I apologize if there has been a serious lack of substantive content in recent history, but I’ve been feeling really under the weather especially after my short vacation. No I don’t have anything serious, just a cold combined with allergies.
That said I have some updates on some things I’ve been working on.
First up is our Monk. There needs to be some things done to fix her, not the least of which is trying to figure out how to keep her feet from falling off. She’s been… delicate, to say the least.
Next up we have our old boy Acererack.
He’s been interesting to work on, as I am constantly feeling like I primed him the wrong color. Considering that I’m using a shade of black as the color of his robe, but it is a different black than the black that I am using to color his robe, it has been… frustrating.
That said, he’s coming along nicely, if not slowly.
Next, I have been working on my Tuesday group campaign adventure. As I have a number of my players from Tuesdays read this blog, I can’t show you what I’ve been doing exactly, but suffice to say that the next part of their current adventure is done being written and the associated map is completed as well. I am very excited about this.
Lastly, as you all know, Sundays are the days that I run Adventurers League. We are currently having some DM turnover, due to scheduling and other issues, so I have been trying to get new DMs trained and prepped to run.
Add insult to injury, and my MS is starting to flare up again. I don’t think I am in a full-blown relapse, but it seems on the horizon, and I am desperately trying to maintain my stress-management to keep it at bay as long as possible.
For those unaware, I have Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. It takes a lot out of me most days, so when you aren’t seeing me post out of the blue, you know why. It has an effect on my physical and mental health; the struggle is real, y’all.
Well, that’s enough from me! You all have a wonderful day, and I’ll see you tomorrow with another installment of Rime of the Frostmaiden!
We find the majority of the Inglorious Ingrates cradling and licking their wounds after their improvised assault on the goblin barracks in Borest. After it was all said and done, they realized they had killed over 8 goblins and a warg that spoke common, and the corpses were arranged to give the other goblins the impression this was a scene of in-infighting. The group had slunk back to the Grey Lantern Inn all the while keeping an eye out for the goblin response to the situation at the barracks, but the group did not have to wait long. By the evening, the goblins began searching every house to find evidence of dissident factions brewing the village, but luckily the party was not subject to further interrogation. However, this development only further pushed the band of companions to accelerate their town revolt as Idris proceeded to send a short message to the mayor: “AT DAWN!”
As the night came and went, the group arose before dawn and proceeded to arm themselves with the loot gathered from the dead goblins. Seeking to draw attention to themselves, the adventures walked down the main thoroughfares of Borest without making the effort to hide their illegal weapons, and their efforts were rewarded as the sun began to rise. They were welcomed by a small contingent consisting of two well-equipped goblin lieutenants, two goblins on wargs, and six regular goblins who proceeded to question the obviously more well equipped humans standing in the middle of the town. Their questions were answered by an arrow from Gye.
While the party was greatly outnumbered by the goblins, the ramshackle revolters were able to hold their own and inspire the weary villagers to initiate their revolt. A few members of the party were able to spot an organized goblin army responded to the revolt, but the numbers of the villagers slightly overwhelmed the goblin threat. Once the Ingrates finished off the last of the goblin leadership, they joined the main fray and quickly finished off the last of the goblins in town. After it was all said-and-done, less than a handful of villages perished in the revolt, but the goblin occupation was far from lifted.
After a short rest, Arkon called in his favor to the town mayor, so the mayor proceeded to organize a breakthrough force to help the Inglorious Ingrates escape the town perimeter and assault the main goblin encampment. As the villagers occupied the sprig perimeter guards, the party was able to dash pass the perimeter. Guided by Arkon, the group continued onward to the main goblin forces in the hopes of freeing the town and reacquiring their gear…
Will they vanquish the goblins? Will they end the torment of Borest? Find out next week…
The party, when last we left off, was facing off against a ginormous blue toad-like creature with giant claws on each of its hands: a slaad. After their usual tactic of withering ranged fire followed up by the paladin/barbarian smashing its knees in with his maul the beast was made short work of.
Moving inward into the Observatory, the party found nothing on the ground floor, and moved onward upstairs to a curious sight: a green slaad tinkering with a large telescope, totally ignoring them.
As the party was here only to read the inscription, the party read the inscription and left, leaving well enough alone.
On their way to the next tower, the party saw that the force field that had been surrounding the central spire was now gone.
The party then heard a voice, a whispering, cold voice, telling them to leave the city now, or they would face her wrath. Having learned that the Frostmaiden, Auril herself, was in Ythryn, the party decided to find a place to face her, thinking that the museum would be a good place, once the nothics inside were dealt with.
The party heard the footsteps of many coming their way right after the fight…too soon.
It was then that a small horde of cold-walkers, undead with a cold and blinding light coming from their faces, came shambling inside the building. As the party began facing them, it was then that the ranger found Auril behind him!
Auril in her 1st form…
The fighting was fierce, and only timely healing from the cleric, judicious use of fireball from the wizard,constant movement by the ranger/rogue, and the use of the paladin/barbarian’s lay on hands ability to cure the blindness caused by the cold walkers kept the party going.
The party leveled their attacks at the Frostmaiden, finally bringing her down into a melted puddle…or so they thought, as a flurry of snowflakes revealed her second form!
The party fought hard, the ranger/rogue and the rouge/fighter being trapped inside of a crystal of ice by the Frostmaiden, leading, eventually, to the ranger’s death.
The party fought on, dishing out as much as they were getting, finally destroying this form, only to have a giant floating crystal appear some distance above them! Auril, it seemed, had many forms, and the party realized with horror that it would be difficult to defeat a goddess…
Swearing vengeance and their destruction, Auril departed, leaving the party to rest and recuperate from their wounds.
Where will the party go from here? Will they continue on to the central spire in order to find something to finally defeat the Frostmaiden? Stay tuned for next week to find out!
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – I am going on a short vacation with my sons beginning tomorrow, so there won’t be a post until Thursday at the earliest.
Thanks for your understanding while I take this much needed break!
We find our merry band of former slaves sailing freely away from the doomed island on a burial ship containing the pirate king’s deceased son and a large amount of sacrificial treasure. While badly wounded and traumitized by their experience on the island, the group still sought to return to their homes, so they set sail for the mainland while healing their wounds. After a few days out on sea, the group finally spotted cherished land as the dark evening overtook the sky, and they were able to find a beach to approach and unload their tired selves and newly acquired riches. The goliath, Arkon, felt compelled to send the deceased prince to a final flaming rest, so the group loaded the extra equipment up onto the boat, lit a funeral pyre, and pushed the boat out to sea.
Soon after the funeral rites had been performed, the group proceeded to hunt and set up camp in the nearby forest, and they all proceeded to take loose watch turns. Soon into the first watch, the exhausted party found itself waylaid by over three dozen goblins and wargs, and rather than fight, the party agreed to be taken into shackles once more. All of the world posessions were stripped from them immediately, and they were pushing into a cart where they met a Jopranie Quid, a traveling merchant who was ambushed along his trade route. They waited and schemed as best they could while chained to the wagon heading to once again an unknown and uncertain future.
By the following the day, the group was commanded by several goblins to get off the cart in the little farming town of Borest, and the members were further ordered to go to the Grey Lantern Inn to find work in the town. Upon their arrival to the inn, the group was introduced to owner Angela Surestout who promptly gave them the history of the town’s enslavement by the goblins. The group also made acquitances with a tabaxi cleric by the name of Musie who also wished to see the end of this town’s enslavement. The group decided they needed to gather more intelligence on the matter before they would act, so they would decide to obey and observe the goblins in the meantime.
Angela further asked Avery to help break up her daughter, Sarah, and a village boy that Angela did not have an high opinion of because the boy sought to take Sarah to a nearby city to start a different life from the one in Borest. The company also talked with the mayor of Borest to discovered the goblins were stealing a portion of the crops and taking to their likely base of operations away from the town. The mayor further divulged that their were mystical powers afoot around the town edge as several villagers had attempted to leave, but others found the attempted runaways as bloody shreds little to no ideas as what caused their deaths!
Arkon, the goliath babarian, was the boldest of the party as he was able to convince several goblins he was ordered to accompany them and offload the wagon filled with the harvested crops. The tiefling wizard, Dacryia, spotted Arkon’s deception, and attempted to follow them in without being noticed. While Arkon and the food wagon exited the town’s perimeter without troubles, Dacyria soon found out what was preventing the people from escaping the town, for she soon found herself facing off against several wooden sprigs. After a brief exchange with the creatures, Dacyria soon retreated back into the town perimeter after receiving several mortal wounds.
In the meantime, Arkon taken several miles to a place that was likely the goblin’s main camp outside Borest. He offloaded the wagon near the place where he spotted the party’s equipment stored, and he was even able to sneak away with one of the wands the group had found on the island. After his work was complete, he was ordered back into the wagon and returned back to Borest. By the time he returns to the village, it is getting past sundown when the party regroups to discuss their findings and the next path forward. The group decided they would start killing several goblins off in the hopes of finding what gives the goblins free passage in and out of the town while also arming themselves to fight them.
Arkon impulsively acts on this new plan by going out to the latrine area for the goblins, and he proceeds to kill two of them and hides their bodies in the defecation station. He is joined by Dacryia and Musie who attempt to leave the village while wearing amulets all containing the same feature worn by all the goblins: a human skull with a blade plunged down through it with a ruby atop the pommel. No sooner then the trio approached the perimeter, they found themselves face-to-face with the sprigs which also alerted a goblin riding a warg to the fray. The group was able to slay the goblin-warg duo and several sprigs, but more sprigs appeared to take their fallen bretheren’s place. Thus, the party returned to the inn with newly acquired knowledge and weaponry.
Having sensed they had out-stayed their welcome, the group devised a new strategy the next morning. Idris, the half-elf pirate, spoke with the mayor, and with magical inspiration convinced the mayor that the town ought to rebel against the outnumbered goblins come tomorrow at dawn. Soon after their meeting, the goblins arise to round up several villagers likely to interrogate and find the culprits behind their goblin allies’ demise. In the confusion, Avery attempted to disguise herself as a goblin, but she soon realized she would have a hard time acting the part since she did not understand the goblin language. She retreated back to the inn and removed her disguise, but unfortunately, a goblin lieutenant witnessed this transformation and assaulted her. She was swiftly knocked out, but luckily Dacyria, Musie, and Idris were able to the goblin under a magical sleep spell. They proceeded to drag his body into the inn, and attempted to murder the goblin. After a slight tussle, the group was able to finish the creature off, but the commotion caused several other goblins to come investigate.
