Upon a Dark Place: Part 2 Sessions 6-10

 

Halfbuilt in flames! The central stalactite had been knocked down and had fallen across a considerable part of the city. The group left their carts at the entrance and snuck in to see what was happening. They found the Kaismar, this world’s dark elves, capturing townsfolk and giant ogres with baskets on their backs trapping any they found hiding. The townsfolk were given two options, become slaves or die by fire in the pyre of others that had resisted. Many townsfolk resisted which only made the flames burn higher. The group attacked the Kaismar and were able to free the remaining townsfolk. One of the kaismar survived the attack because the creepy dark elf Nor that befriend the party and his “Sister” Nira incapacitated her with a paralysis poison. The party found out the other townsfolk not still in Halfbuilt were taken to New Gracklesnap, a dark dwarf stronghold a few days journey away. Before going after their allies, the party went to check on Lord Halibar and found him quite dead. With the help of both Bastion and Nor, they cast speak with dead, they were able to discern what had happened in the town and each was rewarded for the last mission and each given a note from Lord Halibar as well as a boon and a new ally, his treasury imp, Engire, that could help finance them. Lord Halibar had left each of the characters magic items.  They also found out about the mystical Udaren, a group hiding somewhere in the deep that may have abilities to help the party as well as strange things from each of their backgrounds. Burf turned the body to stone. They also question the drow priestess and found time was of the essence to save the townsfolk that had been taken. Wilbur was also approached by an elderly ratfolk lady that told him about her town, which had been wiped out by a strange man with the ability to control fire. Her son had wounded the man with a strange dagger, which she gave to Wilbur, and then disappeared into the crowd.

On quest of vengeance the party found the raiders had left Black Bettie alone, or at least they found a few kaismar bodies in parts near the farmhouse she was sequestered in. They let her out and with the help of a goblin friend Corvo were able to ride all the way to New Gracklesnap in a few hours by cutting a path through the stone itself. Once there, they noted a small encampment outside town full of Kaismar and prisoners. They snuck in and got many of the prisoners out with clever lies of Corvo and all was going well until the priestess in charge and her night companion, a tiefling sorceress, came out of their shared tent and noticed not only the party but the fleeing prisoners and the light bridges Bastion created as ramps. Using their new found magic items from Lord Halibar they defeated the priestess and a few of her guards and the tiefling left a dire warning with Zamira and disappeared with teleportation magic. They were able to loot the tent and found a chest with strange broken Udaren sun stone. The party made their way back to Halfbuilt and put their heads together to find a new solution to this new problem of homeless Halfbuilt. The druid Burf remembered a cave to the north that had everything needed for a new home but could not remember why it was abandoned. The party made some blood deals by selling their blood to Nor, met with townsfolk and eventually borrowed Toppa the bard to adventure to the north. Nor also looked at Wilbur’s new dagger, finding it was made of some sort of angel bone and with a blood magic spell they learned about the human fire mage and the fire cult he was a part of. The rest of Halfbuilt agreed to give the party a few days head start again and follow in their wake with the other group of heroes working as guards in the process.

The abandoned town was supposedly near the towns of Lowgren and Latiea. The party was not quite as fascinated with the stories of Stormcroak that Toppa was preaching and eventually came across a passed-out traveler face down on the cavern floor. They woke him up and he claimed to be a simple mage named Victor looking to fix the portals of the Deep and had a summoned dragon friend. He looked human and gave them great bits of information about the goings on within the city of New Gracklesnap as well as the Kaisimar capitol city Korshad. After helping him get back on his feet they brought him with to explore some of the tunnels. When they rested, there was a commotion when a strange tentacled man flew past the group on watch and told them to make ready as a group of odd dwarves came down the tunnel yelling about a traitor. When pressed for information the dwarves’ forms twisted into horrible fleshy monster the party quickly went into combat mode and were able to save their newfound friend. After combat, the goblin pressed the tentacle man for payment and was promptly stunned and the man faded into the darkness. The party was also dismayed in their friend Victor, who had done nothing but cower behind his dragon from the monsters, even Toppa helped.

They continued on their path until they found a large nexus of chambers and saw a giant slug being eaten by three overly large bugmen. Bastion hit the slug with a daylight rock startling the bugmen and combat ensued. Their allies helped control the battlefield while the party dealt damage quickly enough to drop all three foes in short work, sending bugmen parts all about the cavern. The next challenge the party faced a corridor that crackled as they walked on it. After noticing all the bones, the party saw an obviously trying to hide horrible giant eyed cave beast that blasted them with a spell of confusion. All three of their newer allies started flailing around like madmen and the oracle Bastion almost was bitten in half by Victor’s dragon. The party attacked the beast and made very short work of it. They pressed onward after bandaging their wounds with magic.

