Three Magical Items

Pouch of Concealment

Twisting the jewel clasp of this pouch in a particular pattern creates an illusory double of the pouch’s contents at that moment.  This illusion will persist even if the contents are removed or other items are added.  The illusion is all that can be seen if the pouch is opened, and a save is granted only if an item is placed into the pouch or it is reached into (Intelligence Save DC12).  Twisting the clasp again will dispel the illusion.

Crossbow of Illumination

Bolts glow brightly for one hour after being fired from this crossbow, shedding bright light in a 20’ radius and dim light for an additional 20’.

Quarterstaff of Pain

This staff does not do real damage, but on a successful hit causes intense hallucinatory pain, requiring a CON save at DC = unmodified attack roll to take any action the following round except writhe in pain.  If the save is failed by 2 or more the victim also drops prone to the ground.

All Art By Moi

Three Scrolls

1. Scroll of Release: Reading this scroll aloud unlocks all non-magical locks and unties all knots within a 10’ radius.  The magic consumes the scroll.

2. Scroll of Judgement: Reading this scroll aloud causes all within earshot to believe that a declared target is guilty of a specified crime (Save DC BLANKITY).  A new save is allowed each time new evidence is brought forward that exonerates the target.  The scroll can only be used once, but anyone who has failed the save will believe the scroll to contain damning evidence upon examination.  Anyone who makes the save sees the used scroll as completely blank.

3. Scroll of Temporal Passage: Up to five willing targets are transported forward in time exactly 12 hours, reappearing in exactly the same spot (or displaced the shortest possible distance if something is now blocking that spot).  No time elapses from the perspective of the temporal passengers.  The scroll disappears after use only to reappear in the same place in 1d100 days.  It can be used repeatedly.

Scroll by Moi

White Water Wyrm and Wyrmlings

[creatures and text by Lee Reynoldson from Fungus Forest, art by moi]

White Water Wyrm A thirty-foot long beast with huge bulging eyes that are perfectly adapted to the darkness of its cave and its waters. It has rubbery white flesh, proto-gills and lungs, diminutive fins and semi-functional limbs. It secretes an oily substance that paralyses those that come into contact with its skin (Saving Throw at -1 penalty to avoid paralysis for 3d6 turns) or are exposed to the water around it (Saving Throw each round at +1 bonus to avoid paralysis for 2d6 rounds). It is also asexual and without another of its species gives birth to batches of White Wyrmlings.  It feeds on its own young, forcing the Wyrmlings to flee the lake and inhabit the underground river system. It is a dangerous predator in the water, but it can, and does, waddle onto land from time to time. White Wyrmlings Offspring of the White Water Wyrm. These vile looking things resemble aquatic tapeworms with teeth. They thrash about a single victim in a swarm. Anyone who succumbs to the paralyzing poison that seeps from the Wyrmlings' skin or from their bites will be eaten. If they are successful in paralyzing a victim, they will devour him in just four combat rounds. If left to feed they will not attack anyone else. If the party tries to rescue their paralyzed comrade the swarm will retaliate. If a swarm is reduced to four or less HP it will swim away.

White Water Wyrm AC: 3 [16] HD: 5 (24 HP) Move: 4; 16 Swim Attacks: 1 Bite (2d6) Save: 16 Special: Immune to poison; Secretes poison (on contact: -1 to Save, paralyzed 3d6 turns; in water: +1 to Save, paralyzed 2d6 rounds) XP: 600

White Wyrmling Swarm AC: 9 [10] HD: 2 (9 HP) Move: 12 Swim Attacks: 1 Swarm Frenzy (Poison) Save: 18 Special: Poison (Save or paralyzed for 2d6 rounds); Devour paralyzed victim in 4 rounds; Immune to poison XP: 50

The Fungus Forest is an old-school adventure location suitable for low level play, available at DriveThruRPG as a pay-what-you-want .PDF (please download it for free if you can't afford to contribute anything, we want this in the hands of gamers!).  

