Iddy the Lich - Contest Entry

I recently entered an art contest over at the Id DM. The contest called on artists to send in their incarnation of the site's beloved mascot, Iddy the Lich. Here is my entry:

I call on you, oh wretched cartophiles of the unfathomable depths! Cast your vote for the Crypt Thing's entry or let the cowardess of your disloyalty forever curse your fetid soul!

Go forth my children and KILL Vote!

p.s. - I also command you to have a happy Canadian thanksgiving! 

The Three Little Pigs

Today I'm sharing with you something that isn't game or map related.

Recently, Sorcerer_Blob was waxing nostalgic on twitter about drawing comics growing up; it got me thinking about my own childhood as an aspiring comic book artist. Going through my portfolio of old work, I stumbled upon this absurd little gem:

The Three Little Pigs

Flatt_World and I co-wrote this comic for a media class back in highschool. Although the art was crude and rushed (I was 15 at the time and we only had a week to turn it around), I'm still very proud of it.

I hope you enjoy!

Tower of the Blood Mage - Level 1

13 nights ago, when the winds fell silent and the moon turned blood red, a mysterious tower emerged amongst the sandy dunes of the Cindersand Desert. What mysteries lie in waiting behind the doors of this ominous structure?

Who among you has the courage to brave the Tower of the Blood Mage?

Fane of the Heresiarch - a Fourthcore PbP

I have recently begun to participate in a play by post game of Fane of the Heresiarch, the last fourthcore adventure produced by the illustrious Save Versus Death.

Run by the unrivalled dungeon master, C Steven Ross of DMG 42, this game promises to be a grisly, deadly, deathtrap of the highest caliber. I couldn't be more thrilled to be participating.

I am a huge fan of fourthcore, and this will be my first chance to run through one of the modules as a player. It was challenging not devouring the product on release like usual, but it was well worth it.

You can follow the action thus far in the following threads:

OOC
The Watchtower
The Bleak Seminary

In our valiant attempt to take down the being known as the Heresiarch, I will be playing the shadar-kai ranger and cleric of the Storm Lord, Talon. Check out my character illustration and character sheet.

And above all else, wish us luck...are we ever going to need it!

Brother Talon

Talon grew to manhood in the slave pits of Talia. Toiling day and night for his draconic masters, the young shadar-kai knew only the back-breaking hardship of the mines and the savage cruelty of the whip. Talon's prayers were finally answered the day the sky opend up and Talia was obliterated by the great meteor. Spared the celestial energies that destroyed the surface, the slaves of the residuum mines took the opportunity to make their escape. In the battle that ensued between slaves and guards, Talon strangled the guard watching him with his shackles. The newly freed slave made his way to the surface and promptly fled the Fallen Lands.

Travelling across unknown kingdoms, Talon has found the same cruelty and savagery of his upbringing everywhere he has gone. Revering the capricious and powerful Storm Lord, he has learned that the only thing one can rely on is power; strike your enemies down before they have a chance to raise a hand against you.

Talon has now risen to put a stop to the being known as the Heresiarch. Never again will Talon bow down and live a life in chains. He would sooner die.

Character Sheet

Silenus - Vrock Lich

Well, sadly I haven't been very active on this blog lately. My backlog of maps (ones that are composed entirely of my own work and that are of sufficient quality to share) has been exhausted, and all the work I've been doing recently has been for projects that I can't share (yet).

So here is a sneak peak at one of the illustrations for a 4e dungeon I've been writing. I've altered and expanded upon the Saw-themed dungeon I talked about in an earlier post. I plan on sharing the finalized adventure here on Crypt Thing. It's been a painstakingly slow process, but I wanted to share something with you. So here is my illustration of the Vrock Lich, Silenus.

Even if you can't wait until I complete my adventure, I hope you can get some use out of this guy.

Game on,

Rob

FTDM Preview - Vault of the Spider Queen

Here is a sneak peek at my upcoming Fourthcore Team Deathmatch map I've been working on recently.

FTDM Toronto 2: Hell on Earth

Fourthcore TeamDeath Match is returning to Toronto!

Conan the Destroyer by Frank Frazetta

While the first Toronto Tournament may have suffered a low turnout, it did manage to stoke the flames of interest. Those flames have now grown into a blazing inferno that cannot be stopped. As such, another FTDM tournament is headed north of the border.

Toronto FTDM Tournament: Retrospective

The first-ever Canadian Fourthcore Team Deathmatch (FTDM) tournament took place this past Saturday. While it suffered from a lackluster turnout, it was a great time!

Flatt World

BFlat, one of my D&D players and long-time friends is launching a new RPG blog, Flatt World. With well over a decade of experience as a D&D player, BFlat will now be taking the arduous journey to DMhood. Flatt World will act as a stage for his ideas as he builds out his campaign world. Please take the time to go check it out and let him know what you think.


Coinciding with the inaugural launch of his own blog, BFlat has written a guest post here at Crypt Thing wherein he gives us his impressions of the D&D Next playtest from a player's perspective: 

The Caves of Chaos - a D&D Next Play Report

I recently had the pleasure of taking the D&D Next playtest out for a spin.

I won’t go into any kind of analysis of this new system, but I will tell you this: We had a freakin’ blast!

The players chose their characters and I created a brief set-up involving the capture of a merchant caravan and a Macguffin magical item (the Chalice of Light) that the characters were tasked with retrieving. I then gave them a player-friendly map of the ravine and we were off.

Cavern of the Shard

This was the capstone encounter of the first adventure in my old Shadows of Asteron campaign.

