January 2021 in Review

So aside from a failed insurrection, things have been on the upswing this month. I wrapped up work and am now on paternity leave, which has given me a little extra downtime, but not as much as you might think. Taking care of a 3 month old is exhausting.

Gaming
I did some!

Back in December I picked up a copy of Pandemic on sale, and my bride and I have gotten to play it a bunch of times now. We’re generally doing pretty well at saving the world too. We’ve failed some too, but… We also played some 5 Crowns, which is a fun little card game. I almost always get my ass handed to me when we play.

I also got to play some D&D!! I don’t have the energy to run Stonehell (which I might have mentioned) but one of my players has decided to run Rappan Athuk, and I pulled out my old flailsnails character Nick the Pike. It’s been a BLAST!

Miniatures
I worked a bunch on some IMEF troopers, but haven’t finished them. I got distracted by working on my cardboard spaceships. More on that tomorrow. 

Media
Oh boy, was there a lot of TV watching this month.

Lost in Space, season 1 (finished up the last couple episodes)
Umbrella Academy season 1
Supernatural (I’m up to the middle of season 14)
Queer Eye (bunch of episodes)
The Smugglers Room (so many... episodes?) https://www.youtube.com/c/TheSmugglersRoom
WandaVision
Star Trek TNG season 7 episodes

Probably some other stuff too 

Goals
Finish the IMEF dudes
Build ship #3
Finish something from my shelf of shame

Nick the Pike, a reintroduction

Who doesn't love a "let me tell you about my character" blog post?

---

After a disastrous battle, Niccolo found himself unemployed, and friendless after his unit was taken out by some demon thing.. Scrounging what he could from the battlefield and the destroyed pack train, he fled. Never wanting to feel his life thrown away for some faceless lord, he decided to strike out on his own, and seek his fortune where no one could order him into some hopeless battle.

In the years since, Nick has found himself delving numerous dungeons, taking portals with startling frequency between realms. He’s never quite sure what world he’s on anymore, having literally been to hell, fighting in the skeleton wars.

After trying his skills adventuring, he heard a herald calling for contestants in a tournament, but only those of higher station could participate. Knowing how the world worked, he paid the lord who’d organized the event to knight him. Thus Niccolo, aka Nick the Pike, became Sir Niccolo de G’plus. Spending some of his hard earned gold, he purchased a jousting mount, jousting armor, and hired a squire and a herald, and so began the tourney phase of Nick’s career.

Between events, there were other adventures, including a wedding at which his squire was torn limb from limb by a werewolf, and one of his men at arms, Boarface, took leave of Sir Nick’s service. Nick still feels guilty about his squire’s death, and has become even more protective of those in his service. At the same wedding Nick drew several cards from a Deck of Many Things. He was granted a wish, which he has not claimed, and is also watched by an other worldly being who bares him great malice.

Between the demon that launched his adventuring career, the various horrors he’s faced in sprawling dungeons, the violent death of his squire at a wedding, and the frequent feeling of being watched by something unnatural, Nick frequently wakes up in a cold sweat from the nightmares.

To see him is to be generally unimpressed. Somewhat on the short side for a human, and a bit stocky, his stubbly worn face rarely smiles. As a bit of a snub towards his purchased station, he keeps his hair cut down to near stubble, causing “real” knights to avoid his company. He dresses simply in sturdy and fashionable clothing when not adventuring, and in plate armor that looks too fancy for the wearer. His kite shield is painted red, with a white cross of equal lengths that doesn’t quite reach any of the edges of the shield. A stylized portcullis is framed in the top left quadrant, and a black pike stretches from the bottom left quadrant to the top right over the white +. He still carries his old pike, but will drop it to favor his ax with glowing blue runes.

Nick the Pike in Rappan Athuk

Session played on 1/21


Nick the Pike, Fighter 5
Lady Eiric, Magic User
Karl, Dwarf
Darryl, Cleric (NPC)

South of the old keep, the party came upon an ancient battlefield with great plinth in the middle upon which was a mounted warrior, all made of white marble. On the plinth was a locked door, beyond which was a large hall lined with empty pillars that looked like they once held busts. At the far end of the space was a stair heading down…

Taking the stairs, the stonework shifted from white marble shot through with black to black shot through with white. Descending around 80’ the stairway ended in a hall. Carefully making their way down the hall they came to a locked door with a small caged window. Looking through revealed a decently sized chamber with an open doorway at the far end. Not wanting to bash open the door, the party continued down the hall.

