Hellmites from Heresy

Another pack of uglies from the Return of the Monsters! kickstarter by Heresy Miniatures. These hellmites will come in very handy in our Pulp Alley club-campaign, as they will pop out of the gate that will be central to one of the scenarios.

Magical Portal from Zealot (and a ghost)

More stuff from the Zealot Kickstarter, this time a magic portal. It’s a four-piece kit, with two halves of the stone frame, the base and the translucent blue portal. It needs some green-stuffing, but nothing major.

I will use it as a portal between the planes in our Cthulhu-inspired Pulp Alley campaign at the club. I'm writing a scenario around it.

Stay tuned for some monstrous beings that might just be summoned through it during that game.

Finally a ghost, also from Zealot.

Mercs: Recon - Security Forces

Type 3 and 2 Security Forces (Secfor)

These security personnel come from the Mercs: Recon - Counter Threat box. I previously finished the EU, Inc soldiers from that box and they got a very basic paint-job. These are even more basic as they are the cannon fodder.

I started with one of each and tried out some different colors and did a repaint before I had something that looked at least okay. When I painted the rest of them I skipped some detailing and did some minor changes here and there to speed up painting.

These were the first two. Far to complicated :-) so I simplified the scheme even more.

Paints used

Armour – Vallejo 867 Dark Blue Grey

Boots – 862 Black Grey

Weapons – 863 Gunmetal Grey

All above washed with Army Painter Dark Tone. The weapons got two layers to get them darker.

Shirt and trousers – 819 Iraqui Sand

Cap and jacket – 988 Khaki

Cloth washed with AP Strong Tone

They will do, and now I just have to finish the last five soldiers from the CCC faction, and we’re ready for a first game.

Spiders from Otherworld and a small dragon from Reaper

These spiders come from Otherworld Miniatures and are a rather failed experiment.

My idea was to paint them black and then let the abdomen have a hazy red shimmer on it. So I gave the black abdomen a coat of gloss varnish and then a red glaze and repeated that several times and topped with a satin varnish. The result was… somewhat disappointing.

I think the idea of varnishes sandwiching translucent layers of paint could give really interesting effects, but this was not it. I’ll have to do more experimenting and probably with an undercoat of something not so dark.

I let my daughter rummage through the case of unpainted monsters the other day to pick something she would like to have finished and she dived in, full of enthusiasm. She had a hard time deciding as the case is rather large... 

What she finally picked was this young dragon from the Reaper Bones range. We checked the D&D Monster Manual and decided it was a black dragon. I just did a very fast job on it, mainly because I think black is such a difficult color (I know it is technically not a color) to work with. Well, I have to practice more, I guess.

Anyway, we both thought it was great fun for her to find a figure and me to paint it up and we will continue doing this regularly, one monster and one character. For me it is an opportunity to paint stuff that wouldn’t be in the front of the painting queue. Next monster will be a Cthulhu-thingie that is really weird and the character will be a female druid that will be Johanna’s next D&D character.

Stay tuned for that.

Even more dungeon scenery from Zealot

I’m still working on scenery from Zealot on and off. Here we have what I’ve painted up during the last few weeks.

A really nice little well. I've added Woodland Scenics 'water' in it.

A spiral stairs

Doorways, open portcullises, a pit, bucket and a cross.

Still lots of Zealot stuff to finish and I try to always have some pieces on the painting table so I can splash on some paint in between the other projects.

Pulp Alley AAR – The Gate Beyond the Stars Campaign – Professor Arkley’s Manuscript

The Story:

The very established Professor Phineas Arkley has written a series of articles on the relationships between Canaaneic religion, magic in western occultism, natural catastrophes and the influence of intelligence beyond humanity on Middle Eastern cultures. The articles has become more and more bizarre and the latest ones were even refused. 

His very latest unpublished article (Non Euclidic Geometry Cosmology and the excavation of Akkhad VI) is rumoured to contain sensational information that will shake the very bastions of science and history. 

Sinister things happen around Professor Arkley’s mansion, strange lights are seen during the night. The Professor sent a telegram to Logan Sudbury, Chief Publisher at Arkham Press, rambling about threats from an ancient cult that know he has opened The Cosmic Gate.

By coincidence, Anders Einstein was visiting Arkham Press when Logan received the telegram. Anders rightly sees his father as a fraud and here he have a chance to debunk his father’s outrageous theories on relativity. If only Anders can get his hands on those manuscripts, that is.

It seems more groups than Anders Einstein and his companions have the same general idea but maybe different reasons to lay their hands on the fateful article. (Read all about the leagues here)
Enough of this gossip. Let’s move to New England, and the Arkley Mansion.
The major plot-point is the manuscript inside the house. To enter you have to either speak to the minor plot points Elazaar Whately, handyman who stands in front of the house, Dr. Philip Lynott who is on his way towards the front entrance or the housekeeper Mrs Marsh behind the house. These three plot-points will remain in play after someone unlocks them and can be unlocked by several leagues. 
Other plot points is a garden decoration, also behind the house, inscribed with mystic runes (if you unlock this one you will gain a special ability to be used three times in total) and a box of fireworks behind the shed (and if you unlock this one you will get the equivalent of three 3" blast attacks to be used when you feel like you need it)

All plot points in red.
First turn was no-shooting and no-fighting, all leagues just positioned themselves. Albert and friends in orange in lower right, Royal Society lower left in mauve, BOMD middle left in blue, Group T left-middle back in pink and finally HP Castrullecraft and friends right back and yellow. 

