Navah: The Rainbow Demon

Last night’s adventure was brutal. Everyone is looking forward to the end of this dungeon. It is too long, and the search for the missing dryad seems to be going nowhere. It is time to be done and move on to more enjoyable adventures.

Garrulous the Wise, a Wee Folk mage, joined the party. His entourage included Wally the Living Market Wallet, Ignatius (a small fire elemental), and Buddy the Dikdak (aka. a Goldhound). Garrulous rode Buddy.

The party returned to the dungeon and killed the two remaining Kalaleks (Cockroachman demons). They discovered beyond them a room with three stuffed monsters (a Blargle, an Owlcat, and an Owlbear). Abrameowlin determined that the Blargle had been killed by a poison needle. Buddy located a secret door and Abrameowlin determined that there were no traps. When Melian went to open it, a poisoned dart flashed out. She barely dodged it, and it stuck in the stuffed Blargle behind her.

They went into the corridor and celebrated too loudly, attracting the attention of the nearby Cat o’ Three Tails, which killed Ignatius. Bluebell successfully tunneled to the Flesh Golem factory, while Garrulous controlled the creature for a time. Melian and Abrameowlin hid in the bathroom. Garrulous eventually fled after Bluebell and the Cat o’ Three Tails played with Wally for a while then became bored and left.

The party continued on, and Garrulous successfully banished the enormous fire elemental that had burned the party last week. They then killed five giant beetles fairly easily. Melian continued to trust Abrameowlin’s appraisal of traps, though the Griffon really didn’t understand traps at all. As a result, she barely avoided a guillotine and was then electrocuted twice. They found a sauna, and then descended several levels until they reached a secret library with a Rainbow Demon. Things then got very dark.

Melian, Abrameowlin, and Bluebell were all affected by the psychotic emanations of the diaphanous twinkling demon, which brought out their worst. The griffon went into a terrible rage and began attacking the other party members. Melian pushed Bluebell into the griffon and the last survivor of the second Glorious Guard detachment was turned into a fine red mist. Abrameowlin then tore Wally to pieces and turned on Melian. Sanity was restored briefly when Buddy nipped the demon in the rear, but then the party lost initiative and then failed their saves again. The griffon shredded Melian’s left arm and gave a minor wound to her left leg. Garrulous used a tunnel to drop onto the griffon’s back, which temporarily distracted him. Buddy again nipped the demon, and this time the griffon had enough time to disembowel the creature. Buddy licked Melian’s wounds and spun a web around her damaged arm. The party sat in depression for a time, then searched the library, where they found some decent treasure, including a focus crystal for Extend Senses spells and a Circlet of Thought (+2 INT, -4 APP), which went to Abrameowlin.

541 CY, Whisper

After defeating the deputies, Eric cast Locate Object, looking for the Ring of Mitra, but could not find it. Impatient, he went outside, alone, trying to extend the search. Beatrice meanwhile cast Repel Insects and then began the long ritual to invoke an Insect Plague. The plague would cause 540 hp of damage to any in the village who did not leave, and the party worried they would kill innocents.

Meanwhile, Merth had spotted Eric walking alone outside and attacked, yelling to the other villagers that “Criminals have killed my deputies, and are still in the Constabulary; To Arms! To Arms!” From the hovels at the southwest side of town, about ten brigands headed for the jail.

Merth’s initial attack on Eric missed, and Eric moved back to the jail. Merth decided not to follow, and instead headed for the Mayor’s compound.

Raylene began to battle the brigands, killing one. The rest continued to gather, a poor decision given their abilities. Eric spoke to them, telling them that their Sheriff was a worshipper of Set and that they should aid the party, who was on the side of Mitra. In response, the brigands surrounded Eric and attacked. He used Whelm to knock them down and then jumped over the ring of downed brigands, only to catch his leg and fall back among them. Raylene and Hors continued to fight their way out to aid him.

Meanwhile, a slender figure entered town on horseback from the south. Whisper, a half-elven rogue, was bemused by the conflict and stopped, trying to figure out what was happening. As the conflict progressed, he trotted over to the hovels and inquired of a woman there what was happening. She was startled and fearful, and only replied that someone had attacked the sheriff. Whisper enjoyed Eric’s speech, and decided to aid him when he was surrounded. He rode his horse “Horse” over several of the downed men. Raylene cut down another man and the woman to whom Whisper had talked screamed, “Jim! They’ve killed Jim!” With Whisper’s attack and with Raylene getting closer, the rest of the villagers fled, or rather crawled away.