Fungus Forest (C)2016 by Lee Reynoldson and Carl Nash

Tusked Demon Mask of the Phoenix Society

This mask was fashioned from the flayed face of a minor demon lord named Anshagali whose soul was bound into the artifact during its making.  The mask has been owned by the Phoenix Society for generations, and is associated with dance regalia of that society including a magnificent cape of purple and green iridescent feathers trimmed with red fox fur (Cape of Speed x2 Movement, +1 Attack) and a woven porcupine-quill chest piece beaded with a radiating geometric sunburst pattern (Chest Piece of Defense AC 2 [17]).

The mask is only worn by the mentally and physically strongest warriors during the private dance ceremonies of the society, particularly at the ceremonies marking initiation into a deeper level of the society, but its existence is well known throughout the tribe because of the tell-tale glowing red eyes of the society members who have worn it.  These warriors are known as the Ashes of the Phoenix and must swear a lifetime vow of celibacy and ascetic living before donning the mask.  Anshagali longs to be freed from the control of the Phoenix Society and constantly whispers in the minds of those unfortunate souls bound to him through chains of ancestral history to steal him from the Phoenix Society House away into the jungle.

Tusked Demon Mask by Emma Nash, Photoshop flames by Carl Nash

Anyone who dons the mask even once gains permanent darkvision to 180' as well as eyes that always glow red in the dark with the strength of a candle (Remove Curse will reverse both conditions).  When the sun is down Anshagali can communicate telepathically with everyone who has ever worn the mask and any of their descendants born after the mask was worn  (nothing short of divine intervention can prevent this).  A strict diet of fish and bland starchy vegetables (no fruits, nothing spicy, no red meat) reduces the volume of Anshagali's whispers to a low murmuring that can be easily ignored.

While wearing the mask, Anshagali grants +2 to STR and DEX, immunity to fire/heat (although cold and water do double damage), and a natural bite and tusk attack for 1d8+2 damage +ongoing 2 HP damage until magical cure or Remove Curse.  All damage dealt by the bite attack (including ongoing) accumulates as charges for the mask on a 1 HP = 1 Charge basis (charges reset with each new wearer).  Charges can be spent as follows:
1 Charge: +1d6 fire damage to any attack (maximum +3d6 to a single attack)
1 Charge: +1 to hit on any attack roll (maximum +3 to a single attack)
5 Charges: 30' cone of fire, 15' wide at apex, bursts from the mask's mouth (5d6, Save for 1/2)
10 Charges: Bursts of fire from the eyes, 100' range, 5d6 (no save)
10 Charges (must be night time): Anshagali Possession - become the fiery incarnation of the imprisoned demon soul for 2d6 rounds.  The body of the mask-wearer completely disappears and is replaced with a hovering ball of fire that crackles around the mask.  The mask wearer gains 50 temporary HP but takes 1d6 damage per round of the possession that is removed from the permanent HP pool.  Instant death results if this damage reduces HP to 0, and the physical body never reappears in this case (completely consumed by the mask).  If the temporary HP are exhausted by attacks or a cumulative total of 25 HP cold or water damage are received, the possession is ended instantly.

While possessed by Anshagali the following attacks can be made (choose one per turn):  Fire Lash x2 attacks, 25' range, 3d6 fire damage and pull/slide the victim up to 10', Save to avoid being knocked prone; Flame Burst 15' radius blast centered on mask, 5d6 (Save for 1/2) and pushed back 10', and knocked prone if Save failed; Fire Sword 5d12 melee
At Will Spell-Like Abilities: Teleport (180' distance max, line of sight to destination required, no chance of failure); Knock/Open Lock; Major Illusion (concentration required to maintain); Silence 15' Radius; Telepathy (180' range);
Once per Possession: Death Gaze, Save or Die, 180' range

A Save is required at the end of the possession, failure allowing Anshagali to posses the individual once a day at any range for 2d6 rounds, during which time Anshagali is in complete control.  A new save is permitted at the end of each day that Anshagli does take active possession, at a cumulative -1 penalty after each subsequent failed save.

