My players decided to go after the bounty on a Giant's head, leader of a band of Orcs, they took advantage of the fact that most of them were out raiding farms and villages near their homeland to make an attempt on the Giant in his own home. Their second agenda is a magic door within the upper level of the keep that leads to the halls and chambers hidden below (later dungeon which I doubt they'll get to today). Last game they had taken out the sentries and courtyard guard, moving in to take on the inner guards. While the design of this layout looks odd (and is only 2/3rds the size of the original, I removed the forested area due to lack of gaming room (smaller table indoors), and because the players were already well past playing in that area), it is located between two large cliff walls on either side. The buildings in the courtyard are carved out of the cliff face themselves. I used the CWU arch I made for the entrance into the main upper ward (there used to be doors but this is a fallen keep). Beyond the arch are the upper inner chambers of the Dwarven fortress carved out of the mountain side.












P.S. yes I know I need to paint my miniatures... and this is just a quick throw together build I made on the fly using what I currently had made. I am working on having the TLX Lost Dwarven Halls build ready for when the players penetrate down into the lower chambers (if they can solve the riddle of the magic door). The dead Orcs and Ogre are from last game, the live ones are the ones the players are aware of, they had retreated into the room after the Water Warlock in the group cast an area effect spell, while these were unaffected, they still viewed the purple mist with superstitious reactions and retreated from it allowing the players to devastate their comrades who found themselves outnumbered. The dead Orcs outside and in the arch are part of two different waves of combat, the outer guard and the inner guard, defeated seperately in a surprise attack they did not have the numbers to present eneogh of a challenge to slow down the players.

Hmm... never heard of Gimp, I'll look it up.

Pics in game, only a few, and mostly taken during breaks.

Moving in the players allowed me to remove excess combat game area. I removed the outer defenses. One thing I like about combining masterboards is I was able to push everything to the middle and just remove it from the table in as little as a minute. As well the entire inner chambers took only a moment to slip towards the center of the table for extra table space.


Quickly the players moved in to engage the Orcs they had seen withdraw, as they stepped into the main hall they saw no sign of the Giant. Immediately and with prejudice they turned on the remainder of the Orc defenders.

In moments the Orcs are decimated, reduced to masses of bloody bodies and parts, Finally defeating the defenders they began to explore for some secret door that the giant may have hidden beyond. Succeeding his roll, the Dwarf moves toward the throne as the only obvious giant sized potential secret door. As he steps up to the dias a loud maniacal laugh fills the room, before his very eyes a Giant and his Orc priest lower their invisible barrier.

Player characters spreading out around the room find themselves engaged in sudden battle, The Giant raises a massive mace and brings it down on the heavily armored Dwarf, even in his berserker rage he feels the impact of the blow, his great strength the only thing preventing him from flying thru the air. Seeing the magic user to one side the Human Merc moves in for the kill, As he brings both his swords down for the kill, they bounce off of his magical barrier. The Ranger seeing the shield rebound the blows turns his bow on the Giant, placing a painful arrow deep within his knee. The Dwarf lashes out striking at the Giants armored ankle, trying to break it and bring the Giant down to his size. The water warlock attempts a mist spell, hoping to put both opponents to sleep, both easily shrug off this attack and carry on. The priest begins praying, her requests to her Goddess not going thru (failed rolls). The Orc Priest calls on his God and lashes out at the Mercenary with lightning called into thin air, it strikes the mercenary, he shrugs off the effects but suffers great personal damage. His armor and clothes still smoking he strikes once more at the Priest, one strike makes it thru the shield, catching the priest across his throat crushing in his larynx with a called shot at his throat, the mage armor he wears stopping the blade but not the force.

Twice more the Dwarf recieves hard hits from the Giant, his armor is running low and he can only survive another hit or two, if the Giant does not get lucky in his strike, several more arrows bounce off the Giants armor. The Dwarf retaliates, his attacks having finally destroyed the plate buckling it in and crushing in the Giant's bones in his ankle. Then the Giants luck fails. Double 1's on a strike...

Next thing I know the Giant is unable to support himself as he steps towards the Dwarf intending to finish him, with roles like that he fumbled bad. His ankle gave beneath him, his direction caused him to fall backwards his head coming down on the stone throne with his full weight, failing his save vs. unconsiousness he is knocked cold. The Dwarf in full berserker fury leaps upon his unconsious form and pummels his head into a bloody pulp (his weapons are his spiked armor and what he adds to it, he likes to roll around on top of his enemies, I've nicknamed him the blender). The Priest casts anti magic cloud upon the dias, destroying the Orc Priests personal barrier. With a precision strike the Mercenary drives both his swords deep into the mages bowels. Moments later silence fills the room.




Sadly I did not have a realistic sized Giant miniature, though I suppose I could have used a G.I.Joe as it would have been more accurately sized, at twenty feet he should have been three times that height...

This was all followed by the characters moving about the room checking for loot, and sorting it all between everyone.

Next game the magic door and the forsaken fortress of the dwarves.

Gimp is a great program, I use it for nearly everything, there are a few features I am not overly fond of, however, they are negligible when you consider the cost (FREE).

Your layout is a amazing, nicely done. Now get some paint on that lead.