I needed a classic chest mimic for a don’t choose the wrong chest scenario in our RPG group and went for the Mocking Beast by Reaper Miniatures. The mini is a bit on the small side, like a lot of Reaper minis, but it’s giant teeth kind of make up for that. Of course, the party did chose the “wrong” chest and had a nice litte encounter with the mimic.
I love old-school computer RPGs and I’m very excited about the resurgence of isometric, party based RPGs like Pillars of Eternity and Divinity. But as I’m a great fan of the 3.5 edition of the D20 system, the best of the lot for me so far was Pathfinder Kingmaker. Spoilers for that game follow.
In addition to the game system I also loved the story. It was fantastic and a huge part of it was the history and interaction with the main villain, Nyrissa. I spend an unholy amount of time in this game to explore all the different endings and was especially satisfied with the very hard to achieve ending in which you could actually fully redeem and romance Nyrissa.
As I really like the character I decided to paint up the great model released for her by Reaper Miniatures.
The limited D&D miniatures line from Gale Force Nine is very much hit and miss. Some of their models like the Beholder or Behir are excellent, but a lot of the minis are not much to write home about. The problem is that all of their minis are limited and the good ones are really hard to find, especially the older ones.
I have been on the lookout for one of my favorites from their line for many month until I finally got my hands on it – the Purple Worm. Sadly the quality of the cast was not without flaws, but a bit of heat and a lot of modelling putty could fix that. The detail on the mini is great though, which made painting it a joy.
So here he is, ready to swallow some unfortunate adventurers whole:
Today we complete the Food Mimic Gang with its final member – the Bad Bread.
The Bad Bread just wants to have fun. Not burdened with too much intellect the Bread merrily follows his gang members examples and does as he is told. The most fun the Bread can have is when engaged in combat. Using his massive size he loves to barrel into the midst of the enemy, crushing them with his body
Not all members of the Food Mimic Gang disguise themselves as baked goods, this one prefers to be a Chunk O’ Cheese.
The Chunk O’ Cheese has a vicious mean streak. She enjoys cruelty and inflicting pain on a scale that even disturbs her comrades from time to time. In times of combat the Cheese can always be found in melee, where she can do the most damage. She likes to stay on the sidelines though, trying to flank her enemies an pick of stragglers.
Another member of the Food Mimic Gang, the Dread Donut.
The inquisitive Dread Donut is the scholar of the gang. Her keen knowledge of the arcane arts is a valued resource for her comrades. Using her arcane might she provides ranged support for the gang in combat, battering the enemy with a huge array of deadly arcane eye beams from a distance.
Beside the voodoo puppets other strange beings called the swamp witch’s hut their home. None of them weirder than a gang of tiny mimics, disguised as food, who made their camp on the kitchen table. First off, we have the head of the gang, the Cunning Cupcake.
The Cunning Cupcake is the undisputed leader of the Food Mimic Gang. His clever tactics and shrewd ambushes helped the gang to waylay many victims. In combat the Cupcake likes to keep his distance from the enemy, leading his gang from behind and taking potshots at weakened enemies with his eyebeam.
The final model in my series of Puppet Wars models used as voodoo puppets for the “No Strings Attached” RPG adventure, Juju the Voodoo Tree Puppet.
The swamp witch created a lot of strange creatures, the largest of which is the giant Treewalker, Juju, guarding her home. As it turns out looks can be quite deceiving, as the real power behind Juju comes from a small wooden voodoo doll. Catching and defeating Puppet Juju might be the only way to defeat the giant Juju and escape the hut of the swamp witch alive.
The “No String Attached” adventure from Wyrd Games offers a great basic concept, but it is specifically created as a 1-shot and due to that is was rather short and missing some aspects I wanted to add. One was the lack of a big boss fight and when I first saw the 2014 GenCon limited edition of Malifaux’s Teddy, “Miss-Ery”, it felt like a natural fit. The model looked like it was made for Puppet Wars, and its large size made it an imposing boss model. The only problem was getting my hands on the limited eidtion model. It took me months of scouring the web until an eBay auction for the model popped up. Luckily I was able to win the auction and immediately after receiving the model I painted up “Misery, the original Voodoo Puppet”.
The swamp witch doesn’t quite remember how many years ago she animated the first voodoo puppet, but of course she remembers which puppet it was, she created first – Misery, the Nightmare Teddy.
Among today’s puppets Misery is not much more than a myth. No living puppet has ever seen the first of their kind, only heard stories passed down by old puppets long deceased.
Misery spends her days sleeping in the witches bed, dreaming sweet dreams of slicing open other puppets with her razor sharp claws. Legend says only great violence could wake her from her slumber. Violence like dozens of puppets meeting on the battlefield maybe?
Pokey was a late addition to the lineup of puppets for “No Strings Attached”. The mini was sculpted by Antoine Bergeron and he was kind enough to send me a copy. The cast was great and fun to paint and best of all, he neatly fit into the puppet line.
Most puppets have a clear memory of their life before being transformed into a puppet by the swamp witch, though the memory starts to fade with time. When Pokey awoke as a puppet beside the Beastmaster, he had no memory of his prior life whatsoever. From the first moment he felt a clear connection to the Beastmaster, though. He likes to stay at his side and poke evil puppets who want to hurt him with his pointy horn.
