Drake's Perch: A Mouse's Log

The Mouse Heritor leads his crew through the jungle, hunting for treasure

As Heritor, I led a small group of the crew inland to explore this new island. With me, were our Warden and three crewmen. It was relatively quiet at first, we found some treasure caches easily. Quickly, I sent two of the crew back to the ship with what we had found. Up to this point the only signs we had of native creatures were noises in the distance.

The two boards all set up awaiting the players - the Mice deploying in the corner in front of the middle chair at the top

 After the Warden and I split to explore further, I came upon a ruined temple with strange carvings on it. I and my crewman approached, finding an even greater treasure within. As we were starting back to the ship, I was attacked by a Silver Drake which swooped in from the rear. Almost simultaneously, my crewman was attacked by the enemy Heritor of a crew of strange, horned creatures. In the confusion, my attack was disastrously countered by the drake, and my crewman cut down by the Heritor and his crew.

A Silver Drake savages the Mouse Heritor, while shadows signal the approach of the Saytrs

This put me in a very bad position as the lizard had wounded me badly. I decided to use my Heritor abilities and let my two enemies fight it out.  Using Evade, I broke contact with the drake and dashed around the side of the building, hoping the drake and the enemy crew would occupy each other. At the very least, I hoped the drake would weaken the Heritor and his crewman that had killed my companion. For some reason, I felt his wearing red was not an auspicious color for him that day!

The Mice crew split up to find more treasures, earlier in the game

 I was planning to attack the horned enemy crewman while his Heritor was occupied with the Drake. Suddenly, though, a massive briar sprouted up across the rear of the temple, blocking me. I spotted a new group of bandit-furred treasure hunters a long distance away. So, I ducked behind the cover of a large, upright stone pillar, which also hid me from the horned enemies within the temple. This put me in range of the new Heritor’s Warden, though, who cast an entangle spell around my feet. One of his crew then began shooting at me with his bow. I was unable to move free from the entanglement to counter the archer. So, instead, I used my Wraithwalk ability to move from the pillar to additional cover behind a stone wall. This vantage point let me spot an enemy crewman dragging a chest away. Just as I was preparing to attack him, the horned Heritor, Warden and another crewman appeared to help him. After a futile exchange of blows, I evaded them, too, and headed back to the ship for help.

The action rages with Mice exploring the ruins or fighting monsters, while the Badgers do the same in the background

My Warden later told me that he had no better luck. As he was returning to rejoin me, he came upon two rat tribesmen that began to pepper him with arrows. He turned back the way he had come to try and avoid them and rejoin me. He bumped into another group that proved hostile, as well. By their markings, he surmised them to be Badgers, hunting for treasure as we were. When he went to speak to them he was rudely attacked.

The Mouse Warden ranges the battlefield dodging perils and being unlucky in procuring treasures

The gods were not with my Warden this day, he said, as only one of his spells worked as planned. He was able to avoid direct contact with the Badgers. When they were attacked by an unseen fourth group, in turn, he chose linger to see if this could lead to stealing riches from one or both warring groups. It was the Badgers who were being quickly decimated by the attacks of these same bandit-furred creatures (Raccoons, he surmised) who’d attacked me. When the horned creatures appeared (Satyrs, he informed me), he decided to return to the ship for help. Not a good day for us! We lost a crewman lost and found only a bit of treasure. The greater part of the island’s riches were lost to misfortune.

Drake's Perch: A Badger's Eye View

One of the Badger crew advances towards an overgrown temple, searching for treasure

I asked my players to write up their account of the first battle, since with two games going on, there was no way I could keep track of everything. Here's the first of these accounts, written by Andy Swingle, who is playing the Badger Crew.

Four of the Badger Crew -- Khlargan at right, and his Warden Misotan (with badger familiar) at bottom left

Heritor Khlargan led the cete he assembled from the ship towards the ruins that he heard held treasure. Misotan the Warden and good friend chose to follow also, using what magic he could on the journey. He chose a few good badgers from the crew to help lug any treasure found and help with any fighting that might happen: Wheadon, a wiry badger, was an excellent swimmer; Tornal, a stout badger with a large two-handed axe; Lidmere, a bodyguard his father had sent with him on the expedition, wore mail and carried a shield and a good sword.

