“Well, I’m surprised to find it’s pitch black in here. Are you
surprised? I’m very surprised.”
“Shut up, Elbow. If you can’t say anything useful, then - “
“Woof!”
“Well, I wouldn’t quite put it like that, Scruff. Let’s just say he’ll
bite your kneecap. Or Titchy will. There’s not a lot of difference.”
“You go first into that goodnight, Gnawbone, see if you can find a lever.”
“What’s that dimly perceived nestlike object in the corner there?”
“This nestlike object?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a nest. But there’s nothing in it.”
“So,” muses Getrude. “An empty nest. Something has recently hatched. Let
me see. We’ve a hatchery right next to a larder. And beyond the larder…”
“Grimvizaj’s slightly suspect reconstructive Surgery.”
“Beset by overwhelming outsiders armed with nasty weapons and not very
nice intentions.”
“Who are prone to build impenetrable barriers.”
“Who like making things difficult for y’r ordinary adventurer. So, how
would you get over such a problem, Titchy.”
“With a ladder.”
“Or…”
Clerihew begins rapidly flapping his arms.
“Yes,” agreed Getrude. “Fly. Now, if Grimvizaj was going to build flying
creatures.”
“Oh, he’d never do anything like that,” blurts Merlissa. “I imagine.”
Getrude continues: “…he’d need wings. He’d need to breed something with
wings.”
“Would it be something flapping and vicious and full of teeth?” asks
Titchy. “Because there’s four of them clinging to the roof. Oh – I stand
corrected…”
“You mean you’re not actually standing?”
“What I mean is, they’re not clinging. In fact, they’re descending. In
fact, they’re descending very quickly. In fact, they’re descending very quickly
with glinting eyes and glinting teeth and sloppy, drooling jaws. Ugh!”
“Borrow my handkerchief.”
“Dragons!”
“Quick. Through here. Wherever it leads, it can’t be as bad as a Bother
of Dragons.”
***
I wasn’t really sure what might need to hatch here.
Searching my son’s Reaper Bones Kickstarter from I think, five or six years
ago, I came across this empty nest, from which something must recently have
emerged, and the four small dragonets.
I painted them primarily using Contrast
Blood Angel red. I find the dramatic Contrast colours can work very well on
animal surfaces, like scales and fur. Sometimes a little highlighting like
here, can add flavour, but sometimes it’s enough to let the Contrast do its job
and then pick up one or two details – eyes, horns, claws etc.
These four baby dragons are each between 35mm and
50mm tall, depending a bit on how you measure. Maybe an average of 40mm is reasonable,
so 7 points each – 28 points.
Is 2 points too many for the nest?
Plus 20 points for the Hatchery : Suggested total
of 50 pts.
Plus 1 more Squirrel point.
