KnaveOfScribes
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Posts posted by KnaveOfScribes
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All the love for these chaps. I already hearted the hell out of them on Instagram but ****** they look good man.
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“We create in our own image. That being said, how many of us can say that we truly see ourselves for what we are? It follows then, that creation may often be the birth of a falsehood.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“Life is neither good nor bad; it simply is. It is what you choose to make of life that turns it good or bad.”
Attributed to Kwan-Xi, warrior philosopher of the Jade City of Shyish.
~
“It is no small thing, to carve a poppet and give it life.”
“To birth a child and raise it.”
“To make of it a vessel for all your future hopes.”
“They are my spite, my hate, my bitterness given form. My cruellest poppets.”
~
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I'll throw my hat into the ring for this as well, even if the narrative/themed/story driven project side of things seems to have a fair few of us already volunteering as tribute.
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Well, that was a lengthy old break wasn't it?
Apologies for the lack of updates recently folks, but with the festive period and wanting a small break from painting dead trees constantly, I didn't do all that much on the Court over the last 3 weeks or so. Those of you kind enough to find me on Instagram may have seen the recent monochrome Blackstone Fortress characters I painted as a fun little break over the last couple of weeks - it was certainly a different challenge to paint like that, but I'm very happy with how they turned out.
It's back to the Court now though, with the last few units in sight for the 3k total. On the list to build and paint we have:
- 3 more Crone-touched Hunters
- 5 more Crone-touched Treekin
- The King-In-Horns himself
- My Durthu stand-in.
Units wise, that's everything left to do. I guess I should paint at least 3 more Wyldwood bases but as gaming isn't a big thing for me at the moment, I don't think that's particularly urgent or necessary. I'll also probably be adding the Underworld Sylvaneth band when it comes out, because why not. Other than that, my next AoS plans are a little vague at the moment - I kind of want to do something visually different for the next army project, maybe some hulking and armoured like Ironjawz or Maggotkin, but I'm not sure.
I'm also currently very very tempted by a cavalry heavy Idoneth Deepkin project, because holy smokes those guys are ace and have a fantastic background too.
40k is still a possibility, but I struggle a little to get super excited by either the game, or the armies I think of. Which is a shame because the setting is ace. Might just concentrate on skirmish level stuff for that like Inq28. Who knows.
Anyway, you didn't come here for words, you came for pictures of pretty models. Here's a quick look at everything on the go at the moment for January:
And here's a closer look at the first model for 2019, the Hound Of The Wild Hunt, after his greenstuff work:
Looking forward to painting him, even if I currently have no idea how to do him, or even what he represents in-game
More updates soon, al the best to everyone.
Knave
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“Children learn from their parents. Good or ill, for better or worse, they learn from their parents.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.“Tolerated by our King they may be, but they carry her taint and are no longer truly our kin.”
Moralinith of the Darkwood Court~
Nilith idly carressed the shivering ghul pinned beneath her as she watched her kin slaughter the rest of the fleshborn’s pack. The guttural cries of the feral warmbloods mixed with the hissing laughter and crooning song of Nilith’s fellow treekin, undercut by the wet butcher sounds of meat being torn and the cracking of writhing living wood. She smiled, eyes closed so that she could focus on the song of her kin. Beneath her, the trapped fleshborn spasmed and mewled as sharp talons pierced and flensed flesh gently.
“I pity you, warmblood. I really do.” Nilith mused. “Being unable to hear the eversong. To be so cut off from the flow and music of life.”
She felt the fleshborn thrash with renewed vigour, its mewling cries fading away into panicked gasps. Nilith opened her eyes to see one of the Crone-touched drift past serenely, blood running from spectral talons. The trapped ghul shuddered, eyes wide in fear and pain as the silent treekin drew closer. Nilith watched her once-kin approach, head cocked aside in almost avian curiosity, long fingered hand gripping the ghul’s face.
“Of course, every song must have its silences as well. These are ours, my sweet. Our wonderous awful silences.”
The twisted treekin was a hunched mass of blackened wood, hulking and heavy where Nilith and her true kin were elegant and sinuous. Cracked with old wounds, the dark heavy wood churned and roiled with ever-moving thorns and barbs. Its ragged spirit-form hung in tattered sheets like torn webs from the mass of dark wood, one long spectral arm ending in blood-slicked talons, the other in cruelly barbed talons. Others of the Crone-touched still clutched shattered obsidian weapons, their ragged edges clotted with gore. They were all hung with rattling chains of age-stained bone that swung and rattled as they drifted through the tall dead trees of the Darkwood. All wore the same serene face, all were eerily silent.
