Nothing but silence for weeks... but with good reason. There were parts of the real world got to be a bit much and I had to focus on resolving those for a time. Thankfully, things are getting... better isn't the word, but at least more under control. I feel like it's time to get back to the blog so expect more posts soon. Until next time...

Hey, we all made it through another year!  Huzzah!  So beyond that pretty awesome achievement, how about things on the gaming front?  Let's take a look...

So as with last year, I'd thought about tracking things... well, I didn't think about it too much but damn it, I think that it was a brief thought at one point in the beginning of the year.  Then again, I feel like I was able to achieve more as far as quality over quantity.  I've really be enjoying stopping and... well, smelling the paint?  It's acrylic, so don't look at me like that.  Instead of just rushing through minis, I've decided to take my time with them and really enjoy the process.  This was especially true with the BrushFu prints and Trollbloods that I've been working on.  The larger size of some of them has been a nice change and helped me work on digger deeper into the details.

And then there are the purchases.  Yeah, there weren't really any mad splurges this year.  I did have some figures that I was snapping up towards the end of the year, but nothing was really driving that forward.  Oh, except I did get the Nikstarter for Stargrave.  That was too good a deal to pass up and I like the figures that I've assembled from those sets, plus I still have a whole bunch more that I can do with them.

As for terrain, I did grab the two Infinity sets but that was pretty much it really.  I'd thought about grabbing some other Battle System sets, or actually starting to work on terrain for Zona Alfa but I just haven't felt the drive to push forward with those.  Maybe this year... but we'll see.

Total games played... 45?  That's it?!?

Yep, that's the lowest number of games since I've started do the year in review.  And that was with me being at home for most of the year too!  What the Hell?!?  Still, at least there was some games... but what were they?

For third place, we have Clank! Acquisitions Incorporated Legacy edition with a massive 3 plays.  This is actually pretty impressive since that was just in the last month or two of the year!  This game is a lot of fun, and every time for me it's come down to "Do I survive the game or try to push the story forward?"... and it's been story every time!  They did a great job adding some fun fluff to game, and it's been great exploring it!  We are on a short pause what with the holidays, but I'd love to see us back to this be a more regular thing so we can finish the story!

In second place is Betrayal Legacy with a whole 4 plays, which was enough to finish the game and find out the true story of the Betrayal.  This was a blast to play and I love how different this copy is from the original, and knowing why it is the way that it is just makes it that much better!  I will be honest that I don't know how much more we will be playing it, but it's good to have it there for an option.  And after painting up the Heroclix figure last week, I think it would be fun to expand on the generic dudes like that.  They could be used for Betrayal or maybe I could actually get around to playing some more Fear and Faith?  I did enjoy the... huh... apparently I only played it one time before.  Thought I got that to the table more...  Well, this could be the year for that!

And the most played game for 2021 is... Gloomhaven with 6 plays!  We had hopes of making this a biweekly game, and seeing how much of the world we could explore... and then life happened.  For all it's faults, I was enjoying the mechanics of this game and it would be cool to play it some more.  I think I'd place Clank AI Legacy above it just because of the light nature of the game but it would still be good to dig some more into it.

So what's on the docket for this year?  I'm going to do more with Core Space at some point.  I've got all those minis painted up after all, plus I've got some ideas for some changes that I'd like to make to the system but more on that later.  I also really want to play some Song of Blades and Heroes again.  It's been way too long since I have been able to get that one to the table, and it is such a fast and easy system.  I also think that it would be good for me to get more active with a social gaming scene.  I'll admit that I'm not the best socially dealing with strangers, but obstacles are only there to be overcome.  After all, we are all gamers, right?  Social awkwardness for the win!  Until next time...

Things got busier for me on the work front at the end of this past week so I wasn't able to get as much hobby done as hoped.  I did start to dabble with stating up my Goritsi and Teknes minis for Song of Blades and Heroes.  It was a little difficult since there isn't a lot to differentiate the minis.  Normally this isn't an issue but when I got to the Goritsi shield breaker it was making things pretty challenging.  While I ruminated on the solution, I decided to break out another board game to give it a try.

I wasn't able to finish the game due to phone calls but I feel like I was able to get a good feel for it, at least enough for a quick review anyway.  Overall very quick to pick up but good gameplay that still gives a challenge.  Not going to dive too deep for now but I'm glad I picked it up and I'm looking forward to running through a full session soon.

