Clovis rolls a purrsuasion check. It’s a 16. Blaze rolls a panic check (wisdom save). It’s a 15.
“Woah woah woah. Hold up here!!!” Clovis yelps. Normally he’s the one to leap into battle without question – but this clearly wasn’t a monster after all. “We’re just here looking for a unicorn we mean you no harm!”
Blaze wiggles her paw, and a small flame appears in it – she’s debating if she should prepare another spell. Clovis’ words seem sincere, he hasn’t raised his great axe or made any sudden moves towards her. Maybe they can be trusted. Then again – the arrow damage from Kirkle has thrown her off.
“How do I know I can trust you?” Blaze states with a hiss.
“You don’t, just as we don’t know if we can trust you.” Kirkle whispers.
“We are adventurers, we’ve come here from Purrth on search of the most beautiful creature in all the land. I’m Clovis and my hooded friend over there is Kirkle. What else do you want to know? I’m an open book!” Clovis says with a grin. Kirkle looks disgusted, he’s too trusting what’s to say Blaze won’t just use that flame to burn the fur right off his backside?!
“What do you want with my unicorn?” Blaze demands.
“Your unicorn? How is it your unicorn? You can’t own a unicorn!” Kirkle puts down his crossbow and crosses his paws under his cloak.
“We’ve heard stories of their majesty and want to see it with our own eyes! We’ve also heard of treasure hidden within their den. Treasure means more nip – more nip means more fish. More fish means – well no that’s where it ends, I’m in it for the fish.” Clovis winks at Kirkle catching his distraught gaze.
“I’m Blaze. I’ve been here trying to reach the unicorn for the last fortnight. I feel I’m hot on its trail – but I fear this ruckus may have scared them away. I’ve heard the first to befriend this unicorn will be given Ring of Shooting Stars. If they have this treasure who knows what else a unicorn den may hold.”
The three move together dropping their weapons, Clovis offers a small bundle of catnip as the sun sets in the sky. If they wait until nightfall, they’ll be less likely to spook the unicorn as they spooked Blaze. Each player loosens up a bit, and they share more about themselves. Clovis talks of his family, whom he hasn’t seen in many moons, and the call to adventure. In his village he stopped a fiery beast from destroying them all. That beast has vowed revenge and Clovis worries he could be lurking around any corner. These adventures help him feel like he’s stronger so someday he won’t be afraid to return home.
Blaze lives amongst the wildlife, she’s befriended the woodland creatures around her and helped many out of a jam. She has lived off the land for as long as she can remember, her tribe roams the planes on the Isle of Ocelot. If she brings home this protection her tribe can roam further than ever before.
Kirkle is a little more reserved in his answers – he follows Leira the lady of Deception. He worships her and hopes to someday join the ranks of her Mistcallers. Until then, he goes where the mist takes him and that is here with Clovis.
“What was that?” Kirkle ends his words abruptly – convinced he’s heard something.
Blaze and Clovis roll a perception check – do they hear the sound? Blaze rolls a 12, Clovis rolls a 19.
Blaze isn’t sure she’s heard anything – she looks around suspiciously maybe it was just the wind. Clovis’ ears perk up, he’s sure it came from the main path – just on the other side of these trees.
Should our party check out the sound, maybe it’s the unicorn? Or remain hidden – maybe Blaze knows more about where this unicorn is?
All 10 adventurers are unlocked and will be available to select in your post campaign survey!
Things of note:
We have gone with the new design of our sorcerer - changing to be able to see her fur through the magic swirls. Thank you all for your votes earlier in the campaign.
I'm working on selecting pantone colors as we speak so you may notice some minor changes in colors.
I will be moving across the country during the first few weeks of August - I may not have any updates while on the road but I will be pushing production to begin before leaving!
Clovis points in the direction he heard the noise and crawls to peek his head through the greenery. Blaze and Kirkle follow his lead.
Group stealth check- Clovis rolls an 18, Blaze rolls a 21 and Kirkle rolls a 19.