Shambling out of the darkness came 5 zombies. Darryl destroyed them with a drunken wave of his hand. Quickly checking over the bodies a small bit of silver was recovered.

Further down the hall, and around the corner a set of 4 matching cells were found, occupied by some adventurers that had been captured. Wharton the elf was very talkative and wanted out. Again, not wanting to make a ton of noise, the party continued on, leaving the adventurers locked up, but with a promise to find the key, held apparently by a gross fat man called “The Abbott”

Deeper into the dungeon the party found a doorway with a purple light that glowed brighter as they approached. Looking in Nick saw a massive worship space. Pews between pillars carved with twisted frog like creatures, a stone altar, a cauldron bubbling with… body parts, and behind all that a giant frog statue with glowing gem eyes. 8 zombies in green robes carrying waxy rods tried to attack, but Darryl destroyed most of them, Karl smashed one, and Nick took his down (with 2 hits).

Searching around the frog statue Karl found a lever, and pushed it up. A spray of acidic gas rained down, burning Nick’s eyes. Stumbling away, he bumped into the boiling cauldron, burning himself. Darryl healed him a little, and Nick downed a healing potion on top of that. Karl was only mildly bothered by the acid.

Pulling the lever opened a secret door that revealed a hallway. Taking the passage they came to a room piled with old wooden coffins, with withered old bodies and nothing else. Beyond that room was another large chamber with 6 small chambers off of it, each with 16 coffins. Written on the floor was Graves of the Lower Priesthood. At the head of the room was a statue with a golden circlet upon it. Starting to investigate the side chambers, Karl opened a coffin. A zombie, unnaturally fast, reached out clawing at Karl at the room reverberated with a loud croaking sound that seemed to come from the statue. 5 other zombies emerged from coffins, 1 from each side chamber. Darrly took care of them easily. Checking another coffin had the same result, as did checking the 3rd, 4th, 5th coffins. A loud croaking sound, and 6 more fast zombies. Deciding that they’d all had enough fun, the circlet was pulled from the statue (6 more zombies), the gems from the frog statue, then back to the prisoners.

Wharton the Elf said that the other prisoners were all part of his group, and that we should free them if we could. Lacking the key, Karl busted down the doors… except for one. Biffin the fighter’s cousin Zor was left locked up, as it was determined that Zor was more likely to run for help from the cultists than go with the party. Biffin offers to join up with the group if they’ll re-equip him.

Passing back up the stairs, through the hollow plinth, and back out onto the ancient battlefield, the party breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the sky again. 

Gains: 50sp, 8 silver rings, 2 glowing gems, and a golden circlet
Kills: Lots of zombies
Losses:

Unfinished Business 2020 - The Shelf of Shame

 I mentioned before that I had a number of minis that I started in 2020 that made it to some level of painted before they were abandoned. I decided to pull them all out of their various hiding spots and look at them all together.

So, the common denominator is that they're all character minis. 8 female, 7 male. 

Let's go through them, and why I haven't finished them. 

The herbalist and the halfling both got shuffled aside when I was doing a clean off of my tray, and wanted to work on something else. I'll probably get back to them.

The pirate lady up front, I got one color on her and realized I had no idea what I actually wanted to fo with her, so decided to stop. When I get inspired, I'll get back to her.

The duelist was for the D&D game I was playing in, which ended. Same with the thief girl who is nearly done. 

The Spanish Inquisition... I couldn't get the red where I wanted it, and was getting frustrated.

The mystic woman in red with the fancy trim on her robe. The fancy trim takes a lot of effort.

The celtic lads... honestly they just need a tiny bit of work on their weapons, maybe a bit of shading. Really need to finish them off soon. 