Musie and Avery tried to play off the recent commotion as an attempt to murder Dacyria, but at the same time, Musie and Avery revealed their cleric healing abilities which caused the goblins to chain them up and drag them out the inn. The goblin guards proceeded to drag the two clerics to the goblin barracks in town with orders to heal any wounded goblin they brought. At the same time, Arkon had gone off to seek more armaments when he stumbled upon a lonely hut on the outskirts of Borest. As fate would have it, the goliath barbarian happened upon a ring hid under a rock outside the hut, and he proceeded to put it on his finger. Shortly afterwards, the town mayor came to talk with Arkon, and the mayor quickly questioned the origin of the ring. After a little persuasion by Arkon, the mayor revealed that he was being blackmailed by a woman claiming to bear his child after a night he could not remember. Arkon proceeded to perform a simple goliath ritual to divine that the mayor was the victim of a love potion, and a short investigation of the hut revealed the woman had no such child belonging to the mayor.
The goliath soon gave the ring back to the mayor in exchange for a favor, and he returned to town to find Musie and Avery being placed in the goblin barracks. The goliath corned and made short work of the goblin guards, and he and the others proceeded to arrange the bodies as if though they had killed one another. However, their plan went awry when several more goblins with a warg also appeared. The group at the barracks soon fought the reinforcements with the assistance of Idris and Gye who happened upon the barracks in search of Avery and Musie. In the fray, Gye revealed a new side as she proceeded to charge the warg in a blood crazed frenzy. Once again very luckily, the party was able to dispatch the goblins and set the bodies as if though the goblins had been fighting amongst themselves.
The stranded members returned the inn with fresh and deep wounds from their recent fray, but they had now accelerated their course towards freeing the town from the goblin rule… will they succeed? Can they discover the source of the sprig monsters trapping the village and its people? Find out next week!
As many of you may have read, I have an affinity for kids. I, myself, have a number of them. I love kids.
When I began Adventures League where I used to live, it was really just to get my kids out of the house to give my wife a break (we didn’t have any really young kiddos back then). We had an adventure we played at the new game store in town and we had a good time.
Then they (there were 5 of them total back then) began inviting a couple of friends.
Then they invited some more. So I had one of the teens take over DMing for the new kids that were coming. So we had two tables. And then my middle school son invited a few friends. And then we had three tables. But who would take the table of middle schoolers?
There was only one option that would be able to handle both players new to the game and young enough to need lots of patience: me.
Most of them came at the very end of Tomb of Annihilation. They were there for the end and wanted to play in their own adventure. I had been preparing for weeks in anticipation of the new season. It would be Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.
Dear Readers, the adventures that followed were nothing short of a total blast to DM. The kids thought outside of the box, coming up with solutions to problems that most veteran players I have played with would never have thought of. They played very carefully at first, then decided to just play and let the dice truly decide their fates.
I’ve told the story of Greg the Cabbie, and this was that group. It was absolutely epic.
So how do you DM younger players? Easy:
1) Give them free reign to come up to creative solutions to obstacles. Kids, especially ones new to the game, see things much differently than most adults and even older teens. Encourage this!
2) Encourage the shy or quiet players to speak up and engage in the story. These kids often end up being the most vocal and outgoing players in the long run. Go out of your way to ensure these players are heard and get a say in the group.
3) Make it a positive experience, even when things go horribly wrong for their characters. It can be hard when things go wrong, especially when the dice are particularly cruel that day. Keep things light and laugh at your own rolls to show them it’s okay for bad rolls to happen.
4) Encourage role playing. A lot. This should go without saying, but this helps them develop as a player probably moreso than anything else.
5) Encourage character development and growth; this goes for the players as well, and praise them for it! New and younger players get a lot of satisfaction out of watching and seeing their characters grow, all the while they grow as players. It makes a DM proud to see this, trust me.
6) Reward good role playing, cool moments, and creative solutions that work with DM inspiration. Enough said.
7) Have patience. Lots of it. This one cannot be stressed enough. Kids can be loud, rowdy, and rambunctious. They can get easily sidetracked and distracted. Being patient and keeping them on task and focused on the game is your best bet, and they will have a wonderful time.
What do you think, Dear Readers? Do any of you have experience playing with or DMing younger players? Let me know in the comment section below!
Don’t forget to hit that like button and remember to subscribe to make sure you get all of our updates!
First off, Dear Readers, I am not leaving the blog! Continue reading for my explanation.
A few years ago, I moved to my current location from another state. When I left there, I had been running a small, but successful Adventures League in my local (and, really, only) game store, and had a really cool Dad’s D&D group consisting of dads of kids that played in my Adventures League.
This past weekend, one of these dads, whom I was close to, was traveling through the area (actually taking a detour!) to come see our family. The fact is that our sons had become very close friends. Remember the story where I had almost traumatized a bunch of middle schoolers while playing Dragon Heist? His son was the one who threw the d20 up against my DM screen. But I digress.
We hadn’t actually seen each other for 2 years. When the boys got back together, it was like they had never even been apart. It was very similarly for me and my friend. His wife and my wife seem to get along very well, which I was very grateful for.
Today, Dear Readers, is the day they left to continue on their journey. We got to spend a good day and a half with them. We took them to see local sites, my wife and I took the adults to go out to dinner last night we did a fire pit last night where we roasted marshmallows, and we got to play a really good one shot D&D session today.
And it kills me.
For those of you unaware, it’s really hard for adults to make friends. I don’t just mean people you play D&D with, I mean real, actual, close friends. People that share your values and to have been in your home and whose home you have been in.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore the people in the groups that I play with. I get along really well with all of them. For some of them, I have been in their homes, and for those people I do count them as friends.
Friends like this gentleman however, are a rare breed.
So why am I riding this post? What’s the point?
When you make those friendships, specially when you bond over something as social and cool as a tabletop game, foster those friendships and keep them alive and thriving. Enjoy the time that you have around the game table with the people you get to play with. Create those stories that you will be able to tell for years.
We were all so excited when they came to visit, and as they left, it felt like they had just gotten here. I guess it is true that they had, and I am extremely grateful for the time we were able to spend together.
I guess I just didn’t know how much I miss my friend.
Nowadays, there are many ways to maintain friendships over a game table and I know for my part, I intend on using that to be able to play and maintain that friendship.
Thanks for listening, Dear Readers. You all really are amazing.
Dear Readers, as you may have seen, my Tuesday group has begun a new campaign, calling themselves the Inglorious Ingrates.
You may have seen our Wednesday staff writer, Brandon, who does our “Player’s Perspective” post, writing about their new exploits. If you did not know, by the way, we are starting that group as a podcast to be released when we finally get Your Dork Materials launched in September/October of this year. If you become a premium subscriber here, however, you will get a preview of our episodes, upwards of 4-5 months in advance!! I promise that it will be worth the $5 per month premium subscription.
Okay, enough putting in a plug for our video channel and our premium subscriber content. Back on topic.
As I said, I mentioned my Tuesday campaign to say this: you cannot believe how much improvisation I have had to do in just the first two sessions. I’m not counting anything that happened before the party got to Borest (there will be a session Zero episode released that details part of what happened before the party was captured and taken to Borest; Brandon has written of these accounts), although there was some improvisation done then.
As he hasn’t written up his “Player’s Perspective” yet (he was absent the actual first session post the island adventure that happened before they became adventurers, but he’s going to write a mega-post for next week!), I will do my best not to spoil anything.
The long and the short of it is this: the party was captured by goblins and imprisoned within a town, along with other travelers and the townsfolk. They were left to decide how, when, and where to proceed.
In the adventure, which I wrote, there was outlined several options which the party would likely take to get out of the situation.
Option 1: Wait it out. This would only work for so long before the goblins would start killing townsfolk to force them to work harder (the town was being forced to continue their agricultural work, but for the benefit of the goblins for reasons unknown). This group would never take this option, really. Wait for a day and watch, sure. Not much more than that. And one character did just that.
Option 2: Finding Weapons. This is where things got interesting and comedic. The Goliath in the party, who happens to be a barbarian, decided to find the public latrine. While no one was looking, he pried off several of the boards behind one of the stalls. He waited patiently for a goblin to be using said stall. Hilarity ensued, and two goblins lay dead and buried in a manure pile while their weapons were hidden behind a wood pile. That was just the beginning. I honestly had to improvise the entire thing based on his wacky plan. Who would expect somebody to ambush a bunch of goblins while they are on the pot? This guy did.
Option 3: Begin a Rebellion. This one was really interesting. The mayor, who’s subplot had recently been resolved by the Goliath barbarian (totally by happenstance!), was approached by the bard who talked him into beginning a sort of rebellion. The party realized that there were more people in town then there were goblins. Math followed and it was determined that an acceptable number of townsfolk would perish in order that the town be free. Hey, I never said these guys were truly heroes. Neither are they truly murder hobos. How did he convince the mayor? A bit of role-playing mixed with a casting of the heroism spell. Very well played.
Option 4: Foment Distrust Among the Goblins. This one they did by pure accident while trying to cover their tracks for goblin deaths. For example, after killing two goblins within their makeshift barracks, the party realized a lot of noise was heard. The party began calling out “They’re killing each other!” after arranging the bodies to look like they had been fighting. It was an ingenious plan and their rolls were outstanding.
Option 5: Poison the Food. This one, while technically an option, was not really considered by the party.
Option 6 (and this is where I feel that I show I am an experienced DM): Something Else Crazy. This one is where I had to allow them the space to do what they wanted while I was forced to improvise. Let us consider: what do you do when a player wants to hide a body in a manure pile? What kind of checks do you have them roll? What do you do when a player wants to convince his captors to take him with them to unload the goods at their main hideout? Yeah, this is what I’m talking about.
As dungeon masters, we have to give our players the reins in how they go about completing the tasks and telling the story that we are trying to tell with them together. This means, that we have to be willing to let them take the adventure off the rails.