After days of traveling, they found the abandoned city and started investigating the buildings finding most of them decrepit they found a house that was impervious to wear and tear but had a dead tentacle faced man husk in an armoire. Cecil saw something either flying through the water fall either on its way in or out of a cave but was not sure. They investigated the town hall and found the vault and a few other magic bits. They crossed a main thoroughfare and four ghosts appeared and started chanting a fell chant. The party started attacking them to no avail as lightning cut across the street hitting a few of them. Victor was knocked out and his dragon disappeared. Nimhe saw something strange when the lighting blasted, it seemed to come from a point in space lined with eyes and teeth. She blindly felt her way around and felt something warm, soft, and fluttery like a thousand eyelids blissfully opening and closing then the grazing of teeth passed by her hands. She grabbed it and attempted to grapple it. As she started compressing, it became visible and left a shell of itself in her grip having teleported away and behind the rest of the group, blasting them with more magic. The group beat the hell out of it and it kept jumping to another clone until Cecil was able to smash its core. They picked themselves up and went to check on Victor, finding the skin on his face mostly featureless and eyes white as pearl. He was a changeling or shadow man. Then Zamira stabbed him in his “god damned throat”, tied him up, and they interrogated him just short of torture. They found out quite a bit about the slave markets and strange creatures known as the formless. They made their way with him in tow to the water fall and into the cave. The cave was full of bones of a staggering number of creatures all with the same part of their skull missing as well as a pedestal with a strange black broken urn covered in eyes and teeth. The goblin smashed it into a fine powder and they left, sealing off the room. They rested and waited until the goblins, mushroom men, and survivors of Halfbuilt arrived.

Images created in Heroforge

Upon a Dark Place: Part 1 Sessions 1-5

 

At the start of 2017 we started playing a game called Upon a Dark Place taking place in the Deep, or my worlds equivalent to the Underdark from Forgotten Realms or the Darklands from Pathfinder. The game world is entirely homebrew and modifications were made to some of the Pathfinder content to make sense story wise, creatures were altered, and bad guys customized. The adventures started around the city of Halfbuilt, a haven for the lost and forgotten of the Deep. 

Our party consisted of Nimhe the lamia grappler, Bastion the aaismar oracle of the heavens, Zamira the tiefling rogue, Cecil the goblin barbarian, Burf the deep gnome druid, and Wilbur the rat person alchemist. We have troubled pasts across the board, people that hate drow slavers, people hiding from past crimes, hiding from strange otherworldly monsters, or seeking revenge for lost family. 

When the adventure began, they were hunting troglodytes that had been attacking trade routes within the Deep. They were suspicious because they were offered more than the normal amount for such a base task. As they began their journey in the tunnels, they were able to catch one of the troglodyte patrols unaware and eradicated the threat before an alarm could be raised. They followed the trail to an old and no longer abandoned dwarven mining outpost and found the leader of the troglodytes as well as their devil spawn brethren. The battle was quick, finding the building full of strange devilish eggs. They crushed most of the eggs and Nimhe ate a few. On their return home, they encountered two friends from town fighting against trolls by the main entrance. They met Stonebreaker, a large sized bug person with an even for him oversized maul. Unlike his fellow bug people, Stonebreaker was severed from his old hive and was a mercenary within Halfbuilt. They made their way to Lord Halibar Nel Daxis Aldrabriane, their employer, to collect their reward which suspiciously seemed like too much money. He had given them a bonus as well as a new mission to accompany a goblin alchemist gunsmith, Torobor, back to her home cave to retrieve his order of firearms and mechanical wonders. They were also asked to drop off a parcel in a town they would be passing through to a friend of his, they did not ask any questions about this friend. The group grabbed supplies they knew they might need as well as things they just wanted to spend money on while wandering town. They met an enormous riding beetle named Black Bettie as well as bought pickles. They purchased much smaller riding beetles and sojourned into the Deep. There was much attempted flirtation with their new goblin boss, and she ignored most of it. She had two metal men constructs as well, her people were oddly gifted with magical science they used to create helpers for their various dangerous experiments with the dark powder that fueled their guns.

They passed sites where struggle was apparent and made camp in an easily defendable spot. After sharing stories around the cooking fire, they were attacks by large bug men that grew huge when shot at. These Trox seemed infected by some foul abyssal power. The party made quick work of the monsters, took a power nap, and broke camp after. They passed tunnels that looked carved out by giant worms and eventually found a large sized city with giant open adamantine doors. The city was empty of people and a large surface folk castle sat on a stone shelf above the common folk dwellings. The empty city was silent except for the sounds the party made as well as a distant irregular clicking sound. They investigated the castle and found a gargantuan purple and black scaled dragon slain on a throne and decided it was time to leave, only to be stopped by a weird floating man. He was wearing a dark verdant green cloak and introduced himself as Pullman. They attempted to cast magical spells at him but he countered with swarms of beetles, so they ran. As they fled, they made tactical decisions on routes and obstacles and made their way out of the city and back into the tunnels, sealing the exit with stone magics. Further and a few miles down the corridors they found themselves on a stone bridge crossing a deep chasm. As they started across, they heard odd strange warbling sounds and saw stone squids flying in the darkness. The squids and their master, a strange flying cloak like beast attacked the party and made off with one of their riding beetles. The party killed the monsters and broke the bridge in the process but were able to make it across before most of it fell into the abyss.

They finally made it to the goblin city of Noragast and spend three days resting and preparing for the return journey which would have to be a new route, the old one full of bugs and a broken bridge. Cecil and Wilbur worked on a new mount for Cecil, since monsters stole his riding beetle, the artisans of Noragast were more than happy to help. Together they made what looked like a stone and metal spider that would listen to Cecil’s commands and had some sort of hidden feature as well. While there they made friends with the goblins and recruited them to come to Halfbuilt and the empty city they saw on the way there. The goblins were on the lookout for a new home and agreed to come along, but a few days behind. The party and their escort of carts and a few more goblins made their way back to Halfbuilt. 