Something that might have been regret flickered fleetingly across Nilith’s cruel beautiful face before her mouth twisted into a mocking smile. Her eyes glittered with amusement as she gazed at her twisted kin. Beneath her, the fleshborn spasmed one last time as talons tightened and clenched, warm blood spurting up over them.
“It’s a pity,” Nilith mused. “They used to sing so sweetly.”
~
“She takes them, our dying and wounded.”
“Shattered wood, torn spirit. She takes them all.”
“With harvested souls, chains of dead men’s bones,”
“She binds them and heals them, leaves her mark upon them.
“Our once-kin, now her children. Death-marked and Crone-touched.”
~
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Lightning quick updates for you today, as I work on sorting out the pics of the completed Crone-touched Treekin, and then work out why the bb code links for said pics aren't working. Technology, hurrah.
In between writing, poking the Blackstone Fortress characters, and planning out the last few units for the Court, I've also done a little more work on the Hound of the Wild Hunt. It's now currently at the pre-greenstuff phase, but does need a chunk of that to blend in the treelord parts as well as cover over some fur sections where I had to trim away 40k detail. Also need to sort a base out, but that shouldn't be too hard... Anyway, here's a pic of how it's looking at the moment:
For a random spur-of-the-moment conversion inspired by another fine hobbyists take on the idea on Instagram, its turning out pretty damn well. Still no idea what it could actually be in my list, other than maybe a marker for the Gnashing Jaws endless spell, but thats not a major thing - I'm all about the look and feel and story and atmoshere more than anything, and this is just a cool thing to have as part of the project.
That's all for now - more to come either tomorrow or Sunday when I post up the Crone-touched.
I'm off to try and decide between Maggotkin, Sacrosanct, Tempestus Scions, Custodes or Primaris for my next army project. Wish me luck.
Knave.-
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Afternoon folks - once again I affirm that I aten't dead.
Its been a funny old couple of weeks - not a lot of hobby time, some tech issues that have caused delays in getting pics and fluff sorted, and a little loss of hobby-fu which has slowed progress to something lightly above a crawl. But we soldier on. The first unit of Crone-touched Spites are nearly done, just the last few touches to go before the joy of trying to get some decent pics that don't wash out all the shading on them. After that though I think I need a wee little break from the Court, just to refresh my painting time and break the endless cycle of wood and ghosts. Having picked up Blackstone Fortress the other day, I think I'm going to take on a few characters from there as a little refresher and to scratch a minor 40k itch. If you're interested in seeing any of that, please take a look at my Insta page, Knave_Of_Scribes. I might pop a little random project log up on here too as a possibility.
In regards to the new Crone-touched themselves, I have got a couple of progress pics to share. The first does a great job of showing the work on the woods while washing out all the shading on the spirit parts, while the last two show the shading on the spirit parts while reducing the woods to a shapeless black mass. Fun times. Still trying to work out the best technique with the new camera and definitely need to fiddle about with lighting and white balances. Here's the pics though:
As much as I moan about getting a little fatigued over painting these colours again and again, I am still really happy with how these guys have turned out. Definitely adds something to the project overall, and the Nighthaunt minis are fun to paint. Not so much fun to fill the gaps smoothly, but hey ho. Like I say, few little bits left to do on these tonight, so full painted pics and a little fluff should be coming in the next few days. After them, it'll be a little 40k action, then the next unit of Crone-touched Hunters and probably the Hound, just for fun.@Mordeus - Thanks man, much appreciated
@Rhivan - Ha, Thundertree Cavalry is a great name. I'm not sure about his size vs a Demigryph, but that's possibly a good call. I have a feeling that he will just end up as a random little flavour piece for the project, like the Ur-Hesht Duardin, or possibly an Endless Spell marker like the Vasilis Sisters. Hopefully should get the construction all finished up soon. And thanks for the enthusiasm on the Crone-touched - hopefully the pics above are worth the wait.
C&C welcome as always gents.
Knave-
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Evening folks.
@Jasondarkelf - Thanks very much man, that's much appreciated.@BangDoll - Cheers buddy :) I'm trying to keep things as interesting as I can, hence the nighthaunt conversions in place of just more revenant models. Luckily, doing a folklore inspired project gives you loads of potential stuff to use and twist into model ideas.
@overtninja - The tree-hound is just a SW Thunderwolf and a spare head assembly from the Treelord kit, nothing too fancy or hard to get hold of. Unfortunately it's far too small to use as a Treeman, its smaller than the gryph-chargers that the Palladors are riding, which I didn't realise when I bought it. Does make me wonder how big a Dracoline is in comparison to a Treeman though, as there's a random idea floating around as an alternative to the other crazy option I have for my Durthu conversion.
