Pocolocos sanity loss. Small start of great adventure

[pocoloco]

Finally got something to offer... but to my own disappointment as well, not that much to offer though... yet. Hopefully near future will remedy it. Just before I got myself the SA rules, inspired so many wonderful threads here on LAF. My plan is to combine tabletop CoC rpg with some SA miniature action. There are still many open qustions to it, one major issue being that we (me and my gaming group) haven't even done any characters for the players. As we are already playing CoC based in Arkham, I will run my game in the UK. I have already the big storyline ready in my head and thus, like any other good GM, I started my project from the end part of it all

The plot line will take place in late 1920s and/or early 1930s and characters will travel far and wide (sanity permitting, of course) and will end up, if all goes well so far, on a mysterious island that might not be true only in their imaginations or dreams. The island is home to the pavilion of Leng (yes, that Leng of HPLs Mythos fame). Here are couple of shots of the said pavilion, older than time itself and quite obviously made by man-like beings that are physically somewhat bigger than average humanbeings.

Here's quick overall view of the ruined pavilion in which the final scene and confrontation will take place:



And here's a close-up of the main facade. Notice the green hue around the main doorway... Back in the day no mortal could walk through it... nowadays those who pass through it will be only cursed (some negative modiefiers will be applied to those characters foolish enough not to heed the warnings in the ancient text fragments that they will have found as their adventure has went on before they have reached the island):



So next I will make the base for the pavilion with some interior stone slab floor tiling, maybe a column or two inside the ruins, some earthmounds here and there and withered static grass. The paviloin part needs a stone altar or a throne of some sort, I think.

I have also bought a spider of Leng miniature from Ebay that will be one of the adversaries in the final scene. Also planning on converting some men of Leng from GW's plastic beastmen.

When we get some characters ready for the players it's then time to order fitting miniatures for them and prepare terrain and scenery for the first scenes taking place in the UK. Later on plan is to make a tramp steamer (got one Playmobil freight ship to work as basis for that project) and so on. Adventure awaits... and sanity loss as well

Comments, critique, ideas, nitpicking etc more than welcome.

Cheers.

[Mason]

Looking great so far, Pocoloco!
 

I love the story so far, and the things that you have mentioned dding to the story sound great, especially the Tramp Steamer idea.

Looking forward to seeing this progress.
 

[Legion1963]

Looks good Pocoloco. Just a few more pints of Lapin Kulta and you'll be alright. Keep up the good work.

[cuchulain23]

Really like your terrain, the idea of walking through the cursed door is something I may have to steal for my own RPG..

[pocoloco]

Thanks you gents, much encouragement will be needed to see all this through. Although not sure about the Lapin Kulta... it might make me lose more sanity

It seems that at some point next week will have time to meet with couple of friends to roll their characters so after that I will know what type of miniatures I will be needing for them.

Besides this Pavilion of Leng and Tramp Steamer 'Cithara' (named after a ship in Tintin) other places that I need to make are:
- the mystery island itself where the Pavilion is located (physically I have decided it to place it somewhere in the Southern Atlantic)
- a bit of English countryside (maybe a remote farmstead surrounded by woods
- some sort of harbour where the 'Cithara' is mooring
- some kind of town/village scene

Besides those, of course the opposition is needed as well. Besides the aforementioned Spider and Men of Leng, naturally some cultists are a must-have. And innocent bystanders, too. So all in all, lots of work to do...

Currently chopping up one of the statues (one with the sword) that came in the Ruins of Osgiliath set. I will replace the human head with that of a GW beastman and greenstuff a hood for it. Since I have two of the statues (for having two sets of ruins), I will first use the normal statue, and when the investigators fumble things up, I will replace that statue with the Man of Leng one to show that there's bad magic in the air

[Mason]

Some cracking ideas there, Pocoloco.
Looking forward to seeing them come to fruition.
 

[pocoloco]

Thanks Mason. Hopefully I manage to keep up with my plans and have some steady pace as well.

Here's a pic of that Playmobil ship to be converted into a tramp steamer. There's a 1/48 scale plane to show the scale. The plane will prolly feature both in SA and VBCW projects, and why not the ship as well, once I manage to finish it.



I think I will decrease the size of the cargo hold entrance to half what it is now. Also need to install wooden deck planking and redo the aft deck parts totally new 

[Mason]

NICE!

Maybe a dockside to fill the rest of the required gaming space, or maybe two levels?

The only down side to this is the fact is that now I want one of my own.
You bad man, leading me astray like that!
 

[pocoloco]

Yes, the dockside plan is solid one. Players needing to make their first to the ship, then some action on the ship as well.

Well if you don't plan on building one yourself (considered it myself, there's quite a number of threads about building one here on LAF) then there are similar Playmobil ones quite cheap on eBay UK, just search with "playmobil cargo". I guess everyone needs to have at least one tramp steamer in their collection

edit: been thinking about the windmill by Tabletop World:
http://www.tabletop-world.com/Windmill.php

is it at all looking like something one could stumble upon in the UK of 1920/30s? It seems the model does't allow interior access which would have been nice but the price is quite ok if I need to have one soonish rather than starting to build one myself.

[pocoloco]

Sorry for a double post, project "Mystery Island" took a leap forward today. Should I even say a spider leap forward, eh heh.

Got the Spider of Leng, it's quite a beast (pictured with a brave khukri wielding gurkha). Spiders of Leng should have an odd number of legs, this one has 8 so I guess I'm going to chop one off. Description of the spiders state that they are giant purple spiders so that means the colour scheme is decided for me