post-it pads

In Anticipation

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Chris

Hello again,

When I first started this blog the dangerous Boys had just completed and survived a long and exciting adventure, this was the last adventure I described in the previous post.  It wasn’t long before we started getting D&D withdrawals and started marinating in the juices of anticipation that build up while waitnig for the next adventure.

This set of illustrations were produced during this period (some just before I started the blog) and are “Hypothetical”.  The adventure they aticipate actually came and went some time ago now (another very Epic adventure for which I am currently still in the process of illustrating).  I am quite fond of most of these so I thought they should see the light of day.  Infact the first two drawings in this post plus one of the drawings from the last post (Stimulating the urchin economy) were exhibited at the Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne earlier this year as part of a small scale art contest.  Unfortunately they didn’t win anything nor did they sell (Perhaps I should’nt have mentioned that they were all drawn on post-it pads, maybe it de-valued them).  Anyway here are the drawings in aticipation of the mighty “SNOMAR” adventure.

Bargain hunting at Kroddes joint

This first image is an impression of the possible appearance of Honest Kroddes Emporium at a time when the DB’s would be patronising it.  The existance of Kroddes Emporium (Or “Kroddes joint” in the Dangerous Boys vernacular) was a little hint of information about the upcoming adventure that the DM gave us as a little teaser.  we were told that at some point in the looming adventure we would get to do some shopping at this establishment (which apparently stocks everything that officially exists in the D&D world) and we could order any magic item we liked as long as it officially existed somewhere in the game literature and we could afford it (Krodde priced his stock according to the recommended retail price).  A torrent of carefully considered orders gushed at the DM and ranged from bastard swords that emitted no light all the way up the scale of awesome to an enchanted acid coated breastplate of awesomeness (this would be intended to deliver life threatening hugs and so forth).  There was also much discussion on what manner of shop keeper Krodde would turn out to be and how his emporium would be presented.  The comparisons with the shop form Gremlins where the 8o’s guy buys the Mogwais’ soon dominated the discussions as did a growing expectation that Krodde would also be stocking Mogwais’ and Mogwai related products.  the above illustration is the result of all these Krodde related hypothesese.  Of course when the time came to meet the famous man and buy shit from him he was nothing like the Gremlins shop keeper nor did his premisis resemble the hoplessly cluttered appearance of the Gremlins shop

Mogwai jerky in the field

This image was born from further discussion on the hypothetical topic of “Krodde” brand Mogwai products.  It showcases the delicious and both highly portable and satisfyingly nutritious “Mogwai Jerky” snack pouch.  This was a hypothetical adventuring snack product that we began to expect would not only spontaneously begin to exist in the D&D universe but would also be available in handy ‘Krodde” brand pre-packaged portions at Kroddes.  Several orders for Mogwai jerky (of various flavours) were also placed with the DM.  This “tough as weathered elbow skin” adventurer that is demonstrating the Mogwai Jerky is nobody in particular, just some cynical Orc fighter with a moderate case of PTSD and a colorful history.  I felt like a break from drawing the DB’s.  

Oh and in case anyone is wondering, Mogwai did actually feature in the adventure, just not in a form any of the DB’s expected.

Bring it! SNOMAR!!!

This image was a real quick one which I knocked up in about ten minutes just before I left work on the evening before the SNOMAR adventure.  SNOMAR was another teaser the DM had given us in the weeks leading up to this adventure.  All we had been told was that we would be crossing paths with a mysterious oranisation known as SNOMAR (this turned out to be an acronym).  The DB’s were all very cocky (especially Garibaldi) and certain that they would be able to permanently (and most likey violently) “solve” any problem that stood before them.  We were not afraid of the ominous SNOMAR and this image is an embodyment of these sentiments as well as a brazen challenge to the DM and his high rollin’ SNOMAR.  Incidentally SNOMAR turned out to be quite a handfull and were infact one of those problems you survive rather than solve.

