BOYL 2018 - The Shrine of Rigg

So here it is! It's been a long time coming but finally the Shrine of Rigg exists! And has paint on it! And we played a game with it!

Back Once Again!

Hello faithful readers - if there's anyone left? Quite understandable if you've left me for dead since my last post was back in October and I was somewhat sporadic before then... 

Goddesses of Battle?

Just spotted some rather tasty Amazon proxies in Foundry's new Fantasy range for their Gods of Battle game.

I don't know much about the game - perhaps the Oldhammer Weekend down at Foundry might change that if a demo game is run and I get enough time away from running Orc's Drift and playing all the other games I  want to!

Of particular interest to me from an Amazonian point of view are the Lion Tribe Female warriors from the Thousand Tribes faction - definitely good Koka Kalim material.

There are also some rather nice Cavalry options from the Thousand Tribes who'd make very nice Chaos Thug Horsemen and women.

 Definitely a passing resemblance to the illustration from the Armies book.

Back to the Amazons though, and the Half Elves are another faction with some promising  options. They have quite a Native American feel to them but I'm sure with the right paint job I could Meso-American them up a bit.

With a little bit of Otoplasty, these ladies could make some good Tribeswomen to bolster the ranks. I wonder if it'll be possible to cherry pick the females out of the Vulture tribe packs?

More to add to the shopping list for the Oldhammer weekend!

Shrine of Rigg - Ground Floor

Its been a while since I had any updates on my Shrine of Rigg build. I must admit that the LPL certainly slowed construction down, although I have now completed the outer wall for half of the ground floor and begun work on the second half of the ground floor - if you remember I split the model in half in an attempt to reduce the weight of each piece.

One thing the LPL did do to spur me on was get what I had built of the shrine painted to use as a back drop for the Amazon Sisterhood minis I planned to enter for Round 8.

Of course I also needed to make a raised dais, some pillars to break up the space a little and a plinth to mount the gold statue of Rigg on!

Here you can see the girls getting a bit too excited over their latest offering to the Goddess.

What you can see here is the basic shell of the ground floor - the pillars, dais and altar aren't fixed in and will actually be used in the floor above. Once I have finished the other hand of the Ground Floor I'll be looking at putting the interior walls in, as well as the stairs that lead up to a side entrance in the shrine.

The Sisterhood has a firm grip of the political, religious and technical power and makes up the ruling class in Amazon society. This excerpt from the Second Citadel Compendium goes into a little more detail:

The Sisterhood originates from the High Age of Southern Lustria, a golden age of science and technology. Even then, Amazonia was a wild and fiercely independent land. The technocratic and wise old Slann accepted this and respected Amazon territory. While other humans were regarded as inferior, enslaved and treated little better than cattle, the Amazons retained their freedom.

Old Slann and Amazon were able to exist, almost entirely peacefully side by side. There was even a measure of trade and cooperation between the two races. Amazons were particularly valued as Acolytes and as Thralls by the High Age Magii.

These Amazon emigres were the ancestors of the present day Sisterhood. They were to gain, through their work and their studies, a close familiarity with the High Age sciences.

Eventually the Old Slann fell,  their civilisation was destroyed and their knowledge lost even to their descendants. Modern day Slann regard any trace of the old days with suspicion and fear: the Old Sciences have been lost to them. Not so to the Sisterhood, who retained and preserved much of their knowledge. Whilst they could not hope to recreate the products of the High Age they could still use and maintain many of the artefacts which they had salvaged from its fall. 

This knowledge became the basis of the Sisterhood's power and authority within Amazon society. The careful organisation, fanatic devotion and above all, the secrecy of the Sisterhood ensure a continuing hegemony in the religious, political and scientific spheres of Amazon life.

The Sisterhood Mage is one of the high ranks within the Sisterhood - those who rise to such greatness are formidable magic users and are able to call forth the living embodiment of the Goddess Rigg.