Confession time from me - I done goofed. In my eagerness to undercoat the Crone-touched treekin, I forgot to take any pictures of them pre-undercoat for their reveal, as I have done with literally every other thing in this plog. Le sigh. This means that I'll save their accompanying fluff for the fully painted pics post of them, so apologies for that. It might be a small saving grace though as the texture paint I use to add the cracked bark effect hasn't come out too well this time round - I cant tell if its from not adding enough coats to the patches, from a lot of it flaking off somehow, or if the undercoat was a little too heavy or something (the weather has been awful this week so it might be a spray issue). Ah well. Here's some undercoated pics of them for now - kinda hard to see some of the details, which sucks, but its better than nothing right?
I still really like how these conversions look, but I might try upping the amount of cracked bark on the next five to break up the smoothness of the ghostly robes. It's a small thing though, and as the tester and the Harvest Maiden have shown, the finished wooden upper parts still look good. Kinda wish I had more of the open mouthed Spite and Revenant heads to use but I seem to have used most of them on the regular treekin already. Two of them are holding shattered blades to show that its Spites and regular Tree-kin getting "healed" by Mother Aldwynter, all of them then becoming Crone-touched. This gives me three overall "flavours" to my Sylvaneth - the Madness of the King and his Spite-courtiers, the bitter nobility of Blessed Loclaranam and the regular treekin, and the insidious deathly touch of Mother Aldwynter and her children. Strange how threes play such a big part in pretty much every aspect of this project.
More updates soon, as the 3k target grows close. Might knock out a few quick Underworlds warbands afterwards, get a taste for a potential new army once I've done some Inq28 and potentially a very small 40k army.Also, if anyone could hook me up with a size comparison shot of a Dracoline, a Treeman and a Terrorgheist, for..... reasons.... I'd be eternally grateful.
Merci, Knave
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Afternoon folks, and apologies for the lack of updates over the last few days - had a lot on, as well as a few tech issues involving a new phone and other bits and pieces. Add in some IRL things and hobby progress has been slim recently.
Having said that, I did finish up the assembly of the remaining 4 crone-touched treekin for the first unit of 5 last night, and promptly forgot to take any pictures of them before undercoating them this morning. Sigh. I have got some undercoated pics which will come as their reveal soon, but I apologise in advance. I've also gotten a little distracted by Inq28 and Blackstone Fortress, having picked up bits for both of them over the last week or so - while I have half-assembled two Inq28 characters so far (as seen on my Insta page) I haven't done much else and will be trying not to until the Court is done. Go away, Hobby Magpie.
Also, inspired by the excellent conversion started by Nurgleswalker on his Insta page, I had a fiddle with some leftover bits and came up with this lovely little distraction:
What is it? I don't know yet, but chances are it'll just be a background piece, possibly one of the Hounds of the Wild Hunt or something like that. Regardless of it not having a true function in the project other than looking cool, I'm actually really happy with how it looks. Needs the feet adding and all the bits actually cleaned up etc, but as proof of concept, yeah there's definitely something there. Also, this and the Harvest Maiden were the first few things shot on my new phone cam and its taking a bit of getting used to. It'd be ace if you could let me know how the pics look at your end in terms of quality etc.
That's all from me for now, hopefully I'll be back soon with a proper update.
Thanks for all your comments and enthusiasm,
Knave-
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“What harvest can a realm of winter offer? Only the cruellest and harshest. Only the dead.”
Excerpt from personal diaries of Yuri Ilyich Ifemovich, late of Hammerhal
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“Maiden of the Harvest, make haste, and bring hither all your kin.”
“Come you Crone-touched wych, with all your charms and sickle blades.”
“And hold me close in your arms; to you my respects I’ll pay.”
~
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Afternoon chaps, and thank you all for your slew of likes and comments over the last few days – they are all very much appreciated.
Sorry for the lack of updates over the last ten days – hobby time has been a little tight recently so not much has been accomplished and I am rather dreading the small mountain of greenstuff work I’ve given myself. Having said that, the Harvest Maiden is now complete and will be coming up later on today once I’ve sorted her pics out. Very happy with how she ended up, and the Nighthaunt stuff is such a pleasure to paint.
@Arnied3 – Welcome back to the hobby and to the site in particular! And thanks very much for your super kind words and praise
The Man-stag is something I am hugely proud of and its ace to know he’s finding fame elsewhere online haha. Great to hear you’re inspired to work on some lore for your own projects too, its huge amounts of fun and very rewarding. You should never be afraid to share it though, especially on here. We’re a friendly supportive bunch.
