The Alchemical Monstrosity

 Well, due to the lack of a better name, and the fact I intend to use this beastie in the Frostgrave solo scenario of the same name...

... if I ever actually get round to that.

The model itself I'm not entirely sure, but I believe it comes from the Clan Wars Shadowlands Horde range.

 

Paintwise, I basically used colours as I went along painting other things, so it ended up a brown skin with a fleshy underside, and some highly contrasting blue and green details.

 

Now, it is a cool nice beastie, and I look forward to facing it!

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Amongst Thieves

 Neverwinter!  Icewind Dale!  Baldur's Gate!  THE HARPERS!!!!!

This movie is definitly a trip for 2.5 (the brown books) players about the Forgotten Realms.

But is it actually also a good movie?  The story starts with the bard Edgin pleading for prior release from jail, together with his companion, the barbarian Holga.  He is an ex Harper that turned to a life of stealing when his wife was killed by disciples of a Red Mage he had arrested.  Even though the parole was approved, before they heard the ruling they make a daring escape.

They arrive in Neverwinter, learning that their companion Forge became the lord there, and is the self-proclaimed uncle of Edgin's daughter Kira.  He is reinstating the High Sun games, and they learn he and the Red Mage Sofina had doublecrossed him years ago, resulting in their capture and imprisonment.  Fleeing the city, they recruit Simon, a so-so wizard they adventured with, and the druid Doric.  They must find the Helm of Disjunction, an artefact that can break the seals on Forge's vault, and where a tablet is kept that can bring back his dead wife.

Asking Holga's ancestors in a graveyard where the battle took place for the Helm, they meet the paladin Xenk Yandar who hid it in the Underdark.   They manage to retrieve it from the perils in there (that chubby dragon was hilarious), but Simon has trouble mastering the Helm.  They try another plan to enter the vault, but as they get captured they are brought into the arena (and say hello to the actors of the original DnD cartoon).

They escape the games and steal the boat Forge's treasure is on, but as they see the city being under thread of being wiped out by Sofina's magics, they return to stop her.  In an epic duel, and with the help of Kira, they manage to slip an anti-magic bracelet on her, but Holga is mortally wounded.  Edgin decides to resurrect her instead of his wife, as she has become a part of their family.  Crowned heroes, Forge on the other hand is now imprisonned in Revel's End...

So this movie was good fun, and surely worth the watch, and not only for the nostalgia as I mentioned at the beginning!

AHPC11: Dungeons and Denizens

 Every year, near the end of the challenge, I end up with one of these posts: literally a dump post of all the things began, yet not finished for this year.

And it is no different in this edition, so labelling it Dungeons and Denizens, it is quite a hotchpotch of things painted in between entries, with the solemn goal of  "who knows if I need it in DnD one day" kind of stuff.

As well as some terrain, being mostly 2x2 dungeon tiles but also a rather big statue, there is some variety of beasts in here.

Repainted clix models, some metal guy on bails of hay of which I got no clue where I ever obtained him from, all that sort of loose stuff.

Which also makes it a bit of a puzzle for the points calculation.  I guess 10 points is sufficient for all the tiles and the statue, it goes for about 6 cubic inch, but the paint jobs aren`t that hard for those.  The beasties are all 28mm ones, so that is 6 of them for 30 points, making 40 points total?

AHPC11: The Graveyard Beach: Zombie Horde

Well, I`m not really planning on building any 9th age or WFB Vampires army anytime soon, but these zombies, an old set from Mantic, would have been perfect for that.

Instead, I grabbed the box at a discount bargain, with the sole purpose of having "fodder" for games of Dungeons and Dragons or Rangers of Shadow Deep.

In that regard, I painted them in a fleshy, not to gory, colour scheme, because that way I can use them as crzed starved fanatical villagers or something as well, forming wave after wave of low hp and unskilled masses to throw at the heroes.

An added bonus is that it paints up really smooth as well, so a couple of hours later I had a nice heap of 30 zombies, ready to claw their way towards the unwilling opponents!

 

So that makes an excellent 150 points for the models, and a nice boost to my tally as it becomes 170 points due to the 20 point location bonus...

 

2.11.0.0

AHPC11: Decorating the Dungeon

 A small entry of essentials from me for this next update on my journey to the "1000" in that I painted up some dungeon furniture this week.

It is essential in such a way that while I have already printed quite some exterior scatter material for (solo) gaming, I realised I barely have any interior pieces.

To that end, I am going to be running my Ender 3 on that job (after I replaced the nozzle, this one has seen it's time, overextruding as a result) and make sure to get a lot of small stuff done, as well as piles of extra dungeon tiles.

Because who knows, this pandemic might actually end this year and I can get that planned DnD campaign going at last, only with a delay of 1.5 years.  Which is still faster then your average public transportation bus here in Belgium...

AHPC11: The Hatchery: Dragon Hatchling

 Entering the second level of our decent into the Chambers of Challenge, we arrive in a large room called The Hatchery.

