Dungeon Treasure Piles and Dragon Hoard

[tauster]

The Games Workshop paint I used as a basepaint worked out great. It was a bit too shiny, but with the next layer stippled over, that isn't an issue anymore.

I stippled the wings with Citadel Wazdakka Red...




...and gave the whole thing a wash of Baal Read (almost half a pot, urgh...), which is drying as I write.




The next step will be a light drybrushing with black to bring out the knobbly skin and other textures. After that, I'm toying with the idea of adding a very light drybrushing of bronce:





sgtslag, I'm on your side regarding the posture. It's not the best draconic figure out there, but I got it for less than 12€, shipping included (which was slightly half of the total cost). So I'm not complaining.

The bad news is that I will probably need this guy already tomorrow evening (spontaneous miracle of all the right friends being available on weekend), so we're going to have a halfling thief, a halfdragon thief and a wizard (transmuter specialist), all around level 10 (ADND 2nd edition) trying to find a teeny, tiny bit of treasure in a huge hoard, trying their best not to wake any guardians, or the Dragon itself. They won't be successful with that. And they will probably know that as soon as the mission gets explained. But hey - where's the fun in pilfering a dragon's hoard without having to fear the dragon?

[tauster]

...woah, now that was a speedpainting session if there ever was one!

Drybrushing was a cakewalk, and I'm even happy with the eyes. Granted, they're very small, so you can not make too much wrong (at least compared to beholder eyes), but still... I've done eyes, in less than a minute, and I didn't botch it. Feels good!







That leaves me with a finished dragon (at least good enough to game with) on an unfinished base... I think I'll simply cut it off that ugly plastic base. I have the feeling that it's balanced well enough to be stable without, and if not, I can always re-glue it.

More pics probably on sunday after the game session.

[nvdberg]

White glue some sand/pebbles on.
Quick job, easy results

[tauster]

Jul 31, 2015 21:20:06 GMT nvdberg said:

White glue some sand/pebbles on.
Quick job, easy results

You're right, and that's what I just did...

I first tried to cut it off the base but almost broke the tail, so I switched to plan B, which was rubbleclocking the base. Even the worst rubbleflock paint job can't make this plastic atrocity worse, so it can only get better.

[sgtslag]

Definitely GEtGW (Good Enough to Game With). Are you planning to go back and re-color the belly, and the wing membranes? I started with my Bones "Black" Dragon being nearly all black, then I saw someone's other Dragon figure with a different color on the wing membranes, and I knew I had to go back and do them in a different shade. With bits and bobs in a different color, it really helps make the dragon more vibrant, I think. I love the dry-brushing, though. It is quite good for the amount of time invested thus far. Definitely, GEtGW. Cheers!

[tauster]

The paint job is not set in stone - if I find something that's so great that it motivates me sufficiently, I might repaint it again.

Can you share pics of your dragons, and the pics you used for inspiration?

[tauster]

The party will be teleported near the dragon's lair, and will be magically disguised as someone else to avoid drawing the dragon's ire later on (the dragon is away hunting, so they don't expect to meet it anyways, but still...)

Which means that I want to give them others than their usual PC miniatures. Which, in turn, gave me an excuse to experiment with speedpainting Reaper Bones minis!






I always wanted to see If I can bring out the details with a simple wash and nothing else. Looks good so far, but let's judge it when the paint has dried.





The fighter and the Sophie mini will be for only one PC. The young female halfdragon thief only discovered her draconic heritage months ago. She's in her late teens and was considered 100% human by herself and all others (her father is a good-aligned green dragonwho had, disguised as a human, a love affair with her mother). We started the campaign at level 1 and the 'I'm your father'-surprise was only at around level 5-7 or so. Which is cool because every few levels or so, the DM can give her more cool powers.

It's her father who sends them, magically protected, on this mission. His draconic magic cast on his daughter will have unexpected consequences, and if she's down to very few HP, will trigger a magical chain reaction, giving her back most of her HP, adding a few bonuses and most importantly, let her sprout wings of arcane force. Can't wait to see her face...

[curufin]

Great paint jobs. Love the dragon. And I would also say that a person should absolutely make their RPG stuff their own. Cut pages out of your books you don't need, add new ones, write in the margins, underline/highlight sections, repaint minis, cut them up to kit-bash them. Im happy to see someone make something better fit there game. Also, it looks way better than the WotC paint jobs.


EDIT:  Of course you need a red dragon....you have ALL OF THOSE FIRE MARKERS to use!!!

[tauster]

Sadly, there wasn't enough time to make a stick-in-the-maw Red Dragon reath marker. But I'm confident that it's not needed to inspire a sufficient level of fear.

[sgtslag]

Here is my version of the Bones' Ebonwrath Dragon (Black, from AD&D), with the wing membranes painted a lighter shade of blue:


Here is an image which inspired me to do something other than all black, for the wings:


Here is another one which I found inspiring, as well:

Cheers!

