Witchcraft Wednesday: Left Hand Path work and more Moria

 The Left Hand Path is moving on a good pace, not as far as I wanted to be right now, but I can live with that. I did want to show off another bit of new art for the book.

That's how it appears in the book. I'll add the artists names when I am doing laying out. I might tweak the page a bit, but you get the right idea. 

Here is a closeup.

The artist is Bill Blue, and you can see more of his art on his site.

Last night I wrapped up the first adventure for my 1357 DR Forgotten Realms campaign. As a GMPC, Moria only gets a fraction of the XP earned, so she has not leveled up yet. My oldest bought some HeroForge minis for some of his characters. I joked with him about it asking are you sure you want to spend money on minis, the characters could be dead before they get here! He said it was fine since a couple of characters in the group are based on characters he has going in other games, so they will get use. Wonder where he got that from?

Of course, I had to make a mini of Moria and Mesphito Fleas. Shout out to Pun Isaac for sending me suggestions for her mini!

 I am not going to buy a mini of her for the same reasons I told my son not buy his minis, she might be dead before they come in the mail! Maybe I'll just buy the STL and print here at home.

Yeah, she still only had 4hp and three spells (using my Advanced rules), but Fleas did kill a goblin last night by biting it. So maybe her chances are not so bad after all. 

We started adventure C3 The Lost Islands of Castanamir last night. I decided that Castanamir was a Red Wizard of Thay, but broke away from them to continue his own esoteric research.  This is one of the adventures I got from the Grenda Collection, so it is fun to use. 

There is a room with two thieves, Doblin and Joblo (really??). Well, I misread the entry and thought those were the names of the Leprechauns. When Liam got to the room where the thieves were, I didn't have names for them. That's OK, it was Duchess & Candella to the rescue! They were looting investigating a wizard's tower in Glantri when they got pulled in here. Obviously Castanmir was seeking advice from the wizards in Glantri with help for his tower. 

I am going to certainly be bringing them back as comic relief. I said they don't really fit in the Realms, but who am I kidding? They fit everywhere!

Speaking of reoccurring characters. I am certainly going to be using Grenda's Briana Highstar as an antagonist. They are not ready to meet her yet. I know she is an enemy to "balance," but she also serves Mephistopheles. She could even start out as ally. I don't know yet. I will see how it plays out.

I already have a mini for her!

This one is labeled as "Black Robed Mage of High Sorcery" so that works great for me. She also looks she is wearing a feathered cloak of some sort. 

This will be fun!

Tuesday Mail Call: Baldur's Gate 3 Origin Characters

 I have been on the record both for my love of Baldur's Gate 3 and for my disappointment in how Wizards has mishandled the property. In a case of almost too little and almost too late comes the Baldur's Gate 3 Icons of the Realms Origin characters pack.

The minis are from WizKids, so you know what to expect here. They are not bad.

Comparing them to my Hero Forge versions, each has pros and cons.

No mini yet, that I know of, for my current obsession Mizora, but I also have not really been paying much attention.

I have to admit I really do not see me buying much of the new D&D 5.5 material. 

Kickstart Your Weekend: Sexy Pirates and Custom Dice

 Yeah. Ok. I know last week I said I wasn't going to do these anymore. BUT both of these Kickstarters are prime examples of why I think Kickstarter is a good thing.

Let's get into them.

In Booty n' Lust

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/djinnintheshade/in-booty-n-lust?ref=theotherside

Djinn has long been a good friend and I love her art. Her newest art book features her central original witch character Solaine and her band of mischievous and amorous pirates. 

I featured her last book here and it was a huge success. 

This is the reason why Kickstarter works. It given smaller publishers and creatives the means to make their visions a reality. 

She is also doing a "crossover" with the comic Dawn of Time #1 - NSFW, Time Travel Adventure Series. So that is worth checking out as well.

Hero Forge: Custom Dice

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/heroforge/custom-dice?ref=theotherside

HeroForge owes its very existence to Kickstarter. Once the idea of DIY custom minis that can be 3D printed was a dream. Then they added color. Well, while this is not the next step in their evolution, it is certainly a big, bold step.

Custom dice to match your minis.

It is a wonderful idea and adds even more value to an already valuable service.

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There. Djinn and HeroForge made a liar out of me, but both are for great products. 

Monstrous Mondays: Mini Monsters

 I love HeroForge minis. I have made hundreds, but I can't afford to buy all the ones I want. Thankfully, I spent my Christmas break getting our resin 3D printer working. Once I got going, I went nuts.

That may not look like a lot, but it takes a while for them to print, and there are many casualties along the way. But I wanted to get all the Archdevils and Demon Lords from the AD&D Monster Manuals.