I've also managed to get a paint "table" set up too, so I've started working on my resin cyberpunk minis again.  Slow progress for now since I've doubled back to finish off some details (the bases and other small bits), but I've got some more into the cue that will be appearing soon.  Until next time...

In a slightly bewildering turn of events, this blog managed to set a new high for number of hits last month.  This year I've been hovering from 600 up to about 800 hits typically, but for some reason I had an absolutely massive spike, ending just shy of 6000 hits!

Normally I can piece together what might be happening.  The last big upsurge I had looked like it was tied to the title of an entry mentioning mercenaries.  I play hobby wargames, so this might not seem too surprising, but the hits were all coming from part of the world that was in a bit of unrest.  I changed it from "mercenaries" to "independent contractors" and the hit parade slowed down, but not before that one post became the second most often viewed post on the blog with almost 1000 hits in just a few months!

And then there was this past month.  There wasn't a single post that shot up in views, and even when I dug a little to see why I suddenly had 5500 hits from just Sweden, I didn't see anything happening that would accidentally lead to my doorstep.  The mystery remains, so all that's left is to do is say "Thank You Sweden!"  I hope you've been enjoying whatever it was you've all been reading!

On more serious note, this past weekend was... well, challenging to say the least.  There was a death in the family and medical issues with a pet that we've had for a very long time, all of which took priority over the plastic men.  The toys are fun after all, but they are still just toys at the end of the day.  This past month I had just started working on getting into a Tuesday/Friday posting routine, but I'll have to see what happens later this week.  Hopefully I can get in some more hobby just to have some time to destress and disconnect for a bit, but family comes first.  Until next time...

Well, it looks like I might have to run Stewie and his green companions.  I was called out on a post for the event so it's time to take another look at the US list I was considering.  All in all, it is a very basic list.  An inexperienced 2nd LT with a minder, three inexperienced infantry units, and Stewie... plus a medium machine team and an engineer squad with two BARs and a flamethrower.

Yep, very basic.

To be fair, it wasn't this bad before.  I originally had just inexperienced squads with a bazooka, plus Stewie.  Then I saw that the engineers can take a flamethrower, and things quickly escalated.  Add another couple of BARs just to make them really ridiculous.  Drop the bazooka like a bad habit and slap in a cheap MMG...  It's so ridiculous that I really feel like I need to run it. LOL

And as for the Cyber Samurai... he would be another mini from BrushFu Studios.

The front view of the mostly finished cyber samurai... still need to finish up the base, plus add some other color to his right hand.

And the back view of the same.

Unfortunately the material was extremely thin and the floor won the day, but I still like how he looks.  I'd thought about clipping off the rest of the hilt, but it has a nice, ornate feel to it so I decided to leave it on instead.  What's it supposed to be?  Who knows, but it works for me!  Overall, another figure that I really recommend from BrushFu for the printing, and I'm looking forward to working my way through the rest of my order.  Until next time...

I have a confession.  I'm 48 years old and up until this past weekend, I'd never played Settlers of Catan.  Yes, I'm a gamer who never played the game what is considered by some to be one of the gateway games for the hobby.  Instead I went the Ticket to Ride route for introducing people to the hobby (see what I did there?), so I've never even thought of buying Settlers.  The question is, how did it measure up?  Was it worth the wait?  Did it live up to its legendary expectations?

Well, as the title for the post says, I've finally played the Banker of Catan.

Our friends (who are both experienced Catan players) introduced us to the game and it was fun.  It's great to hang out with friends, and I think I can see the allure of Settlers.  Then again, by the end of the game I had a total of two settlements and either three or four roads.  And yes, that's including the two settlements and two roads that I started with.

What went so horribly wrong that I started and ended the game with the same two victory points?  The dice.

With a background in Warmachine, I'm very aware of the bell curve inherent to something involving two d6.  My starting locations weren't prime real estate, but they weren't horrible either.  Unfortunately the die were stuck on a total of 5 for what felt like most of the game, so most of my "gameplay" consisted of handing out and taking back resources that everyone else was getting and spending.

Compared to something like Ticket to Ride where there is almost always something happening on your turn, this might sound pretty dull.  Well, it actually was kind of dull from a gameplay point of view but I think that I just happened to get stuck in the perfect storm that is bad dice luck.  This is nature of that ephemeral mistress that we call Lady Luck and I don't begrudge the game for that and I really had a great time hanging out with my friends and family, which makes it all worth while.  Hopefully we can play it again in the future, and then maybe I too can break out of the financial business and become one of the settlers as well.  Until next time...