Anshagali has INT 17 WIS 9 CHA 20

Anshagali was never the cautious calculated sort as a demon lord and has only grown more impatient and reckless as an artifact mask.

Fungus Forest (upcoming release)

I am getting close to releasing a product that started kicking and clawing its way to freedom way back in 2009.  I drew a map for the now defunct megadungeon.net project and Lee Reynoldson made an awesome key for the map.  We have kicked around the idea of publishing it in a few different forms over the years but in 2016 the stars aligned and I finally got off my butt and started tackling the editing, art and layout.  Several intensive weeks of work later, we are so close I can taste it!

This is a big project; there are over 100 keyed locations on the map, with 101 unique key entries (some entries covering multiple caves).  Lee wrote a really terrific text for low-level play; each of the Fey factions that live in the magical Fungus Forest will try to pit the party against their rival Fey factions.  Every creature in the Fungus Forest is a unique creation of Lee's (which is a big selling point in my opinion); the Bestiary in the appendices contains nearly 40 new creatures.  And of course, there are tons and tons of magical mushrooms.  You can never have too many magic mushrooms.  It took a LOT of editing work to get the sprawling original 60 page Google Document print-ready, from making sure all stat blocks and abbreviations were standardized to compiling the appendices and of course going over the text with a fine-toothed grammar comb.

I also wanted to make individual quadrant maps in addition to the main overview map, and of course I wanted more art than the couple few monster pictures I drew... so I talked my wife into doodling some awesome mushroom sketches in pen and ink, which I am coloring in PhotoShop.

On top of that, it turns out that doing interior layout is WAY more time consuming than I ever imagined.  I have learned a ton about Adobe InDesign throughout this process and I am very pleased with the way things are shaping up.  A few sample spreads (not necessarily final layout but probably pretty close on these particular pages):

Gorilla Art

I recently finished a fun piece of commissioned art, depicting an Experimental Ape from Michael Curtis' upcoming Stonehell 2.  I drew the Ogre Face Arch (the image on the Stonehell tee-shirts) and Coal the Black Bear in the original Stonehell Dungeon, and was very happy to oblige Michael with a new piece.  I never spend any time on artwork unless I have some specific project motivating me, but I always enjoy the hours spent when I do pick up pen and lay it to paper.  I ended up using kind of an unusual technique in this drawing, so I wanted to post about the process here.

I looked over the list of potential illustrations and "Albino Apes with Cybernetic Type Implants" caught my eye.  I introduced bionic chimps and orangutans into my Mutant Future campaign (War Chimps and Warangutans) and they were a big hit with my players.  I have had soft spot for great apes with cybernetic implants ever since. Once I claimed that picture as mine, Michael sent me the following details:

"Experimental apes are double-sized albino gorillas that have two additional arcanitech arms grafted to their bodies below their natural upper limbs. These magical/mechanical arms possess great strength (equal to that of an ogre). These arms also deliver a powerful electrical shock. Any target struck by either of the arcanitech limbs must make a save vs. spells or suffer an additional 1d8 points of damage. Experimental apes are conditioned to be fiercely loyal to the Plated Mage and the Mage-Engineers, and seldom flee from combat. Attempts to charm them rarely succeed and experimental apes gain a +4 bonus to all saving throws against mental domination."

This presented an interesting challenge to me, as the easiest way to depict something as albino is to show it in bright light as mostly white, but I wanted to do a more shadowy drawing since the apes would be encountered underground in a dungeon environment.  I first did a few gorilla studies to get in the mood and shake off any rust from my art muscles.

