Category Archives: The Chapel

Adask; my Stylites Skull-Jacker

27 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by in The Chapel

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So, the cat is out of the bag! Earlier this week, my fellow hobby-bro Mark over on Heresyofus broke the news about a little project that we’ve been working on – Stylites – a free game that accompanies some rather excellent terrain he is producing. We co-developed & wrote up the rules for a compact little ‘push your luck’ game, set in the insane Chapel, a setting that Mark has been developing in his own little corner of the grim-dark 41st Millennium. If you haven’t read Mark’s post, I suggest you do so immediately – it contains all the background, rules links, and a sweet competition for all you lovely folks to get involved with! Go on, read it now, I’ll wait…

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Done? Ok, good. Exciting stuff, right? So a few weeks ago, I teased this chap & invited folks to guess what he’s all about:

 

Wudugast was spot on with his guesswork at the time, (he is clearly a warlock btw), but by now I hope that even the non-psykers among you will have figured out this is my Skull-Jacker. Those with really good memories may even remember Adask from my Ostium Guides short story from way back in March last year… TL;DR – Adask has a shit time trekking through the Albino Forest & ends up being stranded at The Chapel… Funnily enough, back then someone asked if the protagonist from that story was going to show up in the wider Chapel project at some point… That idea stuck with me, so I had Adask in mind when I build & painted my ‘Jacker.  Guess who asked that question btw… yep, it was Wudugast.  See? He’s is totally a warlock!

Anyway, here he is folks – Adask the Skull-Jacker, all painted up & ready to jack some skulls y’awl!

 

I’m really very pleased with the build and colour palette – he was great fun to paint! I was striving for ‘functional’ rather than militaristic, and, while there are no weapons, there is enough going on with the mini to suggest a very utilitarian existence. All the sticky-outy bits make him tricky to photograph, but I hope you’ll excuse the odd blurry limb here & there ;-)  I may go back and dirty him up a little at some point, but I’m happy with him as-is for now.

So, what’s next? Well, I’ll be expanding on my original Ostium Guides short story in due course, and moving the tale along to discover what happened to Adask after his abandonment at The Chapel. I’m also finishing up the four penitents that I teased earlier in the week… They are almost there, and should be ready for a photo-shoot game on Sunday… Exciting times! :-)

In Frog we trust…

31 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Eru-Kin, The Chapel

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Greetings Terrans, I hope you are all well, and that life is being kind to you. I have some new froggy goodness to share with you all today, part of my drive to have a Slaan inspired Eru-Kin army to roll out at BOYL this year… time is growing shorter, and I still have a fair amount to get through, so I decided that it was high time I tackled some close combat troops. Marketed as Bog-bloods in the Diehard kickstarter, these ten multi-part minis are of a lower caste than the Eru-Kin we have seen thus far, and so are armed with whatever hand weapons they can get hold of. They also come up a little smaller than their high-caste brethren, so I think they work well as young Slaan Braves, eager to test themselves in battle. As a result, I decided to paint them with fairly muted skin tones, (keeping in mind the RT Slaan fluff about more prestigious individuals having more striking skin patterns):

 

I imagine that this spawning will act as cheap screening troops/distractions/speedbumps in a sci-fi setting, while they would obviously work in fantasy as well, and so will cover me for Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago duties further down the road.

 

In other news, I was lucky enough to spend some time with fellow blogger & hobby ninja Mark from HeresyofUs last weekend. We had a good catch-up on some of the exciting developments he is working on for the next chapter of The Chapel, and for his business, (no spoilers, but it is going to be awesome!) We also did a bit of playtesting for a new mini-game that Mark has in mind, so we set up a table in the garden, grabbed some dice, and brainstormed some rules on the fly. Mark had a very clear concept he wanted to get across, and he got to wow me with his diligent note taking over the course of a few hours, while I got to impress him with my uncanny ability to roll 1’s on any dice. The game itself is based on one of the many insane and esoteric goings on within the Chapel itself – again, no spoilers, but I think it’s ok to say that it’s a really fast paced, high risk, push-your-luck affair, with some wonderfully left-field modelling opportunities… In fact, the whole concept got me pretty fired up to do a bit of Inq28 kitbashing when I got home, and after a few frantic hours of spru & glue action, I came up with this chap:

 

 

Mark will get the story behind this guy, but the rest of you will just have to guess as to his purpose… ;-)

Anyways, that’s it for now folks – lots of fun stuff in the pipeline, including a new short story, more Eru-Kin (but with a Stargate twist!), more Inq28 style kit-bashing, and hopefully some Necromunda… Catch you sucker DJs on the flip side!

To the gates of the Chapel!

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in The Chapel

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Day 2 of the Chapel has ended, and only one warband completed the journey through the forest to challenge the Lady Elect, mistress of the gates, and her unholy guardians… Despite overcoming the Wytch-cult, the Imperials fell under of dream-spell of the Albino Woods, and were lured away from the true path by wisps and ghosts. They remain lost in the deep forest, their future is uncertain… (Sadly, Kieran was ill for day 2 and didn’t make it – get well soon dude!)

The more psychically attuned Exodites resisted the lure of the forest spirits, and made it to the grand concourse that leads to the gates of the Chapel itself:

 

The Lady Elect awaits, while her warband stands ready:

 

A hard-fought battle ensues, and many noble Exodites fall to the guardians of the gates. Inevitably, the strands of fate align, and Lindethiel faces the Lady Elect in an epic duel:

 

Lindethiel prevails, and though grievously wounded, she and the surviving Exodites defeat the remaining guardians and deal with a minor daemonic incursion before finally ascending to the gates of the Chapel:

What awaits them inside is a tale for another time…

 

One last pic – the glowing columns that you can see in the photos above cast various effects throughout the game – some good, some not so good! One of the effects was the manifestation of ghosts, which, of course, Mark had lovingly created. Unfortunately, (or fortunately?), we only got to see Black Tide in-game, (the black one – highly flammable!), but I just had to show you the full supporting cast. I forget the name of the green scribe-ghost on the left, but otherwise we have Lash Banshee, Black Tide, Revenant Boy and Lady Marissa:

Gorgeous.

Phew! What an amazing weekend!! I can’t get my head around how many hours went into this project – all the warbands, (including those absent friends who couldn’t make it), all the terrain, (including the design/printing/molding of the Chapel board & assorted bits and bobs by Mark, and the buildings on the Albino Forest board that were made by Luke & shipped all the way from Australia!), the artwork from Mark and Ahmad Alibrahing (aka The Stygian Thorne), the rules generation & GM plots (Mark), the photographer (sorry, your name escapes me, but nice job!!), and the various friends-of-Mark that popped in and out over the weekend to bring cookies, offer advice, and support and cheer my uncanny ability to roll ones!! Superb effort one and all & lovely to meet you :-)

You can expect a number of proper write-ups & short stories from me in the coming days & weeks, and I know that Mark will be putting up professional photos and write-ups over on his blog Heresyofus… Keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement over there as well ;-)

Finally, I just want to say a huge thank you to Mark for organising this whole thing & allowing me to be a part of it, and to his lovely family for their kind hospitality. You guys are the real stars of the show in my opinion, and I hope to see you all again soon!