Warlords of Knottinglund Episode 01 The Burning of Nottamun Town

Two hundred years ago the Taurian men of the Minotaur Empire left Knotinglund in the hands of the Knots a people who had served as their mercenary enforcers against the native Druidfolk. Since that time the Knots have enjoyed nearly unprecedented prosperity and good fortune with only the occasional Duridfolk or Goblinkin raid. They have traded with the other goodfolk of the island and have become the envy of many of their neighbors but they are not a united people. What true wars they have endured have been at the hands of the seven kings who rule the kingdoms of the Knots although even these have not amounted to much. None of the kingdoms are willing to risk large scale warfare their lives are so comfortable. The occasional earldom or border shire will change hands but capitals are never threatened. Of all the kingdoms of the Knots Goldfeld is the richest not only in terms of physical wealth but also in terms of the value of the land. Located in the middle of Knotinglund it has the best farmland on the island. It is truly a breadbasket.

Manton son of Randolf Earl of Highhill looked out onto the plain from his hilltop fortress. It was the first day of the Winter Solstice in the 858th Year of the Law. Nottamun Town, some ten miles from the fort, was burning. So late in the year it might have started accidentally but no one had shown up asking for aid. It might have been started by a goblin raid but with over fifty Fyrdmen and a dozen Thanes in the town that seemed unlikely. Raids of that kind had not been seen for over a century. Not in the kingdom of Goldfeld especially. The Druidfolk had not been seen for decades and then only rarely. Perhaps in some of the wilder kingdoms they might have been able to make such a raid but not in these civilized lands. Turning to a Huscarl to his right he said "Gather my Thanes in the hall". The Huscarl nodded his head and turned to carry out the Earl's command.

Looking at his gathered Thanes, Manton's heart sank. Fat, old, incompetent, and far too comfortable armed with little more than symbolic weapons that had never been drawn in anger. Now they were bickering about why Nottamun Town was on fire. "Maybe they haven't called for help because they have it under control. They have the river right there running through their town after all!" said Beornwald a particularly self important Thane. "Under Control! How can you say it's under control? Look outside, you can see the fires even from this distance!". It was Adelric, Manton's son. He had come in with Anwen and Beatrix, two other younger Thanes. Perhaps the only Thanes in Highhill capable of carrying out their martial duties. "Let us go find out what is going on father" Adelric continued. "Ha! None of you have the experience required." interjected Beornwald. "Then I should charge you to investigate the matter for me" Earl Manton replied. "B, but my lord, my family is here for the Yule feast. My home is bursting with guests. I can't just leave them at this..." Beornwald trailed off looking at his shoes. "Then it is settled. My son, the priestess, and the young bard will go. Find out for me what is behind this tragedy and see if you can't help any survivors," the Earl commanded. "Yes father" Adelric replied then he and his companions turned to leave.

The three Thanes set out together on the road to Nottamun Town. As they approached the town they encountered no one.

A small section of Nottamun Town lays on the south side of the Nottamun River where a few houses still stood.  Across the river the larger part of the town was ablaze.  The gatehouses were on fire and as they approached they could see signs of conflict.  Weapons, helmets, and shields lay on the ground.  Pools of coagulating blood filled the furrows and boot prints where two shield walls had clashed.  The one thing missing was the bodies.

The watch tower was empty.  Many of the weapons stored there had been removed from their racks.  More signs of conflict were found at the top of the tower but no bodies there as well.  From the top of the tower Anwen thought she saw movement in the water.
 

As they moved towards the river armed figures started to emerge from the water.  They were not men but they were once men, now just skeletal remains marching toward the three Thanes.

 Adelric charged a group crossing the bridge.  Three Skeletons charged towards Anwen and another three towards Beatrix the bard.

 Adelric and his horse cut down two of the skeletons on the bridge but as he turned on the third a gigantic skeletal Minotaur came charging through the smoke.

The priestess Anwen fell before the spears of the three skeletons who charged her.  Things were looking dire for the Thanes.