As I detailed before, a product that I have found useful in this endeavor is The Dungeon Master’s Book of Random Encounters.
Sure, there’s a bunch of random encounters and such inside, but there’s also a couple of tables in there that are much, much, much more useful to me. The tables I am referring to are the random first and last names, the tavern names, and other such things.
When the party asks what the names are of other travelers that have been captured that are in town, as well as what they were or did for a living, I had to have an answer. Guess what? I was easily able to come up with a few names as well as occupations.
Anything that helps us, as dungeon masters, do the improvisational job that we do and are forced to do because of the chaotic nature of players, is well worth the money.
So here are some tips that I have for you on how to improvise better:
Be flexible – a plan is only good until the first encounter.
Be prepared – have tables of random encounters, lists of names, and other such things for when you will undoubtably need them.
Have a plan – at least have an idea as to where you are trying to get the story to go, and let the players figure out how to get there. Players will be players, and letting them try strange and out of the box stuff with a couple of randomly and vaguely tangential DC skill checks, while allowing only those with proficiency to roll, etc…
Roll with it – as #3, but let them do what they do and let the dice fall where they may. Who knows, it might end up being a great story to tell later…
What do you think, Dear Readers? Does this help you prepare your improvisational skills? What did I miss? Let me know in the comment section below, and hit that like button! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to The Blog for future tips, painting updates and techniques, game session overviews, product unboxings, and more!
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – If you choose to buy something via one of our affiliate links, it goes to supporting our site and future content!
You may have seen a previous post where I’m working on a female human looking monk. Miniature is a representation of one of my players characters by the name of Gye.
This is where we last left her.
I’ve made some good strides since then. I started working on her girdle and her sash.
As you can see, touch-ups are required.
Much better.
Then I did some extensive work on the orchid on her head.
As you can see, I also did some work on the cord around her waist. That was kind of a beast. I used a burnished gold as I thought that color for the cord would have been a much better fit than something more brightly colored.
Work on the black trim to the road. This really made me angry, as I kept having to go back over areas with white color that I was using, and in touch up the black, then go back with the white, and so on and so forth.
To add insult to injury? The bottom of the mini broke off at the feet. Again. So I had to glue that back on. The only thing I have left to do is paint the feet in the base around the feet and then work on the shading and dry brushing. After all that, there will be, of course, a dull coat lacquer to put on the whole bit.
So what do you all think? Do you like how she’s turning out? Hit that like and subscribe to the blog to get updates like these!
Dear Readers, I am pretty excited. The Kickstarter for the Battletech: Clan Invasion is supposed to come out in the next few months!
For those who don’t know, Battletech is a tabletop war game, where giant, human-powered robots battle it out on the many worlds colonized by humanity after the 30th century.
One of my favorite tag lines for the game, if I remember it correctly, is “Life is cheap, battlemechs aren’t.”
Personally, I prefer the “classic” Battletech game rules over the Alpha Strike rules, although I would like to learn them for larger scale combat.
For those that are interested in getting into Battletech, there is a beginner rules set available for purchase, with the option to purchase the main game rules an expansion sets of battlemechs.
Look forward in the future for videos for tips on how to play Battletech on our upcoming YouTube channel, Your Dork Materials, as well as miniature painting for the minis right here!
Once I get the Kickstarter, you will be the first to see the unboxing!
Dear Readers, it has come to my attention that I apparently cut my notes off short last time, and missed them going to the Tower of Transmutation, as well as the beginning of a fight. I will begin this post by correcting that mistake…
We pick up our tale with the party entering into the Tower of Transmutation, seeing a light in the window above. Ascending the tower, the party was surprised to find an adamantine statue of a woman in robes, as if in the middle of casting a spell, but laying on its side. There was an inscription on the wall, but broken onto the floor. Using magic, the party repaired the inscription, and pieced together another clue as to how to enter into the central tower.
After exiting the tower, the party heard a screeching above them, to see that a group of gargoyle’s were attacking!
After engaging them, several in the party heard a commotion coming from behind them as they were engaged by a frost giant skeleton and two winter wolves. Combat was swift, as the ranged casters and the ranged fighters (the rogue with his crossbow and ranger with his longbow) took down the gargoyles before they could close for melee, and the wizard had used confusion to great affect against the winter wolves and the frost giant skeleton.
Not taking a breather, the party continued onward, passing by the museum, where the party decided not to engage the 6 nothics there, passing onwards, and passing by what the wizard realized was the city’s mythallar, a large magical sphere that had many wondrous capabilities, and was rumored to have been the power that actually kept the city aloft! As the central tower was still protected by some sort of force field, the party continued onward.
The next building that the party came across, as they went towards the Tower of Divination, was the House of the Arcane, a great monumental building seemingly dedicated to the 8 schools of magic, with an intact stained-glass window each depicting a school of magic. Deciding to look inside, the party saw broken furniture and a lectern or podium, with a singular golden goblet with a steaming clear liquid sitting upon it. Feeling brave, three of the party decided to drink the liquid, finding that the goblet never went empty, and each gaining a magical charm of some kind that lasts for a single day.
Heading onward, the party came across the Tower of Divination, ascending above and finding a large glass orb sitting on a stone plinth. Inside the orb were dozens of eyes of various kinds, floating around, and looking at those inside room. Detecting the orb as magical, as well as reading the inscription on the plinth (“Ask and we shall find.”), the party initially left the orb alone. That is, until they realized that the part of the ceiling that had the inscription they needed to help them get into the central tower was missing. Having Vellyn attempt to use the orb, she asked where the inscription could be found, to which it advised that it could be found in the observatory. The party prepared to leave, but the gnome wizard had for it another question: “Where is Auril?”
The answer sent a shiver down the spine of all, when he got the reply: In the central tower of Ythryn.
The party realized that their time was now running out to find what they had come for.
Continuing on, heading towards the observatory, the party came across a large, dark, hole in the ground, easily 25-30 feet across. Seeing 5 crystalline benches around it, the party asked Professor Skant about this area’s nature. According to Professor Skant, it was called the Wellspring of Answers, and that if one were to meditate upon the empty well, one could be provided knowledge. Deciding to try their luck, the gnome again attempted, as did the ranger, finding out some information regarding Ythryn in general, but not specifically what they were looking for.
The party left the Wellspring and came across an old bazaar, where they heard various sounds coming from within. Checking it out, they found a massive iron golem, sans a head (which they realized that they had found back within the Caves of Hunger), which seemed to sense the ranger! As it turned towards the ranger, one of the party, who had the Charm of Conjuration (allowing them to cast mage armor at will for the next day), and used it to rattle things behind the golem. The golem turned back towards the new sound, and the party went to walk away, but were confronted by a sextet of snow golems!
One fireball spell later, along with a few arrows and bolts, and the snow golems were defeated. The party left the area and headed towards the observatory where they found it guarded by a trio of galvan magen, a trio of damos magen, and a hypnos magen. The party were warned off by the hypnos magen, and the party left the area to regroup and decide what to do, heading to the Menagerie, but not before hearing a lone winter wolf howling far into the distance.
Inside the menagerie, the party found frozen miniaturized biomes: forests, deserts, mountains, etc…At the center of this building, they found a strange machine, with tubes, and small keg-sized barrels, and a control panel with a lever. After looking it all over, one of the party was able to ascertain that, given an amount of blood, the level could be pulled and a creature would come out, although what sort would be unknown. Professor Skant confirmed this, and being that the party was preparing to rest, took of their own blood to activate the machine. The cleric pulled the lever, and out crawled a baboon, but with snake fangs that would deliver a poisonous bite! Even more amazing was that this baboon was loyal to the cleric!
Taking their rest, the party geared up to face off against the magen, but not without the cleric acting a little…paranoid (this had happened to the gnome wizard the day before). Not thinking too much on it, the party left back for the observatory.
The party used their tried and true tactics, engaging the enemy at range and waiting for them to close. The only surprise that awaited the party was that whenever they had attacked and hit the galvan magen, they were struck with a lightning bolt! The party prevailed, however, and went to open the observatory door, only to find that it was actually welded shut!
The party beat at the door, bashing it in, only to be rushed by a large, blue, frog-like creature, a blue slaad!
What will become of the party with the fight against the blue slaad? What will they find waiting for them in the observatory? Will Auril herself intervene? Find out next week!
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Pretty much everyone knows the basics of playing D&D. You need your books, dice, character sheets, an adventure/module to run, players and a DM. That’s the basics of what one needs to be able to play. But that’s just the basics. What else can enhance your game above and beyond the basics?
Electronic Campaign Tracking and Character Sheets
There are lots of options for this. One of my favorites is, as many of you know, D&D Beyond.
It’s free to use for basic users, meaning you don’t have to buy anything to get access to up to 6 character sheet slots, as well as the Basic Rules. Of course, if you want more options, you can buy things like the Player’s Handbook and other sources to get access to other character options, as well as purchase an annual subscription to get other benefits, like more character sheet slots or even content sharing. Personally, I absolutely love this resource, and have purchased all of my resources on this platform, as well as the Master Tier subscription. I haven’t regretted it. Head on over to dndbeyond.com and check it out!
Roll20
For those who just cannot get enough games, there is another way to find players, and that is virtually. A wonderful Virtual Table Top option, Roll20.net has a lot to offer, like dynamic lighting (allowing players to see only what their character would be able to see) among other things.
They also have an integrated text and video chat, as well as character sheets. That said, their in-house character sheets and video/voice chat leave much to be desired, and oftentimes, Discord is used, as well as the browser extension Beyond20, allowing integration with Roll20 and D&D Beyond. It works very well and have had zero complaints.
Miniatures and Battlemats
As most of you should know by now, I am really big into miniatures and the painting thereof. Therefore, how could I talk about things like tabletop gaming without talking about miniatures?!
I love this aspect of gaming, mostly because I enjoy the hobby of painting minis, it being a calm and relaxing activity for me.
That said, minis come in all shapes and sizes. In addition to plastic/metal/resin miniatures, there are also paper 2 dimensional miniatures, as well as plastic ones.
There are also pre-painted miniature lines, usually lined up with whatever the current adventure module is out that you can buy, thereby not even having to paint the miniatures (but where’s the fun in that?!).
