Session 278 was played on 04/13/25
Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 9 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)
Finding another secret door, the party checks it out, while the orcs slowly shuffled off the mortal coil. Opening the door, they see only darkness. Blotto chucks a troll larynx in, and no one hears anything. They close the door and backtrack to the last branching hallway.
They come to a door that has a lot of noise coming from behind it. In a somewhat regular pattern, an oscillating screaming, crackling, and popping. Waiting for the sound to dull down to its lowest point, they open the door, and see a yellow humanoid running toward them made of bound lightning! Nick sets his spear, but gets hit instead. The rest of the party, with help from Morgana, take it out.
Searching the room they find a small secret door on the floor, and under it, a pouch with some cold and a ring set with 8 diamonds.
Exploring further, they come to a violet door, within which are 5 columns, and irregular rainbow lightning. Blotto steps in and pees on the nearest column, and gets zapped, instantly sprouting bat-like wings. Borumar steps in and gets zapped, and his eyes glow red as he gains dark vision. They find a satchel in the room, and blotto feeds it a troll larynx. The bag eats it, or more accurately, the ferret in the bag does.
Gains: 200gp, diamond ring, ferret
Kills: lightning elemental
Losses:
Friday, June 13, 2025
Rappan: Black Monastery Yellow Lightning
Monday, June 9, 2025
Rappan: Jam session in the Black Monastery
Session 277 was played on 04/06/25
Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 9 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)
Returning to the Black Monastery, the party finds the back gate down, and magically repaired. Following the same process as last time, Esmerelda eats a hole in it, and Blotto and Borumar use the crank to open it for the party to get through.
Heading in and to the east they come across a group (growth?) of troglins, which are quickly cut down, looted, and burned. They find a secret door that opens to a corridor that opens into a chamber with an iron maiden in the middle of it, surrounded by musical instruments. A pair of orcs are playing along with the music emanating from the torture device. Blotto starts grabbing at the unclaimed instruments and joins in on the noise.
The party briefly puts up with the concert before knocking the iron maiden over. The music stops and the orcs collapse. A quick check shows they’re hovering at death’s door. Under the iron maiden was am ornate skeleton key with the number 42 incorporated into the handle, and a note:
“This is the key to everything”
Gains: ~350gp in assorted denominations, a ring, a key
Kills: troglins
Losses:
Friday, June 6, 2025
Rappan: Black Monastery & Beasts
Session 276 was played on 03/30/25
Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 9 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)
Heading north the party comes to a chamber with a large 6 limbed beast, the unholy result of some wizard's experiments. The body and horns of a rhino, the face of a fish, with ogre or giant arms welding swords. Blotto charges in and with a swing of his mighty (fishing) pole arm, drops the monstrosity with a single hit. Morgana harvests some choice bits for her own experiments.
Among the treasures found in the chamber is a locket with miniature portraits of a young man and women. The young man has a tattoo on his arm. The beasts arm has the same tattoo…
Heading east they come to a large stable, with 14 stalls, each containing a misty/ghostly looking horse. They aren't aggressive, so the party explored the room. Boronir found a loose floor board, underneath which are jars of glitterfull lotion. Nick finds a secret door, behind which is a tack closet (why was this hidden!?!).
Morgana rubs a little lotion on her hand, and it becomes misty, just like the horses. They share out the lotion and use it to get 8 of the horses and bring them out of the ethereal plane, and conveniently there's enough tack in the closet for all the horses.
Harnessing up the horses, the party brings them home to the keep. On the ride, Morgana and Boromir blip ethereal for about 200 feet. Morgana is looking forward to investigating this more thoroughly!
Gains: 8 ethereal horses
Kills: cursed fish-rhino thing
Losses:
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
May ‘25 In Review
Yet another busy month with work. The audit wrapped up, and there was a work retreat, which flowed directly into a short vacation in the woods of New Hampshire. It was all great, but exhausting. I always want a vacation for myself, a day or 3 to recover after a trip like that.
Gaming
Because of the travel, and the work, several sessions of both the Stonehell/Rappan and my work game got canceled, but on the upside, I got to play with my coworkers in person again! We played a long, late session of the Painted Wastelands. I’d hoped to run a couple nights, but it didn’t work out.
In the home game, we’re facing off with a green dragon, and the first battle didn’t go so well for the party. Thankfully the cleric knows how to bring the dead back. Next time, we’ll be better prepared.
Miniatures
Again because of the travel, I didn’t get to finish as much this month as I wanted. I did start a lot of minis, and I’m sure next month will see a whole lot of them finished, but for this month, I managed to finish off a few things, including the last of the pepto Norkers. Pink was an unexpected choice, since I’d planned on making them yellow, but I’m happy I went this way.