The Lord of Rot

It's May of the Dead! For my part in this unholy madness, I've created an undead fourthcore monster: the infamous death knight, The Lord of Rot.

Who among you is foolhardy enough to brave his throne room?


Spoiler Alert: I will eventually be expanding this villain into a full-fledged fourthcore dungeon. So if you have ambitions of playing in my upcoming module, read no further!

Fourthcore Team Deathmatch - Toronto Tournament

Fourthcore Team Deathmatch is coming north of the border! If you'll be in the Toronto Area on June 9th, come on out to the intense bloodbath that is FTDM. Show off your skill with D&D 4e and claim victory!

To secure your spot please go to the event page.

Dunderhelm

Another map from my Shadows of Asteron campaign. The players had debated whether to travel to this dwarven city. Ultimately they decided against it and made their way to Basillon. This cosmoploitan dwarven city acts as a point of trade among the humans of Caliga Valley and the mountain dwarves of the Stoneholds.

Crypt of the Forgotten Lord - Room 1

It's May of the Dead! I wasn't set to participate in this very cool blog carnival until the 17th, but I've been really inspired by all the zombilicous goodness being posted recently. As such I whipped up this little number: the first room in a dank crypt of a forgotten lord. What undead horrors await?

Go check out the other participating blogs; you won't regret it!           


Hope you enjoy!                       

Getting the Band Back Together

This past Saturday, after a long hiatus, I finally got a game of D&D in with my buddies. An old friend, (whom I hadn’t played with in close to a decade), and a new guy (who was new to 4e) joined the group for a session. I’ve historically struggled to get enough players together, so this was great!

Although the dungeon was rather hastily thrown together, overall I think it was a success.

Mountain Stronghold

Here is an old map I never put into use. It was originally intended as the castle my players were awarded stewardship of for my Keep on the Nine Hells adventure. I decided it was a bit too isolated and small (the adventure required a thriving community).

If your game has need of an utterly unassailable mountain stronghold, then enjoy!

The Eh Team

Developed in secret by the Canadian military, the Eh Team is an elite unit of Canada's most feared celebrities. This unstoppable force has been assembled for a singular purpose:

The Doctor Who franchise must be stopped!

The Fortress of Despair

The infamous Fortress of Despair was constructed by the mad lich, Xygarien. In order to protect the only means of his true destruction, the paranoid wizard designed this forlorn dungeon to confuse, confound and horribly maim any would-be heroes.

The Sludge Pit

Here is a battlemap from the first adventure of my old Shadows of Asteron campaign. The dungeon was home to a tribe of goblins twisted by abberent energies into savage foulspawn.

I was dissappointed that none of the players decided to taste the sludge...

Game on, friends.

Deeprock Keep

Here is another map from my aborted underdark adventure. This was the headquarters of a dwarven mining operation, Deeprock. The dwarves were mining a little deeper than they ought to have, and the PCs were to find themselves helping to defend the beleaguered dwarves against an army of incensed drow raiders.

Drow Compound

Here is the drow settlement the characters were to find themselves washed ashore of after the encounter in the Flooded Cavern. The subterranean compound is home to the powerful drow family, House Theskyval.

Vecna Lives!

Well, in the spirit of the holiday... here he is in all of his unholy glory!

Flooded Cavern

Here is a map I made for an old underdark-themed adventure I never got around to running. Lost in the underdark, the PCs were to face an aboleth in this cave before a sudden torrent washed them through a subterranean river. Bruised and battered, the PCs would then find themselves washed ashore near a drow settlement.

Enjoy.

The Fane of Sundered Faith

Your doom draws near.

Greenwall

Another Map from my Shadows of Asteron campaign. Not much to say, as the PCs never came here. I think it's a solid map, though, and I intend to use it at a later date.

Basillon, the Twin City

The great city of Basillon really was the jewel of my Caliga Valley campaign setting.

Fenwood

Here is another map from my Shadows of Asteron campaign. After making their way through the Spectrewood, this little town acted as a pit-stop on the PCs' trek to Basillon. While here, they made friends with a local bar keep (a former dragon slayer) and undertook a small quest to transform the eladrin lord from stone back to flesh. Once again I have included an unlabelled version for those interested.

Drysdale Keep

Acting as the starting point of my Shadows of Asteron campaign, Drysdale Keep was a fairly direct reinterpretation of Restwell Keep. In my campaign, Lord Drysdale was a bumbling incompetent fool and acted as the PCs first interaction with the Order of the Shining Horizon (a powerful campaign-spanning organization devoted to Erathis). I've included an unlabelled version of my map in case anybody wants to repurpose it for their own needs. Enjoy.

Keep on the Nine Hells Part II: Tyr Shadaar

After foiling the Asmodeus cult and destroying the infernal portal under their castle, the PCs woke up disoriented in a hellish cave. The PCs all made endurance checks to see what kind of vulnerability to fire the oppressive heat of Nessus confered on them. Before they could dwell on this dastardly mechanic, they were attacked by a vicious group of spined devils and imps.

Keep on the Nine Hells Part I: Castle Greywood

Before my Shadows of Asteron campaign, my group played in a casual campaign with rotating DMs and a rotating cast of player characters. The campaign trailed off part-way through a 2-part adventure where the PCs got transported into the heart of Nessus. It was a shame, as I thought the adventure was pretty solid (despite my struggle with DMing epic tier play). However, the allure of a shiny new low-level game was too much for me and I abandoned it. I thought I would share a brief synopsis of this adventure and pictures of what I believe to be my best (looking) encounter to date - The Infernal Gate Room.

Shadows of Asteron Campaign Map - Caliga Valley

I'm starting things off by sharing one of my old campaign maps.