amazing panels and events for Star Trek Day (today). This year, sadly, all we're getting is this video and the Lower Decks season 5 trailer. 

It isn't nothing, but it doesn't feel like much, especially given how much is and will be ending this year. Discovery aired its final season. Prodigy got sold off to Netflix, and there's no word on any more seasons. Picard is over (last year). And this is the final season of Lower Decks. 

Yes, there's still a lot to look forward to. Strange New Worlds is doing a fine job carrying the Trek banner, and we've got the Section 31 film and Starfleet Academy coming up... but... I want more. I want more Prodigy and Lower Decks specifically. While everyone fawns over SNW, the animated stuff (and DISCO) were doing way more interesting things with Trek, and I want more of that. I'd also love more Short Treks. That's another avenue to explore the Trek-verse without needing to green-light a whole new series for every idea.

Whatever the future may hold, both for Trek specifically, and for the world at large, I remain hopeful. And what is the core message of Star Trek if not that? Have hope. We can do better, we can be better.

Live Long and Prosper.

Rappan Athuk: Are we the baddies?

Session 251 was played on 4/28/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

While the dragon had taken the donkeys, the slightly wobbly and a little broken cart remained. Borumar’s pack elephant statue was drafted into service, and tied to the cart. It looked ridiculous, but it worked, and Morgana didn’t have to walk.

The young bugbear’s name turned out to be Zur. She wasn’t super chatty.

After a bit on the road, they barely spotted someone following. Morgana cast invisibility on Nick and he and  Borumar snuck off into the brush to wait to see who was following. After a short wait, 7 bugbears came into sight. Nick and Borumar decided to deal with them together. Borumar started by backstabbing the biggest looking one, and getting in a really really good hit.

The leader took the hit, and snarled in pain, but didn’t drop. Borumar pulled his daggers out and stuck them back in. Nick appeared in the middle of the group, stabbing another with his spear, and then again, dropping his target. Borumar’s bugbear also dropped.

“You messed with Borumar, and you shouldn’t have done that” the half orc snarls at the remaining bugbears. They break and run, one yelling over their shoulder “he just wanted his daughter back!”

Borumar and Nick have a “are we the baddies” moment, and then settle on “The bugbears weren’t good people, we did the right thing”Borumar stashes the fancy blood stained leather armor from the leader and the pocket change in the bag of holding, and they catch up to the group.

Eventually they make camp and during Jameth & Borumar’s watch, Zur slips away. They both see it, and neither says anything.

The next day is without incident, and they make it to the water, camping once more, before tacking that challenge.

Gains: leather +2, 40gp
Kills: bugbear chieftain, and bugbear
Losses: moral/ethical high ground?

Rappan Athuk: Dragon Fire, Dragon Egg

Session 250 was played on 4/21/24


Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

“Who speaks for this ragtag bunch?” The dragon hisses.

The party looks back and forth between each other, and Borumar half raises his hand.

“Know this, there will be no settlers, no colonizers here!” She takes a deep breath and everyone runs. The heat of her breath, even as the party wasn’t the target of it, was overwhelming. “Begone, before I take more than this from your pathetic existence.” She says taking the donkeys and cart that were Morgana’s, and teleporting away.

The ruins were no more, and it would be an age before anything again ever grows upon the now glassy hilltop. The party takes a few minutes to change pants, and let the hilltop cool a bit. Checking around to see if there’s anything left to find, they discover a small cave mouth on the far side of the hill. Down some rough stairs they find what looks like an old burial site. Behind a closed door a voice calls out in goblin “it’s locked and trapped, stay out!” Blotto chats with the voice a bit. Eventually they agree to open the door, revealing a lone young bugbear female guarding a pair of chests.

The one with the gold is a welcome find, the warm chest with a silvery dragon egg was a highly unexpected discovery! Morgana was thrilled, and called it before anyone else could express an interest in it.

The young bugbear grudgingly agrees to follow the party. Deeper in the mound, behind another door are more chests, but these contain wooden, iron, and bronze coins, and a couple sets of plate armor with matching swords and shields, and a total of 4 rings.

Collecting their loot, and their… prisoner? They leave the still warm hill and head for the river. The kobolds have fled, apparently following their new dragon god. We couldn’t really blame them.

