Project Backlog - Part 16

Of Strange Creatures, Large and Small - Continued

Among the many creatures native to the Realms were the Blemmoths. Massive, stoneskinned and headless, their facial features rested on their bellies. Peaceful and somehow attuned to the magic of the Realms, they were prone to long periods of slumber in the groves growing closer to the Realms' Edges. There, they squatted in peaceful glades, arms wrapping the knees close to their faces, hiding them from view. To most travellers, they looked like boulders, shrubs growing out of their cracked surfaces.
It is unknown why, but their presence attracted tribes of Koboloids, diminuitive creatures with stubby horns and tough beaks. Not malevolent but capricious, they could as easily help or hinder travellers and nobody could quite understand why they did one or the other. They built their nests in the trees around the slumbering Blemmoths, leaving offerings of fruit and fresh water for them.
As Sigmar and his pantheon settled the Realms with their followers, the Blemmoths retreated deeper and deeper into their forests, slumbering for ever longer periods. The Koboloids always followed them, and both the folks of Order and Destruction largely ignored them. When the turmoil of the Age of Chaos engulfed the Realms, they were forgotten, and so they remained for the first century of the Age of Sigmar.

But during the Hour of Ruin mysterious strangers approached the Koboloids' nests. They introduced themselves as Emissaries of a Dark Lord, bringing the means to protect Koboloids and Blemmoths from the skaven hordes. All the Koboloids had to do, was feeding the meat and blood of slain enemies to the Blemmoths, and they would have raised from their slumber to protect the groves.
The Koboloids fell under their sway and hunted down any trespasser with spear and bow, piling bloody offerings around the slumbering Blemmoths. Slowly, the leaves on the shrubs covering them turned fleshy and blood red, and when the Blemmoth finally woke up they hungered for more.
They now stalk those cursed forests that have come to be known as Fellgroves, the Dark Emissaries leading both large and small creatures into ever extreme acts of slaughter and cannibalism.

So, I painted the Blemmoths in a simple slapchop job: GW Contrast paints over a 3-stage zenithal primer (dark brown, grey, pearl white), followed by a drybrush using GW Dry paints, plus a touch of Blood for the Blood God and a Moot Green wash on the runes carved on their skin.

I went green for the runes to tie the Blemmoths to the Dark Emissaries I painted years ago and which I just touched up to act as the leader of a Warcry warband.

Finally, I've replicated the Dark Emissary's black-brown-yellow scheme on the Koboloids (again a slapcho job), and the warband was done.
If I'll get to play some games, I can use them as Beasts of Chaos (Brayshaman, Bullgors, Ungors) or Skaven (Grey Seer, Ratogors, Clanrats, Gutter Runners). At a a push, I might even play them as Seraphon (Skink Starpriest, Kroxigors, Skins). We'll see...

Project Backlog, Part 1

Dark Emissary

Some of the oldest and most unholy tomes held in the Grand Library of Sigmaron tell gruesome tales about the mysterious Dark Emissaries. They are traditionally portrayed as harbingers of doom who, throughout the Age of Myth, appeared before lords on the eve of battle, offering service in exchange for petty tokens or trinkets. Yet in the battle's wake the Dark Emissaries did not depart, but were retained by rulers who grew to depend on the wizened creatures' sorceries and advice. As the lords' reliance upon the Dark Emissaries grew, so did their own characters grow ever crueller and their ambitions broader. Without warning, when the lords needed aid the most, the Dark Emissaries would disappear, leaving their victims to suffer the consequences of their hubris. Who can say what the Dark Emissaries' motives were? Did they seek to foment anarchy for its own sake, or did they work to a wider plan? The answer, if ever there was one, was lost in the madness of the Age of Chaos.

Since the continuos lockdowns are making any actual gaming impossible, my inspiration has drained away. It seems I need a story to tell together with friends to come up with ideas for models and get motivated to paint them. Now, rather than not doing any hobby at all, I resolved myself to tackle my admitedly huge backlog of models. I'm simply going through my boxes, pick a model I fancy on that particular moment and get down to paint it. I'm not spending time thinking about the models' background or how I might use them in games, but ideas are coming as I work on them.

I bought the Dark Emissary shortly after the release of Storm of Magic in 2011. It sat, sealed in its blister, in a drawer since then. I might one day use it as a Chaos Sorcer or Bray Shaman and an idea for his minions has formed up in my mind. Once I'll fancy doing them, they'll be based on Skull Pass goblins...