All 3 are quietly peering out, and in front of them they see a faint swirly glow around a small brown creature. At the tip of its head sat the perfect horn. This was no normal unicorn, but rather a Almiraj! Blaze scurries forward excited to see this beast. She casts speak with animals and bows deeply.
"Your majestic beauty has captured our attention! I have been searching far and wide for a creature of such grace." Blaze says.
The Almiraj appears frightened but the sudden appearance of another. Not to mention by the fact they speak his language.
"H..h..hello" he manages to whisper. "Our? Are you trying to harm me"
"No no of course not! We've heard tales of you and this island - we wanted to come see it for ourselves." Blaze motions to Clovis and Kirkle to come out of their hiding places. She wants to be clear they have no bad intentions.
"What have you come for? Clearly just seeing me is not worth this adventure." The Almiraj is skeptical.
Blaze doesn’t want to ruin her chances of receiving the Ring of Shooting Stars – she hesitates.
Deception Check. Blaze rolls a 15.
“We would just like to see the island and hear of your mystic past. We only hope to befriend you – and any others of your kind.” This isn’t technically a lie – so Blaze comes off sincere and the Almiraj lets down his guard ever so slightly.
“Come, see my home. Deep under the island lies a cave of wonders. But be weary, some corners have gone unexplored for millennia and who knows what danger is lurking there.”
The Almiraj turns with a leap and heads north. The adventurers struggle to keep up as they wind through the trees ducking under branches and around bushes until they come to an abrupt halt and watch the Almiraj dive down a dark hole.
Captain Blackbeard casts off and steers the ship around the island. The vessel skirts the coastline as the sun slides across the sky. Hours must have passed, our adventurers tummies rumble – it must be lunch time. Who are we kitten – it’s always lunchtime they’re cats. They pull out their rations and enjoy a meal on the deck.
The S.S. Fish Sticks rounds a protected outcropping and pulls in to drop anchor. “Okay boys, I’ll meet you back here sunset tomorrow – I expect a treasure, or I’ll feed you to the Tuna.”
Clovis and Kirkle cast off in the dingy to the shore of Unicorn Isles. A tropical green paradise from the outside with a mysterious mist hanging within. What will they find on the island? Can they bring the treasure they promised?
Only one path leads from the shore into the densely packed greenery. “Well, I suppose that’s the way to go” Clovis states, guiding the dingy to the shore and scurrying ahead.
Kirkle jumps to follow, ready to blend into the tree line.
Roll an investigation check – what do you see within the trees? Clovis rolls a 21, Kirkle rolls a 2.
Kirkle sees a crab and jumps in fear huddling under his cloak between two tree trunks. He’s forgotten why they’ve come and pretends he’s back home in his nice warm cat bed. Why does he agree to these things?
Clovis, see’s unicorn tracks leading further up ahead. Wow, this easy already! He thinks. He follows them forward 10 paces. He scans the area when his eye catches a small rustle within the leaves. Looking back Kirkle is right where he left him at the edge of the sand. What is that? He wonders.
Clovis rolls a nature check, what is it? He rolls an 8.
“Kirkle come on – I see something!” Clovis whispers walking back to pull along his companion. He doesn’t know what it is but assumes it’s dangerous. The two tiptoe towards the rustling, as quiet as they can to get a better look.
Stealth Check! Kirkle rolls a 9, Clovis rolls a 16. Kirkle’s dice clearly aren’t having it.
They sneak around a bush and notice a large orange tail slightly twitching, leading into the base of the bush. Kirkle steps back startled and steps on a fallen twig, snapping it in half. The sound echoes and he rushes to hide. Clovis stiffens – the tail pulls into the bush and out of view.
Introducing Blaze – the Druid. [Enamel pin unlocked!]
Roll for initiative. Clovis rolls a 12, Kirkle rolls a 19. Blaze – rolls a Nat 20.
A medium sized, orange creature with large antlers jumps out of the bush with a hiss. Claws drawn, ears back. She conjures an Ice Knife and flings it at Clovis.
Blaze rolls a 21. That hit. Clovis makes a dexterity save and rolls a 6.
