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Posting on Grump's computer, not my Fire. I need to have more than one sentence paragraphs! (I almost posted as The Auld Grump because I hadn't logged Dennis out before logging me in. ) From time to time Grump has told me that he has literally dreamed a scenario, and I never really believed him. But I told Grump that one of his Christmas presents this year was going to be running a game so he could play for a change. Then I realized that I had NO FREAKING CLUE what I was going to run, and almost asked if he would like to run the game WITH me instead. Then Saturday night I had a dream where I was running a game, directing a movie, and watching the movie/game and suddenly I knew what I was going to run! Grump left out how WICKED AWESOME it is to dream an adventure. Suddenly I know why Grump runs games. I woke up from the dream because I WANTED TO WRITE IT DOWN! And it was REALLY nice to have my subconscious send me a message in something other than a nightmare. It sent me the solution! Wow, that was still a lot of one sentence paragraphs! Strangely, I dreamed I was running/directing/watching an Eberron adventure, even though until yesterday, I had never read any Eberron material, just knew what Grump had told me. Eberron is actually pretty awesome, and is NOTHING like Forgettable Realms or Greyhawk. It is its own place, and holds together better than any setting I have read before. The dream was a mash up of Casablanca, Raiders of the Lost Arc, National Treasure, and Maltese Falcon. Some of it was narrated by the Grump as Humphrey Bogart. The idea is that the PCs start out hired by somebody to track down an artifact that will help the gods manifest on Eberron, instead of the hands off approach that is used in the setting. (Eberron even has atheists!) In the dream the introductory patron was this fat naked man that was sometimes a silver dragon, meeting the players in a bath house, while nubile young women scrubbed him. A fat silver dragon, using the human shape to conduct business. Part of that is as a dragon, being naked really does not bother him. And part of it is to make the player characters uncomfortable, so they would not spend too much time wondering what he is really up to. And what the players don't know at the time is that sometimes he EATS one of those nubile young women. He starts as their mentor and patron, both for the players and those young women, but he is really REALLY evil, and wants to use the artifact as a way of controlling the Draconic Prophecy, fulfilling its tenets in such a way that he decides what it means. The women are cultists, but do not know that he is just using (and eating) them. They literally mean nothing to him beyond his own convenience. Rescuing the damsels from the dragon will probably be one of the adventures, at least if I know the way Grump thinks. (He WILL try to rescue them!) Even after the players learn that the dragon is the bad guy, they will need a patron, and I need to come up with several, good, bad, academic, and mercenary. Travel in the adventure will be free as long as they have a patron, and EVERY time they are traveling, something happens, or sometimes THEY happen to somebody else! I picture one of those maps where you see the characters' travels being highlighted with a colored line, like in those old movies. And the scene where Indiana Jones is racing his horse alongside a train, then jumping from the horse on top of the train. In the civilized areas travel will be by lightning rail, and when going to less civilized areas travel will be by either ship or airship. Trying to keep one thing Grump has told me over and over. "An adventure is not the story. The adventure is the framework for the story that the players tell." Don't come up with a single way to handle or solve a problem, come up with three, and expect the players to come up with four, five, and six. Doing this like the old serials and writing each part while running the previous part. I have a general shape for the story, and an idea of where it is going. And most of all, even if the dragon DOES get the artifact, it won't do what he thinks it will do. The dragon is just as much a pawn of the REAL villain as the players start out as the dragon's! One of the things I like about Eberron, more than the Pathfinder world, is that the place is designed for globe trotting, and can handle a plot that covers more than one continent, let alone country. I am sure that Grump's DMing dreams are more coherent than mine was, but it was WONDERFUL! I went from worrying about the game to really REALLY looking forward to it! I am actually EXCITED about this! SO! I am asking for ideas for potential player patrons! One is already in the game, the Wayfinder Foundation, pretty much the Pathfinder Society by a different name. (Or the Pathfinder Society is the one with the different name, since Eberron came first.) I am picturing the leader of the Wayfinder Foundation a lot like the explorer in Up! But I will look up what he supposed to be like before committing to that.

Anything out there for a living burning hands spell? The artworks shows 2 hands splayed out like how you would cast the spell in D&D. You just gotta make it a medium size creature (ie 1 inch base) I kinda find is odd they made lightning bolt & cloudkill but not burning hands in the newest Eberron prepainted set. Burning hands is a low level spell, thus more possible encounters vs the higher up spells.

