Revisiting a failed project. Cork Dungeon Tiles.

I made some cork dungeon tiles a few months ago using cork tiles.  I "printed" the stone floor pattern with a stamp I made from cheap Dollar Tree foam core.  The results on the left looked pretty harsh.  I never posted them here because I wasn't very happy with them.  I kept thinking about dry brushing them with a light grey so that the black shadow lines were less harsh but I kept putting it off.  Last week I went ahead and did the dry brushing shown on the right.  They really look a lot better and I can still see the lines for grid play. 
I don't know why I let these sit around for several months without fixing the problem.  Sometimes I guess you have to give projects space for a bit and revisit them later.  It only took me a few hours to fix the problem and now I have a nicer set of tiles. 

Here they are pictured with some Wizkids dungeon doors and other dungeon dressing.  I finished the doors this week though I still have four unfinished.  They really make my dungeon layout much nicer. 

Black Magic Craft inspired Modular Ruins.

 I recently moved and when I did I moved into a much smaller home than the one I was living in.  I ended up keeping most of my miniature collection but I gave most of my terrain to my daughter and her boyfriend to use in their D&D games.  As luck would have it I was able to rent some studio space in the town I moved to for an insanely low rate so I decided since I had crafting space and playing space again it was high time to start re-building my terrain collection.

One of the YouTube channels I follow is "Black Magic Craft"  which is an excellent DIY terrain making and gaming channel that details projects with both advanced and beginner techniques.  A while back I saw him do a set of simple ruined walls which he could also use and Dungeon walls and I though it would be a good first project for my new studio.  You can find the Video here: 

 The guy at "Black Magic Crafts" does a lot of his building with XPS foam and a hot wire cutting table.  I don't have this kind of tool but I do have my trusty cork tiles and Xacto knives.  I made my first set of ruins out of one 12x12 inch cork tile.  You can get these for about $7.00 a pack at Walmart here in the U.S. and about $9.00 at Hobby Lobby or Lowles.  I find it to be a good material to work with for numerous projects.  I usually use either hot glue or tacky glue as my primary adhesive for this material.  For this project I choose tacky glue because it allowed me to adjust and even remove sections of the wall as I was building them.

The most tedious part of course was cutting the bricks out of the tile.  I chose to make my bricks 1/4 inch by 1/2 inch.  The tiles are not quite 1/4 inch thick so you need to keep that in mind when laying the brick patterns or it will throw your build off.  

My wife also made a set using similar methods.  Here she is laying the bricks out.  I would say our bricks are around 20% smaller than the foam bricks used in the original project but because the cork already has a natural texture we were able to skip the steps involved in adding texture.  It's also okay if some of your bricks are slightly thicker from side to side than others because they actually improves the texture of the wall.  I felt like this was not exactly a speedy project but I have done much more tedious builds.

I have perhaps 6 hours in this build so far and I feel like I can probably stop once I have used up one package of four tiles.  Our primary interest in making these walls is to get some terrain together for Frostgrave which is usually played on a 3x3 foot table.  We also plan to make some static ruin buildings and other features so we don't need to cover the entire space with these ruins.  I also feel like that will give me enough walls that if I ever want to use them as Dungeon walls I'll have enough for the amount of Dungeon I normally place on the table.

I'm pretty excited to get these painted.  I still need to add a bit of sand texture to the bases and some of the wall areas.  I think I may make three tiles worth of sets like this one then make some interest pieces out of the last tile in the pack.

Based on the amount of time I have in on these I estimate I'll have the build finished in another six hours at most with probably three hours of painting time.  That's a bit of a long build but it will produce a large amount of terrain so I think it will be worth the time investment.