Gains: 5333gp, 4 rings, 2 suits of armor
Kills:
Losses: 18 kobolds, cart and donkeys

August ‘24 In Review

Some months you just look back on and it feels like there isn’t anything worth writing about. Played some games, painted a few minis, spent time with the family… It was an uneventful month. I'm also feeling a little bummed that I'm not at Reapercon this year. 

Oh, I did get my covid booster, and you should get yours!

Gaming

Sadly I had to cancel 2 work D&D sessions in a row this month. The first because I had been up all night the night before with a sick dog… I’m pretty sure it was the ant trap I found chewed up. She’s better now, but it was a rough night. There were also a couple of other rough nights when we discovered she really doesn’t like thunderstorms. This past secession they attacked the lizardmen mound, and thanks to some lucky rolls, and judicious use of oil and sleep spells, managed to take out the main warriors of the tribe, collected a chunky gold necklace, and flee to safety. The first character has made level !

The Rappan game is going well. We faced some eldritch horrors and survived… just. Had the fight ended up going a little longer, or had there been even one more of them, it would have been a TPK.

Miniatures

You know when things just get too cluttered to make progress? I hit that point and needed to clean off my desk. And then more than a week went by before I put a brush to a mini. And then 2 minis I finished up, I put some clear coat on them, and it fogged up! I ended up having to repaint them. I also painted up a Stargrave psycher, and her cool base. Unfortunately the base and the mini don’t really go great together. It wasn’t the best month, mini-wise.



I’ve got a couple other stargrave minis I’m working on, and an oldhammer sorceress… Not sure what else will hit the table this month. Still need to finish off the big demon's base. I should probably do that this month. 


Media

Star Trek Prodigy season 2 rewatch
The Umbrella Academy season 4 - WHAT THE FUCK?!?


Goals for September
Build a 6’ tall monster spider for Halloween
Play scenario 3 for Hope Eternal
Try to get at least 2 session reports written per week.

Rappan Athuk: There's always a bigger fish...

 Session 249 was played on 4/14/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

With Borumar invisible, and a bunch of kobolds available, and a Horn of Valhalla… the bugbears were overrun with no casualties on the party’s side. A small stash of treasure was collected.

One of the bugbears had been paralyzed in the fight. Tying him up, he was defiant, spitting and cursing at the party. Then things got quiet….

Too quiet…

Magically quiet!

The bugbear hunting party had returned with their cleric. He cast sticks to snakes, but Koltic, outside the magical silence, used his Book of Yg to counter the spell. Nick, Borumar, and the 3 amigos charged in, while the kobolds provided support. 2 Kobolds fell from bugbear attacks, but they were the only losses.

Feeling celebratory, the party again began to think about setting this up as a kobold kolony. Unfortunately a MASSIVE red dragon popped into existence next to the ruins. The displaced air that washed over the party reeked of sulfur and rotting meat. The kobolds dropped to their faces.

“Who speaks for this ragtag bunch” the dragon hissed.

Gains: 154gp, 99sp
Kills: Bugbears
Losses: 2 kobolds

Rappan Athuk: Arriving at the ruins

 Session 248 was played on 3/31/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

After enjoying a spider rodeo, the party gathers up 20 young kobolds itching to make their mark on the world and are willing to be the vanguard of the kobold kolony in the ruins. With a pair of mules and a big cart, they hit the road.

Taking the ferry back to the keep, Blotto makes use of his new paralyzing fishing polearm to get what he can in the river. He accidentally hits a kobold, sending him into the relatively shallow waters. He’s rescued and recovers, but keeps his distance.

At the keep they meet up with a caravan heading in the same direction and join up. Blotto takes the lead on the negotiations and they go surprisingly well. Morgana purchases another cart and horses for herself to ride in.

The trip south is largely free of incident. Minor encounters with some giant wasps, a rumored vampire’s tomb, but little of note till they reach the path to the ruined fort. The caravan is unwilling to hang out while the party does its thing, so they move on.

Morgana casts invisibility on herself and Borumar, and they head up the path to investigate, and find “ruins” might be an overstatement. No wall is higher than hip height, and most barely make it to the knee. Nevertheless, a troop of bugbears has made it their camp. Half a dozen large tents are set up within the walls, and as best as they can count, a little over a dozen bugbears seem to be within.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Rappan Athuk: Travel Prep

 Session 247 was played on 3/17/24

Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

Nick uses the tapestry to call in Morgana for consultation about Kelman’s proposal/request. The two of them talk it over, and then get into the weeds discussing magic theories. Then they head to her lab and start working on… magic stuff.