I wanted to use pen and ink but kept struggling with the fact that I really would need a nice white ink pen and dark paper to draw the image I saw in my head.  Then I hit on the idea of drawing the image with black ink on white paper and reversing it in PhotoShop.  I reversed the larger sketch I had done so far as a quick proof of concept.  Of course the image looks like a negative because the shadowing is in reverse (particularly obvious in the face), but I mostly wanted to see how the fur/hair looked and I liked the effect:

To avoid the appearance of a negative image once I reversed my final piece, I wanted to create a negative image to use as a reference point for my original drawing.  In other words, I would draw a negative image in the first place, so when it was reversed the shading would be correct but all the pen work would be white and the background would be black.  I spent some time collecting various pictures of gorillas, standing gorillas, crouching gorillas, leaping gorillas.  The whole time I was looking for a good reference picture that I could easily insert bionic arms onto, which made the choice a bit more difficult.  I finally settled on an action shot to use as a reference image for the drawing that looks like the gorilla just took a swat at something:

One slight stumbling block was that the left arm of this gorilla was cut off; I could have just winged it, but at this point I had such a large collection of gorilla images that I picked a different image of a different gorilla with its left arm out in a similar fashion and literally just Photoshopped the other gorillas arm over the arm in this picture.  Here is the 2nd gorilla image I used for its left arm:

Next I added a second set of arms by copying the first set of arms, rotating them and moving them down below the armpit.  Then I turned the image into a negative to use as a reference while drawing.  Here is the resulting negative image of a four armed gorilla:

I printed this out, and drawing directly onto the print out, I transformed the lower set of arms into robot arms and added some bionic parts to the torso.  This printout is what I used as a reference while drawing the final image:

My purpose in using a negative reference image while drawing with black ink on white paper was that I would be able to scan and create a negative image of my final drawing; this way the inked fur of the gorilla would be white instead of black.  I hoped this would create the albino effect I was looking for while still allowing me to draw a mostly shadowy, low lit image.  So in other words, I went to some great lengths because I didn't have a good white ink pen and black paper!  My plan was to only reverse the image of the ape itself and leave the robotic arms the way I drew them, since I didn't have a negative reference image for them and also because I thought it would be an easy way to make the metal arms stick out as different from the rest of the ape.  After some work on the drawing I scanned it in to reverse it and see how the process was working - I immediately realized the image I had chosen as a reference image was too shadowed to create an obviously albino ape even if the fur cross-hatching itself was white.  The shadowed areas of the ape were just too dark and made it seem like a normal ape with a bright light shining on some of its fur:

I ended up adding a lot more fur detail than was visible in the original reference image in the chest, stomach and rear leg. I went back in with a pencil in addition to the pen, to lighten up the ape in relation to the background.  Even the most shadowy areas got at least some light pencil fur added.  Several times I called it done, scanned it in and reversed it and decided I still needed to add even more pen and pencil work.  Finally, I decided I had done all I could do and was running the risk of muddying up things if I kept adding more fur.  I added some more pencil shading to the robot arms and scanned it one more time to reverse it and do some more touch up work in Photoshop.  For reference, here is the original (un-reversed) scan of the final drawing and then the reversed image at that point.  I found it very interesting how the entire time I was drawing from the negative image the head just didn't look right, but the second I reversed it, it looked awesome!  My mind had a hard time looking at the original (unreversed) drawing and processing where the eyes were I think.  I just had to trust that I was following an actual negative photo of a gorilla face and as long as I faithfully shadowed where I saw shadow everything would work out okay once I reversed the image.

