From SidneyR: The Spider Demon for "The Lair of the Great Beast (35 points)

 

"Come into my parlour...."

So, dear Challengers, I have finally arrived at the Altar of the Snowlord, with just the final  Chamber to go.  When Curt suggested a creepy-crawly for the Chambers of Challenge XI map, I had in mind to paint a guardian spider-demon as my last Challenge to face before arriving at the final Chamber in the dungeon.

Maybe that's because I have had this magnificent sculpt in my lead mountain since I bought it in 2006.  I had originally purchased Him/She/It to complement my Japanese fantasy collection, but somehow - why oh why? - I'd left it until just about the last piece to paint in that collection. 

With the result that, as no collection is ever finished, I never painted it!  Not until now, that is... 

It is a wonderful sculpt, from Citadel Miniatures.  It comes in two parts, the body and legs as one casting and then a separate, malevolent head.  And its just incredibly.... brrrrr.... I don't now but it looks just - poised and ready.

Spiders are incredible creatures, and I have no problem in seeing this spider-demon as a fitting and cunning adversary for any brave adventurer getting this far into the dungeon. 

This Challenge I have loved painting ...pink.  What with the pink Book Golem leading the way, the pink Demon facing down the adventurers, and the pink Turtle Dragon all being painted, there was only one colour for this creepy dungeon dweller.  

A truly Slaanesh spider, then - enticing, cunning, exotic and chaotic - in the lurid pink shades of the Prince of Pleasure.   

As with so much in this Challenge, the non-historical sculpts have taken me back to the Village of Hommlet, to Starstone, to Cirith Ungol and to the adventurers in hundreds of dungeons of my youth in the Realms of Chaos.

Somehow, giant spiders seem so very AD&D - which to me, is another way of saying "they're so 1981"!

I'd painted up this female bard for a teleport within the Challenge, but I've not needed her in the end.  So, it's long overdue that she now is able to join her fellow adventurers in fighting their way into the Altar of the Snowlord.

She's a Midlam Miniatures sculpt, and - like all of the Midlam figures - is very cleanly cast and sculpted.  

I've had a thing for bards of all kinds for decades.  No, not the ludicrously over-blown bards of 1st Edition D&D, but the far more useful, rogues of later editions.  I always was entranced by their fighter/ thief/ magic-user/ Swiss Army Penknife skill-set - which is all a bit silly, but is the kind of thing which fits into so many fantasy settings.  

So here she is, plucking her lute and charming the spider-demon - well, at least she hopes so...

I added some additional green-stuff tresses to her hair.  I have no idea why I did this!  She had enough hair to start with, but now has lots more.  No doubt that strange fashion detail can come to the fore in some adventure.  Maybe she uses her hair to string her lute...?

And, because every adventure is better with friends, here's both the spider demon, the bard and her fellow adventurers from the Second Level, finally arrived at (nearly) Journey's End!

And for the points, there's one 25mm figure - the female bard - for 5 points, and then there's the sipder-demon.  He/She/It is quite large, so can I claim 10 points for the spider as a cavalry figure?  Miles can set me straight if that's 5 points too many (although, Miles, dear friend, be careful before you start any argument with a giant pink spider!!)  

And then there's 20 points for "The Lair of the Great Beast", totalling 35 points for this entry.

******* 

It is a very nice pink spider but ten points well.... oh hell I'm feeling generous but you'll need to let me interview you on the LWTV podcast sometime!  35 Points it shall be!

Miles

From JonathanO: Mutant Bug - Lair of the Great Beast (28 points)

 My 6th and final post of the day! For the last location on level 3, before descending the stairs to the Altar of the Snowlord, I offer this Mutant Bug.  This is from the Mantic Games Mars Attacks game.

The miniature is more than filling the 50mm base.  For points I suggest 8 plus the location bonus = 28.

So with trepidation I descend the stairs to see what challenge awaits me at the Altar of The Snowlord.

From DrQ: An Arkanaut Ironclad in the Lair of the Great Beast (70 points)

 For the Lair of the Great Beast we were instructed to paint something "monstrous and nightmarish, terrifying and humongous." I chose to interpret this as my personal dragon to slay in this competing—Arkanaut Ironclad for the Kharadron Overlords.