Warlords of Knottinglund Episode 01 The Burning of Nottamun Town

Two hundred years ago the Taurian men of the Minotaur Empire left Knotinglund in the hands of the Knots a people who had served as their mercenary enforcers against the native Druidfolk. Since that time the Knots have enjoyed nearly unprecedented prosperity and good fortune with only the occasional Duridfolk or Goblinkin raid. They have traded with the other goodfolk of the island and have become the envy of many of their neighbors but they are not a united people. What true wars they have endured have been at the hands of the seven kings who rule the kingdoms of the Knots although even these have not amounted to much. None of the kingdoms are willing to risk large scale warfare their lives are so comfortable. The occasional earldom or border shire will change hands but capitals are never threatened. Of all the kingdoms of the Knots Goldfeld is the richest not only in terms of physical wealth but also in terms of the value of the land. Located in the middle of Knotinglund it has the best farmland on the island. It is truly a breadbasket.

Manton son of Randolf Earl of Highhill looked out onto the plain from his hilltop fortress. It was the first day of the Winter Solstice in the 858th Year of the Law. Nottamun Town, some ten miles from the fort, was burning. So late in the year it might have started accidentally but no one had shown up asking for aid. It might have been started by a goblin raid but with over fifty Fyrdmen and a dozen Thanes in the town that seemed unlikely. Raids of that kind had not been seen for over a century. Not in the kingdom of Goldfeld especially. The Druidfolk had not been seen for decades and then only rarely. Perhaps in some of the wilder kingdoms they might have been able to make such a raid but not in these civilized lands. Turning to a Huscarl to his right he said "Gather my Thanes in the hall". The Huscarl nodded his head and turned to carry out the Earl's command.

Looking at his gathered Thanes, Manton's heart sank. Fat, old, incompetent, and far too comfortable armed with little more than symbolic weapons that had never been drawn in anger. Now they were bickering about why Nottamun Town was on fire. "Maybe they haven't called for help because they have it under control. They have the river right there running through their town after all!" said Beornwald a particularly self important Thane. "Under Control! How can you say it's under control? Look outside, you can see the fires even from this distance!". It was Adelric, Manton's son. He had come in with Anwen and Beatrix, two other younger Thanes. Perhaps the only Thanes in Highhill capable of carrying out their martial duties. "Let us go find out what is going on father" Adelric continued. "Ha! None of you have the experience required." interjected Beornwald. "Then I should charge you to investigate the matter for me" Earl Manton replied. "B, but my lord, my family is here for the Yule feast. My home is bursting with guests. I can't just leave them at this..." Beornwald trailed off looking at his shoes. "Then it is settled. My son, the priestess, and the young bard will go. Find out for me what is behind this tragedy and see if you can't help any survivors," the Earl commanded. "Yes father" Adelric replied then he and his companions turned to leave.

The three Thanes set out together on the road to Nottamun Town. As they approached the town they encountered no one.

A small section of Nottamun Town lays on the south side of the Nottamun River where a few houses still stood.  Across the river the larger part of the town was ablaze.  The gatehouses were on fire and as they approached they could see signs of conflict.  Weapons, helmets, and shields lay on the ground.  Pools of coagulating blood filled the furrows and boot prints where two shield walls had clashed.  The one thing missing was the bodies.

The watch tower was empty.  Many of the weapons stored there had been removed from their racks.  More signs of conflict were found at the top of the tower but no bodies there as well.  From the top of the tower Anwen thought she saw movement in the water.
 

As they moved towards the river armed figures started to emerge from the water.  They were not men but they were once men, now just skeletal remains marching toward the three Thanes.

 Adelric charged a group crossing the bridge.  Three Skeletons charged towards Anwen and another three towards Beatrix the bard.

 Adelric and his horse cut down two of the skeletons on the bridge but as he turned on the third a gigantic skeletal Minotaur came charging through the smoke.

The priestess Anwen fell before the spears of the three skeletons who charged her.  Things were looking dire for the Thanes.

Adelric moved to cut off the skeletons that cut down Anwen and the Minotaur gave chase.  Beatrix destroyed two of the skeletons attacking her then ran to help the priestess.  

Adelric and his Warhorse attacked the Minotaur destroying the beast.  The skeletons attacked him with their spears but could not get through his defenses.  

 Beatrix rushed over to heal Anwen while being chased by another skeleton but even though the skeleton wounded her she was able to get Anwen back on her feet.

