The woodlands of The Embattled Realms are home to many diverse, fantastic, and fearsome creatures. One of the most enigmatic and most dreaded, are the curious, yet ravenous predators known throughout The Realms as Twirling Terrors.
These brown-furred horrors are in essence living eating machines. Roughly man-sized, they consist of a massive head mounted upon a small, heavily-muscled torso supported by two short but powerful legs and bearing a pair of long sinewy arms. All four limbs are equipped with grasping hands bearing long black talons as hard as steel. The head is surmounted by two short, black, equally hard (and sharp) horns and bears a visage consisting of mostly a huge fanged maw and a long, constantly slobbering tongue. Two overly large jet black eyes stare unblinking above the horrific mouth and brutish snout, ceaselessly searching for food (other living beings).
Twirling Terrors largely get their name from their bizarre and frightening movement, a series of spinning lopes and hops performed at uncannily high speed, and their sheer voracious ferocity. Emitting a constant stream of gibbering grunts, snorts, snarls, and other disconcerting noises while spraying their voluminous, viscous spittle in all directions, these creatures are unsettling to say the least. They might even be considered comical if they weren?t such extremely efficient, indiscriminate, and terribly messy killers.
They will attempt to kill and devour (not always in that order) anything they can catch, attacking in a flurry of claws, teeth, and horns. Worse yet, Twirling Terrors come equipped with a natural and rather disgusting missile weapon. They are able to vomit, at considerable distance and with remarkable accuracy, great sticky globs of saliva mingled with their highly caustic digestive fluids. These gooey, corrosive spitballs can disable or kill an unfortunate target quite handily. The few living observers of their behavior in the wild report these curious and disturbing predators seem to prefer rabbits above all other prey.
Defending against an attack by one or more (they often hunt in noisy, whirling packs) of these dreadful beasts is no easy task. They are always in motion and the endless cacophony of horrid sounds pouring from their toothy mouths is almost deafening at close quarters. Survivors describe the experience as trying to fight a miniature furry tornado filled with sharp flying objects. Fortunately for inhabitants of The Embattled Realms, Twirling Terrors can be killed with standard weaponry. The problem is simply getting past all the claws, fangs, horns, and acidic goo. Their thick fur, tough hides, corded muscles, and dense bones are also quite effective at protecting their vitals. Their insane energy is another hindrance to anyone attempting to put an end to their rampages. The ManKine (Minotaur) bull in the second picture is discovering this as a pack of Twirling Terrors attempt to acquire their version of fresh steak tartare.
Another unsettling aspect of this species is the fact that they are sometimes captured, ?domesticated,? and kept as ?pets? by other beings, notably the more twisted among The NightFolk, and form specialty shock contingents in their armies.
In the last two pictures, I?ve included a completed combatant record for using Twirling Terrors in Fights of Fantasy. This is the latest version of the record that will be uploaded to Wargame Vault in the very near future. It includes new combatant options and is the double-sided quarter-page version. There is also a half-page single-sided combatant record available. Twirling Terrors utilize several of the new options in the also soon-to-be-updated Fights of Fantasy ACE (Additions - Corrections - Explanations) document.
One of Fights of Fantasy?s greatest strengths (at least in my opinion) is that it allows players to create their armies from scratch, starting with individual combatants then building units (or single characters) from those combatants. This is done instead of relying on premade army lists or broad categories that may or may not accurately depict a player?s miniatures or intent for their army. Combatant options permit players to add the more fantastical elements to the combatants to achieve the desired effect. The system provides for virtually unlimited variations so players can bring pretty much any being from fantasy into the game, even a veritable cartoon character such as the one depicted here. While the process may look complex at first glance, it?s actually quite simple and a player, once familiar with the system, can create a new combatant and/or unit in as little as ten minutes or so.
The Twirling Terrors shown here are portrayed by the Grenadier/Mirliton SG Tasmania Devil (obviously), also called an Umber Ripper at one point. They were painted with Reaper Miniatures paints and the colors used were:
Grey brush-on primer - overall.
Driftwood brown - fur.
Carbon grey - eyes, claws, and horns.
Brains pink - tongues.
Aged bone - fangs.
Muddy olive - bases.
Black wash diluted with wash medium - overall.
May 14, 2024, 10:15:53 AM