CCLXVI. St. Tuberosa; + Miniatures Without Borders

Boxed saint, St. Tuberosa. Like Talula, she belongs to an order of travelling death monks/nuns. Tuberosa peddled apotropaic beads and cured curses. Died of old age. Invoked against the evil eye.

Miniatures Without Borders

At the same time I took old Ambros II, king of Folda, and installed him into a box of his own. It's preparation for his eventual departure towards one of the winners of the Miniatures Without Borders charity raffle. 

You can win Ambros in the charity raffle!

"2020 has not been an easy year for anyone and it feels like the bad news just keep coming. 

We decided we needed to do something, provide a positive message and try to bring together people around a noble goal. We hope to show just how amazing this community is and what we can do when we set our mind to it. 

This is why we have launched Miniatures Without Borders, a charity raffle for Doctors Without Borders. All the money we raise will go directly to DWB so the more tickets you buy the more you help. 

As an added incentive we have put up a whole host of miniatures as prizes! There are close to 30 prizes provided by members of our incredibly community and you could be the lucky winner! 

Please join us on this journey to help out a truly deserving organization, it is worth it."

The raffle was started by Alexander Winberg of Echoes of Imperium, and it's gathered some outstanding miniature artists to donate their minis. There are 27 prizes, from single models, to warbands and display pieces. If you want to see all the prizes and list of contributors follow this LINK. The full gallery of prizes is in the video on the raffle page, and you have a list with details below that. 

Buy a ticket or two, help a good cause, and perhaps win yourself a lovely prize!

CCLXIV. Mortal Remains of Jerome the Hag

One more flayed mummy in a box commission. Wild hair, piercing gaze, toothless grin...

CCLXII. St. Bartholomaeus

Been a while since my last mummy in a box. This one was a commission; the client asked for one based on St. Bartholomew, a martyr who was flayed.

CCLIX. The Sigil

Gardens of Hecate has a shiny new sigil!

A sign of new things to come…

Courtesy of Alexei Vella (thesigilist.com).

CCXLVIII. Sunhold: The First Triumvirate - Introduction

This summer I will once more be organising an AoS28 multiplayer event game at UMS "Agram" in Zagreb. The project has only recently reached production stage, and I'll be documenting its development here on the blog - perhaps it will help someone who is interested in organising something similar.

Before I started inviting potential participants and collaborators, I had to do a certain amount of work and planning by myself.  The venue and date of the event were both provided to us by UMS "Agram" from the start, so I didn't have to deal with that. I did, however, have to come up with the setting and the premise of the game. This took more than I expected, but I settled for the following:

The story of The First Triumvirate takes place in a territory freshly liberated from occupation by Chaos. The huge and mighty Stormhost is gone to fight somewhere else, and people are working on resettling the area: rebuilding, repopulating, starting new kingdoms on ruins of old. A small contingent of Stormcast Eternals remains to coordinate and lead these efforts. Although armies of Chaos are gone, these lands are not fully safe yet. Wild beasts, the undead and small groups of servants of Chaos are still roaming about. Each city-state and country are painstakingly reclaimed for mankind, and the execution of this effort is organised as a series of reclamation projects. Sunhold is a sprawling ruined city surrounded by plains,forests and marshes. The events of our game will take place within Sunhold's walls.

Each player will take command of a small warband, representing groups that entered the city to fulfil their individual goals. They may be a part of the reclamation project and want to exterminate enemies of humanity to make the city once more habitable, or they may be a party of adventurers or bandits who wish to loot the ruins and fill their own pockets. The warbands may make alliances and collaborate, or betray and eliminate each other on their path through the ruins.

The setting is a loot-littered, monster-infested ruined city; a familiar concept we've seen before in Mordheim, Frostgrave, Shadespire and others. 

The next step was to determine which rules system we would use, as that would have some effect on future decisions. I went to my brother for advice on this one, since he's my usual rules guy. After some discussion he suggested writing a fully custom rules system, and that is what we ended up doing. I will discuss the system in a separate post, as it's a topic worth examining on its own.

Now that we had a setting and an idea what the game will play like, I turned to the matter of the table and scenery. Since I have no more than six months to prepare, I will rely mostly on plastic kits as opposed to elaborate scratch-built terrain. It's the kind of scenery I intend to use for many games in the future, and that re-usability is a big bonus. I have a fine amount of unbuilt Warcry ruins as well as a few sets of Garden of Morr (or whatever they call it these days). I will need the help of others with scatter terrain, though.

The kits have been taken off the sprue and about half of them have been cleaned up already. When that's done, we commence assembly.