Mother Samantha is one of the only named Amazon characters, apart from the rebellious Kara Lakota.

Samantha's birth place lies somewhere in Eastern Amazonia. Born into a Nomadic tribe, she eventually became a member of the Kalim and from here joined the Devout.

She rose with remarkable speed from the Devout to the Sisterhood and then upwards through the ranks of the Sisterhood. She is now a High Priestess, the Head of the Holy Shrine of Rigg.

Samantha is still surprisingly young. Because of her Nomadic Amazon background she is an agile and able fighter as well as a powerful magician.

The Goddess herself!

Rigg, Goddess of War,  is the leading figure in the Amazon pantheon - the result of the mythic union between her and the Sea Elf God of wealth and happiness, Amex, was said to be Kalith, Mother of all Amazons.

Although she is of neutral alignment,  her spheres of influence lie in warfare, blood, Koka and violent death!

Should the Great Hall of the temple be violated, Mother Samantha or any other Sisterhood Mage can summon the Goddess herself with a summon demons spell. The Goddess will manifest herself, standing on the altar and obeying the wishes of the summoner for 2D4 turns. She appears as a 9 foot tall giant with red eyes and hair and is armed with a knife and four throwing knives - all magical.

Huge thanks to Zhu and his excellent forays into Amazonia, both for his great posts on the subject but also for inspiring the colour scheme I chose for the Sisterhood. I was so taken with the costume design for none other than Diana Rigg herself, in her role as Klytemestra in the BBC adaptation of The Serpent Son, that I had to pinch it!

You may recognise the face paint design I've used on most of the Sisterhood.

The design on this dress also shows up on the backs of the cloaks of Rigg and the Sisterhood Mage.

The next models aren't from the Amazon range but make nice Sisterhood Acolytes or Novices.

The evil Priestess from the Fantasy Adventurers range. I had a go at making her robe seem a little on the sheer side by adding faint flesh highlights where the cloth was drawn tight. I figured red hair would be pretty in vogue too if it was good enough for Rigg herself!

I figured that a Goddess like Rigg would probably be wanting some kind of blood sacrifice so the Houri with dagger, also from the Fantasy Adventurers range, would also fit nicely.

And finally another Samantha - this time Samantha Phox from the later range of Wizards. She's obviously had a little too much Koka or gotten a bit carried away with the rituals...

So to finish off I thought I'd mock up a few shots of what a game might actually look like once the Shrine is done!

Not too far off the Cover art on the Second Citadel Compendium?!

Frog on your Throat!

Ah, finally some new material - with some old thrown in for good measure!

Here is my Round 9 entry to the LPL - the Slann wizard on his Palanquin, borne aloft by lobotomised slaves. This mini has been on the hit list for some time and you may remember a rather jubilant post a while back when I finally got my hands on it.

Everything's better with Dinosaurs!

I had to pinch the title of this post from the excellent TV tropes website because its so true. And there were certainly plenty of them in kid's TV and literature back in 80's.

Lady Land

The Temple of Rigg build rumbles on and the Lustrian Lady Land continues to slowly take shape...

Currently painting Amazons as I am at the moment and having finally gotten around to reading Zhu's latest delve into Amazonian Archeoideology, I thought I'd take a look at some possible alternative miniatures to expand the old Citadel range.

Meet the Stoutbacks

While we're on matters of a Nordic nature - Fresh from the field of battle that is the Lead Painter's League over on the LAF are the Stoutbacks. Unfortunately these noble Norse warriors didn't win against the rather fine Norman knights (well done Rob should you be reading this!) they were pitted against but no matter - I have the full set and they are painted!

Lustrian Loot!

I don't often go for "Look what I just got!" type posts but I couldn't resist this time!

An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest.

I'm glad I mentioned Josep Conrad's Heart of Darkness in my last post - its definitely got the brain going again in terms of how I'm going to piece together the narrative strands of the Magnificent Sven's further adventures. Cheers Mouse for those little snippets you shared in your comment by the way!