Elf lady in the back... I decided I hated the color combo I picked out. Probably going to repaint her completely.

The two matching druids... I wanted to try painting the bones and metal version of the same mini at the same time, then got distracted.

The wizard... Not even sure he should count. I pulled him out to use up some extra paint from the galaxy cloak class I took. 

All in all adding 15 minis to the shelf of shame wasn't too bad, but I think I'm going to try to take at least half of them off of it this year. We'll see what I get to. I think the Spanish Inquisition minis will probably be first, since I just need to get the red up, and I really should be able to do that. Them and the celtic lads will be easy. 

So what's on your shelf of shame?

Stonehell: Bearly Worth the Visit

Session 151 was played on 6/14

Eiric, Wizard 8 (Kat)
Karl, Dwarf 8 (Julia)
Daton, Fighter 3 (Jay)
Boris, Cleric 5 (Jeff)
Morgana, Mage 5 (Robert)
Borumar, Thief 7 (Josh)
Plus war dogs

Selling the magical tiara took 4 weeks, during which time Boris brewed potions and wrote some scrolls, while Ladies Eiric and Morgana conducted research. Everyone else chilled out in town, or spent their time looking for buyers.

After the tiara was sold, and the cash divided, the party geared back up and headed back down to the Residential Tombs, pausing on the second level to chat with some of Karl’s berzerker friends.

Once down into the tombs, they came across a small bunch of kobold slackers avoiding their work detail. They then fought a jelly creature which split when they hit it, didn’t seem to care about being drenched in oil and lit on fire, and eventually died at the casting of some magic missiles.

Then the party was surprised by a giant bear, which was tough but fell to the combined might of the party, with the help of the wardogs. Some giant rats were scared off by the dogs, a pair of shadow drained Lady Morgana’s strength before being destroyed. A pair of wights were destroyed by Boris before they could do anything.

Some minor treasure was found, and then they stumbled upon a pair of scared sickly looking depraved berzerkers who were terrified of the party. They let them live, to spread the word that the party is NOT to be messed with.

Some further exploration and they party is ambushed, unsuccessfully, by a quartet of ogres. A pair of “Hold Person” spells and some fine combat meant they were killed before they could fully spring their trap. The Held ogres were killed, and their bodies looted.

Ready to call it a delve, they headed back to town. Lady Morgana needed to rest up after her encounter with the shadows!

Gains: Not enough coins to have made it worth it
Kills: Jelly, shadows, wights, cave bear, ogres
Losses:

Cardboard Spaceship for #StarGrave part 2

In my first post on this project, I ended with the first coat of primer applied. It took a while for both the weather and my free time to coincide. This past weekend, that happened. After letting the ship collect dust for a bit, I finally got back outside and added a second coat of primer. I then took the family on a long walk in the park. When we got back, and had dinner... well... what else was there to do but work on my ship!

I started with a very rough overbrush of a tan paint that I had mixed up at the local home improvement store for a project some year back. We still had more than half the can, and well... I'm a little lacking in craft paints. 

I thought I got pics of that, but apparently not. 

After that, I mixed in some Ultramarine Blue, and then brushed over the tan with that.

Then I used Metal Tone on the engine bits and the hatch on top. 

After that I added in some variety using Redstone, Cavalier Orange, and more of the Ultramarine Blue. Then, using a sponge and some black craft paint, I added more weathering, and using Filagree Silver, some highlights to the exposed metal.

I also added some spots of what I think of as blaster scorch marks. 

Overall I'm very pleased with my first attempt at making a cardboard model. it's a little rough, but will still look great on a table covered with sci-fi terrain. 

That isn't to say I would make my next one exactly the same way. For one thing, I didn't measure nearly well enough, and while I started with a plan, I was winging it way more than I should have. I was inconsistent in how I did the paneling. I should have figured that out before I started gluing. I also made the top structure way more complex a shape than I should have. Yes, card bends. That doesn't mean you should be making curved surfaces. I should have put in some detail under the top hatch. 

However, now that this is done, it's time to start thinking about the next ship I'll build. Something a little smaller I think.

Sunday Inspirational Image: City of Rust

By EStreet