In Conclusion
There are lots of things you can add to your game to make your gaming experience all the better. Be it minis and a battle mat, using laptops and using electronic character sheets, or a virtual tabletop, there are lots of options to enhance your game. And there are even more that we haven’t even discussed, like adding ambient music, visual aids, terrain, and more! So get creative and explore anything that makes your game better!
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – Don’t forget to like and subscribe to The Blog so you don’t miss any updates!
Anonymous_Bosch (formerly yourdorkmaterials) and I are officially working on the launch of our YouTube channel Your Dork Materials, where we will post our D&D Podcast of our new Monthly campaign (no name yet), our new weekly campaign (The Inglorious Ingrates), our previous weekly group while we were virtual (The Hopeful Dopes), and other awesome videos relating to gaming, such as Battletech, D&D, and RuneQuest, among others.
What this means for us here is that we will not be posting this on the Daily Dungeon Master Blog channel (although premium subscribers can still access the video previews we had posted), but on the new channel.
I will still post a preview of the videos for our Premium Subscribers, but they will be from a different channel.
For our non-Premium Subscribers, expect to be able to check out our podcast channel by September or October (our current estimation).
Lucky Dice Cafe Blog
Be on the lookout for a new product that I am going to be writing for one of our sponsors, The Lucky Dice Cafe!
I will be writing a successive set of adventures every week that will build upon each other to form a campaign.
That should begin within the next 6 months or so, so be on the lookout for the link to their website blog. In the meantime, check out their website for lots of cool games, gaming stuff, and toys! They do ship, so don’t hesitate to buy even if you don’t live local to the store.
As always, you all are absolutely amazing, and I appreciate each and every one of you!
When last we left off, the heroes had left the library and were headed to the Tower of Conjuration.
Seeing this tower, the party found it similarly lit up on the top as the others had been. Checking for traps and finding none, the party ascended the stairs to the top, only to find four living spells! They were Bigby’s Hands, which they fought against and won.
Looking around, all they saw was a model Castle. Debating at who should touch it first, somebody finally drew the Short straw and touched it, opening a portal to a pocket dimension. Inside were three hags, with dark purple skin and horns. Night Hags…
Introducing themselves as Auntie Pinch, Auntie Pillage, and Auntie Plunder. Believing that he was about to be eaten by these hags, The gnome wizard through the largest fireball he could conjure right in their midst. Combat was short lived, as the combination of arrow fire, smiting, and fireballs brought them down fairly quickly.
Leaving the tower, the party was surprised to see a raven stop by and deliver a letter to Vellyn, the party’s resident member of the Arcane Brotherhood.
The letter was a summons to meet with Avarice, the albino tiefling the party had run into back in Ten Towns.
Her demand was simple: expel Vellyn from the party, have her leave the necropolis altogether, and that the party begin working with her instead. The party contemplated this for all of a minute before assuring Vellyn that they were upholding their end of the bargain with her, where Vellyn cast of blight beginning combat.
The nail in the coffin for Avarice was when the Ranger cast silence on her, eliminating her ability to cast any spells.
Dealing with the cultists coming up the stairs, as well as the flying spellcaster wielding a staff of frost combat was not terribly difficult for the party.
Collecting what loot they found, with the gnome wizard claiming the staff, party continued onward into Ythryn.
Looking around for other towers, the party spotted a building that looked promising. Unfortunately for them, it was not a tower of magic, but a concert hall where an orchestra had been preparing to play a piece of music. The only one of the party who had any musical talent was, ironically, the dwarven paladin / barbarian. He led the orchestras best he could, eventually getting the orchestra frustrated with his lack ability. Leaving the concert hall, the party continued onward to the next tower.
Will the party be successful in discovering the clues from each Tower of magic? Will Auril tire of the parties interference with her plans and deal with the party personally?
Join us next week to find out!
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I am so sorry, Dear Readers, but I am not feeling well. Long story short, I have a horrible migraine beginning and I will be laying down and resting today.
To all of the mothers, grandmothers, and even you mother-like figures in all of our lives, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
Without you, the love and support we have always felt would not be possible.
A particularly special shout out to my own mom for all of the love and encouragement she’s giving me through the years.
Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my wonderful life and mother of my children. You have always stood by me and been the best mom any kid could ask for, and all of our kids know it.
Have a wonderful day from the Daily Dungeon Master Blog!
Yes, I know I owe you all a Rime of the Frostmaiden update, but we are coming up on Mother’s Day and I have been making plans for my better half, my wife, and I had my new monthly group meet this week, which took some prep work.
In the meantime, I have a mini painting update from a few days ago:
I’m not using a standard white on her robe (instead going for a white that is slightly tinted the faintest of blue), and am painting her sash an emerald green, with the braided cord a burnished gold. I think it will turn out wonderfully.
Additionally, note that I am painting the orchid in her hair pink. It will have orange highlights with a white center, like some real orchids I have seen, kind of like this:
I think it’s going to turn out well.
Let me know what you think in the comment section below.
We last left our stranded band of companions huddled in the desecrated temple of Falinora going over the message from the recently animated statue, but soon the party realized that their former jailor, Halfkris, had escaped his bonds and was missing. At this realization, the group followed an audible scream from outside the temple, and they discovered that Halfkris peppered by several arrows from an unknown assailant. Seeking little worth in keeping Halfkris around, the party silenced him forever, but they also approached the new individual making mocking comments to the now dead Halfkris. They all gazed upon an exhausted and shivering female tiefling going by the name of Dacyria, and she further revealed she was a duchess who would be willing to pay for her expediate return home while also fighting alongside the companions. She was welcomed into their ranks for it would be only easier to escape with more capable members helping out.
Before dawn, the party made their way down to the former pirate lord’s manor in the hopes of gaining access to the underground catacombs and a possible ship to escape the doomed island. The old man, Keestake, explained the group would need to find a wooden wand in the former queen’s chambers, and bring it to the catacomb entrance to gain access. However, Keestake also warned that both the orcs and goblins were using the manor as a base for their search for the pirate lord’s treasure, so the group would have to deal with them during their search. Wanting to avoid unnecessary attention, the group voted to try the stealth approach as they were led by the half-elf, Idris, through a doorway in the southwest part of the manor. Hugo the loxodon opted to stay behind with Keestake and Melisana until the group cleared the way.
Our party members creeped through the doorway and made their way north along a hallway until they came to a T-intersection. Idris narrowly escaped alerting two orc raiders to the party’s presence, but seeking to silence them know as opposed to later, the party lured the orcs out and finished them in quick order. Following a hand drawn map from Keestake’s memory, the members peered into what they believed was the queen’s chambers, and they found several goblins camping in their with one in particular shoving a wooden wand in the air. The sight of this display ignited a mighty rage in Gye who proceeded to rush in and crushed the goblin holding the wand, so naturally, the rest of the party rushed into to clear the rest of the goblins in quick order. After some time examining the wand, it was determined to be a wand of detect magic, and the group guessed this would be necessary in finding the entrance given the orcs and goblins had not found it already.
The group found themselves becoming more adept at dealing with these threats, so they felt a sense of confidence in their abilities which prompted them to check out the nearby king’s chambers. Their confidence was rewarded as the group quickly searched the chamber room, and the newly added tiefling proved her worth as she was able to find several objects under the king’s bed that appeared to be possess magical properties. After taking a quick rest and planning their next steps, the group began their search for the catacomb entrance…
Will our group find the entrance while battling the orcs and goblins? Will the catacombs contain secrets or traps that might hinder the party? Can the party escape to the island before Falinora brings devastation? Find out next week!
So I wanted to give you an update on Acererak, but I was offered a commission on a friend’s miniature that I couldn’t turn down.
She’s a female human monk, named Gye (pronounced “gee” like geek).
I’ve started her out with washing and priming her:
She’s going to have black hair (likely that Wraith Black I used on Acererak to give it that bluish tint), with a white robe and red and black waist.
Then, she’ll have a pink orchid in her hair, and, if I can manage it (I have been doing some research and I think I can pull it off), I’ll be painting some cherry blossoms on her robe.
As of now there are snowflakes, but I plan on filling those in and painting the cherry blossoms by hand.
Sorry, the pictures keep coming up sideways.
Once it dries out, I’ll reprime it and continue with the paint job.
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – I am still gathering my notes and sorting them to give you a good recap of our last Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden session. It’s coming, I promise!
When last we left our heroes, they were heading out at the direction of the Ranger who had found a way to the lost city.
Climbing down the large hole, they came to several pools holding Remorhaz. It wasn’t long before they attacked the party. Using his paladin ability, abjure enemies, the paladin / barbarian put the biggest one out of commission leaving the party to fight the smaller ones, making short order of them.
Continuing onwards, down yet another hole, the party found a curious site: a frozen, yet living, grove of what appeared to be enchanted purple pears. It was not long before a dryad, bound to the grove, came out to engage the party and discussion. After telling what she knew, and several attempts at charming members of the party, the party decided that her want for company could only be stated by somebody staying behind or freeing her. Because freeing her would possibly kill her in this glacier as she was magically bound to The Grove, the party cleric did the best he could by banishing her back to the Feywild.
Additionally, eating several pieces of the fruit or strange get beneficial abilities that the party could use.
Continuing on, the party came to the Lost City. The object of their search. Seeing a large building straight ahead, the party headed in, coming to what appear to be a tower based on a specific school of magic: abjuration. Seeing a glyph protecting the tower, the party mage sent it familiar in to be struck with the tower’s defenses, enabling the party to enter in. Going upstairs, the party found a huge angel chiseled with blue runes with a hammer adorned with matching runes laying upon it. It was guarded by six demos magen, ancient magical constructs, and so the party did not approach it. That said, looking at the ceiling, they found an inscription in draconic that read “first, shield thy heart with a wand from the Nether Oak.”
Consulting with Professor Skant, their professor orb, the party realized that the Grove of trees they saw previously would likely contain this exact tree.
Heading westward around the city, the party came to what looked to be an elevator, guarded by sigils from each of the schools of magic. Consulting with Professor Skant, the party believed that each of the towers of each School of magic would hold a clue as to how they were to enter into the main tower via the elevator.
