Grim And Perilous roleplaying

We started role-playing again and we are using the Zweihander system to play in the Warhammer Old World setting (WFRP). Zweihander can be found HERE
The campaign we have chosen to play is The Thousand Thrones from WFRP2; a campaign that revolves around people believing that Sigmar has been reborn in a young boy. Though this book requires some work to be usuable, it is one of the few WFRP (both 1e and 2e) that we have not played.

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The Characters
Allow me to introduce our PCs...

Nitzer; Human, Barber Surgeon

Nitzer is a guilded Barber Surgeon who is not averse to moonlighting to get some extra coin. He is willing to take on almost any job and has recently been patching up mercenaries and criminals, no questions asked. He is a rampant alcoholic and needs the demon drink in order to stop the shakes he develops when he does not drink. 

Mattheus; Human, Sell Sword

Mattheus served in a mercenary company for some minor Brettonian Baron near the Grey Mountains. The Baron was involved in a border feud with his neighbour when things went bad and Mattheus and the rest of the company had to flee Brettonian justice.

The remnants of his company now have a bounty on their heads that is large enough to attract the interest of bounty hunters. He attempts to remain incognito most of the time, but his sense of justice means he cannot help but get involved and draw attention to himself...








Alfric: Human (Elf Blood), Diabolist

Alfric, unbeknowst to himself, is of mixed blood; his great great grandmother had an affair with an Elf. This mixed blood lay mostly dormant in his family until poor Alfric who has grown to an impressive 6'7" in height as well as having Ebony skin.
The Empire is a bigoted place and he was dropped at a Shallyan orphanage rather than his parents raising him. Money was dropped off at the orphanage each month, however, and it allowed Alfric to be educated and eventually discover an aptitude for magic; attending the 'School of Natural Philosophy and Transmutation".

To deal with his appearance, Alfric tries his best to pass off as Arabian as he has seen these traders in Marienburg and tries to emulate their dress; better to deal with Xenophobia than be branded a mutant...

(Note: in my game, the Ebony complexion is a sign of a Half-Elf, which are not only rare but also shunned by Elf-kind as a pollution of their blood. The complexion is different from most people of the southlands as it is jet black, rather than olive or shades of brown. However, people of the Old World would struggle to tell the difference, but Elves can. This situation has been retroactively added to the world based upon this character's random rolls at creation).



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First Session: Welcome to Marienburg!

(Note: as this is the first time playing Zweihander I forgot several of the important rules including Peril and Corruption; I guess we just slipped in WFRP mode. Teething problems are expected with a new system, but need to fix that for next session.).

The PCs all had reasons to travel to Marienburg and had secured passage on a trading vessel sailing the River Reik. Nitzer and Mattheus had known each other for a few months (Nitzer patched him up a few times) whilst they just met Alfric on the boat (Alfric was raised in Marienburg and so they figure he can help them find their feet in the city).

Nitzer was to meet with one Crispijn Van Haagen, from a powerful merchant family, whose illegitimate child he helped deliver and now mother and child had gone missing. Alfric's presence had been requested by Avatil Foamstrider, a Sea Elf merchant, for unknown reasons. And Mattheus had been contact by one of his old companions to say that another of their number had gone missing in Marienburg while in the service of a woman that he only knows by name; Selena Reiva.

The went to the Winklemarkt district to find lodging while they decided their next move. As they passed through the district they noticed that a fair few buisnesses had closed in what appeared to be a hurry. In a local inn they secured a room and overheard some locals talking about people leaving the city, they asked the tavern owner and he explained that a boy with a magic hammer had killed some fellas and been declared Sigmar reborn and he left with a few hundred people to fight chaos.

They decided to go meet the people they needed to see and so they made their way through the city, navigating the bridges and islands, not to mention the Marienburg tax system...