Media
Ghosts
Game Changer seasons 4-5
Resident Alien season 3
The Wild Robot
Orion and the Dark
Her story
Loot
On my way to the retreat I stopped at a game store and snagged some great minis.
I also had the Box of Goodwill from the Reaper forum pass through, and I managed to add more to it than I took. But this is what I snagged:
Goals for June
Catch back up with session reports
Monday, May 12, 2025
Rappan: Black Monastery & Mint Julips
Session 276 was played on 03/23/25
Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 9 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)
The monastery is mostly empty. A series of connected smaller rooms eventually lead to a larger work room, full of dummies… in the middle of the work area were 8 dummies that stood out from the rest. A little more finished, and far more detailed looking than the rest. A female wizard, a short halfling sized warrior, a dwarf sized warrior… the party quickly realizes that they’re looking at copies of themselves! All investigation seems to show that they’re just dummies, but it’s disturbing.
While looking things over, a voice calls out from an open doorway. Within the chamber beyond are a pair of large trees growing up through the roof, and strung between them a hammock. Against one wall is a liquor cabinet, well stocked, and alone in the room is a cadaverous figure in black robes. Yet another friendly ghoul. The party chats, shares some drinks (he makes a mean mint julep). He provides some background on the story of the Black Monastery. A good order, fallen to chaos. This brother, Dr. Brutus, was working on attaining Lichdom, but messed up somehow, and has been trapped in this room for… he’s not clear how long. The monastery seems to jump around in time. To the amazement of all, in spite of the drinking, the liquor cabinet remained full. When the end came, it came with a blazing green flame that swept the halls. It unanchored the monastery from time, and Dr. Brutus has seen visitors from all ages come through.
This not being the first gentle ghoul that the party has encountered, investigate a little further. Morgana thinks it’s impossible to kill him, or maybe anyone trapped in the monastery? There’s a stone, somewhere in the monastery that fell from the sky, part of what brought about the end. If they can find it, break the hold it has on them, then maybe Dr Brutus could be freed, either from life (undeath) or from the prison of this well stocked room.
Dr. Brutus gives 2 final warnings. Watch out for the frogs, they have tongues of green flame. And if you find the theater, leave quickly, and count your shadows.
Leaving Dr. Brutus, the party explores on, soon finding the scene of a relatively recent fight between 18 spiders, 4 orcs, and 6 humans. The limbs of the various combatants had been severed and built up into a gory teepee. Within was a bloody cloak.
Gains:
Kills:
Losses:
Monday, May 5, 2025
Rappan: The black monastery appears
Friday, May 2, 2025
April ‘25 In Review
It was bound to happen, I came down with a scratchy throat early in the month. We all did. Between the cold and the pollen, it’s been a month. On the upside, the weather has finally warmed up, and everything is green and bright and colorful. I’m trying my hand at gardening, with mixed results so far. Some things are growing… the grass doesn’t seem to be. Plus I managed to grow some mold on some of the seeds I was starting. Yeah, it's a mixed bag.
I did get a promotion at work, so there's that. Celebrated with a nice lunch and getting more 3D prints done at the library. Aside from that, I'm full on in audit prep, so super busy.
Gaming
My work game was a little limited this month due to… well… work. Stupid audit.
Sunday we've been exploring the Black Monastery, a Frog God Games adventure with a hellish map. It’s a giant structure, with a couple of dungeon levels under it, and it’s one of those buildings with pencil thin walls, and zero unused space, and the weirdest shaped room… Seriously, check out the map that I’ve got so far. We’ve abandoned it, and are now going dragon hunting.
Miniatures
This was a productive month, especially on the terrain front! Not only did I finish the Noodle Bar, and a random bit of scatter, but I also got another bunch of Flatline City buildings printed up at the library. On top of that was the assortment of random things that I decided to work on. My ratio of Reaper to non-Reaper is now 12/39, but I’ve got 5 more non-reaper minis in progress actively.
Media
Daredevil Born Again
Star Wars Skeleton Crew
Ghosts
Game Changer seasons 1-3
Resident Alien season 3
Loot
My Downcrawl RPG book and deck arrived. I've started to read it, and plan on writing more about it after I finish.
Goals for May
Catch back up with session reports
Play a game of Stargrave or Rangers of Shadowdeep
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Noodle Bar & Industrial Scatter Terrain
This past weekend I got a couple of solid hours to paint when I wasn’t dead tired, and decided to spend it on the 3D printed Flatline City Noodle Bar that was gifted to me, and I have to say that I’m really very happy with how it came out.