Billy, Garouk and Grim venture into the depths of peril in search of the “Heart of the Wyrm”

This drawing is not based around aticipation for the SNOMAR adventure as the previous ones were.  this one was drawn as a prediction for what may have lay ahead for the boys in the adventure following the SNOMAR adventure.  Unfortunately I was unable to attend this adventure, but I was still privy to the emails that circulated prior to it’s manifestation.  One of the last communications before this adventure went underway was the DM revealing the title of this adventure, “the heart of the Wyrm”.  Naturally after hearing this adventure title I assumed that the DB’s who were going into the breach would be facing off against some type of unspeakably evil worm like creature.  Something that lived deep in the depths of an unforgiving subterrainean labyrinth soaked in terror and dripping with sudden death.  I elaborated in my minds eye that they may infact be hired to snatch the ‘Heart” of this wyrm from its terrifying body or perhaps be journeying into the “heart” of the Wyrms lair to steel/recover/destroy or even deposit something.  either way I saw little in the DB’s future other than razor faced Giant Wyrms, Garouk eating chicken, Billy blowing all his money from the last adventure on booze and dice and Grim casting a lot of healing spells.  Hence the picture of impending Wyrm elated violence in an ambush prone underground tunnell.

As it turned out there was no Giant Wyrm, the “Wyrm” was infact (as the DM explained to me in an after game email) the Oroborus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oroborus), the symbolic representation of time and eternity, for which an ancient temple/cave had been built. The heart of the wyrm was the treasure at the heart of the cave; a shard of the manifest-universe itself – the shard controlling time. An insanely powerful, fragile, unique and priceless item, sold for 20,000GP…

It seems Garibaldi missed out on a fine “Indiana Jones” style adventure.  Luckily the DB’s who were there have outlined some of the stand out moments in this adventure so I still plan to produce some illustrations for it at a later date.

Ok thats all for now,

the next post will start revealing what really went down in the SNOMAR adventure and to help set the mood a little I’ve included below a little preview of how Garibaldi finished up at the end of this adventure.  He is now known as Garabella.

Garabella the Fustrated

Categories: adventure, Billy, D&D, Dragons, Drawing, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Fantasy art, Fantasy illustration, Flint, Gameing, Garabella, Garibaldi, Garouk, Grim, illustration, magic, mogwai, Oroborus, Pencil, post-it pads, SNOMAR, the Dangerous Boys, Uncategorized, Wyrm | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Historic Moments part.1

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Chris

Hello again,

as promised here is the first set of existing “historic game moment” illustrations.  These adventure snapshots are being presented (according to my memory, which has been proven to be inconsistent on occasion) in order and were all produced on post-it pads with whatever pencil was lying around.

Billy spearheads plan B of a drunken home invasion

I’m pretty sure this happened during our second adventure (unfortunately I didn’t start doing these “historic moments” till after the second adventure), it captures Billy drunkenly bursting into a country manor house and entering “negotiations” with the guards.  As I remember it the boys had just finished slaughtering a cell of Wererats in a nearby farm, who had been robing merchants (the DB’s were hired to put an end to the robberies) and were on the way home when they stopped at a local village pub to celebrate.  Billy was approached by a young lady with a dramatic sob story about suffering great injustices and being dispossessed by the lord of the manor.  The already “roaring” drunk Billy fell in love and gathered up the rest of the boys to go and restore the ladys honor.  Garibaldi (also “Roaring” drunk) hatched a cunning plan to gain access to the Manor house by posing as Government sanctioned Drop-Rat inspectors who were doing terribly important Midnight infestation checks in the interest of public safety.  This was agreed upon and Gari attempted to invent some kind of official looking disguise using whatever was handy.  The plan spectacularly failed and Billy swiftly initiated plan B, which of course was charge in, kill everybody in sight, break everything and find the pub girls necklace.

Plan B went off without a hitch.  I’m pretty sure we killed everyone we laid eyes on, including the lord of the manor, who jumped screaming from a third floor window to escape the onslaught.  Billy gave chase…  He broke Billy’s fall.  I can’t remember if we got he necklace but I seem to remember Garibaldi and Flint setting fire to the manor house for good measure.  They had already torched a barn and a wagon earlier that day.