Whisper spoke briefly to Eric, but things were still progressing. Lisri and Eric were trying to stop Beatrice’s spell, since the party was spread out. Beatrice ignored them until Lisri slapped her, whereupon she punched him in the face. All then moved outside and followed Raylene and Hors, who were headed to the mayor’s compound.

While the others began their assault, Whisper looked into the Overlord’s Inn. Two off-duty guards drew their swords as he entered, and he quickly retreated.

Eric cast Sanctuary and leapt the wall, hoping to open the gate for the others. He found himself facing two guards, three wardogs, a brigand, and Seth (a sergeant of the guard). The last made his saving throw and started cutting into the cleric. Eric cast Command on one of the guards, who moved to open the gate, but his comrade grabbed him, shouting “What are you doing?!” The next round, they were all attacking Eric. Lisri Hasted the party members who were close, and Whisper jumped over the gate and backstabbed the brigand, after which he was attacked by a Hasted Rottweiler and the rest. Raylene followed soon after. Lisri hopped onto the wall next and cast Slow on the enemies he could reach, and the party then quickly (four times the enemies’ speed!) sliced through them. Seth escaped but the two remaining guards surrendered. After dropping their weapons, they were allowed to leave.

Outside the wall, the guards from the Inn fought Beatrice and Hors. It was a long battle, but finally one guard fell and the other ran.

The party then explored the compound, finding the cook Inchana and driving her out. The main building was a fortress, with arrowslits instead of windows and a complex locking mechanism on the door. Whisper admitted to some knowledge of locks but failed to open it.

Several of the party went back to the Overlord’s Inn. Eric purchased ten jugs of whiskey to use in burning down the house. Lisri talked to Beldar, a drunken mage who managed to drink himself into uselessness before Lisri got much out of him. As they left, the hunchback Rufo approached them, offering his help and fawning too much for Whisper’s taste. Whisper was further put off by Rufo’s ease in opening the door that had defeated the half-elf. Inside they found and appropriated extravagant wealth. Since the party had agreed to protect him, Rufo pointed out the secret trapdoor the mayor used to go below. The party moved a heavy cabinet on top of it. Then the hunchback told them of the stair trap and annoyed Whisper further by guiding him through its disarming. Upstairs they found more loot, some of which they dumped into Whisper’s incredibly heavy sack (60 lbs, the largest of all possible Bags of Holding), along with Eric’s ten jugs of whiskey. They also found Skilvashara, the Mayor’s concubine, who told them little but who promised to tell Avvakris even less. They didn’t find any of their missing magic items, which depressed them mightily.

The party then decided to rest in the house and then descend into the trapdoor. Rufo refused and ran away. Lisri followed but was unable to convince him to accompany them. He left Rufo some rations as Rufo prepared to hide from the aroused villagers. Lisri also allowed Inchana to return to the compound.

Whisper put his horse with the rest of the party’s horses in the tavern stable. The party’s hirelings Nerthnydd and Rhyddeus were missing and presumed dead.

The party then fortified themselves in the mayor’s house and began to rest but after only three hours, Raylene noticed smoke. Some of the villagers had returned and set fire to the house. Taking Skilvashara with them, the party escaped down the trapdoor, past some giant rat traps, and found themselves outside a room with a number of braziers.

And there we ended for the night. Gerstead was still tied up in the jail where the party left him.

Navah: Fifi’s Bad Day

Before re-entering the magical dungeon, the party further explored Makkon’s Keep itself. They found nothing new. Abrameowlin first was covered with ash as he searched a fireplace for secret doors, and then he got stuck in a walk-in closet. It was not wide enough for him to turn around easily, and the griffon panicked and then went berserk tearing the ancient wizard’s robes that hung there into shreds. Bluebell and Melian calmed him down several times, but each time he again failed to escape and again flew into a dangerous rage. Finally, after over an hour, he made it out and covered with ash, cobwebs, and shreds of clothing, he walked nonchalantly away as if he had meant to do that all along.

