Rappan: Doors

Session 327 was played on 4/26/26

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

The 6 figures reach toward the party. Koltic holds up his holy symbol, and the meat sticks charge forward. They’re tough like jerky, but the juju zombies go down easily enough. The pool in the center of the room… flows. Borumar, reluctantly, takes a dip in and has a look. A long tunnel, maybe 80 or 90 feet stretches off to another chamber. There are forms moving about, but he doesn’t get a good look before deciding to come back and report. 

Rather than risk a swim, the party heads east down a winding tunnel that emerges into a room with 4 doors facing each other. Of note is the fact that the doors are not against the walls, but stand freely about 5’ from the walls. 

Clearly this is something for Morgana to investigate, and everyone else hangs back. The doors, and the frames holding them are of oak, and well made. Otherwise nothing particularly interesting about their construction can be seen. They are not locked, nor trapped, but are absolutely magical. Starting with the south door and going clockwise, this is what they see when the doors are opened.
S - Swirling portal
W - familiar shadowy cavern with a large squat ziggurat. 
N - A meadow, day time, butterflies and other bugs can be seen. The smell of spring and sunshine wafts through. Maybe near the keep?
E - A blast of heat as a desert is revealed. A pair of statues flank the door, and beyond a pack of lions feast on something… someone?

Borumar is volunteered to go through the north door. “To the keep, to the keep” he whispers as he steps through. On the far side of the door, he finds himself in the meadow, Behind him is a stone ruin, maybe an old cabin? And yes, there’s a door. With a shrug he closes it, steps back, and… waits. Back in the dungeon, the party watches as he closes the door, and they wait. Eventually Borumar gets bored of waiting and goes to open the door, but it’s locked. The hair on the back of his neck prickles, and he looks around, feeling watched. Not seeing anyone he picks the pock on the old door… and then out of the corner of his eye he sees it. A giant badger in the grass.

“Hello! My name is Tink” the badger growls politely. 

Cardboard Starship #4: Transport part 2

Detailing a build can take what is essentially a cardboard box, and turn it into something else, something special. My strategy for this, for the interior was that the detailing needed to be such that it didn't interfere with game play. I used a couple of covid tests for the walls above the benches, and used some screen material for the hatches. The rest of the detailing is either cardstock or plasticard

In the above pic you can see the hatch to the cockpit along with the panels for accessing it. I haven't added the ladder up to the hatch yet, but it's coming. Below you can see the hatch for the engine compartment framed out with some additional panels and detailing. While working on this, I was doing my best to remember that this is a gaming piece of terrain, not a diorama, not a show piece... it's literally cardboard and trash, so I tried to keep from going overboard or over stressing about things not lining up perfectly. 

 What I think is more important to the look of the ship are the external panels. Once again, everything here is made of card stock and platicard (largely from old expired and used up gift cards). The basic goal is to make the card board not look like cardboard. I experimented with a variety of different shapes, some of which were more successful than others. Again, frequently reminding myself that it didn't need to be perfect, and that once painted many of the sins committed in its construction would be hidden, and largely I would be the only one to be able to see them. 

One feature that needed to be clear on the ships were the cargo hatches. To ensure they were easily identifiable each is framed by those blue straws that came from the 100 water balloons in a minute sets you can get during the summer. Personally I hate water balloons, and balloons in general for the waste they create. This is my tiny bit of effort to reduce the waste. That and the reusable ones I got for my kid instead.

One thing I didn't consider when I was doing this is that because of the shape, on the table, the panels that slope down will be largely unseen. Unless you're looking at it from the side directly, this ends up being a lot of wasted effort... ah well. It was good practice. 

You might notice the cockpit looks a lot different... I decided I hated the cardboard version, and repurposed the one I built for the cargo hauler. I still need to do a bit more work with the cockpit, but after that I think the outside of the ship is done. 

The prow of the ship was the last bit I worked on, and by this point I felt like I had the process down. So much so that I actually took a bunch of WIP pics to show how I did it. 

and finally the details!

 

Rappan: Orcus' Blessing

Session 326 was played on 4/19/26

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

Beyond the stream the party follows the tunnels heading north, then east, then north again, finally arriving in another massive rocky cavern. Their light is unable to reach the far end of the room. Keeping one wall in sight, they move forward carefully. Moving around small boulders they eventually spot a large pillar rising out of the ground and up into the darkness above. Along the wall they spy some rat tunnels, and some… wider than rat tunnels, but nothing anyone in the party would want to explore. 