I've been building a small D&D Eberron campaign recently, and it's put me in the mood to find appropriate minis among my collection. As a result, I've been gravitating towards the Stonehaven gnomes I have. These are the latest - an artificer and a thief. As I was seeking out color inspiration, I came upon the team colors of West Ham United and that was what I used for the artificer.

After the response to my other post, I figured I could post my campaign here. I'm gonna be using spoiler tags for DM notes, just in case people want to follow along. Characters: Red Sash - Warforged Paladin. Currently trying to earn money for the Cyran refugees. Was a medic during the war and is still not sure exactly what to do now that it is over. Son of Bork - Warforged Barbarian. If you want to know his backstory, see here. Warning: untagged spoilers in link. Thicket - Shifter Rogue. Currently over his head in gambling debt to Draask. Lell - Gnome Warlock. Member of the Trust of Zilargo. Session 1: Sul, Zarantyr 1, 998YK - King of Fire Tavern, Middle Dura, Sharn, City of Towers, Breland Opening Scene (as written): Thicket manages to win his hand - thanks to a little cheating - and goes over to join those betting on the arm wrestling competition. Meanwhile, Red Sash convinces the girls to give a donation be helping them complete the clockwork dragon they were making by touching an out of place gear and popping it into place. Having received the donations, he asks for their names. The brunette gives the name Kara, while the red-head is named Ashley. Red Sash writes down their names and also moves to watch the competition, hoping for donations from the betting parties. Son of Bork manages to win his match. Having won, he picks up a stein of beer from a table (that was definitely not his) and drinks. Thicket attempts to - unsuccessfully - pick a pocket, while his cards competitor manages to pick Lell's pocket. Son of Bork finishes his glass and sees a shield with the Crest of House Ghallanda and takes it down from the wall to take a bite from that. The tavern goes silent, and the bartender threatens Son of Bork into putting the shield back. Lell receives a sheet of paper telling him to investigate the suspicious individual - the warforged. He moves forward and introduces himself to Son of Bork. Instantly upon noticing Lell, Son of Bork picks him up, affectionately calling him "Hornswaggle"... Suddenly, a fire breaks out and there are patrons running about. The elf at the bar sneaks out the back, and Lell gives chase with Son of Bork quickly giving chase after Lell. Thicket, not wanting to be involved in the fire, rushes out of the back of the bar as quickly as he can. Red Sash, meanwhile, attempts to save a patron surrounded by fire by walking directly through the fire. Thicket runs into a man he'd been caught cheating against - a muscular dwarven fellow by the name of Kiel Tarvernworth and promptly turns around, catching up to Lell in the process, as Son of Bork had managed to catch Lell and pick him up (again). The two make a deal, and Thicket shifts to catch the elven fellow while Lell negotiates with Kiel, convincing him to wait for them later by giving him a 1 Galifar (gold) down payment on Thicket's debt to the man. Thicket manages to catch the elf, and Lell interrogates him only to find out he was only a guest lecturer at the university and didn't want to get caught up in the fire. They let the elven man go. Meanwhile, Red Sash fails to convince the man to let him save him, and the patron blinks away quickly. Frustrated, Red Sash starts to gather volunteers to put out the fire and aid the tavern. Lell, Son of Bork, and Thicket also help with relocating the stock in return for the promise of coin. The fire out, the group goes their separate ways. (Zarantyr 2 coming tonight) Thoughts/comments appreciated! I have no IRL dm friends to talk to about this campaign...

I'm currently working on writing my first homebrew campaign set in Eberron (as well as DMing the early phase of it). I'm trying to plot out story arcs, but I have a dilemma with placing an arc. I want the final villain to be Nyarlathotep, inspired by both the Mourning and Bones 4. But my other arc requires my players to be unwillingly sent to another plane (player backstory arc). I was going to have the extraplanar arc be caused by Nyarlathotep's summoning by House Cannith trying to make a great war machine for the Prince of Cyre, but if that is the order, I don't think I can make Nyarlathotep powerful enough while avoiding a mid campaign party wipe. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Another MLK weekend binge result. This figure was cast by Reaper for a Canadian (I think) company called Guardians of Order for their supers game, Silver Age Sentinels. The whole SAS line was sculpted by Sandra Garrity, and there were some pretty neat figures in it. The figs were meant to represent archetypal supers, so there's a "strong dude in a cape," a "fast lady running," a "power armor guy," a "dude on fire," etc. This mini, called "Green Ronin," is meant to represent "intergalactic energy construct cop," i.e., Green Lantern. At least, that's what the name and the studio paint job imply. Why an intergalactic energy construct cop, or someone calling themselves "Ronin" for that matter, has conjured up a three-headed flail and a shield is beyond me, but it's a pretty sweet sculpt nonetheless. I love the form-fitting scale mail, and that mask is classic. Anyway, I painted her up for use as a unique Emerald Claw NPC for my Eberron campaign. Hopefully I can engineer her escape from at least one encounter so the PCs can fight her more than once. C&C always welcome.