The Warden Misotan and Tornal prowl through the junble in search of treasures

The cete arrived at the outskirts of the ruins. Khlargan pointed at the nearest building and ordered Wheadon into it to investigate, while the rest of them traveled deeper into the complex. Quickly, Wheadon and Lidmere found treasures. And Tornal also found a very large treasure. Khlargan was very pleased with the ease at finding so much treasure. His happiness was interrupted by a screech. He looked up and saw a good-sized creature flying towards the cete. Quickly, he ran towards it with his two-handed mace. His initial swing connected doing some damage. He channeled his Heritor powers with a bit of pain and tore deeper into the creature. The creature clawed at him drawing some blood. The next swing Khlargan was able to connect disemboweled the creature. In the back of his mind, he remembered this type of creature was called a Drake. 

Khlargan battles the Copper Drake which swooped in to attack his crew

Looking around, he saw Tornal and Wheadon each carrying a chest into the jungle towards their regrouping spot. Misotan cast one of his spells in a gap, creating a mist, then cast his healing magic on Khlargan, healing some of his wounds. Through the mist, he could barely make out humanoid creatures moving in the distance. Tornal was dragging the large chest towards the jungle line when he was struck down by a single arrow! Misotan quickly grab the treasure and started heading back to Khlargan.

Tornal carrying the large, silvery Buddha treasure cask just before he is struck down by a Raccoon arrow

 A even louder bellow came from out of the jungle and a thundering of heavy hooves. A large leathery cow-type creature with gray skin burst out of the jungle alongside. Shortly afterwards, soaring over the treetops, a very strange-looking bird/cat beast! Khlargan was later told by Misotan these were called a hippopotamus and a hippogryph. Khlargan quickly positioned himself between the beasts and his friend, Misotan. It was going to be a tough fight, but with Misotan's healing, perhaps he might prevail. Suddenly, their was a agonizing pain in his side. He looked down to see an arrow. He saw some creatures off in the distance with bandit-like fur markings, and one had a bow. 

While Khlargan battles the Hippogryph, Misotan and his familiar try to fend off a hippopotamus

He then hear a cry from Misotan. He glanced back to see a hedge had sprouted where it had not been before, hindering possibility of escape. Being a badger, anger and rage filled him with this turn of events. The hippogryph was upon him, though. His first swing connected, but did not cause a lot of damage. So, he tried to channel his powers to do more damage. The pain was too intense, though, and caused him even more harm. He felt a soothing of the pain, and realized Misotan was healing him. To his dismay, the hippo ran by him straight towards his friend, the Warden. Klargan got another blow in on the hippogryph, doing a solid wound. But Khlargan over-extended himself and was knocked unconscious by a swipe of the beast's lion-like paw.

The Badger Crew was beset by attacks from three creatures, plus sniping by Raccoon archers

Khlargan awoke back on the ship in his quarters. His wounds still sore, but better than they were. Misotan filled him in at what happened after he was knocked unconscious. While Misotan was beset by the hippo, a strange mouse-man had tried to his aid. He was on the other side of hedge, though, and was eventually knocked out by the hippo. He awoke a short time later, forsaking the treasure, and dragged Khlargan back into the jungle to our base camp. 

Surprisingly, Tornal also survived his arrow wound. He awoke to a terrible pain in his leg, but hobbled back to the base camp. The expedition was not a total failure, though. Lidmere came into his quarters with a smile and handed him a finely-made, two-handed mace that he found to use on the next expedition. Wheadon gave Misotan a well-made dagger that he had found, to help him better defend himself. Khlargan still got angry at the thought of the arrow sticking out of his side and seeing the raccoon-like humanoids that did it. And the hedges! A badger always repays the favor.

Till the next expedition...

Drake's Perch: First Game of Fur-grave

A Silver Drake perches atop the ruins hiding one of the central treasures in our first game of Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago

When I first floated out the idea of running Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago for my friends on our Sunday evening game night, quite a few seemed interested. I wanted to use my collection of Splintered Light Miniatures animals as crews, so I merrily began painting away. You've possibly seen me charting my progress on this blog, to include creating additional terrain beyond what I'd already made for my SE Asian Pulp games. Last night, though, was the big night -- our first game of "Fur-grave!" I had 8 players show up and compete, so I did not play and ran it as GM, instead. I split my host's 8'x4' table into two 4'x4' boards, with four players each.