The group found a mushroom enclave with friendly mushroom men, but part of the party of skeptical of their alliances, where the others embraced them and welcomed them to come along. One party member, Bastion, did try to purify food on a mushroom child till he was convinced that might be a bad idea. Deeper into the darkness they found a group of slaver dwarves with some of their Halfbuilt allies in chains and combat ensued. They found a map maker gnome as well as another lamia that told a tale of a patchwork man trading items with her clan and shortly after all the men died. The party was joined by the now free Toppa, Lady Shar, and Tor. Their small army came to a large terrible smelling chamber with pools of not jade, but acid. About halfway across the chamber there was a triggered rockslide blocking the exit and gunshots as a rival gang of gunslingers attacked the party. The rockslide also woke the acid hydra sleeping in one of the pools. Chaos ensued, the rivals gun slingers were devoured, and eventually the acid spraying beast was put down. They cleared away the rocks and made their way back to Halfbuilt only to find it in ruins, still burning.

As a bonus chapter, session 5 was a flashback session, as to playing with a few players missing and wanting to save the big reveals and drama for the full group. The party encountered a group of Kobolds in the caverns being forced into labor by Ogres and their cruel secret master. The Kobolds were chained up to ogre task masters and forced to mine within a series of tunnels. The party did not like this arrangement and defeated the ogres, making sure not to hit the kobolds in the process. Eventually the ogre's boss showed up, a Gauntlin giant. Gauntlin are giants in my world that were cursed by a god to be forever hungry, they are just as strong as normal giants but thin, emaciated, and terrifying. This gauntlin also was missing an eye. The party made quick work of the giant and it's minions, freeing the kobolds. As a reward the kobolds gave the group a bag of holding as well as a token of respect they could show to other kobolds they found in the wild to show they were allies, not enemies. 

    Stay tuned for more tales!

Images created in Heroforge

Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus Miniature Unboxing

In September of 2019 Wizards of the Coast put out the hardcover adventure Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. The adventure pits the characters against a plot threatening the Forgotten Realms. Someone is pulling entire cities into Avernus, the first level of hell, and it is up to the party to put a stop to this. The players must contend with roving gangs of death machine riding demons and devils, strange monsters, displaced angels, and morality. The adventure also features the endless war between not only good and evil, but also evil and other evil. The Blood War is fought on Avernus, an endless struggle between the demons of the Abyss and the devils of Hell.

The miniature set for the adventure came with an assortment of demons, devils, and other odd creatures, most of which have some relevance to the story. This set also contained new sculpts on classic monsters and sculpts of monsters from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. There are forty five miniatures in the set and one premium Infernal War Machine. The boxes each have four miniatures: one large, usually two medium sized, and one small. There were only two miniatures in the brick I opened that needed maintenance, one bent halberd and one demon with a mighty lean, both of which are easy enough to fix. For fixing bent miniatures I heat up a measuring cup of water in the microwave for about a minute, carefully dip the bent part in the hot water, reshape, and then quench the entire miniature in cold water afterwards. 

Our first box contained Reya Mantlemorn, a maw demon, a glabrezu demon, and Mad Maggie. Reya is a non player character or NPC the party meets in the adventure and can be used for a character figure for one of the players. The maw demon is a minor demon from the book Volo’s Guide to Monsters and is one of a few new demons in that title. They appeared back in older editions as well, I still have mine from the old Dungeons and Dragons Dragoneye miniature set from the early 2000’s. It also was a part of the metal Chainmail miniatures game that came before the plastic line. The glabrezu is a higher-level demon that uses not only its muscle but its mind to tempt mortals. The miniature is dead on to the illustration in the Monster Manual and over the editions has been made both as large miniatures, like the one above, as well as huge sized.  That brings us to Mad Maggie, she is another NPC in the adventure for the party to encounter. She runs a gang of hell machine riding monsters and is fantastic, she can be used as a hag miniature to fit any theme. 

Our second box contained a babau demon, Yeenoghu’s Barlgura demon, a merregon devil, and Yeenoghu’s quasit demon. The babau demon appeared in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and is one of two versions of the miniature in this set, the other has a spear. They have a gaze attack that can weaken their opponents. Now some of the miniatures in this set are demons with the prefix of Yeenoghu, meaning they are demons in service to the demon lord Yeenoghu, patron of the gnolls, a culture of hyena men that raid and pillage the material plane of Dungeons and Dragons. Because Yeenoghu has minions loyal to him and basking in his power, they have taken on bits of his likeness. The barlgura is the first in this unboxing. The barlgura normally looks like a large red furred ape monster, but here are more hyena like. This will work perfectly as a large sized wolfman monster in my world, so I am happy. Next is the merregon devil, forged from the souls of soldiers, these devils serve in the army of hell against all threats. They also have a creepy baby face sculpted into their mask. Last is the Yeenoghu’s quasit demon, these are one of the weakest demons, but can be pesky to fight because of their innate magical abilities. 

Box three had a lemure devil, Yeenoghu’s Hezrou demon, Scarla Truestrike, and a merrenoloth yugoloth. Lemure are the souls of mortals cursed to hell and are the weakest devil. They are usually faced in swarms serving some stronger master.  Next is the Yeenoghu’s Hezrou demon. These demons, like the other Yeenoghu demons have a historical look that has been altered for this adventure. Normally they look like large humanoid toads that emit a terrible smell and serve as soldiers in the battles of the abyss. Again, I love the hyena twist on this sculpt. The body looks like it is rotting away with bones sticking out of it’s form.  Next is Scarla Truestrike, her sculpt is based on the Kensei monk artwork from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and can be used for either a halfling or gnome for any character or NPC. The last is the first yugoloth in the set. The yugoloth are a species of demon or devil like creatures that are neutral evil aligned mercenaries that will serve anyone if the price is right, which makes them very popular during the Blood War and they fight on both sides. The merrenoloth run the ferries on the river Styx and can make a boat they captain almost unsinkable. 

