Reaper's Burrowing Behemoth (Umber Hulk)

 As with the Gloom Stalkers from the other day, the Burrowing Behemoths were painted back over the summer. 

They were given the standard soapy bath and scrub, mold line removal, and brown (grey?) liner treatment as almost all my Bones minis get. Again, I opted not to base them, as their included bases were the right size, and already round. 

The behemoths started out with a base coat of... Maybe it was a Moss Green? I painted the eyes with a silvery metallic, and then gave them a wash of blue. Maybe soft blue?

The orange around the mouths I'm pretty sure is pumpkin orange. I used the same orange on the feathery antenna and as a highlight on the carapace. 

The bases were done I think with Desert Stone/Sand?

That mold line across the eye.... UGH....

 

 

I liked painting these more than the Gloom Stalkers, and think they came out better. Still need to black the edge of the base.

Reaper's Gloomstalker (Hooked Horror)

Playing a bit of catch up here at the Tower... these Hooked Horrors Gloom Stalkers were painted over the summer, and I only just got around to taking pictures of them. As a consequence, I don't have the specific paints that I used written down. Hopefully the work in progress pictures will do for anyone who wants to paint them as I did.

As usual, I started these off with a warm soapy bath and a good scrub with my hobby toothbrush. 

I debated putting them on a round base, but decided that the irregular base that came with them was good enough. Mostly because I didn't want to try to replicate the texture, and also because the base it comes with is about as thick as the base. Then I cleaned up the worst of the mold lines.

 

Next up was the Liner layer. I think I used Grey Liner on these minis, but it might have been brown. I should have used Blue Liner though, as you can see below, I blocked in with mostly blue...

I used a tan/stone color for the claws, beak, underbelly, and toes.

 

 

I began mixing in some purple to the blue for the more fleshy parts of the body, leaving the armored plates more blue.

I used a bright blue/green for the eyes

I'm generally happy with how they turned out, but while I started really excited to be working on them, by the time I was done I was weirdly just kinda turned off by it. I'm still not entirely sure why. Maybe it was my color choice? Maybe the annoying mold lines? 

And looking at the pictures now, I see I forgot the paint the toes of the figure on the right... and still need to paint the edge of the base black.

Tomb and Statue

These bits of scatter terrain came from a Frostgrave set that was part of the Ulterior Motives Nickstarter. 

 While these are nothing to special, just like the fences I posted yesterday, drybrushing some terrain is about my energy and creativity level right now, so I was thrilled that I had these to work on. 

Also I really need to take the time to set up a decent photo backdrop...

Good fences make good neighbors

 While there's nothing particularly amazing about these fences from Games Workshop, they're well made, and were fun to paint.

Plus they'll be super useful on the tabletop.

New Spell: Ward

Lady Morgana looked over the pair of recovered spell books set out on the makeshift table before her, well away from Lady Eiric's manor house... just in case. Both radiated the unmistakable energy of active spells just waiting to be triggered. Protective magics, but what? And what trigger?

With little to go on, she began to cast analyze, and settled her hands on the red leather cover of the book on the right. Pain flared in her hands. Magic held them to the cover, and she watched in horror as they blistered and burned as a green energy flowed over them. Moments, that felt like hours, it was over, and she yanked her acid burned hands away from the book in time to see a glyph fade from the cover. 

 

Magic User Spell, Level 2

Ward
Range: 0
Duration: Permanent until triggered
Effect: Protects something from being opened

When cast upon an object capable of opening (a door, book chest, etc.) a magical glyph will be inscribed upon it. The caster may make the glyph visible or invisible. When the item is opened by someone other than the caster, the Ward is triggered, causing 2d8 points of damage (save for half) from the caster's choice of energy type. This damage may not be healed magically. Each casting of this spell requires the use of specially prepared inks that cost 50gp.

---

Image source: RFlowers

Stonehell: Random Encounters, Impressive Loot Drops!

Session 149 was played on 6/7

Boris, Cleric 5 (Jeff)
Morgana, Mage 5 (Robert)
Joho, Mystic (Chris)
Ool, Mystic 2 (NPC)
Borumar, Thief 8 (Josh)

From town the party heads in the front door, and goes straight to visit Rocky. They ask about where they might find some healing magic to restore Joho and Borumar’s lost vitality. Rocky tells them they can find it down by the Virylia, in the Sepulchre of the Kion, and also there’s the spring on the floating island. They give Rocky some quartz, and some scritches before heading over to Kobold Korners.

Nolti is happy to take some gold in exchange for some rumors, though they aren’t any interesting ones at the moment.

Heading down toward the outer halls around the Lord and Lady Ghouls they upset some ogres, but then fireball them. They loot the bodies, but leave the corpses behind. No one thinks to drag them to the GentleGhoul’s door.

Deeper into the halls a mummy charges out of a small crypt swinging for Boris. Boris, Joho, and Ool swing back, hard, dropping the dry corpse. Checking the crypt, they find a fair stash of treasures inside the mummy’s tomb… and a magic ring under the mummy’s bandages!

Taking their loot, they head to the surface… pausing only when attacked by some depraved berzerkers. Boris casts Hold Person on them, stopping all 4 in their tracks. The party strips them, and leaves them for the magic to wear off.

Gains: various coins, some jewelry, a magic ring
Kills: Ogres, Mummy, Depraved Berzerkers
Losses:

September in Review

The pandemic continues. Summer is giving up it’s last gasp, the leaves are turning, and the CPA exam has passed.

That’s not to say I passed… I don’t actually get my score for another week and a half.

This month has been a LONG month, and I’m not sorry to see it in the rear view. Here’s hoping that the month of pumpkins, ghosts, ghouls, and goblins, which will include a blue moon (on Halloween itself) brings some cheer.

Gaming

I decided to treat myself to a game of Rangers of Shadowdeep. Lacking good terrain, I made due with some round bases to represent trees, and note cards to represent houses for the first scenario. Not ideal, but it got the job done.

Stonehell has been progressing nicely. Adding in a few Thursday sessions while I’m not actively studying for the exam.

Miniatures

Jumping all over with this one. It’s been hard to focus and the only thing that I actually got *done* was a set of fences. The minis I was working on from ReaperCon haven’t really advanced any further. I think one problem was too many things on my painting tray. Makes it hard to focus. Plus I’m at that fiddly detail/basing point on a bunch, so… hard to get that last 5-10% done sometimes.

My plan for this month is to paint up a pair of wraiths and a pair of hags. Anything beyond that is a bonus. Be nice to wrap up the Dark Maiden… Need to do some greenstuff work on her base to sculpt in some waves.

Media

Movies/TV Watched

Star Trek Lower Decks

Beetlejuice

Enola Holmes (very cute!)

Mandalorian (episode 8)

Books Read

Architects of Memory

Goals

Survive the pandemic

Paint 4 miniatures

Carve a pumpkin