All eight of my players gathered around the two boards - from left, Joel (Squirrels), Mike W (Pine Martens), Brett (Satyrs), Keith (Raccoons), Andy (Badgers), Mike S (Mice), Allen (Jungle Rats), Brian (Weasels)

One player needed to be done a bit early for work Monday morning, so I had an "early" starting group at 6pm and the other four at our normal 7:30pm start time. The rules explanation seemed to go easily enough, and by and large all the players picked up the mechanics quickly. I am sure we made some mistakes here and there, but everything seemed to flow very well. Since my jungle-pattern battle mat I'd recently purchased is only about seven feet wide, I had a river section on the end of the one board. I placed some hill pieces each side of the river material rectangle to create a winding river, with little islands and bridges across it.

Brett's Satyrs hurry towards a treasure they've spotted nestled behind a row of ancient statues

I used the "four corners" style deployment suggested in the rules for 4 players, with two central treasures in the middle of the each 4'x4' board. Eight ordinary treasures were spaced out relatively evenly between the central treasures and the board edges. I want to simplify the setup and have everything ready for my players when they arrived. Most treasure locations were semi-ruined temple sections or piles of rubble. Thankfully, I'd painted so many treasure tokens up that I had more than enough for two games simultaneously!

Andy's Badgers split up to grab multiple treasures -- with one crewman about to search a semi-ruined temple

In the first game, I had Andy's Badger crew vying against Keith Raccoons, Brett's Satyrs, and the Mice belonging to Mike S (who had painted his own crew). I think initially the players thought they would be nice and not attack each other. However, that cooperation soon went by the wayside as players deployed creatures generated from random encounters to attack their opponents and began snatching up treasures others coveted. Andy's Badgers, in particular, took it on the chin as he tried to quietly slip off the board with treasures in hand. I have asked each player to send me an account so I can give more details in each game. The big winner on the first board seemed to be Brett's Satyrs, who snagged a central treasure and three minor ones with no losses.

The Jungle Rats' Heritor in combat with a Large Snake -- one of the many random encounters that plagued this crew

The second game saw Joel's Squirrel Crew (painted for him by Keith), Brian's Weasels, Allen's Jungle Rats, and the Pine Marten Crew of Mike W. I actually "spaced it" and swapped the Weasel and Pine Marten figures, so I may have to rectify that in the second game! In the second game, random encounters quickly began to fill up the table. What was very interesting was that Mike W won most of the rolls to place them, which he did to thwart the advance of the Jungle Rats across the table. First, Allen's rats came under attack by a Large Snake, which the Heritor eventually dispatched with one mighty swing. Next, a pair of Rat Tribal Warriors caught sight of their Jungle rivals and charged. The rats knocked out the Heritor and grievously wounded the crew's Warden (one health point left!). Allen was given some unintentional help when the Weasel Warden slung a magical projectile into combat and accidentally took out one of the tribal warriors. Allen's crew was able to rally and kill off the final warrior, and escape with one treasure, dragging their unconscious leader with them.

Soon after the snake was slain, a pair of Rat Warriors (my "Dricheans" in Fur-grave) spot their Jungle rivals an charge

Meanwhile, by the river, Joel's squirrels crossed the bridges to snag a treasure on the island. They tried to block the Weasels' Heritor from crossing another bridge to grab a treasure on a nearby island. However, the Weasel leader, and a crewmen who had looted the other central treasure, both surmounted the obstacle and escaped off-board. The Pine Martens, meanwhile, took their time and grabbed both a central treasure and a nearby minor one. All the while, Mike W dispatched random encounters (Drakes, Gargoyles, Baboons) to hem in the Jungle Rats and keep them from contesting the center of the table with his Pine Marten crew.

The Weasel Crew (alas, I gave Brian the Pine Marten figs!) advances to contest the riverside treasures with the Squirrels

When most of the treasures had been seized, the players on the second table decided to call it a halt. The looming showdown between the Pine Marten Heritor and the Squirrel Warden was not to be, as darkness falls suddenly in the tropics (apparently). Interestingly, my Southeast Asian location was felt in person as a violent rainstorm actually knocked out the power at my host's house for about five minutes. The players watched wide-eyed as winds hurled his rattan deck furniture around, outside. More than one cocked their head and wondered if they'd left the windows of their cars open...ha, ha! Life in the summer tropics of Columbus, Ohio!

