Little Cairo Part 3 of Many: Horrors From the Tombs!

Little Cairo is a haunted city.  Two-fisted adventurers, sinister spies and corrupt bureaucrats share the city with the remnants of dying races, agents of Eldritch powers and the restless dead.

Malign spirits haunt the shadows of shunned alleys, cellars and crypts...

...striking down the curious and the foolhardy with horrid crushing strength or with pure terror...

"Marian, Don't Look at it!"

The shade of some denizen of Little Cairo rises out of the dust of two thousand years... 

            Shapeless forms stir in hell and make their way into the shadowed streets of Little Cairo!

                              "Hybrid Children watch the sea, pray for Father, roaming free..."

In dark tombs and forgotten temples hidden beneath the steets, the Hybrid Children of Great Cthulhu plot and scheme.  Products of a mating between a Cthulhu Spawn and a human female, the Hybrid Children gather humanity's lost souls under their sway, forming blasphemous cults whose every effort is aimed at bringing about the return of their mighty father.
                                                     

This Hybrid Child priest prepares for a sanguine sacrificial ritual...can our heroes stop him before it's too late?  Well...no.

Awakened from the sleep of centuries by vile cultists, an ancient curse, or just really bad luck, the Pharoah Rummitep stalks the lightless corridors of his Pyramid, thirsting for revenge on those who condemned him to a living death...

...or maybe all those moderns who have decided to help themselves to his rightful Kingdom! 

Deep beneath the dirty streets of Little Cairo are innumerable tangled hallways, corridors and passages, remnants of the subterranean dwellings of races who were dying before man descended from the trees.  In the lightless, echoing halls and chambers of their ancient abodes, they brood upon the passage of the milennia, dreaming of past glories and plotting a future resurgence.

Once encountered by the Hero Conan when Egypt was still known as Stygia, Akivasha, the eternally youthful and beautiful Vampire Queen of the dead still dwells in her palatial tomb deep beneath the crowded streets of Little Cairo.  King Conan has been dead for eleven thousand years, but a mile beneath the earth, Queen Akivasha "lives" on...

Perhaps the last vestige of her long vanished race, the Lamia shares the eternal, echoing darkness with Akivasha, dreaming the dreams of the Black Lotus and and occasionally accepting the sacrifices of her handful of devoted human cultists...

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange Aeons, even death may die!"   

Warhammer Ancients Chariot Wars: Egyptian Royal Guard Regiment

The last three years or so have been a time of mighty upheaval and convulsion for me, not that I'm complaining or anything.  Things are what they are.  At times there has no breath of leisure in which I could pursue my old painting and gaming hobby.  In other moments the time was there, but the inclination was not.  After a time I just about gave up on my blog, but now that the raging floodwaters have abated and retreated into little calm pools, I've started thinking about it again.  One thing I now know I will never lose is a love of miniature warriors, monsters and tanks, the menagerie of tiny companions my wife refers to as the 'Little Men'.  Even the Big Board, that simple assembly of heavy ply wood sheets and felt, supported by thick legs of green plastic milk crates, is a good friend, a partner in joyfully irresponsible frivolity for nearly thirty years.  The blog has documented the growth of my collection, and a few of the great adventures, (though not nearly enough), that have taken place on the Big Board.  It has also provided motivation  to keep painting, and a link to friends with similar interests around the world, whose beautiful and imaginitive works provide so much inspiration.  I've put ten years into it, and I feel like I should keep it going.  

Here is something that I did manage to paint during the deluge.

I took this regiment of Egyptian Royal Guardsmen with me to Kosovo and started them there, but only finished them a few months ago.  Each trooper is armored and armed to the teeth with spear, shield and axe, and they have a nice, tough, determined look about them.  They are all Ral Parthas from their 1990s Ancients Range.  I wish the range had had a more extensive selection of command figures, but I really like the sculpts.  they paint up well and they are a nice size.

When I started this blog virtually everything I posted on it was Oldhammer Fantasy or 40k.  Since then I've lost none of my love for fantastical themes, but it's hard not to notice that the majority of my collecting and painting efforts have drifted toward the historical.  The lead mountain now includes great peaks and spurs of Biblical, Colonial, Renaissance Old West, Pulp and second World War Figures and they all seem to be looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to bring them to life with a little sand and pigment.  Some hard choices may lie ahead, since it occurred to me a few years ago that at my age, it is most likely not possible for me to finish painting all the figures I own within the span of years left to me.  Yes, I've done the math.  I have that many.

These are the first pictures of minis I've taken in the club house in my new home in Washington State.  Took these with my phone.  Haven't quite figured out the lighting yet.

