[Inktober 2016] Day 20—Quirinklauth's Lair

Quirinklauth's Lair

(Key word: squeeze)

The Drake, Quirinklauth, has amassed a tremendous hoard of treasure in his cliff-top lair. Quirinklauth enters through a small cave that leads to a hole in the top of a one thousand-foot-high subterranean dome.

Other creatures must enter through the winding, narrow passageway; the passage is so narrow, in fact—sometimes narrowing to only a few feet—that human-sized creatures can only proceed at a fraction of normal speed. The passage is also, on average, only three- to four feet tall.

The hoard in the domed cavern is dozens of feet deep, and includes weapons, armor, gems, and coins, as well as art objects. The items are both mundane and magical

Reorganization and Reassembly

Just a quick thought for this morning. I know last night I said I was all keyed up and couldn't sleep. Then I promptly found something that helped relax me.

Something semi-mindless, routine, and mechanical. Something time-consuming.

After all, re-sorting a horde of used minis back into their appropriate (and cataloged) places after a multi-month gaming campaign takes a while.

This was about 1/4 of the complete ... MASS ... that we used at one time or another, and that I couldn't re-sort as we went along because, well, we might need them next session too. So, truly, the picture doesn't do the full pile full justice.

The best part was seeing my kids as they walked by the open door to my study (from the POV of the camera). Each one of them gasped, groaned, and said, "That's not for our game, is it?!?"

And that wasn't even when I had the GIANTS out either.

[cue evil laugh]

Or the dragons.

Once I was done, I was well and truly relaxed. Dropped right off. I think it was even better than my tranquilizers.

"Fun" vs. "Balance"

As I was thinking back upon last weekend's 3.x session, and reliving the sheer hopelessness of the situation with my (all-too tolerant) wife, one of my kids said, "Dad, that just doesn't seem fair that Uncle L would throw that at you." It was then that I realized--truly realized--for the first time that there was a generation gap in the definition of "fun."

Don't get me wrong: several of our former players ditched the group and dumped 3.x play in favor of 4E because, and I quote, "Third edition is broken; there's just no balance to some things." BALANCE became a four-letter word to our gaming group. Seriously, everything needed balance for these players. Challenge ratings had to beclosely monitored and followed TO THE LETTER. Everyone needed to receive a powerful magical item if one character received one. We were (nearly) always assured of a victory, knowing that the villain/foe would be BALANCED. After ten years of gaming together, the one time we didn't actually see "balance" was when the DM at the time decided to throw everything he had at us as a "I'm leaving and want to show you how broken 3.x is!" effort.

The fact is, it probably would have been fun if we hadn't been on the DM's personal railroad.

You see, to me (and to most of my group) fun does not necessarily equate to victory. Certainly not "certain victory." We've long accepted the fact that everything in the world doesn't scale with our character level. We're going to be handed tasks and missions that are WAY out of our league. "Running away" is as much of a part of role play as "kicking butt and taking names." You learn from each.

Picture from Exfanding Your Horizons
by Flashman85

Let me explain simply: Just because the DM puts a dragon in front of your characters, doesn't mean he's going to let you win. Period.

Look at the difference in size. Dragons are majestic. Unless you have a group of characters that are equally majestic (and not just egotistical) then "running away" should be considered a viable option. You can always regroup and come back later.

I'm not alone in this. Consider this quote from the author of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen (5E), Steve Winter:

A mistake (from my perspective) that many people seem to be making is assuming that every situation in D&D should be "fun." If my ambition is to have nonstop "fun," I'd be better off playing Lego Star Wars or Whack-a-Mole. D&D can also be thrilling, frightening, inspiring, maddening, depressing, frustrating, immensely gratifying -- name a reaction on the human emotional scale and there's probably a place for it in D&D. The match against Cyanwrath was never meant to be "fun." It was meant to trigger an emotional response -- anger, even hate, and a desire for revenge against the Cult of the Dragon. I haven't seen much to indicate that it isn't doing that.

Amen. Even "frustrating" D&D can be fun, if only in retrospect. Frightening or depressing? Yep, but they're still moments to reminisce about later.

And before I get called a hypocrite for saying these experiences can be edifying in nearly the same breath that I said the railroad campaign was not, let me point out a key difference: our responses, reactions, etc., were all scripted for us. We had no chance given to us to run away. (We even tried to, individually, commit character suicide at one point. It wasn't allowed because it wasn't in the script.)