Nitzer went to Golds Mound and met with Van Haagen who had been secretly sending money to the mother each month to raise the child, only now the mother and child had gone and he fears they were swept up in this silly boy-Sigmar buisness; Nitzer, as the only one who knew the mother, was tasked with finding her.
Alfric travelled to the Elfsgemeente disctrict and met Avatil Foamstrider who kept making cryptic comments about 'looking after our own' and claiming he knew his great great grandmother. Anyway,  the upshot was that Avatil was going to take Alfric under his wing, offering protection and such like; he required Alfric, using his human looks (again, cryptic) to investigate this Sigmar reborn thing for the Elves and see if it is genuine and the threat that it poses to Elf kind (as Sigmar preferred the Dwarfs).
Mattheus, asking around town for the name Selena Reiva, met up with some ladies of ill-repute who told him of night time parties at a noble-woman's house involving debaucery (they were afraid to give details). He went to the house in Golds Mound and met with Selena (at night) who spoke with him abut his missing friend whom she suspects went with this boy-god; if he could investigate this boy-god for her, as she is keen for Sigmar to return, he might also find his friend.
It appears everyone wants to know about this boy-Sigmar.

Asking around the Winklemarkt district they found out several pieces of conflicting information; that the Grand Theogonist in Altdorf wanted Karl (the boy) dead because he challenged his position or that it was a chaos cult that tried to kill him. That he went north to fight chaos or that he went by the south road to Altdorf. But some elements of the story remained the same; that he had ties to the Shallyans, that he killed some people and that a few hundred people declared him Sigmar and left the city with him.

Heading to the Shallyan orphanage in Doodkanal they discovered that the Abbess is not very Shallyan (being somewhat cruel) and is infactuated with this Karl and has even started to convert the Orphanage into the worship of Sigmar and not Shallya; they also found out that the old Abbess had been branded a witch and is now in a gibbet outside the temple of Sigmar in Templewijk. Time to pay her a visit.

The 'witch' has a crowd of guards and people throwing vegetables and insults at her, so it was impossible to talk to her by day. They decided to attempt a rescue at night. Observing the guard patrols they made their move. Alfric followed the guard from the shadows to make sure Mattheus was not spotted breaking open the cage while Nitzer kept watch over the street opposite.

2 drunk nobles approached to 'spit on the witch' and were intecpted by Nitzer who ended up going for a drink with them. Mattheus broke open the cage and the noise attracted a guard who mysteriously dropped his lantern (he never heard the spoken incantation from Alfric). Mattheus threw Maida (the Shallyan) over his shoulder and made a break for it back across the bridge to Winklemarkt being chased by a guard whom he lost in the dingy alleys.


All meeting back at the room after a successful rescue they fed and watered Maida who told them of the Witch Hunter who found Karl in the swamp and how dangerous she believes he is. With this information (some of which they fed back to their employers) they got Maida out of the Winklemarkt with the help of the Elves and they decided to go looking for this Witch Hunter: Osric Falkenheim.

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Tune in next time!

This is the end...

...the end my friend.

So, these are the last heroes in Forgotten King wave 1.

For much of these heroes, I followed the art from the card. There is also a mini boss here, included because I did not want to have an update of just one figure...

Ninja Cola is a hero version of Candy's sidekick. This is widely considered to be 'broken' because it breaks the rule of having the same stat for attack and defence. His Japanese theme goes along with...

...Kunoichi Candy. I realised, after uploading this image, that the shadow on her face makes her eye look deformed. I assure you that this is not the case. 

The Thundervale Huntress was a bit of a pain to blend the green of the hair, but it turned out ok. She does have the tattoos from the rt of the flanks of her horse body (forgot to photograph them). 

Brave-Mode Candy is the hero that has Never-Lost Cola as a pet. The model (and art) is somewhat unremarkable, except for her face and hair colour, so I made sure the eyes are very prominent. 

Princess Emerald is one of the 5 princesses that prophesy says will defeat the Dark Consul. This princess is a sharpshooter that is certainly not based on Caitlyn from League of Legends...

The Mistmourn Shaman is actually from the Mistcoast Warband box but I included him here with the heroes. I love the huge voodoo mask her is wearing and the little vodoo dolls - a very thematic figure.