All of these demons and devils were made with HeroForge, and then I downloaded the STL files.

Geryon, Asmodeus, and Titivillus

Moloch, Mephistopheles, and Beelzebub 

Belial and Glasya (Fierna broke)

Lilith and a succubus.

Lilith is from the cover of Eldritch Witchery and the Succubus is my version of the Sutherland Succubus. 

Kelek on a Warg

Camazotz and Akelarre

Camazotz and Akelarre are two demons from my own games.

Archdevil Zariel. The only "newer" devil I use.

And I had to do a witch!

I bought this STL (3d printer file) online from Torrida Minis because I thought it looked like Larina. It is Tasha, from D&D, but she has been looking more and more like Larina over the last few years anyway. I still prefer her 3.x look. I kinda want his BloodRayne one too. My wife painted it for me. She also painted Belial and Akelarre above.  

I am going to try my hand at painting some of the demons and devils here but that is WAY outside my comfort zone. I am not very good at all. I still need to prime them all first. That at least I can do.

These are all resin prints, but Akelarre is from our FDM printer (which I still need to get fixed) and is a lot heavier than the others. 

Still have a few more to print out, but I am having a blast with this.

Pop Yourself! Larina

 I am not a big collector of Funko-Pops. I have a few but not what I consider a lot. But recently I saw they had a Halloween (now over) promotion to get a Funko Pop figure of yourself. Well that is fine and all, but do I really need one of me? A blonde (er now gray) guy with glasses? I am not even sure I can get one with glasses and a goatee. (I just checked, I can). But since one of the choices was a witch, well I knew what I needed to do!  

And since today is what I consider to be Larina's birthday, I thought I would share the Funko Pop I had made of her.

I did a re-paint on her hair, and yo see I messed up her eyebrows a bit. Still, I am happy with the hair. I opted not to repaint the rest of her. I am not really that good to be honest.

Here is the original. 

Obsessive? Yeah maybe. But I always buy something for myself on Halloween. This was what I got for myself this year.

By the way, I did go back and see what a Funko Pop version of me would look like. 

Not bad. Not sure I need it though.

Witchy Wednesdays: Mini Tasha

 So we have word now that Greyhawk has been "unlocked" on DMsGuild and prospective game authors can work in the World of Greyhawk. Maybe I'll contribute something. No idea yet, but the "Witches of Greyhawk" sound like an obvious choice.

In meantime Greyhawk's most famous witch Tasha/Iggwilv is getting a lot of attention. We got to see her "final form" as Zyblina in the 5e "Witchlight" adventure and an earlier version of her when she was still just Tasha in the more recent Vecna one.  This means we are getting some great minis of her. 

This is the new Vecna-line mini for Tasha and the LEGO mini-fig of her. Likely from about the same time period in her life.

Here we have Tasha, Iggwilv, and Zyblina. Tasha and Zyblina are new(er) WizKids minis and my Iggwilv is a HeroForge one.  I did a Tasha a while back on HeroForge too. Very similar. 

I have to admit, seeing them like this, I am VERY tempted to go with a Maiden, Mother, and Crone thing with them. Iggwilv is the mother of both Iuz and Drelnza. This doesn't consider Iggwilv's "true" form, which is supposed to be very hag-like.

Maybe that is my DMsGuild book right there!

Monstrous Mondays: Monsters in Miniature

 I picked up the new D&D 5.5 last week, I also picked up some of the new 50th Anniversary minis and the next two Monster Manual classic minis. 

The packs come with one large and three medium or small minis. We lucked out and got a Pit Fiend and Goblin in both 1st and 5th Edition versions. I will admit, I do like the 1st Edition versions more.

We also got the David Sutherland III Red Dragon from the Holmes Basic set. That one is sold separately.

I also picked up two sets of Monster Manual minis. Sets K-N and O-R.

Lizard Man

Lich

Merman and Mind Flayer

Minotaur

Naga (and photobombing Otyugh)

Mummy

Otyugh and old-school Owlbear

Pseudo-Dragon

Quasit

Remormaz

Rust Monster

Roper

Rakshasa

So pretty happy with those.

AND last night one of gamers my son's regular group brought me this!

LEGO Tasha! She comes with cauldron, hat and a spell book with what can only be Tasha's Hideous Uncontrollable Laughter.

I'll have to compare her to all my other Tasha/Iggwilv minis.

#RPGaDAY2024 Great Gamer Gadget

 I think following up on yesterday's post I have to go with HeroForge as a Great Gamer Gadget. 

Even if you never get a mini from them (and you should get at least one, they are great) their mini designer is one of the better Character design tools out there.

Come to think of it. I don't have a mini of Omar yet!

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August.