The Dog is in the Details

Some of our team is headed over to the annual Game On Expo Con here in Phoenix this weekend, so we’re doing our grab bag a day earlier this week. Let’s see what housekeeping items we were able to knock out!

First, we needed to assign a pet to our Night Hag. Everything in our witch’s life is an illusion, even her faithful hound! There are endless pooch picks out there, but we settled on a cute little fella from Brite Minis!

This adorable Dachshund was just right for the upcoming Cabin raid scenario, as we didn’t want anything too imposing, like a big ol’ German Sheppard (although we also love those Brite Mini sculpts!).

DM Ben wants surprises where the party thinks none exist. The Night Hag knows they’re coming. The adventurers know she’s a Night Hag masquerading as an Old Woman…and they know she’s the one sneaking into Waterdeep and snatching younglings. However, the witch doesn’t know how tough the party is and vice versa.

When the group first sees her homestead from afar, DM Ben wants it to look like no big deal. Our game group includes several dog lovers, so we want to prey on those feelings and have them think it’s just a poor ol’ pup. Little do they realize the dog is actually undead and will defend the witch with its last breath.

Our mean miniature is from the inaugural Harbinger set in 2003. It is officially a wolf skeleton, but it works as a hound for us in this case. Even cooler, it has a little chain leash around its neck. We just love this mini (and the 80-fig set it hails from)! Plus, how can we resist bringing some classics into our ongoing game?!

For its stats, we’re using D&D Beyond’s 5e Death Dog. However, we’re just going to do a single-headed, single-attack creature. As the party approaches, the witch’s dog will really yup it up by pretending to whimper and be extra friendly and adorable.

Also, we needed to create a couple of item cards for items the party could uncover in the Night Hag’s basement. She keeps a disguise kit and bottles of extracted tears (twisted, we know) in her creepy cellar. An adventurer will certainly try to pocket these pieces.

To make our nifty cards, we once again turned to Felraider RPG and its amazing PDF utility. We utilized their DnD Mundane Equipment PDF print accessory for the disguise kit. Lyra inadvertently left one bottle behind, so we also made that in mundane equipment template until they properly identified that it was a magic spell. Notice those cool backgrounds on each card – you can pick from all sorts of different categories to give your item cards a little more flavor and snazziness.

Next week, we’ll round out the Night Hag’s mimic guardians and then show off the interior and exterior game boards! We’re also looking forward to sharing all our fabulous finds from Game On Expo 2024!