The kobold judges are readying themselves to start peering with glee at the art that we have received for the Kobold Artistry contest. In the meantime, we want to thank all those who submitted for their entries. We’ll start showcasing the pieces that cause our esteemed judges to grin most happily this month, and we want you all to be ready to provide your own comments (and votes!) to this process. In other words, watch this site for art and instructions on how you can vote for the finalists!

In the meantime, you can amuse yourselves with a free issue of Kobold Quarterly #14. The price is definitely right, so what are you waiting for? Follow the link to find more information on how to snag this freebie for yourself! Also, if you missed it the first time, we have a fun video showing artist Richard Clark as he worked on the cover of Kobold Quarterly #20.

Within the kobold mines, a multitude of kobolds work. Some are minions. Some are not. All, however, are fodder for illustrations. What does this mean to you? Why, we’re asking for you to illustrate a kobold and send it in to us!

How does this work? First, illustrate your kobold. You can choose whether you use pencils, inks, watercolors, pixels — as long as you can scan the image in (or convert it in the case of digital format) and send it to us in a jpg file, we are happy. Then, after we receive your submission, it will be evaluated by a panel of industry professionals and by the fans. As with other contests we’ve done here on the Kobold Quarterly site, fame and prizes play a part in this again. (We detail that in a bit!)

So, what do you need to do? First, read all the stuff beyond the jump, then start letting your artistic talents take over!

Now that the votes are all in and tallied, we have the pleasure of announcing the artifact that you, the fans, voted on to be the Relic of Power. Before we do that formally, though, we want to thank all those who entered the contest and shared their artifacts with us. We had a great time seeing what you all came up with, and it was also a pleasure sharing the finalists with you so that you all could enjoy the creativity of our contestants.

As we saw, the race was extremely close between David Adam’s Izellia’s Branch and Mario Podeschi’s Gordian Knot. As the voting neared its ending, Mario posted the following to David’s entry:

“I love your artifact–seeing mine lose or win to it will be an honor. I think what distinguishes 4E artifact philosophy with that of Pathfinder is the way that personality is built into the stat block itself, so no artifact is complete without a vivid personality nested within it.

“The Branch does this beautifully. Izellia is a vivid embodiment of nature–mother earth personified, weakened and forlorn and wrathful.”

Now that you have a veritable trove of relic goodness awaiting you, you must pick one — only one — item from it. You see, you all have the power to choose the item that the kobolds will make available in the next issue of Kobold Quarterly. Yes, many fine artifacts arrived for appraisal, and if you haven’t yet looked at them, now is the time!

Those of you who have already peered closely at these artifacts can jump in and vote right away: Go to the KQ Forums and vote for your favorite entry from Relics of Power!

Of the ten finalists, the one that receives the most votes will receive the title “Relic of Power” and will appear in the next issue of Kobold Quarterly, fully illustrated. Who will you vote for?

• Coffer of the Uninvited Guest by Chris Harris
• Crystalline Chrysalis by Gary S. Watkins
• Deck of Hellish Delights by Carlos Ovalle
• Gnomeskull of the Kobold Kings by Nicholas Milasich
• Golden Tresses of Sif by Jarrod Camiré
• Gordian Knot by Mario Podeschi
• Izellia’s Branch by David Adams
• King’s Mirror by Joel Dehn
• Liberty by Robert E Drouin
• War Band of the Last Mead Hall by Josh Jarman

Thank you, everyone, for entering the contest! On behalf of the judges and KoboldQuarterly.com, we had a great time doing this contest. Please, show your support of events like this by voting for your favorite artifact. Voting ends this Friday (07-29-11).

Welcome to the Relics of Power finals! Our very last finalist is the artifact called the War Band of the Last Mead Hall. Remember, these entries are unedited so that you can have a similar experience to the one that the judges had while reading them. As a special treat, we are posting each one with an illustration that Chris McFann made for the item. Time to read!

War Band of the Last Mead Hall

The laughter of Ogradin can still be heard in the mead halls of Wolfheim, echoing in the sonorous chanting of the warrior skalds and the drunken singing of the reaver dwarves. Lord of the ale horn, he of unending laughter, Ogradin is a legendary hero of the Wolfheim dwarves who was known to drain large ale barrels in a single, long quaff. A ferocious fighter, warriors say his battle cry could split the frost-covered stones, splinter the shields of his enemies and cause even the iceblooded trolls to quake in terror at his charge.