From GeoffreyT: The saga of Beowulf (Glorantha) (85 points)

Here we have Beowulf and his retinue in 28mm by Eureka Miniatures, and a grendels arm widget from a Heresy Miniatures alternate part.

Twelve 28mm miniatures in Beowulfs warband.  I think there is another somewhere, but I pilfered his shield for a different project and need to find a replacement.  I plan on using these guys for the 'Ravenfeast' game, by littlewars TV.  

Not sure which one is Beowulf, but I reckon it is the burly one with no top on. 

To celebrate this auspicious completion, I will recreate Beowulf's saga in 28mm imagery.  I've based the story more on the 2007 movie interpretation.  I was a bit hazy on some details so filled in the gaps where I could.

Beowulf hears of Hrothgar's troubles, and needing a Quest to be valid for the Glorantha Bonus points, he departs to Norway to find a worthy adversary.

"Lo Hrothgar, take me to your monster"

Hrothgar throws a party to attract the monster Grendel with irritatingly loud music.

...DOOF, DOOF, DOOF...

Grendel arrives late to the party looking for snacks.  All the Geats are drunk and asleep apart from Beowulf.   A fight ensues.

'Your Santa disguise does not fool me Grendel"

Beowulf rends Grendels leathery arm from his hideous body.  Grendel leaves the party armless and dying.  The next day Hrothgar inspects the scene and is impressed by Beowulf's wrestling prowess.

"you remind me of when I was a boy ...blah blah blah...
"

The happy Norwegians throw another party.  This time Grendels mother turns up, and chows on some unsuspecting Geats.

At the crack of dawn, surveying the carnage, Beowulf and Hrothgar find a hand clutching an envelope from Grendels Mothers Optometrist, revealing the address of the monsters secret lair.

"Grendel's Mother, 1 Swamp Lane, Swampington-on-Sea, Norway, EU."

Beowulf departs for Swampington-on-Sea, taking a golden vessel handed to him by Hrothgar to return to the Hag.  Leaving behind the rarely discussed Viking shortship, he dives into the water to find the underwater cave-lair.

Deep in the beasts lair, Beowulf finds that "The Hag" is unexpectedly attractive.

"Welcome to my lair darling"

 Beowulf's plans go astray, and he stabs her with his 'other weapon' instead.

'So, that was your "magic-sword" '

Fifty years on, Beowulf is a mighty king reigning over a mighty kingdom.  He does all the mighty things that mighty kings do, except one thing; he cannot sire an heir.

An ageing Beowulf discovers he is not childless, when his long lost son 'Grendel's half Brother' comes to visit in the form of a dragon.  All of his retinue runs away except the brave Wiglaf, who helps Beowulf slay the dragon.

"Hello Daddy ... you owe child maintenance payments"

Beowulf is fatally wounded and with his dying breath, Beowulf bequeathes his Kingdom to Wiglaf.  

Does Wiglaf accept both the Kingdom and the monsters curse ?

"Hmm, where did this golden vessel come from..."

The End

***

For this post I am claiming

12 x 28 mm miniatures for 60 points.

1 x widget for 1 point

20 bonus points for Glorantha

The letter Q for Quest

A Squirrel for 28mm Geats.

Until next time,  GT.

Hwæt! Absolutely brilliant. At the end of the day, our toy soldiers are there to tell stories. Here we have the OG Anglo-Saxon story, charmingly retold with a troupe from your wonderful collection. I particularly like Grendel's mum in all her incarnations (I laughed at her first appearance), and the arm is a fun touch.

Eureka's Beowulf is the dark-haired fur-cloaked chap you've used as Wiglaf, but they are a band of flexible characters you can name as you wish.

Have a few points to round up for being so entertaining.

Barks

NB Don't forget to tag your squirrel

From PeterD Babylon 5: Operatic Pictish Bard in 28mm (25 points)

The next stop for me is Bablyon 5 with a brief of Operatic or Low Budget Fun.

In my Dark Age RPG word there are no Operas, so folks made do with the local Bard, Skald or Scop.  If the story teller was good, it was a lot of fun and it was certainly low budget.  

This fellow with his Pete Townsend harp technique is another Gripping beast 28mm figure from the same Picitish command pack as the two competing religious types in my last post.  I think that he's grateful to be released from his internment with them!

Quite what he is singing is anyone's guess as the Picts are somewhat of a historical mystery and no one knows what their language sounded like.  The competing best guesses are "pretty close to the early Welsh spoken everywhere else in Britain"  and "a non Indo-European language that pre-dates the Celts by centuries".  The only written records that they left themselves are carved stones in Ogham. 

No mysteries about the figure however, a nice sculpt in typical Beastie Boy style and pretty nice to paint up.  Although labelled Pictish he's pretty much generic Dark Age Britain in dress and equipment.  The red cloak is a pushing it a bit historically, as dyes should be pretty much muted browns, yellows and greens - much like an over cooked dinner at your English Grandma's.  A continual challenge in modelling this period is to paint figures that looks right, but don't fade into the background. 

