Stonehell: Lost Level wanderings

Session 154 was played on 6/28

Karl, Dwarf 8 (Julia)
Boris, Cleric 5 (Jeff)
Morgana, Mage 5 (Robert)
Borumar, Thief 7 (Josh)
Daton, Fighter 4 (Jay)

Continuing in the lost level, the party comes across some giant white apes, and kills them. Then continue into an old barracks, and find a long lost hidden stash of coin in one of the dry rotted bunk posts. Beyond that, a looted map room. A trio of ghouls try to get the jump on the party, but Boris easily Destroys them.

The next chamber they come to is a large one, with several gargoyles perched on a weird fountain, blowing bubbles. The bubbles are sticky, and Borumar reaches a critical number of them and begins to float up to the ceiling. Karl and Boris grab him, stab the bubbles and keep on the ground. Across the room is an open doorway that leads to some natural caves. Following the fresh air, the party finds itself on the surface.

Heading back into the caves, after hours of crawling in the darkness they come to an opening onto a shear wall. Below, a softly glowing mist, above them the dark form of a bridge, and the bottom of a floating island. In a hidden stash just inside the opening, the find a potion.

Backtracking, they return to the bubble room, then backtrack to the hallway to the teleport chamber. They check to the east, finding a chamber with 4 pillars, each of which has a ring with 4 letters on it, and the rings spin. They try spinning the rings for a couple of combinations, but quickly give up.

Taking the teleporter they return to the Quiet Halls, and then back to town.

Lady Morgana researches Invisibility 10’ radius, Daton trains with a swordmaster, Karl expands his hat shop, Borumar trains with Captain Morgan, getting a deeper mental connection with the dog.

Gains: Small stash of coins, potion of gaseous form,
Kills: giant apes, ghouls
Losses:

Rappan Athuk: Black Skeleton

Session played on 2/4

Nick the Pike, Fighter 6
Lady Eiric, Magic User
Karl, Dwarf
Darryl, Cleric (NPC)
Biffin, Fighter (NPC)

Exploring the outside of the big mausoleum failed to turn up any other ways into the structure, but a selection of old ruined stoneworking tools was found on the roof.

Lady Eiric used her magic to unlock the doors, and Nick pushed them open. Within was a large open space, with a stone coffin resting in the center back of it. Upon the coffin were a pair of brass candelabras, each with a single lit candle. Karl and Nick carefully entered. Karl, using his 10’ pole knocked the candelabras from the coffin, and the candles stayed lit. Everburning flames… Nick pocketed one, Karl the other. Karl also bagged the candelabras.

Then Karl triggered… something. Nick, standing back at the doors was knocked out of the mausoleum, while Karl was trapped inside. A cackling laugh echoed from within the coffin, and Karl started screaming and banging on the doors. Lady Eiric quickly magiced the doors unlocked, but shoving them open was difficult, but accomplished. Karl squeezed out as the doors slammed shut once more. A loud grinding noise continued for several minutes.

Once everything had quieted down again, Lady Eiric again unlocked the doors, and Nick and Karl tried to go around whatever trap they’d triggered but hugging the walls, and trying to investigate the coffin from the rear of the room. That failed. Again, the doors slammed shut, breaking in half a steel pick head that had been wedged between the doors. Trying to shove the coffin off the metal plate upon which it rested was semi-successful, as the coffin did move. Unfortunately the black skeleton within didn’t take too kindly to that, and clawed at both Nick and Karl. Nick took the worst of it, but the skeleton was destroyed. At this point the pair noticed that the floor was now much closer to the ceiling, and blocking the door.

Karl was still screaming.

Then the banging began. First on the ceiling, then a pause, then on the doors. Far louder than anything that Biffin, Darryl, or Lady Eiric could accomplish, but all apparently ineffective at breaking into the structure.

With time and space running out, they finish pushing the stone coffin off the metal plate, and get onto it themselves. There was a cut out area in the ceiling directly above the plate deep enough to keep the pair of them from getting crushed. As the stone coffin was shattered, Karl and Nick curled up and prayed.

Karl continued to scream.
And then, with the push of extreme air pressure Karl and Nick were shoved, as the stone coffin reformed on the plate. The room had returned instantly to its previous condition.

The banging continued. Karl’s screaming… stopped.

With a bit of trepidation, they pushed the coffin off the plate again, and used a hidden handle to lift the plate. A 30’ drop was before them. And from the pit, the smell of moldering bodies. Figuring that there’s probably another way out through the tunnels, and not wanting to face whatever was banging on the doors, they tied a rope to the metal plate’s hinge structure and went down into the darkness.

