Golden Vault: Eldritch horror heist, part 1

We met our contact person from the Vault and were handed a small safe to be opened, as a test to our skills. We were also handed this safe IRL. I was thoroughly impressed.

Golden Vault: A D&D 5e heist adventure series

We embarked upon a new quest, a series[1] of heist-type adventures with an almost brand-new DM[2]. Some serious thought went into this, with a set of homebrew rules, which I won't detail here, as they are honestly just common sense.

The set up: there is a mysterious organization called the Golden Vault who supposedly do good by, erm, committing crimes. Working for them results in various benefits, not least of which is monetary compensation. This is more than enough for most adventurers, including our own crew:

• Arik, human cleric
• Aris, deep gnome wizard
• Teek, firbolg cleric
• Thaldor, mountain dwarf fighter
• Zermong, eladrin wizard
• 50 Copper, dark elf rogue[3]

After a short session 0, we were on to our first heist. Definitely no metagaming going forwards!

[1] Or, at least that is the plan.

[2] Previously: Lighthouse under attack: a D&D 5E one-shot

[3] Yeah, that's me, in case you hadn't guessed. I have expertise in performance, can rap and beatbox, besides dealing drugs and talking smooth.

Painting female gnome bards

I bought these two on a whim and I was then horrified at how small they are: 15mm head to toe (a bit taller with the fancy hats) and not heroic scale, I think. Another type of challenge then!

Painting a ghost and banshee

I happened upon the female kickstarter miniatures buried in a drawer. First to be painted up is Caoimhe, Restless Spirit and her banshee variant.

Painting D&D Ghouls

Time to paint these ancient miniatures to experiment with yet another zombie skin paint scheme.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Princess of zombies

New year, new fight... we resumed mid combat, with a slightly different party, and more monsters attacking from all sides. 

Painting Lord of the Rings Hobbits

I thought I had a larger variety of hobbits, but it turned out I had 5 Frodo miniatures and an armored Pippin.

Painting Legolas (and Legorlas)

I painted these 3 Legolas miniatures along with the hobbits, but I did paint one as my D&D character Legorlas. 

Ice base

 

Muzzle flare (cotton)

 

Painting a commission Halloween knight

Miniature from Reaper Bones Kickstarter 5. 

This is my first blue cloak experiment. I actually like this type of color combination, as you may have noticed lately. It is also 90% Contrast which is a bonus.

Painting a commission adventurer with blazing torch

The first blue cloak looks epic but I think it's too dark. This random commission proved a perfect test subject.

Painting a commission druid

I know I could have made him more colorful, but I have this thing about druids wearing natural colors, which basically means the brown spectrum.

Painting Mantic Ghouls

I digged up these ghouls (hue hue) so they can contribute to this year's miniature painting target. I tried out some WarhammerTV zombie skin schemes, so translate the Citadel paints using the Paint mix chart.

Painting a ranger of Gondor

Just a single one of these dudes, which I painted along with this gal.

Painting a female human elf archer

Seren a Delyth was buried in the same drawer as the female kickstarter miniatures. Time to finalize that green cloth painting tip I was experimenting with.

Painting Saruman the White

The first in a line of Lord of the Rings minis bought cheaply off eBay. Some, such as this one, I tried to paint as close to the movies as possible.

Painting commission slapchop elves

Part of the Reaper Bones 5 kickstarter, these elves will probably be just extras in any D&D game they see the table in. Thus, I applied the slapchop method.

Painting a commission samurai

A Reaper Bones kit. I immediately thought of Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai and painted it accordingly.

A Song of Ice and Fire: Lannisters vs Free Folk, 29.12.2023

Another game of ASOIAF, as we got together for some other dealings as well. Expect to see some commission miniatures for this game to pop up next year!

Anyway, on to the game. I brought the same list as last time, having now understood some of the mechanics better (or, at all). Against me were set up a bunch of Free Folk infantry with one giant supporting, and raiders in reserves. 

No, I did not learn my lesson about my opponents preference for a refused flank. Yes, I wasted Jamie Lannister's halberdiers. Yes, I will try better next time.

Yes, any Total War general would give me a good smack on the head for placing the cavalry in the middle. That was my last drop, trying to mitigate the refused flank as much as I could when I realized what was going on.

So anyway, here's our first turn. I marched up the guardsmen, confident in their ability to do combat next to a corpse pile. Everything else went up the board as well, although no missiles were fired.