@JackStreicher – I used three colours and a single glaze, all Vallejo paints: Black, Pale Blue, Deck Tan, Black Glaze. The skin was a roughly 60/40 mix of black and blue, highlighted up by adding tan to it. Kept the highlights very loose and feathery to build the furred look. Then the entire model got two or three very very thin glazes with black to darken everything down and pull all the layers together. Hope that helps J
@harrocks – Thanks buddy, much appreciated.
So yes, as I say, the Harvest Maiden to come later today and then it’s on to finishing assembling the next group of spite-gheists.
Back soon,
Knave.
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Afternoon folks
Another quick update today as I'm up to my armpits in grey plastic at the moment - the last stretch of the first 3k of the Court is about to start, with the last 10 Spites, 3 Hunters, a Branchwych, Drycha and Durthu to build and paint. So 16 models and about 1080pts left. The counts-as Durthu should be fun to do, if a little mental...
Currently on the painting slate is the Harvest Maiden and a single ghul, for the Denizens of the Grey Marches series. On the building slate however is a whole bunch of stuff:
That's a whole bunch of Crone-touched stuff. Another three Hunters - really happy with the champion with the heart-fruit in hand - they all need a few last details added and greenstuffing around the wastes, as well as the bases being completed. Probably wont show much more of them until they are done. The other 4 chaps are the rest of the first unit of Crone-touched Treekin at a very early stage - they've got a treekin left arm added, heads in place and rooty bits added to chest hollows. Still loads to do on them like trimming Spite arms to fit, adding branches, leaves and roots as well as bark texture to their backs, and sorting their bases out. Still enjoying how they look, but I think I'll be mixing them into the existing regular Spites for games etc just to break up the look of the units.
GW did an outstanding job on the Nighthaunt range and it's been great to find excuses and ways to use some of them in the Court. Still tempted to find a way to use Lady Olynder for something too..
Back again soon,
Knave-
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“They say that you cannot chose your family. This is unfortunate, as it often our families that will cause us the greatest grief in life.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“How sure are we that the face we see in the mirror is us? It may bear our visage, but can we know that the thoughts in its head are the same as our own? Who is this identical stranger?”
Attributed to unknown Aelvish philosopher.
~
“Why….. done thisss?”
“Because you need an anchor, my poppet. Else your former lord could snatch you back. And I wont have that.”
“It hurttttsss…”
“Aye. Life is pain, poppet. Never forget that.”
“Feellsss wrong… heavy. Aching. Hurtttsss…”
“I carved you such a pretty face, and you will learn how to make your shell move for you. The others all did and they are nothing compared to you my sweet.”
“Who…”
“Who am I? Come now, you know me. Deep inside, you know me. I’m you.”
“Nooo...”
“Yes. Oh yes. She broke me, aye She did. Took my eye, and from it so much of me poured that I can scarce remember my old self. A pale, broken shadow of an echo, that’s what she left me. And that’s what you are. A shard of an echo of a shadow.”
“Not ssshadow…”
“Oh but you are, dear poppet. You are. Youngest of the three. Most fickle.”
“Ssss...”
“Most wicked. Most cruel.”
“Yesss…”
“You’ve always known. All I’ve done is allow you to admit it, dearest. Reminded you of who you truly are.”
“Ssss…Maiden…”
“Such a clever girl. Once, we were whole, we were one. Now, we are Three, and much diminished. But we endure.”
“What need…”
“What need do I have of you, poppet? You reaped souls for the Lord of Dust and Bone, did you not?”
“Yesss… harvested…”
“Then be my Maiden of the Harvest. Reap that which I sow, little sister.”
“Yesss… sssissster…”
~
“Pulled from death and bound to life.”
“Whole, yet a shard. Sole, yet an aspect of another.”
“Free and yet bound, sharpest and cruelest of the Three-in-one.”
~
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Very quick update today - those of you who follow me on Instagram may have seen that I finished up the 'gheist/spite splice test model for my Crone-touched Treekin and was very happy with the result. Here's a look at him for anyone who missed it, stood next to one of the normal (well, still rather insane) Spites:
I'm really happy. He stands out without standing out too much and there's enough in common visually to link him to the normal Spite. He looks a bit shiny there as he hasn't had the coat of matt varnish that the older Spite has - I'm waiting until I get the rest done so I can varnish a whole bunch together. Speaking of which, a box of Bladegheists has been ordered and should be with me by the weekend. In the meantime, I've got some more Crone-touched Hunters to build and a Branchwych to paint and write the intro for.
And a Blackstone Fortress to buy....-
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Traditional quick update time!
