Do Dragons Shit in their Hoard? (Things you can't unthink)

I was recently treated to a surprise party and the cake was D&D themed. The main cake was a DM's Guide book upon which sat a dragon's hoard and a black dragon with eggs sleeping atop it. The hoard was created from chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil. When removing the hoard of coins from beneath the dragon, some of them were coated with bits of the caramel icing from the book cake below, and this got me thinking.

In the real world (you know, the crutch for people that can't handle fantasy) hibernating creatures do indeed defecate and urinate during their long sleep. In fantasy, dragons are said to sleep sometimes for centuries between rampages. While it doesn't really matter for telling stories it might be fun for DM's that like to gross-out, inconvenience, or otherwise poke fun at the players and their characters, to add dragon feces to the list of things found in a hibernating dragon's hoard.

While nearly all fantasy stories completely ignore the unclean aspects of reality, unless we're talking about Game of Thrones, it might be fun to explore how much more difficult for our adventurers these things can make recovering treasure from lairs. Over the dragon's lifetime it has accumulated wealth during each rampage and then hibernated upon the pile creating strata of secreted waste that a geologist could use to determine the age of the beast and maybe when each rampage began and ended. The collection of filthy lucre would have things glued together, stuff that is a challenge to identify, and would add weight and bulk to what is collected.

"You're trying to pay for a room at my inn using shit caked money?! Bunch o' fuckin' murder hobos, get out of my tavern!"

Admittedly, walking around with packs full of loot reeking of dragon waste may keep some creatures away from the party, it is just as likely to draw others to camp. "Do you want assassin bugs? 'cause that's how you get assassin bugs." Imagine crossing through another dragon's territory leaving a trail of scent along the way. Will the offended dragon follow the scent trail to the party or back to the rest of the hoard? If to the hoard, will it be there should the party return for more treasure, or maybe to the town where they carried the loot? The odor of dragon waste might make for an interesting problem to overcome.

If any reader has done this or does do something like this please come and comment a brief bit about how the players reacted. Hopefully it's some funny shit.

Prop Dusting - Toobs Horses

Finding horse miniatures to compliment the fantasy miniatures can be somewhat difficult at times. One solution is to look in children's toy stores for the Toob collections. They have tubes of animals, dinosaurs, etc. I was fortunate enough to find one just of various breeds of horses that work well with the 25mm miniatures.

Figures shown to illustrate how well these horses match the 25mm scale. Undead included because it is International Be Kind To The Un-Living Week (somewhere, maybe).

Ouch

I have been hit by a storm of pain this week. A cold with sore throat is the minor part of it. Neck and back pain with pain shooting down my legs, combined with intestinal cramping have really capped off a miserable week.

I had intended to finish building out the dungeon my group are presently exploring and writing up the latest bit of the game. No joy on that front.

To at least try to make up somewhat for the delay, here are some pictures of more of the structure.

Dwarven Forge Game Tiles Kickstarter 3

Just five days left until round three of "Doom To Your Wallet" gets underway.

On March 8th Stefan and the fine folks at Dwarven Forge launch their third Kickstarter. The previous two brought in two million each. It will be interesting to see how this one does with many people's wallets still smarting from last year. At least the DF guys time this for tax season so returns can be spent on their amazing terrain.

This year it looks to be city streets, sewers, roofs for the Medieval Building set, and maybe city wall sections. That's a lot of different themes in one go, so perhaps we're seeing some from this year and some from a future Kickstarter in the teasers on the Dwarven Forge forums.

Here are two images to wet your appetite.

Wait till you see the painted prototypes.

My main beef with what I see here is the raised edge in the sewer next to the walkway. In reality that would result in a submerged walkway covered in all sorts of nastiness and the gutter below only receiving overflow until the walkway became packed enough for waste to flow over and down where it belongs. I would prefer that edge to be flat and flush with the walkway. I guess it is a good thing that this is all made for fantasy gaming!

Gygax Magazine Issue #5

I contacted the publisher a while back asking about the expected release date for the 5th issue.

Michelle Weidman was kind enough to get back to me on December 15th and let me know that they are still working out production kinks. She stated that issue #5 was getting close to completion and that they hoped to have it out shortly after Christmas.

Michelle,
Thanks for letting me know this information. I'm hoping it will be arriving this week, because Christmas has slipped on by and January is over halfway gone.

I think it is important to state that I am a supporter of the magazine effort and have twice subscribed for a full year (issues 1-4, and 5-8).

Let's hope things will speed up during 2015.

Sincerely,
OSRbaron