Anwen called forth a spiritual weapon and destroyed the skeleton chasing Beatrix with magic and sword.  

Together the Thanes destroyed the remaining skeletons.  After the battle Anwen began examining the destroyed skeletons.  She noticed that the weapons wielded by the human skeletons were ancient and of Druidfolk design and that every one of the skeletons wore and iron torc of Druidfolk design.  The torcs were freezing cold to the touch but the Thanes took a few of them to return to Highhill.  

Upon returning to Highhill Adelric and Beatrix took the Minotaur skull to Earl Manthon while Anwen went to track down Gosbeorth the Sage to see if he knew anything about the torcs.  Anwen did not find Gosbeorth at home but after she re-joined her companions they found the old sage at the alehouse.  Gosbeorth confirmed their suspicions that the torcs were crafted by the Druidfolk.  Strangely the torcs, which had appeared freshly forged, had already become badly rusted as if they were about to crumble to dust.  Gosbeorth suggested that the magic used to craft them must have been very powerful.

Later that night Manthon called his Thanes before him again.  Beornwald accused the three thanes of making the story up but the Earl dismissed him.  He then charged the three with locating the Druidfolk who were responsible for the attack.  

Note:  This is part of a Prequel campaign for another Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition campaign I hope to start in the Summer of 2019 which is inspired by Game of Thrones and the Wars of the Roses.  I'm currently conducting a few mini campaigns to establish a history of events in my players minds.  The setting is an island I've designed called Knotinglund which is very heavily inspired by English myths and history.  The Knots, featured in the early campaign are a kind of cultural analog to Saxons, Vikings, and Normans.    

Experimental storage solutions

 I've been collecting miniatures for a long time.  30+ years or so.  In that time I've painted thousands of miniatures.  I've also stored and transported thousands of miniatures and I've never found a satisfactory solution.  Just as many of my miniatures get broken and chipped up while they are being stored or transported as the ones that get damaged in play.  In fact I think more have been damaged while not in use than while in play so I'm constantly trying new solutions.  I've got everything from fishing lure and hobby compartmentalized boxes with foam inserts I cut by hand to soft sided cases to purpose built miniature storage and transport cases and I've had trouble with all of them. I've had miniatures get broken in all of them and I've had paint rubbed off by all of them as well.  Even when I store miniatures on shelves they get knocked off by pets and children and they also get really dusty.  I've even had curio cabinets fall off the wall and wreck dozens of paint jobs so nothing has worked.   

 Recently I was browsing through the jewelry crafting section of a local department store when I had an inspiring thought.  There were several sizes of zip-lock baggies that were really cheap and I thought that might provide a solution.  The baggies are smooth so they won't rub paint off like every type of open cell foam I have tried and the extra space the baggie takes up actually acts as padding. 

 The baggies come in different sizes so I picked up a couple of varieties to fit my different needs.  I found you don't want to go with a baggie that just barely fits the miniature because the mini could get stuck in the bag.  It's not that big a deal because the bag can be ripped or cut open but it's kind of wasteful so it's bet to get a slightly over sized bag than one that just barely fits. 

I experimented with a bunch of Battletech Battlemechs and at first I put them in this fishing lure case and that worked pretty well.  I think it would work really well for most 28mm human sized figures but I felt it was a little tight. 

I then decided to put the small baggies into sandwich bags then put them into this plastic shoe box.  That worked even better.  I could group the minis together and the sandwich bags provided another layer of padding and protection. 

The one down side I found was that it's takes a little time to pack and unpack the bags but not all that much compared with some of my other storage methods.  I think for long term storage this will be a cheap and effective solution.  I will probably work well for protecting unfinished paint jobs as I am working on them or if I have to set a project aside for a while for one that has a higher priority. 

Simple Encounter Board

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a small encounter board for my D&D and other RPG games.  Most of my RPG encounters take place over a small area compared to the amount of space needed for a war game.  Most of the time I set up my RPG encounters on a 4x4 foot war game table or larger.  I wanted something smaller that I could place on my gaming table instead of off on another table.
 