Descending into level 1, they avoided the demonic cat and the cockroach people. They found a magical library but when they searched for magic books, Abrameowlin destroyed most of them (he can’t read and his claws are more useful for tearing than for holding books). One of the books he tossed about fell on Fifi and crushed her little body, but thankfully Bluebell’s medical skills restored her to functionality. The party found two magical books of worth:

• A Collection of Guiding Principles and Wise Observations by Loristam, the Imperial High Wizard of Anthavar
• Hangen Pigbelly’s Higher Magickal Theory and the Achievement of Awareness

Melian put them in her backpack for later reading.

Next they encountered a sleepy mole pouka named Meridoc, who was not a great deal of help and who was happy to return to sleep when they left.

Bluebell got the idea that the Frogfolk cultists defending Makkon’s toilet might be hiding something, so the party headed there to talk with them. Bluebell convinced them that Makkon had instructed the party to use the toilet, and after a huddle by the Frogfolk, Melian was allowed to try. Melian was by no means eager to do so, but she stripped down to her skivvies and watched closely by both the party and four heavily armed frogs, she entered the room. Under the pretense of stretching in pre-elimination exercises, she quickly glanced around the room in search of treasure. She failed her NOTICE and then was compelled to mount the porcelain throne and do her business. The Frogfolk watched with eagerness that she might be the “Chosen One,” and ignored her request for them to turn away. She proved not to be the “Chosen One” and left the room in humiliation. Abrameowlin ached for an excuse to slaughter the cultists and search the room thoroughly but the Frogs did not attack Melian and so he felt he could not. He would continue to suggest that strategy for the rest of the day.

Moving on, the party next encountered Metracules, a multi-legged bug-bodied demon with one enormous eye. The party would have withdrawn but Metracules moved faster and attacked Melian three times before they could do anything. His damage rolls were poor and Melian’s plate armor protected her, but he also stepped on Fifi accidentally, and here his roll was quite high. Fifi’s legs were crushed. Bluebell opened a secret passage to above Metracules, planning to drop from above and stab its eyeball, but the Wee Folk’s skill again went awry in the magical dungeon and Bluebell found herself in a dark unknown corridor with only a few matches. Abrameowlin attacked and scored a critical hit on Metracules’ thorax, ripping it open (76 points of damage) and dumping the contents onto poor Fifi. After the demon was dead, Melian searched for Fifi. On the first try she grabbed a still throbbing innard of the demon, but she found Fifi on the second try and took her to the nearby fountain to clean her off and aid her. Bluebell found her way to them. Fifi’s legs were gone but the party successfully sealed the wound and Abrameowlin allowed her to ride on his back.

This proved to be a fatal error, as they next encountered a Fire Elemental Lord set to protect the rear quarters. The griffon was in the lead and a mighty flame swept over him, killing Fifi immediately and rendering the griffon’s left rear leg unusable. Melian ran in to help and Abrameowlin leapt into the air, flew once around the room, and then swept out through the door in full retreat. Melian tried to join him but her own right leg sustained a grisly wound and was burnt off below the knee. The elf made her WILL roll and stumbled to the door and closed it. The Fire Elemental did not follow, and the griffon returned. Together the party stumbled and crawled back to the fountain, where the griffon’s leg was healed and Melian’s wound sealed.

Fortunately, Abrameowlin spotted Meridoc furtively pulling a bucket of water from the other side of the large fountain. It turned out that Meridoc was a monk skilled in the healing arts and was able to cast Restoration on Melian, with the result that her leg would regrow over the next three days. In return, the party agreed to bring Meridoc a large bucket of worms, a taste treat that he greatly enjoyed. Once out of the dungeon, Bluebell opened a secret door back to the headquarters of the Glorious Guard to recruit further aid. Only Garrulous the Wise responded, but they rejoined the party and prepared for their next foray.

Meanwhile, the stone giant asleep in the keep awoke, and Bluebell finally recognized him as the Sleeper on the Throne about whom it was said, “When the Sleeper wakes, all Faerie will quake.” They stood in awe as the Sleeper headed north towards Kragsted and the Draco Mountains. “It wasn’t me,” said Chamion, the butterfly pouka who had been sitting on the giant’s head. “You folks woke him up!” And the ungrateful pouka flew off to tell that tale everywhere.