Meanwhile Nick and Borumar begin to make preparations for a long overland trip, and to check in with Drusilla about some ruins that they’ll pass on the way. While unable to meet with the druidess, they receive word from one of her wolves that she has no problem with them trying to take it over, and installing a kobold kolony there.

The 3 amigos spend their time training the kobolds, and blotto fishes. Koltic sets up a still in the kobold caves and gets to work brewing and distilling some mighty fine drinks. Getter than the mushroom swill they call a drink.

Morgana and Kelman come back from their time in the lab with some shiny new armor and weapons for those in the party who were without. Kelman also offers a magic boat in a box to ease their trip to the water temple.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Rappan: Quest Options & Castle Upkeep

 Session 246 was played on 3/11/24

Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

After Nick and the rest of the party clean up, Nick finds the visitor, and has a sit down with him. He calls himself Kelman, says he’s heading north on an important journey, but heard about Nick and company, and thought they’d like to know about a temple of the Blue God to the south that was struck by an earthquake and since then it’s gates have been closed and weird sounds have been heard. Additionally local children and livestock have been born with deformities, and people nearby have been getting sick.

It sounds like a promising quest. Nick decides to chat it over with the rest of the group before agreeing to the trip. Kelman does warn Nick that there’s a potential dragon encounter that they might have on the way, but that he has a flag that will allow them safe passage. Nick grills Kelman about the dragon, an adult that lives on an island off the coast, and collects tribute. After dealing with the temple, it might be worth doing some dragon hunting…

After meeting with Kelman it’s time to survey his castle and check in with the residents. The demonic birds are doing well, and their numbers are up to about 10. Getting their attention takes a little work, so Nick suggests a specific gong outside the tower, and the matriarch agrees.

Checking out the kobold construction, he visits the nursery, and looks at the spider silk production, but declines the opportunity to participate in the giant spider riding rodeo planned for the evening.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Rappan: Back to the Keep

Session 245 was played on 3/10/24

Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

While Morgana spends her time researching the ring, now activated, the rest of the crew head back through the tapestry to the inn at the keep. They take the tapestry down, fold it up and pack it away to take it to Nick’s castle. While in the village, they ask around for news and rumors, and find out that someone has been looking for Nick, recently, but they left for his castle a few days prior.

They take the barge to Zelcor’s Ferry, passing a group of ogres butchering something on the riverside. They were well away from the barge, and no one was interested in getting closer.

Arriving in Zelcor’s Ferry they disembark and head right for the tavern, bumping into 4 kobolds from the keep. They give Nick a quick update on what’s up.

Nick hires another boat to take the party, and the kobolds back to the keep. It’s an uneventful journey and they arrive at the keep safely. The gentleman looking for Nick is already in residence, but Nick needs a quick change before meeting with him.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Stonehell: What a drain

 Session 244 was played on 3/4/24

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

Still poking around the soap bubble, the party comes to realize that some of their magic is no longer working. The light coins Morgana keeps in a pouch have all gone dark.

Playing with the bubble, eventually they attempt to enter it. Slowly at first, just a finger, then a hand, arm, eventually their head to see if they can breathe inside it. They can. They also discover that they can stand inside the bubble. Morgana tries to use the ring, to no effect. She goes back to the room with the sparks, and attempts to ritual her way home, but fails…

They return to the hermitage, and then to the manor to rest, train, and resupply all the various magical items that were sucked dry.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses: magic light coins, a bunch of potions, a scroll

Stonehell: Sparks and Bubbles

Session 243 was played on 2/25/24

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

The party returned to the main hall to check the side passages near the entrance. Heading east, they enter a large chamber with glowing pillars, and faint lavender sparks that flash briefly all around the room. A pair of the floating eyes approach the party from behind, but Morgana ice storms them. Borumar cautiously checks out the room and the lavender sparks, but they don’t seem to do anything. The rest of the party cautiously checks out the room, then heads to the door to the south.