Of course, thus is only my 2¢ worth. I realize there are as many ways of having fun as there are players. I'm not saying that this is BADFUN or WRONGPLAY...just that, I suppose, that younger players may have different expectations than an old Grognard. When you have some of each of those parties entering the same game, you mp (as DM) need to be aware, and should set forth your expectations regarding "balance" and "fairness" at your table.

New Minis: Praise and Complaints

So, a couple months ago, the Magic-users on the Beach jumped back into the miniature business. I knew that they were releasing a new miniature aerial combat game, but hadn't heard about the new randomized pre-painted plastics line. So imagine my surprise when I walked in to my FLGS back then and found them. Tyranny of Dragons no less. I bought a couple boxes, of course. I mean, scientific research purposes and all that.

Hey, don't look at me like that...I can stop buying minis whenever I want. I'm not addicted.

Really.

So, upon opening the two boxes I learned a couple of things that I want to share with you, just in case there's any of my readers who have NOT yet picked up a box of these for themselves.

First, I was shocked to realize that they are produced by WizKids/NECA, just like the Pathfinder pre-painted plastics are. I say shocked because (a) they're rival companies and it just seemed a little odd and (b) the quality is significantly lower than on the Paizo Pathfinder miniatures. No, I'm serious, the paint jobs are, for the most part, simply terrible. Let me give an example (although my camera with the macro function isn't working, and my cell phone isn't so hot at small close-ups).

This little beastie is a new sculpt of a wraith. They've prepped him up with the nice see-through plastic, tinted grey of course. Mantle streaming out behind it, nice pose, full of motion. They even put him on a post so that he appears to be hovering or flying along. Nearly everything would be perfect with this sculpt and make it a great addition to my collection.

Nearly everything...except for one thing: THE FACE.

Look at that face. THIS is the face they choose to strike terror into the hearts of the adventurers. Really?

And I know that it's not just WizKids' production issues, because dang...their Pathfinder minis have come a LONG way and they've refined the process. In fact, just this morning I deleted a draft post from a couple years ago complaining about the paint jobs in the first Pathfinder minis release.

This wraith looks like it came from the PRE-PRODUCTION runs of that first release.

And the guy who said, "Y'know, I think it looks GOOD with the 'faux-glowing-eyes-and-mouth' effect. Let's run with that paint scheme"? I have to wonder if he still has his job.

In fact, this wraith looks like something off of which the Scooby Gang is about to rip the mask.

And do I even need to go into the paint scheme on this Hobgoblin Fighter? There's four colors. Green on his chest plate. Red for his armor. Black for his hair and facial features. Black with a little metallic added for his underarmor and sword. So, really, he has three colors. There's no distinguishing features, really. Oh, y'know what? On closer inspection his right eye has a yellowish-greenish pupil while his left eye has the same color serving as eye-shadow. Nice job, Mages of the Beach. Yeah, it's a little thing, and I'm sure I'll get someone telling me that limiting it to four colors reduces costs, etc. These were just the first two minis I pulled out of my backpack.

Second beef.

Take a look at this picture. These are representative bases of the miniatures. Pathfinder (on the left) and the new Mages of the Beach (center), with an older Mages of the Beach (on the right). You see anything? First gut reaction?

Well, it may be tough, because the camera is picking it up better than the naked eye. The names on the new Mages of the Beach minis are next to impossible to read? Now, you may tell me that's another cost-cutting measure, saving on white paint, or you can tell me that the old ones didn't need white paint. Well, it may just be my aging eyes, but I still say that the new names are really tough to read: smaller fonts, not as raised, not as much contrast. And then there's this: The BIG minis have the names painted in white.

It's a minor thing, and easily rectified. You can also consider it your Free Tip of the Day: I grabbed a white paint Sharpie and scribbled a bit. It's not perfect, but it works. It adds just enough contrast for my old eyes. Here's a look at the result. I just realized that I probably killed resale value, but I don't plan on getting rid of these any time soon. And who knows, someone may actually pay more to be able to read the names. (Yeah, wishful thinking, but it's all I have.)