The Royal Warden is straight from Brotherhood of the Wolf and his costume is very evocative of the costumes from that film. From the art, it is hard to tell if his coat is red or blue, but I chose blue and think it was the right choice.

Fae Alchemist, oh how I hated painting you! There is so much busy work on this miniature that, in the end, I just blended much of it into the main colours so as to bring out the theme of the miniature better. The potions were achieved with washes over a coat of white (the 'glass' is a white/blue mix).

The Questing Knight. The photo makes him look much more pink than he actually is... but, yes, I did do him a pale red/pink colour (he wears pale red armour in the art). I did bled it like NMM and think it turned out really good; it looks much nicer 'in the flesh'. Oh, this is obviously the knight from Ghouls and Ghosts - he should have had an alternate figure of a man in underwear...

The Wandering Minstrel was painted in muted colours to bring out his hair and his eyes, as that is certainly the focal point of the figure. I think it came out really well.

Shadow-mode Candy is the evil counter part to Brave-mode Candy and they even have a very similar costume on. She does not have red skin in the art, but, as she has horns, I imagined that she was a devil version of Candy. I think the skin tone and white hair make her look visually striking.

So, there you have it; all the Forgotten King wave 1 painted. After a year. Much too long, but its done now.

See you in the next update.

Crossover the road my friend...

Time to show off the Super Dungeon Explore - Relic Knights Crossover miniatures.

There are 5 heroes and a mini boss. I don't play Relic Knights so I don't actually know who any of these characters are so I dont have much to say about them. When it came to painting them I just followed the art as I did not know which colours I could change and get away with it (not knowing the characters). 

They are quite nice miniatures though, so lets take a closer look.

This is Kasaro-To, the mini boss monster. Obviously inspired by the Oni; a Japanese demon or ogre. 

Calico Kate with a huge bomb,

Kisa is some type of cat lady.

Princess Malya is obviously some type of animal hybrid, but I don't know what.

One Shot with her blunderbuss.

And finally, Sebastian Cross with a huge mace and a sword; some type of knight.

So, there you have, the Relic Knight crossover miniatures.

See you in the next update.

Dont forget the little guys...

I have grouped all the smaller pieces together in this one post.

The chests. I went for a plain brown wood effect on these chests (the previous ones I did were multi-coloured, see the end of this post). I think they look just fine in plain wood.

I have represented all 3 kinds of Boo Booty in Forgotten King; Biter, Grinder, Bouncy. 

The Squirrels. These are mostly airbrushed with the armour being doen with a brush. Search for them down a pair of trousers near you!

These Giri are also mostly airbrushed with detail finished off with a brush. 

The pets themselves. I think these turned out pretty good and it helps that the models are awesome as well. Look at the facial expressions on the goat and the chicken!

Though Neverlost Cola is actually connected to Brave Mode Candy, I included him here because he is a pet (and we allow him to be used in games without Candy). I saw someone else paint the compass like a coke bottle cap (it actually is meant to be that, anyway) and could not resist to the the coke logo on the back! Obviously, it says Candy Cola, not that other rip off brand!

So there you have it, all the little guys. Heroes next.

See you in the next update.

Not the foggiest idea...

And the second part of the Mistmourn Coat warband; Salt and his mist faeries.

So, lets be straight, other than Salt these models are the exact same ones out of the Caverns of Roxxor expansion (which I painted, HERE). However, the colours do give them a different feel (these are meant to be made of mist, instead of fire). I painted them all in the same shade of blue to give them a uniform look and put a darker blue on the 'salt' elements of the models (similiar to the art, but not exact as it does not use the same blue to tie them all in).

The Salt Pillar spawn point; mist swirling around a pillar of salt. Enough said.

The Sorrows. I loved these when they were fire and I still love them now they are mist.

The Mist Hounds. These were a pain to paint when they were fire and they were a pain to paint as mist. There is lots of texture on the model that really does not go anywhere; it just abruptly starts and abruptly ends. And they are in a strange pose (very top heavy). They look better as mist than they did fire, in my opinion. 