It's almost entirely painted with cheap craft paints. I used Antique White for the walls, Terracotta for the roof, and the inside was painted with Red, mixed with a tiny bit of Black to darken the shade a bit. Details were picked out with various Reaper colors, including Punk Rock Pink for the signs. Everything was then washed with my usual grimy mix to help it blend in more with my industrial terrain.
I also learned that one of the local libraries has several 3D FDM printers available for use, for the low low cost of $0.05/gram of filament. I grabbed some industrial scatter terrain STLs and $8.60 later I had these 4 pieces!
Saturday, April 5, 2025
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Sauron
The Dark Lord himself, an imposing figure of shadow and death wrapped in armor with the One Ring blazing away on his finger, reaching down to slay Isildur at the height of his power, the moment before his defeat.
I've owned this mini for literally decades. I bought it when it was originally released. Last year I decided I was finally going to paint it, and added it to my "to do" shelf. Then I didn't get around to it. This year, I finally did. It's honestly such a beautiful sculpt that it practically paints itself... but first, assembly.
Sauron is a solid metal mini, and the connection points for the head and arms are both flat. Not ideal for such a heavy mini, and just asking to be knocked over and have an arm or 2 snap off. So out with the pin vice and wire, and make sure that The Dark Lord is solidly assembled.
I primed Sauron with Stynalrez Metal Tone primer, a favorite of mine when the weather is too cold to spray prime, and also a great base layer for the armor.
The cape I painted first with Reaper's Red Liner paint mixed with Brown Liner. I washed it with black wash, then did pure Red Liner, followed up with some highlights using Asmodeus Red, washed that with black wash, and then more Asmodeus Red mixed with some Cloudy Grey... followed by yet another black wash. Are you seeing a theme? For the armor, I highlighted the armor tone primer with Shadowed Steel, followed by yet more Black Wash. I repeated the highlight and then used a Numinara Rust wash splotched on to add a little more color.Finally the One Ring I painted first with Asmodeus Red, and then with Dwarven Gold, and teeny tiny highlights of Dragon Gold. I then went back and added just a bit of the Asmodeus Red to the shadows of the helm.
As seems to be a theme this year, I haven't done anything with his base. He deserves more than just some sand, but I haven't decided what yet. So here he is, finished, but not based.
Monday, March 31, 2025
March '25 In Review
I wrapped the month starting my veggie garden journey. I have a notoriously black thumb, so I'm limiting myself to just a few “crops” tomatoes (in containers) lettuce (in a palette), sunchokes, and some squash. I have no idea how this is going to go, but I’m giving it a shot.
Gaming
My Sunday night game wrapped up our Call of Cthulhu game, and got back to the Rappan/Stonehell game after a 3 month break. We're currently exploring a large haunted monastery, and when I say large, I mean HUGE. Well over 100 rooms. If we can wrap it up by the end of April, I’ll be shocked.
The Thursday work game shocked me again, and headed off with the Castellain when he was summoned away to a meeting in the nearest big town. Problem is, I hadn’t actually planned anything for that… I expected them to stick around and deal with the events at the keep… instead they're heading into the feywild to deal with a lord of the winter court who has laid claim on the adjoining land on the prime plane.
Miniatures
I really buckled down to get things done this month, and finished off a bunch of minis. I do need to refocus on painting more non-Reaper minis though.
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A pretty productive month! |
Media
Hidden Figures
Daredevil Born Again
Star Wars Skeleton Crew (1st episode)
What we do in the shadows (final season)
The remarkable life of Ibelin
Wallace and Gromit Vengeance Most Foul
Loot
I finally got my hand in Gods of the Forbidden North volume 1 & 2, and almost immediately started reading it. Massive volumes, and I was really looking forward to seeing that they had in store for me.
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"biological sex" come on.... |
Turns out, a lot of conservative Christian ideas.
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You aren't even trying to hide it... |
Goals for April
Catch back up with session reports
Monday, March 24, 2025
Mini-Reviews: Polite Society Chang'an, Fast Times! The Surprises!
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Purple People Eater
One of the Reaper Challenge League challenges for this month was "one eyed one horned flying purple people eater" with the caveat that to meet the challenge for this category is that you only needed to hit one of the parts of the challenge... but what's the fun of that?
Of course I don't have a mini in my collection that fulflls all the requirements, so I went digging. I do have a large cyclops, but didn't feel like painting a giant. So I kept digging and came across my bag of early Bones Kickstarter demons, and the ape demon felt perfect. Well, aside from the 2 eyes and no horn.
Monday, March 17, 2025
Mini-Reviews: Annihilation, Jupiter Ascending, 65
Monday, March 10, 2025
Mini-Reviews: Venom, Jurassic World, Indiana Jones, & Godzilla! The Sequels!
Another set of airplane movies for review, this time the direct sequel reviews!
