Scarper's skirmish groups and NPCs: A sewer dragon and its pups 19/8

[Ragsta]

I really enjoy the background you produce. The finished crew look really good.

For the Fisher King, you can always find yourself a 6mm version of whatever ship you think is closest to your idea of their home vessel. That way you have a nice wee tie in to the story without having to scratchbuild the 28mm version

[Scarper]

Ragsta, Pattus Magnus and Freddy - thanks so much for the kind words. A big motivation to keep going!

A few bitty updates today.
I'm working on filling out the Stargrave bestiary. There's a big focus in the rulebook on using minis you already have, so I'm using it as an excuse to try and paint some new minis from my pile of shame, as well as repurposing older ones.

First up are 'ferrox' -
These are described as big and vicious wolf-fox type creatures which tend to show up whenever humans start colony worlds with plentiful livestock. I dug out a couple of 15mm 'giant wolves' that I painted waaay back when I was starting out, and added a few more dog minis I have from various sources but haven't got around to painting up.



In a post-Fall setting like Stargrave, I reckon even once-owned dogs would be a sizable threat to settlements. Hope you like the variety in furs!



Next are some loot markers. These are the physical ones; big, heavy and valuable.



The briefcase is an old Forge World cadian ammo crate with a Stargrave crew handheld tablet shaved down and attached. It was also a bit of a Fargo reference! I have no idea where the big orange crate came from, and the cylindrical container is a 3D printed piece that someone on Reddit kindly gifted me.


Finally, some ruffians.
These guys are described as local thugs, enforcers or simply rough types who might stumble into a Stargrave skirmish and feel the need to defend themselves. They're supposed to be armed with pistols, but I figured their variety of shoddy and badly maintained weaponry just doesn't pack the punch it once did.



They're all old paintjobs, with the fella in the middle being the most recent, which I've rebased for the setting. I believe they are mostly Copplestone scavengers, apart from the central gent who is mostly Victoria minis parts and green stuff.

Hope you enjoy, and thanks again for reading.

[Scarper]

A WiP today for my ongoing attempts to fill out the Stargrave Bestiary - Bileworms!



These lovely fellas are featureless, toxic worms that can grow up to 20ft, and tend to squeeze into the warm internals of ship structures. They can spit toxic juices a short distance, and have a good fight stat - in my book, a mean bite! My versions will mostly leach heat from human structures (or natural steam vents) for most of their lifetimes, but need meat when it's time to reproduce. I'm hoping to paint up the toothier one like a cross between a lamprey and a Dune worm.

Hope you like / hate them. Is anyone else working on a similar project? There are so many weird creatures to work on - I've been enjoying digging existing things out of my painting piles and sculpting a few simple ones.

[Lost Egg]

They are cool...and kinda yucky. Great job.

[Freddy]

Great looking worms!

[Scarper]

Great looking worms!

They are cool...and kinda yucky. Great job.

Thank you, guys! I'm glad you like them.

[Scarper]

Some more updates for my Stargrave bestiary!

First up is a Dedfurd. It's described in the bestiary as being like a big bloated frog, but I didn't really like that image. I looked at the main features:

- Tough armour
- Slow
- Short ranged acid attack
- Amphibious
- Large

After hunting through my minis, I decided to go with a Basilisk, from the Reaper Bones line. It's a creature I've thankfully painted before, but now I rebased him for my snowy setting. I picture these guys as being crocodilian and tanky, and I hope he fits the bill pretty well.





Big, naturally armoured and cold-blooded, basilisks are adapted for life in the swampier areas of Shale and Josuelo. With an incredibly low metabolic rate and little to fear from predators, these creatures will remain perfectly motionless for days at a time waiting for prey to pass by. Their main food source used to be the herds of large grazing creatures that wandered the swampland, but increasing industrialisation has made them more aggressive. When the time is right, the basilisk can move with frightening speed with a burst of adrenaline from a specialised gland, taking down prey with an acidic spray and its powerful jaws. The basilisk can then gorge on enough meat to sustain itself for a further week of patient waiting.