The party ended the night searching a last set of rooms in Makkon’s Keep. Shaping open a locked door, they found a card game that had been hastily abandoned. A large pile of gold (300 florins) rested on the table, so Melian reached out to gather it up. She found her hands bound in an instant by a leather belt that began talking to her. Bemeron was his name, and as part of the winnings, he protected the rest. He was dismayed to learn how long he had been guarding the treasure, but when he heard that the party was of the Glorious Guard, he volunteered immediately to join them.

And there we ended for the night.

House Rules: Three Rulings on D&D 1e

Knock: Knock is able to open barred doors and trapdoors. The original write-up said it could open barred doors but not lift bars. Huh?

Sanctuary: Sanctuary can only be used by the cleric himself, or on a out-of-commission character he is healing. 5E treats it as another buff, but I’m ruling no. Prayer and Chant are still buffs.

Line of Sight: Most spells require line of sight to cast. If you can’t see someone, you can’t send Magic Missiles, Command, or Hold Person.

541 CY, Revenge!

Descending further in the White Tower, they discovered a Wooly Mammoth. Beatrice immediately started the hour-long ritual of Animal Friendship. Singing and dancing, she did not notice until long after her friends that the mammoth was dead and stuffed. Nobody told her (of course I had the player sing her ritual for a few moments for everyone’s amusement).

Next, they came to a room with a ball of mist that showed Lisri his spellbook sitting in a room with only one door. There was an obvious mage there, with black hair and tie-dyed robes. The book was on a table, and there was also a bed and an iron chest.

Moving on, they discovered another barracks of gnomes, where Lisri made himself unwelcome by tapping on walls looking for secret doors.

They next went to a sacred shrine, where again Lisri looked behind the curtains and found a door. He looked in briefly and then Hors entered, searching more thoroughly. The floor turned to mud and Hors quickly sank up to his chin as he tried to work his way back to the door. The mud hardened to rock, and Hors was stuck. Beatrice began resting to gain Stone Shape while the others tried to get Hors freed. Lisri entered and searched at his own pace, then sat down next to Hors and tried to reassure him. The rock changed back to mud, and Lisri started sinking. He spread himself out to stay on top but it was magic mud so he just sank his entire body one foot underneath the surface as Hors disappeared completely under the mud. The party started pulling them free, and Lisri cast Rope Trick. He was halfway up when the party pulled him off his rope, back into the mud, and out the door. He was displeased.

After cleaning themselves with their waterskins and oilskins, they descended to the next level, where they were teleported to a great dome with three enormous statues. Finding no loot and unable to open the doors, they slept and then awoke looking for a place to relieve themselves. A Frost Giant guardian appeared and warned them not to descecrate the place and then teleported them back to the previous level.

They found a guide to the Glyphs of Warding in Set’s Tower, which Lisri copied into his book. Bearatrice discovered a teleport back to Holomir by mistake, but no one noticed. When they went to look for her, Hors teleported himself back down to the Storm Giant. Eventually all followed Bearatrice.

They then plotted their revenge against the sheriff and his men and after several days of healing, swapping spells, and resting again, they headed down the tunnels to the Constabulary. They found the trapdoor locked, so they went to the abandoned tower where Beatrice planned to scout as an owl. After changing to an owl, Owltrice decided she couldn’t fly in the daytime and that owls couldn’t fly in the rain anyways. Despite the party’s pleas, she would not move until the evening, and Eric, Hors, and Owltrice all became chilled and picked up colds. Her scouting found nothing, and she returned. They went back to the trapdoor and Lisri cast Knock. Raylene went up but failed her Sneak roll and let the trapdoor fall open as she ascended. Merth entered immediately, followed by Bolt, Scarvonii, and Gernstead. The party went up the ladder one by one, entering the battle. Lisri Hasted them and Eric cast Prayer. Bolt did not have proficiency with Raylene’s axe, and failed to hit her time and again. Hors and Raylene concentrated on Merth, while Merth and his deputies concentrated on first Beatrice and then Hors. By the end of the battle, Hors was down to 4 hp, but Bolt was Held, Scarvonii was paralyzed, Merth ran away, and Gernstead surrendered. The party accepted his surrender, but they considered killing him anyways. Bolt was killed but the first three to try to kill Scarvonii fumbled, including an attempt by Lisri in which he stabbed Hors by mistake. The party regained some of its equipment, and Gernstead was tied up in a cell. Merth had taken the keys, so Gernstead couldn’t be locked up.

