Miniature Monday: Don’t Judge a Book by Its Mouse

Greetings, fellow workfolk. We’re back to our chaotic desks of doom after a hearty weekend of DnD dice rollin’, 3D printin’, and model paintin’. Let’s see what’s new!

Today’s picks stem from a recent DnD Office Campaign sesh where the players, inexplicably, decided (on their own) to go to a local library in Waterdeep to see if they could dig up more dirt on Lord Galobax DuGalle after successfully rescuing his niece from the evil Night Hag. DM Ben had to improvise on the spot, and it turned out to be a darn fun encounter. While they were there, they also looked for any skinny on the witch.

So, now that we’ve had a little time between game sessions, DM decided to create a small NPC library scene to reward the players’ sleuthing skills and make any future library stops into a hair-raising one-shot.

Regular 3DRPGers will remember that DM Ben adores setting up a new NPC encounter, as he firmly believes taking the extra effort to 3D print a miniature and a few scatter pieces helps to fully engage in the scene. So, we’ll start with a couple of STLs from Cast n Play and their epic Terrain Essentials Vol II Kickstarter.

We pulled these two fun pieces from their Library Stretch goal. They’re perfect for setting our new city scene. Once again, colored by the fabulous Kimmy Utah, these two scatter pieces scream whisper depository. DM Ben doesn’t need to overdo our archival setting, but a classic, old-school book wheel, with some hastily stacked books and scrolls, says it all.

From there, DM Ben reached into his DnD collection and found this handmade bookshelf from a brilliant eBay artisan. Back in the day, there were no 3D printers, so he turned to various creators on the auction site to satisfy his TTRPG terrain itch. With newer sites like Temu & AliExpress, you could get these sorta subtle touches to build your own pieces or further augment your 3D prints. The sky is the limit these days. We’ll share some recent “dollhouse” style pieces we ordered on Temu and explain what we mean here in a future post.

Now all we needed was an actual librarian for our detectives to interact with and help steer them towards some new, critical clues. For that key NPC miniature pick, we tapped Loot Studios and their amazing Loxwort Academy set. This Smartmouse Familiar mini is perfect in every way.

Our newest NPC is going to have a bit of a story-integration twist. Since DM Ben had no frickin’ idea his players were going to pull such a logical move in Waterdeep, he had to do theater of the mind for the entire encounter. He created a snarky Elf who hated his job and wasn’t very interested in helping the players. Kimmy Utah painted this little fella too, who we nudge in size to take up a full d20 square.

So, now, when the group returns to the library, they will find a new worker at the encounter. This epic mouse is actually a Night Hag spy, keeping tabs on the adventuring party. The group could also mistake this one for an employee of Lord DuGalle, who doesn’t want anyone looking into his sketchy past or his shifty business affairs.

DM Ben likes the Night Hag spy angle, as when the group initially found some text on her during their first visit, the ink suddenly melted off the page, and the party wizard discovered there was a ward on the book (so the witch would know if anyone was trying to learn more about her).

Certainly, the players will find it extremely odd that the previous librarian has been let go suddenly. Like, who fires librarians? DM Ben is going to do a fun skill challenge with some Insight and Investigation checks (or whatever other skill they try to pass off) to see if the party can blow his cover and even overtake him to learn more about who hired him.

This would be an awesome chance to use the Pathfinder Chase Cards and have the group try to catch him once he realizes the gig is up!

Until next time!