This weekend I was able to get Core Space to the table for the first time!  I went over to my friend's house and we ran through the Salvage Run mission so we could see how the game played.

It's been weeks since I went over the rules or watched any playthroughs so it was a little rough to start, but once we got going it all clicked into place and we were able to dive into the action.  If you've played a miniatures game before then most of the rules just made sense, and the terrain really pulls it all together.

The highlight of the game?  Gak, Roykirk, and Butler (a new volunteer for my crew) all being taken out by Beck and Jace, while Kaori and Gaa'nek ran around like lunatics and randomly shot at people.

All and all, I feel like it was a hit and I'm looking forward to playing it again in the future!

After that, we dove back into Gloomhaven with his son as we tried to find out what our "patron" was really up to.  I switched from the scoundrel to the brute so we could have some heavy hitting action, but even so it was really close!

I have also been able to make more headway with my painting, finishing up Lars, Faye, and MAC.

I really like how MAC came out with his weathered paint scheme.  Lars and Faye turned out pretty good as well though I'm tempted to go back and paint their tool boxes.  Dewalt black and yellow for one, and Ryobi green for the other... just because I find it amusing.  I also like how the black edging looks on these minis so I'm going to go back and do the same on the rest of them.

This just leaves me with four more minis and then all of the Core Space I own will be painted, so of course it's time to start looking at what I'm going to buy next.  I've been really torn on this as the late pledge is still open for Core Space: First Born and it's quite the deal.  On the other hand, it doesn't deliver until later this year and it sounds like it shifts the focus more towards solo play.  Rather than wait, I could just use those funds to get more of the existing expansions.

It's tough to pass up the late pledge but I'm thinking that my best bet is going to be to pick up the Shootout at Zed's expansion.  This set introduces gangers to the mix (in the form of Zed and his minions) and it comes with a couple more civilians as well.  Maybe it's silly but it's the extra civilians that are what seal the deal for me here.  I love that the base game comes with three but I really like the idea of even more random people wandering around the board.  You can also use Zed and his crew literally as another crew, so it really seems like this set gives the most bang for the buck as far as versatility.

And last but not least, I picked up a new game on Kindle.  Zona Alfa, published by Osprey Games.

Yes, I'm treading on dangerous ground here saying some negative about the game that is number one on BGG for theme, strategy, and just overall existence but hear me out.

Based on what we have seen, there seem to be no consequences for failing.

Our latest adventure had us breaking into an Inox encampment.  The first time we were so close to succeeding... and then we started falling like dominoes.  Battered and beaten, we wake up outside of the encampment effectively no worse for wear.  Heck, the Inox that we just attacked didn't even take the gold we looted from their fallen comrades, never mind the other equipment that we had.  We walked back to Gloomhaven to buy some more equipment and give it another go.  Returning to the same encampment for a second time, they were just as shocked to see us though they did manage to soundly thrash us within a couple of turns.

Waking up outside of the encampment, battered and bruised but still very much alive after attacking the same group of Inox for the second time, we proceeded to attack them again.  The guards and archers had all taken their appropriate places for the beginning of this dance as the music started for a third time.

And this time, we actually won.

My first thought after the third run was that we must be missing something.  Surely you can't just make the same run over and over with no repercussions for our actions, but everything I found online indicated that we were doing it right.  You can literally play like its a video game and just grind for levels without it having any impact on the main storyline.

Is Gloomhaven still a great game, worthy of all of the praise it has received?  I think that it is, it just seems like there is a disconnect in the narrative that the game is generating, that the lack of the finality of character death does take a bit away from the drama of the story... The story that we will be continuing this Sunday as we push onto our next adventure.  After all, I did say that its still a great game.  Until next time...

Man was last week a helluva week!  Nothing life shattering, and in fact more eye opening in some regards, but it did put the blog onto the back burner for a bit.  Life happens, ya know?  Thankfully I've still been able to get a fair amount of hobby in though, so I figure it's time to hit the highlights!

It all started last weekend when my new paints came in!  I knew that I ordered a bunch but actually seeing them was something else.

I've also been making headway with my Core Space minis.  In fact, the crew of the Ion Hope are now done!

I also started working on the crew of the Black Moria as well though I've only started to scrape the surface with this crew.

Then again, if you don't have a captain, how can you have the crew?  I'll start working on them soon but I've also started working on another little project again.  Over a year ago I'd picked up a number of Runewars minis for a crazy discount.  My thought had been to use them for a Warlords of Erehwon but then Covid happened and that project was set aside for a time.  Just this past week, I started to get the itch to get some Song of Blades and Heroes to the table so I broke out more of these Runewars minis and started painting up some of the elves.