This was the moment I had enough to start inviting folks to the game. Some of them are friends I've collaborated before and even met with at past events, but many are people I hadn't been in direct contact with before I invited them. I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of them around the same table on the day of the game. I will talk more about them and show off their progress here as they start working on their models. You can follow the project on Instagram under #aos28sunhold.

In order to keep the team on the same page regarding the setting and overall aesthetic of the game, I needed to create two documents: Background&Guidelines and the Mood Board. The former lets the participants in on what the event is about and the size and composition of their warbands. The latter consists of images that help convey the colours, shapes, notions and overall atmosphere the game aims to achieve through its visual design. Since there are so many artist working on the project, this is a must if it is to possess a consistent and recognisable look. I crammed the whole crew into a dedicated FB group so we can all communicate, share and discuss about the project.

Background&Guidelines

Mood Board

 That's all for now. Watch this space (as well as Instagram and Facebook) for further updates.

CCXL. November

Tomorrow, on November 1st, Gardens of Hecate will be seven years old. Thank you all for your attention and feedback throughout the year! I celebrated by converting and painting some creatures of the night for my AoS28 collection.

A Vampire and a Mordant Courtier.

Both conversions are based on Chaos Furies from Warcry. I love those sculpts. The neck frills are from the big chaos chickens, also from Warcry. The vampire's face comes from The Grymwatch, the new Flesh-eater Courts warband for Warhammer Underworlds. The Mordant's face is from a Slaanesh Daemonette (with fangs and new ears). I have a bunch of new ghouls in the works; these guys need some loyal subjects.

That's all for tonight. Happy Halloween!

CCXXVII. Oldcast Hammternal

This project is dedicated to all those precious people who promptly and thoroughly lose their shit every time someone mentions AoS. I love you guys. :*

 

CCXIX. The Hiaticula Excursion

I spent last week, and a bit of the previous, in Poland visiting a friend. Among other things we went to Pyrkon, a convention in Poznań. Another friend from abroad, Vladimir, was also there for the convention, so my host Witold organized a little gaming event for us.  He was the GM, and Vlad and I played our inquisitors. We used Kill Team rules. You can find Witold's miniatures blog here: Backwater Deathworld, and Vladimir's stuff (incuding his warband for the event) is on his Instagram:@vmkuriljov.

︿ Section of our mission briefing, written by Witold. ︿

*

Part I: Arrival

The first game was played on two separate tables that represented places miles away from each other. We randomly decided who goes where and deployed our Inquisitors. Mine was Rosanda Morbray with her core henchmen and two Grey Knights recruited for this mission. Vlad's was Sava the Black, whom we've met before at Cerulean Gate - then he was an NPC who joined Rosanda to reinforce my small warband. This time he was a PC, and he brought a band of mercenaries as well as his trusted henchmen. 

We were each opposed by a unit of Witold's guardsmen absolutely unwilling to let us through. Each battlefield contained two mysterious 'anomalies' taking the form of disembodied floating heads. We did not know what their nature or purpose was.

Inquisitor Sava the Black's retinue attempting to break through the defenders' line, somewhere by a river.

My Inquisitrix sent her Grey Knights to fight the guardsmen while she attempted to study one of the anomalies up close, safe in cover from enemy fire. The examination did not provide any new information. It was only when a familiar figure materialised from thin air in between the anomalies that Rosanda realised their effect. It was Alex Van Der Zint, Sava the Black's body guard - and she must have been transported through the warp by passing between the anomalies. Meanwhile, Brother Dante and Brother Gabriel were gunned down by plasma weapons failing to cause any losses to the opposing (clearly traitorous!) soldiers. 

Rosanda Morbray's Grey Knights exiting the Imperial ruin that was my deployment zone. A lone Nurgling appeared on top of a container. The Knights promise they would make short notice of the critter before proceeding to battle the guardsmen.

Since the battle wasn't going in her favour, Rosanda decided to use the anomalies to escape. Together with her remaining henchmen she passed through, and found herself on a different battlefield. Her assumption about the anomalies was correct. Luckily, Sava and his mercs were doing well - and with these reinforcements it would be easier still to prevail. 

Brother Jonas was the last to cross through the anomalies. Alex was never seen again.

The warp journey did not go smooth for everyone, though. A tragic mishap caused Brother Jonas and Sister Beata to meld together into a warp abomination. One body, two minds. Suffering, but still loyal to Inquisitor Morbray and the Emperor. The Inquisitors agreed not to execute them yet, for they may still be used on the mission. Inquisitor Morbray was in an unfavourable position; Sava the Black had the upper hand. However, he didn't seem to intend on turning against his colleague, at least at the time. After some more fighting, the guardsmen were pushed back and the allied Inquisitors could proceed further into the colony's ruins.