It being early days of the Challenge I am picking off a few smaller pieces while the bigger stuff goes on in the background.  Assuming that he counts as either Operatic or Low Budget fun enough to count towards the location, this is 5 points for the figure plus 20 for Babylon 5 for 25 points.  I will be using him in an RPG, but have taken Curt's point so won't count him towards the fantasy Duel.

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This is a great mini, Peter. As you say, he's definitely channeling his inner Pete Townsend, or, who knows, maybe it's always been the other way around with Pete tapping into his inner Pict! :) 

As you say, it's often a challenge to paint Dark Age stuff without it blending into the terrain. You want it interesting, but not lurid. I think you've struck a fine balance here, and besides, he is a bit of a showman so a brighter colour should not be amiss. 

I look forward to seeing this fellow in our visit to the village in your RPG game. :)

- Curt

From PeterD Istvaan V Discussion in Pictland on Heresy (30 points)

I have these two 28mm figures from my Beowulf RPG game having a spirited discussion on the nature of Heresy.  In Beowulf alignments differ from standard D&D, as PCs and NPCs can be aligned with the Book (i.e. Church)  the Old Ways (Pagan religions) or be Neutral (undecided or decided that they are both full of it).  To represent the Book and Old Ways I have an Irish Priest and a Magus.  Both are by Gripping Beast and both come in the same Pictish Command pack.

Padraig is part of the Celtic Church which was very active at the time.  Lots of scope for Adventuring quests here with the likes of Saints Patrick, Columba and Brendan.  They prompted my all time favourite line fro the old WRG army lists:   Saint Columba was given the main credit by contemporaries for the Ui Neill victory over King Diarmait in 561 AD, decisively out-praying Saint Finnian on the other side. It turns out that the battle was sparked by a copywriter dispute between Finnian and Columba.

Clearly Patrick is outspoken on his views and the cast has lots of character.  With his pot belly, bald head and stringy pony tail I am pretty sure that I've been buttonholed by his doppelgängers who needed to tell me about their unbeatable Blood Angels army or the lyrics from some gawdawfull forgotten prog rock band from the 70s.

Oengus on the other hand is clearly of the Old Ways and not having Padraig's BS.  In my Adventures he should do as a Pagan Holman, evil sorcerer or lead singer from some gawdawfull forgotten prog rock band from the 70s.  he also needs to have that mold line trimmed on his left hand, not sure how I missed that until now. 

I will need official confirmation from a vet or the Skullometer, but I believe that's a horse skull that he's sporting as a hat.

That's two 28mm foot figures plus a Challenge location for 30 points by my math.  I am not sure if fantasy side duel is a go, but if so I'd like to claim the 10 points towards my total in it.

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Great work on these two theologians (or music fans), Peter. I had to laugh at your modern description of Patrick - we all know these people, they are a recurring type! I look forward to the future post where the inevitable bloodshed ensues. 

Hmm, claiming these as a fantasy entry seems a bit of a stretch, but I leave it to Darrell to adjudicate as it's his circus.

- Curt

From PeterD Beowulf Characters for the Snowlord (10 points?)

 

My last post and it's my two figures to lay at the Snowlord's feet.  I present two 28mm figures of the Heroes Ham Anfeald and Ibn Uthman from Handiwork Games Beowulf RPG.  These were 3D printed by Curt for me.

A bit of background.  I'm am not an RPG nerd and I am way more of a historical gamer than anything else.  But I was given inspiration by former Challenger Edwin to investigate the Kickstarter for this game.  I liked what I saw, story based adventures focused on a specific era and location and really honouring the source materials.  So I jumped on and the Kickstarted hit tons of goals and is delivering the goods.

Ibn Uthman, Warroir poet of Baghdad is Curt's character.  He's been exiled for too clever word play and is fairly clearly modelled on Ahmad ibn Fadlan (as was Antonio Banderas' character in 13th Warrior).  I've tired to match the illustration below the Beowulf materials (the artwork in these is lovely).

Gamewise Beowulf is best described as a dnd hack.  They took the base mechanisms from 5e DnD and took out the character classes (everyone PC is a hero) , PC magic use, alignment and races.  They then added in their own versions to suit the era and setting.  It's designed for GM and one player, but we've played it with a group and it worked well.  I'll need to brush up on my rules and GM skills and also I need to make the masters tougher, but game play was good IMHO.

The setting is the misty historical era between the fall of Rome and the rise of Charlemagne and there are terrific opportunities there.   This is the era of Beowulf, Arthur, the Irish Saints and the Sutton Hoo king where history and myth blend together.  I'm a sucker for a historical link so I did my fall gardening chores listening to Seamus Heaney reading Beowulf, dusty o my histories of Sub-Roman Britain and am trying to figure out which translation fo the Venerable Bede I should pick up..

I hand painted the shield using my "looks good from 3 feet" standard based on historical arab designs.

Ham Anfeald is Stacy's character and is a merchant ship captain looking for more lucrative opportunities. Again I've tried to match the illustration below.  Dark age colours are muted which requires a level of subtlety that eludes me but I'm fairly happy with the results.  the forges themselves are nicely posed with good features.  Metal versions are available as well.

It's been a good challenge.  I hit my points target, made it to the Snowlord's altar in time and got the coveted Skull of the Week award.  I didn't paint everything that I planned to but isn't that the way things go...