A Pine Marten crewman (Alas, I gave Mike the Weasel figs!) escapes with a treasure found on a ruined staircase

Stay tuned for the accounts of the players, which will follow this entry. I've received accounts already from the Mice, Badgers, and Squirrels, and will hopefully receive the others, as well! I was gratified that all eight took the time to say they enjoyed the game and thank me for all the work that went into getting this campaign ready for the tabletop. I expect we will run Fur-grave sequels every 3-4 weeks, depending on player availability. So, stay tuned for more...!

The Foxes!

The Fox crewmen for my Ghost Archipelago campaign (Splintered Light Miniatures)

I thought I was done with my Ghost Archipelago crews for my players, but then another friend expressed interest in playing, as well. I sorted through my Splintered Light Miniatures animals, slapped my head with a "Doh!" when I found four more unpainted crews already sorted out, and picked the foxes to paint. When I was looking through the unpainted lead bag, I was surprised how few poses there really were. I would end up having to use the same figure pose two of the five-man crews. Not to worry, though, as one of them would be the Warden and he would be substantially modified.

The Fox crew's leader, or Heritor,  in Ghost Archipelago terms

Starting with the figure I picked out to be the crew's Heritor, there really wasn't much choice. He was so obviously a leader figure, from the cape to the heavier armor, to the pointing, commanding arm. Since he was leader, I had to give him a purple cloak in my favorite Ral Partha "Tongue Purple" color, and dry brushed in a lighter shade. The detail in the figure's chainmail made it easy to paint. I spiced it up a bit with a bronze helmet, and some gold armbands. Although there is not a lot of "fox" showing on this fig, I really liked the way her turned out.

The Fox crew's modified Warden, or spellcaster. I added an Iron Wind 25mm fox to the base as a familiar

This figure is the same pose as the middle one below (and at top - sorry for the repeat photograph). The big modification was to cut out the large sword from his left hand and replace it with a banded staff. I used some beads from another project to build the staff, gluing the top half under the hand and the top half onto the fist. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. It may be a tad chunky, but what the heck? I actually had another photo of the front half of the Warden, but it was so out of focus I just couldn't bring myself to use it. As a final touch, I added an Iron Wind Metals 25mm fox to the base as a familiar. I have done this with a lot of the crews. If nothing else, it makes it easier to pick out which fig is the Warden!

Deja vu? Yep, these guys again...

I forgot to do a "crew assembled" photograph for the first photo. So, you have to look at this one again -- ha, ha! I did not come up with a fancy theme for this crew -- no medieval quartering, or stripes, or whatever. I figured that the foxes coloring is distinctive enough I really didn't want to compete with that. Once cool touch on the middle figure was how the hair coming off of his face is tied up into locks or braids with ribbons. The sash around the waist also kind of makes him pirate or reggae looking, so maybe I missed an opportunity here. The other two were done in plain tunics with a base color and dry brush. They were all molded with armbands, which I did in copper for this bunch to set off the reddish tone of their fur. Speaking of which, I used Iron Wind metals Red Brown for the base coat, then did a light drybrush of Howard Hues Middle East Flesh for their coloring. I always look up Google images of the creatures I am painting so I can get the fur patterns as correct as possible.

So, will there be yet another crew to be painted? Perhaps. I kicked myself when I found the box where I had pre-sorted figures for another 3-4 warbands. I certainly have the unpainted lead. And who knows? Maybe another friend will jump in and want to play!

Ghost Archipelago scenics - walls, pits, and such

A Mouse Vine Warden surrounds himself with barriers of Brambles in  Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago

 The last things I needed to get done before this coming Sunday's first Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago game were various small, scenic bits. The rules allow for characters to magically create pits or walls made of stone, earth, or plants. Rather than set up a (hopefully) beautiful tabletop and then throw down pieces of felt for these things, I set out to create them in flocked, 3-D.