In the relative emptiness of the cavern a distinct sound of flowing water begins to be noticeable ahead. But there’s another sound… scales on stone. A rasping, hissing sound. And not small. Then they see the long large forms… basilisks! Morgana drops invisibility on the party and everyone crouches hoping the lizards have a terrible sense of smell. Luckily for the party, it seems they do. Interestingly, Aroon and Koltic both touch rocks with runes carved into them, and suddenly a purple glow spreads throughout the chamber. The glowing rocks aren’t everywhere, they outline marked paths through the cavern. Morgana takes a look at the runes… they’re “Orcus’ Blessing” 

Avoiding the basilisks they take the path they’re next to out of the carven. The tunnel opens up to an ornately carved bridge in one direction, and up a set of stairs in the other. The party opts for the stairs, hoping to find a way back to the surface. After a long and zigzagging climb, they emerge into a chamber with 6 pale humans, their eyes, noses, and mouths sewn shut. They moan, and lurchingly reach toward the party. Are they saying “brains” or “kill us”? It’s hard to say.

Rappan: Does that sound weird to you?

 Session 325 was played on 3/29/26

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

Continuing their exploration to the east, after finding nothing of value among the ashes of the undead pond ooze, they come to a cave warm and humid, alive with fungal growths. Checking to the east, the caves seemed drier though with weird sound effects… there was a rushing stream, but the sound of it was dampened somehow. While seeing the extent of the effect, Nick was attacked by a wraith, and his strength drained. Nick killed the monster in return. 

Exploring a little more, Nick was again surprised by some rust monsters. Thankfully his armor resisted their curious probes, and Blotto rushed forward to help corral them away from the party, but keeping them along in hopes of being able to add them to his herd. 

The stream is fast and cold, and about 20’ across. Clearly dangerous to cross. Various methods of crossing are discussed, but eventually an ice bridge is deemed the safest for everyone, including the rust monsters. 

Once across the rushing water the sound all sounds normal again. The party spots a large box, half buried a bit of the way down the cave along the edge of the stream. They spend a little time digging it free of the mud and rocks, and open it up. It’s a coffin, and within are the jumbled remains of a human and his ceremonial bronze armor, emblazoned with the symbol of the army of light. They take the fancy armor, and replace the bones, building a cairn around the box. 

Beetle Knight

Taking a pause from our usual game as Josh was off on vacation, Lanse offered to run Beetle Knight, an RPG based kinda on the setting of the Hollow Knight video game (of which I know very little) but basically you play bug knights on quests to solve mysteries. The report below covers all sessions from May through June. 

https://brookletgames.itch.io/beetle-knight-quickstart

We rolled up our characters randomly and ended up with:
Milax the Slug
Harvey the Fire Ant
Charlotte the Spider

In the town of New Elm, we meet up with some refugees from Old Elm, and then find and talk to the mayor. Old Elm has been beset by wasps behaving somewhat out of character, and a weird glittery atmospheric effect everyone is calling “The Glimmer” Those who linger in The Glimmer become trapped, mentally, repeating actions over and over.The mayor wants us to find his daughter, and help deal with the Glimmer and/or the wasps. 

Heading south out of New Elm, the party encounters Lauphy the snail, who is waving around a bit of lilac root that is coated with a shimmery substance. Explains that the lilac root helps ward off the effects of the glimmer, and makes it extra tasty. 

Further down the road, a blowfly is speeding north toward the party followed closely by a dragonfly! The blowfly screams for help, and the party prepares to do what it can when the dragonfly sprays everyone with a brown mist… making everyone desperate to mate with it! Fortunately for the party the only one able to fly up to the dragonfly was the blowfly, and he was quickly dispatched, and his body carried off as a snack. 

Later the party encountered a pair of wasps that warn of white ants and the golden curse. Naturally the party ignores this. Further down the road there’s a first real taste of the glimmer, a gingery spicy glow, and a wasp repeating a series of actions that probably made sense at one point. Using a big of scavenged lilac root, the slug whacks the wasp a few times before enough was knocked from her that she could regain her senses. Unfortunately not much was gotten out of her as she then flew away. The Slug decided to try the glowing root, licking the glimmer from the root and getting high as a kite! 

“I’m perfectly fine… “

Dear reader, he was NOT.

Closer to Old Elm a flee was being chased by wasps. The slug hugged the flee while the party talked to the wasps. The wasps weren’t interested in talking, and make things literally hot for the party before the fire ant slaughtered them. The flee thanked the party and then fled. 

