Stonehell: Looting the Residential Tombs

Session 150 was played on 6/11

Eiric, Wizard 8 (Kat)
Karl, Dwarf 8 (Julia)
Boris, Cleric 5 (Jeff)
Morgana, Mage 5 (Robert)
Kili, Dwarf Cleric 7 (Matt)
Borumar, Thief 7 (Josh)
Plus war dogs
2 M@A

Back to Stonehell, the party descends toward level 4, but are ambushed by a giant spider on level 3. The dog Big Red takes care of the vermin, and the party continues downto 4.

Exploring the old tombs the party encounters a variety of monstrous foes, including giant ticks, Wights, spiders, wraiths, a mummy, gaunt hounds, and berzerkers. Borumar takes the brunt of the damage from the undead, as he is the one who checks the doors for traps and locks.

After repeated draining, Borumar insists that Boris be standing ready to turn the undead, which sort of works. The incorporeal undead often just reach through the doors to grab him.

In the end the party amasses a good amount of treasure, including a tiara that turns whatever the wearer is wearing into a purple lined school girl uniform (think sailor scout) and makes for the surface.

Gains: 5500gp, magical tiara, gems, onyx statues
Kills: Spiders, Ticks, Wraiths, Wights, Mummy, Depraved Berzerkers, Gaunt Hound
Losses:

Sligg Soldier

 From Reaper's Bones 4 Chronoscope set comes the Sligg Soldier. It hasn't been released in Bones yet, but the metal version can be picked up here for not much more than it'll probably cost in Bones. 

As with all my other Bones minis, I started out with a warm soapy water scrub down with my hobby toothbrush to remove any oils or mold remover. After that I primed it with Blue Liner. I was working on it at the same time as the cyber troll and the space henchman, which is why I used blue, otherwise I might have picked a different liner color.

After lining, I gave the gun a coat of Metal Tone, and the rest of the mini got Christmas Wreath.

 The stock of the gun then got a couple of different browns to make it look like wood. I think the primary color ended up being leather brown. The skin went from Christmas Wreath to Viper Green with a wash of Runic Purple. It wasn't something I'd planned, but I had the wash handy from working on the cyber troll's skin, and I figured it was worth trying over the green. I think it made for an interesting skin tone. 

The crest got a coat of holly berry red, tipped with candlelight yellow.

The chest was leather brown, with candle light highlights, and the same candlelight was used for the claws.

The belt was painted with coal black that was brought up to a mid-grey color.

Now this little Sligg is ready to blast anyone who tells him he can't have what he came to take. Well, once I finish the base... and clean up that stray bit of yellow on the gun.

Unanswered Comments

A little bit of blog business. Apparently sometime in the last 6 months, blogger has stopped emailing me when people comment on my posts. So there were about 2 dozen comments that people left that got filtered, and twice as many spam comments (which is why filtering is turned on).

So if you left a comment, and it didn't show up, and I didn't reply, that's why.  

Sorry about that... I'll be checking that more often now that I know.

2020 Miniatures in Review

  

So here it is! A year's worth of minis. A fairly diverse array this year, from Battlefleet Gothic ships to steampunk to traditional fantasy, with a bit of terrain tossed in for good measure. Overall a total of 133 pieces. 

There were not a lot of hero type minis this year. In fact, counting the sci-fi dudes, I think this is all of them... and calling some of these "heroes" is a stretch. On the other hand, I'm really pleased with the conversion of the green knight and Kornovik back there.

Ah, the undead. I wasn't sure how the ghostly wraiths would work, but I think having the armor and parts of the weapons painted works. I have some non-translucent version that will be painted up like the Murkillors. The ghouls were a fun conversion project, and the ogres were a lot of fun to paint. Lots of big space to work on.

Ah, the underdark. Not something I spend a lot of time playing with, but these dark elves from Bones 4 (plus the ones behind them from Bones 1) were calling out to me. Factor in the cool Arachne and spiders, and you've got yourself some fun times! Plus there's the cool hooked horrors and umber hulks...

Bulking out a good chunk of this year's progress was my new space marine fleet, merchant convoy, and a trio of xenos ships from Noble Armada that'll probably count as dark eldar or something. 

Steampunk flying monkeys, a brain in a jar, and a very large iron golem.

Another look at the heroes, plus the temple dragon.

Goblins, vermin, and a dwarf paladin.

And a pair of hags and a bunch of rats to round things out. 

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my productivity for the year, though there is a not insignificant number of minis that I started and haven't finished yet. Maybe I should pull them all out and share what I didn't finish this year?

Cyber Troll Heavy Gunner

This picture should look familiar, as it was at the top of the previous post. Today though I'm writing about the "cyber troll" in the back there. The big guy, with the big gun, who doesn't exactly scream "cyber" but more "dakka! dakka! dakka!" as he unloads rounds in rapid fire mode.

Unlike the space henchman, he suffered from some mold line issues, so after being washed, he got additional cleanup work. He's also kinda… flat, though the gun does a good job hiding that fact. 

After being primed with blue liner, I started working on his flesh. I used Ogre Skin as the base color. My initial coats of paint made it look rather cartoonish. Not the worst looks, but not what I wanted. 