By any definition this thing was a beast: 152 components, on a 170 x 109 mm oval base, and sitting over 20cm high on my custom flight stand. It is also crewed by 6 figures as well. 

I've been working on this thing literally since the challenge started, and I'm glad to have finally completed it.

As far as points, the vehicle is 20 points, the six figures are another 30 points, and the challenge bonus is another 20. For a grand total of 70, I believe. 

From here there's nowhere to go but the Altar of the Snowlord!!!!

From TeemuL: The Great Beast at the Lair of the Great Beast (40 points)

The great ghost horde and the silent man with no name were left behind and Shellington started to calm down. He had some butterflies in his stomach, though, which he interpreted as a clear sign of being close to the principal's office. He had had that same feeling since he was a teenager and it had followed him since. "Well, almost there, then", he thought. "Probably just around the corner, or down those stairs", he continued when he entered yet another room. "I really should stop drinking, this place is getting to my nerves." He heard some noise behind him, some hissing and like loose stones rolling on the ground. He slowly turned, his eyes opened as wide as they could, his mouth was open and a silent scream left his lips while he fought against paralyzing and stepped backwards towards the stairs. A few steps and he half fell to the stairway and down to the Principal's office? The great beast continued hissing.

 

 

A Great Beast was asked, here he is. I'd say he is monstrous and nightmarish, terrifying and humongous. This one is of course a Tyranid beast from the Games Workshop WH40K range. I'm not an expert on Tyranids and I don't even know the name of this beast, I bought it assembled and primed among other Tyranids (some genestealers and gaunts) for a very cheap price. Yet again, start of a new army, this is the test model for colors and I quite like it. At first I only had an idea of black scales with bright orange stripes, but once I examined the model and started applying colors I decided to skip them, the yellow claws, fangs, spikes and other things are enough, I guess. Black and greens give him (or her?) a menacing, grim even military look, which in a way suits these beasts. Relatively quick to paint and I hope the other miniatures in the Tyranid range are as nice to paint as well.

It is painted completely in Contrast colors, except the base. Base is just sand glued on black painted base, brown wash and grey drybrush. I added couple of tufts as well. If I had more time, I would have added some skulls as well, but the Snowlord is waiting for me at the Altar. Yes, this is my last stop in the Chambers before the final challenge. 

One great beast in 28mm scale, I'd say it is about the size of a vehicle, so 20 points?

20 points for the Lair of the Great Beast room.

The base is screaming for skulls, but I'm too busy for that now, so no skulls, but 20 points for GW side challenge

From NoelW: Lair of the Great Beast (183 points)

Without even a click of ruby slippers, but with a most palpable magical whooosh! they are instantly transported to the Lair of the Beast.

“Sorry, can’t take you any further,” wails the disappearing purple-haired sorceress, “you don’t have enough air miles.”

For a moment, looking around, Titchy suspects they might be in trouble.

“Er - “

“Woof!” says Scruff.

“Oh, yes, of course he is!” agrees Titchy, peering upwards. “It’s Gnawbone, and he’s all grown up.”

The great troll leans down and pats Scruff on the head. Then he pats Titchy on the head. Elfbow gets out of the way.

“So who are all your friends?” asks Getrude, surveying the sundry monsters clustered around them.

“Hulk smash!” says the giant Gnawbone.

“Yes, well, obviously. What else would you do in circumstances like this? But, the question is, who are you going to smash?”

“Gnawbone meet invaders in Hall of Heroes. Final showdown. We show them. They down soon enough.”

“Sounds great, old pal, old friend,” says Titchy. “So we’ll just hang around here until you’ve pushed the invading hordes back into the sea, shall we?”

But no – that’s not what happens, you’ll be surprised to hear. With a sudden cry Gnawbone raises his iron hammer, gestures at the tunnel leading to the Hall of Heroes, and the whole maelstrom of monsters follows suit, screaming, screeching, roaring and, yes, it seems, woofing!

“Come back, Scruff, you’ll get yourself pulverised.”

“It’s no good,” says Getrude. “Gerald is of the very definite opinion that we’re going to be swept along with the monstrous tide of nationalist – well, Chamberist – sentiment, and must follow where these valiant monsters lead, to do or die.”

“I’m pretty sure I know which I’d prefer,” says Elfbow. But he’s outnumbered, and before you can say “Shot to death by a hundred invading muskets”, the whole party finds itself carried bodily along the tunnel towards the Hall of Heroes.

