Shelob & Stranger Things

 Hey buddies,  Im happy to announce the arrival of the Spider Queen herself...

On candy stripe legs the Spider Queen comes
Softly through the shadow of the evening sun
Stealing past the windows of the blissfully dead
Looking for a victim shivering in bed

Searching out fear in the gathering gloom 
And suddenly a movement in the corner of the room
And there is nothing you can do
When you realize with fright
That the Spider Queen is having you for dinner tonight!

- Lullabye,  R. Smith

In the Old Forest... an ancient evil has come.  All the way from the pass of Cirith Ungol, in the Dark Lands of Mordor, a many legged Goddess of Darkness has come to find creatures to feed upon.  But the Old Forest is not her final destination.  Where is she heading to?

Shelob is on the search for new food.  Mordor is a nice place and all, but alot of the best restaurants in Middle Earth dont deliver there and the local dives are kinda samey.  But Shelob has heard of the Shire and its inhabitants...  the plump and scrumptious Hobbits.  Plus Sauron has been putting out a reward for some Hobbit called Baggins.  So if the Shire doesnt provide food delivery, Shelob is coming to feast!  And get some rewards from the Dark Lord too!

And she even picked up some wee Forest Gobbo friends along the way to help out.

Look into my eyes!

Once a long time ago, when Shelob was a young and rebellious teenager, she did visit the Misty Mountains and all the Frost Giants came out and gave her a hard time.  They thought she might be a tasty treat herself.  She showed them that their bad neighborhood is nothing compared to The Dark Lands and proceeded to hand out ass-whoopins - Mordor style!  Then proceeded to give the Hill Giants gang... and the Fire Giant gang a beatdown too! 

The Giants never forgot her and the Fire Giant King, Snurre Ironbelly, wanted to make her an honorary member of their gang - the Spider Queen of the Barrio.  Instead, she went looking for some gang of Northern Dragons to bully.  Some say, those Giants want to make a comeback.  But who will fight.... G-1-2-3 "Against The Giants"?

These nimble Forest Goblins are armed with bows and spears.

This one fella pissed off a hungry baby spider.

These Gobbos worship Shelob as a Goddess, with good reason... her mom was a bonafide baddass deity.

Shelob is the daughter of Ungoliant, an ancient primordial being that took the shape of a giant spider.

Some little known history about Ungoliant is that she tried to eat the Silmarils (Jewels that contain the essence of the Trees of Life).  Melkor, Sauron's boss, owned them at the time and Ungoliant made him cry like a baby (yeah, Sauron's boss got all pissy eyed when Ungoliant laid down a smackdown!) Luckily for Melkor, an army of Balrogs heard him crying and came to rescue him from the Spider Goddess. So, Balrog had better watch out, Shelob hasnt forgotten that!

Recently Shelob and Balrog had a meet and greet. 
Here's what happened:

Shelob:  'Sup...

Balrog: (uncomfortable head scratch)  Oh, hey...

Shelob: ... (lots of eyes focus on the Balrog)

Balrog: So... um, about your mom?  I had nothing to do with that. I was hoping we could be friends...?  Um, dont you just hate those Stunties and Hobbits?

Shelob:  ... (mandibles start clicking hungrily)

Balrog:  I really ought to be going now... Byeeee.....

Here is a pic of some detail of the base.

~~~

Teaser of future adventure hook on this blog:

Yeah, this blog is getting strange but Im loving it.  Hope you are too. I also just binge watched Stranger Things and laughed seeing those kids playing D&D with miniatures.  I once had that Grenadier Demogorgon figure too! Wish I still had it.

So I enjoyed the show enough that it sparked some gaming ideas in my head.  Maybe it involves some vintage D&D metal figures...  Maybe some little kids in adventurers gear battling against "other dimensional" horrors...  What am I babbling about?  Another basic D&D adventure is in the works!  But not for a month or two at least.  On paper, the ideas look great, but you will have to wait til maybe Halloween (appropriate timing) when I unleash a grand ol' adventure on some unsuspecting wee player characters!  In the meantime, we have lots of Warhammer battles coming sooner rather than later.

~~~

Some bonus final thoughts:

For new readers of this blog, I expect some guffaws, snorts, and most probably a few harrumphs about the unorthodox goings-on being committed here.  I defend nothing!  Guilty as charged, your honors!  In the spirit of Oldhammer, I admit to not only using miniatures from the accepted Citadel, Marauder, Chronicle, and Iron Claw companies, but also from any other company I fancy.  As for background campaign fluff, I use everything and anything.  All mixed together.  Zany?  Yes.  Strange?  You bet!


List of Strange Things on the blog:

How about a list of the craziest things happening on my Moria blog (and their implications!)
Lets see...
1 Balin has been brought back to life by the 4 Chaos Gods!
2 Game of Thrones characters are running around Middle Earth!
3 Game of Thrones characters are running around Middle Earth WITH Crom the god of Conan's people, Beowolf killer of Grendel, and Temudjin aka Jenghis Khan, a real historical person, among others!
4 Dwarven wizards!
5 Dungeons and Dragons creatures like the beloved Beholder is hoping to live a peaceful life in Forodwaith.
6 D&D Drow live in Moria!
7 One of those Drow is Elric Of Melnibone who has been magically transformed into his present predicament (Eternal Champions are coming if I can get a vintage box of it!)
8 Deep below Moria, the world opens up as an Inner Earth primordial jungle where dinosaurs live and its called the Savage Earth, where the X-Men sometimes end up!
9 And there are Monkeys down there too, from the Planet of the Apes!
10 There is a cult trying to wake Cthulhu from his slumber... again, at the bottom of Moria!
11 Sleeping Cthulhu is still transmitting a beacon 40,000 years later and is the real reason the Tyranids are attacking the Galaxy!
12 The Dwarf known as Pickles is actually carrying around the Marauders Map from Hogwarts!
13 Time Bandit Dwarfs are about to enter the craziness because they want to get their map back from Pickles!  (Which means the Marauders map belongs to...  the Supreme Being!)

Cheers,
Mar