 

And the theme of the setting is "something that came out of an egg".

While my initial idea was to paint up some raging dwarf shouting Leeeeroy Jenkinssssss I instead went for another model.  Rummaging through my pile of figures I printed up for DnD (delayed due to you know what), I came across this dragon hatchling.

Now, there is no particular reason the little beastie is of the Blue Dragon variety other then that I was working on another entry with blues in it mostly, so that's rather easy going.

And as such, for this chamber I have a single 28mm figure painted up, and the journey continues onwards!

AHPC11: Classic Zombies

For this entry, I have some really old models I found in my bit box: the classic WFB zombies.

 

 

While I don`t plan on an army, they are suited for "NPC" zombies in various fantasy games, as they are so full of character compared to the current day plastic kits of various sources.

 While I do use the plastics for the "masses" sometimes needed in games, these old metal jewels are used for that lost friend or fallen city guard in smaller scale games, and as such I painted them up in a variety of clothing schemes, though generally I took the old Empire city states as a guideline.  Heck, I am still at heart a Warhammer player, as that was my first game back in 1994...

 So now I have these 8 lovely chaps to shamble around my gaming boards in search of brains and daring adventurers, though those two often don`t go together if you look at the average Dungeons and Dragons session...

2.11.0.0

Babirusa's

 The first models finished in the final month of the year, this pair of pigfaced warriors invoked a huge Gamorrean feel with me.

Gained through an Instagram contest back in april, hosted by DnDminisdaily and ProjectDarkWater, they are awesome resin models that will make a nice encounter in one of my groups future adventures once we get going, hopefully in 2021...

 

Their lore states they used to be small beasts hunted for jewelry making of their tusks, but due to the corruption of the Gloam became hulking creatures with a taste for manflesh.  While on a tribal level of development, they are usually solitary beasts with low intelligence and not much of a social structure...

 

Armed with two stone mallets, these beasts can prove nasty suprises to the poor adventurers that cross their paths, and they will be forced to fight for their lives... or end up as supper!

 

 

Lovely models to paint, and fearsome looking sculpts, these are a great addition to my evergrowing collection of beasties!

A new stack of Dungeon Tiles

During orktober, I have been printing mostly movement trays and dungeon tiles, and now the tiles are painted up.

Part of the "Castle Range" from Printable Scenery, the 2x2 floor tile is what I`ll be churning out mostly as before.

 

And as such, another stack of 13 tiles have been finished, so the complete collection so far can start accomodating for medium and larger sized rooms, though i still want to print and paint up quite a bunch of various tiles.

And they can be used for Rangers of Shadow Deep, as I`m slowly preparing for the Tor Varden storyarc mission...

Giant Vulture

 Printed and painted for the Rangers of Shadow Deep game I presented earlier this week, this beast is actually a printing mistake.

I needed one Giant Vulture for the game, and with my sleepy head I took the stl file by Miguel Zavala, and scaled it up another bumb, to 200%.

 

The result being a GARGANTUAN Vulture now, but heck, a quick paint job later in two colour tones for all the areas, and the beast was good enough for the game.

And afterwards I can still give it a use as an encounter once the Dungeons and Dragons campaign can actually take off...

Some fresh Dungeon Tiles

While Covid-19 and "bubbles" are seemingly going to be around for a while still, both clublife and the planned DnD campaign are still on hold for me.

But that does give me time to print and paint material for the latter in between all the 6mm violence, and the stuff I'm going to be printing during Orktober.

And that are some more Dungeon Tiles this time round, in the form of 4 rocky floor ones from Printable Scenery, as well as another 3 long from Open Forge on Thingiverse.

Nothing to spectacular at all, but they do need to be printed and painted of course to be able to put them on the table once we can get started...

Green Hag

Perhaps the lowest ranking (in Challenge level) of Hags, the Green Hag is never the less till a daring opponent to face.

Using stealth, invisibility and spells, she draws upon the desperation of her victims.

I went on to print one to actually include in an encounter for my aventurers, or who knows, adventurer... because she can be defeated in other ways then pure combat.

The model as always comes from mz4250 files, and printed up rather okay, considering printing figures I found out is not my strongest thing yet on my trusty Ender 3.

Now to finish building the story around her...

Chuul

Actually printed up to represent the Alchemic experiment in the first solo Frostgrave scenario from the Dark Alchemy expansion, this beast can be unleased upon my pc's as well should they misbehave.

I liked the model, an mz4250 design as most of my DnD prints, as it looked like something truly otherwordly as a sort of lobster demon thing.

Now, in the DnD Monster's manual, these survivors of the ancient Abolth empire are a daring foe to face even though it is only challenge level 4, but it can be a serious deterrent early on to block doorways and the likes.

And in the Frostgrave scenario, let's say it's better to reach the door then to face it in combat, especcially at the lower levels of spellcasters (like mine).

Just remember dear PC's, in DnD you don`t fish for food, the food fishes for you...

