[From the Mailbag] Bride of the Return of the Son of the Unboxing of Golarion

It's been a frustrating couple of weeks here at the Stronghold. Let me just say that, while being the ultimate boss at the Stronghold (finally) is something special, the fretting about taking care of all the families at the Stronghold is not quite so fun. You realize suddenly that everybody else's family needs to be cared for first, then your own family. And the minions here are great, but a bit expensive and irreplaceable. That adds to the stress and fretting on every level.

But payroll is done for another 2 weeks.

So, on to the fun stuff. Last weekend was a great mail weekend. I got home on Friday night from our monthly 3.5 game to find a hard copy of Dylan's Tombstones of Terror: Curse of the Sin Eater waiting for me. I've already posted my review of it, but I love sitting down and digging in to a physical hard copy. This one is one of my favorites, in part because yours truly is immortalized on the front cover.

Yep, I sure am.

If you look carefully on the tombstone peeking out from behind the eponymous gravestone, you'll see the letters: "-oric -uum" which are, of course, short for "Boric Glanduum." Michael Monaco, from Swords and Dorkery is interred on the other side so I'm in good company.

Then, on Saturday, I received an even better surprise in the mail. 

You'll remember I unboxed some free Pathfinder Minis. Well, I immediately turned around and ordered some singles; they came in. I picked up a couple more "Tooth Gang Knifers" because they make a pretty decent rogue or NPC thief/fighter/swashbuckler/ruffian figure. I also picked up a few of his common companion: the Tooth Gang Brute" for the same reason. He's a good street brawler/thug/ruffian back-up type. He wields a big club--either a steel bound wooden club or an big chunk of iron. Either way, you know he's got a high STR score and is just waiting to re-arrange a PC's features. Throw a group of both these guys together with a ringleader, and you've got a good fight on your hands.

Then I had to tickle my inner Lovecraft. Sheesh. That sure sounded better in my head. Wow. At any rate, I thought long and hard about getting this guy--the uncommon Moon Beast--and in the end finally talked myself into picking one up. I found a good price and he's not one that can easily use a stand-in. Of course, I'm not sure what I'm going to use him for...but that's beside the point. I have a lot of minis about whom I can say the same thing...but I'll have one (or more) of them when I need one.

Finally, having picked a Hodag out of the boxes earlier, I figured I may as well pick up the trifecta of real-world cryptoids offered by Paizo in this set. So, I shelled out a pile of shekels for the rare Mothman and an even bigger pile of shekels for the Large rare Jersey Sandpoint Devil. The Mothman is a neat little figure, though a bit delicate. OK, a LOT delicate. I'm not sure I have another mini quite as delicate as this one. The Sandpoint Devil, on the other hand, is a big mound of angry equine evil and too-sharp teeth.

Then, on Monday, the great brown delivery truck stopped by my house to drop off the final piece of my "free Pathfinder horde" collection: the Gargantuan unique Green Dragon. What a great figure. Dynamic pose and good paint job. I really like these "unique" Pathfinder offerings, although I don't like the idea that you have to buy an entire case to get one. (I suppose I shouldn't complain because (a) I didn't have to pay ANYTHING for this one and (b) I've managed to find the other figures elsewhere later without buying an entire case.) I have all of the offerings except for the Blue Dragon, which I thought to be a bit silly-looking frankly. This one however, is very nice. I don't believe it's actually a "gargantuan"--Paizo did a bit of "re-sizing" when they took over the pre-painted minis world. The old WotC Blue and Black dragons are true Gargantuan in my mind. This Green is somewhere between Huge and Gargantuan. It still looks brutal when put on the table facing a party of adventurers.

Which is exactly what I plan on doing. Soon.

Hope to have some real content here next week if the real-life Stronghold settles down a bit.