You might want to refer to the adventure playthru for more details of what things were and how the heroes interacted with the terrain. I gave more details on the construction and planning in an earlier post, which, again, may prove useful to review.
The Master Forge
I built four levels of the forge and mapped out the remaining levels and the surrounding cavern and a little bit of the mines on dot and cross paper. The roll I got last year is still going strong.
The four levels have two entrance/exits to the cavern surrounding the Forge. They are connected by stairs or ramps, and a lift shaft also links them, giving explorers options when moving through the structure.
Basement
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| The basement |
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| Basement from the other side |
Steps lead up to the ground floor and the lift platform rests on the stone flagged floor.
The base of the furnace occupies one corner.
Four pillars surround the centre and wooden walls block this area off.
Ground Floor (casting floor)
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| The Ground Floor |
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| Ground Floor from the other side |
Doors lead out into the cavern (though they were unusable in play due to the water pressure behind them), and a wooden ramp leads up to the mezzanine level.
The centre of the room is a pit of sand, used for casting from the furnace, which can pour molten metals into it.
The heroes never fully drained the cavern, so didn't enter through the main doors. If they had done, this is the view they would have seen.
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| The view from the door |
First Floor Mezzanine
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| The mezzanine level |
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| Mezzanine viewed from the other side |
There are large voids in the wooden floor, effectively making the ground floor and this floor one space.
A wooden ramp leads up to the next level.
There are two doors in the furnace at this level, with flooring allowing the dwarves to access them (for hand pouring of the more precious metals).
Second Floor (ore loading)
A door leads to a bridge over the cavern, ore was brought in on carts when the Master Forge was in operation.
The top of the furnace is here, with shuttered openings for loading the ore and other substances for the smelting process.
A wide flight of steps lead up and then divide, both arms end in locked doors on the next floor, the Crafting Level. This level had previously been explored by the heroes, hence it had a low priority when it came to building the terrain. In fact, it never got beyond being drawn out on paper.
Construction
As mentioned previously, I used the Crooked Staff method (using corrugated and thin card with the textures printed on paper and stuck to the card) on Fat Dragon EZ Lock Dungeon terrain including the Hall of the Mountain King set.
This did lead to some changes; the original map had stairs and ramps that ascended at 45°, but the card terrain sets have a shallower angle, so I had to account for that. Initially the floors were 20 foot apart, but this would have meant a lot more space for stairs, so the ceiling height became a mere 10 foot. Mind you, it is a Dwarven building.
Walls and Corners
Initially I wanted to craft sections of walls that could be removed as required. As time ticked by I decided to manage without.
But the upper floors had a tendency to sag, especially at the edges, so I built corner pieces to act as supports and a visual reminder that there are ten foot walls around each floor.
In play, with the floors separated, the corners can be removed.
The Furnace
I wanted the furnace to look impressive. There's a nice one in the Halls of the Mountain King set (partly why I decided to use it). In the end, though, it wasn't really what I wanted, so I used some of those textures on a Pringles tube cut to size. Other features on the PDF were repurposed to make the fittings on the structure, such as the little doors and the chute.
The Vault of the Fang
The climax of the adventure took place in a strange extra dimensional space. This was simply drawn out (mostly because this was a late addition to the adventure and I didn't have time to do the concept justice in a rushed 3D build).
The tooth was a plastic fang from an old Halloween necklace, trimmed and mounted on a clear base.
The crystals were taken from a piece I made for the 4E campaign, dismantled for the purpose.
And that's it.
I probably put a bit too much effort into this, but I do want these occasional sessions to feel special.
As I was building the forge, I was aware that it might be a fancy setting for a mediocre adventure. Fortunately those Fornits seemed to do their job just in time.
What's Next?
Well there's still some time left for the Season of Scenery challenge, and I do have some (lots) of unfinished stuff. Hopefully I'll get round to finishing some of this off.
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