Opening the door they find an octagonal room with 4 pillars surrounding a 10’ diameter… soap bubble. Everyone hangs back with the lavender sparks while Borumar checks it out. He doesn’t find any traps, can’t wrap a rope around it. Shooting an arrow through it doesn’t do anything.

Morgana even tries to mentally move the bubble, but it has no effect.

Gains:
Kills:  floating eyes
Losses:

July ‘24 In Review

At the very end of the month, we added a new member of the family. Welcome Tasha! She’s about 3 years old, and while not a puppy, she’s full of energy and seems to be settling in nicely. 

We’ve also been dog sitting a friend's dog all month, so it’s been a nice chance to get back into the swing of having a dog. It is something of an adjustment having to deal with a dog that can reach the counter top… She’s only semi-trained, so there’s work to do on everyone’s part.

Gaming
We paused the Stonehell/Rappan game for most of the month as Rob was out of town, and gamewise it didn’t make sense to continue, so instead I ran Another Bug Hunt for Mothership horror RPG. It’s the first time running anything but D&D in forever, and it was nice. It’s a fun, relatively rules lite system. Not sure I managed to bring the horror, but my players had fun.

My work D&D game is getting going. Always hard to get people together in the summer with vacations and all, but I’ve had 2 solid sessions, mostly in the keep, and am looking forward to them visiting the caves again next session.

Miniatures
A frustrating month. I spent too much time trying to paint some Fristgrave forest bandit minis (aka Robin Hood types) and having the worst time of it. The white primer I used trying to zenithal highlight it ended up being super dusty, and nothing would stick. Eventually (and this took far too long) I gave them and a bunch of other minis that I’d primed at the same time a bath in isopropyl alcohol and a good scrub with my craft toothbrush. Things went a lot easier after that. Then I switched gears and knocked out half a dozen Blood Demons from Reaper. 

I’ve got a wide selection of minis ready to go on my desk right now, and no idea what it is I’ll really focus on next.


Media
Resident Alien
Letterkenny
Star Wars Acolyte
Star Trek Prodigy season 2

Goals for August
Play scenario 3 for Hope Eternal
Try to get at least 2 session reports written per week.

Making Mirkwood Trees for your tabletop games

I decided a while back that what I desperately needed for my game board is enough trees to make a forest. This was a silly thought as I haven't played a tabletop game in months. Nevertheless I decided to embark on this project, and so watched a whole bunch of YouTube videos, and dug through my terrain making books, and settled on making them with aluminum foil. This decision was based in part on the fact that it was a material I had plenty of, was cheap, and easy to work with. 

Then I needed to figure out how many trees to make. I set up my playing space and pulled out my 2" bases. It took about 18 to convincingly fill a 3*3 play area. 

The final decision at this point was to decide how tall I wanted the trees. Using Sir Forscale, I settled on a 4 to 6 inch range to make the trees feel big enough, but not so large that they would totally dominate the board even if there were just a few. 

 

Please note there is nothing in this tutorial that can't be found elsewhere, but this has the advantage of not being a video!

It was time to start making the trees. I pulled out sheets of foil and started wrapping. 

 

I started with about a 14-16 inch long piece of foil, which I then folded...

  

 

And started wrapping. Why 14-16 inches? Because as I twist the foil, it gets smaller, so that by the time I'm done the tree fits in the 4-6 inch total height that I was looking for.

 

 

Then I'd take another sheet and wrap it around the first to bulk up the trunk, and start to make the branches (not pictured). I then used hot glue to stick it to a 2" base. Sometimes I'd stick the second sheet of foil in the folds of the main trunk before I did the wrapping. Honestly, there was a lot of experimentation in making these, which resulted in a lot of different tree shapes. 

The nice thing about working with foil like this, is that if a spot needed bulking out, or filled in, or whatever, it was easy enough to take an extra bit of foil and wrap, stuff, and glue it where it needed to go.

 

 

I then took a sheet of foil and made one long roll, and cut it into small pieces to serve as roots, and glued them to the trees and bases.  Some roots were small, but I made some really twisty and large. After that, I used the glue gun to put a layer of hot glue all over the trees, both to seal the foil and to make some texture. I missed some spots, and others ended up smoother than I'd have liked, but the variety makes for a more interesting, and even more realistic set of trees. 

