From NoelW: For Joshua: Sarah’s Balloon (104 points)

The balloon lifts off and we give thanks that we’ll never have to see that infernal towering place again. Deftly Lady Sarah turns us towards Frans Fjord, but we quickly realise we could simply cut our entire journey short by zooming straight across the island to our original starting point, Douglas’ Shallows. In wild celebration at the thought, we squeeze the last drops from the champers, almost a thimbleful each.

“Head east,” I say.

“The wind’s easterly,” says Lady Sarah.

“Brilliant! How lucky is that? We’ll be there in no time.”

“No – 'easterly' means the wind is coming from the east.”

“Well, just ignore it then.”

Lady Sarah has a certain expression on her face, an expression the Snowlord apparently is so familiar with that he made a particular point of warning us about it. She pulls on ropes, stokes the fire, trims the rigging and does whatever else a balloonist can think of to fight the Warp Factor 9 wind.

We pass over the fjord and I see small people way below us. So small. So very small. Tiny, in fact:

Is it my imagination, or are those people getting larger?

And larger!

Yes, we’re descending!

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These are 10mm figures I’ve been working on as my contribution to the For Joshua project, a hugely worthy cause. They’ll join a few other figures and some terrain I’ve pruned from my existing collection. It’s rather a miscellaneous assortment, but James assures me all figures will be welcome. They’re a mix of manufacturers, too: GW Warmaster (undead and Empire), most of the men at arms are Pendraken and others are Kallistra, plus three figures (the Ringwraiths and cave trolls) from Hasbro’s “Lord of the Rings Risk”.

In total there are 62 10mm infantry, 16 mounted, 1 hellblaster volley gun and 4 banners, which is around 97 points. Possibly the five ogres/trolls are worth a little more but that’s perhaps counteracted by the lack of proper basing. James wants to base all the figures in the same way, so I've simply left these on painting sticks.

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The wind has whipped us round. Now we’re heading directly for the spikiest peaks above the fjord.

Calmly Lady Sarah jettisons sandbag after sandbag. Then empty champagne bottle after empty champagne bottle. Then all unwanted baggage – I’ll miss my sergeant but I did tell him his BMI would be the death of him.

Yet still we descend. Those spiky mountains are looking closer and closer, grosser and grosser.

Then, for a moment, there’s a shift in the wind. The balloon spins in a sudden updraft. We start to rise.

And just as suddenly, the balloon stalls and we plummet again, rock-wards. Right in the middle of a steep climb, there’s nothing grosser than an unexpected stall...

So here it is, the grocer’s stall - 

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So here’s my second small vignette: a market stall and its stallholder. I thought the miniature was another Perry model, but I can’t find it in their catalogue. She has a strong resemblance to my grandmother (Grandma TicToc, as she was known) and also to one of my primary school teachers, both of whom coincidentally were called Williams and both were formidable ladies, too, so I imagine this is not the stall to find bargains.

The stall and market goods are resin, but I’ve lost any note of the manufacturer(s). As my second returning home vignette, I suppose this is a bit of a cheat, as it's not all based together, but I wanted to keep the pieces separate so they could be used in different games and different ways.

For points, there’s 5 for the gorgeous stallholder but the stall and miscellaneous goods fill less than a twelfth of a terrain cube, so I guess that’s a mere 2 additional points.

Total points: 97+7 = 104

Noel, James will love these. They are a great collection of forces. As for the stall holder, she does indeed look terrifying. No nicking apples from her, she will know your mother. Stalls are complicated but it's worth more than 2 points. Lets go for it being the equivalent of a 28mm gum, with actual grapeshot.