Venom last dance
Look, this was never going to be high cinema. The Venom movies are fucking goofy, and this one is that. If you aren't into this duo's homoerotic symbiosis, violence, and just over the top silliness, I don't know what you're even looking at the 3rd movie in this series for.
Indiana Jones dial of destiny
After The Crystal Skull, I did not go into this with high expectations, but... damn. They did it. They made old Indiana Jones work, they still made the Nazis the bad guys, and brought back other characters in a way that works. This was really good.
Jurassic World: Domination
This is another one that exceeded my expectations. I wasn't a big fan of the earlier installments of Jurassic World, but I actually like how they addressed the world building here. What does the reintroduction of dinosaurs into the modern world look like? Messy. Also, just like Indiana Jones above, and the Ghostbusters reboot, the return of the original trio of characters was great. Honestly this whole movie was a bunch of nostalgia bait, and callbacks. Do I wonder what the dinosaurs in the caves or the subway were eating? Sure. Do I really care? No.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
While a sequel, I haven't actually seen any of the other movies in the monster universe series. Did I feel like I was missing out on anything? Not even a little. It's a giant monster movie, the plot is simple and clearly explained. It was fun, and good enough that I'm kinda interested in seeing the other movies in the series.
Monday, March 3, 2025
Mini-Reviews: I ain't afraid of no ghost! The Reboots
While flying to and from China, I got to watch a lot of movies, and they were all new to me. I specifically picked things that I hadn't yet seen, and wanted to, but hadn't for various reasons. Some are just too new, others haven't hit a streaming service I have access too, others got skipped because it felt like there were other movies I wanted to see more.
Ghostbusters Afterlife
Ghostbusters Frozen Empire
I've been waiting forever for Afterlife to hit a streaming service I have forever, and just before I left for China Frozen Empire hit Netflix... but not Afterlife! Thankfully the plane had both. I really enjoyed how they brought back the Ghostbusters in this reboot. While I liked the 2016 version this was a clearly much more connected to the original way to go, and brought back the original cast & characters in a much more organic way. By the time we get to Frozen Empire, things are a little busier, a little more serious. Still fun though, and I hope to see another installment in this series.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
I was really unsure how this was going to work... but it did. It isn't great, and not as good as the Ghostbusters movies, but still enjoyable.I will say the cast was great, but Monica Bellucci was wasted in the role, and her character, such as it was, felt so flat (a word that should never be used in a sentence with her).
All in all an enjoyable movie, solid followup to the wonderful original. I hope they skip making a third movie.
Saturday, March 1, 2025
February ‘25 In Review
I spent most of the month in China! It was an amazing trip and we only just got back. There was so much to see and do… in the 3 weeks we were there, I think only a couple of days did i fail to hit 10,000 steps and most days it was closer to 20,000.
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I hope one day my minis and terrain can be displayed in a museum... |
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This is a pile of hundreds of copper coins at a museum in Shenzen. |
Overall the trip was amazing. I saw so many cool things, ate such good food, and am feeling so inspired for world building right now.
Gaming
None, for the above reasons. However I did get a chunk of time to do some world building. I brought some worksheets for the #Hex25 project I'd planned on starting, and then didn't. While in China I pulled them out, along with my #Dungeon25 notebook, and then mostly just ended up making a lot of world building notes in the notebook, rather than trying to use the sheets.
Miniatures
I wrapped up a couple of minis that I started in January, but mostly, again because of the trip, not much progress. I have been weirdly thinking about painting more Games Workshop minis. The Emperor's Champion has been calling out to me...
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Fungus infected troll in progress |
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Frostgrave Wraith |
Media - spending 36ish hours on a plane means getting to watch lots of movies. I'm going to be posting some mini-reviews of some of these over the month.
Letterkenny S7
Ghostbusters afterlife
Venom last dance
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Indiana Jones dial of destiny
65
Ghostbusters Frozen Empire
Jurassic world: domination
Annihilation
Jupiter Ascending
Chang an
Fast times at ridgemont high
Polite society
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Scavengers Reign eps 1 & 2
Loot
Aside from some souvenirs from China, nothing game related in February. I know I've got some stuff that'll be arriving in March though.
Goals for March
Keep up with all session reports
Recover from international travel
Monday, February 24, 2025
Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
A wolf-in-sheep's-clothing is a vegetable monster that lurks in undergrowth or grassy meadowlands, creeping from place to place by pulling with its root tentacles. The body of the creature resembles a tree trunk, with a vertical maw full of jagged teeth, and 10–15 feet long eyestalks. It can sprout a growth that resembles a small furry creature to attract prey.
This monster was originally published in the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and then reprinted in the AD&D MM2.
