Kaelvoryn – The Stoneheart Tyrant Dice Tower

Edit: New Mechanism Beam - The old one had a rotation link, but was finicky to print as it consisted of two print in place parts. The new one is just one part, which has a flexible part to bend when installing, but rigid in the direction when flipping the mechanism.

Kaelvoryn Stoneheart Dice Tower

A dice tower incorporated with the DM screen. The DM can flip a mechanism, making the dice roll of the players go to the players side for all to see, or to the DM's side of the screen, for a blind DM roll!

The Tower can be used without ridge!

The Dice tower is about 320mm tall and spans 1165mm wide! It fits a standard screen of:

• Up to 230mm tall (mine is 210mm tall)
• Up to 2.8mm thick (mine is 2mm thick)
• Combined middle two segments of up to 570mm wide. (mine is 550mm wide)
• The ends are open for longer Screen end sections.

Assembly instructions below. But first, some lore. Which you could to incorporate it into your gaming sessions!

Kaelvoryn Stoneheart Tower - Lore:

I’ve walked that ridge more times than I can count. The path is narrow, with the drop yawning on either side, and the wind up there doesn’t so much blow as shove. One bad step, and the mountain decides your story ends. At the very tip of that ridge, the tower rises straight from the rock, as if the cliff grew it out of spite. And at the top, Kaelvoryn’s skull — jaw wide, caught forever between a roar and a laugh. From the valley you can see the sky through his teeth. At sunset, the fangs catch fire in the light, turning the whole skull red. Nobody thinks that’s an accident.

 

In life, Kaelvoryn was a sight to unmake courage. His scales gleamed like wet bronze in the sun, but were veined with darker seams, as if the mountains themselves had lent him their strength. His horns swept back in ridges of jagged stone, and his wings bore cracks and striations like weathered cliffs. They called him Stoneheart not because of any armor, but because no plea, no bargain, no act of mercy could sway him. His heart, they said, was harder than the peaks he ruled from — cold, immovable, and ancient as the rock beneath your feet.

 

No one remembers who built the tower. The oldest records speak of the battle, not the hands that carved the stone. The foundation is the ridge itself, cut from the living rock. Some say it’s a monument to victory. Others say it gives him a view — even in death — so he can keep watching.

 

Kaelvoryn wasn’t just a brute. He didn’t burn villages out of hunger or rage. He waited. He chose the moment when the rain softened the roads, when the watchmen grew careless, when the people let themselves believe they were safe. My grandmother swore Kaelvoryn could see the threads of a man’s fate, and wouldn’t strike until they twisted just so. She said meeting his gaze was like putting your life on the table and letting him roll the bones to see how it would end.

 

They fought him for three days across the high peaks. The sound of it rolled down the valleys like a storm trapped in the mountains. In the end, a spear through his eye brought him down, while the last of the warriors held him pinned. His body fell into the valley, but the skull lodged in the ridge and stayed there.

 

A year later, the tower rose beneath it. No chains. No runes. Nothing you can point to and call a binding. Yet storms have shaken those cliffs, quakes have split the stone, and still the skull doesn’t move.

 

Stand under it long enough and the wind changes. Sometimes it hisses through the teeth like breath, sometimes it groans through the hollows of the bone. A few claim they’ve heard words, but none agree on what was said. I can’t say I’ve heard them either, but I’ve felt it — a tightening in the chest, like something weighing your worth before deciding which way the bones will fall.

Maybe it’s just the wind.

Or maybe Kaelvoryn still plays the game, and every soul who walks that ridge is just another throw.

 

One throw is all Kaelvoryn needs.

 

— From the Journal of Lochwyn, Keeper of the Ridge

Designer's Note

I wanted a dice tower for my game that would be statement piece, as much as it would be functional. 
The functionality of a dice tower that was able to do blind rolls for the DM. As we roll death saving throws for our game blind. There wasn't any that exist the way I wanted it to look and function. Thus I created this. 
 

This is the first time I've created something in blender. Normally I work with engineering CAD software. I started with the image to 3D tool from MakerLab, and used that as a basis to start my learning experience with blender. I've edited and engineered it then to my hearts content, and it was a lot of fun, and I've learned a lot! I've tried to make it so, that the tower can be used without the ridge attached. At first I had the tower and ridge parts sitting loosely against each other. But they moved, so I made added some slot and keys to the parts. But it came at a cost, as the cuts I had made weren't straight, but followed the contours of the rocks. So there are flaws, and some gaps between the ridges themselves and the tower base. Especially between the Tower Base and Ridge Center Right. At this point, I was almost done and couldn't find any focus or method to fix it. So, I left it. Thus lore wise, there now is an extra cavern at the bottom of the tower. 

I've painted the model with acrylic paint without any sanding. Just some primer spay paint and then some acrylic paint. Some diluted paint, some sponge dipping and some dry brushing.  

Print Instructions

I've used as much standard settings as possible. I did however change the wall line count to 3 to give it a bit more strength and stability. Especially for the attachment points. Plus it makes the tower feel and sound less hollow when throwing dice. For this same reason I increased the Top shell layers and Bottom shell layers by one. Besides the strength, it also ensures top and bottom facing surfaces have enough support from within to have smooth surface. 
You could go with 2 wall line count. It would change the printing time from 39.6h to 36.2h, and the filament amount from 1.7kg to 1.5kg. 
I've set up the print profile with the default tree support. As it is needed for overhanging parts of the skull. And also for the slot and key holes in the tower base and the ridges. 

Assembly Instructions

Bend the mechanism beam slightly and place it in the slot. The extra lip should be in the up position. Lift/bend it slightly and place the flipper mechanism part through the hole of the beam. Then press firmly down to lock it in place. 

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The 10mm Plugs go in the skull head and head back. This should fit snug, so glue is not necessary. I used red so it's easy to see in the images.

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The 7mm diameter plugs go in the tower. Important: the thicker section goes in the the tower. Point the flat sections towards the teeth. The plugs should fit snug and might need some careful taps to put it in place.

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The skull head should have a “loose” fit, so that it is easy to install and remove the DM screen. The head has a slot in the back to fit over the DM screen. 

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The ridges all have a unique geometry and should only fit one way. I've named the parts with Center, middle, far, and Left or right (from the perspective of the players). Left has two ridge parts, and right has three. 

Some of the slot and keys need some love taps to get them in. If it is too tight, please send me message with an image of the issue, so I can resolve it and update the model in the print profile. 
 

Happy Gaming and Printing!

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Tabletop Role-Playing Game: 

Miniature Painting Assets:

Tabletop Wargame Assets:

V1: Tokens and Travel Box