[DnDPaladin]

im surprised you didn't glue a hoard to that ugly black base. thats what i would of done anyway !!!

[tauster]

Aug 2, 2015 3:03:47 GMT DnDPaladin said:

im surprised you didn't glue a hoard to that ugly black base. thats what i would of done anyway !!!

I had considered that. But for one, I didn't have the time for that (only a few hours fo prepping the session, plus preparing a BBQ before yesterday's game night) and second, I want to use the dragon in other scenarios as well.

And it would look a bit out of place when the party gets surprised while camping in the mountains and the dragon flies in with treasure around it. Generally, I'm trying to keep the balance between cool and thematically neutral pieces.

[sgtslag]

I struggled for years with the approach to basing... I started out with a simple green paint over it, no texturing at all; clear, frosted, acrylic bases, which showed the underlying terrain through the frosted base; then I went through a period of black basing for everything, as it was "neutral", applicable for all situations; now, I am using textures and terrain types, typical for the creature in question, in its preferred locales, hence, the swamp for the Black Dragon figure. I was never very happy with any of them, until now, with the themed bases, which tell a bit of a story. I justified each type, when i used them, but even the frosted acrylic wasn't satisfying -- it never worked as well as I had hoped. I have to admit, when I finally went with the terrain-themed bases, even though they didn't make sense logically, they did satisfy more than any previous approach I tried. I discovered what someone had posted on TMP, that a decent base goes a long way towards improving the appearance of the figure's paint. YMMV. Cheers!

[tauster]

I agree that a base that tells a story is great. The problem arises that you can tell a story only once, so in the next encounter you would have to re-base the miniature if you'd stay true to the concept. Storytelling bases make sense for boss monsters that will probably be used only once. For generic monsters, I would use something else.

Terrain-themed bases are cool and work as long* as the encounter is indeed in the base's terrain. Blank bases can work too, especially for human-sized and smaller minis. Clear plastic bases are a neat idea as well.

* Of course there's always the handwaiving: Both DM and players understand that a themed base might have to be ignored in a certain encounter, so if your players are cool with that, go ahead and make all the storytelling bases you want. In fact, most people should be mature enough to ignore such small illogic things and instead just be delighted with a artfully decorated base, even if not all details fit the encounter.

My personal favourites are baseless minis, as they don't have that problem at all, and often are easier to place on non-flat surfaces.

[tauster]

Quick recap of yesterday's game night:

The overall encounter worked great, and we had some very dramatic moments. Lots of cinematic action and players on the edge of their seats. All the ingrediences of a great game!

Some parts of the rather convoluted backstory (the campaign is running since 2001, so any attempt to tell the whole story is doomed to fail...)
The three characters have to get their hands on a specific gem, a large sapphire of a unique cut that is required to activate a Netherese artifact that the other half of the party is trying to aquire at the very same time in a bazaar in a beholder city in the underdark below the Anauroch.

Unfortunately that gem is part of Nevalarich's hoard, and they have been told that the mature red dragon, who just flew out towards Cormyr's coast and wil probably be back in about 3 to 4 hours, is a vasall of a certain shadow dragon lich... Aurgloroasa the Sibilant Shadow, the mastermind behind most of Sembia's major plots of the last centuries, and mother of Fandruzsch, a shadow dragon they have killed before.

The party's longterm patron, a powerful good-aligned green dragon, cloaked them in illusions to alter their apearance so just in case some hoard guardian or magic gives Nevalarich or Aurgloroasa their descriptions, they won't have to fear retaliations. The hoard-raiding party has a mage and two thiefes. The mage is turned into a copy of Manshoon, the founder of the Zhentarim. When the mage looks in the mirror, he blanches because he recognises that face: Several months back, in a dark and stormy night, a lightning-harrassed mage came running towards their doorstep and asked for refugee. He told them that he just awoke a few days back with large gamp in his memory and has been fleeing ever since from unknown foes. They sheltered him and even managed to buy the rather long list of spell components for him, al the while hiding him. He thanked them with a spellbook made completely out of crystal, that is never full and much more resistant then paper (think of the fantasy version of a ruggedized tablet). That thing had become rather dear to the heart of the other mage of the party... You should have seen the face pf the player when he realized that a sub-plot from a session in 2004 just came back to haunt them!

Anyway, I ramble... Apologies.

What follows are a few highlights, not the complete story.

