More dungeon minis

 I finished up the other Heekin pewter wizard - Good wizard - from their 15mm line and also the bugbears. I had a mutant rat man from Splintered Light thats been primered for awhile, and I had some extra time, so I was able to complete it. 

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Two bugbears and a mutant ratman; not very nice company to keep. What's a good wizard to do?

I made a fireball spell marker last weekend too!!

15mm Heekin wizard finished

 This is the Evil Wizard from the Heekin pewter 15mm line. I went with a brown for the robe and cloak and red for his beard. Still need to up my eye game. 

Still deciding on colors for the other wizard and the bugbears, but progress has been slow, so I thought I would at least post this one, even if it is a short entry.

Realm of the Free King Chapter 3 - Into the depths

 Bertin and Ered let out slack quickly to about 10 ft then pause. No dull thuds, screams or sounds of rending flesh from their friends on the end of the rope, so another 10 ft the same way then another, when the tension slacks. A few moments and a "Looks okay!" sounds up from the shaft. 

Bertin loops the rope around one of the spikes, and he and Ered make their way down to the bottom of the shaft with no issues. "Empty chamber ahead, but there's a couple of closed doors." reports Robern. 

The party listens at both doors on the North wall, but detect no sounds. Ered opens the Eastern door. The light from Ernans torch reveals a 4x4 ft hole, just inside the doorway. Ered scoots around it, into a 10x10 room with 2 doors. "Not deep, but theres spikes at the bottom" says Ernan. "Watch your step".

No sounds at either door and the party opens the East door and heads down a hallway to an empty chamber. A search reveals no exits there. 

Backtracking to the pit room, the party heads thru the other door into a hallway that leads to 2 chambers to the West. Both are empty aside from some old rubble, pieces of wood, bits of rope and cloth. In the larger chamber the party heads South down the hallway in hopes of finding a stairway up or perhaps an exit to the outside farther down the hill than where they entered.

 As they proceed South, past a hallway heading West an audible click is heard in the hallway in front of them and a mist begins to roil out from the floor into the hallway. 

Ered steps back quickly, and the party halts. The gas dissipates as it nears them but appears to remain very dense further South down the hallway. "Let's try to the West" Bertin says. The party turns about and Ered takes the lead, but before he can move down the West hallway, out of the darkness a centipede emerges and rears up!

It lashes out at Ered before he can react! It's mandibles clash against metal, spraying yellow stinking liquid as Ered covers behind his shield. 4 ap damage and Ered is driven back. 

The creature strikes again at Ered , but this time it misses. Bertin has leapt to the left and as the creature moves into the T of the hallway he has an excellent chance to strike at its flank. 

Both fighters and the cleric strike at the centipede. Bertin on the flank misses, but Ered and Robern combine for 11 hp damage. 

The monster feints at Ered, but strikes head on at Robern with a hit. Once again the clash of shell on shield and liquid sprays into the air. 6 ap damage on Robern. All 3 return vicious hits against the beast for 12 hp damage and it collapses, writhing on the dungeon floor. "That was close" says Bertin, as Robern and Ered scrape the liquid goo off their shields. " I never get to use my sleep spell " whines Ernan. "Hey! Thats toxic!!  he whimpers as Ered flicks goo from his sword at him. "Pipe down and lets move on" Ered growls. 

They move past the body of the centipede, heading West down the hallway. A door is on the North wall, (they pause to listen, but no noises), and an empty chamber beyond. A quick search of the chamber reveals no secret doors. 

As they return down the hallway to the door, two large hairy legs protrude from around the corner of the T and latch onto the corpse of the centipede. It is drug around the corner to the North. "Not good!" says Ered. "To the door, quick" replies Bertin. They scramble to the door on the North wall and Ered pushes it open. 

Robern moves to block the hallway as his friends head thru the door.

"Go, Go,Go!" as Robern backsteps towards the door. 

The spider strikes at Robern as he stumbles back thru the door, but it misses, and Ered slams the door shut!