Box four was heavy. It contained the abyssal chicken, the legion spined devil, the legion pit fiend, and Barnabus the flameskull. Abyssal chickens are new creatures from the adventure, they are from the abyss and have migrated to the hells as well.  It can also be used to represent a wizards familiar if you are lacking a miniature for one. The next miniature is the first legion creature. Legion refers to the legions of hell, the monsters with this prefix are new sculpts and versions of monsters that have already appeared in the lore of Dungeons and Dragons but with a new art twist. They all have a very Guillermo del Toro/Hellboy feel to them with the masks and chains. The spined devil is stronger than an imp and for me has always filled the same purpose in adventures: tiny flying nuisance to vex the party. This sculpt has a shield. The next miniature is one of my favorites, the legion pit fiend. Normally we see the pit fiends as large red devils with rippling scaled muscles. Here we have a pale blue, almost white, bloated armored creature. I love it. Pit fiends are the strongest of devils outside the archdevils and serve as great end of campaign foes. The last miniature is Barnabus the flame skull. It is an odd sculpt with a very simple, almost cartoonish mockery of a face painted on. He serves Mad Maggie and has all the normal powers associated for a flame skull. 

Box five contained Sylvira Savikas, a nupperibo devil, a legion horned devil, and a legion imp. Sylvira is another NPC the party meets on the journey and can be used for any tiefling character as a miniature. The nupperibo are gross bloated devils that either have failed to climb the hierarchy of devils or where slothful in life to the point of ruin. Their eyes have been sewn shut and they are surrounded by swarms of insects that can damage their foes. They appeared in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Another favorite, the legion horned devil, can be an intimidating boss battle for players as well as just a cool miniature in general. This box ended with the legion imp, a small flying creature overladen with a basket of flames. This sculpt is different from the other imps out there and can serve as a great warlock familiar. 

Box six contained a Babau demon with a spear, Yeenoghu’s dretch, a legion barbed devil, and an armanite demon. The babau demon is the same sculpt as the earlier one but with a spear in its left hand. The Yeenoghu dretch is just like the other demon lord blessed demons, having a canine appearance.  They are on the lower end of the demon spectrum. The legion barbed devil is covered in spikes and carries two cleavers. It can hurt creatures that are grappling it and has the ability to do a tail attack. The last miniature is the armanite demon, which looks like a mutant centaur, equine body, tail spike, and creepy horned face. It can also throw lightning. There is another version that has the lightning in its hand. It is also from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. 

Box seven contained a bulezau demon, a legion spined devil with a trident, a lemure devil, and a yagnoloth yugoloth. The bulezau demon is ridden with disease and can damage its foes in close proximity with its mere presense as well as its wicked sickness riddled tail. It appears in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. The legion spined devil is like its sibling above but has a trident. The lemure is a repeat. The strange miniature left is a yagnoloth yugoloth, it has bat wing ears, a beefy arm, and a book on its loincloth. They lead other yugoloth into battle and sign contracts. It also appeared in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. 

Box eight contained another Yeenoghu’s dretch, Falaster Fisk, a legion barbed devil with fire effect, and a legion ice devil. The dretch was the second repeat in the boxes I opened. Falaster Fisk is another NPC from the adventure but can be used by both playersor dungeon masters as a spell caster or cultist. The legion barbed devil has a ball of fire it can toss at its foes, otherwise it is similar to its sibling above. The legion ice devil has a gladiator style armor, which I think is pretty cool.

Of the forty five miniatures available in this set, I was able to get thirty awesome miniatures with two repeats in one brick. This has been one of my favorite sets and I have bought a few boxes here and there as well as a few singles. I am still waiting to pick up the premium figure, the Infernal War Machine, but I will pick it up and hopefully do a post as well.

Even if you don’t end up running the Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus adventure these miniatures can be used in any adventure and role playing game. I intermix my miniatures from both Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons 

Thanks for checking out my haul. The lore and information has been gathered from the awesome book, Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, Volos Guide to Monsters, and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Photos were taken by me. Miniatures made by Wizkids. Check your local game stores for curbside delivery and more information. 

Special edition of the adventure game store exclusive 

Eberron: Rising From the Last War Miniature Unboxing

So instead of filming an unboxing video today, I decided to document it differently. I have been excited for the Eberron: Rising From the Last War miniature boosters since I they were announced and have been watching the spoilers slowly leak until picking up a brick today. A brick is eight booster boxes and each box contains four miniatures, one large miniature and three either small or medium sized. there are forty four miniatures in this set and it features monsters not only from the Eberron book but also has monsters that have been in other books, but have not made it to miniatures yet.

For my first box we had a Kalashtar, Living Spell Cloud Kill, Shifter Artificer, and a Changeling. All four of these creatures are unique to the world of Eberron. The Shifter, Kalashtar, and the Changeling all made their appearance back in 2004 with the Eberron Campaign Setting, they were playable character races. The Living Spell was a magical anomaly left over from the Last War where magical spells now wander in the ruined landscape as creatures.

