Dungeon: Fungi and Vermin

I spent a little time working on my dungeon project, and while I am still waiting for some materials to arrive to finish off the room I am working on, I figured I'd post what I'd finished so far.

First is a patch of mushrooms in a room corner. Instead of going for crazy, bright colors, I decided to aim for a more realistic hue. I also added some mold around the bottom to hide the bases and spread it to the walls to increase the grossness factor. The mushrooms are from a GW night goblin sprue I picked up a while ago.

The other room corner I finished contains a rat's nest, partially inspired by Diablo II (I fondly remember kicking open a lot of them looking for loot). It also makes sense, since a dungeon would have its fair share of regular vermin in addition to the monstrous type. It is made from a couple of broken up pieces of wooded coffee stirrer with dead-colored static grass all over. I only wish I had an appropriate sized rat to give it more context, but I'm still looking.

I decided to use the remaining pieces of broken coffee stirrer to add some debris to the floor. I figure there probably aren't a lot of hobgoblins with brooms roaming about to clean up. I made sure to keep the pieces out of the middle of the squares so miniatures could stand in them, but they aren't so high that they couldn't be stood on. I definitely plan to add more of this sort of thing to give some extra life.

And now some action shots, first with the pieces I finished this week:

And mixed up with some of my previous pieces:

That's it for this round. Let me know what you think and thanks for viewing! Hopefully the rest of my materials come soon and I can finish off the room.

Dungeon: I Am A Tiny Carpenter

This is just a small update, but I had a go at making my first model table. It is made from coffee stirrers with bamboo skewers for the legs. Its not perfect, but hey, I'll just say its orcish craftsmanship.

Battle Report: Sanctify The Tomb!

It has been a while since I posted and life has finally calmed down enough for me to get some good gaming in. I got in a quick and dirty Song of Blades and Heroes skirmish and took some pictures so I could share.

This skirmish is a scenario of my own devising. In it, a group of adventurers has heard that an ancient tomb of a fallen evil warlord lies in the nearby woods, and that a Death Priest may be looking to resurrect him as an undead terror for her nefarious purposes. After much searching, the adventurer's find the tomb, but the Death Priest has also arrived with her orc minions!

The battlefield:

 The warlord's tomb, using some of my dungeon project pieces:

The Adventurers:

The heroes consist of:

Barkos, Human Paladin: Q3+ C4 Fearless, Heavy Armor, Paladin

Dorin, Dwarf Fighter: Q3+ C5 Fearless, Short Move

Handon, Human Templar: Q3+ C3, Heavy Armor, Lethal vs. Undead

Tellethial, Elf Ranger: Q2+ C4 Forester, Stealth

Hawkins, Human Rogue Q3+ C3 Acrobat, Stealth, Traps

Elrais, Elf Wizard Q2+ C0 Magic User

The Death Priest and her minions:

Naraia, Death Priest: Q3+ C3 Evil, Heavy Armor, Leader, Necromancer

4 Orc Warriors: Q4+ C3

The forces assemble, each rushing to reach the tomb. Handon must use his Templar rights to sanctify the tomb by using a total of 3 actions (over any amount of turns), after which the warlord may not be raised as undead. Naraia must spend a total of 3 actions (over any number of turns) to raise the warlord to fight on her side. The warlord is Q3+ C5 Evil, Terror, Tough, Undead. In either case, the battle continues until all models on one side are dead.

The forces gather:

And both begin the mad dash for the tomb's entrance:

The orc line crashes into the heroes, cutting them off from the tomb:

And though the ranger and templar cut down a few orcs and send anther fleeing,

Naraia manages to sneak past and start her ritual of undeath!

A single orc guards the doorway, only to be transfixed by the wizard

Naraia makes progress:

The orc guard is cut down too late and the Death Priest finishes her spell. The warlord rises to to her bidding!

 The ranger rushes to engage the warlord but is slain. The warlord engages the paladin, but is dealt a harsh blow by the holy warrior's blade!

The wizard weaves a spell around the warlord, allowing Handon and Barkos to use their skills at fighting evil to injure the warlord further!

But the Death Priest raises the slain ranger to fight against his former comrades while they are kept at bay!

Handon banishes the warlord back to the nether-realm as Naraia fights Barkos, trying to find a way past to escape!

The now undead Elf moves forward and slays Handon, his skills with the blade apparently undulled by death.

 Enraged, Dorin charges through and destroys the walking corpse of his former friend:

Then turns his axe in the Death Priest, felling her and ending her evil! The heroes win the day!

I really enjoyed this skirmish, and especially liked having a secondary objective to achieve. You might not that the Death Priests initial force was weaker than the heroes. That is because I wanted to create a narrative scenario instead of a straight fight. It sets the heroes up for a win, yes, but the evil side comes out a little stronger with the warlord on their side. I have a feeling he would have been tougher if my rolls had come out better and he hadn't been up against the two most lethal figures (vs evil AND undead) on the opposing side.

All in all, it was a fun story to act out. The scenery really set the mood and using the dungeon pieces for the tomb worked out really well. I can't wait to finish the project so I can run full dungeon adventures!

More Dungeon: Accessorize!

To break up the project and have something to do while waiting for pieces to dry, I painted up some pieces to add some flair to the dungeon. Since I'm low on dungeon decor at the moment, I dug up some terrain from the Mines of Moria set Games Workshop put out and whipped them up real quick:

Here we have Balin's Tomb:

And a dwarven well. I added some moss, covered the bottom with some paper that was painted dark green, then filled it with some clear school glue. It was still not dry as of this picture, so we'll see how it comes out. I really need to splurge on some water effects resin.

A couple of columns, though these are too big to be practical in all but the biggest rooms:

A couple of trap doors. I love how well they blend into the floor and are amazingly exactly the right size.

A lock box/treasure chest. I went for a bronze look but I'm not really sure I nailed it.

And finally, some fun with the pieces:

Overall, I'm very happy with how it came out. I can't wait to get more dungeon decor from different companies to liven up the dungeon. First I have to get more rooms painted up though!

Happy gaming!

More Dungeon: Twisting Halls

I managed to add a few more painted pieces to my dungeon. I decided I needed some halls to go with my room, so I chose a set and got painting. Here's what I ended up with:

We have the stairs leading down into the dungeon:

A short hall section:

A plain ol' corner section:

I also did a corner with some pools of slime:

To be honest, it didn't come out as wet or visible as i would like, but that's what I get for using tinted clear school glue instead of some kind of water effects. A close up:

I also added some slime to a four-way intersection:

The slime here is even less visible because it runs through the crack. Its subtle, I guess:

My favorite piece is the moldy T-section. I used the same tinted glue to stick down patches of green flock and I really like how the finished result came out:

And it looks even grosser from and adventurer's eye view:

Of course I have to show a couple of "assembled" shots:

And lastly, the reason I chose this particular set is because it can double as a room set-up:

I hope you all enjoyed my pictures. I'm hoping to bang out another set in a week or so, as long as life doesn't interfere too much. Happy gaming!