It is a ridiculously silly monster, as befitting the same module that introduced the gaming world to the Froghemoth. On the other hand, when Reaper made a mini for it, there was no way I was not going to get and paint it!
I'm not entirely happy with the eyes, but overall, I had a ton of fun painting it!
Friday, February 21, 2025
Red Sorceress
"Oh be nice Irene." Chelsea chattered up from the fog. "You like going off on these errands! I don't understand why you feel the need to complain about it."
"Because I also like my sleep."
"I do too, but this is more exciting."
A branch snapped off in the darkness. "What was that?" Irene whispers.
"A branch snapping" Chelsea whispers back.
"Funny."
"This is your master's estate. It's not like he'd let some nasty alpha predator-"
Another branch snapped.
"Do you know him at all?!? He'd do it just for this!"
"Good point"
Irene felt Chelsea's little rat claws climbing their way up her leg. Whatever it was, it was coming closer. Looking at her torch, she debated tossing it to the side
"I said no magic, I didn't say make as much noise as you could." His muddy boots clomped into the torchlight.
Irene is a low level but gifted sorceress who her master delights in sending on errands that he knows she'll hate. Her preference would be to never leave the comfort of the manor house or school, but her master insists she get some "in the field" experience. She is always accompanied by her rat familiar named Chelsea. She is very attractive and not at all interested, thank you very much. Her bed is for sleeping. That said, she isn't above using her physical beauty to try to get what she wants.
Monday, February 17, 2025
Sci-Fi Terrain: Transfer Unit
Another of my trash bash terrain pieces, this one started back in April of last year, after making the Chemical Processors. The body of it was the cap for a set of sidewalk chalk. I added a pill bottle lid that I embellished with some thin plastic from a blister pack.
On the top were several other bottle caps and small lengths of thin straw, and I used the same hair elastic from my other build to make a pipe running from the top down the side. Since I didn't want the pipe down the side to be the only thing on it, I used 2 more lengths of the thin straw and a bit of sprue to add more detail.
On
the back side I used another small length of the elastic, a bit of zip
tie, and a couple of cut up pieces of leftover gun from the Reaper Black
Star Corsairs that I converted a while back. (This is why I save all
those bits of trash!)
The final side of the build I left blank, mostly cause I couldn't decide what to add to it.
One
thing I quickly noticed was how unstable it was. The big bottle cap on
the front was too heavy. That was an easy fix, I just glued in a wall
fastener I had saved from some IKEA furniture.
Some time later, I
primed it black, then in December I based it with the metal tone
airbrush primer. As with the Chemical Processors, I painted it with the
same green craft paint that seems to be the color bulk purchased by the
owners/operators of the industrial zone I'm assembling.
Feeling
that the blank side was missing something, I decided to paint a number
on it, and as I'd been gifted some paint pens, I decided to try them
out.
Gotta say, I think it looks good! And I've already started on my next one!
I think its an incinerator. But more on that later!
Saturday, February 15, 2025
(Not) What I'm Looking For
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Goblin Bottle
"It's disgusting." Allianora all but yelled.
Nimble frowned. "Who are we to judge?" It's not like we haven't taken trophies from some of our kills."
"Did it just blink?" Rathgar peered closer at the jar. "I swear, it just blinked."
"I wouldn't get too close, you'll get it upset." a craggy old voice called out from the dark interior of the cottage. "And then it'll be days before it's of any use." Tall and thin, the old man stooped to pass through the door
Alice Tochylovska Goblin Head Specimen
This necromatic device requires the head of a goblin shaman or wokan. The creation process imbues it with the spark of undeath, and preserves the goblin's knowledge, and also taps into the resonance of the plane of negative energy. Goblin bottles are excellent at sniffing out necromatic magics within 120' or other magic items within 60' for up to 30 minutes per day. It will always direct the user toward a necromatic object before directing toward a non-necromatic object. Otherwise, it will always go toward the most powerful object within range.
Unfortunately for anyone wanting to use it, it only responds to commands spoken in goblin, and only with a successful reaction roll (7+) once per day. Failure will result in a -7 penalty to the roll that decreases by 1 every 24 hours.
Friday, February 7, 2025
January ‘25 In Review
It has been a very cold month. I’ve been wearing a shirt, flannel, and sweater to stay warm in the basement office. And that’s with a space heater. Thankfully no one was sick this month. Not sure how that happened. We took a quick trip to Atlanta so the kid would have a chance to experience a plane ride before we took our big one to China later this year.
Work has been stupid busy with all the end of year work, but I’m finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. We’ll see if it’s a train, or the exit.
Gaming
We finished our Mothership game with 1 surviving PC, and stopping at least one monster… not sure about the ship's AI… out at least felt like the less bad option. Then we started a quick game of Call of Cthulhu, a system I haven’t before gotten to try.