This archer is the furthest along, but his buddies are close behind...

All of these guys add up to just over 200 points.  Pair these off against some of my human warriors that are already painted and I'm looking at a nice little conflict to push around so I can get back into the swing of things.  I'm even thinking about introducing my daughter to the game since she is on Spring break!  We've played things like Frostgrave before but time always seems to be a limiting factor nowadays.  Hopefully the quick nature of SoBH will help up get past that and have some fun trying to slaughter each other!

Well, that about sums it up for now but it's great to be moving forward with my hobby again!  Can't wait to push around SoBH again, and I might even try to post a battle report as well!  Just pure craziness, let me tell you!  Until next time...

I recently watched an YouTube video by Dana Howl called "5 Lessons I Wish I'd Known as a Miniature Painting YouTuber in 2020".  In the video, Dana mentions the hobby streak, something which I was unfamiliar with.  My understanding is setting aside 30 minutes a day to work on the hobby, be working on minis or terrain, gluing or painting.  Just doing something to keep yourself going a little bit at a time.  She has been doing this for quite a while now, along with others using the hashtag #HobbyStreak so they can all motivate each other.

I love this idea and have already committed to trying to do the same, though I haven't been posting to Instagram about it.  I just went onto Instagram today for the first time in over a year, and quickly realized why I'd stopped.  Too much content to sift through to get to things that actually interest me, leading me down the rabbit hole and making time just disappear.  Using it is a great idea and I might change my tune in the future, but for now I'd rather spend my time on the hobby then dealing with Instagram.  Besides, I already send this blog out into the 'Verse so that seems good enough for me, even it if is mostly for my own enjoyment.

So far, I've managed to stay on course with the streak for a week now and it has been great!  All of my Purge minis are painted now, plus I've started working on a couple of old GW Talisman minis as well priming all of the other Core Space minis I have.  On top of this, I also received the bag o' Heroclix that I bought from Cool Stuff Inc. and have started working on rebasing them.

I've also been stewing around ideas for a Fear and Faith game but I've been a little stumped on the villain for the game.  What do I have a bunch of bad guys for?  I've got a bunch of zombies from Zombicide Black Plague but the clix I picked up for the good guys are all modern day, plus I have the fantasy village terrain that I'd love to use.  Mix it all together and what do you get?  A Ren Faire Zombie Jamboree!  I need to slap some paint on some minis first but the Jamboree is coming, don't you fear.  Until next time... 

Well, that was one Hell of a year!  True there was lots of craziness, but honestly there were good bits as well.  That said, the real question what about the hobby?  Let's take a look...

I had the best of intentions to track all of this stuff at the beginning of the year but then things happened.  Not much that can be done about it, but looking over my collection I did manage to get a good number painted!  There were also some repaints that I didn't include in this total (I'm looking at you C3 strike troopers!) but this is still a lot more that I thought I was able to do.

As for the purchases, I really dialed things back this year.  After splurging for two Rune Wars base games last year, it only seemed reasonable to try to reign things in.  Of course I did by more Rune Wars stuff (Latari elves army, the demon dudes army, plus several unit boxes) but this was to take advantage of that line closing out.  I'd already missed out on getting more Wolfen and I wasn't going to let that happen again!  Now I've got at least two 2000 point armies for Warlords of Erehwon that cost me maybe $200 tops?  I still need to paint most of them but at least I'm not dealing with trying to buy OOP stuff to put together some forces.

And on the terrain front, actually getting my hands onto some Battle Systems terrain has been huge!  Between the Fantasy Village set and Core Space, I'm really impressed with the quality of their product and I'm looking forward to getting more this year!

Total games played... 72 total!

Sweet!  I actually got to play more games this year!  Not as many as I'd have liked but do we ever get in that many?  Of course the next big question is what did we play?

In a three way tie for third place with four plays each is Onitama, Gloomhaven, and Funkoverse Strategy Game.  Two of those I'd have liked to have played more (Gloomhaven and Funkoverse) but things just didn't line up that way.  There were some dry spells early in the year, and our plans for a biweekly Gloomhaven campaign had to go on hold.  Hopefully later this year we can get Gloomhaven back on track because I was enjoying playing that one.  A lot to get your head around but it was an interesting light roleplaying experience.