My second box had a Shifter Rogue, a Cloaker, an Iron Defender, and an Undying Soldier. Shifters are creatures with the blood of lycanthropes running through their veins. They have the ability to “shift” or channel their more feral aspects to add to their abilities. The Cloaker is an older Dungeons and Dragons monster from some of the earliest of days of dice. The Iron Defender is a mechanical canine construct made by artificers. The Undying Soldier is a undead elf, their people are good aligned, which is awesome to have non evil undead.

My third box had Karnathi Skeleton, an Ankheg, a Dusk Hag, and a Kalasthar. The Karnathi Skeleton is one of two in the set, one has a sword, the other has an axe. The Karnathi are super skeleton zombie hybrid creature used by the Order of the Emerald Claw after the war. The Ankheg is a large sized monstrosity that plauges farms and roads. They borrow, spit acid, and their statistics are in the Monster Manual. The Dusk Hag is a newer witch creature for Eberron, witches are rough to fight in this edition. The Kalashtar have an attachment to the realm of dreams and the Quori, otherworldy creatures that live there. 

Our fourth box had a Corpse Flower, a Human Artificer, another Shifter Rogue with a knife, and the Undying Councillor. The Corpse Flower is a large evil plant monster, it can either eat a corpse within its form or animate a body as a zombie. The Corpse Flower also was the only miniature that was damaged out of the set, it broke free from the base, which happens some times. The Human Artificer can work for an artificer of a war or forge cleric. Artificers are a staple of Eberron, they showed up first in the 2004 Eberron Campaign Setting and have been in playtest for the last few years. This new book is their first offical printing and I love them. The Shifter Rogue in this box had a knife. The Undying Councillor is one of the leaders of the Undying Court, it can also be used for a mummy or lich.

Box five contained a Half Ogre with a spear, a Dwarf Artificer, a Warforged with a mace, and Dyrrn the Corruptor. The Half Ogre shows up in the Monster Manual and is a good threat for early levels of adventuring. The Dwarf Artificer is a great dwarven mage and is one of my favorite miniatures in this set. We also had another Warforged in this box, this one had a mace and a snazzy blue cloak. The design of these warforged is drastically different from the older warforged from the 3^rd edition designs. Dyrrn the Corruptor is a epic level villain of the Eberron world.  He is one of the Daelkyr and is on par in power with the demon lords or arch devils.

Box six contained a Tsucora Quori, a Gray Render, a Dwarf Magewright, and a Tarkanan Assassin. The Tsucora Quori are an evil dream realm creature and have the ability to possess victims. The Gray Render is one of my all time favorite monsters and the 5^th edition version shows up in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. They are large creatures that form a bond with a target and will defend them till death. Because Eberron is a world of magic almost everyone can use some form of magic. The Dwarven Magewright and magewrights in general make magical items and tend to magical items within the cities. Each has its own specialty of magic. Speaking of magic, the ruling families of Eberrons various guilds and cities sometimes are blessed with things called Dragonmarks. Dragonmarks give scions of the power spell like abilities that help the family. The Tarkanan Assassin miniature has a magic infused blade and the Tarkanan have their own dragonmarks, the Abberant Dragonmark. Aberrant Dragonmarks are looked on as a bad omen or a sign of extreme danger.

Box seven had a Clawfoot Raptor, a Warforged with a sword, A Cadaver Collector, and a Kalashtar. This is my favorite box. There are Talenta halflings that ride dinosaurs and the Clawfoot Raptors. They make me happy. This Warforged soldier has a sword and a blue cape. The Cadaver Collector is one of my all time favorite creatures, these massive constructs wander battlefields collecting corpses to take back to their master. There are bodies pinned to its body, there is an orc, what looks like an elf, and a dwarf on the miniature. There was also another Kalashtar. 

Cadaver Collector

Clawfoot Raptor

Our last box, box eight, had a Karnathi Skeleton with an axe, another Human Artificer, a Dolgrim, and a Radiant Idol. The Karnathi Skeleton will go great with any army of undead. As mentioned the Human Artificer is another repeat but still a great miniature. The Dolgrim is an evil Daelkyr created creature that looks like two goblins mashed together. The Radiant Idol is a fallen angel which will fit into any higher level campaign.

Out of the forty four unique miniatures in this set I was able to get thirty of them in one brick, which is pretty cool. There were only two real repeats. The other really cool thing that came out with this set was the Skycoach. The coach itself is a great flying ship that can be used for any sky based or nautical voyage. The ship itself is pretty simple to assemble but I will post a few construction pictures as well. 

Large pile of parts

There is the stand, it can slide back and forth

And the stand and the base peg together.  

Big fin flap

Three back fin flaps 

Little wing guys

Arcane hover boards... sky sleds 

Boarding plank

Boarding Ladder, there is space for minis

Sleds in action

Skycoach and sleds

All together

Figures for scale 

Thanks for checking out my haul. The lore and information has been gathered from the awesome book, Eberron: Rising From the Last War. Photos were taken by me. Miniatures made by Wizkids. Check your local game stores for curbside delivery and more information. 