My final beef (for now) is kind of a mixed bag. There are dragons. New dragons. I love dragons. One thing that I can't get enough of is dragons. For example: I'm pretty sure I have most if not all of the dracolich pre-painted minis, and a good number of metal ones of all sizes. One thing I DON'T have is any red dragons. Mostly because they're so sought after and therefore expensive.

Well, in these two boxes, I pulled--would you believe it--a red dragon. (Oh, wait. You CAN believe it; a picture of its base is right up there.) This new mini is a red dragon in flight. It's executed quite well, to be honest. I'm glad to have it and I was excited when I saw it in the box. However, I have a complaint about size. In this picture I've included an elf and a halfling for scale. As you can see, it doesn't seem as daunting as the old Mages of the Beach dragons used to be. Now, I'm not expecting a colossal red dragon, but this is on--what used to be considered, anyway--a large base. Now that I mention it, maybe it is to scale. I haven't measured it against any of my others. It just seems small.

Whew. That's enough beefing for a while, I suppose. Gotta go work some more on Issue #1 of the Stronghold. More soon.

[D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop] Day Twenty-four

Day Twenty-four: First movie that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why?

Dragonslayer would be the answer to this question.

Why? Well, let me count the ways.

1. Hello, DRAGONS?!?
   
2. It came out during my gaming youth.
   
3. Umm... DRAGONS and DRAGON SLAYING?!?
   

Honestly, though...it was a tie between this movie and Clash of the Titans, also from 1981. I'm sure a lot of people would go with Clash first, because of the whole "lots of monsters, swordplay, adventure, quest-thingy" theme, whereas Dragonslayer is something of a different movie, in part because the hero is a bungling clod through most of the movie. (Before you object: Peter MacNicol. A dragonslayer? Really? In what universe does that make sense?)

On second thought, I'm firmly going with Dragonslayer. It edges out Clash of the Titans on several fronts. First, a golden mechanical owl. Secondly, Clash always gets all the love; Vermithrax Pejorative is due a little respect himself. Thirdly, you've got the bungling hero thrown at the dragon right off. First adventure, BAM! DRAGON.

Finally: "ten tons of rapacious reality. No maiden is safe."

Need I say more?

[D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop] Day Four

Day Four: First dragon your character slew (or some other powerful monster).

Kobolds.

Yeah, you read that right. Kobolds. No doubt you were expecting to hear about the ancient red dragon that we slew, or the lucky crits I rolled on the half-fiendish fire giant. Instead, I give you: Kobolds.

Don't click away from the blog in disgust just yet, though. Let me explain.

This was back in my first 21st-century campaign, the DM was running Dragon Mountain for us. Now, since that time I've never once picked up the actual adventure to see what it was actually like, partly because I have fond memories of the entire campaign that I don't want to ruin. I say this as a preface because I genuinely don't know what was in the adventure as written and what was added by the DM. That's important because this particular DM was a fairly Evil Rat Bastard DM.

Nothing, I repeat nothing was normal. Stats were played with, traps enhanced. We even discovered--too late--that one of the NPCs he sent with us was actually the ancient red dragon we were trying to kill. Well, he filled the lower part of Dragon Mountain with kobold minions. And they were tough. And wily. They were almost Tucker Kobold-tough in their own way.

The biggest problem with them? They swarmed. On at least two different occasions we nearly lost players to the swarming kobolds of Dragon Mountain. The leader of them all turned out to be a polymorphed fire giant.

So, imagine my horror when my cleric (I wish I remembered what level he was at that point) kicked open a door and found upwards of 20 kobolds in a small room--a joint barracks/dining hall was how it was described. I was all alone. The kobolds all looked up in the same motion and locked eyes. I could have easily died in the next few rounds. So, I did the only thing I could think of: I threw my Hammer of Moradin (the only real magic item I had throughout that campaign)--a Rune hammer--and activated the fire rune. Then I slammed the door.

The dice were with me. I maxed out the damage roll from the massive fireball created by the rune activation. On top of that, and something I didn't know and hadn't bothered to ask, was that there were barrels of accelerant--moonshine in this case--stored in the room. My cleric actually took damage from the encounter. The resultant blast blew the door off its hinges and threw me across the hall into a stone wall, squashed between the door and the wall. But it also incinerated Every. Single. Last. Kobold. In the room. Did some significant damage to the walls and structural integrity of the room, even. Suffice it to say there was no treasure (or furniture, for that matter) to be found in the wreckage. The DM never did disclose to us whether I'd incinerated anything important.

