5E Dungeons and Dragons: Ki-ki-ki... ma-ma-ma...

I had planned on doing some more work on my Dustgrave terrain this weekend, but the yard took a bit longer to tidy up than I expected.  Up here in the northeast, its been quite a bit of rain so not ideal weather to mulch the leaves on the yard.  Thankfully yesterday was sunny and dry, so 10k steps later my feet were killing me but the yard is done!  Huzzah!

But this wasn't all that happened this weekend, not by a long shot.

We also killed Jason.

This weekend marked the restart of our long put on hold 5e Out of the Abyss campaign.  Ironically, we will be putting it on pause in a couple of sessions as I hope into the driver's seat for Ghosts of Saltmarsh  but it was still great to get back to these characters again.  But what about this Jason character?  Well, it is October after all, so we had to have a Halloween themed encounter.

That's right, I'm talked about that Jason.

I must admit that I felt pretty confident at the start of the encounter because I'm playing a tanky bard (who knew there was such a thing?).  That ended really quickly when I realized how much damage I'd taken in the last session 6+ months ago... and Jason threw me up into a stalactite, taking me completely out of the action.

By the end of the encounter, two of us had gone out of action but thankfully neither of us actually died.  A great session and I can't wait to see what happens with the next one.  We will finally have an audience with the Deep King of Gracklstugh to see if he is as mad as the rest of the Duergar.

Gracklstugh... Definitely not you typical getaway location.

No worries though, there will be more painting/building this week.  I've already got a couple of buildings in progress, I just need to clean a spot on the desk to get a couple of good shots of it.  Until next time...

Workbench: I Am Kroot

While painting my Trollkin, I decided to mix things up so I threw some paint onto this "puppy" that happened to be on my desk.  It could do with some tidying up and basing, but I'm happy with how the colors worked out overall. 

Many moons ago, I had started collecting a Tau army but I sold it off as I did with most of my 40k minis.  I think the only things that didn't disappear over the years were my Orks, some genestealers, and my Kroot.  I loved the Kroot miniatures and I've been hunting for some way to incorporate them into my gaming.  Currently I have them on the desk to be painted/re-painted as a mercenary force for Antares (maybe proxies for Askar? At least until I get the real thing anyway...) but this hound just spoke to me for some reason.  A quick slap of some paint followed by a wash and now I have a critter that could fit nicely into a desert setting.

As for which setting exactly, that still has to be determined.  I have a couple of desert ideas bouncing through my head right now, the first being the Dustgrave game that my daughter and I were going to play.  Unfortunately things disrupted those plans but now that my Trollkin are done, I want to circle back to building the terrain for that game.  I also need to throw together a warband for that but I've already got ideas for who should face off against her desert wolfen.  Until next time...

Frostgrave: And Then There Was One...

 That's right, I've actually finished my Trollkin warband for Frostgrave, and in what feels like record time as well!

This is the original mini for Madrak Ironhide.  I must admit that I'm not a huge fan of this figure but he will work great for my enchanter.  I'm also really pleased with how his grey sash turned out.  I feel like I was really able to accent the depth of the folds which I was worried about initally.  He does feel like he's missing something to make him pop more but I'm not sure what it is.  Still, he will definitely work for now and I can always add more later if I want.

Now with this said, I do still need to base all of them.  Usually I do just a basic brown gravel with green static grass as I feel like this is the most versatile coloration, but I really think I'm going to explore a winter base theme for this group.  They are meant for Felstad after all, so it would be fitting.  Time to start researching winter basing techniques!  Until next time...

Frostgrave: The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Kriel Songs...

One more done for my Trollblood warband as my apprentice joins the Kriel!

This is the original mini for Grissel Bloodsong from... well, a long time ago.  I really wanted my apprentice and wizard to be unique looking so either solos or warlocks were the place to look.  Unfortunately I hadn't picked up many of either for the Trollbloods which limited my options but it also help shape my warbands story.  My apprentice and wizard are both sporting massive two handed weapons... making them the perfect enchanters!

