From HerrRobert (Robert H): Iolas Paxina and the Hall of Traps (25 points)

As you may or may not know, when not creating stunning miniatures, my day job is a public health epidemiologist and disaster response guy. So while many of you have spent much of the last year chained to the painting tables in lockdown and quarantine, my year was spent fighting a real live war against a ruthless and deadly enemy, who neither gives nor asks quarter, for a less than grateful public.

It has, without question, absolutely sapped my ability or desire to paint. While I tried my best to contribute to the Isolation/Quarantine Challenge, my mojo died mid June, and pretty much everything but the buying of miniatures stopped. 

So, the threat of the cull has finally seen the first paint on brushes in a good seven months or so.

With that, I descend into the first chamber for Challenge XI: The Hall of Traps:  

A figure or unit which is trapped, stuck in a trap, snared, or lying in wait.  Watch your step, Challengers!

They rounded the corner and entered a chamber illuminated by a light, silvery glow. There insolently lounged an elf, a smirk upon his face. Faerie fire rose from his right hand, his left hand poised on his left hip, right behind his dagger. His long, blond hair was drawn back in a pony-tail, tucked around a scroll strapped to his turquoise open vest. Tight pink breeches, loud yellow boots, green bracers of defense and a silver ring at his belly button finished the ensemble. He was, without a doubt, the most foppish, the most outlandish elf they had ever seen.

 

 "Iolas Paxina?"

"But of course. Con su permiso, mon capitán? The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if we can dance."

My first entry is a 30mm custom miniature from Heroforge for the Hall of Traps. HeroForge has a pretty sweet, if expensive, custom miniature generator. I like playing with it for D&D characters, because the right miniature can really bring into focus what you want to do with the character. And Iolas Paxina is a great example.

 

Most fantasy settings have elves as unbelievably stuffy and stuck up, at least according to other races (cough, dwarves, cough!). I often like having my fantasy worlds play against type at times, so not everything is as cut and dried as many a rulebook will have them be. Playing with the miniatures generator, I quickly ended up with a smug, if not absolutely lascivious, elf. Clearly a fun-loving, all work and no play makes Iolas a dull boy kind of guy. 

The insouciant, devil-may-care pose and the smirk was absolutely perfect for the Hall of Traps, though whether he's laying in wait for the adventurers, an assignation or just a barmaid with the next round is yet to be determined. 

While I'm usually the DM, I prefer to play illusionists when I play mages. Blasters are boring, and while so many people see illusion as underpowered, they lack sufficient imagination. Given a good DM, illusion can be as powerful, or more powerful, than a good fireball, but without all the fuss and bother of all that destruction.

Illusionists tend to be flamboyant (my AD&D 2e Wizard's Handbook is packed up, so I can't quote the relevant paragraph), so I needed a suitably flashy color scheme. Lacking inspiration, I hit up the Austrian Hussars, and decided to go with sky blue for the vest, and pink for the breeches. Yellow boots were mandatory.

At 5 points for a 25-30mm figure, and 20 for the Hall of Traps, I'm on the board and avoiding the cull with a grand total of 25 points. 

So, there we go. One elf illusionist, ready to throw down in the Chambers of Challenge or carouse through all the bars, pubs, brothels and manor houses of your city of choice. Or both!