Ser Pippin the Short of House Boldbuck - Grenadier Halfling Paladin (1992)

Ah, finally! This is a special one. You must know back in 1992, when I was a young boy who just discovered Fantasy books and role-playing games, I took a bus to the city centre to the famous shop Pergioco, a marvellous tresure cave hidden in a secret corner of a back alley - that is to say, a tiny shop with a stair leading to an underground room full of games-related wonders. I was looking for a miniature to represent my MERP PCs, a Sinda Elf warrior, and eventually that day I bought my first miniature. But while rummaging through blisters I was thunderstruck by a single figure, and it was love at first sight. It was a Grenadier blister showing a hobbit in full armour, prancing on a pony and pointing his sword ready to charge. I can't describe the sense of wonder at the time. I wanted it, but I didn't have enough money for two miniatures, and eventually I didn't buy it, and when I came back some time later it was gone. Good-bye, Hobbit paladin (that was the name I have him). Will I ever see you again? 

 

The miniature was a lovely sculpt from that same year 1992, made by Mark Copplestone, initially as part of the Grenadier 1440 Halfling Heroes, and later issued in a single blister. The tab reads "Fluffy Bunny, A875" but the number doesn't match with the Grenadier catalogue.

What happened to Grenadier is history. Apparently the moulds were bought by their Italian distributor Stratelibri but then sold again, after the untimely passing of its owner and manager Giovanni Ingellis, to Mirliton S.G. And it is on their website that I found again my long-lost teenage crush, now renamed as "Halfman Paladin".

There are many things that appear great to our eyes when we are still innocent, but later reveal themselves as something else, just a disappointment. After all, expectations are high but the ability to marvel at beauty is not the same as it once was to our old, jaded taste of old-school grognards. This is not one of them. It's just amazing, and I love it. It is a great model, and I am so happy to have it that I'm not even mad that the sword came bent and when I tried to fix it its tip broke off. Never mind, I fixed it with greenstuff, and I'm okay with it. The Hobbit Paladin is mine!

I painted it as I always imagined it, fresh from the reading of the Lord of the Rings - in the black and white colours of Gondor. Because the hyperuranion Hobbit Paladin or Knight can only be Pippin Took, towering over other hobbits in his Citadel Guard winged helm and uniform. The shield should have born the device of a white tree of course, but with the crest being a bunny, I decided to keep the same on the shield - why yes, it's a rabbit or a hare, not a steinbock! I have to keep practicing with my freehand...

And so I give you Paladin Boldbuck, Halfling knight, friend and companion of the Elector of Averland, also known as Ser Pippin the Short, Defender of the Moot! If you are an enemy, turn away, and if you are a friend, join us for dinner at our manor!

Grenadier Duncan the Legend / Barbarian Giant

 

I bought this beauty in one of the many Oldhammer market groups on Facebook. The seller was an old hobbyist with a very impressive collection - I picked up the figures myself at the newspaper stall he runs in Magenta (a town near Milan), and had the chance to see a part of his collection stored in a cabinet in the back. Oldhammer fans can really be anywhere!

This particular miniature was created by Grenadier sometimes in the '80s. I have no idea who the sculptor was. After Grenadier went out of business, the range was picked up by Italian manufacturer Mirliton, who still offers the figure for sale today, as Duncan the Legend. Solegends lists it as "Barbarian Giant". Whatever: it's a nice sculpt of a smallish (slightly larger than an Ogre, smaller than a Minotaur) and beardy giant.

It wasn't easy to paint it: it's a huge chunk of lead that is heavy when you hold it, and there's a lot of detail to deal with: metal rings, severed heads, bags, weapons and so on. The sculpt is beautiful but I'm glad I'm finished painting it. It took some time! 

What do you think? Passable? Can't wait to use this miniature in a game!

Grenadier Undead Villains - back from 2001

Not only heroes (or better said, anti-heroes) came out of the jar last week. There were also villains, well represented by two figures from Grenadier (now Mirliton) Undead range, sculpted by Bob Naismith.

The first one was Skorgan, one of the best developed villains I ever created as GM, although half of the credit goes to my fellow GM in the group, whom I took turns with. The best part of Skorgan is, basicly, that he died long ago and never really came back. He didn't do anything involving the PCs, ever. And yet he was, for years, a terrifying presence in the campaign.

Myaahhh!!!

Skorgan was essentially an ancient necromancer, possibly a liche, nobody really knows, because centuries ago the eastern Border Princes were a region even more wild than today, so nobody really bothered to keep a detailed account of Skorgan's life. Whatever is known is that he really was a poweful necromancer, and that at some point he was sealed in a tomb on the western foothills of the World's Edge Mountains, there awaiting his return.