The eyes worked through. Don't remember for sure, but I think I used ruddy flesh under the ogre skin. The gun was painted first with the same airbrush metal tone paint I've been using a lot. 

Then I added the sample blue metallic paint to the gun, painted the chaps/overalls with ruddy flesh, highlighted up with leather brown and Osirian Sand. 

The shirt and paints were painted with Denim Blue. 

As I was unhappy with the cartoonish flesh, I mixed up a shadow using Runic Purple. I then used the same purple for the hair undercoat, and then brought it up with Breast Cancer Awareness Pink. The gun got a wash of blue liner. The horns and elbow spikes were brought up with the Osirian Sand I used with both the leather and the denim. 

The bandana wrapped around his wrist was painted with Holly Berry red, with a touch of Candlelight Yellow to highlight it. I also used the red for the lights/buttons on the gun, and on the space henchman's gun. The same Candlelight Yellow was used on the skin as the final highlight. 

The metal plates on the legs and gloves, and the clasps on the belts and boots were also painted with the metal tone airbrush paint, and washed with blue liner. 

And now these two mercenaries are ready to be hired for your crew. They aren't really who you'd want, but they're who you can afford. Good luck. 

Space Henchman

I pulled out a couple of different sci-fi minis to work on, but the short round one was the one that caught my attention after priming. Reaper's "Space Henchman" is a rather derpy looking figure, but still manages to have a fair bit of character in spite of the derpyness. 

As usual, I started with a warm soapy scrub, then primed with blue liner. I know, shocking it wasn't brown... 

Unfortunatly there weren't a lot of WIP pictures. I used the dusky skin triad for its flesh, and Cavalier Orange for the jump suite. The eyes and highlight mixes were done with linen white. The gun was originally painted with metal tone airbrush paint, but then I went over it with a blue metallic sample paint, and then a blue liner wash. 

I have to admit that the name of this mini is rather appropriate in feel. There's nothing to suggest that this guy is gonna be a main character, and maybe not even a named character. I imagine that he'd be rather inexpensive to hire... at least until the bookies/mob come looking for the mone he owes them, or the law catches up with him and his outstanding parking tickets/airspace violations. 

Why something so petty? He isn't bad enough to have successfully done much worse! 

And yes, the base is unfinished. Really it isn't even started. I haven't decided what to do with it yet, and am holding off until I have the other minis in the top picture finished, that way I can do them all together. 

2020 In Review

Well, wasn’t that a fucking ride. In no way, shape, or form can 2020 be said to have been a good year. It had it’s bright spots, but the pandemic, and the insane science deniers and ‘conservative’ politicians that pandered to them caused this to be way worse than it needed to be. Over 300,000 dead. It didn’t need to be that way. At least the vaccine is being rolled out. By next fall things might be looking a little more normal. But I’ll have been out of the office, working from my tiny one bedroom NYC apartment, for over a year by the time I get the vaccine. 

Beyond the pandemic, there's the glaringly exposed racial injustices… the domestic terrorists that stormed state capital buildings armed to the teeth unopposed by law enforcement, the one that blew himself and a city block up, the greedy rich assholes who've only gotten richer while everyone else got poorer...

And then there's the bloody murder hornets! At least, for the time being anyway, that seems to be contained.

All of it being made worse by the insanity of the last year of the Trump administration. Fuck Trump and all his supporters.

And on the personal side of things, I said goodbye to my Lucymonster just before Thanksgiving. 14 and a half years is a good life, but what I’d have given to double it. She was the best, and her loss still hurts.

But like I said, there were bright spots. The pandemic meant that I got to spend a lot more time with my family, including both the last months of Lucy's life, and the arrival of my son.

Also the defeat of Trump in the election was a slow arriving joy. People were literally honking their horns, and cheering for HOURS once it was official. That was a joyous day indeed.

The year wrapped quietly. Both Christmas and New Years were spent home. I’m looking forward to seeing family and friends again, but until we’re all vaccinated that’ll have to wait.


Gaming
Gaming was limited this year, not just due to the pandemic, but also due to working on the CPA exam. However there was a fair bit of Stonehell played, right up until the arrival of the kid. I am desperately behind on writing up session reports, but hope to begin to catch up on that over the next month or so.

Miniatures
Including some terrain pieces, I painted over 90 miniatures this past year! I still need to pull them all out and make the final count, but that post should go up sometime in the next week or so.

Media
Not nearly enough books were read, but a lot of TV was watched, especially in the last 3 months.

Goals
It’s traditional to make resolutions for the new year. I’m keeping mine simple. To be a good husband and father. Those will continue to be my resolutions, but that doesn’t mean I don’t also have some other goals for the year.

The biggest one is of course Survive the Pandemic! This seems more likely now that there’s a vaccine.

Paint more minis! I have a dragon coming that I’m really looking forward to painting, though I have no idea where I’ll put it when it’s done. We may end up moving this year, so maybe there will be more space?

Get back to gaming - even if it’s solo gaming. Ranger of Shadowdeep should fit the bill!

Here's to a happy, healthy, and more sane 2021!