 

 

Then it was time to paint. I mixed black craft paint with Mod Podge and gave every tree a thick coat. Then I went back and gave them a second coat, cause some spots didn't cover the first time. 

 

 

Then I realized I forgot to texture the bases. So I did that, using a mix of sand and gravel. Then painted the bases with the same mod podge and paint mix. If I am ever to add more trees to my forest, or make another one, I'll remember to add the ground cover before I prime them.

 

 

Then it was time to add some real color. I started with a heavy brush of craft smart (Michaels brand) chocolate brown, followed by a nutmeg brown, and then a dry brush of antique white.  

 

 

You'll note I didn't make any smaller branches. My initial plan was to add foliage to these trees, so I only needed the main branches to hold it. You'd never see the smaller ones. 

 

But once I was done, I started to think that they look good like this. And maybe they'd work better as dead spooky mirkwood style trees. While I was still deciding on the foliage, I used some green and purple paints to splotch on some color. and gave the trees another final dry brush of the antique white. The green and purple are only a little noticeable if you're really looking for it, but it adds some more visual depth to the trees that made the effort worth it.

 

You have to admit this looks pretty good. The bark texture is way overstated and looks delightfully diseased. This is not a healthy forest by any stretch of the imagination.

The trees are wonderfully flexible. I can dump the lot of the from the table to the floor and they're going to bounce. My toddler can manhandle them, and they survive just fine. The biggest danger is them popping off the bases, but you have to work really hard to make that happen. 

I do think I'll do 1 or 2 more "character" type trees. I'm especially thinking about one tree growing over a dungeon entrance, maybe a gulthias tree? And the other I'm thinking off is more of an evil grandmother willow type tree with a face. We'll see if and when I get around to ever making those.

Stonehell: Sepulture Raiders

 Session 242 was played on 2/18/24

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

Heading back north from the stepped pyramid, they check out the side passage to the east. The same glowing blue light from nowhere illuminates the 8 floating oblong smooth sarcophagi. Not finding an easy way to open them, the party leaves them alone after doing a bit of pushing and pulling to see if they’d react. They didn’t.

Heading west they find another tomb with floating sarcophagi,  of them open, and a pair of pillars inscribed with weird symbols. Blotto goes to get a closer look and is attacked by a pair of 8’ tall, 4 armed mummies. Koltic is afraid of them, and keeps back. Morgana launches magic missiles, while Borumar jumps back and shoots one with his bow, killing it. Nick and Lor’Koth take out the other before it can do any damage.

Blotto returns to the pillar, and as best as he can tell, it’s some sort of math or maybe magic. Morgana isn’t too concerned about it at the moment, and they press on, coming to a 4 way intersection. Borumar uses his potion of treasure finding. Feeling the pull and checking their maps… they figure that it’s probably pointing to the Casino treasure vault.

Heading south from the intersection a large 4 armed iron statue that looks rather like the mummies they recently fought attacks, hitting Borumar hard. Borumar stabs it with his daggers, and they get stuck. Morgana blasts it with Magic Missiles, and it falls. Borumar pulls his daggers free.

The passage has a pair of side passages that quickly open up into smaller tombs with 4 sarcophagi each. Continuing to the south they come to a T intersection. To the east is a psychedelic room full of swirling colors and sounds. To the west is a room that looks like it’s sweltering due to the wavy air within, but is actually the same temp as the rest of the Sepulture.

Gains:
Kills:  Kion Mummies, Kion Iron Statue
Losses:

Stonehell: Hail Hydra!

Session 241 was played on 2/4/24

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

The party pauses for a moment to let Koltic heal a little from being set on fire, then continue south. The sad looking doors fall open with a loud crash. A long hallway continues to the south, and is still lit by the weird omnipresent blue light. 2 side passages split off to either side, but the party continues to the south where the hall opens into a large room dominated by a black stepped pyramid flanked by a pair of pillars. Climbing the pillars they see 2 small pillars on the top of the pyramid. They climb up to the top, and see an iris hatch on the top of the pyramid. The 2 small pillars shift when pushed down, causing the pyramid to rumble slightly, and the iris to open and close. Within the pyramid the party can see movement.

A hydra begins to emerge from the hole! Morgana quickly drops an ice storm inside the pyramid, and the rest of the party attack it, killing it as the lift shoves the now still corpse of the undead hydra onto the top of the pyramid. Trophies are collected, and the interior is searched, revealing a tidy treasure.