But we all agreed: it was worth it. The guys in the group still talk about the event.

[D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop] Day Three

Day Three: First dungeon you explored as a player-character or ran as a DM.

I'm going to take advantage of this one and play a two-fer.

Back in the day, I don't know that we ever actually ran a "module" or a dungeon that had a name. Mostly it was creating characters, painting miniatures badly, and staging battles and skirmishes between the miniatures. So, I'm going to fast forward to the re-birth in 2000. The DM put together the group of players, and gave us all detailed (I'm talking REALLY detailed) backstories that tied us all into some part of the adventure, including story hooks and motivations. Then he put together a modified version of TSR's Dragon Mountain, plopped it down in Faerûn where we could find it and where it tied in with our various backstories. Then we were off and running. That campaign ran for...oh, probably three years. For the climax, the DM dug out of storage and assembled the only Red Dragon of Krynn (vinyl) miniature I've ever seen in the flesh.

(BTW, it's real and it's spectacular.) Wizards of the Coast put out a Colossal Red Dragon. They tried to make it spectacular. And yeah, it's cool. I don't like how they squeezed it all onto one square base. It doesn't have the awe-inspiring pose that the vinyl miniature did. And then, I've seen them side-by-side. No comparison. None at all. If I had a choice, the vinyl miniature from "Screamin'" would definitely be my go-to red dragon of choice. Putting that old girl on the table is a real pee-in-your-pants moment for your players. The picture here really doesn't do it justice.

Back to the story.... That was the first real dungeon I'd played as a PC. For the other part of the question, the first dungeon I ran as a DM was a little side adventure I threw together a couple years ago to give the then-DM a chance to rest for a couple of sessions and unwind by playing a PC for a change. I ran out of time and fell back on a little freebie that Wizards of the Coast published, a little thing called "Start at the End." The idea is that you run into the dragon at the very start of the dungeon, and then various other inhabitants as the PCs work their way through the various caverns. Xorn, bodak, and other various nasties lie in wait for the players; I modified it throwing in some small critters and molds of my own as well. Now that I think about it, this was, in fact, the site of the first PC to die at my hands as a DM. The then-DM was playing an elven rogue and was scouting ahead of the rest of the party. He turned a corner, came face to face with a bodak, and promptly failed his saving throw. BAM! Dead elf. I loved every minute of it. Immediately texted my wife the news that I was no longer a "virgin DM." The group still laughs about that moment.

Unfortunately, it appears that, although WotC still has the base article online about this free adventure, they've actually removed the content (as they have with most of their 3.5 content) from their website, so the link is apparently broken. Fortunately, I think I downloaded the adventure back then and saved it on one of my various drives somewhere. Maybe someday I'll stumble across it and pull it out again.

[From the Mailbag] Dice Dragon

Through the power of Facebook, I found these little critters a few weeks ago and just had one arrive in the mail. These Dice Dragons are, admittedly, cute. Now, some of you macho gamers out there may not hold much truck with "cute," but I think that any of you would be proud to have one of these Dice Dragons on your desk, sitting right under your computer monitor.

Image courtesy of GameHermit

Lisa and Jack Berberette from Richmond, VA make these Dice Dragons and sell them on Etsy under the name of GameHermit. They've got a couple other lines of these handmade polymer cuties, "Baby Dragons" and "OOAK Dragons." They've got a pretty good selection; it was actually kind of hard to choose. There were several that were pretty tempting. They had a cute red dragon, holding a crystal blue d12. They also had an orange one and a pearlized gold dragon, both holding blue d20s. Ultimately, though, I had to go with this one: a black mica dragon with a red scarab d20.

My kids have already started begging for their own Dice Dragons. At $15-$20 each, they're not exactly kid stuff. I justified it as a little bit of gaming art. It may not be a Rodin or a Remington. Nope. It's a Berberette. And it's mine.

One can be yours, too. Pay 'em a visit, won't you?

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day (one day late) to all my friends and readers out there. Hopefully your day was filled with dice, "lead-free white metal" figurines, and plenty of character sheet goodness.

I know mine was.

My family took me to see a double feature of Men in Black 3 and The Avengers at the local drive-in. Great, fun flicks. MIB 3 makes a nice closing bookend for the series, if they so wish, and definitely redeems the series from MIB 2. The Avengers? There were several moments where I was giggling like a little boy. Loved it. LOVED it.