Adelric moved to cut off the skeletons that cut down Anwen and the Minotaur gave chase.  Beatrix destroyed two of the skeletons attacking her then ran to help the priestess.  

Adelric and his Warhorse attacked the Minotaur destroying the beast.  The skeletons attacked him with their spears but could not get through his defenses.  

 Beatrix rushed over to heal Anwen while being chased by another skeleton but even though the skeleton wounded her she was able to get Anwen back on her feet.

Anwen called forth a spiritual weapon and destroyed the skeleton chasing Beatrix with magic and sword.  

Together the Thanes destroyed the remaining skeletons.  After the battle Anwen began examining the destroyed skeletons.  She noticed that the weapons wielded by the human skeletons were ancient and of Druidfolk design and that every one of the skeletons wore and iron torc of Druidfolk design.  The torcs were freezing cold to the touch but the Thanes took a few of them to return to Highhill.  

Upon returning to Highhill Adelric and Beatrix took the Minotaur skull to Earl Manthon while Anwen went to track down Gosbeorth the Sage to see if he knew anything about the torcs.  Anwen did not find Gosbeorth at home but after she re-joined her companions they found the old sage at the alehouse.  Gosbeorth confirmed their suspicions that the torcs were crafted by the Druidfolk.  Strangely the torcs, which had appeared freshly forged, had already become badly rusted as if they were about to crumble to dust.  Gosbeorth suggested that the magic used to craft them must have been very powerful.

Later that night Manthon called his Thanes before him again.  Beornwald accused the three thanes of making the story up but the Earl dismissed him.  He then charged the three with locating the Druidfolk who were responsible for the attack.  

Note:  This is part of a Prequel campaign for another Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition campaign I hope to start in the Summer of 2019 which is inspired by Game of Thrones and the Wars of the Roses.  I'm currently conducting a few mini campaigns to establish a history of events in my players minds.  The setting is an island I've designed called Knotinglund which is very heavily inspired by English myths and history.  The Knots, featured in the early campaign are a kind of cultural analog to Saxons, Vikings, and Normans.    

Experimental storage solutions

 I've been collecting miniatures for a long time.  30+ years or so.  In that time I've painted thousands of miniatures.  I've also stored and transported thousands of miniatures and I've never found a satisfactory solution.  Just as many of my miniatures get broken and chipped up while they are being stored or transported as the ones that get damaged in play.  In fact I think more have been damaged while not in use than while in play so I'm constantly trying new solutions.  I've got everything from fishing lure and hobby compartmentalized boxes with foam inserts I cut by hand to soft sided cases to purpose built miniature storage and transport cases and I've had trouble with all of them. I've had miniatures get broken in all of them and I've had paint rubbed off by all of them as well.  Even when I store miniatures on shelves they get knocked off by pets and children and they also get really dusty.  I've even had curio cabinets fall off the wall and wreck dozens of paint jobs so nothing has worked.   

 Recently I was browsing through the jewelry crafting section of a local department store when I had an inspiring thought.  There were several sizes of zip-lock baggies that were really cheap and I thought that might provide a solution.  The baggies are smooth so they won't rub paint off like every type of open cell foam I have tried and the extra space the baggie takes up actually acts as padding. 

 The baggies come in different sizes so I picked up a couple of varieties to fit my different needs.  I found you don't want to go with a baggie that just barely fits the miniature because the mini could get stuck in the bag.  It's not that big a deal because the bag can be ripped or cut open but it's kind of wasteful so it's bet to get a slightly over sized bag than one that just barely fits. 

I experimented with a bunch of Battletech Battlemechs and at first I put them in this fishing lure case and that worked pretty well.  I think it would work really well for most 28mm human sized figures but I felt it was a little tight. 

I then decided to put the small baggies into sandwich bags then put them into this plastic shoe box.  That worked even better.  I could group the minis together and the sandwich bags provided another layer of padding and protection. 