Original *unreversed* Drawing (pen and pencil)

Negative of the final drawing - before separating the bionic arms out and leaving them unreversed

I carefully went in and selected just the bionic arms to put them in a separate layer of the Photoshop document and leave them un-reversed.  this also allowed me to use a Photoshop effect (Outer Glow) to make it look like the arms were glowing - I was hoping this would evoke the electric shock they could deliver.  I also fixed up the feet and left hand a bit in photoshop since I was unhappy with the way they looked when scanned in (I had made the mistake of drawing an outline around the feet in pen which ended up being a glowing white edge around the toes, and the shading I had done on the left hand I was never happy with).  Finally, I had to figure out what to do about a background.  I didn't really have the time to draw a background (my wife and I recently had our first child, and between working ~55 hours a week and spending as much time with baby Leo as I can, I really don't have any "free" time these days) so I played around with some different things in Photoshop.  I added a gradient to suggest a surface at the bottom, and played around with different ways to crop the image.  I settled on a black circle around the ape, with a slight gradient to gray toward the bottom right, and the ape itself protruding past the background in places to suggest that it was coming out of the page at the viewer.  I know this is kind of cheesy but as soon as I tried it out I really liked the effect it had in this case.  Ultimately I probably didn't save any time versus drawing in a background by hand onto the original drawing and rescanning, because to add the photoshop background I had to carefully carve the entire image out of the black background so it could be on a separate layer from the circle gradient (otherwise I couldn't add the gradient and have the ape look like it was standing on top of it).  This took quite a while as I didn't want it to be a sloppy select job.  I had to go in pixel by pixel in some cases to remove everything except the ink strokes I wanted to keep around the edges.

I have to say though that I am very pleased with the end result - and I can't wait for Stonehell 2 to come out!  Maybe some of you will get to sick one of these bad boys on your players (or meet an untimely demise at their robotic hands if you play on the other side of the DM's screen!).  Final image:

Experimental Ape - Carl Nash 2015 - Pen, Pencil & Photoshop

Carl's Creatures pt.3 - Temple Toad Temon

This is your garden variety six legged toad demon bred by were-toad cultists in the mutating energy of the Huwawa complex.  It is large enough to swallow a man whole or carry two riders if specially constructed saddles are used.

pen and ink by moi

I am going to try statting up one of my 4e creatures in a more old school D&D style here:

Temple Toad Demon

MV: 12 (15' vertical 40' broad jump)
HD:11d8+15
AC: 3 (blessed weapons do normal damage; holy water deals 1d8; 1/2 damage magical weapons, fire and acid; immune to normal weapons, cold, charm, sleep, paralysis, lightning)
MR: 50%
THAC0: 9 (or as a 14 HD creature)
Attacks:  Kick 2d12 (can kick two targets simultaneously if both are behind the toad); Bite 2d12+10 (swallows man sized or smaller targets whole on 25+ dmg - swallowed victims take 4d6+10 acid damage each round, can only use small weapons and do 1/2 normal damage to the toad); Tongue (range 35') +4 to hit; target is pulled to the toad which makes a free bite attack at +5 damage)

Special:
Temple Toad Demons are partially obscured by thick noxious fumes which constantly spill from popping blisters and warts on the toad demon's skin.  Unless holding their breath, attackers in melee range suffer -2 to hit and damage.  At the end of any round that these fumes are breathed a save vs poison must be made or the victim is dazed for 1d4 rounds and cannot take any actions beyond falling to her knees (and retching if a Constitution check is failed).

Stat My Wife's Dinosaurs

My wife doodled some dinosaurs (and a crocodile and pterosaur) at work and I saw the page of doodles laying around.  I asked her if I could post them on this blog and she acquiesced.

Non-commercial rights granted to use these drawings in your personal game.  If you want to stat up and name any of these critters on your own blog, feel free... provided you comment here with the link.  I think Dinosaur 9 could be a magic using dino-assassin turning un-invisible after the attack, or perhaps a chameleon dino mid-paper emulation.  But that's just me.

