The winter school break has drawn to a close and I can start getting more work done, just as long as I’m not called in for jury duty this week. The fun never ends.

Going way back to 2022, I printed a mind flayer nautiloid and used it in the D&D game we ran at Lakes of Fire that year. Lakes of Fire is our regional Burn, a sort of mini Burning Man. The biggest difference other than the scale is that the Michigan environment is not actively trying to kill you. It can be hot and sunny, but our camp has a yurt for activities and there’s a pond to swim in.

One of the ten principles of Burning Man is participation. These events don’t happen without people actively taking part. The same is typical at gaming conventions, though it can go understated there. If you want to see a game on the schedule, run it! The same goes for panels and everything else. Running games and volunteering as staff usually translates into a free event badge, so it can help defray some of your expenses.

Back to that Lakes game: there’s always more going on at these events than you can possibly do, so we keep the sessions tight at just a couple of hours. In this case, the players were investigating a crashed ship. Zombie mind flayers lay in wait, and many jokes were made about orifice doors aboard the ship. To make things run quickly, I used an around-the-table initiative system like Shadowdark’s, but starting with whoever rolled the highest. It was a good time. I didn’t take any pictures of the game because I was being fully present and off electronics, oh well.

The nautiloid is a pretty good sculpt. I got it from Aether Studio’s Kickstarter campaign but I can’t seem to find it on their website now, so I don’t know if it’s still available. I like the exterior appearance more than the other nautiloids that are out there. The downside is that the walls are around an inch thick, so there isn’t a lot of playable area inside. I really need to paint mine, it’s still primer black with transparent purple tentacles.

This week on Hot Springs Island: We resumed playing after the holiday break and some stuff went down! My players totally zigged where I expected them to zag, but it was fine because I didn’t have a linear plot planned anyway. Last session, they had found the gem and accidentally summoned Seera the disgraced efreeti princess on the afternoon of the New Moon Party. After talking to her, they decided to go to Svarku’s rumpus room and mess with his cabinets to draw him out. Me: “But there’s a sweet party… Ok, let’s see what happens.” Shenanigans and combat ensued, of course, and Svarku escaped. I love that the book provides open, interconnected, usable material so that he isn’t a boring villain on the run prolonging the inevitable and boring everyone. Instead, he’s sending out more patrols, and the PCs are winning nereid allies, and the whole situation is pressurizing and bound to explode. And even after that, life will continue on the islands with a power vacuum and a bunch of maniacs still running around pursuing their goals. I love it so much.

Some frequently recurring monsters are the Fuegonaut salamanders, Svarku’s reluctant army and workforce. I used these sculpts for my salamanders. They have three poses so it doesn’t look like an army of clones and they printed well. They were easy to paint up too. I like the inverted process of painting lava and fire. Put down a base coat of yellow, build up your drybrush layers from red to black, do any detail work needed, and you’re done!

Salamanders in 5e are pretty hardy, so I used Forge of Foes to bump their attacks up two CRs and their hits points down two. Get in, lay down some damage, get killed, move the game on. That’s what I want from most of my monsters in combat.

With the New Moon Party spoiled and Svarku humiliated, the Fuegonauts will be actively searching for the PCs. Combat is now more likely, but the salamanders are lazy and self-interested, so there’s still a possibility for social antics. Either way, I’ll get some more mileage out of these guys.