Passing an ancient prison, the party proceeded to the Grove where at the center they found an enormous oak tree, some variant of a treant, that would likely attack them if they dared take from its branches. Sneaking towards the tree, the party wizard used mage hand to grab several stray branches to ensure that a wand could be fashioned.
Seeing another tower of magic, the party headed that way, stopping at a library where they came across an arcanaloth that assumed they were the librarians and asked their help in looking for a specific set of tomes, ones that contained the true names of each yugoloth ever created; a dangerous find for any of the lower planes. The party “helped” while looking onwards at a poor blind albino awakened giant penguin named Kingsport.
The poor beast reached out for help from the party, claiming the yugoloth was abusive and cruel, a fact that they watched. Deciding that this yugoloth was likely to turn on them, the party attacked it at its own surprise! The battle didn’t last long and the yugoloth fell, sending it back to its own plane of existence.
It was here the party rested, seeking to enter the tower the next day…
What will the party find there? What other secrets will they find buried in this ancient city? Will they find something to stop the Endless Winter of Icewind Dale?
The tale of the Hopeful Dopes has taken a momentary pause as another adventure needs to be told featuring some new characters, new encounters, and new twists!
Our new story starts with several different strangers going about their regular day when they are each ambushed and taken prisoner by slavers seeking to turn a profit by selling to the highest bidder. The characters are brought onto a ship chained and caged in the hull as they began their long journey to a land and fate unknown, and the newly made slaves prayed to whatever god or powerful being to save them from this terrible situation. It seems someone’s prayer was answered, for after several days of travel, the ship was chaotically tossed around by an icy storm system for several days on end. However, in the midst of an especially bad cyclone, the ship was hurled onto a landmass, and many of the individuals found themselves knocked out by the shipwreck.
After being unconcious for an unknown amount of time, one group of cell mates appeared to come back from the dark at the same time, and one strikingly strong female half-elf, Avery, broke her chains and proceeded to free the others: Gye a female human, Arkon a male goliath, Idris a male half-elf, Judah a male aasimar, Winter a female Tabaxi, and Hugo a male Loxodon. The group immediately found itself fighting the biting cold, and they sought to go above deck to find out more about what happened to them. They were all greeted with a tropical forest along the edge of the beach with their crashed slaver ship, and there was little to no sunlight going through the clouds which added to the piercing cold taking a hold of the party. Though soon after taking in their surroundings, the group noticed an individual drunkenly stumbling around the beach, and they soon recognized this individual as their jailor Halfkris. The male half-elf and goliath immediately grabbed a few improvised weapons and took revenge on their jailor with several strikes, and Idris was able to knock Halfkris with a club blow to the head. The party turned the tides on their ex-jailor by quickly tying him up, and they also found several pieces of armament and information to better survive.
As the group searched the ship, a female barely holding onto life pleaded that the group take her, Melisana, to her merchant guild master father in Velikros. The group to took her in, and Hugo offered to care for her as they decided to set out to find a way off the island. The party set their course into the hills hugging the forest along the southwest side of the island. The icy chill of the weather never let up as the companions made their way through the hills, but a monstrous piercing shout caught the group’s attention. Several members snuck up an adjacent hill side to peer over to find a fierce fight happening between a handful of orcs and several groups of goblins. The more perceptive members of the party also noticed an old man tied up and gagged at the top of an adjacent hill top. The adventurers executed a hastily devised plan to rescue the old man while avoiding the attention of the combatants below. The rescue went off flawlessly, and seeking to avoid these creatures later, the party pushed several boulders down the hill and crushed a majority of the goblins and orcs. The surprise attack caught the remaining creatures off guard, and the party was able to dispatch them with haste.
After the battle had subsided, the party unbound the old man who introduced himself as Keestake, the last remaining member of the dreaded Viladel pirates, and the old man also revealed he was protecting valuable treasure from orc and goblin raiding parties on the island. As thanks for saving him, Keestake offered the party shelter in the temple of the Goddess of healing and light, Falinora, northeast of the hill country. The group traveled into the night time when they finally found a decrepit looking temple at the top of the hill over looking a manor estate. The temple offered a warm respite from the increasingly painful cold, and the shipwrecked survivors and Keestake made camp for the night.
However, in the middle of the night, an undead creature tried to strike the party while their guard was down, but the scavenger-like creature was not a match for our heroes. As the peace of the night returned, another disturbance called out to the Hugo and Avery. The pair found themselves facing an animated statue of the goddess calling to them, and the goddess relayed her intentions to the two. Falinora revealed that the goblins and orcs had desecrated her temple, so she plans to cleanse the island of all living presence with her ice storm after the end of the next day. She further stated that Hugo and Avery had expressed interest in the goddess, so she would lend some of her power in their attempt to escape the island. However, Falinora warned that if they are still on the island at the end of tomorrow, she will stay her wrath no more. The rest of the party awoke to see this animated statue talking to their members, and the statue soon became still once again. Avery and Hugo relayed the message from the goddess, and the party prepared for their expedition down into the pirate estate to hopefully escape the island. Though the group soon realized that Halfkris had snuck away at some point in the night, and who knows if he had heard the goddess’s message.
Will the group be able to find Halfkris before he warns the raiding parties, will the group be able to battle or avoid the raiding parties, and will the party escape to return to their old lives?! Find out more in our next post!
Dear Readers, I often talk about my game store like it’s a second home. That’s because, well…it is, sort of. This, my Dear Readers, is why I believe that my store has all of the hallmarks of being the “perfect” game store. I say “perfect” because, like anywhere, it has its flaws, but overall, this place is awesome.
First, let’s examine the name: The Lucky Dice Cafe. As you may remember, we are partnering with them to promote The Blog, as well as we strive to talk them up to drive business to their store. And for good reason! In any case, the store name says much about what it’s all about.
The main store is called affectionately “The Cafe” where they have the counter with the food and beverages as well as the product they have for sale.
I didn’t think to get a picture of him, but when you walk into the door, there’s a huge red dragon on display!
Looking at the pictures, though, you can see that they have a great menu, and it includes beverages for everyone, even beer, coffee, shakes, etc…The service is great and the food is amazing. They even have offerings for vegetarians!
The tables in the back are where the card players mostly congregate, playing Magic the Gathering, Vangard, Pokemon, Yugioh, etc…
Then we get to the rest of the cafe, where the table top gamers and board gamers begin to congregate…
Lots of table space and plenty of snacks to choose from by the counter.
Next, we go to what will be the “Inn.” The owners are transforming the center section of the store into a medieval inn!
The guy on the left is Matt, one of our new Adventurers League DMs!
It’s shaping up to be a great place to game.
Next we have (behind where I am taking the above picture), the private game room. This is where you can pay to have a private and quiet place to play your games, complete with a gaming table with electrical outlets, USB ports, and will eventually have an LCD display hung!
That is actually my DM screen. Neat, huh?
Lastly, we come to the last room, dubbed the War Room. This is where folks come to play Warhammer 40K, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Battletech, and other tactical war games.
Two guys fighting it out in Warhammer 40K!
Notice that the store has plenty of terrain and tablespace for lots of players!
So this is my game store. Why is it “perfect?”
Food and Beverages
Lots of tablespace for the games you love
A private game room
Separated gaming space for the various games
Well-stocked on products (which, if they don’t have, they actually will order for you and get it pretty soon). They have everything you could want for everything that’s played at the store. You want Collectable Card Games, they have it. You want to paint miniatures? They have the brushes, the paint, and the minis! You want it, they have it!
Free Wi-Fi
Free table space (except the private game room, which has a relatively small nominal fee to use for a few hours)
Exceptional customer service
Great atmosphere
These traits, to me, mark the best of the best when it comes to a game store.
For your reference, if you’d like to check out their website, here it is.
What’s your game store like? Let me know in the comment section below, and don’t forget to hit that like button, and subscribe so you don’t miss a post!
Until next time, Dear Readers…
Disclaimer: All people in photos gave explicit permission to have their pictures taken and posted up on The Blog.
So sorry for the lack of posts. Between a miscommunication and my inability to access WordPress until today, I’ve been unable to get a post up!
That said, I’ll be back in force tomorrow with two posts! The Sunday post which was about “Halmarks of the Perfect Game Store” and the post that was supposed to be for today about Rime of the Frostmaiden.
When last we saw our adventurers, they were in a perilous place between an ooze and several meenlocks collapsing a cavern with unconcious companions. The die had been cast when the aasimar cleric was knocked unconscious by the ooze, and the artificer and ranger were knocked down by the rubble. The darkness slowly creeped in around our heroes, but another die was cast. This time artificer and ranger were able to free themselves from the rubble, and they quickly dispatched the ooze bearing down on their companions. Spell after spell was flung at the monstrosity until the party was finally able to vanquish it, resuscitate their aasimar cleric, and escaped the cave to seek safety from the meenlocks.
Battered and shaken mentally and physically, the companions devised a strategy on how to best clear the meenlocks from the mine, and then regained their strength and confidence with a well deserved rest. Rejuvenated by their almost magical rest, the party awoke to tackle the cave at daybreak armed with the knowledge they acquired on their foes and some ingenious trinkets provided by their artificer to defend themselves. Thus, the fellowship delved back into the familiar dark and dangerous platinum mine that presented either great material opportunity or their ultimate downfall!
The group activated their new light sources the artificer had created in the hopes of blinding/distracting the meenlocks from tearing into the party’s defenses, and the trinkets provided a source of light the party could track if they were to become separated. Soon after traversing through the maze of tunnels in the mine, the party found themselves, led by the dwarf artificer, once again at the place of the first ambush, and seeking to repeat their success, the meenlocks surrounded the artificer. However, the sly dwarf had prepared something special for this exact encounter, for as the meenlocks appeared, he unleashed a ground shaking tremor that ironically caught the meenlocks by surprise and turned their momentum. The dwarf’s friends capitalized on this strike with a flurry of magic and metal, and the creatures were made to flee from this realm!
The adventurers seized the moment of victory for themselves, and they subsequently made their way back to Dope’s Hope to chart their new course of action for the future…
I apologize today is a short post, but it’s been really busy and I am returning to in-store play at my local game store. I was trying to prepare for today’s session to make sure that our first session of our new campaign will go off without a hitch. I expect the articles from A Player’s Perspective will be enjoyable and a fun read.
Now on to the subject of the post: Acererak.