From my lunch sessions WiP. This mini is very much "get off my table now" quality. I expect to use her in my Eberron campaign as an Emerald Claw officer or Blood of Vol cultist (hence the blood drop on her shield). She's actually the second Finari I've painted, pretty well in the same color scheme, but the other was actually for a PC in a short-lived Ptolus campaign. I really like the sculpt, one of my favorite Klockes. This particular mini was from the first Bones KS, and she had a serious problem on her face in casting: pretty well everything from her left cheek to collarbone was a thick piece of flash, and most of her face was pretty soft in detail. So I carved a bit and ended up with what you see here. Also roughly removed the Crusaders symbols on her armor and shield. I do need to clean up her base, but I'll do that in a batch with a bunch of minis. Enough talk, here she is:

So, this is a thing I've been kicking around for a little while; I finally got my thoughts typed up. The Eberron campaing I run got its start with the adventure in the back of the 3.5E Eberron Campaign Setting. One of the unexpected hits of the adventure was Skakaan, a goblin merchant deep in the Sharn undercity. My players have returned to shop with Skakaan on numerous occasions, well past the point he should have been useful to them (he was originally a shop for first-level characters; they're now over tenth). I've introduced one of Skakaan's cousins, and spent some time pondering how to make it all make sense. This is what I've come up with. For your consideration, thrown pottery, acclaim or revilement, I present: The Amzaan Da’Kaam Or, The open-all-night, anywhere, anytime goblin market As the party pushes through the crowd to the center of the plaza, a gravelly voice lifts above the noise of city life. “What do you need? Akbaali provides, yes! Step forth and see! Akbaali can make it yours!†Finally emerging from the crowd, you can see the square is dominated by a fountain, gushing clean water that sparkles through the air. Children carry buckets back and forth from their homes while thirsty travelers drink from a communal ladle; a town guard stands nearby, her watchful gaze ensuring traffic around the fountain continues to flow. But there, on the flagstone ground, tucked into a corner of the fountain’s low wall, is a patch of stillness and the source of the hawking voice. “Yes, you see something interesting, indeed! Come closer, peruse Akbaali’s wares and be amazed!†Small and sun-brown, the goblin sits cross-legged on a threadbare carpet, surrounded by piles of all manner of merchandise. He genuflects without standing and opens his arms to encompass his wares. “look, kind customer, and find. Akbaali is happy to meet you today!†Near the edges of the carpet are rusted bits of metal pipe, tarnished pans and dirt-encrusted silverware, goods more likely from a junkyard than a warehouse. It is clear this wizened merchant subsists on poor customers in need of basic items, more concerned with low prices than high quality. With all this spread at your feet and the goblin smiling expectantly, you politely inspect a leather-wrapped dagger and return it to its place on the carpet after seeing the cancerous rust covering the blade. “You turn away now? Akbaali has what you need, it is as I have said!†Arrested by the low voice, you take a second look at the items nearer the goblin. To his left, several worn baskets and beaten pots appear to overflow with spices from impossibly far-off lands; though caked with mud, several sealed amphorae promise spirits unheard of in this climate. At his right, a pile of inconspicuously rough-spun cloth covers the liquid shine of silk, and a mildewed leather hat sports a jeweled band. At your intake of breath, the goblin grins widely and produces a sheathed dagger, glowing unmistakably with magic, from beneath his well-worn cloak. “You are happy now, to make Akbaali’s acquaintance, yes?†The gist: Amzaan, once little more than a simple grunt in the Dhakaani army, has built an enterprise which reaches throughout the Five Kingdoms and beyond, with operatives on every continent. As a purveyor of fine items, both magical and mundane, Amzaan has made it his business to have everything a customer might need, no matter where, no matter when. NB: The ancient goblin Da’Kaam was a mobile marketplace of both goods and ideas, a caravan, workshop and university all rolled into one. Although the components of his network of shops don’t often move, Amzaan took the ancient name as a symbol of his dedication to providing consumers with goods and services regardless of their location. How it works: In a given location (a large city, a crossroads near the national border, a hollow tree in the haunted forest; ie, anywhere the DM requires), a lone goblin sets up a stall. This stall will primarily appear as a junk shop, a moth-eaten carpet strewn with cracked pottery, moldy books and half-empty ink pots. On closer inspection, items of higher quality can be seen hidden amongst the dross, and the goblin merchant seems able to produce almost anything requested from within the folds of his brown and travel-worn cloak. This is the primary way an adventurer is likely to encounter part of the Da’Kaam: as a customer. What isn’t immediately apparent is that the goblin’s cloak hides a portal (essentially a Ring Gate) and a few extradimensional storage spaces. The goblin may have any number of items stored within his or her cloak, and the portal provides access to a well-stocked warehouse which exists nowhere near the stall’s location. When a customer asks for an item not already in the merchant’s possession, he closes his cloak over his hands and puts them through the portal within. A pair of rings allows his hands to pass freely through a gate which would normally be painful—or deadly—to organic flesh, and arcane marks invisibly tattooed on his palms identify him to the eyes on the other side. The “switchboard†is a room lined with portals, manned by several goblins. When a hand emerges from a gate, a goblin rushes over with a sharp knife, ready to sever the limb if need be; the knives are sheathed when a mark is identified, and the task of reading an order given in hand-sign begins. Once the order is complete the goblins in the switchboard call to the warehouse floor below, and set in motion a flurry of movement throughout the well-organized shelves. Within moments, the requested item is placed in the waiting hands and drawn back through the gate. Meanwhile, the merchant has continued his friendly patter, keeping the customer occupied until he appears to seamlessly remove the item from his cloak. Obviously, this is a great expenditure of energy and not undertaken lightly; the merchants in Amzaan’s network are well-trained, often very high-level rogues or bards with maxed ranks in Sense Motive. If a customer seems likely to walk off without paying, or is simply browsing and has no real intent to buy, the merchant usually knows this long before actually requesting the item. The merchants also refrain from providing too much to any given customer; although it may be an open secret among many adventurers, the Da’Kaam strives to maintain a plausible deniability about the source of its wares. This also means low-level adventurers aren’t likely to get particularly over-powered equipment through one of the Da’Kaam’s merchants; a merchant simply isn’t going to ask the Warehouse for a Holy Avenger if he knows the customer doesn’t have more than 25 gold pieces. The Da’Kaam also retains a small army of investigators, bounty hunters and assassins, in addition to keeping up very good relationships with local law enforcement agencies. If a merchants’ cloak is stolen (an unlikely scenario if the merchant is still living), it will be tracked down swiftly and the thief dealt with (a task often made simpler by the identifying marks of newly severed hands).