Taking up a defensive file, Ered, Bertin, Ernan, and Robern in the rear, they move North in the hallway. At 30' they connect up to an empty chamber. Ered and Robern stand watch, while Bertin takes the torch and Ernan updates the map. 

"Nothing stopping that spider from coming back this way" says Ernan. "Lets head back to the rope and rest." says Ered. "But be on guard". 

The party makes its way back thru the chambers without a sign of the spider that chased them. They carefully move around the pit in the small room and return down the hallway to their rope leading up the shaft. Ernan says "Lets eat." and they settle in for food and rest, while they discuss their next move.

NOTES: From the text its noted that there were 2 hits by the centipede on 2 different characters but no mention of a saving throw. The Black Hack uses armor points as opposed to an armor class. I'm proceeding under the premise that armor points deflect damage up to their point total, then actual corporeal damage begins. Since that is the case, something like a poison sting, or a paralyzing touch which affect the body, would not need to be saved for until the armor points are gone and the body is exposed. 

More 15mm dungeon crawl minis

 I need to beef up the availability of my dungeon crawl monsters and these ghouls have been sitting around preshaded for a few weeks. They are from Splintered Light miniatures, although I believe the one with the snake? skeleton is a necromancer.

I kept the paint colors the same for all of them. I always imagine ghouls as being bland in color, so I chose a very subtle green for the skin and linen for the clothing. They have been washed in sepia and are awaiting a varnish coat.

I never played elf characters very often, so ghouls are creatures I'm not fond of meeting. 

I've gotten a few more minis preshaded and may be able to get some paint on them tommorrow.

Two of the bugbears in a set that I received last week, and two wizards from Heekin pewter. These will need a bit more color than the ghouls. Right now I'm thinking brown for the evil wizard with the skull staff, and maybe blue for the other one. Goes to the board and writes "Must not paint them grey" 100 times. 

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Realm of the Free King Chapter 2 - Rested and Ready

 Rotating the watch thru the night with the exception of the wounded Robern, who slept the whole time, the party stirs after Ered, on the last watch announces the West door was jiggled, then thumped during the last hour. The spikes held, but he listened and couldn't discern any particular noises thru the door. No secret doors were found during watch searches, so after a quick breakfast, Robern rolls for recovery. Eight HP recovered and he's back to full strength. Time to find some gold!!

Both doors of the room (3) are unspiked, and they listen at the West door. Nothing! Ered opens the door to an empty hallway heading West, and the party proceeds 30' to a door in the South wall.  Ered bounces off this door, but Bertin on the second try, succeeds and the door opens to a room (5).

Bertin steps in, and when Ernan's torch shines into the room he shrieks " Skeletons!!".  The closest of  3 skeletons strikes at Bertin. A very close miss, but it strikes again before Bertin can react!

Luckily another miss, and Bertin shifts to the corner of the room . Ered steps back from the doorway and Robern moves into the room, brandishing weapon and shield, commanding " Back! Back foul spirits!

A roll of 7 and the three skeletons cower away from Robern, towards the opposite end of the room.

The rest of the party leaps into the room and the fighters fan out to help Robern take on the skeletons!

Bertin scores a hit, and even with 1/2 damage using an edged weapon, he delivers a kill.

On the second exchange of strikes with the skeletons, both Robern and Ered kill theirs without suffering any damage. Ered and Robern then move to cover the doors to the room, while Bertin and Ernan search the room. There is a goblin body in the room, presumably from the gang that they met in room 3 yesterday. He has 100 SPs in a bag on his belt (stolen during the town raid?), and appears to have been killed by the skeletons. During a room search Ernan discovers a secret door on the South wall but the map indicates it's merely a hidden passage to a hallway they have already been down. They note it on the map; it may come in handy later. No noise is detected behind the door in the West wall; unfortunately it does not open.

 

They secure the silver, and exit the room heading West down the hallway. It is empty and intersects with the hallway they explored yesterday. They head South to verify if the hallway will link up with room 2 but end up at an empty 30x20 chamber (6)

A roll of 1 indicates a secret door is discovered on the West wall. Ered opens the door which leads to a hallway. 