Work game has skipped a few session because of work taking priority, but the party made it back to the keep and made a very successful, if not super lucrative, excursion into the orc caves.
I didn’t make it very far into my Hex25 project before I got overwhelmed with life, so it got set aside, but I’m going to be picking it back up for February.
Miniatures
I started the month strong, finishing off the not Willow and not Raven Hasslefree minis, and the duo and trio minis for the RCL, but then got VERY distracted with the urge to assemble… anything! So I picked 3 random sprues from my pile of 50 Frostgrave and Stargrave sprues, and built 2 minis from each, using parts from all 3.
I also assembled the Queen of Hell mini, cause I grabbed her to use a bunch of spilled red paint, as well as Games Workshop Sauron mini that I had set aside to work on last year, and an orc wizard.
Then I got worried about the Queen of Hell's wings drooping. They're really think and heavy so I decided to use some heavy duty copper wire and… well, I think it works. But it's ugly. So out with the greenstuff, and since I had it out I might as well add the mushrooms to the troll I have out…
It's been a very scattered month for minis, but I’ve made a lot of progress on a lot of different things. And there was one warm day, so I took advantage of it to prime all the minis I’d done prep on! I have enough to keep me busy for a little while now.
Media
Silo (season 2)
Ghosts
Letterkenny
Loot
The Shrike - Looking forward to reading this one. I still haven’t finished reading The Painted Wastelands from last month…
Goals for February
Keep up with all session reports
#Hex25
Monday, February 3, 2025
Mothership: Advent Dawn Session 4
This was a doozy of a session, and I ended up with pages of notes!
Ossie, wandering lost in the ship for a bit came around a corner to find Doc Stirling, Chl03, and a golden retriever exiting a reactor room. They quickly exchanged stories about what they'd seen, and pressed on. Noping past several suspicious looking rooms, they come to a massive chamber labeled Paradimensional Drive.
Within the chamber, warning lights were flashing, and a weird sensation passed over everyone. Doc Stirling flashed back to when he tried to attach a liver to an elephant and it did not go well (and how he lost his funding). Ossie flashed back to his 3rd divorce when his now ex wife stabbed him.
When they come back to themselves, they notice the droids in the room scrubbing only semi-effectively at the blood stained floor where "Corrupt Heart of the Ship" is written. Mostly they're just smearing it. Looking up at the drive itself, a tangled mess of wires and tubes and thrumming a pair of eyes that aren't there look down balefully.
Ossie swallows the bile rising in his throat and rushes over to a terminal to stop the drive from engaging. He starts to hack it when nanites swarm out of Ossie and into the terminal! He can't get past the system login. A thick black liquid (oil?) oozes out of the terminal connection. Ossie foolishly touches it and feels a stinging in his fingers where the liquid soaks into him. Stirling comes up to see what's going on. Chl03 uses one of the inactive androids to hook the extra Chl03 head up to, in hopes that she can provide some help.
Other-Chl03 almost immediately begins to scream and burn, the android skin blackening and the smoke that surrounds her acts more like watery shadows that cling to the android body. Her eyes glow the same red as the eyes above that aren't there. The rest of the room warps and darkens too, the shadows thickening, despite the light levels remaining the same. Ossie and Stirling run for the door... or where they think the door is.
"I told you to stay out of my fucking head" Chl03 yells. It is unclear which Chl03. The sound of her nailgun rings out. Ossie keeps trying to find the door, and avoiding the androids. He's hit by something, stumbles and keeps going, miraculously arriving at the door. Stirling appears there as well, with Kissygirl the golden retriever with him. Was he there first? Ossie isn't sure. They yank the door open and run for it while the Chl03s continue to battle.
A short time later they find themselves in a much quieter section of the ship. The signs say Section 14, for what little that's worth. They come to a door to a crew lounge, and within is a skinless android doing some repair on itself, a pair of humans munching on a human arm. The bartender, Hank warns Ossie and Stirling that Hanks is a place of peace, and anyone who breaks that peace will know none. He offers them a drink. It's called "The Fuck" and is made with "anything that can ferment, and a lot of things that can't" Neither Ossie nor Stirling much care at this point and they drink it down. He asks Chl03 to change the music.
Chl03?!? This one, again, just a head, says she's been on the ship 37 days. And she warns that the drive will activate in just over 3 hours. Ossie and Stirling finish their drinks and make to leave. Hank gives them a growler to go, and wishes them luck finding a way off the ship.