Navah: Freeing Lady Zagree’s Ghost

In Makkon’s Castle, Abrameowlin was still only 3 inches long. Outside, the freed Chamion rested quietly on the giant’s forehead, his wings flapping gently. The party descended into the dungeons once more (level 1). There they avoided the gigantic and demonic Cat ‘O Three Tails and quietly closed the door on the Flesh Golem, who simply stared at them. Abrameowlin was not with them — he was hiding near the entrance until he regained his normal size. While the party was talking with the goblin Festerbum and his enormous Hodag friend, Abrameowlin became large once more and searched for them. Instead, he encountered two orcs and an ogre, who foolishly attacked. The griffon killed two and let the final orc escape, before joining the party at Festerbum’s room. Festerbum had just convinced Fifi to change to a songbird and sing to please the Hodag while he took a welcome bathroom break. Fifi’s song did not have the same effect as Festerbum’s hurdygurdy, and the Hodag began to swell alarmingly. All of the party managed to get out of the room before it blew. Looking for Festerbum, they ran into a ghost named Zagree, the former fiance of Abramalionicus Makkon. After falling in love with her sister, Makkon had trapped her in a room in the dungeon and left her to starve. Her ghost agreed to help guide the party if they would take her body outside of the castle.

Unfortunately, the ghost was used to travel by ghostly ways, through walls and false doors and such, and the party ran into many dead ends. In their journies, they encountered:

• Deric, a tall fountain who joined them in hopes of escape.
• Four zealot Frogfolk guarding Makkon’s toilet.
• Mezzel, a demon bug with a disturbing stinger.
• Four Kleploks who attacked the party while searching another bathroom.
• A room filled with trophies Makkon had received for his magical competitions.

Finally, they found Zagree’s tomb and with Deric’s help, opened it. Zagree’s ghost changed into the image of a beautiful woman. They took her bones outside where they turned to dust and Zagree disappeared. The 500 F. necklace she was wearing, remained.

541 CY, The party finally reaches safety

In despair, the party considering descending once more to the lower levels in hopes of escape. Instead, they began an assault on the curiously silent guards to the north. An initial volley of arrows proved the guards were no push-overs. Though they had no bows with which to return fire, they retreated to safety and forced the party to advance. Raylene and Hors took the van and drew the first attack, but then wisely retreated slightly into the corridor so they only faced two guardsmen at a time. Meanwhile, Eric used Hold Person to put three of the guards out of commission. As the guards froze, their comrades threw them backwards and took their place, holding their own. As one of the guards finally neared his end, Raylene called for a parlay, to which he responded. The other guards were less willing, but ultimately everyone agreed to let the guards leave, with their weapons and armor (something Lisri fought against). Eric cast Know Alignment and finding them to be Lawful Evil, the party extracted a vow from the guards to leave and not bother them. The mercenary squad (for such they were) gathered up their still-frozen comrades and headed down to the second level and out.

The party then explored the room and found a ten foot tall black pyramid in the north end, whose purpose they could not discover. Ten feet off the ground in the middle of the room was a steel cage holding a small mixed breed puppy (cocker, schnauzer, and poodle, just like Benji). It was suspended from a chain and locked, and the party could do nothing to open it. A spell of Silence was cast upon it, so Beatrice could not speak to the pup. “Inalienable!” shouted Eric, trying to remember the command word for his Wings of Flying. “Do you mean ineffable?” reminded Hors, allowing Eric to take to the air and lift Raylene and then Hors up to the cage, where they held on and tried unsuccessfully to bend the bars. Unfortunately, Eric fumbled at one point and his twenty foot bat wings battered the other two and they all fell, taking damage.

Eric found a secret door into the room that had held the golden skeleton and he and Vashalla went into rest. The other members could not, because only Lawful Good could enter. Beatrice rested as well as did Hors. Raylene and Lisri stood watch.