I had thought about originally using Heart of Darkness and by extension Apocalypse Now as a narrative framework from which to hang the various scenarios. The journey down the river in the Volksvagn, Sven's alcohol powered boat, would take the characters from encounter to encounter, culminating in the discovery of the Shrine of Rigg.  However, the source material seems a little dark in comparison to the light hearted tone I usually go for. This shouldn't be a massive problem as I'll be cherry picking various tropes and encounters from the two stories to use in my campaign and twisting them to my own ends. 

Having the characters depart on their boat would mean a slight re-write of the first scenario I came up with which sees the victorious Svenn and his companions turfed out of Vastervik, having outstayed their welcome somewhat. With the (initially false) promise of gold and the idea of seeking out the Shrine of Rigg seeded in our hero's mind, I think I've just about covered the Hungry Jungle trope in that scenario! Although I have been thinking along the lines of making the plant life a little more of a presence. Not only in the sense of plants that may physically attack the characters but also the psychological effects the jungle has, as seen in Hearts of Darkness. I need to flesh the idea out a bit more but possibly some kind of roll against WP with a list of nasty psychological effects on a  The horror... the horror table of results should the test be failed. When and how often the test needs to be made will need some thought - after unpleasant encounters with jungle flora/fauna, 25% casualties received, rank and file troops straying too far from their leader's influence?

On a more practical note, all of this would also mean I would need to build the Volksvagn and some larger river sections to accommodate its passage! A step too far on top of building the Shrine of Rigg...?!

One way of avoiding the re-write might be having the good folk of Vastervik complete their revenge on Sven and his drunken band by setting the Volksvagn adrift. It could then be discovered by Sven, run aground and in need of repairs and something to distil for fuel later on. Hmm, I have the basis of another scenario methinks! The heroes have to hold out against a Slann/Lizardman/Amazon attack while Sven and Juggo attempt to make the necessary repairs to escape.

I may save the hunt for Mangoes or a similar fruit (say the extremely sugary and potent Cabardi fruit!) to be distilled into alcohol for the boat's fuel tanks for another scenario. I wonder what I might call it...

Other ideas would be to include a Kurtz type character for Sven to bump into. Perhaps a Norseman gone mad, who's set himself up as the God King of a tribe of Pygmies (the only Lustrian race I haven't included so far). I have this chap in the lead pile who might be good in the role -

I also need to shoe horn the Bollrbrjótr in somewhere and somehow - perhaps as the owners of the big cats that disrupt the search for Cabardi fruit.

I can't remember whether I've shared details of the final showdown on this blog or not. At the risk of repeating myself here they are again. 

Sven and his band finally navigate their way to Lake Lokka and find the Shrine of Rigg on its shore. They enter and search for gold, whilst avoiding the Koka Kalim guards. Meanwhile outside Gurgyll Greenwake arrives with his Slann rengades and Lizardman levies, hot in pursuit of Sven and thirsting for revenge for the humiliation he suffered at Vastrervik. Of course the Amazons are not happy at the presence of Slann at their most holy of sites and seek to fight them off. I may even have a Bretonnian expedition turn up in search of that most exquisite of delicacies - frogs' legs!

That should be enough action in and around the Shrine to keep a few players very busy indeed.

Final thought - here's a great excerpt from Heart of Darkness describing Kurtz' native mistress, who seems to hold some kind of power over him. It'd make a great description for the Amazons of Lustria too I think.

And from right to left along the lighted shore moved a wild and gorgeous apparition of a woman. She walked with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments. She carried her head high; her hair was done in the shape of a helmet; she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witchmen, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step. She must have had the value of several elephant tusks upon her. She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress. And in the hush that had fallen suddenly upon the whole sorrowful land, the immense wilderness, the colossal body of the fecund and mysterious life seemed to look at her, pensive, as though it had been looking at the image of its own tenebrous and passionate soul.