Road to Auer Session 7: He Was A Drider Boy, He Looked Like A Spider Boy

Our next session began with the party weighing their options. They had rested for a few hours and discussed many courses of actions. Quiggles, Balziros, Gorg, Nonne, Longshot, and Terror stood just outside the enemy base and decided to head back to the surface and get help. They backed their way out of the tunnel and found the way behind them had flooded, the tide had come in. Through their various means they traversed the waterways back the way they came. They found the chasm Bob had climbed up and set about making their way back towards the surface. As they met up with Bob again, they asked him about the chamber across the chasm, he told them he had not gone across but it seemed spooky and only was used by the One Who Walks in Shadows. Needing no more facts the group chose to make their way across the chasm to the spooky place, forgetting everything about heading to the surface. They told Bob to watch over their revolution for them and crossed the gap. 

They walked web coated tunnels, finding strange almost fiberoptic webbing intermingled with the normal giant spider webs. They came to a large chamber with a tunnel leading out on the other side. The entire chamber was webbing and, on the ceiling, they could see what appeared to be a cocoon or a hut of some sort. Strange piles of web covered bones had the thicker webbing leading up to the ceiling web cluster. The group debated setting the whole place on fire and the ramifications of cavern oxygen levels with that much flame. During the discussion Nonne threw a rope tied spear into the web structure and yanked it down. The group froze as the structure shattered and a blood red fiendish choldrith screamed at them. Combat was had, the creature seemed to have some elemental resistances and was able to distract the party for a few rounds before succumbing to their multiple attacks and spells. they searched the wreckage and found surface coins.

They continued for a few hours down the path and eventually made it to a dwarven mining site with four skeletal duergar dwarves. Balziros used turn undead and the skeletons fled deeper into the mine. The group followed at a normal pace after them and eventually found an entire dwarven duergar city that had been flooded. They could see traces of the filament webbing across the city, even on the ceiling. The buildings were still mostly intact, many were stone with dark gold embellishments. The noticed the water in the streets was only about knee deep and there were skeletons under the water. Under closer investigations they noticed the skeletons had a hole in the top of their skulls, as if something either broke out of the skull, or something else pierced through it.

They made their way to the largest building they could find, which turned out to be the town center. The building itself was about forty feet tall in a fifty-foot-tall cavern. They walked up the front stairs, forced the doors open, and walked through the wreckage. Broken shelves, moldy tomes, broken bits of masonry, were moved aside so the party could pass through. Eventually they found a central hall or throne room. Seated on an ancient throne was a skeletal dwarf. The group entered the chamber and went to check on the corpse. They watched as it rose from the throne like a marionette. The group looked up to see a large spider with a human torso coming out. The fight with the drider began.

They quickly severed the strands supporting the dwarf king corpse and got into position, the drider was on the ceiling and would be an issue. The group had accidentally lined up, half of them were in lightning bolt formation. The Drider dropped down, blasted them, and climbed back up the wall while readying a longbow. Two large spiders also came down into the chamber to vex the party… but did not last long. The group launched spells and arrows at the drider and he returned fire. Terror launching elemental blasts, Longshot casting hunter’s mark and shooting at the beast, Gorg and Nonne making short work of the other spiders, Quiggles blasted away, and Balziros hurt the drider with Toll the dead. The drider grew tired of the fray and fled out a hole in the ceiling. Nonne scrambled up after him and saw the drider was climbing on the ceiling and was already making great speed. Nonne grabbed one of the filaments on the ceiling and yanked on it. 

The filament sprang like a guitar string, knocking the drider by chance. The drider fell from the ceiling and through a building. Nonne cut the filament and swung down, letting go to fall onto the drider, impaling it with his great sword. The group followed on the ground and could see the damage to the building. It turned out to be a flooded bakery and moldy flour surged into the air around the building. As a group they laid into the drider and finally Terror let loose magic missiles that ended the threat. The group collected themselves and started looting the shop and drider. They found a magical folding boat, a ring of protection, and a potion of mind reading. They holed up in the ruins of the bakery and we ended there for the night.

We now hit the point where our store we played at was forced to adjust its hours with the virus and hopefully in the future we will be able to play again. It has been an honor to game with the kind folk that chose to play at my table for the last four years over these four campaigns. For a few of them I was their first dungeon master and I am always happy to introduce people to this amazing hobby.

Road to Auer Session 6: Talking Spiders and the Catacombs of Labor Ethics

The party was hired by Corsco to head into the Church of the Three within Telas and head into the crypts to grab an item from one of the soon to be interred. When they got there, they found there was supposed to be a funerary ritual for one of the traveling clerics. They found Brother Cody, the dwarven caretaker knocked unconscious and bound in webbing and the door to the chapel slightly ajar. They woke up the caretaker and noticed he was missing his hands, which was not a new thing, they had just not met him before. His helper golem was out getting him more supplies at the moment so he was alone as greeter. Something bit him and everything went dark. Nonne, Gorg, Halanthis, 04, Balziros, Terror, Longshot, and Quiggles made their way into the church and found it empty of clerics, but over populated with webs. They found drag marks leading into the catacombs but had to solve a simple puzzle to drop the stairs.

Once below the group found themselves in a series of catacomb tunnels leading in all directions. To the east they heard movement and saw something getting dragged. Balziros and Nonne ran over to check it out and found a wolf sized spider dragging an unconscious priest down the hallway. They told it to stop and he did. The spider, whose name they could not complete with humanlike mouths and nicknamed Bob, was taking this man to his boss, the One Who Walks In Shadows. It seemed the boss wanted these clerics for some purpose but the lower spiders had not been informed, just being the grunt work force. The group asked how the spider could talk and Bob told them he was awakened, he and his other spiders were awoken by this One Who Walks In Shadows and were doing his bidding. Quiggles took this chance to ask if the spider was happy where he worked and if he would be interested in a tiny little revolution against his masters. At that moment more spiders came out of another tunnel behind the group and attacked the party.

