Things Get Painted AND Things Get Played - Some fire for the Bakers

I have a two in one update! I've been really busy the last few weeks which has worn me out and stopped me painting much. On top of that, a lot of hobby time was spent prepping for the next chapter in the DnD game I run for my friends, The Band of Bakers:


Currently the Band of Bakers are on the second of a series of trials set to them by several gods, each of which has an association with a member of the party. This weekend they faced the second trial, which usually involves a party member being separated to prove their skills while the others fight, effectively splitting the party for a few rounds. This weekend the party's ranger Varis faced the Trial of Melora, and the Bakers were victorious. Everyone seemed to have a good time, including myself, aside from the party wizard Miri, who wasn't able to make it, and was therefore planeshifted away for the game (With soon-to-be-mysterious results!).


My friend Garry managed to nab some photos during the game, and kindly let me post some of them. I had found when setting up the game that I was able to grab some SDE Forgotten King minis as well as some (painted and unpainted) bones minis to get good representations of what I needed for the game. However, I had a plan in mind for the story, and needed something specifically for the final fight. Varis had mentioned in her backstory stumbling onto one of Melora's shrines as a child, and was bitten and poisoned by a guardian lizard (Goanna) which followed her around for a while after, waiting for her to succumb to the poison. A few months ago I spotted something that would fill that description nicely:


Venom-Eye Basilisks! Fun models to paint (Both Reaper Bones, painted a few weeks ago), and fun models to use in game, poisoning PCs and making them spread poison. The Dwarven Defender and Tiefling Assassin managed to do a lot of damage and mess up my plans during the game, while the Bard tried to romance and NPC and Varis proved her skills to Melora. When the Basilisks came along, they were hinted at being a part of Varis' childhood, with the Druid assisting the trials hinting she knew a bit more of the Ranger than might have been expected. When it came time for the final round, she revealed it was the shrine under her protection that Varis had found before, and she was holding a grudge. Enough to summon more creatures to fight Varis' friends, including an elemental Spiker, and then Callie (the druid) went, well...


...she kind of has a fiery temper. This was my fun model for the game - the big bad. Not only did the now-elemental form druid want to burn the Bakers up, but revealed herself as a traitor to Melora (Betray a god? Smart...), and started setting the area on fire as she went. I knew I wanted some big creature in this game, and after seeing Keyleth in Critical Role turn into various elementals, I figured this would be fun as well. I found an old Chainmail Fire Elemental that I bought about 11 years ago when I first moved to Sydney (It's also a Chainmail Stonespike in the picture above), and painted it up the night before. 

I managed to get it painted by messing with washes over a white undercoat. Warhammer TV recently had a video on this (Painting Nurgle Skin) and I wanted to try the same method. The whole elemental was washed twice with a yellow wash, then layered with orange, red, then earthshade washes, before the eyes were dotted with green. The base was Vallejo Black Lava texture, drybrushed and washed a few times, with the brownest grass tufts I had to hand. All in all, this end of game big bad was about 45 minutes from undercoated to painted, so I'm very happy with how it turned out.

 

I'm happy that I found a way to paint these in a quick manner I'm happy with for tabletop standard. I have another two. Having said that, it's something I can happily do quickly, and I might end up moving on to the other elementals from Chainmail I have to try to get them done quicker. 

As for Callie the Druid? Well, I did want her to escape and become a recurring villain. Instead, the party seemed to have a synchronised plan ready for when I try to let the enemy escape through a portal, and nabbed her. She's still around, just not where she wants to be...
 

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