Welcome Back to the Labyrinth

"We have been away far too long, my friends," Ashoka declared, his face lit by the eldritch green glow of his staff. "But we have finally returned to the labyrinth whence our adventures first began."

"Just imagine the treasures that lie within," said Yun Tai, flexing his mighty muscles. "Wealth enough to live in luxury the rest of our days."

"And arcane artifacts of great power," added Ashoka his words dripping with avarice. "All ours for the taking!"

"Umm...guys?" Nysa interrupted. "Do you hear something dripping?"

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Painting the Mythos: Tsathoggua

May is shaping up to be an inordinately busy month.  I have four days left until I hit the road for the remainder of the month attending various conferences, and before I leave I have a presentation to prepare, and a museum studies workshop to help organize.  I also need to grout the backsplash tiles in my kitchen.  Oh, and I also promised Shane that I'd get the draft files of Megadungeon! out to him this weekend.

Naturally, with so many pressing things to do and so little time to do them, I've been spending the weekend painting.

"It needed the nourishment of sacrifice, for It was a god.  Of course I couldn't get It the sort of sacrifices which It was used to have in Its day, for such things don't exist now.  But there were other things which might do.  The blood is the life, you know.  Even the lemures and elementals that are older than the earth will come when the blood of men or beasts is offered under the right conditions."

Tsathoggua

This miniature was an absolute joy to paint because of the impressive detail in the sculpt.
The colour scheme was inspired by studying pictures of Bushbabies, Tarsiers, and Lemurs then trying to imagine how they'd look if they were cosmic horrors instead of cuddly little prosimians.



Tsathoggua, who dwells in the black gulf of N'Kai, far below the earth's surface, is perhaps one of the most interesting of the Great Old Ones and certainly the least malevolent; at least he will answer a sorcerer's call if he is first satiated.  Nonetheless, any supplicant would be wise to have a sacrifice ready lest he become one, himself.  He makes an excellent addition to any sword and sorcery campaign as a capricious patron who will provide sorcerers with arcane power in exchange for blood sacrifice.

Tsathoggua is worshiped and served by his Formless Spawn, amorphous beings that can change their form at will, who are most often found in his temples or in underground caverns.

Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua

Armour Class: 9           Special: Immunity
Hit Dice: 6                    Move: 18
Attacks: see below       HDE/XP: 9/1,100

The Formless Spawn can change their shape in an instant; they can ooze through cracks and enlarge their appendages at will.  They have at least four different attack forms that they can change from round to round.
1. Whip - a single melee attack with +3 bonus to hit (damage: 1d6).
2. Tentacles - a melee attack that may strike up to three targets per round (damage: 1d6).
3. Bludgeon - a powerful crushing attack (damage: roll 2d6, pick the highest roll)
4. Bite - victim is swallowed whole and can take no action until the creature is slain (damage: 1 point, cumulative, each round after being swallowed).


9 comments:

Jayson said...

Loathesomely lovely.

Porky said...

I don't know what scale that is, but you've got it looking amazing.

Zombiecowboy said...

Wow! Great paint job.

The Happy Whisk said...

Impressive paint job.

Anonymous said...

That's a skillfully done job on that mini.. it certainly looks more frightening than the later pics of its relatives.

Sean Robson said...

Thanks, all.

@retrorpg: What? You don't find Mort frightening? I assure you that behind the foot-worshiping facade lies a heart of pure evil.

Marcel said...

Tsathoggua... lovely in its utterly enui-filled uncaring fickleness, one of my favorites much like many of the entities of Clark Ashton Smith's particular branch of the Mythos.

Sean Robson said...

I've always liked that, unlike most of the other mythos creatures, Tsathoggua can be dealt with on some level.

Marcel said...

Persistent spammer in need of elimination here...