The fight starts with a classic well placed Long Burst. Eviline Dark does her dark magic thing on the poor chaps of Group T. 

That was bloody, and it becomes even worse for Group T as HP throws a bomb at the remaining chaps.

 Much applause around the table except from poor Ulf, the owner of Group T. His league is suddenly very low on manpower, and it is just the beginning of turn two.

The imperialists from the Royal Society advances on Mrs Marsh and promptly unlocks her, or rather the information she has. While doing so the also accidentally summons The Hound from Beyond the Stars. That is bad news indeed for everyone

Knowing where the manuscript is they move to the building.

The hound is a Horror and everyone that sees it will have to take a horror check. Most adventurers take it without to much problems but poor Constable Dimir is terrified and runs away screaming. He stops behind a few trees.

A fight starts between some members of the Royal Society and BOMD.

And when Chiang Kai Shreck tries to activiate someone plays the Hostile card on him and the old gardener Jesaia jumps out of a nearby bush...

... and whacks Mr Shreck on the head. Laughter once again at this well placed card. An excellent example on how the cards influence the game and have a real chance of ruining the best laid plans.

Group T gets some revenge as Lieut. Andersson shoots Eviline, and thereby removes the long burst.

My league gets to activate. Anders Einstein unlocks the plotpoint (and gets three one-uses of Winged) while the other members protect the flanks.

The carnage continues in the front of the house...

... as BOMD gets into the action.

I have a cunning plan and move the close combat specialist Greta de Laval to the side of the house.

I birds-eye on the battle-field at the start of turn three.

Evilina has recuperated and she feels wicked...

... which is bade news for Group T.

The Royal Society and BOMD continues to hurt each other.

Which is good news for Anders Einstein as he sweet-talks Mrs Marsh into revealing the location of the manuscripts, meaning my league can also enter the building.

But before I do anything like that I let Lars de Laval fire up his plasma rifle. I love the smell of super-heated plasma in the morning :-)

I let my heroes pile into the building and a fierce close combat commences...

... as more and more people enters it.

Ouch. Lars falls.

As does Plåt-Petter. The Hound is in a Blood Frenzy and continues his attacks, this time jumping Anders (I see a trend here... It seems that Anders will continue the proud tradition of Monsignore and be beset by every monster in sight.)

Anders Dodges the monster and retreats.

A new round and Eviline casts a new Blast, but i play a Lucky Bounce card on her, meaning I can move the Blast. Unfortunately for her her black arts misfire as she herself is blasted. Much enjoyment from everyone around the table except Jeppan, the league-master of HP Castrullecraft and his gang.

At last Contable Dimir gets his act together and joins in the fight against the Royal Society. Successfully it seems.

Anders joins the fight in the house. It is getting awfully crowded.

BOMD seem to have a good day. But both Society-members will recuperate at turn-end.

A new turn. Plåt-Petter feels much better and promptly guns down a man i blue. Good job!

HP Catrullecraft joins the fight in the house and gets soundly beaten.

Col. Soggybottom succeeded in unlocking the plot point, jumps through a window (a perilous move) and tries to flee with the manuscript. Anders follows him and a fight starts. 

Meanwhile both Society members are felled again. They don't have a good day.

While all this fighting is going on we have sort of missed Special Agent Dick Dalton who not only found and grabbed the case of fireworks, he also tries to flirt with Mrs Marsh and succeeds. Such a coward, staying out of all the fun and grabbing plot-points while everyone else is slogging it out. Unfair and close to cheating. We will have our eyes on him in the future...

Everyone is after Col. Soggybottom as no-one wants him to have the manuscrips. 

And here comes the Hound. Guess who's on the menu?

A new turn. Some downed members recuperates, others do not.  There are significantly fewer members on the board now.

The very last turn starts with Plåt-Niklas attacking Eviline, and it doesn't work out at all...

Dick Dalton gets into the fight and starts to shoot it out with Col. Soggybottom. Last chance to get him now.

My sidekick Hans de Laval makes a heroic jump from one of the upper windows but he fails his Peril and is down. I play a card that makes everyone around take the same Peril, and the area is now considered extremely perilous for the rest of the game.  I guess Hans accidentally bumped into a paraffin lamp and set the house on fire. 

With that we see that no-one can take out Sir Soggybottom and there are no-one in range to unlock any more plot points. We call it a day and go home to lick our wounds.

That was a great start on a new campaign. As much fun as always with the Pulp Alley rules that works so well even when we have five players around the table.
Hope you enjoyed the AAR. More to come.
This first scenario was written by Jeppan.