I'm at the stage now with the Court that I can afford to take things a little slower - the 3k end-target is in sight, and plans are being made for my next few projects. For the Court, I've only really got another a Branchwych, 10 Spites, 3 Hunters, a Drycha, a Durthu and the inevitable Nightvault Sylvaneth warband to do. Of these, only the Drycha and Durthu are going to take a lot of work, and even then the Drycha should be fairly simple conversion wise and just a pain painting-wise. My current Durthu plan is.... well, its a bit crazy. And will be a big test of my greenstuff skills. I guess I could do a few more Wyldwoods but as I don't play all that often, I don't feel like they are 100% necessary. If I ever get round to maybe going to a small tourney or something, I'll probably do some more then.
Basically what this all means is that I can afford to spend the next week or two playing around with some bits to try out things. Namely, there's one or two more entries in the Denizens Of The Grey Marches series I want to do - having already shown one of the Ur-Hesht and the Vasilis Sisters, I definitely want to show one of the oft-mentioned Ghuls and possibly one of the Jheck or one of the Sheeda. What I like about this particular sub-project is that I can use it to convert and paint just a single one of whatever takes my fancy - for example, I've always wanted to do an Orruk or a Blightking style chunky guy, so may well have a think about how to fit one of those in appropriately. In terms of the Court itself, I've been able to play around with some bits as potential new Spites.
I mentioned before that I picked up the 500th store Bladegheist, because why not, and she/it has become the basis for the next Branchwych and the new aspect of the Baba Yaga mentioned in Innocent Cruelty. I had a feeling that the 'gheists would be pretty easy to Sylvaneth up a bit and would make great visual examples of what a Crone-touched treekin would look like - so what happens to a wounded Spite or Tree-revenant if Mother Aldwynter "heals" them. Here's an in-progress pic of the Branchwych, the Harvest Maiden:
She's had some gs work done since this pic was taken and some extra leaves and bark texture added as well. That gravestone needs cutting down a bit as well, its a little too clunky. But seeing as she turned out so well, I gave the same idea a try on another 'gheist to produce a regular Spite:
Again, greenstuff and leaves and texture to be added, but also again - really happy with how they will look. Grabbing a box of the 'gheists soon to do the last 10 Spites, I think they'll add a nice visual contrast to the regular Spites without standing out too much. I've already got 20 standard build revenants done (10 Tree and 10 Spites) so these new ones wont outnumber them (especially with the Nightvault warband added as well) and I'll be mixing them into the units of existing Spites so that there's a mix of standard and Crone-touched in each one.@pseudonyme - Cheers bud.
@Overread - Thanks man, great to hear you like them. It was a reasonably easy conversion, bar a little fiddly trimming of dryad waists and necks. Really happy with the final look though.
That's a lot of text for a quick update. Sorry. More pics to come soon - the Harvest Maiden and a Ghul are next on my painting slate.
Knave.-
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1 hour ago, flamingwalnut said:
Is it just me or is the last batch of pictures not showing up? Says it is unavailable.
Yeah sorry dude, Imgur messed up and deleted my last few uploads. Sorting it out now.
@flamingwalnut - all fixed now! Bloody Imgur...
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“Don’t go looking for snakes. You might find them.”
Ancient proverb from the World That Was
~
“My most-loved children, made by me and made of me.”
“Blessed of Hekate in form and ever loyal in temper.”
“The serpents in the garden, the pricking thorn in the flower.”
“My children, my warriors.”
“That bear such bitter fruit upon cruel boughs.”
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Afternoon folks, and apologies for the lack of updates over the last week or so. Sadly hobby time has been at a bit of a premium recently but hopefully I'll have a bit more spare time now to get things done.
@Boss Salvage - No worries man, glad you found it useful. The blue tones can easily be subbed out for any other tone, so you can very similar green or purple or pink tones and so on using the same process. And ha, yeah the Lord of Crows may not happen now, it might be something a bit more lupine....
And speaking of painting, I have indeed made a start on the Crone-touched as well as planned out a few more bits and pieces. Here's a couple of quick pics:
The Crone-touched are at the pre-glaze stage of the wood - once that's done, I'll be working on the tails with probably a dark grey/black and muted yellow combination. Also got the bits now to do the next unit of three, so they will be coming along pretty soon as well. And yes, I did have to pick up the celebration mini on the weekend. It's a great model and with a few tweaks will work really well as my next Branchwych that was alluded to in previous fluff entries.
I've also rethought my Durthu stand-in a bit, and following one minor set-back, I now have a newer and better plan that is probably even crazier than the original god-crow idea. More on that at some point once I can see if it can be realistically be done.