The one down side I found was that it's takes a little time to pack and unpack the bags but not all that much compared with some of my other storage methods.  I think for long term storage this will be a cheap and effective solution.  I will probably work well for protecting unfinished paint jobs as I am working on them or if I have to set a project aside for a while for one that has a higher priority. 

My new favorite bases!

Recently I've started basing most of my miniatures on wooden bases instead of metal or plastic ones.  Wooden bases take glue and paint very well so my bases don't get chipped.  I've had a lot of problems in the past with the edges of my bases chipping even when I sand the sides to get the metal and plastic bases more grit.  I've also had sand and even flocking and static grass chip off the tops of minis from time to time when the glue chips off the plastic bases. 

For standard 28mm minis I've been buying these 1 inch wooden bases from Woodpile at Hobby Lobby.  They come 12 to a package for $2.00 a package.  I really like the finished rounded edges.  They are about as thick as a Games Workshop round base although not quite so these Reaper Miniatures figures don't gain too much height on them compared to the other miniatures in my collection.  The wood grain edges even look kind of nice.  I like having some texture to the sides of my bases but I usually don't like to have a lot of texture overlapping onto the sides so these give me a nice amount of texture which as I said earlier also helps hold the paint.  I've found them to be far superior in every way to plastic bases.  

Under painting and glazing speed painting technique.

I've got tens of thousands of miniatures and only perhaps a couple thousand of them or so are painted at any given time.  I used to have more painted minis but I sold off several of them in the late 90s.  Since then I've been better at buying miniatures.  I'm a pretty fast painter and I'm usually looking for nothing more than a decent table top standard on my finished minis since I am painting them to game with.  

Recently I've been using a glazing technique over a black and white under painting to achieve suitable results.  The dragon above is painting using this technique.  Although it is not the best result I have achieved using this technique it's the miniature I used for this tutorial so I'm showing it here.  I think it turned out fine for the purposes of this demonstration.  I've always felt Green Dragons should have a plant like feel.  The dragon's spikes were supposed to look thorn like so I think I managed that with these results.

 I start out priming my miniatures black.  I spray primed these but you can hand prime them if you prefer.  I've hand primed with this technique with good results.  Then you need to select some medium and light grey paint.  I have used dark brown over painting with brown and tan for warmer shades.  I always use nicer craft paints for speed painting because I'm cheap and because they work just fine for table top quality paint jobs.  These Delta Ceramcoat paints give the best results compared to the "pro" paints various miniature lines have.  They are still much cheaper than miniature paints but they are higher quality than most craft paints.  If you would rather use miniature paints by all means but it's a bit of a waste for the under painting.  For brushes I chose these inexpensive flats I picked up at Walmart.  You don't want to use nice brushes for this technique but you don't want them so cheap the bristles fall out and stick to the minis.   
   

You're going to want to use a drybrushing technique with the medium grey for the first layer.  If you want the miniature to have a lighter over all result you will want to cover more of the black and only leave a little showing through.  If you want a darker over all result then leave more of the black showing. 

I usually keep my brush damper during the first stage of the under painting because you want to cover more of the black base coat but you don't want the brush too wet.  If the paint is getting down into the deep crevasses you need to clean the brush and start over with a dryer brush.  I'm using Delta Ceramcote Hippo Grey here. 

One thing I can't stress enough when doing any drybrushing technique is that you need to clean your brush out frequently.  In terms of drybrushing you don't want your brush bristles to get dry and too gummed up with paint.  This is usually the downfall of the drybrushing technique.  When the brush gets gummed up with paint it is hard to control were the paint goes and it will also damage your brushes. 

After you put the medium grey down move on to your light grey.  This will form the base for your highlights so you want this grey to be fairly light.  I'm using Delta Cermcoat Drizzle Grey as my highlight.  Here I have painted several minis at one time.  Since this is a speed painting technique it works well for rank and file even though these are all different minis. 
 