I created four Brambles - the core of which were hedges from JTT Scenery Products, with copious clump flocking added

First up, my favorite: Brambles - a spell cast by Vine Wardens. This creates a 6" long, 1" high and wide barrier of vegetation. I made four of them, and was really happy with how they turned out. I started out with some purchased product -- one package of Long Hedges, 2/pack, by JTT Scenery Products. I bought mine at Hobby Lobby, but I've seen this line carried at a number of hobby and model railroad shops. The hedges are rectangular, green-dyed foam, which I cut and attached to appropriate sized bases of styrene plastic. To help them stay put, I stuck two straight pins through the bottom of the styrene base, impaling the curving piece of foam to hold it in place while the Tacky Glue dried. Next, I flocked the base - first with brown fine ballast, then Earth Turk and Blended Green Grass from Woodland Scenics.
I could have stopped at this point, but they would have looked very plain. I then put on three different tones of Woodland Scenics green clump foliage with white glue. After the first batch of clumps, I actually went back and added more to make it look more wild and overgrown. As a final touch, I took some JTT Scenery Products flowers and glued one on each side to give it a splash of color. These were definitely my favorite of the magical walls I created.

Two Earthen Walls cast by a Satyr Earth Warden, created by flocking atop Hirst Arts plaster molds

Next up, were Earthen Walls. In Ghost Archipelago, Earth Wardens can create a 3" long, by 2" high, and 1" wide wall of earth to block enemies. For this, I dug up some unused plaster castings from Hirst Arts molds given to me long ago by my friend Zeke. As it turned out, a half dozen of them arranged in a 2x3 rectangle were the perfect size. I glued these in place with Tacky Glue, once again onto the correct size of styrene plastic. Next, I coated them just as I do my standard base flocking. I begin by painting the base with a mix of white glue and brown paint. This is coated with brown, fine ballast. Once dry, I paint the ballast with a 50/50 mix of white glue and water, and sprinkle on Woodland Scenics Earth Turf. Finally, once dry again, I paint it with white glue and sprinkle on Woodland Scenics Blended Grass.

A Pine Marten Earth Warden shelters amid four Parapets he has cast, also created from Hirst Arts molds

The third magical wall is a Parapet, also created by the Earth Warden. This stone barrier is the smallest, at 2" long, and 1/2" in height. It is intended (I believe) to be a place to shoot from cover, whereas the other barriers are meant to block line of sight. For this, I once again dug out some unused Hirst Arts plaster castings, and glued them to a base. All the bases also have magnetic material underneath for my storage system. This stone I painted black, then drybrushed a darker then lighter gray. Flocking was done as above, and these were complete, as well.

A Weasel Earth Warden amidst four Pits cast earlier to entrap enemy characters or monsters

The final scenic item was four Pits - another Earth Warden spell meant to be cast underneath a player, hopefully forcing them to all into it and spend time climbing back out again. The size of these was driven by my figures' bases. So, I cut four squares that would leave room for one of my bases and scenic buildup all around it. As the core of the ring of built up area are small stones glued in a rough circle around an area slightly larger than my hexagonal bases. I covered these with the same mixture of ballast and turf detailed above. Finally, the inner circular area was painted in three darkening shades of brown. Nothing spectacular, but nevertheless better than a piece of felt.

I also created "Blood burn" markers from wooden cubes. I painted then dark red, then speckled them in a brighter red pattern to evoke blood. On each cube, I numbered in black Sharpie #1-#6 (for how many times that Heritor has attempted to use an ability on that turn), along with the appropriate modifier for casting/utilizing it next time. I even placed a small arrow showing what direction to rotate the cube...! They are functional looking -- nothing spectacular.

With that, I am all set for next week's game! It has been a long time coming, but I am finally ready to begin running my Ghost Archipelago campaign!!

Aquarium Pieces as Ruined Temples

An Aquarium piece from Blue Ribbon representing Cambodia's famous Bayon Temple at Angkor Wat

One of the perks of the long hours and hectic schedule of teaching in a public school is that I often receive gift cards for Christmas or at the end of the school year, as thanks from appreciative parents. I'd accumulated a few Amazon ones this year, so decided to finally pick up some aquarium pieces I'd seen others using and I had been wanting for a long time. Specifically, the Blue Ribbon Angkor Wat pieces. My Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago campaign will be set in a post-Apocalyptic Southeast Asia, so they will go great with the scratch-built temples I made for my Pulp games a couple years ago.

