Witchhunter (updated - 26/07 more market stalls)

[anevilgiraffe]

You were thinking of doing a Witch's hovel at some point, I believe...

yes... in the mean time I was planning on using the medieval hovel, but would like one of those resin jobs... but this isn't about spending money dammit! I also have plans/bits for a churchyard, but need to buy the warbases church first.

[Captain Blood]

You need:

A disconcerting chalk figure on a hillside... A pagan white horse or phallic giant
A gnarly sacred grove: a patch of primary oak woodland festooned with ribbons, animal skulls, trinkets and offerings
A small toll-house to sit beside your roadway, where Ezekial Sponge, the ancient tollkeeper lives. Sometimes he only claims a groat from travellers. Sometimes he takes their souls...

Any good? 

[Mason]

You need:

A disconcerting chalk figure on a hillside... A pagan white horse or phallic giant
A gnarly sacred grove: a patch of primary oak woodland festooned with ribbons, animal skulls, trinkets and offerings
A small toll-house to sit beside your roadway, where Ezekial Sponge, the ancient tollkeeper lives. Sometimes he only claims a groat from travellers. Sometimes he takes their souls...

Any good? 

They ALL sound pretty good to me!
I might steal some of those ideas for my British Strange Aeons project!
 

[Silent Invader]

A gnarly sacred grove: a patch of primary oak woodland festooned with ribbons, animal skulls, trinkets and offerings

Actually reminds me of when I had my sojourn into forestry.  A visit to some woods near Brentwood, Essex and a strange pair of trees with inter-twisted boughs - I recall them as being like two hands grasped together (but I might just be getting carried away with myself).  The story was that the local coven thought the trees to have special powers and at certain times of the year would gather under them for 'special times'......

[Captain Blood]

Yeah, there's a very famous grove at Sancreed in Cornwall, in the woods below Sancreed Beacon (that's what you need as well: a beacon - or did you already do one of those?). People still go there to tie things to the trees, make strange little offerings, remember their dead, and so on... Very strange place. Very ancient...

[anevilgiraffe]

yeah, i need to get my woods sorted out as well at some point... but love the chalk figure idea...

[Funghy-Fipps]

Yeah, there's a very famous grove at Sancreed in Cornwall, in the woods below Sancreed Beacon (that's what you need as well: a beacon - or did you already do one of those?). People still go there to tie things to the trees, make strange little offerings, remember their dead, and so on... Very strange place. Very ancient...

That sounds similar to St Nectan's Kieve between Boscastle and Tintagel, where votive offerings are still left and a nearby tree is bedecked with strips of cloth. Will have to check out Sancreed next time I'm 'on the wrong side of the Tamar'.

As to terrain suggestions, what about a Tumulus? The heath above my village has at least a dozen scattered about it, many sprouting Scots Pines (one was used as a Beacon in the ninth century and at the time of the Armada: there's continuity for you!) and I find them very evocative sites. Of course a circular mound of earth might seem somewhat boring so how about some rabbit holes at the base with some unearthed skulls and ancient relics tumbling out (ala M.R. James' 'A Warning to the Curious')? 

I don't know if you realised, but I am plagiarising your most excellent project here!

[anevilgiraffe]

I don't know if you realised, but I am plagiarising your most excellent project here!

well looking at some of those dates, looks like you beat me to it - I don't go in Gothic Horror very often, but I had the same quandry when I started this one...

[anevilgiraffe]

ok... as much as I love the chalk figure*, it's going to be far too large for the small skirmish area I'm working on, but I have gone with something that was simmering at the back of my mind and combining it with beacon idea and the already made gibbet...

I found some big blocks of polystyrene hiding at the back of my pile of stuff that's bound to come in useful someday, so a little corner hill is on the offing - and both beacon and gibbet's would have been placed in nice prominent positions like that. I also plan on using those palm trees Silversix forced me to buy for ferns as a start of some moors...

now I watched Plague of the Zombies recently, and although completely out of period for me, I would love to one day do that village with the sunken graveyard - something that the old classy GW graveyard always reminded me of... but more of that another time

* just suddenly reminded of the Glastonbury Zodiac, all those symbols made out of the landscape - again too big, but a thought none the less...

[Funghy-Fipps]

Plague of Zombies is a classic and apparently heavily inspired the look and behaviour of the zombies in Night of the Living Dead two years later. In typically efficient Hammer fashion Plague... was shot back-to-back  with The Reptile, which although not quite as engaging is also well worth a look!

Anyway, can't wait to see your latest terrain creations.

[anevilgiraffe]

right... a larger whole with a couple of small bits... first off, a Fairy Fort - ok, so the term is Irish, but I like it and it fits the job. Bit of a bugger to photograph, but somewhere in there is a corner of a long forgotten Iron Age hill fort, eroded and overgrown and too big to photograph properly sadly...





the recess at the top takes a series of similarly based items, a fairy ring, a beacon and the gibbet...







more blurb and a couple more pics on the blog.  

[Heldrak]

Ooh! The fairy ring is an excellent idea (and beautifully executed too!).

[beefcake]

These look great

[Captain Blood]

Lovely 

[Silent Invader]

Am really enjoying what you are doing with this project.