For second place at five plays each we have a two way tie between Sentinels of the Multiverse and Hocus Pocus!  I'll admit that I'm surprised that these two surged to the fore like they did but it been fun to get them both to the table.  I can see some issues with Sentinels normally, but my friend has the expansion that introduces villain teams so you stay in the game longer.

And the reigning champion with 10 plays?  Betrayal Legacy!  And we didn't even finish the whole campaign!  Two of our players got busy with college but we should be able to wrap this up this year.  I've been enjoying this game a ton and I can't wait to see how it ends.  Will we win the day or will the evil in the house destroy us all?

So what does the new year hold for me?  We just finally started the Ghosts of Saltmarsh game that I mentioned in last year's review so that's a good indication of things finally moving forward.  Plus with my recent purchase of Battle Systems fantasy terrain and Core Space, I want to get some games in with my daughter before she is off to college next year.  And more painting, that is a must.  I did a lot better than I expected last year but it was definitely short of the model a day total that I was aiming for.  Time to see if I can get a bit closer this year!  Until next time...

Not much time for hobby BUT... I did buy some things.  This time of year everybody has a Black Friday sale and I decided to take advantage of the one from Miniature Market!  I could have gone a whole lot crazier than I did but I decided to show a bit of restraint...  kind of.

So we have...

My tiny pile of Black Friday goodness...

On the top of the pile are the Teknes Union workers for Wrath of Kings.  More pig warriors!  I really didn't like these figures when I saw them in the Kickstarter but once I actually got them to the table, I knew I needed some more.  They are just goofy, full of character, and fun to play!  This box takes me up to 24 workers which should be more than I will ever need!  The perfect number!

Next is Tomb Trader.  I've seen this one a couple of times on Miniature Markets sales, and this time I was able to grab a copy.  The players are all legitimate archaeologists... really... not tomb raiders at all... and you try to make it out with the most treasure for the "museum" before the temple collapses.  There is bit of deal making thrown in and as long as everyone agrees, then everyone can leave with something.  But if not... no treasure for you!  This just sounds like a fun, light game and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

And last but not least...  Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Board Game.  I never watched too much Buffy so I'm not one of the show's cult like following, but this game has really good reviews.  The basic concept is you need to defeat the big bad to win, but along the way you need to deal with the lesser monsters of the week.  Take them all out before too many townies die, and you win!  I've actually been looking at this one for a while on Amazon but it's been locked solid at $33.  With this sale, it dropped all the way down to $18 which made it a must buy just so I could check it out.

What I found interesting about this game was the reviews all took the approach of Buffy fan and everyone else, but either way it had good reviews.  On top of that it also can be played solo which will make it perfect when I go back into the field.  I enjoy painting and pushing around my minis, but sometimes it's good to just crash in the hotel and play a game.

That said, there is still a bit more that I've picked up since then.  The Battle Systems Ruined Village set will be arriving tomorrow and the Battle Systems Core Space core game will be arriving next week.  Yeah, I went a little crazy for the BS but I'm excited at the prospect of some quality assembled terrain, and my daughter has even expressed an interest in Core Space though that one can be played solo as well.  Lots of good stuff heading this way and I'm really looking forward to trying it out!  Until next time...

Last week was a short work week, but proved to be a very busy one for me.  In my few bits of free time, I decided it was time to really take a good look at Battle Systems terrain.  I had first heard of them back with one of their first Kickstarters but I didn't dig any further.  As I try to find time to squeeze in miniatures, terrain, and gaming I decided it was time to rectify that and give them a good look.  If I can get some decent terrain for a reasonable price, well Hell ya!  Sounds like a plan!

Looking at their site, they have tons of options; fantasy, sci-fi, modern... pretty much all your most common gaming needs nowadays.  And looking closer at the individual pieces, they look pretty cool and the price is very reasonable, especially when you consider how much time their system saves.

Even so, I didn't want to just pull the trigger without getting a first hand look at things, so I scoured their catalog and picked out a few things to check out that would give me a good sense of how their stuff looks.  This was all well and good... until I looked at shipping.

My order consisted of two items, the fantasy thatched cottage and wooden fences.  All together, this rang up to a mere $23.98 which is more than reasonable.  Unfortunately shipping added another $23.88 which makes it a bit less so.  To try to save on international shipping, I looked at some of the stockists in the northeast but most of those unfortunately were focused on Magic. which is a damn shame.  It really looked like a great option, and for those of you in the UK, I would definitely recommend checking them out!  For those of us in the States though... it's bit hard to justify.