Ossian, a half-elven wizard PC, learned about Skorgan from one of his contacts, a follower of Malal, who suggested him to go look into the tomb of the Necromancer to find his legendary sword, Xambarg. Ossian gathered a group of friends, including the Dwarf warrior Otto von Krautt, the disowned Imperial nobleman Axel and the Norseman Olaf, and together they entered the underground complex.

Getting rid of traps and magic protections, including undead guardians, was quite straighforward. Stripping the dead (yes, actually dead!) body of Skorgan, obviously a follower of Tzeentch, was relatively easy. But then, never underestimate the stupidity of PCs. I, as the DM, did not: in the loot box, along with several magical items, the heroes found a skull of metal. Its function was possibly to be a key, because it seemed to fit perfectly a shape carved in the wall, inside the wider carving of a door.

You are in the tomb of a Tzeetchian necromancer underground, and you see a magic key in the shape of a skull, and a possibly magic door carved into the rock - a portal of some sort. What do you do?

Next thing you know, a portal on the Warp opened, and a very nasty one since on the other side there was only molten Warpstone. Imagine the wave of blood in Shining, running through the corridors of the Overlook hotel. Now picture it as Warp-lava running through a dungeon.

Run for your life!

The PCs barely made it out alive, and they ran, ran for days. Behind them, a volcano of Warpstone was being born.

But that wasn't the end. One of the PCs, Otto, who had been the one putting the skull into the portal, was having nightmares about it. He wanted to be forgiven. So month later he decided to go at a temple of Alluminas and confess.

The priest told him that the only way to atone would be to close the portal. So Otto travelled back to the place, finding now the small volcano being mined by Skaven. Otto was able to kill Skaven resistance and, calling upon a demon of Alluminas, close the portal.

But Otto wasn't the only one having nightmares: Ossian had them too: he was dreaming of Skorgan, or maybe another necromancer, Thmerr, it was never clear. There was a body lying on a tomb, covered in bandages: and as Ossian got close, the body would spring to life and its hands would grab the wizard's neck.

"Ossian! Ossian!" he would hear before waking up in a pool of sweat.

It's... youuuu!!!

Ossian eventually went back looking for the source of his nightmares. He found the now dead volcano had been digged again beyond the mines, and the body of Skorgan had been freed of the Warpstone. But now the bones were a shining black colour, and the body protected by a cage of transparent crystal.

Ossian smashed the crystal open, stabbed the body to kill it and then, just to make sure he would not come back to life, decapitated it with Xambarg and took the head with himself, leaving the body behind.

Little did he know that a cult of Skorgan had emerged, and that the cultists believed he would come back to lead them. They had temporarily put the necromancer in a cage of Fixstone, a variety of Warpstone that worked the other wat around, blocking all magic. They had this ritual to bring him back: they needed to stab his heart and then decapitate him, but the ritual would only work with the necromancer's own blade! They had been looking for Xambarg everywhere without success. Thmerr, the leader of the cult, had tried for long time to look for Ossian, but he had no clue where to find him!

It was certainly Tzeentch's blessing that made possible that Ossian travelled all the way to the tomb and carried the ritual by himself! Truly the ways of the Lord of Change are mysterious, unfailing and full of irony.

If the wizard did everything by himself, I might as well go home

Now with the ritual completed, Skorgan's skull became a catalyst for Warp: magic energies would gather in the skull and then, at the right time, Skorgan could be brought back. The only problem was that Ossian had the skull now! And if the awakening ritual was not carried on properly, the skull would overload and, well... boom! The sort of boom that razes everything in a range of several kilometres and opens a Warpgate in the process.

Lol, sucks to be you, Ossian!

There were several attempts at deactivating the skull, but all proved unsuccesful. At last, Ossian, now chased by Thmerr's lackeys, through the help of Gelmir, Gelmir's brother Brandir, and the elven outlaw Charmian, tracked a spectral wizard in Tilea, Mario, who was able to help out. The ritual succeeded in releasing the energy of the skull in a controlled way, by making it sentient with a different identity - not Skorgan's, but Skorgan's skull's! The skull was very happy to be born as a magical being made of the Purple Wind of Magic: indeed he opened a portal to a new dimension of undeath, jumped right in with Mario, and closed the door behind himself, thanking Ossian for the help!

It took six years of game time (2502 to 2508 I.C.) and possibly nineteen years in the real world (1998 to 2017) to get rid of Skorgan, but now it's done. Now there is only a very pissed Thmerr. But that is a story for another time...