Make sure you don't go too heavy handed with this layer.  You want to pick up the highlights but you don't want to completely cover the medium grey.  You will want even less paint on the brush for the highlight and you want to avoid letting the brush gum up so wash your brush frequently.  Just make sure you get the bristles dry after washing.  You might want to employ a hair dryer on the lowest setting to help dry your brushes after you wash them. 

 To make the glaze I use floor polish like this pledge household finish. The old model/miniature painting standard used to be "Future" floor wax but I believe that Pledge bought them out several years ago.  This provides the same results as the Future finish either way.  There are artist glazing mediums on the market but I find them too thick to use with miniature and models.  They are meant for canvas painting and like artist acrylics they aren't that useful in miniature painting. 

 I usually add the finish to the paint using a brush as I got.  Add it to the side of the rim of your pallet so it flows down into your paint before mixing.  This makes it easier to avoid contaminating your clean finish with pigment as you go.  Then use your glazing brush to mix the finish and the paint.  If you need to add more finish clean your brush before dipping it to avoid contamination.  You will have to judge the consistency of your glaze based on how intense you want it.  As you can see on the pallet on the left I used the dried grey highlight paint to judge how my glaze was going to cover the model.  If you want to be really fancy you can get some white card and paint a black, medium grey, and light grey stripe on it then drag your glaze brush across the stripes to judge how your glaze is going to cover each layer.
I like glazing with a soft round but not a super soft one.  Your looking for something with flexibility but not so much you loose control of the paint.  I like soft synthetic bristles.  Rather than stiffer hog hair or softer sables.
 

 Carefully lay your glaze over the surface of your model just like you would a thin layer of paint.  Glazes are easier to control than a wash but harder than paint.  I usually work largest areas to smallest.  Even though this is a peed painting technique it does require a decent level of brush control.  Be careful to put the glaze only where you want it and be especially careful not to get darker glazes over areas that you want to be a lighter color.  I have had to go back in and carefully layer paint the grey under painting on details when using this technique because I got too sloppy with my glaze.  Be careful not to get your glaze too thick either or you will wipe out the tonal gradient from the medium grey and black areas.   

 I basically over paint the entire miniature with glazes.  You need to be careful to avoid having wet glazes touching each other as they will tent to run together.  It doesn't matter as much on creatures as it does on humanoids because some times the blending of the colors can lead to a more organic look.  If you are only working on one miniature you might want to use a hair dryer on the low setting to speed up your drying time.  Be careful to let you glaze set just a bit before using the hair dryer because you could push wet glazes over on to other areas they don't belong in if you are too aggressive.  Be careful not to hold the dryer too close to the model either to avoid splashing your glaze.
You can employ glazing with other painting techniques.  As you can see above I have painted the miniature's teeth in before moving on.  I use either dry brushing or layering on metallic surfaces such as armor on humanoid miniatures and sometimes when painting flesh tones.   

  

After my glazes have dried I use Games Workshop Citadel "Agrax Earthshade" wash over the entire miniature to help tie it together and provide some additional shading.  I got a little heavy handed with this model.  You can thin the wash down if you don't want it as dark.  The wash will help fill in the areas where your different color glazes touch and help blend them together.  

There are some ares like eyes and bases that I don't paint until the end.  You may also want to add some final highlights with dry brushing or layers as needed after the wash dries.  

That's basically all there is to it.  It took me about 2 hours to paint this dragon which isn't too bad.  I've painting 28mm character models in 45 minutes or less using this technique so it can be really good when you need to get something on the table fast.  

Simple Encounter Board

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a small encounter board for my D&D and other RPG games.  Most of my RPG encounters take place over a small area compared to the amount of space needed for a war game.  Most of the time I set up my RPG encounters on a 4x4 foot war game table or larger.  I wanted something smaller that I could place on my gaming table instead of off on another table.
 

I picked up a 33x50" Ready Grass Vinyl Mat from Woodland Scenics and a 20x30" poster frame from Walmart.  I think I spent about $20.00 U.S. on the project but I don't have the exact figures. 