A rioting invasion of soundless life...

Sorry - getting all literary again! This is a quote from one of my all time favourite books - Conrad's Heart of Darkness. In it the jungle is often personnified and described in such a way as to make it a powerful and active agent within the book -

The great wall of vegetation, an exuberant and entangled mass of trunks, branches, leaves, boughs, festoons, motionless in the moonlight, was like a rioting invasion of soundless life, a rolling wave of plants, piled up, crested, ready to topple over the creek, to sweep every little man of us out of his little existence.

So what's all this got to do with little men? Well I've felt for a while that my lack of jungle scenery needs sorting out - the deciduous trees and bushs I've got will no doubt be used but on their own they're not very jungly. 

A trip to Pets at Home the other day for dog food provided me with the perfect excuse to finally raid their Fish tank section! I'm not sure if this stuff is available cheaper elsewhere but £11 netted me this bunch of foliage that will be chopped up into smaller scenic bases - pictured here with some ferns and palms I picked up at Recon from a company called Minibits

However, the star buy was this tank decorat

Another brick in the wall...

Just a quick update to show a little progress on the shrine in case you'd thought I'd forgotten about it or realised the insanity of the whole project and washed my hands of the whole thing!

I got a few castings done last week, although painting all that 10mm goodness distracted me a little. That and I'm sure the neighbours are beginning to wonder what all the banging is... (me knocking the airbubbles out of the molds on my improvised worksurface - a piece of board resting on pieces of sponge taped to the bottom of it.)

Anyway here's the pics

Grand Designs...

Well this post has been a long time in the writing! I had the designs drawn up some time ago and have been cracking on with the build since then. Unfortunately a lack of a scanner at home and literally not having a minute to myself at work has meant that I haven't had a chance to scan in my somewhat colourful plan.

Build unto me...

 ... a temple of epic proportions!

Cold Comfort...

Howdy folks and apologies for a rather quiet November on the painting front. Unfortunately work has rather dominated things and sapped all energy and motivation - 11 hour days haven't exactly been conducive for spending a few happy hours of quiet concentration in the evening...

But enough of my woes - at least I've had the joy of playing an exciting game of 3rd ed. remotely. Turn 2 is up and once more brought brilliantly to life by the inimitable Gaj!

In fact my lengthy tactical considerations and increasingly desperate attempts to woo the Dice Gods, who for some reason seem rather displeased with me, have also contributed somewhat to the dearth of progress on my Slann Cold One Riders.

However, I can take comfort in the fact that I'm back in the swing of things and the labour of love that these frog men and their stinky mounts have become is finished - apart from some jungly bits to add to the bases at some point in the future...

A Miniature world in Miniature...

Just received a very nice parcel today from fellow Old Hammerite, Skarsnik and Old Lead, of Opponent Finder and Citadel Giant fame. Bumped into him over on the LAF flogging a few bits and pieces and was most interested in the Warmaster stuff he had going. One very good deal later (thanks again mate!) and I was the proud owner of this little lot - apart from the rule book which I acquired a while back and has made interesting bedtime reading for the past week or two.

Here Come the Girrr...

...irrrls,

Da-da, Da Da, Da-da, Da-da-da, Dah, etc.

Apologies for invoking that grossly overplayed and vaguely irritating tune, beloved of TV advertisers everywhere along with a certain High Street Chemist.

However, I invoke it with good reason, as here, indeed, come the Girls!

There are more ways of skinning a cat...

... You could just try Miliput and leave the poor animal alone!

A Slann's Best Friend...

... is his lizard of course!

Or at least his Cold One Warhound to be specific.

Two legends collide

As if there wasn't enough Lustrian goodness packed into The Magnificent Sven, I thought I'd shoehorn in a little more! The next scenario I have planned will see Sven and the surviving members of his party happening across Kremlo and the remnants of the Stoutback Clan's punitive warband.