The ruined Bayon Temple looms out of the jungle, encrusted in vegetation

I was able to get three of them. Number one on my list was the Bayon Temple -- the famous ruin with the heads which look out in four directions. The piece is fairly large -- 9 1/2 inches tall by 6 inches wide. The first thing I noticed about these pieces is how well painted they actually are. I had assumed it would be a cheap, assembly line paint job and that I would be repainting them. Instead, I decided to keep the paint jobs as is.

I was surprised by how good the "out of the box" paint job was, so decided to keep it, adding only flocking

The only thing I did was re-flock the vegetation on them. In this temple's case, I added quite a bit. First, I painted select parts of the temple with white glue, then I flocked that glue with Woodland Scenics mixed green. Once that was dry, I blobbed on white glue on top of the flocking and applied darker clump foliage by Woodland Scenics. This gives it more of a three dimensional effect, as well as makes it look more encrusted in jungle vegetation.

A giant Khmer head rises up out of the jungle

 The next piece I purchased was a giant statue of a Khmer head. All of the vines you see are part of the terrain piece -- the only thing I did was to apply actual flocking to the piece. I thought the factory artists did a decent job of dry brushing the brown of the vines over a black base coat. I really like how this one has a tumbled column in front of it. The size is fairly massive, too -- 7 inches tall by about 6 inches wide. The back face of it (not shown), is simply carved into stone blocks. 

A close up of the statue, showing the clump foliage and flocking I applied.

I thought they did a good job creating this statue, realistically showing the seams in the stones that were used to create the massive face. They also got the thick, Khmer lips and drooping ear lobes right, as well. Good research and nice sculpting.

A Kneeling Buddha rises out of the jungle, a relic of lost civilizations

The third and final piece is a kneeling Buddha statue, holding a broken column in its cupped hands. Strangely, this one was already covered in the factory's poor attempt at flocking. They used a tall, green static grass that looked very odd and unrealistic. I painted over all of this with white glue and re-flocked it all. This piece definitely required the most reworking. However, it fits well with the Southeast Asian theme for my archipelago.

All in all, a great addition to my terrain for my games. I can't wait to see my table layed out with all of the temples! Should be fairly striking...

A Monster Named "Kevin"

On the hunt for chocolate - a "Kevin" prowls the jungle

I posted my first Prehistoric Bird picture awhile back, but I had two more unpainted that I wanted to get around to being ready for the tabletop. Because with my luck, the first random encounter with one of these in my Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago games, will be followed up by an identical roll on the table and a second one will appear. So, I now have three "Kevins!"

I painted two more of these 28mm Prehistoric birds from Iron Wind Metals to go with the one I'd finished awhile back

As I explained in my earlier post, I am a huge fan of the animated movie, "Up." One of the characters is a South American prehistoric bird that is adopted by a boy who shows up and promptly names him (actually her) Kevin. I even painted the miniature to look as much like the bird in the movie as I could. Some may scoff at this, but how do we really know what color schemes are appropriate for prehistoric creatures...?

Color scheme inspired by my favorite animated movie of all time - "Up."

This post is also from Iron Wind Metals, formerly Ral Partha. It is a bit more aggressive than the first (but taller) one I painted. It reminds me of the scene when the main character is trying to shoo away the bird and it closes in on him menacingly. Anyway, one good side not of getting ready to run this game is I am painting up a LOT of creatures I have had sitting in my bins unpainted for a looong time.

"Oh, please be my prisoner!" Kevin and Doug from the movie Up

Next up? For deer stags and a wraith. And then I will begin on a new breed of Splintered Light Miniatures animal crews for players to choose from, since mine are now officially all selected.

Head West for a Western Game

Mike's MDF buildings that were our town we had to defend from claim jumpers

One of our regular Sunday night gamers, Mike S, drives over from Springfield, OH, pretty much every weekend. So, we thought it was time to return the favor and headed west out to his place this past Sunday. I think most having Memorial Day off the next day convinced them that the extra drive time to get home was okay, but we started early to be on the safe side.