I never even dabbled with the enchanter spells when I played 1st edition but it's the perfect fit for this foray into 2nd edition.  That said, there is still one more mini left to paint...  But before I go I've got to mention Stargrave.

Slated for release next April, this takes the Frostgrave system...  INNNN TOOOO SPAAAAAAAACE!!!  Seriously though, this looks really good!  Joseph McCullough has a post about it on his blog, the Renaissance Troll, and I highly recommend checking it out.  There isn't a lot of info yet, but just from what is there I am already set to buy into this game.  There will be more information as we get closer, but at least now I have have a reason to dig out all the sci-fi minis I've got scattered about waiting to be painted.  Until next time...

Frostgrave: An Avalance of Trollkin!

Well, this week has been ridiculously productive and I've finished not one mini, or even two, but five minis for my Frostgrave warband!  First up, there is my man-at-arms.

This mini is from the Kriel Warriors set, just your basic badass warrior with a big old sword and shield.  I might pull in a couple more of these troops in the future, but for now my starting budget has put that on hold.

Thankfully the next three little runts are free, which is good since I don't know how long they will survive.  After all, you can't have a warband without some thieves!

These figures are from the Trollkin whelps pack.  Small and completely unarmored, they seem like the perfect mini to represent thieves as they run around and (hopefully) manage to grab the treasure first.

And last but not least is my only ranged trooper so far.  Why?  Because marksmen are stupidly expensive when you are first starting out!

This figure is from the Trollblood scatter gun unit.  I'd originally planned on using these minis as crossbowmen to represent the slow reload with their blunderbuss but then I realized just how much plate armor he is wearing. I could just hand wave it but I'd rather go closer to WYSIWYG than cause any confusion.  This also meant that I could only field one of them to start with because they are a good chunk of your starting gold as well!

"Everyone smile for the family picture!"

All that is left now is my wizard and his apprentice, then my warband will be ready to go!  I want to give these two a bit more attention since they are the leaders of this group, but I'm still hoping to be able to knock them out pretty soon.  Until next time...

Frostgrave: Another Trollkin for Felstad!

Still more minis done for my Trollblood themed Frostgrave warband.  This time, it's my second infantryman.  This figure is another stone scribe and man does he have an axe to grind!

For this figure, I decided to splash in a bit more color to really make his stand out from his fellow scribe.  I did decided to keep the grey hood though and I think I will try to pull that through to the rest of the warband as I progress.  Another thing that I did change up was his skin tone.  I tend to keep with one tone when I do my painting but this time I decided to mix things up.  Between that and the different colors on the clothes under his hood, I really like how much this figure pops and think they will go well on the field together.

Two down and seven left to go!  Up next is the man-at-arms for the group which I'm hoping to wrap up over the weekend, plus there are some more Marauders for Deadzone in que as well.  Not as ambitious a pace as I'd originally planned at the start of the year but it's still progress!  Until next time...

Deadzone: The Red Caps

 It's been months since I last worked on anything for Deadzone but I finally made a little more forward movement... in another direction... since its not terrain, or Rebs, or Plague...

Instead, its Marauders.

While cleaning up, I dug up my collection of 40k Orks from back around the Assault on Black Reach era (no idea what edition that was...).  I had collected a pretty good sized force back then but I wound up focusing on Warmachine instead so the boyz just went to the wayside and collected dust.  Everything else I sold or threw away but not da boyz.

Fast forward to now and my too-many-projects-that-I'm-trying-to-work-on-but-not-being-successful phase and hey... let's add another!

The thing is, Orks are just fun to paint.  The models have always had tons of character and they were a blast to modify as well.  With me looking at dabbling in Deadzone at some point, this gave me a good excuse to grab a few and put some paint to them.  In fact, I have one done already (minus the base...).

As you can see, it's a pretty basic paint scheme.  Since the Marauders used to be part of the GCPS, I thought some kind of standardized uniform would be fitting which is why I went with the grey and black.  The red on the helmet was just going to be an accent to the scheme but as soon as I did it, I knew they had to be the Red Caps.

I already have five more minis lined up to be painted which will give me a 100 point team.  I can proxy them into Deadzone and see how they work... once I make some more terrain...  Until next time...