As you all may remember, I got a new paint set from the Dungeons & Dragons branded Army Painter set that has exclusive paints for undead. I plan to use those to paint our boy.
The only problem is that the majority of the miniature is painted with the new color Wraith Black, which, on top of the black primer, doesn’t really show up too well. In person, the color looks amazing. It’s a black with a bluish hue to it. There will be other colors on the robes, I promise. But if you remember correctly from the picture of our boy, his robes were black in color. I’ll show you what I mean:
See what I’m talking about? It doesn’t show up very well, if at all, but all of his robes except for the scarf like thing are all The Wraith Black. I’m hoping to use a better resolution digital camera combined with some led white light to see if I can get a better picture. I’m not holding my breath though.
Well, that’s all I got for you today. I hope you guys have a wonderful Wednesday!
When last we left our heroes, they had just rested after a grueling fight with some flame skulls.
After their rest outside of the glacier, the party was approached by a group of the Elk Tribe of the Reghed tribes. Their chieftain, had a vision a party, wish to help them end the everlasting of Icewind Dale. They weren’t party that the tiger tribe was on their way to stop them as the tiger tribe worships Auril. The party realized that this was the same group they had helped during the Trial of Endurance back in Auril’s abode!
The party accepted their help, and decided to stay and help the Elk Tribe fend off the Tiger Tribe.
The Tiger Tribe arrived soon afterwards, their chieftain accompanied by a large sabertooth tiger! This was the same tribe that they dealt with during the trial of cruelty, and that made the battle that much easier to fight. The battle was fierce, but the party was able to cut down a large portion of the force before they closed for hand to hand combat, the party, mostly with the help of their paladin/barbarian companion, cutting down their chieftain with withering blows. It helped that the party’s cleric had cut off the sabertooth tiger from the initial fight with an Otiluke’s resilient sphere spell, allowing them to deal with it after the rest of the battle had been won.
Parting ways with the surviving Elk Tribe members, the party entered back into the glacier.
Wandering further in, they came across a cavern with ice mephits along the ceiling and battle ensued.
After that fight, the party found a part of a Netherese tower that had become detached from the main city of Ythryn. Talking to their professor orb Professor Skant, the party found that they would be able to recover spell slots after spending even a short rest in that room! After said rest, they continued on, further into the caves…
The next chamber they came across brought a curious sight. A giant iron golem head! Detached from its body when the city of Ythryn fell, the powerful magics that created it kept it functional even after these many years.
Looking at other adjacent caverns, the party found a stone slab covered in ice and frost. Getting the frost off, the party found a strange device that allowed them to cast the spell arcane eye, which took the ranger (for this was the person that activated it) to the city of Ythryn!
Deciding to help themselves, the ranger used the eye to backtrack and help find a way through the maze of caverns towards the city.
It was when the majority of the party moved on that it attacked: a vampire gnoll attacked the party’s tabaxi rogue from behind!
This fearsome beast feasted on the rogue and others of the party as they fought it. The battle was tense, but again the paladin/barbarian’s raging smites won the fight, driving the foul beast away as a mist, likely towards its resting place in its lair.
Moving onward after resting, the party followed the ranger’s lead to a large cavern with another felled tower, finding two potions of superior healing! Seeing a large gaping hole in the floor, the ranger indicated that they must climb down, warning the party that something had melted its way through to make such a hole….
Will the party make it to Ythryn? What awaits them in the rest of the Caves of Hunger? Was that the last they will see of the gnoll vampire?
Join us next week to find out!
Don’t forget to hit that like and subscribe button, and as always…
When last we left off, our Acererak mini looked like this:
We were quietly drying on a dry cloth.
Now let’s assemble this mini like the Avengers!
I decided to use the Citadel Plastic Glue, a reliable miniature glue, but you could have used just about any miniature glue. It’s what I have on hand, not having purchased any of the Army Painter brand.
It seemed to do the trick, as we’ll see next.
I started with sanding. This is an important step, so we can get off all of those pesky bits that didn’t quite come off with the snippers.
I am using a super fine grain modeling sandpaper that I got in a modeling kit a few years ago when I got back into doing miniatures.
Laying the sandpaper flat, I rubbed the area across the sandpaper, trying to ensure that the spot became flat, or I bent a corner to rub the specific part to a smooth edge.
Here are the results:
Also notice the marks I sanded on the bottom. It didn’t have to be too neat, as it’s going to seat into the base and be invisible.
Each of the pieces turned out well, so there was no need to use Green Stuff or any such materials to fix anything. If you do need to fix anything, Army Painter has a wonderful Green Stuff set that will fix you right up.
I’ve used it before and it works very well. For crack filling, thought, you want something a little more fluid, and I found that Vallejo has a wonderful acrylic resin plastic putty that is for that job.
In any case, I decided to start with the smallest pieces to assemble, the head and crown and then the body:
The back of Acererak’s crownLook at that ugly mug!!
I then added the face, as you can see above. Not lying, it was a beast to do, as I have large hands and these pieces are tiny as all get out.
Next I worked on the body. Notice that I am not putting it on the base at this time. I intend to do the base for Acererak much like I did for Xanathar, and paint it separately.
Lastly, I used the Citadel Chaos Black spray primer to prime him.
As he’s going to be a bit darker in shade, I wanted to use a darker primer to get him going:
And that’s as far as I’ve gone, folks. Next time, we’ll begin the painting process.
Oh, and before I forget, a bonus for all of you wondering about the giveaway miniature I did when we met our 25 subscriber milestone!
Let me know what you think in the comment section below! And, as always, hit that like and subscribe buttons! We still have our subscriber goal giveaway going on and once we hit the 100 subscriber milestone, we’ll be giving away a Daily DM T-shirt to one lucky subscriber.
It was the early 90’s, and my group had moved away from heroic fantasy and charged headlong into the new hotness – Vampire the Masquerade. We absolutely loved this game and played it exclusively for several years. It was edgy. It was different. And it made your characters seem powerful, even when you were just starting out. At least until you started figuring out how much more powerful everyone else was…
So it was my first campaign as a Vampire Storyteller, so I picked up the only city sourcebook available in the beginning, Chicago By Night. It was glorious. My group all started out with newly Embraced vampires who literally knew next to nothing about what the hell was going on in the World of Darkness – which is just how we liked it. So, as can be expected, these first characters were pretty much wish-fulfillment-type vamps that pretty much brought out the crazy in every single one of my friends – often to hilarious results.
One of my players was a guy named Matt. Now Matt in real life definitely has the gift of the gab. In another life, he had to have been an Arab horse trader. He’s got more than a little wannabe-gangster in him, so Chicago was right up his ally. By the second session, he went full-on criminal, and, as usual, dragged the rest of the group along with him. He also has a different attitude towards role-playing games and survival. “I don’t care if I die, as long as I die smooth” pretty much sums it up.
He chose to play a Caitiff vampire – an outcast Kindred whose Sire abandoned him shortly after Embracing him and dumping him in an alleyway. Matt’s character knew absolutely nothing about being a vampire and certainly knew nothing about vampire society – especially the fact that his very existence was a crime. So armed with his new form and powers, he bravely (and immediately) sets off to become the vampire Al Capone.
He talks the group into doing street rips on drug dealers to get cash and weapons. Now Vampires vs. Humans wasn’t much of a competition in the game, and they all swiftly became drunk with power.
Unfortunately, they didn’t realize that everything in Chicago – every gang, every institution – that could provide a vampire with some power or influence was already controlled by vampire, and those vampires generally took a dim view of other vampires taking their stuff. So, after hitting some of the local Bloods one too many times, the vampire who controlled the Bloods decided to get involved.
It’s Saturday night in Chicago. The group’s out cruising for a new target and trying to find other vampires because they haven’t seen any others yet. It never occurred to them that everyone else was avoiding them like the time bomb the group obviously was. They attack a corner and quickly find themselves gunned down by AK-47 fire. When they wake up, they’re all staked out on the rooftop of Cabrini Green waiting for the sun to come up. Oh, and there’s a vampire whom they’ve never seen before interrogating them one by one about who they’re working for.
Of course they can really answer any of these questions because they have no idea whatsoever who any of these potential employers are.
So…four sessions in…in a game where their characters are effectively immortal…they are facing final death by suntan on a rooftop.
But wait! Matt comes to the rescue by agreeing to return all the money and drugs they stole and offers up himself (and everyone else) to work for this vampire in exchange for their lives. The vampire accepts as long as they all agree to become Blood-bonded to him which of course they agree to (because they have no idea what that means), and now they’re all slaves to this guy.
It could be hard in V:TM to come up with a reason why four, solitary, undead, predatory strangers would team up as a party. Umm…not so much this time thanks to Matt Capone.
Hello everyone! In this week’s installment of How To DM, I’d like to talk about railroading.
I’m sure everyone understands the term, but – just in case – let’s define the term. Railroading is a form of adventure design that essentially eliminates, or seriously limits, player choice. In reality, what we’re doing when we railroad players is playing the game for them. Our story has become more important than their participation.
Now to be fair, a certain level of railroading is inevitable because we are creating the bones of the story. This is unavoidable and not a bad thing. It is what is; so don’t stress too much about it. We’re never going to be able to design an adventure completely devoid of this level of railroading unless we’re prepared to run an entirely plot-less scenario (which can be done and can be super fun btw).
So today I’d like to talk about how to design a low-level adventuring area with the least amount of railroad tracks possible. Proper acknowledgement to D. Vincent and Meguey Baker’s Apocalypse World game whose philosophy on adventure design seriously changed the way I approach my games. I believe you can still buy pdf of the game on DriveThru, and I highly recommend them for the story design alone.
I’ll also include an example of a low-level area I designed for my new campaign as we go. You are certainly welcome to use all or part of this area as you see fit!
So, let’s talk about railroading in this week’s How To DM!
Designing the Antagonists: We talked a bit about this in previous posts, but, without forces of antagonism, your players have nothing to do. Sometimes this is where I begin because I have a clear idea of what I want to put the players up against. There’s a vampire in the countryside killing people, so go get him. However, sometimes a particular location is forefront in my mind, and you can certainly start there too. In fact, that’s what happened with this particular start to my new campaign.