That's all for now, more to come soon. I'm off to potentially buy some Cawdor and Custodes.
Knave.-
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Great to see you getting some hobby time again fella. The Geistcaller is great, the skin tones are fantastic and the conversion itself is lovely.
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“There is, on occasion, an entirely correct belief that some things are best forgotten.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“She claims Ghyran as if only She can create life. Foolish. There are many kinds of life and many ways of creating it. A puppet has a kind of life…”
Mother Aldwynter
~
Seranam cursed as the ghuls pushed deeper into the hallowed Darkwood, their croaking cries and stale animal stink filling the cold air. He had pulsed a sending through the rootways as soon as the fleshborn had drawn close to the border, but the Darkwood was vast and his fellow sentinels few in number. The ghuls were strong in number, as their verminous kind always were, and he was alone and thus could only follow and watch as they tainted the sacred forest with their beast-hot presence. To attack alone would be foolish, to simply watch was galling.
Deeper and deeper the pack went, scratching at themselves and the bark of the great trees surrounding them, coughing at each other in that crude animal way they spoke. They lit pitch-soaked rags that they had wrapped around fallen branches, the rough torches guttering a rot-yellow light that did little to breach the darkness of the forest. Shadows danced around them and the darkness behind the great boles of the Darkwood moved and shifted in turn.
When it came, it was the torch-bearing ghuls that died first. Seranam heard a jagged keening split the cold air as ghuls suddenly sprouted long gnarled shafts from their sinewy chests and bestial heads. They fell, pierced through, scattering burning rags and torches as they did so, some into the snow and others into their own flesh or kin. Greasy clothing and flesh caught light, the ghuls baying in their panicked animal way at the dead and dying, and the spiteful darkness that hurt them.
More keening shafts flashed in, finding homes in warm bodies. Some tore entirely through ghuls, erupting in gouts of blood that looked almost black in the moonlight. The pack milled around in screaming confusion, enraged at its own slaughter as more lived were claimed by gnarled and twisting shafts.
And then it was over, as quickly as it had begun. The fleshborn lay in the snow, some burning fitfully, others clawing weakly at the shafts that pinned them, others entirely still. Mewling cries and hisses filled the uncaring night air.
Seranam stepped forward slowly, bent to pull a shaft from the cooling body of one of the fleshborn. It came free with a sucking sound, the long slender spar of twisted and gnarled wood glittering with venom. It had an unpleasantly organic look, as through grown rather than fashioned as a normal arrow would be. The tree-spirit cursed again, dropping the foul thing and straightened to gaze into the shadows between the trees, searching for any sign of the packs killers. He saw them then, winding between the darkness and the smoke of the burning fleshborn, lit by the gathering wyrdlights of the Darkwood.
They crept forward sinuously on the tails of great serpents, skeletally slender lisovyk bodies towering above him. Twisted branches and long thorns crested their carved bodies, all glittering with the same venom as the shafts. Huge bows of twisted wood grew from their arms and as Seranam watched, one snapped a gnarled straight branch from her body and nocked it slowly.
“What in the Everqueen’s name are you?” he breathed, his own obsidian blade heavy in his hand.
A growing sibilant hiss and the keening screech of the shaft being loosed was his only reply.
~
“And this is how she makes them.”
“With ropes of braided corpse-hair and poppets of dead wood.”
“With harvested souls from her garden and the shed scales of the wyrm.”
“Pierced with iron nails from the timbers of her cottage and marked with the blood of her eye.”
~
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“Cruelty is learnt, malice you are born with.”
Attributed to Kwan-Xi, warrior philosopher of the Jade City of Shyish.
~
“We have become a Court of malice, of madness.”
“A Court of the cruelty and harshness of winter.”
“The bleak and the broken, the indifference of the wild.”
“You’ll find no comfort in our cold boughs.”
~
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Hello again everyone - how's tricks?
A few quick updates today, plus a little painting guide which some people on Instagram asked for - thought I might as well pop it up here as content for the Content God and in case any of you fine folks find it useful.
@TheR00zle - Well, she will be a Sylvaneth, technically. I need a second Branchwych for a variety of reasons and there's a model I have in mind for her.
@aquenaton - Thanks man, really kind of you to say that
@SatanicBrew - Cheers bud, much appreciated. The Crone-touched will be coming soon actually, promise.
Progress then. Much has been made. Well, I say much, but its mainly been planning progress. The next 5 Spites are pretty much done - just the mask on the champion and the owl marker to finish, and the snow to add to the bases. I've said it before, but I really love how the Spites look and how simply they are to paint while still looking great. 10 more at least of those to do. Once they are done in the next few days, I'll be greenstuffing the Crone-touched and getting them painted up.