The party follow the hallway which curves around to the right and ends. At the end is a hole in the floor.

Searching reveals a secret door on the far side of the hole. No results from listening. The party takes time to discuss and plan. The hole seems about 30 ft deep from a small stone dropped down it (it can be heard hitting a floor). No sounds can be heard from down in the hole and no distinct odor can be smelled. 

Decision is made. The secret door on the other side of the hole is left alone. Ernan hands the 100 SP over to Ered and props his torch by the lip of the hole. Bertin ties loops in the rope 5 ft apart while Ered puts 2 spikes in the floor near the hole. Bertin and Ered will belay and lower Robern and Ernan down the hole at the same time. Ernan and Robern step in the lowest loop, and grasp arms thru the next highest loop. Robern has a flask of oil in his free hand, and Ernan lights a new torch to hold in his free hand. 

Robern says "On belay." Ered replies "Belay on." And they begin to lower them into the hole....

NOTES:

So far the random dungeon generator has really worked well. I was afraid it would turn into a slog of right turn, left turn, empty 20x20 room, rinse and repeat, but I have had some good rolls for secret doors, and was not anticipating the hole in the hidden passage way at all. It's been more interesting than I hoped for, and I really have been entertained by the process. 

Sculpting corpse markers and new texture roller

 The texture roller was purchased on Etsy from RealityAtWork. This is a different company from the one I purchased rollers from before. It's 4" long and almost an inch in diameter for the hollow part and cost $4.99.  I needed a fan pattern so I chose option C on their site as one that would be good for 15mm. Its workable although I may order option B as I'd like a slightly smaller pattern. I was afraid B was too small and wouldn't impress, but I think it would work well after using the one I bought. 

The flooring was made earlier tonight with the pictured roller. I am using Dollar store foam which is softer than XPS (pink board), and it made the impressions of the stones well enough to do a wash and wipe. I paint the foam white after using the texture roller, then paint over with a greenish gray and wipe off with a damp paper towel to leave the dark lines in the floor.

I also sculpted some corpse markers for goblin bodies. I put them in order of production. I got better with each one. I made them earlier in the day out of sculpey and baked, mounted and painted them. Rather fun to do and adds something to the gaming table.

I made some closed doors for my dungeon scenery as I found they would be needed when I was playing my solo game. I bought some 4mm rings at Hobby Lobby today and glued them on for handles. A fun detail. 

One final shot of the battle scene. 

Cleric conversions - 15mm

 I needed some clerics for my dungeon crawl and I didn't see anything online in 15mm that I liked, so I converted 2 figures that I had. The cleric with the red leggings and white cross on his shield was a splintered light warrior. Most of the minis in the warrior set are armed with swords or bows ( no no's for the cleric), but this one had a mace and was a decent generic fighting figure. I sculpted the shield out of Aves and also the bag on the back of his belt. 

The mini with the red tunic and white shield is the last of the Heekin pewter minis that I hadn't painted. He was wielding an axe so I cut it down a bit to make a sort of mace or club, and I added a cross to his shield with masking tape. I think the sculpted shield turned out better, so I may redo the masked on at a later date. 

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Realm of the Free King ( solo dungeon adventure) - The Trigger

 Issich Crier: A rare goblin raid, only last night at the South end of Issich left citizens reeling...

Pursuing the goblins to the South thru the ruins, and then West along the foot of the mountains, the party, ( all first level ) sees smoke filtering thru the trees up on the side of a hill. In a clearing there is a cooking fire recently extinguished along a foot trail that continues up the hill. As the trees and brush thicken the foot trail ends at an open stone archway.

The party sets the entry as a rally point and moves down the stairs. Ered the fighter leads with Bertin close behind bearing his sword and a torch. Ernan is next, also bearing a torch, and going over the sleep spell execution in his mind ( He's never had to do it under pressure!). Robern the cleric is last, covering the rear with shield and mace.

The steep stairs file down about 20 ft making 1 turn to the right and open into a 20x30 room. The room is empty aside from scattered pieces of rock, wood and other small debris. After a cautionary glance down the hallway to the left, the party proceeds across the room and down the hallway to the North. 