 

Part II: Birth of the Entity

The two Inquisitors reached the spot where the Entity was prophesied to be born. It was merely another stretch of colony ruins, and it looked completely deserted. Still, they advanced with caution. The fist sign of life was a voice coming from a closed hatch on the ground. It demanded to be let out and spouted accusations of heresy. Rosanda thought it prudent to keep the mysterious entity down there for the time being, so she sent Beata-Jonas to keep the hatch closed.

The warp abomination that was once Brother Jonas and Sister Beata refuses to comply to the mysterious voice coming from the hatch.

As the two warbands crept slowly towards the target ruin, anomalies began spawning inside it, and daemons of Nurgle started shuffling onto the scene. First Nurglings, then Plaguebearers, and Nurgling swarms. The Inquisitors and their retinues used all available means to keep the daemons at bay. However, they weren't destroying them fast enough, and were under serious threat of being overwhelmed.

Several turns into the encounter, there are more and more Nurgle Daemons pouring in.
Their stench is intolerable.

A Herald of Nurgle emerged. Rosanda hurried into the ruined building with anomalies, hoping the Entity would manifest before she ends up dead.

A Daemon Prince comes forth. The foul daemons screech with joy. The Prince lunges forward towards Rosanda's position. At that moment the Entity is born.

The Entity materialised in a circle of Warp anomalies. It was the size of an infant, and had the appearance of a pale levitating foetus, its black umbilical cord trailing behind it. Witold sculpted the tiny miniature from scratch.

In the next few seconds everybody scrambles towards the Entity. As soon as she recovered from the surprise and found that the creature was in front of her, Rosanda Morbray stated her wish.

"I wish you never existed."

Reality collapses on itself.

*   *   *

While I was in Poland my host kindly took me around the country to see stuff. I visited several towns and museums in them. The following is a selection of interesting bits I captured along the way.

Prehistoric pottery. Poznań Archaeological Museum.

Prehistoric dead. Poznań Archaeological Museum.

Sketch for Szał (Frenzy) by Władysław Podkowiński, 1893. National Museum in Poznań. The actual painting is in Krakow and is much larger. Haven't been there, though.

Silence of the Forest by Arnold Böcklin, 1885. National Museum in Poznań.

Allegory of the Holy Trinity, by unknown artist active in 17th century Poland. National Museum in Poznań. I'm much more used to seeing it depicted as a group of three separate creatures (old man god Father, Jesus the Son, and dove form for Holy Spirit) than a single three-faced figure. This is so rad!

Lamentation, early 16th century polychrome wood statue. National Museum in Poznań. I find this one interesting because Christ doesn't seem freshly deceased. The wear and patina of time are a big part of the decomposing look, but are not the only contributing factors - look at those deeply sunken eyes.

Boar Hunt by Frans Snyders (1579-1657). National Museum in Poznań. I hadn't heard of this artist before. Apparently, he was one of the first animaliers - artists specialising in painting animals. He painted a number of other hunting scenes, as well as animals in other situations, still lifes and portraits.

Sarkofagi by Leon Wyczolkowski, 1895. National Museum in Poznań. The painting represents the tombs of Polish monarchs Casimir the Great and Jadwiga of Angevin.

Philosopher by Alina Szapocznikow, 1965. Bronze sculpture. National Museum in Poznań. Love everything about this piece from unsettling form to texture and colour.

Closeup of Philosopher.

Figure Dream II by Magdalena Abakanowicz, 2008. Sculpture made of burlap soaked in synthetic resin. Saw this one at Four Domes Pavilion in Wrocław. My first encounter with the artist's work was actually a group of headless iron sculptures titled Unrecognized I saw a couple days earlier in Park Cytadela in Poznań. Gotta say I was an instant fan.

Crowd by Magdalena Abakanowicz, 1986-87. Four Domes Pavilion, Wrocław.

Crowd by Magdalena Abakanowicz up close.

Metal Relief - Gaudi by Zdzisław Beksiński, 1959-60, mixed media. Four Domes Pavilion, Wrocław. When I walked in the gallery I was hoping to see a painting or two by Beksiński; but they didn't have any. They did, however, have this thing and some of his sculptures.

Beast, Figure and Sitting Figure by Zdzisław Beksiński, 1960. Four Domes Pavilion, Wrocław.

Wrocław Town Hall.

Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork (or Marienburg). Built in 13th century. Made of brick and pretty damn big.

Floor tiles. Malbork Castle.

A door. Malbork Castle. Captured a few different doors. Great for reference.

Malbork Castle.

Memorial monument of knight Wolf von der Oelsnitz (1593). Malbork Castle.

Malbork Castle.

Malbork Castle.

Toilet devil. Malbork Castle.

Malbork Castle.

St. James' Church in Toruń.