More adventures in miniature painting

I painted a couple more miniatures. I'm taking it slow, savoring the process... Soon I will have enough for a warband or two, to play some skirmish games. I'm building terrain/ruins as well. I might play Frostgrave or Song of Blades and Heroes. 

So who do we have here? From left to right:

• Witch, casting a fire spell from a scroll! A Frostgrave Wizards II figurine. I'm quite happy with how she turned out. The burning scroll in particular. I didn't intend her to be so Dragonbally, but these things happen...
• Skeleton, champion of the oppressed! A Wargames Atlantic skeleton. The horned skull is supposed to be for the standard, but looks good on the model too.
• Skeleton, laughing and chilling! A Wargames Atlantic Late Roman soldier, with a skull. I particularly like the casual pose.
• Tiger-man warrior! A Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish body combined with a goblin head. Initially I wanted to do an orc, but then decided to do a beast-person instead! 

Painting my first miniature (after a 16-year hiatus)

And it feels good to be back! Ah, the familiar smells...

I decided to pick up miniature painting again. It's something I'd enjoyed a lot in the past. Converting, painting, kitbashing. Playing I enjoyed too, especially skirmish stuff like Mordheim.

For now, I just plan to concentrate on returning to the artistic/creative side. I need a hobby that isn't connected to a computer screen :)

I picked up some supplies and a an assortment of figurines. I went with Wargames Atlantic, because some of the models spoke to me --- especially the Classic Fantasy Lizardmen! You know it's the good kind of classic fantasy when the lizardmen come with assault rifles and gas masks...

For my first effort, I chose a lizard dude with an open pose and a blade. I dropped it once and broke the index finger... Here's the result! There are still some rough patches, but overall, it was a fun process, and I'm satisfied with the result! Beware the Newt-men of Carcosa!

[Dungeon] Temple of the Forgotten God

This is a 16-room dungeon I wrote in about an hour for the OSR discord's community hexcrawl. I thought I would share it here too. Meat & potatoes OD&D-style experience. Minimal keying. Have fun!

Download as PDF here!

(now with enhanced map)

Update: enhanced map!

All rooms are hewn from the black basalt of the mountain. Ceilings are 8’ high unless otherwise noted. Doors are stone slabs that slide into the wall. One square = 10’.

Wandering monsters (2d4):

2 2 Robots in love

3 Black Pudding

4 1-10 Pixies

5 2-8 Reptiloids

6 2-12 Koblins

7 1-4 Vampire Bats

8 Time-travelling Thaumaturgist

Areas:

0. Entrance Chamber

The double doors are voice operated (react to OPEN and CLOSE commands uttered in the language of the Ancients). Labored breathing of a large creature can be heard beyond the second set of doors.

1. Trapped Dragon

20’ high ceiling held up by red pillars. Emaciated Adult Red Dragon (half HD), trapped here a decade ago by a cunning adventurer who knew the command words. The monster cannot fit through the doors towards #2 or #5. Small hoard of 1200 gp in the corner.

2. Trophy Room

Rusty weapons and shields (2 swords and 3 shields salvageable) on the walls. Thick layer of dust everywhere: trace of an approx. 3’ object dragged towards #4.

3. Locked Storage

Secret door: ventilation duct 6’ above the floor leads to a 4’ wide passage.

4. Drippy Area

Weird lemony green ooze drips from the walls. The object dragged over from #2 is a 3’ square extremely durable, yet light metal plate with handles.

5. Transitory Room

Doors to rooms #6-8 painted Orange, Yellow, Black.

6. Orange Door Room

Empty.

7. Yellow Door Room

6 Ghouls, transfixed, staring at a grainy TV screen. 

8. Black Door Room

Dark & squalid, walls painted black. Secret door: outline barely traceable below thick black varnish.

9. Healing Pool

Eerie blue glowing water. Murals on the walls depict nymphs bathing – sometimes laughter can be heard! A creature fully submerged in the water for 1 hour regains d4 hit points and, if poisoned, can repeat the save (this healing procedure is only effective 1/week). Partial submersion can lead to weird mutations.

10. Rug Maze

Garishly patterned rugs and curtains hang everywhere. Total value: 500 gp.

11. Crate Maze

Crates stacked high, easy to topple. 9 Dervishes lurk here, their leader holds the Pipes of Slumber (Sleep spell 1/day, but the wielder doesn’t heal from resting). 

12. Generator

Entrance partially obscured by crates. 10 Large Centipedes warming around an energy generator.

13. The Bone Gang

Entrance partially obscured by crates. 8 Skeletons, clearly a former group of adventurers (2 “fighters” with swords and shields, 1 “cleric” with mace and “unholy symbol”, 1 “magic-user” with a staff and a Scroll of Magic Missile, 4 “henchmen” with burnt-out torches and empty sacks). They guard a chest containing 4 rubies (500 gp ea.) and a gilded silver goblet (200 gp).

14. Ape Nest

Pool of dried blood before entrance. 2 White Apes lounging on dirty hay.

15. Wolf Lair

3 Giant Wolves, their hides colored blue (same hue as the pool in #9).

16. Garage

Functioning anti-grav skiff, with enough fuel for 2 days of operation. Seats 2 people.

[Dungeon] Temple of the Berserkers, one-page OD&D adventure

 As a little exercise, I drew a dungeon and stocked it according to the guidelines in the 3 original Dungeons & Dragons booklets. Behold, the Temple of the Berserkers!

Download PDF with map & key!*

(for a one-page adventure, print "2 pages on 1 sheet")

* 2020.08.11 - updated the file with a new map and a couple of minor edits.
Big thanks to John Bragg for spotting the error in the elevation levels!

* 2020.08.24 - now with a players' map, with traps, secret doors and labels hidden!

Workflow:

I started with the map (because I love drawing maps). 40-ish rooms, interconnections, etc., and I added some features like statues and secret doors right away. Then I reserved the bigger or more peculiar rooms as "specials", but didn't put anything in them yet.

Instead, I went through the rest of the areas, stocking them randomly, as a level 1 dungeon. The OD&D procedure is clunky (and can be substituted with a single-roll stocking method), but I used it more or less as written. Next, I rolled up random monsters for each populated room.

At this point, due to a freak coincidence, I rolled Berserkers three times. And so, a theme emerged. A temple/dungeon mostly overtaken by Berserkers, and a couple of other creatures and NPCs, who are either their leaders, allies, or, in some cases, enemies they can't get rid of.

With this theme set and most rooms stocked, I returned to the specials and adjusted them to fit the theme (or not fit the theme, as OD&D dungeons are not supposed to be all logical...). 

I like how it all came out and it was fun to make. Enjoy!

Drawing dungeons is fun

Just an old-school dungeon level... I wanted to draw something labyrinthine, with densely packed and weirdly shaped rooms. Inspired by the megadungeon topics on Dragonsfoot. Of course, at ~80 rooms, this is a relatively small offering :)

This image is licensed under Creative Commons 4.0. You are free to share and adapt (transform, remix, build upon) this image, even commercially, as long as you credit me (Tamás Kisbali / http://eldritchfields.blogspot.com). Also, if you do end up using this, I'd appreciate a message to see what you made of it!