One of the spiders was the size of a horse and kept disappearing into the ethereal plane while they fought him, the giant wolf spiders were attacking with spells, and the creepy choldrith, a terrible mix of person and spider, snuck up on the group and vexed Nonne. The spider casters targeted the rear of the group, attempting to identify threats, they chose poorly. After a few rounds of combat thousands of tiny swarming spiders pulled out of a crack in the wall and attempted to cover Balziros and Terror. Failing, one swarm ended up short lived and the other returned to the wall. The other spiders did not expect to be stabbed by Longshot as much, their lives were very short indeed, even more so with three paladins. Both Gorg and 04 were close enough to cause them all sorts of problems. The phase spider failed at eluding the group, dying to the spells of Terror. The group looked around and could hear Nonne yelling at his foe, the choldrith was a jerk and kept running away and throwing webs at Nonne. He eventually had it cornered in one of the catacomb’s preparation sites. A half-spirited attempt for peace was made and one of the paladins ended the beast. The group looked around and found an elf laid out on a cold slab wearing a cameo pendant that seemed to scream Corsco, so they figured that was what he was after.

The group went back to Bob, who had been hiding as the unconscious person’s back pack the entire battle. Bob told them about the hole in the wall and the spider base beyond. The clerics had been working on this area of the catacombs and the spiders took advantage of the building to do some demolition of their own. The group pressed Bob for more information on what he would be doing with the body he was carrying around. Eventually they convinced him to trade his smelly old human body in webbing for a nice juicy surface rabbit. Quiggle conjured a meat facsimile dead rabbit for Bob, offering to trade it for the bound body. Bob was on the fence until he realized this must be a special above ground rabbit, it even glowed, so he accepted the deal. The group woke up the priest to find his name was Jarel and set him back to the church above. Quiggles also told Bob not to eat this rabbit right away, he should hide it somewhere so it did not get stolen by the other spiders, and by no means should he eat it now. Quiggles knowing the conjuration would expire as soon as he either summoned another thing or the rabbit took any damage, information that will come in handy later. Bob was ecstatic. They asked him about the lay out of the spider base and he offered to show them. Halanthis had seen a giant spider before so he beast shaped into one. Halanthis and Bob made their way into the caves and explore the base while the rest of the group waited back in the catacombs.

Bob gave Halanthis the grand tour. He met the guards, got to see the web chamber full of spider egg nests, saw the arcane workshop where all the spiderlings that showed an aptitude for magic were trained in the fantastic spell of magic missile, and eventually was shown the pretty big chasm. There was a thirty-foot wide chasm within a larger chamber with a opposite “shore” with a tunnel leading away. a voice from the far tunnel cut across the distance demanding Bob go and get the body he had been tasked to get. Bob said he was working on it, he just wanted to show some outside help the ropes, gesturing at Halanthis. The voice, which belonged to a large elf body attached to a spider moved further down into the tunnel and out of sight. Bob and Halanthis returned to the others.

Bob told them his boss was kind of mad, he doesn’t really see the boss often but knows he is powerful. The group thanked Bob and sent him back into the base to hide his magic rabbit meat. He gleefully ran off. Halanthis explained to the rest of the group what was ahead and a plot was made. The group walked up to the two spider guards, the guards were armed with spears and shields and demanded to know who they were. They told the spiders they were with Bob and asked if the guards were interested in better wages, more time off, pensions, and more food then they could imagine. The guards had never heard about revolutions before, but that quickly changed. They were hesitant at first but where offered berets, which Quiggles summoned two hats connected by a thin thread and in the distance, they heard a pitiful wailing scream of woe. Not sure what exactly what had happened the group figured Bob was in trouble. The guards were excited about two hats as well as this revolution thing and let the group pass, assured when the party came back, they would bring real resistance berets back for the guards, but the guards just made their own with webbing. The group got to the webbing room. The room was about forty feet long and wide with about two feet thick webbing coating the floor. They could see the main exit as well as the arcane training room. They concocted magical means of climbing ropes with webbing attached to them but Nonne and Balziros just ended up walking and cutting through the webs, avoiding the egg clusters.

Within the magic room they found young spiders attempting to cast the biggest spell they could, magic missile. While adorable and dangerous, the group decided to teach them about revolutions. One of the small spiders giggled and turned in a circle, revolving around his own axis. Nonne and Quiggles did the talking in this room and eventually were able to borrow the rest of the spell book the spiders were using under the guise of being book inspectors, and took the higher-level spells for themselves. They joined the rest of the group by the chasm and could hear sobbing from deep within the pit.

Balziros tossed the magic light coin down the pit and lost sight of it and did not hear it hit the ground. The group made a sequence of ropes to scale down the side of the chasm, most were real, one of which was a conjuration again. The group made their way into the pit and at the bottom found a larger cavern system, which was damp, but not from spider tears. They found Bob sobbing his eight eyes out… he had broken his meat rabbit somehow and was beside himself. The group assured him his future was bright, and better food would be coming this way. They calmed him down with a field promotion and asked him to look after the fledgling revolution in the caves above. They asked him what was down here and he told them about the tides and the tunnels. He directed them to the important place down here and climbed back up the walls. The group followed his guidance and made their way to a path that led upwards and into a large cavern that had what appeared to be a large giant built fortress surrounded by multiple war camps. Now in the midst of numerous foes, we stopped there for the night.

