Mortal Enemies

I pre-ordered the latest Frostgrave expansion Mortal Enemies pretty much the moment I read a synopsis of it, as I figured it would slot quite neatly into my solo campaign, and I imagined Tim the Necromancer was likely to have made an enemy or two on his rise to… well, not power, but whatever it is he’s managed to achieve so far.

So, I set about rolling up a random foe for Tim, and came up with a Lich accompanied by 2 men at arms, 2 wolves, and 2 werewolves, which is handy as I won’t need to paint anything up for that, having previously painted wolves and werewolves for Frostgrave, and some Stark troopers will fit in nicely there with their wolf head shields too.

When it came time to roll for spells, there was nothing that particularly inspired me. Bones of the Earth was nicely thematic, as well as a couple of spells to buff their troops… then I rolled Circle of Protection. I couldn’t remember what that spell actually did, so looked it up in the rulebook. And realised it would just pin the Lich in place, so was entirely pointless, so I decided to re-roll it. And rolled Beauty, which was when everything snapped into place and I realised I had the perfect miniature for that:

A Lich Sorceress from RAFM that I bought years ago, potentially at my very first Salute. She was sealed in a blister, so I’d only ever seen the back of her cape, but when I cracked it open she was even more perfect than I could initially have imagined.

With this, her backstory writes itself - Tim has broken the heart of a powerful sorceress, presumably after cuddling up to her to gain some magical knowledge or access to her library, and now she’s hunting him down. Maybe she enchanted herself to look like a beauty to seduce him, maybe he was entirely motivated by material gain, we’ll probably never know, but Tim presumably looks a little sheepish whenever anyone asks who it is that just smashed through the window bellowing for his blood…

Here’s the back of her too, the only bit that I’d seen for the first decade or so of owning her. I went a bit too hard drybrushing, but she’s a dusty old monster so I’m not mad  at the finished effect.

Finishing her brings the Tally to:

14 vs 147 = -134

In other news, I’ve also started a test model for my Alamo project:

T is for…

 …Thri-Kreen!

Another pair of minis from Nolzur’s, again purchased ages ago but only just making their way to the front of the painting queue.

My painting light died, and so painting these by the dim glow of my living room light was less than pleasurable, as I was struggling to make out the details and regularly missing spots that I would have to go back and fix later. I’ve since borrowed my daughter’s lamp, and so was able to finish these semi-satisfactorily.

I forget where I got the idea, but some time ago I got it into my head that it would be an interesting encounter for a party to stumble on a pair of very lost Thri-Kreen and their pet Rust Monster (potentially tied on a bit of string) who would chitter incomprehensibly and then try to eat someone, and I think I’ve found somewhere to slot that into our family D&D game, so here’s to hoping!

Finishing these brings the Tally to:

13 vs 147 = -134

And brings the Monstrous Alphabet up to

A is for
B is for Bullywug
C is for Carrion Crawler
D is for
E is for Elemental (More than one)
F is for Flameskull
G is for Goblin
H is for
I is for
J is for
K is for
L is for Lich
M is for Mind Flayer, Myconid, Mummy, Manticore
N is for
O is for Owlbear
P is for Purple Worm
Q is for
R is for Rust Monster
S is for Shambling Mound, Scarecrow, Skeleton
T is for Thri-Kreen
U is for
V is for
W is for Wraith
X is for
Y is for
Z is for Zombie

In other news, this was my 500th post apparently, wild!

R is for…

 …Rust Monster:

A Nolzur’s mini that I bought aaaaages ago after having an idea for an encounter that I’m potentially going to throw at my family in the near future. Pretty quick to paint up, mostly being a single colour that was achieved with a base coat, dark wash, then a couple of drybrushes.

Yes, I could do with tidying up the legs where I was a bit messy painting the base, but then again abandoned dungeons are pretty dusty, so let’s say it was intentional weathering.

I’ve also painted up the little bit of scenery that came with it, because I’m going to do everything that I can to telegraph to my family that this thing eats metal before they try to start poking it with their metal swords…

Running a weekly D&D game has done some interesting things to my painting routine too. Where usually I’d paint things form a couple of projects as they took my fancy, now some things get prioritised because there’s a definite deadline they’re needed for! Admittedly, I’ve been more flexible with minis than I thought I’d be, like having goblins sun in for kobolds, but when I actually have the right mini already it’d be a shame not to get it painted!

Painting him brings the Tally to:

11 vs 147 = -136

As well as knocking another letter off of the Monstrous Alphabet:

A is for
B is for Bullywug
C is for Carrion Crawler
D is for
E is for Elemental (More than one)
F is for Flameskull
G is for Goblin
H is for
I is for
J is for
K is for
L is for Lich
M is for Mind Flayer, Myconid, Mummy, Manticore
N is for
O is for Owlbear
P is for Purple Worm
Q is for
R is for Rust Monster
S is for Shambling Mound, Scarecrow, Skeleton
T is for
U is for
V is for
W is for Wraith
X is for
Y is for
Z is for Zombie

Next, hopefully the other two minis that I need for this encounter - which also knock off another letter - can you guess what it is?

Doctor something, I presume?

This week I’ve finished another model for my Silver Bayonet unit:

A Doctor, converted from a Perry British Command figure, with some Frostgrave accessories. The unit is themed around vampire hunting, so his medical kit is mostly weird doodads in a sack on his back rather than anything more traditional. 

I imagine he’s called something like John Fotherington-Smythe, and is also a survivor of the massacre that led the Captain on their quest for vengeance. 

Painting wise, there are so many things that I’m looking at in the pictures that I could have done differently, like the fire on the torch and the back of his jacket, but I think he’s fine enough to play with (and the rest of the minis in the painting queue aren’t getting any more painted if I spend any longer on him!)

Painting him brings the Tally to:

10 vs 147 = -137

I’ve definitely got enough finished to use the Unit in co-op Silver Bayonet play, but I need to decide what else to paint for solo or versus play. Conventional wisdom suggests a couple of mooks to up the numbers, but there are so many cool options in the rulebook that I’m tempted by something more esoteric…

Distant tooting 2: electric boogaloo

As is tradition, for May the Fourth I present a Star Wars themed miniature, and this year we have a Grogu expy from Diehard miniatures:

Also handy for meaning that I’ve actually painted something that I purchased at Salute, which doesn’t necessarily always happen in the same year… 

Natural light means you can actually see some of the painting, which makes a nice change. I probably should have given him even bigger pupils to make him more screen accurate, but I quite like how they turned out so I’ll stick with that I think.

He also goes quite nicely with my May the Fourth offering from 2021:

Re-reading the original post, I notice that Tim Prow actually commented on it at the time saying that this mini was available!

Painting him brings the Tally to:

9 vs 147 = -138

I’ve managed to not acquire any more miniatures this week, so the Tally continues to push towards being back in the black slowly. 

As for what’s next? I’ve got Frostgrave and Silver Bayonet minis approaching completion on my painting tile currently, but on the other hand we’ve been watching the Fallout TV series, so that project is back on. I wonder if I could use the Modiphius rules and proxy in my own stuff? It’s a shame that there’s no stock of the starter set at work…