 

In his search for Leads Billy attracts some unexpected attention

This illustration (above) I seem to recall is from our third adventure.  I believe the DB’s were hired anonymously (through several layers of ill-informed henchmen) to track down some ancient scrolls in an old abandonned Drugar stronghold in the mountains.  Before leaving the city on this mission some of the boys decided to try and gather some intel on the mysterious guy we were now working for.  In his fierce (an ultimately fruitless) hunt for leads Billy started interrogating some random stable boy.  This young lad swooned at the attention and began to pepper Billy with an avalanche of bold amorous advances.  A normaly composed and decisive Billy was taken completely by surprise and after a few flustered and indecisive spluterings Billy turned tail and strode off in a huff, only to feel the fire of the Lads passionate gaze burn yearningly into his ass checks coupled with the keen sting of  his commrades taughts as he disappeared  down the street. 

Garouk is chastised by a fire elemental while under the unfortunate grip of a hold person spell

This illustration (above) is from later on in the third adventure.  Having entered the Drugar tunnels and slaughtering some Emaciated Dark elves who had set up shop there (An Image I will try and produce in the future as it was an exciting combat which climaxed in some of the dark Elves being scalped) we proceded through the Dark Elf Sewer tunnels (during which Grim had to consent to be “tossed” over some gaps lest he swim through Dark Elf refuse), find the scrolls and eventually Bump into another party of adventurers who for the most part mirrored our party (they were the Bizarro DB’s).  Their magic user quickly cast hold person on Garouk before summoning a Fire elemental to slowly feast on him while he was paralised.  Garouk spent the remainder of the encounter in this state and somehow managed (mostly through bad Rolls from the DM)  to stay alive. I can’t remember who wasted the magic user and dispelled the Elemental in the end but it certainly wasn’t “Mr easy target” .

 

Grim and Gari struggle bravely against a giant barbarian mind slave

This encounter (above) was later still in the third adventure.  After we emerged from the tunnels and had returned to town.  All the players were pretty drunk by this stage so I can’t remember many details but some how we wound up being ambushed by a Gnome Supervillian in a weapoons shop.  He had brought a hulking Barbarian body guard with him who’s mind had been enslaved and when negotiations enevitably broke down the mind slave was ordered to “kill us all”.  Garibaldi in a very characteristicly overconfident way declared that he could “take care of this guy with his bare hands” and proceeded to attempt exactly that.  Meanwhile Billy and Garouk chased after the Gnome who after copping Billy’s throwing knife in the arse turned invisible and continued to flee down some dingy corridors.  The plan was to follow the blood trail.

Luckily for Garibaldi “Pocket Ambulance” Grim stayed behind in case Gari was in over his head.  Infact he was, and even after drawing his weapons it took him several painful rounds in which he was repeatedly rendered unconscious then healed three or four times to finally dispatch his foe.  Luckily he managed to deliver the killing blow before the barbarian struck again as Grim was out of healing spells at that point and Gari would not have survived another hit. 

 

A true moment in history, the Dangerous Boys are Born!

This illustration (above) is the last one for this post and is once again from the third adventure.  It captures the Historic moment when Billy declared to all of Lankmhire at full volume that we were “The dangerous boys”.  This proclamation was bourne of frustration when Billy (followed slowly and ungracefully by Garouk) burst onto a rooftop only to discover the Gnome Supervillians trail had gone cold.  Billy Roared across the rooftops that “you will never escape the…..Dangerous Boys”.  Inspiringly Billy’s player had actually leaped to his feet in real life and drunkenly roared the same thing.  After the laughter subsided it was apparent that this label was too fiercely lame to ignore and the party became The Dangerous Boys.

Ok thats all for now, the next post should rap up the back log of existing “Historic Moment” material and then we will be in new territory.

Bye for now,

Chris.

Categories: adventure, arts, Billy, D&D, Drawing, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Fantasy art, Fantasy illustration, Flint, Gameing, Gaming, Garibaldi, Garouk, Grim, illustration, Pencil, post-it pads, the Dangerous Boys, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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