After that, I'll probably be adding the second Branchwych and I really should do another Wyldwood base or two, even if the thought alone of that kinda bores me a bit. Ah well.
I was also thinking last night, which is always dangerous. The current target for the Darkwood Court is a 2500pt list. But it would be super easy to add another 500pts and get to a nice round 3k. Specifically, adding a Spirit Of Durthu and potentially the Sylvaneth Shadespire/Nightvault warband would easily eat up that 500pts. Now, in terms of the Durthu, it would of course be real easy to just do a standard build with a few tweaks - I've seen a fair few online using the Pendulum spell marker as a weapon and leaves from the Citadel Woods as a shield, and they do look pretty ace. But I kinda like the Court being so small and close to death that it can only let the Warmasked walk as its only Treelord now. And I also like the idea of having another fairytale Slavic-style thing in the mix. Maybe something big and godbeast-like. Maybe something corvid.
Yeah, I'm currently considering chopping a Lord of Change into a big old ragged god-crow. Maybe.
Yes, I have hobby-problems.
Anyways, still mulling that one over. In the mean time, here's a painting guide for how I do the spirit-forms on my Sylvaneth, as a fair few people online have asked for it:
Step 1: base coat of pure Pale Blue.
Step 2: glaze with 70/30 mix of Black Glaze and Electric Blue, thinned down with Medium of your choice.
Step 3: highlight with thinned 50/50 mix of Pale Blue and White. Do this in two thin coats - don't worry if the first looks quite translucent, you want that so that the shading shows through and adds to the ghost-like look. Use the 2nd coat to firm up the highlights and details.
Step 4: final highlight with thinned pure White. Again, two thin coats to keep the translucency where you want it and to firm up the opaqueness where you want it. Keep it loose and natural, this is a spectral form after all, not a solid armour plate.
Step 5: final glaze with very very thin Black Glaze. Very thin. Use this to shade the recesses a bit and to knock back some of the glare of the pure white highlights.
And that's it really. For the Vasili Sisters I actually went back and did a repeat of the final white stage, just to up their spectral feel.That's all for today guys, thanks as always for your comments and interest - always great to see your comments on stuff.
Knave
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“The capacity for cruelty lies within us all. Some are just more comfortable with their malice than others, and embrace the relief of not having to pretend anymore.”
Follies; Everard Hemp of Hammerhal.
“I don’t care what anyone says, those things are as bad as the Ruin-beasts that they took such glee in tearing apart.
Collem Worl, veteran of the Cold Iron Brigade, Free Peoples Militia of Harrowdown.
~
Mother Aldwynter leaned on her crooked staff and watched as the Spites slipped from the breach like half-seen shadows and came back into the cold embrace of the Darkwood. The cold air filled with whispers and hissing laughter that danced around the old woman with a quiet malice. The great twisted boles and branches of the blackened trees that formed the frame of the breach, like some immense dark wooden doorframe, seemed to shiver and move against one another in ways that they should not as the thorned and skeletal Spites emerged from it. One of them, a slender female bearing curling horns upon her brow, stepped forward through the gently falling snow and inclined her head in greeting.
“Hello grandmother. It’s nice of you to welcome us back. This cold must be awful for your bones.” There was a playful spitefulness in her voice, a touch of mockery in her glittering eyes. Mother Aldwynter ignored it, as she always did when these maddened tree-folk spoke to her. They couldn’t help their nature, after all.
“I welcomed this cold into my iron bones long before you were even a seedling in warmer lands, Nilith.” Mother Aldwynter tightened her grip on her crooked staff, the hanging skulls swaying and clacking against each other above her head. “Now tell me, did you find it?”
“Oh come now grandmother, you know we always worry about our elders,” crooned Nilith, reaching out with one slim talon towards the ratty grey hair hanging over Mother Aldwynter’s face. “Tell me, beloved Crone, does your eye still ache? Do you still feel the gentle touch of our Queen?”
“Touch me,” snarled the old woman with iron in her teeth and voice, “and I will set you to burn like I did the last of your foolish kin to touch me.”
Nilith smiled widely and turned to look at another Spite emerging from the twisting breach. Thick ironbark covered most of his form, lending him a bulk that seemed out of place amongst his slender kin. More out of place still was the graven obsidian mask that covered his head, a howling visage crowned with crudely carved horns.
“Ah yes, the Kurst.” The she-Spite sighed dramatically. “Such a shame, he had such a pretty face as well. Still, it was amusing watching him make that primitive little duardin craft that mask for him. I gather his face still pains him as much as your eye pains you.”