My leader Dakota (spitting image and grandfather of the Pulp character in our games) peeks around a building

Mike has been wanting to do Westerns for awhile, and has been collecting and painting 28mm characters. Still he asked Keith and I to bring along some of ours, so we had plenty. Each player had two gunfighters -- one was the leader type who had two action cards in the deck, and the other was the follower type, with only one. Mike was using Gunfighters Ball -- the intro version being a free download from Knuckleduster Miniatures. We had played games with it the previous weekend at Drums at the Rapids in the Toledo area. Mike adopted the rules modifications that two GMs there recommended. In hindsight, we decided to back off the modifications next time and play the rules "as is."

Joel's man in black also peeks around a building to take a shot at Steve's claim jumpers taking cover in the trees

There were eight players, three of which (Joel, Allen, and myself) were the townies -- defending our settlement from claim jumpers, who accused us of cheating them out of their proceeds. Things looked bleak for us when a couple random deadeye "head shots" from Steve V and Jason S took out one each of Allen and my characters. At that point, the other five must have felt sorry for us and began shooting at each other. This turned it into a free-for-all on their side, while us three never took a pot shot at each other. In the end, with bodies laying all over the table, the claim jumpers skulked off into the woods and we had held onto our (ill-gotten or otherwise) gains.

Rats! More "monster" progress...

Splintered Light Miniatures Rats -- who will be taking on the role of "Dricheans" in my Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago

My upcoming Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago campaign is taking a slight spin-off from the worldview that the creators of the game envisioned. Instead of human adventurers exploring the South Seas, I am using the Splintered Light Miniatures animals as my races. So, my players have chosen from among my Badgers, Mice, Bears, etc., to fill out their crews. Similarly, I am modifying the "monsters" they will encounter. One of the races said to inhabit the Ghost Archipelago's islands are called Drichean -- essentially Bronze Age humans. I decided to substitute these out, as well, and make the islands "rat-infested."

My favorite rat is the one in the center here - the dark gray with light gray drybrush fur came out best, I thought

Here is what should be the last of the monster I have to paint up to be ready to game -- my Dricheans, Splintered Light Rats. I painted them in a variety of fur colors, with a tendency towards dark gray. So, in that way, they are not a whole lot different than my Splintered Light mice that I've painted up. However, they certainly look nastier, which is on whole the difference between a mouse and a rat...ha, ha! I gave them solid but dull colored clothes, and primitive looking shield designs. For decoration, they have copper rather than bronze or gold.

Rats guarding a treasure token somewhere on a "rat-infested isle" in the South Seas

Also pictured in each is one of the dozen resin chests that I painted up as treasure tokens for Frostgrave. One of the main objectives in games of Frostgrave for the adventuring parties are scrambling for (and fighting over) treasures located on the board. One of my friends had given me a bunch of these that he had cast up from Hirst Arts molds, and I also had a couple Acheson Creations ones. I also painted up some with stone floor bases (not pictured) for those that I'll tuck inside ruined temples and such.

At this stage, I just have the odd monster or two to paint up, in case my players encounter multiples of the same monster. So, look for me to actually run my first game in a month or so. I still want to create player aids - such as cards for the monsters and spells. Not everyone has rushed out and bought the rules, so I think having these will move the game along much better.

Toob Lizards!

Touched up giant lizards from the clear plastic "Toob" creatures that you can find at craft and toy stores

I apologize for the very short update, but I wanted to post a photo of some more monsters I finished for my upcoming Ghost Archipelago games. When going through the list of wandering monsters, I saw the "Giant Lizard" category. I have one painted 25mm Iron Wind Metals Komodo dragon, but I hadn't thought to stock up. So, I needed more, in case more than one makes it way onto a board. I don't buy them very often, but the craft store Toob creatures can sometimes come in handy for miniature gamers. In this case, they had some that looked good, and would fit the bill.

I touched them up by dry-brushing them (light green for the green lizards, and pink for the red ones). I re-applied the speckled pattern, and touched up the eyes and mouth. Finally, I gave them a black wash and epoxied them onto a base and flocked them. I think they look pretty good for a little over $1 each.

Next up: Splintered Light Rats (which will be taking the place of the "Dricheans" on my South Seas Islands).