So I add these to my Libyan skirmishers and Egyptian Marines.  Next I need to add a Pharoah and some chariots.  The chariot models in this range and very beautiful, so I'm looking forward to getting to work on them!

Selling More Stuff

 Hi Friends!  I am clearing out a bunch of ebay stock this week to raise some extra funds for other stuff.  I've got over a hundred auctions up in my Ebay store right now, mostly old school Oldhammery & D&D goodness from the 80s and 90s.  Some historical and sci fi stuff too.  Some new in the original packaging, some loose.  There will likely be more stuff in the coming days and weeks.  Over seas shipping is brutal right now, but what Ebay may be showing for your country in the auctions might be a a good deal more than what I can get for you at the post office.  Message me for a quote if you are interested in something but unsure of what the shipping may be.

Mouse's Ebay Store

Old School Ral Partha D&D Dungeon Party #3

Another band of bold adventurers set off from The Keep on the Borderlands or Hommlet or Salt Marsh in search of the Caves of Chaos or the Temple or the Lizard Man Mound or wherever.  Again, they are all old Ral Partha sculpts and at least mostly Tom Meier...

A very Nordic looking fighter and a female thief make up the first two members of our intrepid band...

Stalwart Norseman, Axe in hand, ready for Giant Spiders or Trolls or God knows what to emerge from the trees...

A female footpad flits noiselessly from shadow to shadow along the forest path...

A female fighter and a cleric stand ready to lay into the monsters of the forest with hard strokes of sword and flail...

Doubtless a devotee of some fierce cult stressing blood and fire, the Cleric calls up the powers of his vengeful God to support his companions and smite their foes...

A cold shield maiden of the far north, journeying far from the frigid wastes of her distant homeland...

 

Lastly, a barbarian son of the far, forest clad mountains and an enchanter of the broken hills... 

Tried so hard not to screw up the eyes but couldn't quite pull it off in the end.  He still looks ok on the table top...

Resolutely standing watch over tenantless ridges and mountain tops he calls home, frequently blasting them with fiery spells and always on the watch for the killer rabbit who haunts those lonely peaks, an Enchanter has joined the party to act as their magic user...

There are some who call him...Tim??

Deep in the trackless wilderness, our heroes cross paths with the evil cleric known only as the Zombie Master, who calls up his shambling, lifeless minions to destroy them!  Will they survive??

Dungeons and Dragons, The Karen Edition

Rogue Trader: Gretchin Horde!

At long last, I've supplied my Roguehammer Space Ork Commanders with some Gretchin Squads! 

 

...one squad of close combat Gretchin...

...and another of blunderbusiers!  

Either squad makes a fine meat shield for the regular Ork boys to advance behind!

 

"Ere we come!"

Sneaky git advances with blunderbuss...

...Veteran Gretchies!

My Rogue Trader Ork horde is very nearly complete now.  All I have left to do really are a Dreadnought and a special unit of Giant Bat riding cavalry, The Dung Bat Boys...I'm still collecting the bats for those...

I am so fond of my Space Orks, however that I will probably never stop collecting them.  I would like a Weird Boy, particularly one of those large models that incorporate the Weird Boy and his minders into a single casting, and an alternate figure to represent my War Boss...

...but that's about it!

I call this fellow Gonzo.  Don't know why.  Forgot to darken in the barrel of his blunderbuss though.

A handful of Imperial Guardsmen desperately attempt to hold back the Gretchin assault...Doesn't look like they're doing too well so far...

Ral Partha Classics: Tom Meier's Lord of Chaos

Heavy hoofbeats on a the gloomy forest path. a cloaked figure, mighty of frame...

His Face hidden by a sinister helmet...

...The Lord of Chaos!

Some say he is the child of a mortal woman and a demon, others that he is the right arm of the devil himself....Frightened rumors say he has risen again after years of sleep and is recruiting a warband from amoung the forest horrors which he will soon lead forth to spread murder and rapine across the land...

Still others, that he intends to go to war with the Wizard Kobel Yarr. Though none can guess the reason for the feud,  they say The Lord of Chaos intends to lead his host of devils and horrors against the hordes of the Yellow Tower of Yugg, and to destroy that accursed edifice forever.

Already the forest lanes and glades are noisome with the clink of weapons and the rustling of great, sinewy bodies as Gnolls and floundering beasts come awake and heed the call of The Lord of Chaos...Liquescent Terrors glide forth from the depths of forest pools and winged, misshapen figures are seen passing across the moon,  The Lord of Chaos is coming...beware, Lord of the Tower of Yugg!!