Continuing with little idea of where they are or where they're going, they come to some weird writing on the walls... maybe in blood? Kissygirl licks it. Just beyond it is the door to the waste processing facility. It is remarkably huge, with catwalks, conveyor belts, massive vats... the sort of place you'd expect in a major hive city, not on a spaceship. Nevertheless, hooch in hand (and bloodstream) they decide to check it out in hopes there might be an escape pod.
Not long after entering, below the sound of running feet. A human boy(?) being chased by a slimy reptilian thing. Stirling takes a shot at it, but misses. It is enough to get the creature's attention, and the boy runs off. Kissygirl vomits up some 2" long purple worms at the creature, and it flees. Ossie is further freaked out, but at this point who can tell? Stirling says she's a good girl.
Further into the facility they see large blob things moving along on another catwalk, and more of the slime reptile dog things. Kissygirl shows more of those purple worms and keeps Ossie and Stirling safe(ish). Down below they walk above a big 6 legged version of the slime dogs, with tentacles on its back. It SHOOTS them up toward the trio, and Ossie gets bit by one. It holds on, and starts emitting a high pitched noise, loud enough to travel over the sound of the facility. Ossie blows the worm off with his revolver, the last shot. Stirling slaps a quick bandage on it, and they press on as quickly as they can.
Ahead, a flooded area but a hatch out of the facility. Something is clearly swimming in the flooded area, but Stirling things he can make it to the door... and he does, but gets bitten by something in the foot as he gets the door open and the gross sewage flows out into the hall, draining away. Ossie hobbles after Stirling and they close the door behind them, and Stirling patches himself up... or at least stops the bleeding.
Monday, January 27, 2025
Mothership: Advent Dawn session 2 + 3
In the embryo lab, with the screaming head of Alt-Chl03 on a shelf, and an android with skin issues and a shoulder mounted gun, Ossie pulls a gun on the mentally unstable android that's insisting on keeping "our" Chl03 and shoots him in the back. It's a solid, but not debilitating hit. The android turns to Ossie to shoot him, and Doc Stirling chucks in a grenade. Ossie dives behind the central tube of embryos just a fraction of a second before the grenade goes off, and after the first shots from the android miss. In a loud and confusing next few moments, Chl03 unloads her needle guns into the android, while it's attention can't focus on any of the 3 attackers who've hurt it. That lack of focus is probably the only thing that let them survive and take down the unnamed android.
Removing Alt-Chl03 from the shelf meant unplugging her from the ship's power, turning her off. Ossie carried her with him, and they progressed deeper into the shifting ship's corridors.
At this point my notes are all but useless. It simply says "nope. nope. NOPE" I don't recall exactly what it was we saw, but it was a series of doors/rooms containing various horrors that didn't seem to be anything that would be worth interacting with.
I missed session 3, and my character got split off from the group, and ended up wandering aimlessly while they found a golden retriever they named Kissy Face who is the bestest dog ever, found the navigational data, and managed to avoid death.
Friday, January 24, 2025
Sci-fi Terrain: Chemical Processors
The construction and painting of these 2 terrain pieces was amazingly simple, once I got around to actually doing it. I built them at the end of June in 2023, primed them sometime in the fall, and then didn't get around to painting them over a sessions until just a few weeks ago.
They're based around a set of support structures for a 3D printed piece of terrain, something designed to be tossed away, but the shape was too cool to trash. Digging in my recycling/bits box I grabbed a pair of lids from peanut butter jars to give them a more solid structure. There were holes at the top of each of them, and I used a pair of heroclix base inserts to make lids for them. I thought about leaving the bases flat so that figures could stand on them, but I didn't think it looked very good, so back to the bits box, and I snagged a pair of arms from some Reaper CAV minis (The Dictator B) along with a few other random bits, and used an old stretched out hair elastic to make the tube. Zip ties added some necessary texture to the sides, and I drilled holes and threaded some garden wire through for more visual interest.

And because I wanted these to look pretty gnarly, and also cause my super glue wasn't holding great, I slathered it with baking soda.
Then, like I said, it was a year before I painted them.
I don't have any WIP pics, but I can tell you the process. On the one in front, I painted it with a quick coat of Stynylrez airbrush Metal Tone primer, and them splotched on craftsmart Lush Foliage. The tubes/hair elastic was painted with Reaper Cairn Stone, and the red was Reaper Seoni Scarlet. The rust effect was painted with Reaper Numeria Rust.
The one in back I forgot to use the metal tone primer, and just painted the lush green straight onto the black primer, but was otherwise painted exactly the same. I did go back and dab on some of the metal tone here and there where the green didn't completely cover the primer. All in all I like the front one better, but both look good on the tabletop.Monday, January 20, 2025
Caves of Chaos: Heading West!