I picked up a 33x50" Ready Grass Vinyl Mat from Woodland Scenics and a 20x30" poster frame from Walmart.  I think I spent about $20.00 U.S. on the project but I don't have the exact figures. 

 I laid the cardboard poster backing from the frame on the grass mat then traced the size.  After cutting the mat I was mostly done. 

I used some tacky glue to glue the mat down to the cardboard backing then placed some heavy books on and let it set for a couple hours.  I recommend against using a water based glue for this to prevent warping.  I did have some slight bubbling with this but that worked out okay because the board looked more natural with the slight rolling surface rather than if it was perfectly flat.   

Looks pretty good with terrain and figures on it.  Just exactly what I was hoping for.  The frame separates it nicely from the table and I think it might prevent dice from rolling onto the board so easily. 

I plan to make several more of this for different types of terrain including one with a flat black surface for laying down dungeon tiles.   

Miniature Update 11-30-17

 Just posting some miniatures I've painted lately.  I'm trying to get some monsters painted up for my D&D games.  First up is this Reaper Bones large fire elemental.

A Reaper; Rust Monster, Clay Golem, and Efreet as well as a Dungeon Delvers Basalisk.  I'm hoping to get more done soon. 

Random Miniature Update 11-9-17

I painted this Reaper Bones Griffin based on a Bateleur eagle.  

These Reaper Crusaders will be "The Drowned Templars" in an upcoming game.

Three Reaper Orcs I painted up to represent Half Ogres.

I painted this Reaper dark elf sorceress as a Drow.  She will be "The Twilight Queen" in my campaign.

The Tree of Shame

I made this tree for an up coming Dungeons and Dragons game.  It's based on a tale from Arthurian legends.  The skeletons are shown for scale.  I was really happy with the way it turned out since it was fairly simple to make.

Years ago I made three wire frame trees from bailing wire.  They sat unfinished in a box for over a decade.  One of them was covered in green floral tape which is something I had used in the past on wire frame trees.  I mounted the tree on a cork board base then used Gorilla Glue hot glue to create texture on the structure.

I didn't want to use plastic shields for the tree because now that Games Workshop has stopped making Warhammer it's harder to find good shields cheap so I picked up a package of fake finger nails from the Dollar tree and cut them into shield shapes with a pair of scissors.  I had to mark the shield shapes by scoring into the nail with an Xacto knife because I could not draw on them. 

I dipped them in very hot water to help flatten them out.  This distorted some of them a bit but that was okay since they were suppose to look battered and distressed anyway.  I then mounted them on square dowels and painted them with black spray paint. 

I painted the shields with some quick and dirty heraldry.  I didn't get too precise with the painting since I planned to weather these.  It's handy to look up the rules of heraldry if you wish to depict it realistically.  I've studied it since I was very young.  My interest in medieval armor and knighthood led me into Dungeons and Dragons and the Society for Creative Anachronisms. 

If you have less knowledge of heraldry you should Google "Heraldic rolls" or "Rolls of Arms" which are medieval records of Coats of Arms.  These are a great reference not only for ideas but also the medieval style heraldry is easier to depict than modern versions that you might find if you just Google Heraldry. 

Here are the shields weathered up.  I wanted them to look pretty battered and a bit moldered from hanging on a tree for long periods of time.  

I can't wait to use this project in my next D&D game.  It should prove to be an interesting encounter.  

       

Random miniature update.

I haven't really posted any painted miniatures lately so I thought I would post the last few miniature painting projects I have worked on. 

The three barrels are from WizKids new unpainted plastic miniature line.  They were very cheap and very nice to paint. 

The archer is from Reaper.  One of their army packs that have been around forever.  This is for my son's very first D&D game.  His character has leather armor so I painted the scale armor as leather scale.  I think it works pretty well.  He's got a bow, arrows, sword, and a shield.  The shield is an old GW shield from my bits box.  My son's favorite color is red so that is why he has a bright red tunic. 

The rat swarms are from Reaper bones line.  I basically dry brushed the entire swarm and base grey then used glazes of different colors to paint the rats.  I added flesh tone to the tails and a dot to their noses.  I think they turned out pretty nice.  I just need more of them. 

