Pack It Up, Pack It In

Today feels like a Kinda, Sorta Portal day as we continue to build out our free, random table for your DnD transporting pleasure. Let’s see where your finicky teleportation device might drop your party this time!

First, a quick recap of this series for any new readers: the party was given a magical timepiece from Waterdeep’s master gnome tinkerer, Tink Urbelle, allowing players to return to their home base once per long rest. There’s just one small catch. This arcane doorway has a 30% chance of temporarily placing you at the wrong location…that’s the “Kinda, Sorta” part of the “Kinda, Sortal Portal” magic item.

Underground is the central gameboard theme for this next magical entry. For that, we’re going to utilize Milestone Heroes’ marvelous Caverns series. We’ve showcased their magnificent modular STLs on the channel numerous times, including a detailed, step-by-step paint guide! So, you have everything at your fingertips to create this quickie one-shot random event.

To complete our encounter, we’re going to utilize two swell creators for our miniatures: mz4250 and Vae Victis. We’re able to quickly identify the Vae Victis here, but man, it was a slog to try and give you the direct link for mz4250’s creation. He has 5,000-plus STLs — no, seriously, he’s made that many free 3D prints — and we were initially coming up zeroes on our Google Image search. Luckily, the kind patrons on the Loot Studios discord helped us out!

First, let’s showcase mz4250’s 3D-print interpretation of the Morkoth! This garbage gobbler is from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Monsters of the Multiverse. Resident painter Kimmy Utah colored this freaky monster up for us, and we love the final product here!

Our other central mini here is by Vae Victis and is from their applicable named Corpses set. Please forgive the FDM layer lines here (which appear more on a zoomed-in digital image). This was before we started using Adaptive Layering in our Prusa slicer. DM Ben loves to lure adventurers further into an encounter with a body. Players just can’t resist investigating (and looting) our fallen human adventurer Cleric. 😉

Now that we’ve got our terrain and miniatures, let’s flush out the parameters of this encounter. The Kinda Sorta Portal drops adventurers from above (in the spirit of the classic Time Bandits film), so the players will start at the far end of the map.

It will be pitch black except for the remnants of a nearly burned-out torch. A battered body is seen poking out from an overside stalagmite. Anyone with dark vision will also notice a faint outline of what can only be described as a “pile of garbage.” They will also hear a few clanking sounds from that direction.

The players will ultimately see the back of the Morkoth, who is feverishly fishing through the rest of the nearly-dead adventurers’ belongings. The fallen human will show glimpses of being alive, such as slow breaths and slight movements, but the guy is hanging on by a thread after getting thrashed by this freak monster. At first, the group will see an empty flask land near them. Next, they see a sword added to the mysterious collector’s treasure pile.

Our six-member, fifth-level party should be able to hold out against this aberration…at least temporarily. A reminder of the portal’s unpredictable mechanics:

• Activating the portal the first time (takes 2 rnds/12 sec).
• There’s a 30% chance of being transported to a random location.
• Players are temporarily stuck in that unplanned spot (for up to 6 rnds/36 sec).
• They have to wait at least 3 rnds/18 secs before they can get back into it again.
• The timepiece holder has to go through the portal last.

So if the Kinda, Sorta Portal takes you to the wrong spot, you must be there for at least three rounds before you try to get to your original home destination again. After six rounds, the portal fizzles out, and you’re stuck in your current location (if you don’t jump back in it before then).

All that’s left to do now is update our growing teleportation table!

Until next time!