Arriving in Old Elm, the party scouts around the stump before heading in. The concentration of Glimmer was much stronger, and Milax the slug needed to keep whacking the others in the party. Within the stump, they encounter some guard wasps, fight and kill them, followed by a mother in law millipede. She was anxious to find her granddaughter. She’s so obnoxious, but the party agrees to keep an eye out. 

Splitting away from her, the party finds a trail of chalk like powder.. They follow it finding numerous crumbly corpses of ants.

The party encounters wasps fighting and losing to the powdery white ants. Harvey talks to them as best he can (they speak a very old dialect) and we’re brought before the Queen. Her throne reeks of the Glimmer, and seems to be the source. Milax and the Queen both use their Lust powers, Milax on the Queen, the Queen on the party. Milax the slug and the Queen make out in front of EVERYONE sloppy style. 

While everyone watches, both horrified and disgusted, as Milax gets the queen extra slimy, the party smashes the throne, and the ants begin to crumble. Milax tries to hold the queen together, but even as powerful as she is, the ancient magic holding her together fails, and she crumbles in his… arms? 

---

 

There were a few other things that happened over the weeks we played this, but my notes for these sessions were frankly terrible, and I’m lucky I’m able to put this all together in anything that resembles a coherent narrative. Mind you, that’s a failure on my part, not on Beetle Knight, and I would absolutely play this again!

Rappan: Rocks and Ooze

 Session 324 was played on 3/22/26

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

Exploring the area around the tombs, but away from the spider queen, the party found some charcoal drawings and then a passage leading up… hundreds of feet up, at about a 35 degree angle. With few places left to look outside the webbed sections, the party headed up…  eventually the path leveled out and opened up into a circular cave with a large funnel in the middle of the floor sloping down 30’ to a roughly 10’ hole. Morgana used her wizard eye circlet to look below. 

Down the hole was another rough passage that soon opened up into a massive dark chamber with a very rough rocky floor covered in sharp scree. With nowhere else to go, the party used ropes to get down the funnel and into the large cavern. Moving across the scree was time consuming… but not completely fruitless. A long dead body bearing a signet ring of a notable family from Bardsgate. 

Exploring several of the tunnels out of the large cavern first found some dead ends, but then one that opened up into a second large cavern, this one with less loose rocks, and a still pond in the middle. Blotto excitedly casts a line into the water… except that the line didn’t go into the water, but landed with a plop onto it. A giant ooze! It whipped a psudopod at Blotto, smacking him hard, and the chill feeling that seemed to sap his strength was unlike any ooze he’d ever had the displeasure of encountering, while being more like the attack of a powerful undead!

Koltic held up the thick glass of the bottom of a beer mug and cried out to his god, and the lady of drunken vision answered, dramatically, as the entire lake ooze crumbled to ash

July ‘26 In Review

Starting the month with 100 degree days certainly is a miserable way to kick things off. On the upside, the Dungeon Dwellers RPG kickstarter arrived. Nice big box of new minis to paint and rules to read! Did I actually do any of that? A little. I started reading the campaign guide. I decided to delve into the Painted Wastelands Empire of Bones first, since that arrived last month. As for the minis? Well, they ended up getting checked and then repacked and added to my pile of potential. 

July 4th brought the usual fireworks around the neighborhood. It was otherwise a rather uneventful month. I planted some pumpkin seeds and I’ve got 3 plants that were coming along well. I hope I can get a few pumpkins from them.  2 are still going strong, bur one got damanged on the main stem and it looks like I'm going to lose the whole plant. 

Miniatures
I finished building the main body of the cardboard transport ship, and then paused. I’m trying to decide if I should build the roof of it or get to painting? I’m still unsure, but at this point leaning toward making the roof. 

But it was the middle of the month before I seriously got around to doing much painting, but once I did, I plowed through a trio of Noble Armada ships, a pirate, and a whole cartload of orcs (mostly done)! I experimented a bit with painting the orcs without priming. The paint takes to the 3d printed minis just fine, but color matching against the orcs I’d already painted was a pain, and I ended up going back and using brown liner on the rest. 



Gaming
Summer doldrums, and no work games. I’m really looking forward to getting back to Dolmenwood. 

We wrapped up the beetleknight game, and are back to Stonehell. The party is looking for a way to destroy the Gloom Crown, and think they might have the answer. Of course along the way they stumbled upon some dwarves and kobolds fighting over some cursed silver… 


Media 
Resident Alien season 4
DS9 season 6 rewatch
Letterkenny

Books
Second Suns
Broken Stars
Storm & Quill

Loot
Dungeon Dwellers RPG
4 Alternity books (my collection is almost complete)


Goals for August
Finish the cardboard transport ship