The hallway leads to a left turn and 10ft ahead is a closed wooden door. They move West down the hallway 40ft and it opens into a 30x30 chamber with 3 exits, North, South, and West. The chamber is empty. 

The party backtracks East to the closed door, and pauses to listen. Rustling, grunts and metal on stone sounds can be heard thru the door. With a quick thumbs up all around Bertin throws his weight against the door and it flies open with ease. Torch light reveal a gang of goblins scattered thru out the room!

Dice roll indicates the goblins are suprised and Ered and Bertin close the gap and strike quickly at the closest goblins. Ernan moves into the room with his torch to increase the light and Robern, in the rear, steps around him to get into the fray.

Ered and Bertin both score hits on the goblins and dispatch 2 in a spray of black goo. The party beats the goblins on initiative and both fighters, and Robern the cleric, all strike. Only Bertin scores a hit, but it results in a kill, and the goblins strike back. Ered defends with ease, but one of the two goblins on Robern scores a hit, and he takes 2 pts of damage (absorbed by his shield). 

Ered and Robern strike and kill 2 more goblins, leaving only 1 remaining. Anticipating surrender by his foe, Robern is shocked when the sole surviving goblin lunges with his spear. A roll of 20! and double damage to the cleric brings him down to one hitpoint! Quarter and mercy fly out the door with that result, and the party quickly dispatch the final enemy. 

The party regroups from combat and ready themselves at the closed door on the West wall of the room. All listen, but don't hear any noise. The fighters stay ready at the closed door, and the Ernan searches the large bundle the goblins were carrying, while Robern rests after the deadly strike he took. 

The goblins were using a shield as a cradle to carry a suit of chainmail armor. Both pieces are too big for goblins to use, and must have been stolen on their raid on the town. The goblin bodies are dressed in the orange tunics of the Hell Pumpkin tribe, but a search reveals nothing of worth on them, crappy weapons, stinky food, no coin, etc. 

After some deliberations the party decides to stay in the room for an overnight rest period. No one wants to head back to town and have to cross thru the ruins outside Issisch at night. Although they now have a new shield, which is what Bertin is needing, they anticipated returning with some gold to line their pockets (all are first level and can barely afford living expenses, not to mention adventuring equipment). They can't keep moving thru the dungeon until Robern recovers.

The bodies of the goblins are piled in the middle of the room and both doors are spiked shut to prevent intruders. Ered changes into the chainmail they recovered from the goblins and Robern takes the new shield, giving his shield to Bertin. All eat, snuff the torches to low burn, and Ernan takes first watch. While on watch he will search the room thoroughly for secret entries. If one is discovered it will be spiked if possible, if not the goblin bodies will be stacked to inhibit entry while the party rests. 

Sweet dreams!  To be continued.......

NOTES: I've decided to use The Black Hack (edition 1) as the base rule set (which is new to me) for this campaign. It's very scaled down, but easy to implement and covers the basics quite well. A role below stat number, and armor absorbing hitpoints are things that will take getting used to. Since this is a solo project, anything not covered in The Black Hack will be sourced thru OD&D volumes, and I'm using Strategic Reviews Vol 1 No 1 to generate the dungeon. I'll note any additions or outright changes as the campaign progresses. 

             The goblin raid was the trigger these guys needed to begin adventuring. Prepping and practicing for months to travel East for a grand adventure, who knows if they ever would have really gone through with it. This occurrence right in their own locale was "put up or shut up" time. All of them are level one with just the bare essentials for adventuring, hence the need of Bertin to find a plain shield, as he couldn't afford to purchase one. 

              A few unexpected things from the random generation. I thought they would make it farther into the dungeon before a major melee. When I rolled room 3 with monsters and treasure I thought "Hey, this might fill the coffers pretty quick", and then proceeded to roll a 98 on the treasure table - Magic-roll on D&D table. Newbies with magic? This could get out of hand pretty quickly! Luckily a rather tame roll of 27 then 68 resulted in +1 armor and shield.