Zapped over the river
The party gets teleported to an open cavern, an old abandoned dwarven mining outpost up in the mountains of the Southern Thunder Peaks (north of Cormyr in the Forgotten Realms). The caverin is truly huge, light shines through the large cave mouth where the water rushes out. A fine water spray is in the air, spreading from where a waterfall rushes into the cave. On the far bank of the river lies a shipwreck. Yes, this must be Nevalarich's domain. Hopefully he's out for a long time... They fly over the river in that cave because they don't trust the bridge spanning the river. When they are directly over the river, a lightning strikes the mage and due to the mist in the air, the others get hit as well. The mage loses 24 of his 47 HP and almost falls in the rushing river. One of the thieves just catches his cloak, and so he hangs, head still ringing from the lightning, with his arms slowly slippong out of the cloak, over the river - while they still have no clue where the attack came from. He fails a strength check, one arm slips out of the cloak. Again, the thief can just barely hold on to the cloak and fly the two of them behind a wall where they can hide and catch their breath. The mage casts two invisibility spells, and the third member activates his invisibility ring. A few rounds later, they find the hill giant hiding behind the shipwreck, aiming with a wand in their general direction. It doesn't take long to kill the giant, but the giant lands a few very solid blows, further reducing their HP.

The itch in the wardrobe
They were told that in a specific room in the dwarven outpost is an old wardrobe, a gate that will bring them directly into Nevalarich's hoard, bypassing all the guards and wards, and that not even the dragon himself knows that backdoor. They find the wardrobe, but in another room. Immediately the players suspect that the wardrobe is a mimic. They're wrong of course, but they're right that foul play is waiting for them: The thieves step in front of the wardrobe to check for traps... and get attacked by tentacles made of shadowstuff exploding from inside. The halfdragon thief escape with some very good tumble checks, and a few magic missiles later the way is cleared.





Showered by gems and coins
As expected, there are guardians and more lingering spells than the mage can count. Some spells he casts react weirdly with the hoard's wards, so they try to limit spellcasting. There are ghosts swooping out of the glittering mounds and right through them, leaving whoever gets 'ghosted' shivering and with 1d6d6 less (the first d6 is rolled by the players and determines how many d6 of damage the DM rolls. Let's just say that we both rolled rather high this night...) Now comes the hour of the halfling thief: Years ago in another side plot he did a bit of exploring Myth Drannor, where he found two magic short swords he used ever since (he barely escaped, as every fight attracted new and more powerful creatures...). One of that swords, if hitting undead who fail their save, makes them flee. There wasn't much opportunity for him to use is, but he still kept it on his belt all the time - you never know when you'll need it... Like friggin' now! 
A few rounds later, most of the ghosts are driven away. But now the hoard itself animates, and they have to fight treasure.




The mage wants to shrink one of the treasure golems(?), but again the hoard's wards interfere - it doubles in size! And even worse, it starts firing them with a powerfully abrasive stream of coins and gems. Before the game, I had hinted that I would shower them in gold and gems. Just couldn't resist...

Behind death's door
The remaining ghost gets behind the halfdragon and flies directly through her heart. Already quite beaten, she collapses at -2 HP. The mage uses his hero point* to tumble towards her, cover her with his body and slip a healing potion down her throat. She's at -3 HP...

* Every character gets one hero point at the beginning of the session. They can use them for especially daring feats, or to repeat one botched dice. To balance that out, I simply make the fights harder. More drama, everyone wins.

He just unstoppered the potion when her eyes light up in a ghostly blue. A heartbeat later the ghost swoops from below her directly through her head and through the mage. The mage, who was already pretty hurt himself, collapses and rolls down the treasure mound, solidly below zero HP. The halfdragon is at -17 HP or so. Remember that we play ADND 2nd edition - below 0 HP you're unconscious and lose one HP every round. At -10 your're dead.

Instead she snaps back to consciousness, like being hit with a defibrillator. She still hurts like hell, but it she feels very much alive. Everything tingles... I tell the player that her character is back at full HP. Relief and triumph. And that there's something on her back that wasn't there before. Doubt and a hint of fear.

I describe that with a quick glance over her shoulder, she sees something shimmering: Translucent wings. I swap her miniature with Reaper's Sophie.



The player gives a cry of joy, her character quickly rises in the air - much more nimble than before with her boots of flying - and uses all of her three bow attacs she has each round to sink arrows into the ghost, who disperses.





Da Boss is back
The fight is tough, and every victory is paid with a substantial loss of HP. They empty their healing potions far too quickly for their own taste, and still haven't even started looking for the sapphire they were here to find. That's when Nevalarich comes back...

The dragon is still a speck on the horizon but coming in fast. They will have only a few more moments to dispose the guardians, dig through the hoard and activate the portal back. They find it shining through a gap in the largest coin guard, and mobilise all ressources to bring it down. When they do, it turns into a whirling mini-tornado of coins, with the gem in the center. The flying halfling thief grabs a human-sized tower shield and plummets in the heart of the coin storm, trying to get the gem. But all he gets is a bloody arm as the coins flay his skin. No luck. The other thief folds her new magic wings tightly around herself and lets herself fall from above, right in the tornado, which finally disperses. She has buried the poor bleeding halfling below her, and both of them lie on the tower shield that probably covers the sapphire.

