Water Walkin’

We have a fishy situation below the Night Hag’s former cabin, so maybe you should skip the nail polish this week and make as few sudden movements as possible!

As we previously explained, DM Ben is adding some more stutter-step-style encounters to our home-brewed underground caverns to get the party to realize they’re not playing a video game. Dungeons and Dragons is way, way more fun when the group stops and smells the roses as they play. Tactics matter, right fellow DMs?!

This week’s featured STL comes from mz4250 and his impressive, ongoing collection of free STLs. You can download this Swarm of Quippers here. We suggest you print out a handful for starters.

Resident painter Kimmy Utah picked up a brush for our zippy schools of fish. Whenever we pass her multiple miniatures of the same sculpt, we ask her to do something unique to each one so they’re distinct. Hearing “I hit the red group for 15 bludgeoning damage” is always easier on DM Ben’s semi-chaotic combat tracking.

Plus, by giving us several color palettes here, we can use them in different situations, give each colored monster version different abilities, or even swap one colored mini out for another. It’s a win-win.

Now, let’s set the specific scenario for how we plan to add this speedy shoal to our DnD game. Our players’ new Bastion is an exciting development in our office campaign. One of the first things the group will certainly want to establish is a reliable water supply (maybe from a nearby river or underground aquifer).

DM Ben purposefully added some water cavern tiles by Milestone Heroes to the overall gameboard. This will be the first sign of water anywhere below the Night Hag’s cabin. We love to mix and match our 3D-printed tiles with Dwarven Forge (since certain types of highly coveted tiles aren’t always available on their website).

The group will encounter a waist-high water passage spanning about twenty-five feet. The water will be clear, and the party will see these smaller green fish (each the size of an adult male’s fist) harmlessly swimming about in the pool. If you’ve ever been to the Caribbean, think of all those fish that meander by and nibble at your feet.

Any player that enters the first square of water will make a Dex saving throw DC 12. On a failed save, the fish have nipped enough to draw a little blood. From there, the school of green fish mini will be replaced on the gameboard by the school of red fish mini (to represent their Blood Frenzy ability).

If a player does something clever like drop in some rations as a distraction, DM Ben will grant advantage and the option to even use the Animal Handling skill.

DM Ben will go with the DnD 5e Quipper Swarm stat block (AC 13, HP 28, +5 attack), but again, only if there’s a successful nibble even/failed con save.

This is another instance, though, of specifically how you move through these deep, dark caverns matters…wouldn’t y’all agree?

Until next time!