Dungeon Delves

[vwilliams32407]

Hello everyone, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything due to the whole photobucket debacle. I’m giving imgur a try so let’s hope all goes well. As you will see I’m a die hard paper terrain user and won’t be making the transition to 3D terrain. I’ve spoken about my reasons why in previous post so I won’t go into detail on them. I’m not knocking 3D terrain in any way, it looks great. For me paper is the way to go. For others 3D is the way to go. To each their own.



Recently I have started the Curse of Strahd story line however as is common amongst adults it is tough to get everyone together to play with any regularity. If we were lucky we meet twice a month but usually we only meet once every 4 or 5 weeks. Well that’s not enough for me to get my RP fix so I decided to augment our campaign with one shots on the days we could not all make it.



I took the 4E Dungeon Delves book and did my best to convert it to 5E. What follows below are pictures from the first of these encounters. Each delve is three encounters and each subsequent delve the PC’s would increase in level (delve 1 = level 1, delve 2 = level 2 and so on).



The first delve was to an excavation site and mine built by some newly settled dwarves. The characters were asked to investigate the disappearance of the dwarves from the area. They approached the site on top of a hill and were attacked by kobold slingers and fighters. They broke through the fence and took a little damage while dispatching the kobolds.





They went down the mine shaft and entered a room with a kobold shaman and body guards. The shaman used flame sphere and singed a few characters. After making quick work of them they headed down the hall without checking for traps (um hello, kobold lair ahead). When they got to the center of the hall spinning blades rose up through the floor on both ends of the hallway and started to move toward the center of the hall with some of the players trapped in between.









After getting past the blades they entered the last chamber only to find it occupied by prisoners, kobolds and a young white dragon. They were pretty beat up by the time this encounter came to an end and the dragon told them it would let them live if they left immediately and spread the word of the all mighty dragon that has take up residence here and all should avoid it or face a terrible death. They took the hint and ran away with their tails between their legs.





I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures but I didn’t think I would be posting them. I will endeavor to take better pictures in the future.



Now let’s see how to post the images.

[vwilliams32407]

Delve 2

For the next delve the PCs were asked to remove a band of goblins that had moved into an old crumbling tower.


They burst through the door to find goblins with short bows target practicing, gambling, and a hobgoblin drinking hot wine from a cauldron.


On the second level they saw some piles of bones and approached them only to see them knit themselves together and a pit trap open up under one of the PCs.




On the top level the faced the goblin leader, 3 hyenas and a bugbear. This is where my first TPK of my seven years of Dm’ing took place. I place all the blame on myself as I lost the difficulty level somewhere in translation from 4E to 5E. I told the players that they could resurrect their characters and bring them back to the next session.


Again sorry about the poor pictures.

[vwilliams32407]

Delve 3

Our third delve consisted of a old stronghold occupied by orcs. The first encounter consisted of 3 fire beetles. Two orc fighters and two orc archers in a tower. The PC’s goal was to rescue a captured elf but they were too late as he was dead.


The next chamber was a dinning hall with many orcs and an orc shaman. He used command on two of the PCs and commanded them to grovel. They shook it off quickly and murder hoboed their way to the next chamber.




The last chamber was the barracks in which stood an orc captain with his dire wolf and a beserker. They took them out quickly and the delve was over.


Here’s an image of the entire map.

[sgtslag]

Wow!... I, too, enjoy paper terrain. Your photo's demonstrate an incredible time-investment in building your paper terrain, as well as a time-sink in putting together your fantastic terrain!

It is folks like you who demonstrate the true potential for paper terrain. I dabble in it, compared to your work. I enjoy it, very much. It can be quite impressive when done properly. Thank you, for sharing. Beautiful, inspiring, and fun! Cheers!

[erho]

Clean and quality work! If you take this muxch care in terrain, I bet your games are just as lovingly crafted!

Keep posting your stuff!

[vwilliams32407]

Thanks everyone. We will play delve number four on Sunday. I'll post it next week.

[vwilliams32407]

My group played through delve number 4 this past weekend. If you see any inconsistencies in the pictures it is due to the fact that I recreated the adventure after game day because some of the pictures we took were no good.

They had traveled to a desert region and decided to stop what ever was attacking caravans between cities. They came upon the remains of one of the attacked caravans and tracked canine like tracks to a complex buried under a sand dune.

After having been sliced up in the hallway of the kobold lair they proceeded cautiously down the long corridor. They rounded the corner to discover a large burial chamber. The room was on an incline with a small crevasse at the bottom of the slope. Three burial alcoves lined each wall going up the slope and skeletons were lying about.




They jumped over the crevasse and began to search the room. About midway the double doors at the upper end of the room opened and 5 knolls poured into the hall. One barked an order and they spread out to attack. Two stayed behind to throw spears and one pushed a secret block in the wall. Once the block had been pushed the back walls in the two lower alcoves slid down and a gush of sandy wind burst out. A rumbling could be heard and second later fine sand spewed out and ran down the slope into the crevasse. This required DEX saves by those caught in the flow of sand. Two rounds later the next set of alcoves opened and sand poured out. After 6 rounds the last set of alcoves poured out sand. With each new set of alcoves opening the DEX saves got harder and they got pushed more squares back. A few characters go pushed into the crevasse and buried waist deep in sand.










