So today Marouda and I took my Mum to the Melbourne Museum. We all still refer to it as the “new” Museum, even though the new facility was opened back in 2000. The old Museum, located in what is now entirely the State Library of Victoria was a lot better, as they had much more of their collection on permanent exhibition, while the “new” Museum only has things like Arms and Armour on display when there’s a “thematic reason” to include them in some other form of exhibit. So, basically, never. (Yes, seriously).

Anyway, it was still a decent day – seeing dinosaur bones again, even cast ones is always good. But since this isn’t Facebook or Twitter to be filled with meaningless babble, there’s a point to all of this. After the visit, we took a look through the gift shop, not really planning to purchase anything. We’ve gotten some fossils from there before, but this time, I spotted various Orthoceras for sale, including these little polished ones with the same footprint as a coin. I decided that they would make just about the coolest objective markers ever – after all, they’re actual bloody fossils!

So I bought some.

Orthoceras for Objective Markers. Elf for scale.

Undead and Elves pretend to contest the fossilised Orthoceras objective in simulated game photograph.

I’m sure I’ll also sometimes use specific modelled objective markers for thematic reasons, but regardless, these are incredibly cool, and work well on a number of levels.

Speaking of cool, I also spotted these:

Agate Slices – available in a variety of colours – $15 each, sure. But that’s still probably cheaper than whatever crappy plastic summoning portals or vortex templates that GW or PP et al are selling. My first thought was actually Dark Eldar, but they’ll work for anything as far as I can see.

The Mouth of Sauron summons bad things from the Pink Agate portal. And provides scale.

Now summoning from the Blue Agate portal!

And finally, from the Purple Agate portal!

These Agates played havoc with the auto-white balance on the cheap digital camera that I use, as you can plainly see (check the desert sand mat!). Regardless, and despite the slight tonal shift and the fact that you’re not getting the 100% true colour of these Agates, the point is that they look bloody amazing, and despite the fact that I’ll likely use them rarely, they’ll also double as a nice little bit of deco for the War Room – and when I need a magical or psychic portal for a wargame or RPG, I’ll have the most kick-arse ones you’ve ever seen. They’re beautiful, have depth and layers, and incredibly deep colours. Oh, and as you can see – they look the part amazingly! It might be worth giving them a coat of clear acrylic to protect them, which I’ll look into later on.