Clovis’ arm is grazed, he takes 2 damage. Before he knows what hit him, the ice knife explodes, and he takes 10 damage from the shards.
Kirkle’s turn. He takes steady aim and pulls out his hand crossbow. Sneak attack gives him 1 d6 of damage. He then attacks rolling a 15.
Kirkle hits the orange mass, hitting for 5 HP. He takes aim and hits again, taking another 5 hp. The orange mass lets out another large hiss spinning to face Kirkle.
What should Clovis do? Attack, she hit first after all! Or pursued there’s no reason to fight. We’re all cats here.
Clovis and Kirkle are startled awake, their surroundings unfamiliar to them. Somehow in their catnip induced stupor they’d found their way to the docks and fell asleep on a pile of nets. Adventure was calling – and where else could one find a ride to Unicorn Isle? The two adventurers rolled to their feet and stretched forward. Clovis’ tail was straight in the air his excitement had peaked. Kirkle had that sparkle in his eyes again. Clovis opened his mouth to ask if something was wrong as Kirkle yelped and jumped back hiding behind a small pile of fishing nets.
A shadow appeared over Clovis, he turned to face the most fearsome pirate in all the land…Captain Blackbeard. Rumor has it, she’s sailed the four seas of the Feline Realms and defeated beasts far and wide. Her pegleg and golden tooth served as her main defenses. Clovis could only dream of the adventures she had seen.
“Captain Blackbeard, It is an honor to stand within your shadow.” Clovis said with a deep bow. “Don’t mind my companion over there, we are hoping to secure passage to the Unicorn Isle. Would you happen to be headed that way?”
Captain Blackbeard lifted a lip in a half grin, sun glinted off her golden snaggle tooth. “I take payment in gold.”
Kirkle rolls a purrsuasion check, Clovis gives the help action. He rolls a 10, a bead of sweat forms on his face. They’re low on gold - this is their only hope. It’s a 13 this is not looking good.
Kirkle steps out from his hiding spot, mustering a brave face. “I heard there’s a treasure where the Unicorn lies. If you grant us passage, we will split the findings with you.”
Captain Blackbeard nods and beacons the adventurers to follow.
They scurry forward and take their place aboard the S.S. Fish Sticks – full speed ahead to Unicorn Isle.
Do our adventurers go the short way and dock on the rocky coast, or do they go the long way and dock in a protected cove?
Hey everyone! Thanks for your patience as always as we’ve been working on things. As you may have seen on Instagram, we had almost all of the filler pins arrive last month, and a few of the larger pins as well. I’m dropping by to give another status update with things.
There is one key item that I did want to make clear with the campaign as I believe I didn’t articulate it as well as I could have, and for that I apologize for misaligning expectations. The original estimates for the campaign were for a 20-25 pin design campaign. With the campaign ending with 55 designs, that put a ton of manufacturing workload + design complications as we were suddenly finishing an additional 30+ designs. As we hand vector everything which is usually a day for each pin, that’s over a month in vectors alone - with nothing else included. Obviously, we still would have wanted earlier shipment dates if we could have, but with so many pins, it was near impossible that all 55 sets would finish early (even barring a miracle where no errors or art adjustments occurred).
We’ve also had some… minor manufacturer drama, where we had a rep who lied about being fired from one of our factories and started trying to contact us elsewhere, which led to some major ghosting and confusion… and it turns out she was illegally using the factory’s resources to make pins afterward, had notices sent to all her old contracts and… it was a mess. We did get a new representative there, but it took a minute to get straightened out. Then we had another rep from a different factory get majorly sick (like hospital sick) and stopped responding for several weeks; on returning, she forgot about a few pins for months in a sick-haze, and only realized she hadn’t submitted them when we inquired about the confirmed pins on where progress was. While both of these situations are now sorted out, while dealing with so many designs, we had to juggle a bit.
All said, my current target date is to have all items graded before NYCC (where Venetia is also attending!) and to start shipping packages out. This is early-to-mid October. That show is the first one we’ll anticipate having the pins present, but we may only bring seconds grades there (depending on how far we are with fulfillment at the time). The priority will always be securing and setting aside the best grades for backers, so it largely will depend on how far along the process we are for those pins at that time.