Emma's Dinosaurs (and a crocodile and a pterosaur)

- All Commercial Rights Reserved - Emma Nash 2013 Pen and Ink - 

Dinosaur 1

Dinosaur 2

Dinosaur 3

Dinosaur 4

Dinosaur 5

Dinosaur 6

Dinosaur 7

Dinosaur 8

Dinosaur 9

Crocodile 1

Pterosaur 1

Dreamscape

I still intend to write another post about the conclusion of Tilia's journey through a constructed dreamland to wake up six slumbering liches, but for now I am just going to post a page out of my session notes.  This is the "wicked awesome drawing" Tilia's player Mike referred to in his guest post about the first dream session.  It gave me a loose structure for my prep work for the dream and helped set the mood nicely at the table.  I intend to post more of my session notes because a lot of them are crazy artifacts in their own rights.

Orcish Lowlands - Giant Horned Lizard

The Giant Horned Lizard, despite its impressive appearance, is mostly insectivorous and uses its long sticky tongue to pull the large beetles and flies that swarm around the hot sulfur pools in the lowlands into its small mouth.  It is roughly the same body mass as an American Bison (buffalo) but stands taller on its long legs.

If threatened, it will aggressively respond by charging and head butting its opponent with its vicious spikes, then bludgeon with its spiked tail and attempt to finish off the unfortunate victim with a trample attack.

The Giant Horned Lizard is the favored mount of the Grey Orcs.  Only the elite soldiers of the Grey Orc hordes receive the necessary training to control the spiky mount, but those that have mastered the art can ride across the lowlands without fearing the everpresent Ochoka bushes (which bounce harmlessly off the spiky hide of the lizards).

Speed: 40' (movement: 160')
HD:5d8+15
AC:17 (2)
Head Butt or Tail Swipe= 1d10+6 damage (if charging, the head butt does triple damage on an attack roll of a natural 19 or 20)
Trample= 1d12+6 damage
All at +6 to hit (or using the 7 HD monster attack chart)

It has a powerful bite but its small mouth only allows it to use this form of attack on creatures that are small (Hobbit sized, say, or smaller) - Bite: 2d8+6, and tongue has a 15' reach and can pull victims in for an automatic bite if the tongue hits (tongue attacks at +8, or an additional +2 to hit on top of the 7 HD monster chart)

Awesome Hill Orc Illustration - thanks Eli!

A great illustration of blogging synergy:  I recently posted a snippet of my old 3.5 campaign as part of my ongoing Orcish Lowlands series - the Hill Orc. This post has since inspired my friend (and Labyrinth Lord of the kick-ass Labyrinth Lord game that I am a player in) Carter (of "Carter's Cartopia") to stat up Hill Orcs for Labyrinth Lord.  His post, in turn, led Eli Arndt (of "I See Lead People", back to my original post.  He was inspired by the Hill Orcs and drew a kick ass illustration of one!  As anyone who has run into a Hill Orc would know, they wear floppy wide-brimmed hats and striped kilts and fight with wicked polearms.  Eli has captured this perfectly:

As my original illustration was of the "for the DM's eyes only" variety that I often whip out in a few seconds to remind myself of key points at a glance, I am very glad to have this much more detailed illustration of my concept.

Thanks Eli!

And thanks to Carter as well, for the Labyrinth Lord stats and the link back to my original post!

Ain't this blogging thing grand?

Battle Map Doodles

Just some critters I doodled on the battlemap using the dry erase markers.  Not the most forgiving of mediums, but I kind of like the results none the less.  The snake seems to be a little concerned about the battle axe emerging from its tail - "Dude!  What happened to my rattle!  Damn those wizards..."

This beholder seems a little too happy... where's the visine... this might be one of the infamous Beholder Blunt Lords:

And the happy couple together at last:

And there you have it, folks!  Battlemap Doodles!

Dragon and Knight

This is a drawing I scrawled on some purple paper a while back at my girlfriend's sister's house.  I drew it because her sister loves dragons, so I left the original there and snapped a (very low resolution) picture of it with my cell phone.  I just found the cell phone pic today as I was transferring stuff from my old phone onto my computer, and thought it was worth posting.