***

As I’m playing more fantasy games lately, such as Oathmark, Frostgrave and Rangers of Shadow Deep, in odd intervals through the Challenge I’ve been painting monsters, with no particular plan, other than the expectation that one or other of them would do for the Beast. It turns out, they all wanted the job, so here they are.

First, the mighty Gnawbone himself, finally transformed into the creature he always knew he could be, if he only realised his full potential.

 

Compare him with this model, properly a minotaur, but probably really a minitaur – he’s intended for my 10mm fantasy setup (Lord of the Rings et al. ‘Al’ is the name of Sauron’s successor), though he stands 20mm high.

 

Another small giant is this octopus – ancestry unknown but I think he might just belong to the GW Man O’ War game. Anyway, he’ll be a hazard for my Black Seas games.

 

Next we have a pair of monster crocodiles. I’m quite pleased with how these look, as I was experimenting with different contrast paints and washes on them, and whilst they look quite different, I feel they both also look quite realistic.

The first is a Reaper Bones nasty:

 

The second is simply a Playmobil creature from one of the pirate sets (don’t tell my kids) and turns out to take a paint job surprisingly well.

 

Next two monsters also “borrowed” from my children’s collections of old toys. A giant spider creature which, rather scarily, has humanoid features. This is made from that sort of jelly resin that cheap children’s toys are made from (that’s toys which are cheap for children, not toys for children who are cheap. I’ve found that children are actually extremely costly) and doesn't paint up that well (that's my excuse, anyway).

 

The other is a yeti-esque creature. Rather scarily, this also seems slightly familiar.

 

 Then there’s this sort of chaos dog, which came amongst a set of chaos dwarves on the cover of Miniature Wargames. I don’t really like this figure and I think the mediocre paint job rather tells you that.

 

I’m much happier with my eagle. Well, I call him an eagle. Could be any noble raptor, really. No idea of manufacturer, as he’s been in the collection for decades.

 

 And another ancient, unattributable creature, a sort of winged snake (coatl?) which has painted up surprisingly well, too. Some of these ancient models have real character.

 

Next two giant rats. Very animated poses, and very large rats. Made by Reaper Bones.

 

Another Reaper Bones figure is this nicely sculpted Giant Scorpion. And it really is giant. There’s no need for it to bother with venom – a sting from this thing would be like being felled by an axe. And not a soft, gentle axe, either.

 

 And next another Reaper Bones fortissimo of a figure: I’m not sure what sort of dragonesque creature is intended, but I’ve made her a blue dragon. I really like this model, but I’m also quite pleased with how she’s come out, as I mainly used Contrast paints, with added highlighting, and I find they’re often too patchy to be very pleasing.

 

 And talking of dragons, here’s a gold dragon by Wizzkids. I’ve not attached the flames, so the dragon can be calling plaintively  for Mummy, or making toast, whichever is most appropriate for a game.

 

Finally, a brazen bull. Weirdly, this creature (or a cognate) exists in D&D as a gorgon, but the model is great, whatever it’s called.

Scoring for this miscellany is a bit unclear, especially as several of the figures are much wider or longer than they are tall. I’m tentatively suggesting, the following, but I throw myself on the rare and tender mercies of our much-beloved Minions:

Octopus (10mm monster): 2 pts

Minotaur: (20mm foot): 4 pts

Coatl, eagle, dog, 2 giant rats: approx. 30mm = 5 x 5 pts = 25 pts

Bull, spider and 2 monster Crocodiles: (80mm, 90mm and 110mm long, but only 30mm and 40mm high, so suggest treat them as 28mm artillery): 4 x 10 pts = 40 pts

Yeti: 40mm x 60mm: 7 pts

Gold dragon (54mm x 80mm) and Scorpion (50mm x 60mm): suggest 54mm artillery = 40pts

Troll: 65mm high, 80mm at widest point: 15 pts?

Blue dragon (100mm x 140mm): 30 pts?

Lair of the Beast: 20 pts

Grand total: 183 pts, perhaps

What a grand collection of beasties. I'm sure they'll give a good account of themselves against the Hall of Heroes.

I'll go along with your scoring of these, simply because I reckon any scoring I came up with would quite closely match your suggestions.

Tamsin