At this point I was going to throw in the towel but I decided to take a look at a couple of the other US stockists just in case.  A few more TCG stores later and I discovered... well, Discover Games down in Atlanta.  They didn't have the smaller kits that I had been considering, but they did have the village ruins set for a couple of dollars less than retail.  On top of that, they are running a 15% off sale that ends today.

Yeah... this town has seen better days... It'll be perfect!

Can you say instant buy?

So now, I wait...  Very excited I was able to get a hold of it though, and they carry more items from the line so there might be some more orders to them in my future!  Until next time.

Over the weekend I managed to get two of the three shelves installed, with the location for the holes marked for the last one.  I'm really happy with how it's looking and it is definitely helping to open up my work space.

The next step is going to be... three more shelves!  Originally I'd planned on putting three 6' shelves over my painting space, but instead I opted for three 3' shelves along a wall next to it instead.  That particular wall has a window in the middle of it so I'm going to put three 4' shelves on that other side of the window.  Overall more real estate for placing things and I think it is going to look nicer than the original plan as well.

That wasn't all I managed to get accomplished over the weekend though.  I also made another mini for one of our companions in the long running 5e Out of the Abyss campaign we are still playing.  Yep, you read that right.  I made this mini.  Introducing Globby!

Globby with my old gnome character Kremermesh Mommanpople for scale

Globby (aka Glabbagool) is a sentient gelatinous cube that we encountered, and we befriended him... her... it... by telling it stories.  We thought he had gone off to explore the wide world of the Underdark but he happened to show up in Gracklstugh.

Globby is made from some clear plastic sheets cut into 2" x 2" squares and then hot glued together.  To give him the oozy look, I went over him with more hot glue, pulling the gun down to the base to give it the appropriate drippy look.  And what's even cooler?

Not the clearest picture but you get the idea...

As for what's next... I haven't decided yet.  I need to get the last shelf up, then I want to dive back into my pile of unpainted minis to see what speaks to me next.  Plus I'm thinking about seal some of my older minis that are going up onto the shelf just for good measure, in which case I might have to set up the light box and take some pictures of them.  Until next time...

After all of these years of painting miniatures, I had an epiphany; Why are they all just sitting in a box?

Since I paint my minis for gaming, I've always tried to keep them stashed away in their carry cases and the like to protect them.  It's great to have access to something like this for gaming on the go, but realistically I just don't get out to game that much.  That doesn't mean they should all be stashed away out of sight.  These are bits of plastic and metal that I've invested time and energy into, so it's time to show them to the world!  Or at least anyone that wonders into my office. 😁

All of which means its time to buy some shelves!

In this case, I just want some to put my finished minis on display so I'm going to buy a couple of basic, black shelves with matching brackets to put them on the wall in my office.  I'm going to keep the above my paint/work station so it will be out of the way but close enough to eye level to enjoy the view when you come in the room.  This will also open up my painting space since I will be able to put the minis up on the shelves as I finish them.

Picking these up either later today or tomorrow and then hanging them over the weekend so I can get my space better organized.  Can't wait to get it done!  Until next time...

I had planned on doing some more work on my Dustgrave terrain this weekend, but the yard took a bit longer to tidy up than I expected.  Up here in the northeast, its been quite a bit of rain so not ideal weather to mulch the leaves on the yard.  Thankfully yesterday was sunny and dry, so 10k steps later my feet were killing me but the yard is done!  Huzzah!

But this wasn't all that happened this weekend, not by a long shot.

We also killed Jason.

This weekend marked the restart of our long put on hold 5e Out of the Abyss campaign.  Ironically, we will be putting it on pause in a couple of sessions as I hope into the driver's seat for Ghosts of Saltmarsh  but it was still great to get back to these characters again.  But what about this Jason character?  Well, it is October after all, so we had to have a Halloween themed encounter.

That's right, I'm talked about that Jason.

I must admit that I felt pretty confident at the start of the encounter because I'm playing a tanky bard (who knew there was such a thing?).  That ended really quickly when I realized how much damage I'd taken in the last session 6+ months ago... and Jason threw me up into a stalactite, taking me completely out of the action.

By the end of the encounter, two of us had gone out of action but thankfully neither of us actually died.  A great session and I can't wait to see what happens with the next one.  We will finally have an audience with the Deep King of Gracklstugh to see if he is as mad as the rest of the Duergar.

Gracklstugh... Definitely not you typical getaway location.

No worries though, there will be more painting/building this week.  I've already got a couple of buildings in progress, I just need to clean a spot on the desk to get a couple of good shots of it.  Until next time...