Gains: pile of coins, weird alien jewelry
Kills: diedra
Losses:

Stonehell: Eye Saw That!

Session 240 was played on 1/28/24

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

The dusty halls of the Sepulchure of Kion are lit with a soft blue light with no discernable source. A wide hallway extended south, and side passages extended to either side and ended in a pair of double doors blocking passage to the south. Ahead of them was a large pillar that reached to the ceiling, and was covered in regular scooped out circular depressions, with a smaller hole in the middle. 3 of the holes had 1’ diameter eyeballs looking out apparently sightlessly. Morgana cast invisibility on Borumar and he snuck around the pillar, and checked out the rest of the chamber. He returns to Morgana and suggests poking one with his 10’ pole. Morgana decides to fireball the pillar instead. Once the blast, flames, and smoke clear, the pillar is blackened, and the 3 eyeballs have popped.

The party continues south to the once impressive double doors, but time has been cruel to their oxidized surface. While looking at the doors, the party misses a silent eyeball floating into the chamber from one of the side passages. It blasted Koltic with a red beam that set him on fire! Moragana hits it with Magic Missiles while Blotto strikes it with his fishing polearm, causing it to pop. The 3 amigos put Koltic out.

Gains:
Kills: 4 Floating Eyes
Losses:

Stonehell: Where's the Sepulchure of Kion?

Session 239 (part 2) was played on 12/31/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

After resting and checking the Hermitages archives for any info on the Sepulchure of Kion, the party heads out to find the Scintillating Orb. They take a wrong turn and end up poling around the lost rooms, and get surprised by a Black Pudding that manages to hit Aroon and Koltic. Morgana zaps it with some Magic Missiles, which does nothing but split it in 2. The party runs, not sure what to do with it. Borumar chucks some flaming oil at the closest one.

Continuing to explore around the lost rooms they return to the giant stone hemisphere. Morgana tries on the ring and touches it, but that has no effect. They spend some time investigating the stone hemisphere, and eventually discover that it isn’t attached to the floor, and with enough force, can be moved. Even better, there was a stash of treasure, including some magic leather armor and a shield!

They take the treasure back to the Hermitage, and then get better directions, pay the minotaurs toll for passing through their territory, and enter the Sepulchure of Kion!

Gains: bunch of coin and gems, leather +2, shield +2
Kills:
Losses: 300gp to the minotaurs

Stonehell: Finding the Ring, but how to use it?

Session 239 was played on 12/31/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

Continuing to explore the upper caves around the box canyon, the party explores some dusty and long abandoned rooms. Borumar finds a secret door, one that apparently hadn’t been opened in a long time based on the dust and stiffness of the door. Thankfully Borumar’s orcish strength allowed him to open the door, revealing a dusty chamber with a large stone table. They immediately search the room, focusing on the table legs, and knowing generally what to look for, find the secret compartment, and the promised ring!

They immediately depart the canyon, and head for the manor. On the causeway over the swamp a swarm of giant bees attacks! Morgana sounds the horn of Valhalla and the vikings are set against the bees, and then sent into the swamp to find and destroy the nest. They do, returning with some honeycomb full of honey and eggs.

Once back at the manor, Morgana researches the ring, finding only that it’s called The Ring of the Scintillating Orb, and that it somehow will teleport the wearer and anyone touching them into Stonehell, but no info on where into Stonehell it goes to, or how to activate it.

To Rocky! They stumble on a group of fire beetles. Morgana sleeps them and the glow glands are harvested. Rocky is given some granite with fools gold flecks, and answers their questions.

Q1 How to get the ring to work?
A1 Find the scintillating orb and bind it to the ring
Q2 Where is the orb?
A2 In the Sepulchure of Kion
Q3 What level is the Sepulchure on?
A3 Near the top of the Majusek Sulcus

Departing Rocky, they take the teleporter in the Quiet Halls down to the trade corridor and around to the Hermitage to plan their next steps

Gains: honey, giant bee eggs, Ring of the Scintillating Orb
Kills: Giant bees, Fire Beetles
Losses:

Star Trek Prodigy season 2

The current batch of Star Trek shows have their ups and downs, like all Star Trek shows. Prodigy, the animated show for kids, made in conjunction with Nickelodeon, may be the best of the batch. And yes, you should ignore that it's a "kids" show. This is QUALITY Trek!

