(Spoilers for the Dark of Hot Springs Island abound) We hit a milestone in our Sunday morning game this past weekend (no, not that kind of milestone. I use XP whenever possible). The players had made alliances with the Night Axe ogres and the nereids, found the gem that summons the efreeti princess Seera, and freed the marid Meltalia. The common bond between all those folks was that they all wanted Svarku dead (or dragged back to the City of Brass in chains). And the PCs had sent Svarku into a four-day red crystal bender after they pulled him away from the New Moon party and beat him up. The stage was set for a major confrontation…. So I spent all week printing a mini worthy of it, because Svarku had one more card to play.

Svarku had been taught by the combusterinos (the local murderous fire imps) how to summon the primordial fire demigod, Molotek. At the peak of the battle, in his drug-fueled mania, he shouted the words of power, because if he was going down, he was taking everyone with him. The book states he has a 60% chance to control Molotek. I rolled in the open and got a 95, and Molotek turned on Svarku.

Molotek looks a bit like a triceratops in the art in the book, so I figured Artisan Guild’s tarrasque would fit the bill. It seems like sculpting a tarrasque is a rite of passage for anyone selling fantasy STLs, but I particularly liked the pose and texturing on this model. I scaled it down to 62.5% size and it’s still a big fellow. The full size model must be huge (like the WizKids model, or the Kenner rancor that I’ll use if I ever need a full size tarrasque). One happy advantage of scaling it down was that I could print the chest as one piece instead of four. Artisan Guild STLs come presupported (and the big ones are hollowed), and after some minor failures, I learned how to resize the holes and recalculate the supports. It was a neat process, but it still took a few days to print all twelve pieces. Then I glued them together and primed it with clear coat so that I could maintain as much transparency as possible. I used Pokorny Lava Yellow thinned with Golden High Flow Medium as a wash to get the yellow into all the nooks and crannies. Then I drybrushed Lava Orange, Deep Lava, and finally black, to build the flames in a reversal of the standard mini painting sequence (shadows in the crevices, lighter colors on the high points).

I was tempted to do another pass of black, but I’m pretty happy with how it came out. I should still do something about the eyes, though…

Someone on the Dwarven Forge Discord was asking for troubleshooting advice to get their Light Puck activated, and I realized this could be a perfect time to use mine. The Light Puck is a programmable LED matrix that’s sized to fit inside certain Dwarven Forge pieces. I picked it up during the Wildlands Kickstarter campaign but hadn’t had a use for it yet. This was a perfect opportunity. I charged it up, put it inside the Hole Knoll, queued up one of the lava programs, and set Molotek on top.

The light worked with the transparent resin nicely. Just look at that fiery guy! I love him so.

And so the session started with the PCs and their entourage entering Molotek’s volcanic lair where they found him giving a rambling speech to the assembled salamanders from his balcony. They cast their preparatory magic and summoned Seera who charged ahead to attack. Then things went predictably bonkers.

The ogre and the water forces handled the hundreds of salamanders who were on the verge of mutiny anyway. The PCs ran in through the combusterinos’ tower, fought a couple of them, and made their way across the bridge into Svarku’s tower while he dueled with Seera. Just as the lead group reached Svarku’s workout room (my players loved all the absurd details and said, “you can tell they had a lot of fun writing this.”), Svarku saw defeat was inevitable and summoned Molotek. The combusterinos broke away from the battle and started chanting Molotek’s name. The basalt spire shook and lava erupted from the center as Molotek emerged!

The combusterinos started singing “Our God is an Awesome God” as Molotek crushed Svarku and started laying waste to anyone who wasn’t a fire elemental. He superheated and detonated an obsidian bladeguard with his Combustion legendary action, and the players realized he was well out of their league. They were certainly thankful for the potions of fire resistance they had quaffed before the fight as Molotek’s Heat Waves rolled through the area. I rolled a 1 and a 2 when Molotek targeted the paladin with his flame blast, and even with +12 to hit, he couldn’t touch him with those rolls. The group gathered together and Meltalia used a wish to teleport them all to safety. Phew!

So now the campaign is wide open and they’re discussing their options. Svarku might be gone, but the island is a living place. What will Molotek do? Will the black serpent show up? Will someone take over the red crystal trade? I can think of at least a half dozen more questions that my players might not even realize are in play. They might just go back to Ptolus, or range wider and explore their backstories. Whatever happens, it was a great session. Even though it was basically one big fight in one big area, it was dynamic and dramatic and paid off all the buildup that had preceded it.

Rest in peace, Svarku. You were one of the best villains I’ve ever read. All the poor guy wanted was to go back to being a self indulgent bro, and the players had to come along and screw it all up.