At the bottom of the drop, the roughly carved tunnel stretched 100’ to the east. Down the tunnel they went, all the way to a 10’ deep pit in the floor. Pausing to check the pit, Karl discovers a metal door hidden under some loose dirt. Opening the door revealed another room, rough cut, with a low 4’ high ceiling. The air was fresher down that way, so down Nick and Karl went. In the room were several small piles of bones, all clearly intentionally stacked. Not messing with them, they took the open doorway out into another tunnel, and kept straight, avoiding the branches, and following the fresher air.

Emerging from the tunnel they came into a medium sized room with a normal height roof. The worked stone of this room was far nicer than the rough cut stone of the previous passages. Following the doorway. A short ways beyond that was what appeared to be a viewing room, with a coffin laid out. Very dusty, with a set of stairs going down… rather than go deeper, they decided to backtrack and return to the tunnel and see where that would get them.

Once in the tunnel, they heard Lady Eiric yelling for them. Continuing to backtrack they returned to the rope, the mausoleum, and found the doors open, and the party waiting for them. Lady Eiric explained that she’d summoned an earth elemental to try to break in, but it didn’t work, while Darryl found the key in the base of the dwarf statue! Karl and Nick told of what happened to them. Deciding they’d done (taken) enough damage, they returned to the keep and Lady Eiric’s estate to recover.

Gains: Small Silver Necklace
Kills: Black Skeleton
Losses:

IMEF Troops

 As part of my sci-fi theme this year in anticipation of Stargrave, I dug through my previous Bones Chronoscope minis, looking for things that'll be useful. A lot of them aren't. There's probably not gonna be a lot of use for old west or modern minis, but I do have a bunch of IMEF and Nova Corps minis, as well as the Blackstar Corsairs. I long ago painted up bunch of Nova Corps, so decided to go with the IMEF troopers. They're very reminiscent of the marines from the Aliens movies. 

So the Corsairs and the Nova Corps went back into the box, and the IMEF soldiers got a hot soapy scrub down, and lined in Green Liner. 

I think I ended up with doubles of the heavy gunner, flamer, and the one trooper from the Box of Goodwill that goes around on the Reaper Forums, but they might also have been mispacks from the kickstarter. I don't remember at this point.

I would like to point out the difference in the bases between these guys and the Squigg Soldier behind them. While the Squigg is on a traditional 1" base, it's completely featureless, while the IMEF troopers all have vaguely sci-fi decking molded onto their much thinner bases. Given the choice, I'd much rather have the thinner sculpted bases. They're easier to cut from the base should I want something else, but also it's easy to just paint what's there. 

After the green liner I pulled out some other paints to try on these guys. I don't think I've ever painted green army men, so the whole camo type thing is new to me. Thankfully I've got good paints to work with. For this project I pulled out IMEF Olive, Camouflage Green, and Worn Olive for the greens, and Desert Stone and Desert Sand for the tan/khaki colors. I used Redstone for the flamers' padded armor.

But before I got to that I blocked in the weapons with Metal Tone, and the faces with Ruddy Flesh and Tanned Flesh.

I then blocked in the tan under suits and straps, added some colors and washes trying to figure out the best strategy to get the look I'm trying to achieve. I found the black wash over the guns was fantastic, but a little too dark on the outfits. A blend of dark sepia wash with a bit of black wash worked better. 

After washing, it was time to go back and bring the highlights back up. I painted some blue reflection onto the lenses

I decided to try a little OSL from the guns. It was... semi-successful. I also blue lined the bases, followed that up with a Scorched Metal over brush, and then dry brushed with Metal Tone.

Can't really see it here, but all the guns also got a dot of red above the barrel. The heavy gunners' bandanas were painted red and blue with pure white dots to suggest a pattern. 

I need to take some final shots of them, but until I do, this is where I'm gonna wrap up the post. 

Next up: Snakes!

Sunday Inspirational Image: Neon Lights

 

By Vincent Lefevre

Reaper Tool-Bots

 Reaper's Toolbots are these adorable pudgy little helpers that I absolutely had to paint up to be a part of my StarGrave team, even if they only play a background roll, and don't actually take part in the game. 

Somewhere along the way though, I lost one of their tool arms, specifically the saw. Digging through the bits I had available to me, I found a Space Marine scope designed to be put on a bolter. I trimmed it a bit so that it wouldn't stick straight out, and...

I think it works!

Once all assembled, I washed them in hot soapy water, and primed them with blue liner. This picture might look a little familiar... You've only seen it 3 times before!

