What manner of minor monstrosity is this?

[Bearwoodman]

At the UK Games Expo last month I came across a stall selling loads of different 3d prints from different designers and ranges (although none I recognised). They had a mix and match offer on, where there was a discount if you bought 6 figures. I was supervising two boys at the time (one being my son) and I suggested we quickly picked two each before proceeding to our rendezvous with the rest of our respective families. My first choice was a warmly clad female with an ornate Flintlock pistol (thinking she might see service in Frostgrave) but I was struggling to decide on my second figure. We were starting to run late for our meeting so when a small unusual-looking zombie baby and dog figure caught my eye I quickly selected it, paid and hurried on.

When I examined it closely at home it was even more strange and creepy than I had first thought. It was small so I thought it would be fun to paint up quickly so I got stuck in:




But now I have finished it I am wondering:

a) what it is meant to be; and
b) what I could use it for in a game.

I have thrown away the packaging but I am sure it was generic and did not have a name or a unit type on it anyway. We currently play Frostgrave, Star Wars Legion, Galactic Heroes, a bit of D&D and are starting out with Dragon Rampant. Any ideas anyone?

[Blackwolf]

Nice painting and basing Bear! As what it is,who knows? It’s sort of post apocalyptic/ Cthulhu…ish,or sci-fi Aliens come to mind ‘tis a bit Gigeresque.

[fred]

It’s a truly weird sculpt - may be more use as an objective marker in a game, than a unit. Or even a cursed terrain marker?

[Storm Wolf]

Dunno what IT! is, but it would be perfect for Zona Alfa

[MHoxie]

"You see, what we're talkin' about here is an organism that imitates other life-forms, and it imitates 'em perfectly. When this thing attacked our dogs it tried to digest them... absorb them, and in the process shape its own cells to imitate them. This for instance. That's not dog. It's imitation. We got to it before it had time to finish."

[Patrice]

There was an old scenario for Cthulhu RPG where the player characters had to explore a house guarded by a reluctant old maid,
- spoiler! -
and eventually found a "baby" as this one hidden in the house (although I don't remember a dog) and the old maid was weeping looking at him, she knew the whole story, they had to understand that his mother had been, um, by a tentacle from Azathoth or wossname.

I played it many years ago, the GM was very good and we were playing in a dark room and it became really creepy when the GM took a high pitched voice with sobs to say what the old maid explained.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Does seem like one of those parasitic alien shapeshifter Things that's partway through a shift, or a symbiote that's connecting multiple hosts together, distorting them and growing in size and power as it does so.  Should fit in fantasy, scifi and horror equally well.  Make it very dangerous to fight in melee due to the risk of being incorporated into its mass, maybe hard to kill with conventional ranged weapons due to lack of vital organs in the spots where they'd usually be.  Probably doesn't like fire, though.  That sort of critter never likes fire.

Nicely horrific sculpt, regardless.

[Cubs]

"You see, what we're talkin' about here is an organism that imitates other life-forms ...

Yes, what I thought of first, a grim mutation underway, 'The Thing' style (or 'Who Goes There?' if we're being literary).

... his mother had been, um, by a tentacle from Azathoth or wossname.

It's like the Futurama episode with Yivo and his pan-galactic 'gentacles'.

[Bearwoodman]

Thanks all, great ideas (apart from the gentacle one, Cubs.  I generally game with my 10 year old son and I don't want to have to explain that to him - and then have him explain it to his mum).

@Blackwolf: I hadn't thought of Giger, but now you mention it the influence is clear.

@fred: I think an objective is a good call, possibly combined with Chief Lackey Rich's ideas about shapeshifters half way through a shift. Perhaps one side's aim is to try and finish this thing off before the transformation is completed at the beginning of turn x?

@Stormwolf: I have never played it but there are several threads on the forum that make ZA look very cool. I have, however, banned myself from starting new projects (although I have also banned myself from buying new miniatures this year and clearly that is not going particularly well...)

@Patrice: that sounds like a very memorable RPG session!
 
I have the beginnings of an undead fantasy army (not skeletons, more zombies/ghouls) and one idea I had was the miniature could be a minor undead beastie. But actually it is too small and half formed to be particularly powerful in a battle (as opposed to a small skirmish) on its own, and I cannot imagine a unit of them. So instead I am thinking about the figure representing the dark essence at the heart of the army, deceptively small and crippled-looking, but in fact the source of the evil that powers the shambling hordes.

I will try not to have nightmares! Or any type of dream involving gentacles.

[Bearwoodman]

"You see, what we're talkin' about here is an organism that imitates other life-forms, and it imitates 'em perfectly. When this thing attacked our dogs it tried to digest them... absorb them, and in the process shape its own cells to imitate them. This for instance. That's not dog. It's imitation. We got to it before it had time to finish."

"Well that may be the case, or it may not be. But either way I don't see why you had to make such a mess. I want you to scrape up and bag every bit of that thing, take it out back and burn it. Then hose down the yard. We're gonna need some new dogs, and I don't want them to smell what happened here."

[OSHIROmodels]

I like it