That's when the red dragon crash-lands in front of them.



The mage can conquer his fear (DMs gotta love that draconic fear aura!), the halfdragon thief is not affected. But the halfling is in blind panic. He just wants to run deeper in the cave, even if this clearly means ending up as a soot shadow on the cave wall. The halfdragon has to chose between holding him back with both hands or digging for the gem. She decides against the gem. The dragon roars.



He inhales deeply. Miraculously, the thief gets hold of the gem without letting the halfling slip. She shoves him towards the return gate that opens just a split-second before the dragonfire hits them.

Three players exhale in relief.

We're all totally tired and just want to go to bed, so after a quick wrap-up the evening ends. They have reached their goal for the session and made new enemy. One character has significantly developed herself and an old story came back to haunt them. They loved the terrain and the self-made monsters. That's what I call a successful game session. In only hope the next one doesn't take us again one year.

Spelling mistakes will be cleaned up later, I just wanted to get this down to paper while the details are still fresh.

[nvdberg]

Sounds like you had fun, that's all that matters. Great job!

[angie1985]

Just found this thread...sounds like a great game, and a wonderful source of inspiration!

[tauster]

Time to revivify another old thread...

My boy complained that my godson (the one that got the chess board) had a nicer play castle than the one he got last xmas, so we decided to upgrade it, starting with a few treasure piles. I made a bunch of small treasure piles and a huge dragon hoard a while back (surprise, given the thread title...), but treasure piles are easy and fun to make and thus are ideally suited for crafting with kids.

Hotglue casting a few dungeon tiles
The original was a commercially bought tile (the one you can see on the first pic of the first post of this thread), I made a silicone-and-cornstarch mold from it and can now make tiles at the cost of a 20cm hotglue stick.

Then we crumpled tin foil in low mounds, glued it on the tiles and covered it with a thin but continuous layer of glue to seal it...




...and decorated the whole thing with steampunk-ish looking DIY jewellery bits (you can get mixed bags of these knick-knacks on ebay or buy the ones you like by the bag), plus a few hotglue castings of ruined statues (see page 4 of ths thread for details). The large diamonds are hotglue castings made with ice cube/gem molds.




Primed with black




I took a punch plier and punched tiny circles out of an old shampoo plastic bottle.




The material is approx. 1 to 1.5 mm strong and makes great coins that get superglued on the tiles. We started basepainting some elements but ran out of coins, time and boyish motivation at that point, so here's where we stand:



He was quite excited watching me paint the giant gems and to see step by step how drybrushing different colors on, each brighter than the ones before, makes a neat gem-like appearance in the end. He didn't want to do it himself because it's too delicate for a 5 year old; he tried once before and failed - we'll do it later on a practice piece if he wants to try again.




I already punched out more coins but I'm not allowed^* to glue them on alone. Coins punched out of plastic bottles was a spontaneous idea that worked extremely well (at least so far - we haven's seen them painted yet), so this is the one big takeaway for me in this project.

^* Side note: If you want to get your kids into the hobby, you can (and should) make suggestions but let them have the final say over each and every aspect so that they feel that they are really in charge. Nothing demotivates a child faster than having dad rule them over on what started as their own project. If that means that the whole thing has to wait for several days, or weeks because the kid wants to play with you or have you read a book for them instead of crafting, so be it.


Here's a few related things that happened during the project.

1) texture rolling pins:
These beauties seem to get more and more attention recently. I bought mine a while back (1 or 2 yrs I guess) and boy are they useful! You can churn out greatly textured terrain pieces in no time. The ones below will be used for upgrading the play castle with more tiles (armories are high on the list). They come with wildly different themes and recently they have XL versions. Not cheap but a priceless tool for terrain builders.

Left to right: cobblestone, brick wall, dwarven runes



2) alternate way of hotglue molding:
I was curious if I could use my heat gun for melting the hotglue instead of the glue gun, so I tried it:

 


The result doesn't look much different than the one cast with the glue gun:



The lower side is a bot more even, but it takes much longer to cool down and it produces much more fumes. Plus, the air stream of the heat gun blows many whisps of molten glue all over the workshop. So that's not a trade-off that I like. At least I tried it.


Not sure when we continue but I keep you posted.

[erho]

Hot. Glue. Casting.

Off to Amazon for more glue sticks, silicone caulk and corn starch!

[tauster]

Feb 14, 2018 22:41:50 GMT erho said:

Hot. Glue. Casting.

Off to Amazon for more glue sticks, silicone caulk and corn starch!

Check out the Index for more casting fun. Haven't updated it for a while but it should give you enough to get you addicted inform you properly about the advantages of casting. This method became one of the game changers for me that made so much more possible than before.