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The last thing to get finished this last month was the Guardian Sword, as you guys voted early in the year. It was the final chest drop from our story, reimagined from Tim Kaminski’s Inktober sword sketches. The finalized artwork ended up being a deluxe pin. We won’t change the pricing on anyone, of course, and you’ll just get it for way cheaper than intended (or free, if you had a full set). We just couldn’t add in the sword in a way that didn’t compromise the design at anything less than 3”. This is in production now. :D
Other than that, the campaign by the number:
23 pins fully finished with manufacturing (started some grading)
12 in mass manufacturing
20 in sample passes and/or final adjustments - we had to do some remolding on 5 of the pins because of some close cut areas that didn’t turn out well, so we paid to redo the molds to make it cleaner
Some photos of some more of the pins:
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All said, we are truly excited that we started getting these pins in. It’s weird to see the whole adventure unfolding in physical form. We’d love to know what your favorites are from the showcased pins! Let us know. :D
I’ll touch base again sometime in the middle-to-end of next month; I’m hoping to see most of the items currently in mass manufacturing complete, and most of the items in sampling into mass manufacturing, but I’ll keep everyone posted then.
We did it! 6 of our lovely characters are unlocked. Lets see if we can push to unlock our Druid and Beholder next! And/Or 25 backers to unlock our dragon 3D print. Backers only - here's a special preview of the 3D model.
Some of our feline friends have made their home at a local fishing village called Purrth. While they love to feast on the fish hanging all around the village, the call of adventure beckons Clovis the Barbarian. He's decided to head down to the local catnip club and gather up his party. Clovis speaks of tales of the Unicorn isles, a mysterious island just off the coast. If the weather is clear enough, you can see it just across the river. He continues, talking of an old castle ruin full of riches and all the catnip they could handle.
Kirkle the rouge is hesitating in the shadows. He’s heard these stories before and dreams of exploring. The hooded figure tiptoes forward and sits with Clovis. Eyes sparkling with adventure – or is that fear? They nod at each other and take another strong whiff of the catnip.
Adventure begins tomorrow.
Where should they head first?
Set off on a boat and find the mythical unicorn? Start a trek across the island and explore the castle ruins? Head to neighboring villages and persuade more adventurers to join your party?
It's been a while but I'm stopping by to let you know about a short production delay. I received the manufacturer drafts a little over a week ago but I was unable to look through and approve them at that time. Unfortunately, a week ago I ended up in the emergency room and was then admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery. It wasn't anything too serious, but I had to have my gallbladder removed due to gallstones and infection. I had the surgery and thought all would be well, but soon after I got home I ended up back in the hospital for a complication from that surgery, and ended up having another procedure. All in all, I spent about a week in the hospital, on all kinds of pain killers and unable to work for several days. I have been home for two days now, but today is the first day I can sit and stand up without feeling dizzy or tired. The factory will not start production on the pins until I approve the manufacturer drafts. With about 30 plus designs it will take me most of today to go through those proofs to make sure the details are all correct. We are still on schedule to start shipping in September, but we are behind by about a week. Thanks for all your patience during this time where I had to sort out some health issues.
In other news, theres about 59 backers who have not completed their survey. If you are one of these backers please complete your survey as soon as possible. If you need help with finding your survey or just want to double check that you've completed it, please email me at [email protected]
Store Discount - Fourth of July In the meantime I hope you all have a great fourth! Please feel free to use the code JULY4th for 30% off any etsy order of $5.00 or more. This coupon code is good for a week from today.
I hope all my US folks had a lovely holiday week and a great kickoff to the summer season. We've hit the halfway point of our campaign and are over halfway to unlocking all 6 pins!
We're working on planning our move at the end of the month - our last big "show" in California will be the Comic-Con Art Show! I've made a few limited editon Dungeons and Cats prints to display there. Are prints something folks would be interested in as an add on? Let me know in the comments!