Example: I sketched out a small town (mostly human), a nearby village (all Halfling) and an inn/caravan stop between the two run by a prosperous Halfling family. This was a frontier type area bordered on the north by forested hills leading into wild mountains with an extensive bog to the west. With just this amount of information, I could start thinking about what problems or dangers this area could face. I started a brain-storming list and picked a few that I thought looked interesting.
Don’t Overplan at the Start: Seriously, the more planning you do in the beginning, the more railroady your adventure is likely to be. I slapped some names on the above areas and left it at that for the start. Don’t plan out every innkeeper or every shopkeeper and their inventory. None of this is particularly important or interesting. I only include goods or services that are either necessary to the story or special in some way, and I’m not far enough along in the design to make those kinds of decisions yet. If some clear NPC’s come to mind that are interesting, jot their names down and a few words of description. It’s a waste of time to populate a whole village of Halflings if only four of them are really important.
This will drastically cut down on your prep time, as well as the number of things you have to remember and juggle as DM. Think of it like this – every time you have to stop the game to look through your notes to find the name and description of Bumbleberry Sparkle-nuts the Gnome shopkeeper who sells basic supplies and farming implements, you’re holding up the game and you’re pulling them out of the moment.
Take Lots of Notes: At least in my design efforts, I get lots of ideas sort of willy-nilly, so I take lots of notes on what hits my mind at the moment. Not all of them will be gold, but I write them down as they come and go back and edit later. Ultimately, only those items or people who add to the story – who help propel the story forward – will make it in, but, at this stage, you don’t really know enough about what’s going on to make those judgment calls.
That’s it for today. Come back next week where I’ll talk more about taking adventures off those rails!
What tips, tricks, and advice do you folks have? Put them in the comments below, so we can all share in the info. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you next week for another installment on How To DM!
We find our traveling band of adventures beginning their perilous investigation into the platinum mine of Vermeillon after being ambushed and finding information on the creatures plaguing the town: Meenlocks. They searched several dead end shafts and paths, and they also found some very alive portions inhabited by swarms of bats. The party continued further and further into the mine, until at one point they found their situation even more dire than before!
The adventurers were going through a maze of shafts when in one instant they were surrounded on all sides by Meenlocks thirsting for their demise! At first the creatures were not able to grab the party members, but then the beloved changeling ranger was paralyzed and taken away by several meenlocks. The meenlocks also took away the aasimar cleric away before the dwarf artificer and grung warlock/monk were able to break up the ambushers and go searching for their friends.
The magical duo desperately searched for their companions, and were initially successful at finding their cleric who had freed himself from several meenlocks. The group decided to split up to cover more ground in their search of their ranger. Luckily, several seconds passed when the warlock discovers Ari upon an altar with several meenlocks looking to convert the ranger. However, soon the artificer and and cleric joined in on the rescue attempt, but the companions were beset by a large black ooze!
As the party battled the meenlocks, black ooze, and trying to save Ari, the meenlocks earned their name by going near several pillars holding up the room, and they subsequently ignited some magical contraption that caused the pillars to collapse as well as the room! To throw more fuel to the fire, the Talian the cleric was knocked down by the ooze, the artificer and ranger were trapped under rock debris, and the ooze split in two after being struck by lightning. Can our adventures survive this absolutely dire situation to stop the meenlock menace? Find out in next time!
Dear Readers, I bring you today my newest project, having finished almost all of my “minis of shame:” Acererak the dread lich of the Tomb of Horrors and Tomb of Annihilation. Acererak, one of the most feared creatures to haunt D&D.
You remember this, right?
Well, here he is on the back of the box:
Hideous, ain’t he? I love it!
So what’s the project? Well, he came out of the box looking like…well…this:
So…some assembly is required.
And that’s my new project for all of you! Let’s build and paint Acererak!
Setting Him Free
First things first, we have to get him out of the plastic mold.
This requires snippers of some kind. I used the Citadel brand because they were handy and the first ones I pulled from my box. They work very well and have a comfortable grip. I don’t currently own an Army Painter brand one, but if I ever get one, I’ll definitely do a product review of them!
That said, having seen the plastic cutters that Army Painter has, I wish I owned a pair as they apparently have additional safety features, which I love, having a toddler in my home.
If you end up with a set, let me know how they work for you in the comment section below!
Speaking of modeling…what do you do while you are snipping, gluing, assembling, and painting your miniatures?
Me? I listen to Audiobooks. They are great ways to pass the time. Right now, Amazon’s Audible is having a sale with their Audible Plus subscription, giving you access to thousands upon thousands of audio books you can listen to any time, while doing minis, in the car, or wherever! I love my subscription and have really enjoyed listening to the D&D books like the one about the Tomb of Horrors!
We need to snip these bits out. As a technique, I use the flat end towards the model to get the cleanest cut and enable me to have to do the least amount of sanding later!
After all of this, I lay out all the pieces and count them.
Next, I proceed to get a small container and fill it with lukewarm water and a small amount of a mild detergent.
I use a particularly mild dish soap.
Using a soft bristle toothbrush, I gently wash each piece, cleaning it of oils and other stuff. It should be noted that you should wash your hands before this process, but that’s just so I don’t re-dirty anything I’ve just washed.
Next, I lay out each piece on a clean surface and rinse the container out, putting in cool and clean water, putting the pieces back in to rinse them well.
Lastly, I lay them out on a towel, one by one (remember counting? this is why…make sure you have ALL the pieces!) on a clean towel to air dry. This is a super important step to ensure that everything is sufficiently dry to begin the gluing process later.
Well, seeing as I have to let them dry, and I generally do so for at least a day, we’ll leave things here! Next week, we’ll go about sanding and assembling Acererak, as well as hitting him with his primer coat!
It’s sure to be a treat, so if you want to see more, hit that subscribe and subscribe to The Blog! If you would like to get even more content, subscribe for our Premium Content to get access to the podcast, exclusive giveaways, and other projects! If you enjoyed this, hit the like button below, and let us know how we are doing in the comment section below!
This summer adventure is from the convention game I ran on sunday. I ran the same adventure on friday, but didn’t take enough notes. Also, I have given a summary, partial and otherwise, for other groups that have run this adventure. It’s a favorite of mine. It’ll likely be the last time I blog about a group running it. I have other materials, I promise!
For those interested, this adventure can be found in Dungeon Magazine issue #53, beginning on page 20. The adventure was written by a Mr. Willie Walsh.
The party, newly formed and just getting to know one another, I just been betting down for the night when they were interrupted by the hooting of a large owl that began speaking to them!
It claimed that it’s employer was offering a lucrative contract with a flat fee plus a percentage of found treasure. The party acknowledged their interest and followed the owl to its employer.
What they found there boggled the mind. They found a 12 ft tall Giant in well tailored clothing with a deep baritone voice declaring its name to be Sereen. Sereen was an arcane, one of a mystical travelling race, who traversed the very planes of existence!
Sereen offered them a contract: 1000 gold pieces reward each plus 20% of all monetary treasure found and the loan of a magical weapon, in exchange for bringing out a cube of force from the sepulcher. He refused to disclose the location, to avoid the prospect of claim jumpers.
The party agreed and set out the following morning, traveling with Serene on his wagon to the town of Lammdon. It was here that the party was told there’s location was north of this town, about 50 miles and further up the trail where Sereen would give them the final clues to find the entrance to the sepulcher.
Gearing up for any last minute equipment, the party anxiously went to bed to wait their travel the next day.
Heading out, the party forded a river (A), and later came to a road marker (B), with a symbol of Nergal, an evil god of the dead. This depiction was of a man wielding a shield in front of himself, his other arm stretched behind and above him.
The party continued onward eventually coming to the ruined town. It is here that Serene gave the clues that he found to find the location of the sepulcher entrance.
This doesn’t look familiar…
The party had many encounters during their search of the town and attempts at deciphering the clues. They fought stirges in the old inn (5), a giant toad in the old butcher shop (7), an illusionary troll in a hovel (17), shadows while looking up a chimney (16), and a rattlesnake outside of a tailor’s shop (2). They also cleaned out and purified a fountain (11), accidentally broke a spigot (14) to the cistern (10) and flooded the bathhouse (14). They upturned barrels to find a key in the cooper’s place (12), and found some long dead adventurers with a decorative belt buckle and a helm of comprehend languages (13).
The party gathered the necessary items and spread them in the correct gatehouse, opening the trapdoor that was magically hidden, leading to the sepulcher.
Going down, they had a brief combat with an ooze before finding, through a series of a trap puzzle involving a descending ceiling, a hallway mausoleum for esteemed members of the cult. Unfortunately, one of the members had been turned into a ghast!
Making short work of that, the party continued on through a series of secret doors until they finally came across the true entrance to the sarcophagus of Clarshh.
Guarding it was a strange creature known as a crypt thing that would not let them pass. After initiating combat, which caused the crypt thing to activate its ability to teleport mass numbers of people to away from the dungeon (in actuality at the beginning of the dungeon had an attempt to tell them to leave), the party fought valiantly, and survived, taking the loot and winning the module.
All in all, it was a wonderful game experience, made better by the ability to play in person with a good chunk of my normal Sunday group.
I hope you enjoyed this installment of a game summary! If you want to continue getting updates and keep up with other awesome things we do here, go ahead and follow us for more updates! While you’re at it, go ahead and hit that like button and comment below.
It’s been a long day, and the convention weekend is now over.
The game room!
I know it looks sparse, but that’s because they were only letting in the people with the VIP passes. As a GM for the game room, I was allowed Early Access into the game room only. That said, I was able to get some good pictures of the convention hall floor.
Here are some pictures of Sunday!
Good sized room with lots of stuff going down! Lots of games being played.
Then there was my table!
Before the game began!Checking out the abandoned town fountain…notice the dice goblin above!Facing off against a troll!
Good game, mission complete, treasure looted!
It was a great time and next time I’ll take more pictures of the Convention hall!
Tomorrow, I’ll have a summary of our game, as we didn’t have a normal Sunday game, although… everyone but the guy in the ‘BAMA shirt and the woman in the pink sweater are actually part of my Sunday table! From left to right (Skipping the woman and the guy in the ‘BAMA shirt), Horris the Cleric, Allrick the Ranger, Entir the Wizard, and Hendel the Paladin/Barbarian. Also, the woman in the top picture, on the top far right ina red shirt is Eldeth, the Sorceress (was volunteering and not playing).