"Heroes of the Ghost Age" Book 1 The Reaving of Raven Hill: Chapter 1 To Catch a Rat. Part 1. A Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Campaign

Hero's of the Ghost Age

Book 1: The Reaving of Raven Hill

Chapter 1: To Catch a Rat
(Part 1)

It was already late September and just a few short weeks away from leiunium Cereris the fasting day honoring the goddess Ceres.  Tragedy had fallen the town of Raven Hill.  Not only was the town overrun by rats again but someone had stolen the idol of Ceres from her shrine.  

There was no doubt among the townspeople as to who was to blame.  During the spring Lord Roufus Ravenhill hired the rat catcher Gunther of Fellberg to rid the town of it's rat problem. In an amazingly short period of time Gunther had managed to rid the town of rats but when he went to Lord Ravenhill to receive his fee Lord Ravenhill tossed him a single coin and told him to get out of town.  Infuriated by this Gunther vowed that he would have his revenge on the town.

To make matters worse a particularly powerful goblin tribe had been southern farms under the protection of the town.  Lord Ravenhill and the town guard had been hard pressed to keep them at bay.  Melvin the Magnificent, a wizard who lived just outside the town, suggested that Lord Ravenhill entrust the recovery of the statue to his student and Lord Ravenhill's ward Lady Lydia Lydell and some other individuals from the town.  Melvin suggested; Efisio Battiatus a recently arrived paladin of Minerva, Flint Frostbeard the towns dwarven smith, the halfling Petunia Thistledown, and Falkrune a dwarf mercenary.  Lord Ravenhill was uncertain about Melvin's suggestions but he didn't have much of a choice.

    

The meeting was held at the town's keep.  The keep had one floor of stone but the remaining levels were constructed of wood.  Lord Ravenhill was suppose to complete the keep in stone but never had citing shortfalls of money though the townspeople largely agreed that this was just another example of Lord Ravenhill being a cheapskate.  

The individuals Melvin had suggested met with Lord Ravenhill around mid day at the keep.  Petunia had brought a pie along for the occasion. Lord Ravenhill, flanked by his two hounds, stood and said "A Tragedy has befallen us.  As you know the rat infestation has gotten out of hand.  No doubt the work of that no good rat catch Gunther of Fellberg.  He has been seen lurking around the town at night.  Some say he's been releasing the rats including some monstrously large specimens.  That however is not the worst of his crimes.  Last night the idol of Ceres was stolen from her shrine and eyewitness accounts point to Gunther as the perpetrator."  Lord Raven hill paused for a moment eyeing the assembled group with doubt.  He shook his head.  "Melvin the Magnificent suggested I gather you lot to deal with this problem.  I don't know why but I'm not one to argue with the wizard..... I'd do it myself of course but the town guard and I have been tied up chasing rats and dealing with the goblins who have been raiding the southern farms.  I need help and I suppose you will have to do."

Lord Ravenhill got up and moved towards the door calling his hounds to heel.  Before exiting though he picked up Petunia's pie inhaling the aroma "Ah still warm" he said with a slight smile.  Without another word he left.

Without much else to go on the party decided to visit the shrine of Ceres which was located outside of town in the farm lands.  There they found that the idol was indeed missing.  Some of the offerings seems to have been disturbed as well.  After searching about the structure for a little while Efisio found a set of boot tracks heading off into a field of grain.  

The followed the tracks across the field to the edge of the Raven Wood.  Just inside the forest the tracks came to a shallow stream but seemed to end abruptly.  On the opposite bank a single large rat track could be seen in the mud.  It was large enough to be a man's foot print.  The rest of the bank was too rocky to pick up the immediate trail.  After searching for some time they managed to pick up a trail of man sized foot tracks.  Strangely the tracks seemed to have been left by an individual walking on two legs instead of all fours.  It was getting late.  "This looks like a good place to camp" Flint said.  They set up a camp and divided watches.  Petunia climbed a large oak tree because she did not feel safe on the ground.  