 

It's beautiful

It's 20 episodes per season 

It is accessible for non-Trek fans, but has tons of nods and callbacks to prior shows, and ties into the current shows

Season 2 just came out on Netflix at the beginning of the month.

It took me a little more than a week to binge my way through it, and I'm ready to rewatch it all again. If you haven't already, you should go watch it now! If you've seen it, you know how good it is. 

June ‘24 In Review

What a busy month! 2 weekend trips into the city, a work retreat and vacation in Maine, and all the usual stuff that goes on in a given month. No major work on the house, but we did get fiber internet installed and got a quote for solar panels now that we have a new roof. Oh, and this last weekend of the month was dog sitting a neighbor's dog. I’ll be doing more of that next month too. It’s nice to have a dog in the house again.

Gaming
We played more of the Rappan Athuk campaign, still deep in the blue god’s cliffside/sea cave temple, but that’s now on pause for a few weeks as the DM is on vacation, and it doesn’t make sense to switch back to Stonehell. In its place we’re going to play a few sessions of Mothership!

I also got to run a couple nights of D&D at the work retreat. The party made a foray into the orc caves in the Caves of Chaos, and then decided to go after the dragon living in the old ruined watchtower (actually a wyvern). Session reports for that next week.

Miniatures
Not a super productive month given the big vacation in the middle of it, but I still managed to get a few things done, and I’ve got more in progress.

Currently on my desk are some Frostgrave troops, and a trio of Stargrave characters, and I'm thinking that I want to paint a few GW Bretonnians.. we'll see.

Media
Resident Alien
Letterkenny
Star Wars Acolyte
Star Trek (2009)

Goals for July
Play scenario 3 for Hope Eternal
Try to get at least 2 session reports written per week.

Stonehell: Green Lines in the Undermines

Session 238 was played on 12/17/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

After ensuring that the trolls were safely encased in the stasis field, the party heads back down to the mines, and explores some of the side passages. They quickly come to a faintly glowing green line that completely encircles the passage. Not wanting to get close to it, they chuck a rock at it. The line is disrupted, and the glow fades, though it still glistens in the party’s light like glitter. Blotto pees on some of it.

Further down the passage they find a branching passage choked with rubble. They spend a few minutes digging through it, but don’t make much progress or find anything of value. The party backtracks to the entry room, then checks another spot on their map, smelling ammonia… Blotto didn’t want to pee on it. The party cautiously investigates, finding a group of Kobolds chained together and to the wall. They free them, and bring them back up to the Hermitage. The dwarves don’t really want kobolds hanging out, so the party escorts them back up to the surface, bringing them to the Gatehouse Inn.

After leaving the kobolds, the party decides to poke around in the caves of the box canyon, finding an angry giant rat, and then a rabid raccoon.

Gains:
Kills: giant rat, rabid raccoon
Losses:

Stonehell: Trolls in the Mines

Session 237 was played on 12/03/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

The party decides to check the mines under the hermitage. The rusted lift down into it was fixable, but loud as it clunked its way down through the worked stone into the mines. At the bottom rusty cart tracks lead off into darkness. Morgana uses her wizard eye to explore to the north, and sees some trolls lurking out of the party’s light, ready to pounce, but she tosses in a fireball. Amazingly, the one that survived begins to regenerate, even through the burns! Blotto and Borumar beat down the one that kept trying to stand up, and they notice the others are regenerating too. They begin to dismember the trolls, and then begin swapping parts. Morgana pokes and prods the bodies to see what will stop their regenerating. Not having much luck they bring the bodies back up to the hermitage and to the stasis chambers in the sewers, tossing in all the troll bits.

Gains:
Kills: 4 undine trolls
Losses:

Stonehell: Downtime in the Hermitage

Session 236 was played on 11/20/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

Downtime in the Hermitage. Lor’Koth gives Morgana a room in the hermitage to use as her personal lab/teleport chamber. Lots of helping the dwarves get things cleaned up, dusted off, etc. to make it more livable, and less like something inhabited by nearly-undead shades.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Stonehell: Crown Affairs

Session 235 was played on 11/12/23

Morgana, Magic User (Rob)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)

Returning to the manor, Blotto headed right for the rust monster pen, curious to know the abilities of the crown in relation to the beasts… but they wouldn’t go near him, and would attack when cornered. The rest of the party watched with trepidation. It was clear there was a struggle going on within Blotto’s mind, and he turned to Koltic, pleading in his eyes. Taking the opportunity, Koltic cast Remove Curse on the goblin, and Blotto pulled the crown from his brow. Morgana snatched it away, and shoved it in a bag, then put the bag in a box, and then put the box in a bigger box.