Salt, the miniboss of the Mistmourn Coast. I actually think this is a great model, from his Cyclops eye to his moving around on a pillar of salt. I painted his bracelet aquamarine to continue the water theme throughout the model. 

Lots of pets and other ancillary bits to post soon.

See you in the next update.

Who's that trapping over my bridge?

I present the first half the the Mistmourn Coast warband: the Trolls.

I'm just going to say that these models are a good fantasy take on the classic Norwegian troll and I appreciate the style they went with here (particularly the tribal/native look) and I really like the way this warband turned out.

I chose to follow the art as the green skin/orange hair is a good contrast. As any of the yellow-based colours are a pain to paint, it actually took many coats and mixing to get the hair as bright as it is.

On with the close-ups.

The Tribal Stone I painted as a simple slab with simple glyphs, mostly following the art. The trolls were originally simple folk that were native to the Mistmourn Coast and have become twisted by the fae that moved here (led by Salt, see next update for them).

I love the pose of these Ghostfire Warriors, the raised shield and sword ready to strike to defend their homeland. 

The Spirit Walkers are the most primitive looking and so have the least metal (except jewellery) and most skin tone. The only thing I don't like on these models is the leaves; I would have preferred feathers to give more theme/contrast. I suppose I could have painted the leaves autumn brown, but that would clash with the gold colour too much. Que sera.

Finally, the Mistmourn Cheiftain. I do like his pose, it must be said. He does have the shock of orange hair behind his headdress, but I failed to take a pic from behind (not sure why...). The disc on his sword matches his warriors shields, which I did as a sun theme (as the tribal stone has a sun being worshipped); this all differs from the art but ties it all in thematically, in my humble opinion.

Salt and his boys will be posted later today when I have time.

See you in the next update.

Its just another day in this man's army!

Time to look at the other warband in the Forgotten King core box; the Chimera, who are led by the Forgotten King himself.

The warband are all military that have been twisted into animals; platypus, frogs and rabbits. And they look great.

First is the Bramble Knight spawn point. I painted the knight as actual armour that is covered in mold and verdigris. I think they look ok and you can tell that it is the knight armour you are meant to notice, not the brambles.

Next is the Billmen (see what they did?). I simply followed the art on these and did the armour with green tabbard colour scheme. I like their faces; menacing, yet at the same time, comical (they are platypus, afterall). I did all the armour as NMM and I think it looks pretty good; its actually not that easy to make grey look metal while still maintaining a cartoonish look. As long as it looks like armour, right?...

The Frog Knights are my favourite; frogs in plate armour riding brightly coloured birds, what's not to like?!

I really like how these turned out; the birds are nice bright vibrant colours and the frogs have some decent cartoon-NMM plate armour on (which you can see in the second shot). Great models and it shows in the painting (I think, anyway).

Grobbit Executioners are killer rabbits (where is a Holy Hand Grenade when you need one?). I followed the art mostly, painting it all purple with contrasting white rabbit fur (skin?) and maddening red eyes (like some psycho bunnines from Wartership Down). I love the theme of these models (and all the chimera, really).

Bashful Boris is no Balou; the only bear necessity he will give you is a club to the head! He is the miniboss of thie chimera warband. I like how crazed his face is and I tried to bring that out with the colour and position of the eyes. Another great model.

And last we have the Forgotten King himself, the main boss of the core box. I am not certain what type of creature he is meant to be (if any, maybe just a twisted fae). A note on the colours, the art has green OSL all over him and his back in purplish shadow; making it very hard to tell what he looks like. So I picked my own colours. I imagined him wearing a lords/wizards robe but, since his banishment, he wandered with a brown cloak pulled about him until he regained his power.

Thats how I see it, anyway...

I also modelled a bolt of power coming from his hand; could not resist considering how his hand is positioned.

And there you have the 2 core warbands. I have the kickstarter add-on warbands to post next (maybe tomorrow now).

See you in the next update.