Road to Auer Session 5: Unicorn Rodeo Goes Down Nothing Like Legend.

After convincing Balziros to not eat the heart, Gorg, Harvey, Terror, Longshot, and Balziros noticed a small figure entering the clearing. It appeared to be a gnome. He introduced himself as Quiggles and showed them he was a wizard. while they explained what was happening in the sudden snowfall another stranger entered the clearing. It appeared to be a white furred satyr. He introduced himself as Keyhaw and asked them if any one had seen any unicorn hearts, it seemed there was a forest guardian that had been killed and its heart taken. Reluctantly Balziros admitted he had it. Keyhaw informed the group they would have to return the heart to the unicorn or the entire forest would become a frozen wasteland. The group agrees this would be wise and asked if there were any threats to look out for. Keyhaw told them there was a strange red minotaur wandering the snow-covered woods.

The group set off, Longshot leading the way. Quickly they realized the entre forest was covered in ice and snow. They found the river and everyone but Gorg slipped on the ice. They noticed something blue and quick moving through the tree line and were greeted with a cackle. A tall blue skinned hag in a toga climbed down into view and asked who the party was. The group wisely withheld their names. She explained her friends were trapped in the ice and it was hard to feed them. The party peered into the solid ice and could see strange skeletal creatures looking like undead mermaids with whip like tails. Not trusting the obviously scary with the group asked what the “friends” ate, and she informed them meat… from travelers… animals, she meant animals. Balziros promised to bring the nice lady, the witch Amelda, meat if they found any and she let the group go.

They found a path that took them up a ridge, Longshot finding the unguarded path and as they climbed could see a displacer beast and its kitten playing on the ice river. Quietly they made it deeper into the hills. The group stopped when they noticed a few lumps on the snow and two large purple corruption oozes charged the group. They quickly found that magical attacks and spells would cause small buds of ooze to grow off the main ooze and electrical and slashing damage caused the entire ooze to split in half. Harvey stabbed one with his gifted blade from his distant cousin and saw a slightly magic effect bloom in the blade. After a few missteps and many oozes, the group rose victoriously from the melee.

The group traveled on and found a copse of pale trees with leaves like ice. The path had strange ice fairies dancing between the branches. Harvey had experience with fey creatures and approached. He talked with the lead fairy, most troops have them, and asked what was up. The fairy told him that all the ice fairies had just gone to sleep for the summer and suddenly the ice woke them again, he thinks it has something to do with the ghost horse. Pressed for more information Krickzle the fairy told the group that when the unicorn was made heartless its soul became dark and twisted. Now its body, with a horn and hooves made of flame is wreaking havoc. The group thanked hi for the information and made their way towards the loud sounds of yelling and crashing.

At the next clearing they could see this undead unicorn, with a massive hole in its chest, sprinting away from a red minotaur that was trying to jump on its back and catch it. They watched as this transpired for about twenty minutes and could hear someone shouting out encouragement to the minotaur from up above. Longshot spotted the skeletal bard with a lute up in a tall tree attempting the inspirational messages. Harvey and Quiggles came up with what seemed like a terrible plan at the time, hopping on the back of the unicorn and mage handing the heart back in place. While they were planning, they saw the unicorn stab the minotaur a few times when it got to close.

As the unicorn was running towards where the party was plotting, they launched their plan. Harvey and Quiggles misty stepped onto the back of the moving beast, Harvey was facing the wrong way but otherwise they were fine. They both cast mage hand and attempted to push the heart back into place. It was half way in as they made the turn, headed towards the rest of the group. Gorg yelled out to the minotaur and persuaded him to stop it, which he did, oddly confused at who these people were. Balziros ran up to the minotaur and commanded him to cower, so on its turn it did. The unicorn ran at Balziros, who stepped out of the way and the minotaur was trampled beneath the flaming hooves of rage. Longshot and Terror took aim at the bard to silence him, launching spell and arrows into his skeletal form. The skeleton used shatter on the unicorn, seeing if his master could not have it, no one would, and hitting some crazy living people on its back seemed helpful too. The minotaur became the target of many attacks, Gorg breaking off both of his horns with her maul. Harvey and Quiggles rode the raging undead unicorn as it made an ice bridge up to the bard, seeking to silence it as well. as they got to the top the bard used thunder wave in an attempt to push the impending threat off the ramp and to the ground. Harvey fell, thinking the sixty-foot fall into ice and minotaur blood would the last thing he felt, but Quiggles saved him with feather fall. After landing both Quiggles and Harvey used their mage hands to push the heart fully back into place. The skeleton fell to the combined efforts of Terror and Longshot.

The unicorn, its heart restored, transformed back to normal. It had been investigating this corruption and was struck down by some large giant creature. It remembered the cold, but not what was happening around it. It thanked the group, healed them of any injuries and started fixing the forest. The group noticed the minotaur corpse had dissolved and might not have been from this realm, but the horns remained. The session ended there for the night, for simplicity, they made their way back to town.

***Some events were very loosely based on the 1985 Ridley Scott movie Legend staring Tim Curry, Tom Cruise, and Mia Sara. If you have no clue what I am talking about go check it out!***