You will not likely see a post from me for tomorrow, as I will be attending our local convention! I will be running a table both tomorrow and Sunday.
I’ll likely post up about the game I am running as well as share a few pictures of the convention. It’s not a huge convention, but it’s ours and it’s going to be a good time.
We’re back again, Dear Readers, with another unboxing! Today’s unboxing is one of Army Painter’s D&D specific box of paints.
Taking a look at the box, I’m already excited…soon you’ll see why.
First things first, let’s see what we have: 10 paints exlusive to the D&D Nolzur’s line!! It makes me happy that I have paints unable to be found elsewhere, but we’ll get to that. It also comes with…Acererak?! I cannot WAIT to get this bad boy open!
Pretty standard for Army Painter products. You have the Hobby Products guide, the warranty card (which, for those just joining us, is absolutely amazing; I have NEVER had an issue getting a warranty replacement, from new paint nozzles to replacing a wargame tape measure!), as well as the stuff that is specific to the Nolzur’s line of paints, namely the card advertising the other paint sets in that line. Notice, too, there is a card with a list of their entire palette of paints, less the exclusive ones of course.
Now, though, I am curious…
So we have 9 new paints here, as well as an exclusive wash/shader. Neat! But what’s this in the center?
Well…that was…unexpected. When I got the beginner set that comes with Minsc and Boo, the miniature was already put together. It just needed painting. Now we have an Acererak that…well…some assembly required. Yay! New project to showcase here on The Blog! I just hope I don’t mess it up somehow…
Now back to the paints…
It looks like the perfect set of paints to paint our favorite lich from Tomb of Annihilation! I’m really looking forward, specifically, to the Bleached Skull and the Wraith Black. The Cursed Blade is going to be really great when I eventually paint myself a blackguard/oath breaker paladin! Heck, I may pull out my dad’s old Strahd miniature and repaint him with these. He could use a repaint…
So, what do you think, Dear Readers? Do you have any ideas on what else, aside from Acererak that I could get to paint with these? Leave your ideas in the comment section below.
As always, don’t forget to hit that Like button, and if you aren’t already, subscribe to The Blog to get all of our updates and wonderful content! Additionally, consider joining our Premium Subscriber list, where you get access to Premium giveaways, a preview of our podcast, “The Hopeful Dopes,” and premium miniature painting projects. It’s only $5.00 a month, so subscribe and get even more content!
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – Keep putting the word out there and help me build my subscriber base! Once we hit that 100 subscriber mark, one lucky subscriber will be getting a free DM Blog T-Shirt!
When we last saw the Hopeful Dopes, they were on a northern route to the foreboding town of Vermeillon when they found themselves assisting a caravan under an ogre attack. The group quickly dispatched the lumbering monsters, and successfully recruited some more brave souls to help settle around their keep, Dope’s Hope. After administering burial rites to some of the fallen caravan guards, the party continued on to Vermeillon, until they laid their eyes on the eerily quite and deserted town around dusk.
Our adventurers slowly and deliberately made their way into the heart of the town at which point a large dead tree stood in the plaza in front of a sizeable manor. Several members felt this imposing presence as if though they were being watched, but whenever they turned to the source of the staring, there was no-one to be found. The group honored their promise to Lucas and found the necklace he had given to his deceased wife Lorna inside the tree, and the group also placed flowers on her grave. After doing what was asked of them, the group made their way through the abandoned houses to check for lost treasure or traces of what happened to the residents, but soon they found themselves right back at the manor near the plaza.
It was rather dark by the time the group found itself inside the manor, but they wanted to know more information about what could have possibly caused the town to become so abandoned. They quickly discovered that this manor was likely the home/meeting place for the town’s leadership based upon the several fine meeting rooms and documents. Though, as soon as they began to gain a better grasp of what happened, Ari vanished, and the group didn’t know where she could have gone. Luckily, Ari was able to make a sound to let the group know she was downstairs, and the group found itself face-to-face with the likely culprits who had terrorized the town… Meenlocks!
The party found two of these fey creatures trying to tear at Ari, but the party was able to slay these monstrosities before they could do further harm. The appearance of these monsters, and some further investigation by the team revealed these Meenlocks were actually townsfolk who had been turned into the fowl creatures after being subjected to fear. They also discovered that these type of fey beings spontaneously appear where the the border between the Fey and the material plane is weak especially right after a calamity. The timing of these creatures’ appearance happened to coincide with a mine shaft collapse that happened, and it seemed likely the source of fear that drew these creatures to Vermeillon was at that mine. Thus, our adventures prepared themselves as they headed straight into the belly of this monstrous mystery…
Dear Readers, I was so excited about finishing her, I couldn’t contain myself, and had to post about her today!
Behold, the night hag…
I used Bright Gold to do the “beads” in her hair, as well as her bracelets, and then used one of the Effect paints, Glistening blood, to color the skull and spine.
Then I worked on shading her…
I decided to go with much darker colors due to what she is and how I imagine a night hag dresses. This is one of the few times I didn’t go with Army Painter and instead went with Citidel (I just don’t have the washes/shades from Army Painter on these) and used Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade.
You can see that I also did the base. That was Army Painter’s Spattered Mud color. This is NOT to be confused with Wet Mud. The Spattered Mud is a paint color, where Wet Mud is an Effect paint.
Then I used the Army Painter Brown Battleground to make the base better looking.
The ground effects basing materials really bring a miniature together, and the other stuff I have are mosses and grasses, so I avoided using those, opting for a more rubble-type effect.
All in all, I think she turned out very well.
What do you think, Dear Readers? Do you think that I should have done something differently? Let me know in the comment section below.
I want to tell you all a story about how I got all mixed up giving character creation details to the wrong party.
It happens to the best of us: you’re running multiple campaigns a week or month, and one for both of them is beginning brand new. In my case, it was both of them. As a result, I am starting two brand new campaigns: my Tuesday group and I’m resurrecting my monthly group. It’s a long story on both but just know that the group makeup on my monthly group is half different and my monthly group is mostly different.
I’ve been doing a lot of work on my Tuesday game since it seems to be the more pressing of the two campaigns I’m chatting on an online message platform with my monthly group. It should be noted that membership in these two groups overlaps. in any case, I forget which group I’m talking to as I start giving character creation guidelines for my Tuesday group to my monthly group. This is got to be frustrating as I know half of my group were planning characters based on the criteria I laid down for my Tuesday group.
Two different kingdoms. Two different towns. Two different character creation guidelines!
When you are running multiple campaigns, how do you keep track of everything and avoid the pitfall I found myself in?
Physical Storage
This can take multiple forms.
I tend to use different notebooks to keep track of different campaigns. I make sure that I use notebooks that have pockets in them. This way, I have all of my notes printed off or written out (as the case maybe), maps drawn or printed, etc… I also tend to use graph paper notebooks over standard notebooks.
Electronic Storage
Another option is using software to separate everything. You can use different computer file folders, different thumb drives, different removable hard drives, whatever suits you. I actually have a file folder on my hard drive called Campaign Folders, containing a separate file for each campaign I’m running holding much of the same kinds of things I put in my physical folders. oftentimes, I’m printing off what is in the electronic file to put my physical file.
Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is another option, and although also electronic storage, I differentiate, as it’s not stored on your PC generally. There are multiple websites that have the ability to create and maintain campaign information. I could list off all of them, but this website does a great job already. I would only add dndbeyond.com, which has similar tools, as well as resource sharing for all of your DnD Beyond purchases. it also make sure that you have a place for each of your players to keep their characters handy for you to reference when needed. I cannot tell you how nice this particular option is when trying to create adventures based on your player characters back stories. It’s kind of funny, as Sam Riegel, a player on Critical Role, actually did a song for D&D Beyond that sums this up.
In Closing
There are several ways of keeping track of your games. You can do it electronically, via hard drive, thumb drives, or even via website or other cloud computing methods. Of course, you can also go “old school” and just keep old fashioned notes and graph paper maps. Whatever method or methods you choose, keeping track of your various games is integral to ensuring your games are well tracked and organized.
Until next time, Dear Readers…
P.S. – if you purchase something from one of my affiliate links, I may get a small commission
My Tuesday group, having migrated online, has changed some. We added two online players that add a lot to the game. In any case, it is, like my Sunday game, all online.
Due to the limited nature of the campaign, meaning the length, I made it rather episodic, so that there was no pressure of any long-running stories, maybe a couple of recurring story arcs, but nothing big.
In one of these stories, one player, Arizona the changeling ranger, had gotten a missive that her uncle, Jacob Everstein, had died, and that if she and her companions could but avenge him by taking back the castle from the hobgoblins that had taken over it and shot him, she would inherit the keep.
During this whole debacle, they found a rather cowardly hobgoblin, not like any of his brethren, named Grinkle. Grinkle was a coward only by hobgoblin standards, and the party realized soon that he had been bullied enough that he was willing to turn on his companions and give the party information about the rest of the troop only if they were willing to take him with them. Chaos ensued, the party won, the party now has a keep, dubbed Dope’s Hope, after the group, the Hopeful Dopes.
Poor Grinkle
Fast forward, the party is at a different keep, called Fort First Watch. They were on their way to another place, and, having previously left Grinkle at their keep, picked him up to take him along on their grand adventure.
Little did they know that one of the guards had been bitten by a werewolf that was in league with an orc war chief that had been assaulting Fort First Watch. At the most inopportune time, namely the transformation of this guard into a werewolf, the orcs assaulted the keep!
The battle was pitched and the party fought hard, with Grinkle, the hobgoblin rogue that had saved them from his own comrades before, struck down. Grinkle had failed a death save at that point, and Arizona, the changeling ranger, who absolutely adored Grinkle, watched in horror as the orc Eye of Grummsh stabbed Grinkle in the heart with his spear, twisting the spear. She tried to fell the foul creature, but to no avail, as the war chief sounded the retreat and they got away. To make matters worse? The war chief collected Grinkle’s body to have as a trophy of his victory over Fort First Watch’s defenders.
To this day, Arizona has sworn vengeance against that Eye of Grummsh…
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