Basilisks have adapted well to the deeper depths of some industrial ruins, feeding on spiders, rats and occasionally unwitting humans. They are uncommon nonetheless, being solitary animals that react viciously to a rival within their large territories. Should it have fed recently, an encounter with a basilisk is harmless to a traveller - they have little interest in humans and will rarely attack unless provoked. Even their name was coined by Josuelo locals based on the statuesque stillness of the creatures, a spin on a half-remembered Terran legend. Despite this, many tales are told around campfires and watering holes of the terrible ferocity of these ancient reptiles that spring from the darkness where they have lain unseen, and it is not uncommon for them to be blamed for anything from missing children to vanished caravans.

-----------------

I also finished up the Bileworms I sculpted! They're pretty simple, but they were fun to do.





You got some bileworms on the ship? That's great news, pal!
Well, kind of.
They're like a... mixed blessing. Double-edged sword. That kind of thing.

See, most of the time, they're just - there. They leach heat, and survive off that. Planetside it would have been from underground vents and that - geothermal shit, you understand? But a life support system or an engine's just as good. And once they're in your ship, they're staying. Nothing short of a deconstruction and deep clean will clear 'em out.

They're quiet for the most part. But when they get big enough, like - twenty, thirty feet - then they need to split, reproduce, you know. And then - they want meat.

Suddenly, the fuckers are a lot more dangerous. They burst up out of the panels, all teeth and foul smelling green shit. They're not trying to kill you, mind - I don't think they're smart enough to even get the concept that you're alive - but they want bits of you. They'll grab on, suck onto you like a lamprey, and try and drag you into their holes, all the while pouring that acidic shite all over you. You're too big to fit in their burrow, for sure, but they'll shred whatever part of you they've grabbed on the way back in, and they'll take all that meat and blood with them.

So, uh... Don't let that happen. It's not pretty.

But how are they a good thing? Well. My friend. You're in for a treat, because they are fucking delicious.

Bait a trap with some protein once they hit breeding season and it's pretty easy to hack off a length of them. Three, maybe four foot of meat, a foot and a half in diameter. A feast. If you've been eating protein blocks and nutrient paste for weeks, there's nothing better.

Do it once or twice, and they'll be short enough to quit their breeding violence. Kinda, resets them for a month or two as they grow that length back.

Course, you need to boil them before you eat them - their mouths are filthy, and that's the part you're bound to catch. Eating it raw will kill you, so boil it well. Like, an hour well. Once the skin starts to flake, you want to cut them up, pull out any teeth, cut out the acid glands. You don't want to find one of them in your worm suate. Any type of fruit juice can reduce some of the acidity, but you want to keep a little - for flavour. Done just right, it'll make your tongue tingle.

So yeah! Good and bad. Good luck with them, friend. I - uhhh - I think I have some spices in the back, if you're interested.


 As always, I'd love any feedback or questions. Which of these fellas would you rather meet in a ruined facility?

[Scarper]

One more member of the Fisher King crew for you today.



Akna is a soldier, willing to fulfil many roles to support his allies on the Fisher King. Currently, he serves as a rearguard, protecting Pellam, the Fisher King's lander, while the rest of the ground crew operate. Akna doesn't have a specific role in game right now, but he'll likely end up as a commando or a soldier if there's a casualty among the A-listers.

Akna is a drone-caste Andelvaxen, assigned from birth to serve a protective role within their complicated hive systems. Unfortunately, humans have a long history of killing Andelvaxen matriarchs to steal the developing workers - their hormone-driven loyalty is relatively pliable at a young age. Jackson-Song are no different, and Akna is now one of many Andelvaxen guards found within Jackson-Song facilities.

Akna was undergoing a procedure in the infirmary when the rebellion started - with the death of his Jackson-Song overseer, he was suddenly purposeless on coming to. Pascha insists that she encouraged him to join the 'cause' with Pico Azul through discourse using her psionic empathy. Akna doesn't speak Lac standard, and is unwilling or unable to write. As far as the others are concerned, he obeys her commands with unbreakable loyalty - the reasons why perhaps don't bear thinking about.

