Dark Sword Monster

My Fantasy LotR meets Wheel of Time has moved on from the orcs siege of the city they were trapped in. The Fore-Runners attacked the orcs and trollorcs just as they were capturing the city and the players were deciding to cut and run or try and get back to the inn to collect their possessions and the still comatose Isabella Sedi. 

After days of travelling south through ransacked and deserted villages and farms they finally reach a village with occupants. Seems the raiding parties had either missed the village out or had not made it this far south.

Not that the village was without it's own problems, it seemed that someone was holding the village to ransom. It all started with the odd small animal or chicken going missing but soon escalated to cows being taken in the night. Then came demands of money or worse would happen.

The village at first did not pay, they agreed to lay in wait, pretend to make payments but the plans never worked and more animals went missing and the money demands became larger. In the end the village started to pay until they were desperately short of money. The demands continued to be made and then finally people started to go missing though sometimes parts of them were left behind!

This is what the party walked into. At first it was assumed that the party was behind the problems but once the players had convinced the village elder of their trust and helped out with a payment they were taken into the villages confidence. The players managed to track a creature into the woods and had a short but sharp encounter with a humanoid creature with three horns, VERY sharp claws and the ability to speak Westron. Now they have to solve the problem before everyone in the village becomes a victim of the night caller.

I wanted the figure to have more presence than normal so added the tree trunk as the plan was always to have an encounter in the woods and as such I went for a base that was more undergrowth and mulch like. I used teabag leaves (a mix of used and fresh) to layer over the grass and ground and the tufts were the more lifeless types, no bright greens here.

The figure will only be used in this one scenario so once this is over I will have no future use for it so I am offering it to the players to have. If none wanted it then I would sell it on E-bay and use the money to buy future figures but as it stands at least one of the players wants it which is fine by me.

To give an idea of the size the cowboy is a Wargames Foundry 28mm though the difference in base size gives an advantage to the monster. Next session is fairly soon so it's possible it will have a new home soon, on the other hand we could be rolling up new characters.

Aes Sedai or Lady In Waiting

This figure is a Dark Sword Miniatures offering and they really are very nicely sculptured and detailed miniatures. I think this one is from the Game of Thrown range and is a Lady in Waiting but I am using her as a Aes Sedai or female magic user. 

As you can see from the picture above, lots of detail, just look at how the cloak gathers in her right hand. All the detail is great and looks correct rather than going against the flow.

I decided to take a punt at fairly bright colours. this gal won't settle into the background, no way. I have yet to paint a warder for her, possibly will have to hunt out a figure for that though. The campaign is now starting to really take shape and events will start to fall into place as the players gather information.

Of course she is entered into one of the fortnightly challengers, the civilian one and I have been very pleasantly surprised with how well she has done in the voting, especially as some of the competition has been truly excellent

I have my round two challenge all painted up, again another single figure but I have rather larger projects for two of the later rounds.

Dark Sword Ranger

Actually Dark Sword has this figure as Prince of the North, Male Archer DSM-1121 but for us the figure was a stand in for a player until the correct figure could be found. Even so I wanted to do a good job for two reasons. First it was a way of welcoming a new player into roleplaying and showed him that we wanted to do well. Secondly, the sculpt was so damn good it deserved a good job.

I mostly went for a mix of forest like colours without a lot of green, though the trousers do look a bit bright in the pictures. Well in the flesh they are still a bit bright but I really like the overall effect. In the end it was a little rushed to get it finished as the first session saw the figure almost finished. The only figure fully finished that night though was the Dwarf as even Lee had not quite finished his figure.

Whilst the Dark Sword miniatures are excellent I am not much of a fan of the raised bases and I may have been tempted to remove the figure from it's base if I had more time. Overall I would rate this figure as a 8 out of 10 as it really works for me as an adventurer and has the right historical feel that I want in my games. It lacks what most figures tend to and that's furniture. He has a small dagger as well which is great but not so much as a purse never mind anything else to carry any equipment. I realise you can't have all the gear they carry displayed on the figure but a little something would help.

As you can see from the close up the miniature has a wealth of detail and rewards even a casual attempt to join the dots. I have a good few more Dark Sword figures, most will be NPC's and occasional contacts but all will be given the good brush treatment.