About four hours in, an eight foot stone statue of Set entered the room and attacked. It cast green rays from its eyes and beat at Raylene with its fists. She soon went down but fortunately by that time Beatrice was up and casting Obscurement. For the next 12 rounds, the party and the statue fumbled around in the darkness. Beatrice also cast Faerie Fire so once when he stumbled into the statue, he saw it outlined next to him. The statue proved very capable of finding the players in the dark, whether by their scent, their sounds, or by sheer luck. It rolled terribly however, and continually missed Beatrice, who it only needed a 5 to hit. The party’s actions were:

• Eric hid in the safe room.
• Lisri cast Rope Trick and hid up there, pulling the rope up after him.
• Beatrice found Raylene, carried her to one side, stabilized her, and then fled.
• Vashalla went into the dark, tripped over Raylene, and healed her.
• Hors crouched very quietly next to the pyramid until Beatrice tripped over him.
• Fleeing again from the statue, Beatrice fell over Vashalla and Raylene, who began making their way along the wall towards the pyramid.
• Hearing Hors below him, Lisri let down the rope so the fighter could climb up.
• Hearing Raylene, Beatrice, and Vashalla whisper as they crawled along below him, Lisri again let down the rope and drew them up.
• After stumbling around for a few more rounds in the dark, the statue of Set found its way out and left.

After resting in the Rope Trick, the party descended once more. The inpenetrable dark was long gone. Beatrice cast Dispel Magic on the cage and the silence disappeared and removed the curse on the puppy, which turned into a mature Bronze Dragon named Murkaganth. The dragon began to leave, to seek his ancient foes and slay them, but the party chatted with him for a bit and then followed him on his quest.

Murkaganth descended to the second level and killed Jocko the Hill Giant with lightning breath. He then headed north. The party picked up the jug of wine and 1,000 gp the giants had been gaming with. After being stymied by a wall of fire, the dragon and the party slaughtered a group of silent priests. Finding themselves in known territory, the party convinced Murkaganth to accompany them to the White Tower, where Holomir might be able to help direct the dragon to his foes.

Upon reaching Holomir, there was much rejoicing and sharing of stories. Raylene wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, but Vashalla and Vastavaar embraced each other with tears of joy, and Holomir listened sympathetically to Murkaganth’s tale of woe and his desire for vengeance. He told the dragon what he could and with that, the dragon rushed back into the dungeon to kill the Set worshippers.

After hearing of the party’s actions through Murkaganth and Vashalla (who was, after all, a cleric of Mitra), Holomir welcomed them into the White Tower. The party descended to the second level to the mess, ate well, and rested nearby for three days before meeting three Lammasu who explained the origin of the conflict between the towers of Mitra and Set. Vashalla prayed in the Chapel of Mitra, which activated her Mace of Mitra and connected her to Helson the Bold, Lion of Mitra. Hors got some disapproving glares from the Lammasus when he described the upcoming murder of the villagers, giggling with pleasure as he did so.

And there we ended for the night. The party will decide next time whether to descend further into the White Tower or to ascend to the village and take their vengeance.

Making Digital Miniatures

I’ve always preferred miniatures to tokens, so I make my own digital miniatures. I’m sharing my current method for doing that here. Hope you find it useful!

First, find a cool mini. I’m currently running an adventure in Faerie, so I looked for a female dwarf fighter in plate mail. Otherworld Miniatures has a great one. There are several photos of it. I picked the one at Tabletop Empires because it had a light background that would be easy to remove. After I cropped it down close to the figure, it looked like this:

Then I deleted everything but the figure. I sized the eraser function to 15 pixels for the rough deletions and then went down to 3 pixels for the detail work. This one was pretty easy. I often have to draw legs or other parts that are hidden by grass or other minis. And if someone is holding a sword high, I have to chop off the arm and separate it from the sword, and then add it in a different pose using layers. But the dwarf looked like this when cleaned up:

I checked the size, and it was 266×230 pixels, at a resolution of 96 pixels per inch. I trimmed off some of the blank space until it was square (230×230) and switched the resolution to 120 pixels per inch, which I use for all my minis. Then I resized it down to 200×200 (human sized). It then looked like this:

Next, I selected the entire image (CONTROL-A), cut it (CONTROL-X), then pasted again (CONTROL-V) and then resized it down to what I thought was appropriate dwarf size by holding the SHIFT key while moving one of the corners inward. I moved the figure to the bottom of the square, so that it would look like it was on the same ground as the humans and other figures. It now looked like this:

Next I played with the Brightness and Contrast (I generally increase contrast) and then used the Color Mixer to intensify the colors, especially the yellow (dwarves should have lots of gold). The red got a bit bright, so I reduced that. It now looked like this:

Finally, I went to Effects and selected Object, then Outline Object, setting the radius for 3, the intensity for 5, and the color to white. I added a layer of black behind it to see if I had missed any spots during the deletion. Those missed spots will show up a white ball that will need to be deleted. With the black surround, it looked like this:

So, four tiny spots of white, the biggest one above the forehead. I deleted those, then deleted the black layer, and then saved it as a PNG. Then it looked like this:

I hope this helps you in making your digital minis. There’s a ton of mini photos out there, and turning them into digital images can take a lot of time. I like it, but I still buy the paper minis from Arcknight for my face-to-face games. Good luck!

Navah: The Third Squad of the Glorious Guard arrives

Abrameowlin and Malian were considering what to do about the medusa when they were joined by a squad of the Glorious Guard. The Guard was seeking Harrison McPherson II, a Shadowlord of ill repute. The duo assumed they meant Cipher and reported him dead. The Guard could have left then, but joined the two to adventure in the dungeon for some unknown reason.

The party soon encountered butterfly pouka who had been cruelly pinned to a wall. As they removed the four giant pins, a demonic, eighteen foot tall squirrel with wings and duck feet came to investigate. The griffon had become quite cautious in his time with the party and fled immediately, as did Melian. The Glorious Guard was less cautious, especially Titan, a hugely thewed tiny man who faced the demon bravely and was pulped in an instant. To Morrow, a rather stupid Wee Person, then wandered into the combat zone and met a similar fate. Melian cast Domination/Sleep successfully, so Abrameowlin leapt on it, tearing one of its feet to bits and leaving a nasty scratch on its face. The demon started waking up. Melian tried Sleep again but failed, and Fifi (the Wee Folk mage) tried both Sleep and Fear and failed as well. However, Bluebird (the Guard Leader) remembered that this particular demon (a Wolpertinger) had a great weakness for peanuts, and the party ran back to the ever-renewing feasting table to search for them. The butterfly pouka (named Chamion) followed.

They found the table provided mixed nuts, so they gathered all the peanuts they could while the griffon ate the Brazil nuts and cashews. There was a great deal of planning, discussion, and of course arguing, so Chamion slipped out the exit and went up to play in the lovely gardens of Makkon’s Tower. Melian also found a bottle near the exit labeled, “Drink me and Leave,” which they immediately ignored. When they had enough peanuts (200 lbs of them), they returned and fed the demon, who was greatly sated and soothed.

They then passed through the room and found a Fungus Forest, unfortunately with a Deathblast Shroom that made investigation there unwise. They passed on and found some empty rooms, and gave up on that area.

Instead, they backtracked and tried another door, which led to pools of water scarred by scratches of some heavy object. They tracked the scratches to a room occupied by a large golem, identified by Bluebird. They wisely did not enter the room and instead left the golem in peace.

They then headed to the northeast, where they found first the throne room of the wizard Terezini and then his secret lair, in which a mummified Terezini still sat at his study table. There they found 2,000 s., two focus crystals, a golden circlet, and a leather harness of questionable taste. They almost threw away the last, but Melian reluctantly kept the apparent fetish. They also found The Illustrious Autobiography of Kravener of Lerann, his travels, exploits, and spiritual conquests, written in Wizard’s Tongue, which Fifi claimed.

They then investigated the room near the exit against which the poukas had warned. Sirjames (a Wee Knight) was selected to explore the small art gallery they had discovered, and the griffon was able to hear his wee screams when he disappeared. They closed the door.

Next, they decided to explore the bottom of the crevasse. Xzasian (a Wee Bard) created a tunnel to the bottom and entered, never to be seen again. Abrameowlin agreed to lower Melian into the crevasse, but then failed his roll and dropped her. He then made his Acrobatics roll and managed to save her before she splashed down. He was about to lower her gently to the bottom, but she screamed for him to fly her out, as she had discovered that the rushing water sound at the bottom was created by an enormous goo, a sort of giant amoeba, which had eaten Xzasian.