Kobolds

The kobold, little reptilian ball of joy...

Or, as in most low level campaigns, the "mainstay enemy" aka punching ball for starting out adventurers.

Not to brave, rather shabby fighters, and about as tough as a wet sheet of paper, these are often the first "mass encounter mobs" characters come across.  And "mass" being usually an impressive 3 or 4 at the most.

So I printed up some of mz4250's Kobolds for just that reason, to have a couple of them ready for first encounters and lootgrabbing.

Nothing to fancy, and the one which had an arm print accident has already been lovingly dubbed Stumpy...

Giant Weasels

Thougn not a "necessary" mob to print for my DnD games yet, I am "in between" churning out beasties for the Random Encounter Table.

And that will exist mostly out of enraged wildlife...

Mutated, enlarged or otherwise not standard, but wildlife none the less, and to that end the first models I printed are these four Giant Weasels.  A match for a level 1, even a pair of them, but in a pack they can become tricky prospects if someone gets isolated.

And fun little things to print to, hailing from Miguel Zavala's range of DnD creatures.

How I`ll present my games

With the end of social distancing in sight, and the start of the DnD 5E campaign as a result coming closer, I have been thinking about how I`ll record the adventures of my party on here.

To that end, I have been scrolling around, and I must say I like the format of the excellent Tower of the Archmage blog.

For that end, I will make my own variation on his recordingstyle, but all credit goes to him for inspiring me on this.  But the session profiles will be looking like this over here:

*****

Adventure name

Text of fluff detailing where they are going and why

List of participants:
Character name (player name) class and level
Any joining mercenaries, hirelings or other npc's

Report on how the adventure went, including one or two pictures

Results:
Gains: any gold or items the party found
Kills: all the monsters the party made
Losses: who of the party went down or accompanying npc's

Map Update:
Any new locations on the world map, if any, shall be implemented and a copy of the map how it stands at current will come here.  In the tab on the top of the page, the map will also get an updated version, and the adventure will be "indexed" on there with a link to the adventure post.

 

*****

And that is how I plan on recording all the sessions over time.  It should allow some quick reference in case that due to circumstances some time passes between sessions (for example, in a multiple evening adventure), or some "catching up" for a player that might miss out on an evening game.

And to entertain you followers of course!

Spiders!!!

Printed and painted for the second scenario of the The Missing mission from Rangers of Shadow deep, come these Giant Spiders.

I went on prupose for something a bit smaller then the Mirkwood spiders for example from the MESBG range, as the scenario artwork shows them about the size of a human head, not of a pony.

The models come from Thingiverse and are small Tarantula like beasties, and with the 6 printed I should be able to cover the whole requirement of the scenario, which I`ll be playing in the coming week normally.

So stay tuned for the battle report and see how much havoc these critters can cause on my poor band of heroes!

Preparing for DnD: scatter terrain and Dungeon Tiles

So, as this month brought the idea of becoming a DM came to fruition, preparations have started to get the show on the road.

So that means printing (and painting) heaps of Dungeon Tiles, and I did try a few different ones this month in order to "select" which series I want to go for.

The first of those are 4 of the standard Dungeon Stone ones from OpenForge.  The downside for me is they aren't one piece prints, but they do have a trainload of extra rooms and effect in the FREE range, so I`ll definitly be using those as well.

From the sample pack of Printable Scenery, the Rough Stone floor tiles have been tried out as well now, and as those ARE one piece prints, I think I`ll be printing more of the ranges soon.

From the same manufacturer come these Castle Floor and Rustic Floor tiles as well.

While some small Dungeon Stone items have been done to round out the tiles for this month so far...

Now, apart from the tiles, some scatter terrain has been painted up as well.

The first thing is this bush, from the Journeys in Middle Earth scenography stl pack.

From my Dark Realms patreon comes this Owlbear rug.  Now let's just see if the party will ever slay one to be able to use this rug...

Some Braziers where also done, always nice to have around to make your dungeons just that tat bit more atmospheric.

To keep in the easter spirit this month, I also painted up some eggs... of the dragon kind

The first of a batch of tents I`ll be needing for my first group adventure has also been painted.

A pit trap has also been prepared, just in case I need to deter my party from going somewhere just yet...

So that makes for a nice start...

Some beastsies for Dungeons and Dragons

While printing dungeon tiles the past weeks, I have also been printing and painting up some low and high level monsters for the upcoming games.

Now daring party heroes, the beasts you see here will not (necessarily) cross your paths, as I have been printing mostly at the moment what I thought was "cool".

More needed models will be running out of the printer as well soon, but, well, I won`t tell which are and which aren`t because that way you can`t prepare...

So the first beastie this month was a Unicorn Bunny, or Almiraj, printed quite a while ago to test some settings.

Next are two Fire Snakes, whom I actually printed to serve as Fire Spitters in a Frostgrave solo adventure.

And finally, the stitched together monstrosity called a Flesh Golem.

So, nice going even if I say so myself!