 I laid the cardboard poster backing from the frame on the grass mat then traced the size.  After cutting the mat I was mostly done. 

I used some tacky glue to glue the mat down to the cardboard backing then placed some heavy books on and let it set for a couple hours.  I recommend against using a water based glue for this to prevent warping.  I did have some slight bubbling with this but that worked out okay because the board looked more natural with the slight rolling surface rather than if it was perfectly flat.   

Looks pretty good with terrain and figures on it.  Just exactly what I was hoping for.  The frame separates it nicely from the table and I think it might prevent dice from rolling onto the board so easily. 

I plan to make several more of this for different types of terrain including one with a flat black surface for laying down dungeon tiles.   

Miniature Update 11-30-17

 Just posting some miniatures I've painted lately.  I'm trying to get some monsters painted up for my D&D games.  First up is this Reaper Bones large fire elemental.

A Reaper; Rust Monster, Clay Golem, and Efreet as well as a Dungeon Delvers Basalisk.  I'm hoping to get more done soon. 

Random Miniature Update 11-9-17

I painted this Reaper Bones Griffin based on a Bateleur eagle.  

These Reaper Crusaders will be "The Drowned Templars" in an upcoming game.

Three Reaper Orcs I painted up to represent Half Ogres.

I painted this Reaper dark elf sorceress as a Drow.  She will be "The Twilight Queen" in my campaign.

The Tree of Shame

I made this tree for an up coming Dungeons and Dragons game.  It's based on a tale from Arthurian legends.  The skeletons are shown for scale.  I was really happy with the way it turned out since it was fairly simple to make.

Years ago I made three wire frame trees from bailing wire.  They sat unfinished in a box for over a decade.  One of them was covered in green floral tape which is something I had used in the past on wire frame trees.  I mounted the tree on a cork board base then used Gorilla Glue hot glue to create texture on the structure.

I didn't want to use plastic shields for the tree because now that Games Workshop has stopped making Warhammer it's harder to find good shields cheap so I picked up a package of fake finger nails from the Dollar tree and cut them into shield shapes with a pair of scissors.  I had to mark the shield shapes by scoring into the nail with an Xacto knife because I could not draw on them. 

I dipped them in very hot water to help flatten them out.  This distorted some of them a bit but that was okay since they were suppose to look battered and distressed anyway.  I then mounted them on square dowels and painted them with black spray paint. 

I painted the shields with some quick and dirty heraldry.  I didn't get too precise with the painting since I planned to weather these.  It's handy to look up the rules of heraldry if you wish to depict it realistically.  I've studied it since I was very young.  My interest in medieval armor and knighthood led me into Dungeons and Dragons and the Society for Creative Anachronisms. 

If you have less knowledge of heraldry you should Google "Heraldic rolls" or "Rolls of Arms" which are medieval records of Coats of Arms.  These are a great reference not only for ideas but also the medieval style heraldry is easier to depict than modern versions that you might find if you just Google Heraldry. 

Here are the shields weathered up.  I wanted them to look pretty battered and a bit moldered from hanging on a tree for long periods of time.  

I can't wait to use this project in my next D&D game.  It should prove to be an interesting encounter.  

       

Random miniature update.

I haven't really posted any painted miniatures lately so I thought I would post the last few miniature painting projects I have worked on. 

The three barrels are from WizKids new unpainted plastic miniature line.  They were very cheap and very nice to paint. 

The archer is from Reaper.  One of their army packs that have been around forever.  This is for my son's very first D&D game.  His character has leather armor so I painted the scale armor as leather scale.  I think it works pretty well.  He's got a bow, arrows, sword, and a shield.  The shield is an old GW shield from my bits box.  My son's favorite color is red so that is why he has a bright red tunic. 

The rat swarms are from Reaper bones line.  I basically dry brushed the entire swarm and base grey then used glazes of different colors to paint the rats.  I added flesh tone to the tails and a dot to their noses.  I think they turned out pretty nice.  I just need more of them.