In addition, the accompanying image is the beautiful homemade card I received from one of my daughters yesterday. (And what thief wouldn't be proud to nab an emerald THAT size, eh? Definitely worth risking the dragon's wrath....)

I think I've done well as a father, that my kids love dragons nearly as much as I do. (I have other signs of my paternal success as well, of course.)

Let me know what loot y'all scored from your wives and kids yesterday.... I'd love to know.

[found items] New Old Lead

On Wednesday night last, I ventured into my FLGS to salve my plastic miniature cravings. One of the managers of the FLGS is a long-time friend (notice I didn't say "old" friend...I started counting how many years I'd known her and her husband and it was a bit depressing).

A few weeks before, we had spent some time talking about our fathers; both of us lost our dad's this past year. From our discussion, she knew I'd been having a rough time, both because of my dad and because of some other reasons/factors in my life. She also knew that I was facing a daunting miniature-painting project and was doubting myself.

When I saw her on Wednesday, she said she had something for me and took me back to the FLGS office. She said she'd been cleaning out some stuff and wanted me to have something. She handed me the following:


Yep. These are the real thing. They date back to the 1980s. Real old. Real lead.

The body of the Imperial Dragon has been assembled and pinned; the whole thing has been primed, and the underbody has a coat of yellow on it. Other than that, they're just like the day they were made. My friend tells me that she got started and then just put them away. She was going to try and sell them, but thought that she'd rather them go to a home where they'd be truly appreciated.

And I truly do appreciate them. These were made at a time where I could not only not afford them, but my parents also disapproved of the game, so there was no asking them to buy dragons for me. I was speechless when she handed them over...and I still am, to some extent. The gift really moved me. How great it is to have good friends who can stand by you and pick you up when you're down. There's no way I can repay her for this gift, as their worth goes way beyond money.



The Dragons of the Emerald Idol (Grenadier's Fantasy Lords #6001) not only comes with the dragon on the front of the box, but it also comes with two other figures. It comes with a baby dragon, captured running mid-stride (complete with cloud of dust rising from its feet) and the Emerald Idol itself (although it looks strangely more like a tiki idol than emerald. I suppose if I painted it green...).

I don't know what I did to deserve this gift or such great friends. I know however, that this has lifted my spirits a bit and I can hardly wait until I get a chance to break out the brushes and pots to slap some paint on these wee beasties.

[From the Mailbag] MINIS!

I received a small pile of miniatures in the mail today. This was after I stopped at the store and picked up a box of Pathfinder minis. So, I'm feeling the plastic love today.

Alright, that didn't sound exactly as I'd intended it to sound.

Anyway, I thought I'd share some general pics--they turned out kinda poorly, given my office photographic equipment--and some thoughts about the Pathfinder minis specifically. (This is my advance apology for the quality of the photos.) I'll deal with my mailbag first, then look at the Pathfinder minis in another post.

The "old" Wizards minis are getting harder and harder to find, at least at reasonable values. In this economy, it's difficult to justify to the wife spending $15.00 (or more) on a small piece of plastic, especially when that piece of plastic is smaller than a stick of gum...and your kids haven't eaten dinner yet. Fortunately, there are still some rare finds out there and I lucked into one of those finds to get me some random minis to fill some holes in my collection.

First, the Aspect of Bahamut. I think I've said before that the group has ventured into a dragon-heavy pseudo-Epic 3.X campaign. (I say "pseudo-Epic" because we've collectively agreed that the Epic Level Handbook was one of the most broken pieces of publishing trash to come out of the 3.X-Wizards era. We're all simply 26th level.) The DM allowed my Cleric to develop a "Summon Aspect of Bahamut" prayer to combat the dragons we'd be facing; once that was done, it was obvious that I needed a suitable miniature for the table. (The DM for this particular group is a stickler: if you want to summon a creature, you better have the miniature...although he kinda let up on that a little once he demanded a player produce a dolphin and a squid miniature the character wanted to summon and the player plopped one of each--in appropriate scale--down on the table in front of him.) I've seen/heard a lot of complaints about the paint job/scheme on this miniature so I was a little hesitant to order it. I must say, though, that the pictures don't do it justice. There is a lot more subtlety to the colors than you would expect. I would have liked to see a little more range with the colors, but all in all I'm quite pleased.