With a couple of ongoing projects, it's time for a few models to hustle up and be done already. Corim, here, is playing the part of Edgar d'Sivis, a gnomish bard, in our current Eberron campaign, finished up to "I'm-done-so-get-off-my-table-already quality." He'll get a little static grass added to his base once we buy a new bottle of glue. I had thought for a while I would continue fiddling to smooth out the blends and see what else this guy had left to teach me, but ultimately decided he's already seeing action at the table, so I'd better just finish him up and give him a final sealer coat. In my rush I've missed doing some of the lighting effect on his hands and dagger, not to mention forgetting his eyebrows. I might go back and put those in before I seal him, after all. He's my first real stab at OSL, and any pointers or observations are most welcome as I've got another project using the same technique already in progress!

Did the Campaign Setting Hardback come with a fold out map? Process of selling & I came across this loose (thou in a Ultra Pro sheet protector thou..........) this is the map I have: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/75792077/20130205_211721.jpg (my Dropbox account, too big to post here) thanks RM

This is actually the first bones mini I've painted. I got him quite some time ago, converted his sword using the chained weapons pack, and then let him sit around for a loooong time. He stood on my desk near my monitor during the kickstarter so I could hold him up to the screen and zoom in or out until the image of him on my screen matched his size in my hand, just so I could squee over an ACTUAL SIZE Nethyrmaul. Good times. Now, he's been painted and will fall in battle many times to my Eberron PCs as a mook of the Emerald Claw. Quite the shift in fate for him, I suppose, but an honorable series of occupations nonetheless. This was a fast paint for me, only about 2.5 hours. The blending on his back is kinda jagged, but I'm happy with his metals and shield. Not my best freehand work, but it does cover up those silly Crusaders symbols. I mentioned in another thread, I'm impressed with the non-primer of this material. Really fun little mini! Thanks for looking! C&C always welcome.