Every hard surface of Akna's dorm in the Fisher King is covered by intricately carved patterns depicting star systems, swirling shapes and insectoid limbs. He adds to it every night.



I hope you like him! He's made with T'au parts, some greenstuff and the Stargrave mercs kit. I'd love any feedback, good or bad.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Great painting and fascinating character backgrounds. You have a flair for world building.

[OSHIROmodels]

Brill, love the lenses on the goggles 

[LouieN]

The poor guys story made me sad.  A good write up then. 

[Pattus Magnus]

I think those are his actual eyes, not goggles! In any case, that’s a great figure and back story.

[has.been]

Plus one for the goggles, & the sad backstory.

[Malamute]

Very kewl, really like the latest chap.

[Scarper]

Thanks so much for all the kind words, everyone. I really do appreciate it.
I love writing little sections of background for the minis I've made - it really helps to fill out the world in my mind and gives a little more weight to games. I'm really pleased Akna's horrible background has gone down well. I'm never really sure if anyone reads it!
The red is indeed his eyes, though they would work either way.

A few sort of new things today. I'm still working on having something to hand for every item on the Stargrave bestiary, and I've been repurposing some of my old figures to fit the bill.

First up is a big one: the SEWER DRAGON

These guys are scary. Big, tough, never stunned, and with a powerful attack, the sewer dragon appears at the very end of the random encounters list.
The book describes them residing in dark, damp areas beneath human habs - real boogeymen for crews delving into older places.

I went with a Hasslefree 'Maw' to represent this creature - it seems suitably big, strong and intimidating to fit the bill.





I've cheated a little for the next ones. SHENGRYLLA are described in the bestiary as primates half the height of a man with three glowing eyes (with a 'crazed' expression) and two prehensile tails. This is remarkably specific, and I struggled to find a mini to match. Instead, I figured I'd look at the stat block and use something that could fit the bill. Shengrylla are fast, able to traverse terrain easily, and have a strong bite.

I cracked out some 'Lesser Mawes' from Hasslefree that I had lying around. I think they fulfil the stat block needs, even if they don't look like monkeys! I did a little green stuff work before painting them to cover the eyes or nostrils they had on top of their heads and match the bigger model. I love the models - they're simultaneously scary and cute.



Storywise, all of these creatures are 'Mourners' - they're part of a matriarchal pack. I wrote a little fluff for them a long time ago, but here it is adapted for the setting:

Mourners are known by many different names in the settlements around Kombayn - some call them 'howlers', 'hunters', 'blanks,'  even 'banshees'. Whatever the term, mourners are spoken of in hushed, reverent tones.

Evolving in some of the deeper cavern systems below Bolne, these beasts are well adapted to the darkness of the undercity. Pack hunters that time and evolution have left completely blind, mourners instead use a complex form of echolocation to tail their prey. From a distance, a pack of mourners emit long, low vocalisations that deeply penetrate the area around them, like a cross between a dirge and a growl. As the pack approaches their target, the sound climbs to a higher pitch as the frequency of the calls rise and the detail of the image returned improves. Yips and squeaks from the excited pack join the crescendo. Settlers who have survived attacks by a hunting pack describe a chorus of mournful screams and wails, rising in intensity as the group tries to flee. When a pack is upon you, a sudden silence falls as the calls rise above the frequency of human hearing. Respite from these nightmarish wails, however, will be sadly brief.

Some particularly brave settlers have hunted mourners for meat and leather. Their hides are dry and coarse, making sturdy footwear, and their meat is sweet and slow to spoil. With most packs moving in matriarchal groups with at least 4 members, however, picking off a single target without drawing the ire of its brethren is difficult.



The final bit of today's update falls in the 'boring but necessary' category - some DATA LOOT tokens.



Not the most exciting part, but used in pretty much every game,




Hope there's something here you like! Thanks for reading, and I really do appreciate the feedback.