After two weeks of searching for other exits, Fifi finished reading the book and increased her Spiritology skill +2 (making it now 2!) and found truenames for a mermaid, an air elemental (M6), and a rabbit pouka named Jerper. The golden circlet turned out to be a Circlet of Eyes, giving +4 to Sense rolls. None of this helped the party in their quest to escape. Bluebird and Fifi decided to create a tunnel to get out and seek help, but found that they could not tunnel out of the dungeon. They were flummoxed. Melian finally tried on the repulsive harness and discovered it was a flying harness. She could fly herself and the two surviving members of the Glorious Guard out of the dungeon. She then fed the griffon the contents of the bottle they had found, which shrunk him to six inches long. After a certain amount of taunting by the Wee Folk, they all flew out together.

541 CY, Mashulamanee, Lesser Son of Set

The party continues their search for the entrance of the White Tower and the protection of Holomir.

Faced by 30 skeletons (including 5 in plate mail) and 8 zombies, the party looked to the clerics. Vashalla turned some of each, while Eric destroyed some of each. But that still left a lot for the weakened fighters to cut through. Virdonitii the monk executed a beautiful jump spin kick followed by an excellent spearhand, but then was knocked unconscious and pulled to safety by Lisri, who spent most of the evening hiding at the rear. With Beatrice healing the fighters, the party managed to destroy the remaining undead, but it took so long the turned creatures came ravening back. Eric destroyed the zombies and the last skeleton was destroyed by Hors. Eric and Vashalla put on the skeleton’s platemail, which was too big for them and was worth only AC4 without a shield.

The party then had three ways to go.

One was a room with guards who looked at them but did not advance. Rary’s Mindscan did little but reveal the guard Jornell’s lovelife and reveal that there were multiple guards. The greatly weakened party decided not to enter.

There was a wall of fog that seemed passable, but the party put that down for later.

Raylene advanced down the third choice, a corridor that led to two more skeletons. She led them back to the party and the clerics tried to turn them. It should have worked, but no dice. To make matters worse, the skeletons had to take at least 8 hp or they split into two skeletons. The party had 5 skeletons when they made their dash for the fog. Thankfully, the skeletons did not follow but returned to their chamber.

Another wall of fog stopped the party from going further. In fact, they rested for about a full day, recovering hitpoints through many healing spells. At last they were ready to advance and entered the next room, where a chest of gems awaited. Beatrice took 4 crossbow bolts from the trap, and they discovered that the gems had a tendency to explode and deal damage. Not good. The party left them and tried to move on, but discovered that the next wall was not open to some of them (probably because of alignments). Eric was sent forth as the most lawful good of them, and he advanced through the next two rooms and returned with over 4,000 gp and a lion-headed mace, which he gave to Vashalla.

Emboldened, the party attacked the skeletons again. By the time they fled to the fog again, there were eight of the skeletons and Virdonitii was unconscious again. They healed and then began resting, but only made it eight hours before Mashulamanee, Lesser Son of Set, entered the room and attacked. Mashulamanee was a lizard, with four pairs of human arms wielding weapons and shields. Only Lisri and Hors were awake, so the monstrosity quickly knocked Virdonitii and Vashalla unconscious. Lisri retreated to the north, looking for secret exits. Luckily for the party, he found none, and he had forgotten he still had Rope Trick. Beatrice cast a Wall of Fire that damaged the monster and immolated Virdonitii. Oops. The creature turned to a mist and floated north past the wall, then came back and attacked again. Only magic weapons could affect the creature, so Lisri ordered everyone to retreat so he could cast Ice Storm with his Wand of Frost. They did so, and he cast two storms in a row. Mashulamanee saved versus Beatrice’s Wand of Paralysis twice and then turned to kill Lisri, who survived the initial assault and then got off a Cone of Cold that froze the monster. Mashulamanee no doubt regretted his overconfidence (he had not used any of his spells) as the rest of the party jumped on him and smashed him to bits.

Breathing heavily, the party healed Vashalla and conferred on what to do next. Both clerics now had experience to go up a level.