“Enough, little tree-******. Remember who I am and what I have done for you for you and your kin, and your King. Now, did you find it?”
“Well the Anathema’s kingdom is very big, and of course we couldn’t stay there for very long….” Nilith gestured towards the breach, where the Kurst had reached back with cruel hands and was now dragging something through.
It wailed as it came through, screamed as nothing in the Darkwood had screamed before, and was wrapped in sheets of blinding ethereal light. It was hard to see exactly what lay beneath the harsh glare of the deadlights it wore and behind the sawing screams that cut through the frozen air, but something twisted in chains of briars and thorns. Something slender and feminine.
“But yes Baba,” sighed Nilith, mockingly nonplussed. “We found her.”
~
“We have been called the Gentle Folk, though there is nothing gentle about us.”
“You say we sing beautifully, but you would not wish to hear our song.”
“You say we are the grace and wonder of life, but we are the pain and cruelty of nature.”
“We are the spite and malice of the failed harvest, the stillborn infant, the long winter.”
“Hear our whispers and know our madness.”
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“In preparation for our cartographic explorations, it is common to spend a not-inconsiderable amount of time engaged in detailed research of the lands to which we are to voyage. This research encompasses not only historical and current documents, but also the legends and folktales of the indigenous peoples, in order to better understand them and their lives.
Our expedition to the Grey Marches was no different and in the course of our research the following tale was unearthed. All the more unsettling for its matter-of-fact delivery, we were unprepared for exactly how literal this folktale would prove to be…."
Excerpt from Travels Through The Realms, Unfinished. Dieter van Ganza of Anvilguard.
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Many long years ago, two young sisters were searching the great Darkwood for food and instead found the crooked cottage of Mother Aldwynter. The old woman who lived within welcomed the two girls and offered them a gift each. The vainest sister demanded a pretty bauble that hung from the dark rafters, while the humblest sister asked for only a few bones from Mother Aldwynter’s cook-pot, so that she could make some soup for her family.
The crooked old woman gave the girls their gifts and sent them on their way with an iron-toothed smile.
Later that night the bones from Mother Aldwynter’s cook-pot burst into flame where they lay in the family’s pot while the vain sister played with her pretty bauble and the rest of her family slept. The flames burnt hot and fierce, and burned the sisters, humble and vain both, and their parents and brothers and their hut all to the ground.
The moral of the story is this: never trust a gift freely given.
“….did not realise the danger immediately. Symeon seemed entranced by the trinket dangled by one of the haints and would not be moved, even as he froze in the chill around the whispering haint. As for the other, the one that screamed and thrashed those rawbones around, some devil-cursed flame erupted from whatever they touched and would not be extinguished. We ran from those cursed sisters, ran like children ourselves.”
Personal journal of Dieter van Ganza.
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The Darkwood Court
in Painting and Modelling
Posted
“I tell you, in all my travels, in all my long journeys into unknown territories that I have undertaken – I have never turned back. Not once.”
Excerpt from Travels Through The Realms; Unfinished by Dieter van Ganza of Anvilguard.
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“Day 12; Erik says he saw the beast again last night, watching us. His description of it is overly fanciful – some hybrid of wolf and tree? Some antlered giant hound? I might cut the men’s rum rations, just to be sure more of this wayward whimsy does not happen...”
“Day 16; Gods’ teeth, I saw it myself last night. Or rather, I saw something. It did indeed have the shape of a huge wolf or hound, but... I cannot explain the spear-long antlers. Nor the graven wooden visage. What is this beast that stalks us so?”
“Day 19; The howling keeps us awake at night. Envoy recommends that we plug our ears with rags or wax, but even so the knowledge that it is stalking and watching us keeps us from sleep. And even muted, the howls are terrible still. I fear for the sanity of the men, especially Erik, who grows more obsessed with the beast each day...”
“Day 22; We wake this morning to find Erik gone. His gear remains, as more worryingly so do his clothes. Why would he leave in the night? And why is he naked? Envoy tells us he found tracks, a barefoot man, journeying out into the snowfields. He tells us they ended in front of another set of prints, those of huge paws, as though Erik was in audience with the hound. What happened there? Did Erik speak to the beast? Why was it waiting for him?”
“Day 23; I do not know how to speak of this. Last night, we all saw it. The giant spectral Hound, in the distance, running through the cold night air and the snow. The awful howling of it and others like it.
And there we saw Erik. Naked, sweat-slathered and naked despite the snow. Chasing...no, following the Hound, running in its wake. Baying and screaming himself like a man bereft of all his sense. His eyes, wild and glittering... There was no reason there, none at all. Only the thrill of the Hunt.”
~