Hey, Hey, It’s Game Day (Mar 2025, Office Edition)

Greetings, fellow dice enthusiasts! We’re flipping this week’s article posting schedule on its head a little bit, as we have our office campaign game tomorrow, and the game board is being completely swapped out for the upcoming Tresendar Manor mini-dungeon crawl! Let’s explore.

So, normally, we are all about Tomb Thursdays, but this dramatic environment change (Forest to Dungeon) in the office campaign is so intense that DM Ben needs a little more time to get ready for Friday. Also, he truly uses this post to get all his dungeon master ducks in a row for prep, and writing the article on game day doesn’t do as much good, since he can’t just dash back home and grab something he forgot. Hence, for office monthly game days, he’s going to do the article on Thursdays to help him remember what to pack to bring into the office.

Let’s start with a new 3D print we were able to sneak in before game day to further improve an upcoming encounter. We have two key rooms in the Tresendar Manor mini-dungeon crawl where things haven’t gone according to plan for the original inhabitants. There’s Area 7: Failed Ritual and Area 10: Far Realm Rift. For either room, DM Ben wants to convey that something went awry and provide clues about what might have happened to The Fellowship of the Golden Mongoose AI Franchise that the party is trying to locate.

These humorous barrels by STL Miniatures are from their wonderful Abbey Monks Set, and we were eager to get them onto a gameboard. What better way to show the players that someone was hastily trying to clean up a mess that got quickly out of control? DM Ben just isn’t sure which room he’ll put them in – that’ll be a game-time gut decision.

No eyes, no problem here, so DM Ben was happy to color both pot versions up in time for game day. He was also really stoked to come up with two simple paint scheme options for future TTRPG scatter terrain, as these came out swell!

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop Base.
• Dark Barrel P1: Layer FAN Leather Brown.
• Dark Barrel P2: Drybrush FAN Desert Yellow.
• Dark Barrel P3: FAN Strong Tone Wash.
• Light Barrel P1: Layer FAN Wasteland Clay.
• Light Barrel P2: FAN Strong Tone Wash.
• Legs: FAN Barbarian Flesh + Black Wash.
• Shoes: Citadel Contrast Snakebite Leather.
• Barrel Lid: GSW Skeleton Brown.
• Liquid: Citadel Contrast Plaguebearer Flesh
• Liquid Effect: AKI’s Water Effects

The office was split right down the middle on which stone/clay pot paint scheme everyone liked best, so we’ll probably use them both on future scatter terrain pieces.

To briefly recap how our Game Day post and prep that went in February, the group spent the entire four-hour sesh doing this insane Goblin ambush battle! This office group of players is alllll about rolling as many dice as possible and doing a lot of combat. They just live for that kind of stuff over any character/story immersions. That’s fine by DM as he’s here to give the group what they want. And none of our Goblins were pushovers (by design).

They killed over 25 Goblins, including both the leader and his second in command, thanks to multiple fireballs cast by the two magic users in the group! Some Shady Tree’s Angry Acorns even came to the group’s aid in the late rounds, but their axes weren’t even really needed thanks to those devastating fire artillery-esque spells.

So, that means alllll the other prep DM Ben lined up in the last Game Day post wasn’t even needed. No complaints from DM Ben, as he loves it when some stuff carries over to a future TTRPG sesh. The only bummer is we were all having so much combat fun that he forgot to deploy the Banana Curse on our ancient-crypt-wrecking Barbarian, so he’ll be saving that for a future battle. #darn

Hence, everything else DM Ben had lined up for the last game is still in play!

• Return young Adrik to Krufer Promentory | collect reward.
• Return young Shamus to Ewan McHook | offers to build them something.
• Return the mysterious human girl, Deliilah, | Lord Gallobax DuGalle
• Meet Omin Dran to collect Night Hag monetary reward (600 gp per character).
• Get the Fellowship of the Golden Mongoose franchise quest.
• Pick up the first Forgotten Rails Hovertrain escort mission to Phandalin. | Shady Tree Sabotage
• Encounter an underderess Lizardfolk alchemist named Thetsis on their way to the hideout | P1, P2.
• Do one random encounter roll on the module’s Traveling to Phandalin table.
• Begin the Tresendor Manor Dungeon Crawl.

So, the plan here is to allow the players to return to Waterdeep. Hit all the bullets above and then have them go back out onto the road to find out what happened to the Fellowship of the Golden Mongoose franchise.

DM Ben mentioned what a big deal combat is to this group of players, so he’ll ensure we at least get the Ax Beak Wandering monster stampede encounter in for the night, and even add in the Lizardfolk alchemist encounter in there too.

He also needs to dish out the loot from the huge, massive goblin battle, which is going to have a pretty nice stash of stuff because the group killed both the goblin leader and his first in command before either could flee (thanks to a fireball range of 150 feet). They also have a Ranger in the party who can make sick shots from a long distance, thanks to his trusty longbow.

Here’s what he’s thinking in terms of possible treasure:

• Money: 25 monster kills, so probably something like 200 gp, 120 sp, 300 cp.
• Temp Magic Items: a couple of utility scrolls (like Greater Resistance) and potions (like Greater Invisibility).
• Fancier Magic Items: Horn of Silent Alarm | Living Gloves

DM Ben keeps a go-to tin of Magic Item Loot in a card tin – stuff he’s researched and knows that won’t overly shift the balance in the game, so he’ll sift through those options too.

Until next time!