The Teeth of Dahlver-Nar

Oh wow, THIS is funky

The Teeth of Dahlver-Nar, a red pouch with images of whimsical creatures stitched onto the side, containing a number of different shaped and size teeth, with attached two plaques showing the instructions for this item.

Ohhhh ho ho, this is a weird item. And extraordinarily powerful! I debated whether to make it or not for a while, since it's, well, not a card deck, but... it's a random draw item. We had also not planned on making the Bag of Beans or the Bags of Tricks either, but after we started this (the carving was side-tracked for a bit), we ended up cranking out both of those anyway lol, so let's just make them all it seems!

Now, what really drove me to start this was... just the weird way that the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar sits. Like the teeth in your mouth when you implant them lol. So it had to be made. It could also be bought for 70 quid, but... that's 70 quid, and this... isn't lol.

So we started with scraps! The first thing (since I didn't have access to an oven to dry clay) that I came up with to make was an instruction card (later modified to a smaller one). I decided to make that red, using the spare card that came with the Dungeons & Dragons Adventurer magasine, to go with well... the *thesaurus morbid* ghastly nature of this item. Also I found an old branch in the park to start carving the teeth from, why try to make them out of clay when I have carving tools! And so the carving began in like... January 2024, and then was waylaid for a while. And then took off again a fair chunk of time later, as tends to happen with some of my projects lol. During that time though, I printed out the instructions (later split in half to be smaller on a double-sided card) in tiny-print, though that last link I'll leave as the default images of the teeth, since the final version for myself will have actual photographs of my carved teeth themselves. If you're making your own, it's best you work off of the original images. But anyways, we originally tried making the pouch out of a glorious putrid-green rag that I found on the ground when returning from the grocery store lol, but it seems that fabric was too thick to actually close properly as a pouch! Then we tried using a small jute pouch that I dyed green and put an inner liner in to keep the tiny teeth from poking through, but that was TOO small. So of the scrap pouches that I have kicking around (yah I know the official item is supposed to be in a leather pouch, but I neither have a leather pouch, being vegan don't want to use a leather pouch, and honestly I just think the putrid green or the later gory red just fits the feel of the item better), I found this worn red one that I'd been keeping miscellaneous coins and buttons in between moves, and decided that the colour fit just as perfect. A *thesaurus gory* ghastly red, oh hey, we get the same thesaurii as morbid, convenient! So after edge-lining the pouch to eliminate the inner seams from hiding teeth from the tooth-puller (gods I love this item lol), I decided on a way to make the "images of heroes and whimsical creatures" stitched onto the sides.

But I get ahead of myself! Yah this project went all over the place back and forth, the teeth first! Amidst the pouch shenanigans, we had finished the teeth! Carved, primered, and after eventually getting new paints (oy, I was just sick of my decades old original ones), we painted the teeth! OH that rainbow one turned out amazing! And thank you warpaints for including a wash in your starter set, that really brought out the ones that from the original image looked like they could use it, that tarasque shard, that twisted beholder tooth! OH, like GOLD, much like that goblin bicuspid, thank you again warpaints for including both the gold AND silver metallic paints in the set. So... epic. Each received two coats of nailpolish topcoat for protection and strength (and a week of drying as learned from the cube), and wonderful, my macabre, disgusting d&d item comes closer and closer to completion!

Man I love this item, it's just so bizarre lol

But anyways, whimsical creatures! We need whimsical, fanciful creatures to stitch onto the pouch (as per the wiki)! I basically searched online for whimsical dnd creatures and found a list of cute creatures, that'll do! Also a few others, and some heroes. We have an Almiraj, the rabbit unicorn, Flumph, that octopus looking happy creature, a Hollyphant, a flying fuzzy elephant, a Ki-rin, a celestial unicorn, an Owlbear, because of course, a Flail Snail, you cute spike-wielding snail, a Cockatrice, you just look awesome, and some heroes, a barbarian, ranger, and paladin, ten of them to kinda stitch around the side. Ah, but how does one stitch these onto the pouch without an embroidery machine? I pondered this point for a while, and eventually came up with double-sided taping them to clear plastic, sandwiching clear plastic on top as well, drilling a few holes in the pair, and stitching those plastic patches onto the pouch, perfect!

And thus it came to be, and the pouch was completed, and the teeth were completed, and the smaller instruction plaque was completed with proper photos of these teeth specifically (though arranged 1-5, 11-15 kinda style to even the sizes). I'm glad I double-side taped the face of the images as well (trimming the factory tape edge for cleanliness), which made cutting them out extremely easy. After neatly trimming them out, I used a tiny drill bit to drill out the holes, and proceeded to use a little bit more double-sided tape to arrange them onto the bag, and then stitched them into place.

And with that... the Teeth of Dahlver-Nar is complete! :D :D :D

Finished October 2, 2024

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Aw yeah you can pull a tooth! 		A handful of pieces of a branch on a beige canvas tarp, along with a printout of the comparison sizes of the teeth of dahlver nar, with one tooth fully carved, the green steel pit fiend, and one partially finished, the jagged tarrasque sliver, sitting beside their counterparts of the printout.All of the carved teeth laying on a piece of cardstock to act as paint and glue protection for the table, and behind it the printout of the teeth of dahlver nar, showing them all carved to shape.

A four part picture, showing the original green facecloth fabric with the edge folded over and sewn into sixteen segments, an attempt to close said pouch with first the original thicker yellow cord, then a thin green ribbon, neither of which was capable of closing the pouch even close, another ribbon added to each of those segments, still not close to closing, then another ribbon kinda woven between all of those visible parts, in hopes of... I dunno, shoelacing the opening closed, but yah none of those worked. A red x is in the middle of the image.Another four part image, showing a small jute pouch being soaked in greenish yellow paint, followed by having its edges glued, a smooth purple liner put in, and then the finished pouch... which is too small to be truly useable, and thus was our second failed tooth pouch experiment. A red x is in the middle of the image.

A two part image of a somewhat large red card, one side of which has the instructions for the teeth on one side, and the numbered images of the teeth on the back, sitting on top of the original green pouch fabric. There is a red x in the middle of this image too.A larger, smooth red pouch, finally looking like it should be the correct size and closing properly, being held by Kabutroid with various art supplies in the background, and a seam sewn around the outside edge to remove the inside seam. A green checkmark is in the middle of this one.

Similar to the earlier image of all of the carved teeth in front of the photo of them, this is the same but all of the teeth are primed with a light brown paint and now smooth, on top of paperboard that has got some splashes of the green pouch fabric paint dried onto it.The majority of the teeth painted and laying on clearish plastic sheet, with several more sitting on a paperboard work surface, surrounded by paints and brushes and a paint palette.

All of the teeth arranged by size, since that was the order in which I topcoated them, shining and gleaming on a plastic sheet where they were set to dry.The new half-sized instruction plates, with one containing the text instructions split onto both sides, and the other containing the teeth split onto both sides, sitting on a well used art cutting board. A green checkmark is in the center of this photo as well.

The patches in mid creation, one stretch of three of them, the flail snail, flumph, and hollyphant being sandwiched in plastic, and another set of three right below it with just doublesided tape on the front, some of it having been removed to show the image of a ranger, and below them several printouts of different zoom sizes of the creatures, and the remaining creatures attached to plastic above.A two part image showing the arrangement of the patches, currently just taped to the pouch, with the flumph and the flail snail, the two cutest, being in the top center places of recognition, and the others arranged to either side and below them.

The finished pouch, tied up with the teeth inside, and the patches stitched onto the sides of the pouch, and the instruction plaques attached to one side of the drawstring, all sitting on a shiny silver surface.