For the color scheme, I decided to look at the colors that tool makers use now, and I settled on the DeWalt brand yellow and black. I used Ogre Skin and Candlelight Yellow for the yellow bits, and Coal Black for the black. I picked out details in Holly Berry and Viper Green. The metal bits were Metal Tone.

 

As with all the other minis I'm painting up for StarGrave, I still need to base them. And to do that I need to decide on how I'm gonna base them...

Rappan Athuk: Gargoyles in the Graveyard

Session played on 1/28

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

The party, accompanied by the freed prisoners return to the keep without encounter save for some thumping in the middle of the night. Also Karl, in possession of the glowing green gems, falls under a curse. He becomes sallow skinned, and his hair and beard seem thinner and dryer. Darryl and Lady Eiric determine that the gems are cursed. Darryl removes the curse from Karl, but the gems will take more effort.

Back at the keep it’s market day, and the party goes searching for info/rumors. Nick spends his time listening to stories in the bar, including from a group of dwarves who decided not to explore the local megadungeon after hearing that “any who enter will become slaves to darkness” which, frankly, sounds like hogwash. A young boy warns Nick not to go down the well, and a trader tells of a cloister dedicated to Tsathogga the frog demon to the north. Karl and Lady Eiric spend their time looking for ways to restore Karl’s health. Rumor that there’s a seal of power that might help lies deep in the dungeon. Not the most helpful of clues.

After finding out what they could, the party takes Nick and his hirelings, as well as Biffin though the portal back to the barn on Lady Eiric’s estate. After spending a few days removing the curse from the gems, they’re sold in town, and the party heads to the site of the mausoleum, the best known entrance to the megadungeon.

The valley of the mausoleum is a great graveyard with 3 main buildings. The great mausoleum to the south, a pair of lesser mausoleums to the east and west, and a well at the northern end of the area. Starting with the well, an everburning torch is dropped down. It falls about a hundred feet, before landing in shallow water. Watching for several minutes, nothing comes to investigate.

Moving on, the party goes to the middle of the graveyard, and spends a moment looking at the dwarven statue. Nick pours one out, while Karl drinks one in his honor.

Off to the side mausoleums, they’re checked out, but found to be locked up tight. Then to the main one. Much more ornate, with a gaudy skull motif and gargoyles perched above. When the door is tried, the gargoyles attack! More powerful than any Nick had faced before, they possessed the ability to magically hold anyone that they managed to grab with both claws. Darryl was first, followed by Biffin, then Nick Darryl and Biffin were both lifted from the ground, but Karl managed to catch them when Lady Eiric blasted them out of the sky with her magic missiles, saving them both from too much falling damage.

A few minutes after the death of the last monster, the magical effect began to wear off. The gargoyles were checked over, and their jet eyes removed.

Gains: 12 jet eyes
Kills: 6 gargoyles
Losses:

Cardboard Spaceship #2 for #Stargrave

 Unlike the Lana Emirp, this little ship design doesn't have a single piece of cardboard in its construction. It's actually made largely from the sides of a box of clementines. 

The wings were measured out, with my (half painted) Sgt. Forscale handy, and the corner supports of the box placed to serve as the engines.

Because the supports were 1.5" wide, and I only wanted them to be 1" I had to trim them down. Now having any power tools meant a lot of cutting and sawing by hand. It wasn't as exact as I'd have liked, but it got the job done.

And here you can see how bit it is as compared to my first ship.

I used some cast off insulation foam to form the cockpit. I also beveled the edges of the wings. Again, doing it by hand means that it's not as smooth or even as I'd like. Really should buy some sandpaper at least.

I also used foam to make the lower half of the cockpit, and some side supports. Because the ship is so small the underside won't be seen, so I wasn't worried about making some fancy looking landing gear. This'll all probably be black to further hide the fact that it's just foam blocks.

Here I'm cladding the wood and foam with note card paper.

Using one of those fake credit cards that sometimes show up in junk mail to make the grills for the engine exhaust.

I glued a couple pieces together to serve as spacers to try to keep the spacing as even as I could. 

And I added... well... shelves to sit the exhaust ports on.

Then I attached the exhausts... and realized the one on the left is just a tad too big due to the slope of the engine. Ooops. That's what you get when you don't get a clean cut. Ah well.

Onto paneling and greebling. Mostly this is more 3x5 note card, but there's a bit of plastic scrap too. The black bits are the sprue from a GW square base. The circular bits are the tube from a shampoo bottle pump sliced thin.

That little green x is the tip of a broken post from the poop bag dispenser and that silvery bit is a bead that I had kicking around in my bits box.

And here it is, all cladded up. Time to get to painting!