The kicker was hearing my older children say, "Oh no, Dad! Is that for our game?!? Auuugh!!!! My (fill-in-the-blank-player-class) is going to die!"

Heh.

Next out of the box were the rats. Rats are somewhat difficult to find, for some reason. Maybe it's because all DMs use rats as typical low-level sword fodder. I know that's what I'm using these for; the first few levels of Dyson's Delve are filled with giant rats and that's what the family's going to spend Christmas Vacation doing. At any rate, here come the rats; I have to make do with what I can get, and what I got was:

1. Dire Rats (4)
2. Diseased Dire Rat (1)
and
3. Ravenous Dire Rat (1)

I already have six of the "Rat Swarm" counters that I can employ, so I should have my rat-needs covered.

(Again, that phrase sounded better in my head.)

Those needs should be especially well-covered, considering that the next thing out of the box were a blister pack of Reaper's plastic offerings: three giant rats from their Legendary Encounters pre-painted plastics line. Also included was one of the Reaper plastic ghosts. Because, hey, who doesn't need undead...especially with the Pathfinder Carrion Crown adventure path on my shelf? I'm slowly compiling a list of minis for use with that particular set of adventures; it's simultaneously easier and more difficult, seeing the wide range of minis needed, contrasted with the range of Horrorclix models that there are, contrasted yet again with the limited availability of said Horroclix models. [Sigh] (Which reminds me: I need to go searching for Horrorclix (or other) models that will suit a flesh golem and some werewolves. Werewolf minis are scarce and expensive. (Stupid question of the day: Do you think people like werewolves or something?) In fact I need two flesh golems, a pile of werewolves, and some items most likely found in a C'thulhu range. Ugh.)

Speaking of Dyson's Delve, another critter that I need for that dungeon-crawl was solved in today's package, at least partly. Dyson's first level also include several giant ferrets; this is something I didn't have in my collection, mostly because I'd never seen the use for them. Well, to be honest, I'd never actually SEEN a giant ferret miniature; but hey--then I got thinking, once I saw the need for the critter: "Hey, weasel? Ferret? What's the difference?" (Please, don't take that as an invitation for all you weasel- and ferret afficianados out there to point out the distinct differences between the two.) At any rate, I now had a need, I ordered them, and should have sufficient to torture my kids allow my kids to chase around the caverns.

Rumbling around the bottom of the box was a mini that I forgot I'd ordered: a Dragonborn Paladin Death Knight. I hadn't gone in search of one of these when it was originally released, specifically because it was evidence of one of the things I find wrong with Wizards of the Coast and their miniatures philosophy: namely, "let's make a figure that is a combination of classes and races so obscure and arcane that no one will ever want one, because this is of course what every miniature-hunter is looking for!" AND I KNOW YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN.... When I was looking for bargains, however, I saw this one for under $1 and I thought, well, I need a deathknight, I can use this as a stand-in and just ignore the dragon-skull on his shoulders. So I ordered one. And here he is.

It wasn't until I was cataloging all of these miniatures that I realized that I had apparently "pulled" one of these deathknights previously from a booster purchaed at the FLGS. So I already had one. Now I have two. If that isn't strong enough evidence about how insignificant this class/race combination creature IS, I don't know what would suffice. Yep. I now have two of something of which I never really even wanted ONE.

Well...that's the extent of my mailbag today. The shipping box is now empty, the minis are all catalogued and sorted into their different storage boxes. Coming up soon: my review of the Pathfinder Beginner Box Heroes miniatures.

[OSR Challenge] Walk Into My Parlor

Walk Into My Parlor: A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! 3.5 Edition adventure set in a Dwarven Stronghold, but easily dropped into any stronghold or similar structure.

Get Ready:

• The marauding goblins are gone and the forest outside is quiet. The quiet does not mean safety, for another danger has been living in a lonely tower with a chimney to the outside.

[OSR Challenge] Please Pass The AACKKK

Please Pass The AACKKK: A Get Ready, Get Set, Go! 3.5 Edition adventure set in a Dwarven Stronghold, but easily dropped into any stronghold or similar structure.

Get Ready:

• Some people never learn the truth of the adage, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Intrigued by wisps of smoke found randomly throughout the stronghold, the adventurers seek out the source.