  

"We're under attack!" shouted Efisio.  Three goblins had rushed out of the brush and attacked the paladin of Minerva while he was on guard.  Lydia, Flint, and Faulkrune awoke with goblins attacking them.  Flint took a nasty hit before he was able to get to his feet.  

The battle was hard fought especially since neither Flint nor Faulkrune had their armor on.  Efisio battled three of the goblins but he had help from Petunia who fired her short bow from the three she was in.  Eventually the goblins were dispatched and the party drug their corpses further from the camp.  During Lydia's watch the mage sent her owl familiar Luna to get a better view of the area.  What she saw disturbed her.  A large two headed dog was dragging a pair of goblin corpses away from the pile the party had made and headed off to the north with them.  

The party continued to follow the rat man trail to the north until they came to another stream with a very overgrown bridge.  Across the bridge was an overgrown paved road which continued north.  Though they couldn't find any more tracks the party continued to follow the road until they came upon some runes.

A man stepped out from a ruined door way.  He had a large sack over his shoulder that seemed to be writhing with a dozen or more small creatures.  The man spoke "Well I guess that cheap bastard Lord Ravenhill sent his finest to find me.  You can tell Lord Tightpants that he can have the statue back from a mere 200 gold coins."    

Efisio attempted to parlay with the man "Gunther, what if we could pay you what Lord Ravenhill promised you in the first place.  Will you return the statue and remove the rat infestation?".  "No deal!" shouted Gunther then he tossed the bag onto the ground.  Rats came swarming out of the bag.  

The paladin charge through the swarm and pinned Gunther to the ground.  The rest of the party came to Efisio's aid and they managed to kill the rats and capture Gunther. 

"We're taking you back to face some justice!" Efisio snarled.  Gunther just laughed.  As they were dragging Gunther back to town suddenly the rope went slack.  On the ground was nothing more than a pile of clothing.  "What's that!" Flint shouted.  A large rat scurried off into the underbrush carrying a small pouch in it's mouth.  Gunther had escaped.  

Uncertain about what Gunther was and concerned about the two headed dog the party decided to visit the home of Melvin the Magnificent, Lydia's instructor, to see if he could had any knowledge that could help them.  

Melvin lived in a small house just outside of town in the Raven wood.  Oddly his home seemed larger on the inside that the outside.  "I believe you are dealing with a Wererat" Melvin explained.  "What's a Wererat?" Falkrune asked.  "Well it's rather like a Werewolf but not quite so powerful.  A wererat is a human infected by a strain Lycanthropy that turns one into a rat man".  "How do we kill it?" Lydia asked.  "Well I'm afraid normal weapons will have no effect on such a creature.  You must use magic or enchanted weapons" the old wizard explained.  "Can't you come with us to help us catch Gunther?" Efisio asked.  "Oh no.  No, no, no.  I'm not much for adventures.  They make one late for tea" Melvin chuckled.  "Well do you know where we can get some enchanted weapons?" Falkrune asked.  "I do know of a tale.  There was a Knight named Balin who had a tower no far to the North.  He died more than fifty years ago.  He as said to have owned several enchanted weapons that he used to drive the undead from Raven Hill.  He was also said to have been buried in his tower.  It was frequently visited by pilgrims for some time until the undead returned to area.  No one has ventured there in some time." the wizard explained.  

Melvin turned and rummaged through a chest near the table he was sitting at.  " I do have this small dagger.  It's enchanted but not terribly powerful".  He placed it on the table "You may borrow it".  Petunia snatched the dagger off the table quicker that anyone could see.  "Oh it's beautiful!  Can I have it?" she asked.  The mage nodded "Very well".  Petunia drew the small blade and raised it above her head triumphantly.  "I shall call you Aculeus!" she said with glee.  

End Part 1

Notes:  This is the first part of my new Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition campaign "Heroes of the Ghost Age" set in my group's home brew setting of Tellus.  We've finished the first adventure and the party is almost third level but there were so many images I decided to split the report up into three parts to make it easier.  Also the game took three sessions to complete so this is roughly where the first session left off.