I really like the blue face in the hillside behind the dragon; I think this would make a good location in a dream plane in an RPG... which gives me an idea for the next time my Mutant Future players use their Plane Shift mutation!

Art - Fallen Angel

This is an old unfinished piece of mine, and one that is much the worse for wear.  There are several tears in the page and, as I am wont to do, I had not planned out what I was drawing when I started so one of his wings ended up being drawn on the tear-away left margin of the page which has since been mostly lost.  I think I drew this in 2001 or 2002.



Regardless of its condition, this is a good example of a style of drawing I was doing a lot of back then where there was one large image as the focus of the drawing with a lot of other creatures and faces stuffed into the larger image.

I made up an intricate story about this piece as I was drawing it, and I think it would work well in an RPG.

This is a fallen angel, as you can tell by the scenes depicted in his intact left wing.  You have a fiery Satan-type face looking down as the sun burns the fallen angel for the first time after his fall, with the eye of God winking out of existence next to the outcast.  Then you have the descent into hell below.  The fallen angel himself has had his skin burnt off through this ordeal, which you can easily see in his face, and it is really unfortunate that not much survives of his right wing because it was probably my favorite part of the drawing; it was a really disturbing looking wing melted right down to the bone (I am glad that the monkey head survived at least at the bottom of this wing).  


The cool part is that this fallen angel is a walking portal, or to be exact, several portals.  Each of the creatures and faces that decorate his body are alive and can use his body to access the prime material plane - for instance, his right pectoral muscle has been transformed into a portal to a layer of the abyss ruled by a slime demon, whose head you can see melding into the melted wing. The green face with yellow eyes and big ears is a trickster lord of the forest, a sort of cat-goblin hybrid who is not truly evil at heart but loves playing pranks.  There is a demon bee type creature that forms part of the face of a gargoyle, and a little cat-faced pink worm (unfortunately a rip in the paper makes its face tough to make out) that curls over the gargoyle's shoulder.  Of course, our old dog Mali makes an appearance (may she rest in peace) and for some reason I included an Apatosaurus that is rearing up and over the green trickster's head.  The cloaked figure with the red eyes and blue face (on the left thigh of the fallen angel) is the unfathomable lord of time (perhaps he had something to do with the dinosaur making an appearance).  


Anyway, I like the idea of a giant fallen angel walking around, tormented by his decision to leave heaven and in agony from all the beings that use his body as a gateway to enter the world.  I think the slime demon on his right pec is my favorite surviving piece of the drawing, but the dinosaur making out with Mali the dog is a close second.

vine golem / wire robot

Just an old unfinished piece of mine. Looking at it today through the RPG lens I see a cool vine golem or wire robot. I imagine it having a body made up of hundreds more twisting strands. These strands can grasp a weapon that strikes its body, and a legion of little barbed jabbers will unfurl and make a pin cushion out of anything that gets too close.

This is my other blog.

By that I mean that I have been pouring my blogging energy into my Mutagenic Substances blog for half a year now, and in that time I have had a lot of non-Mutant Future ideas percolate to the top - this blog is my other blog, a place to post about everything else in my roleplaying life besides my ongoing Mutant Future campaign.

I want this blog to be a behind the screens look at my DMing process, in a way that my Mutant Future blog can not be because my players have full access to it. I will probably be featuring the mountain of material I scribbled and drew on reams of loose paper for my previous campaign, a D&D 3.5 homebrew for which I created a very detailed world.

I will also scan in and post a number of my older drawings and discuss their possible uses in an RPG (my drawings are often pretty surreal and could inspire cool demons and other-worldly locales).

I am kicking off the content with something I drew tonight - an early Christmas present to myself of sorts because I allowed myself the time to just sit down and doodle without a firm idea of what I was drawing. I had the guiding principle of "mutant" to work with and not much else when I lay the pen on the paper.

So welcome to my other blog, and enjoy your stay behind the screen.