The barbarian in her usual fashion barged into the next room. They quickly discovered that it had more knoll spearmen and an archer. There also were four hyenas.






Having cleared this room and opening all of the tombs they moved on to the last room. The fountain in the chamber of to the side had been leaking and pooled around the well in the main room. They interrupted the knolls investigating this room and the fight was on. Halfway through the fight a grell rose up from the well demanding to know who had invaded its lair. It was able to grapple the barbarian and it hovered back over the well and let her go in an attempt to drop her 30 feet to a chamber at the bottom of the well. She narrowly made her DEX save to grasp the edge of the well before plummeting to if not to her death, then to a serious injury.








That was the end of this delve and we all had fun. It will be a few weeks before we can get together again. The next delve will be against their first undead encounter.

[erho]

What a great, clean setup!

[tauster]

Paper terrain is totally different from what I use (and am used to), but I really like your setups. The style is consistent throughout the pics, and that consistency is probably a great advantage for players and DM getting in the mood of the game via the paper props.

Could you show one pr two pics of us how much space all this stuff takes up when in storage, and how exactly you store it? That would be great!

[margaret]

Beautiful terrain and props! Looks like you use u-shaped metal bits to link the walls. Are those cut-off ends of paperclips?

[vwilliams32407]

May 9, 2018 21:45:05 GMT tauster said:

Paper terrain is totally different from what I use (and am used to), but I really like your setups. The style is consistent throughout the pics, and that consistency is probably a great advantage for players and DM getting in the mood of the game via the paper props.

Could you show one pr two pics of us how much space all this stuff takes up when in storage, and how exactly you store it? That would be great!

Here you go. I took this picture a few years back. My collection has almost doubled since. The largest totes hold fully built pieces (mostly Dave Graffam). The medium sized totes hold all of my Fat Dragon Games pieces by sets. The smaller ones hold all of the prop pieces by type (dungeon, city, wilderness, ect). The totes with handles hold all of my minis.

[vwilliams32407]

May 10, 2018 0:54:02 GMT margaret said:

Beautiful terrain and props! Looks like you use u-shaped metal bits to link the walls. Are those cut-off ends of paperclips?

Bobby pins! Not cut, just straight out of the package.

[margaret]

Perfect!

[erho]

Bobby pins!

Nice storage... I cant believe Im sitting here admiring someones storage and organization...

What has this hobby done to me?!!?!!?

[sgtslag]

Reality snuck up, and bit you in the backside, erho !  (Ducks for cover, sneaks away...)

[erho]

I guess Im an adult by now.... gross!

[Achilles]

I'm ashamed to say I've got gigs of paper terrain that I've purchased/donated to/or gotten for free, but the time commitment to cut so precisely, fold so neatly, and glue so evenly causes me to shy away from actually constructing it. I stick to houses to fill out towns or villages with, and I rush through it. Your work is inspiring and makes me want to find the time and, most importantly, patience to try this. While I don't make a lot of terrain out of paper, I love how when it's done right (like you've done), it looks amazing!

I enjoy reading and seeing your setup's, keep 'em coming! Also, how many of those walls do you think you've had to make in order to create all that you've created so far?

[vwilliams32407]

May 16, 2018 1:18:39 GMT Achilles said:

I'm ashamed to say I've got gigs of paper terrain that I've purchased/donated to/or gotten for free, but the time commitment to cut so precisely, fold so neatly, and glue so evenly causes me to shy away from actually constructing it. I stick to houses to fill out towns or villages with, and I rush through it. Your work is inspiring and makes me want to find the time and, most importantly, patience to try this. While I don't make a lot of terrain out of paper, I love how when it's done right (like you've done), it looks amazing!

I enjoy reading and seeing your setup's, keep 'em coming! Also, how many of those walls do you think you've had to make in order to create all that you've created so far?

I have no idea, certainly over a thousand. Next time I have my totes out I’ll do a quick inventory and get a rough idea.

[sgtslag]

I started gluing paper printouts to 2mm-thick cardboard, a few years ago. I found it necessary to glue square wooden dowels inside to prevent the cardboard from warping. It works, but it is cumbersome to build.

Now I've switched to printing on full-sheet labels. No more gluing, just print, cut, peel, and stick. Otherwise, the process is the same.

What I would like to do, is custom cut MDF sheets to size, apply the sheet labels, assemble, and glue. They should be straight, true, and durable. Haven't purchased the Chop Saw necessary to make this a reality yet.

I tried printing on cardstock, back in the 2000's, but they were so easily damaged. I saw all of that time, and money, damaged beyond use, I needed to find something more durable.

All things considered, printed surfaces on buildings means I don't need to paint them. Their boxy designs mean that even with the extra efforts I put in, adding more complexity to them, I still end up with far better terrain pieces than I could scratch-build! It's worth the extra effort, for me. Cheers!

[skunkape]

I've printed out sheets of Dave Graffam's work, glued them to the more expensive black foamcore (using spray adhesive), made rabbet joints for putting them together and so far they tend to be very sturdy.