Dark whispers tickling Morgana’s mind, she took the well wrapped crown to Boris’ fortified cloister and asked him to seal it away. Meanwhile back at the manor, Karl and Lor’Koth discuss the future of the Hermitage, and they decide that they’ll work together as caretakers.

When Morgana returns the party agrees that they’ll tell their Vrylian patron that Deepeyes and the crown got away, but they’ll hunt him down.

Returning to Stonehell, they go directly to Rocky and ask their questions
What is the location of the portable teleportation device for Stonehll?
Hollow leg of a great stone table, high above the dungeon proper
What guards it?
Anonymity
From here, what is the direction of the stone table?
Up

They thank their stony friend and continue on to the teleporter, and down to level 5, and straight to the bar, updating him on things in the Hermitage, then to the minotaurs to pay them for their services.

Morgana lightning bolts a trio of spiders near the gate to the Hermitage, killing them, and then they head in to check on things since they left a few days ago.

Gains:
Kills: Spiders x3
Losses:

May ‘24 In Review

I really want June to be a chill month, but it isn’t going to be, not with a work trip right in the middle of it, followed by a short vacation since I’m already out of town.

But before looking ahead to that, May was another busy month. The first half of the month was swamped by the audit at work, and then the second half was spent catching up on all the work that was put on the back burner by the audit. In non-work busyness no major house projects, but some more work on the lawn. The clover in the back yard is coming up beautifully, but the wildflowers I planted in the front didn’t come in as well as I’d hoped. I just reseeded it with more wildflower seeds and mixed in some clover in case the wildflowers fail me again.

I did take a day off for myself where I binge watched Star Trek Prodigy and made a forest worth of trees for the gaming table (more on that below).

Gaming
Got in a game of Necessary Evil. We managed to free and collect the supers that were trapped by the finheads, and destroyed a good chunk of the facility.
Our Stonehell/Rappan game, the party has FINALLY reached the temple that is our current mission, and made it into the oceanside caves. That only took a couple of months…
And finally I’m gearing up to run some D&D at the staff retreat again! I bought some more dice sets to give away, and need to start writing up some quick start characters.


Miniatures
Again, I didn’t finish the sc-ifi troopers this month. I did finish up almost all the minis from The Spiders of Emrith Kul (still need to do the halfling) and a rat swarm.
What I spent the majority of my hobby time on this month was my forest. 18 trees that as of the end of the month are all painted up, and now just need foliage. There’s going to be a long post about it soon-ish. 

Media
Star Trek Prodigy S1 rewatch
Resident Alien
Star Trek Discovery
Delicious in Dungeon
Letterkenny

Goals for June
Play scenario 3 for Hope Eternal (Realistically this is probably gonna be July, but who knows…)
Try to get at least 2 session reports written per week.
Wrap up some of the many projects on my hobby desk

Miniatures: Chainmail Felldrakes

I've been wanting to paint more of my non-Reaper minis, and I have a good sized collection of old Chainmail minis kicking around. They're generally fun, if a little on the flat side. Not all of them were bought new, and I had in my collection these 3. The green one I painted sometime around 2001-2002. The tan one I have no memory of where it came from or who painted it. It wasn't me, I know that. The unpainted one was probably bought sometime around 2004-06 when I picked up a bunch of Chainmail minis on discount.

 

As I'd already painted a trio of drakes, I wanted these three to be visually consistent with them, so all three minis got primed, and then painted with Pine, Wilderness, and Naga Greens for the main bodies. I added in just a bit of Candlelight Yellow for the final highlights. I used Runic purple for the crests, and Skeleton Bone for the teeth, horns, claws and spikes.

The bases were covered with a mixed gravel that was based with brown liner, then brought up with Russet Brown and dry brushed with Cairn Stone.

And here they all are together!