Session 7 was played on 9/19
Io the thief
Theiss of Gond, cleric
After returning to the keep, the party brings the bodies of their fallen to the chapel for last rites before burial. The head priestess Kestra is impressed by their dedication.
After resting for the night, they pay Kask and Gyg for another day, and hire Burnore, Brymore, and Yar, and trek west from the keep along the Old King Way, traveling for a full day, mostly along the edge of the light woods to the north. They pass some isolated farmsteads, a tiny hamlet, before arriving at a walled river village.
After talking with the gate guards they're allowed in, and directed to the tavern. Talking with the locals they hear about the goings on, including owlbear attacks, dragon sightings, bandits way laying smaller caravans, including a caravan they were expecting this past week. It should have passed the keep not too long ago.
Kask knows the caravan they're talking about. It left the keep the same day the one he was a part of arrived.
The next morning the party departed the the walked village and heads back to the keep, keeping an eye out for the bandits. Their sharper lookout paid off, as they spotted a break in the woods big enough for a single wagon to pass through, and wagon wheel tracks heading along it.
Io sneaks parallel to the path in the woods, and spots 2 bandits in tree stands keeping a watch. Unfortunately one spots her, and she runs for it.
Rejoining the party they all book it down the path back to the keep, and after taking to the guards at the gate gain an audience with the castellan to tell him about the camp. He wants to hire them to take care of the bandits, and offers 15gp per bandit captured or killed.
Gains:
Losses:
Kills:
Monday, January 13, 2025
Caves of Chaos: Sticky Sweet and Rotting Flesh
Session 6 was played on 9/12
Io the thief
Gizzard Wannabe the Wizard
Theiss of Gond, cleric
Tiptoe the thief
Boots the ranger
Amnyuthist the halfling
The party hires Garwood and Kask and head back to the swamp, aiming to finish off the lizarmen mound. On the way, they meet a dozen warriors headed to the keep. They’d just come from the mound, and report that they’ve looted and burned it. The 2 groups continue on their way.
Deciding that a trip to the swamp is a wasted trip if they don’t do anything, they begin to stomp around, hoping to turn something up. Something, in this case ends up being a giant bee. They follow it at a distance to the hive inside the trunk of a massive dead tree. Not wanting to try to fight them, the party has Wannabe put them to sleep. Io then squeezes into the hive and collects some of the honey. Tiptoe follows and collects a little, but a bee makes its way out from deeper in the hive and attacks. Tiptoe is hurt, but runs for it.
They make it back to the Keep, soggy, but with some honey that Wannabe thinks has some magical healing properties.
The next day they hire Gyg and Vlad and head to the caves, and explore the goblin caves… finding them empty?!? Well, almost empty. 4 dead goblins rise up and attack the party. Vlad and Garwood don’t survive the encounter. They take the bodies, and bring them back to the keep.
Gains: healing honey
Losses: Garood, Vlad
Kills: 4 goblin zombies, 1 giant bee
Friday, January 10, 2025
Reaper's Baba Yaga's Hut
Back in the fall of 2023 I started working on Baba Yaga's hut. It came assembled, and while the chicken legs are great, I wanted to be able to use the house on its own. So I started the process to remove the legs in a way that I hoped would allow me to use them in the future. Ideally I'd be able to put the house on the legs and take them off as needed. They were very tight, and practically soaked in super glue, so I knew this was going to be a process.
Into the water it goes. I think I ended up soaking this thing half a dozen times total. After each soak, which got the legs wobbly soft, I would take it out of the water and pull as hard as I could. That was enough for one leg, and it popped off, but the other leg I had to get my xacto knife to cut at the glue
Eventually I got there!
Of course there was then so much water in the house itself, I needed to let it drain.
But I could get the legs back on! Success!
It would then be more than a year before I actually started to paint it.
It started with a coat of Brown Liner, followed by Redstone Shadow for the walls.
The roof was a succession of Desert Stone, followed by Desert Sand dry brushes, which were also done to the walls. I wanted this looking as dusty, rotten, and in desperate need of some TLC as it could.
I went lighter on the roof support beams, and then began splotching on Olive Drab, followed by Olive Drab plus more and more Pure White
Then it was onto the windows. I made sure to repaint them with Brown Liner to get them dark and clean up any stray brush strokes from earlier steps. and then hit the glass parts with Kraken Ink. Initially I kept the highlight on the broken edges of the glass small, but it didn't look as good as I wanted.
So I made the glass less dark overall, and that worked.
Finally it was adding a few details to the doors and the chimney, and it was done!
Actually painting the hut only took a few evenings worth of work. Dry brushing once the main colors are blocked in made it go really quickly, and then it was just a matter of going back and cleaning up the details.
Now I just need to do the base and the legs so it can be a proper hut for Baba Yaga!