The Raider War Band

The Raider War Band is waiting for the PC's party to the Southeast of the Villa. There are 7 fighters and 3 thieves. The 3 thieves are mounted and have been hunting for food. Ortaire has been keeping everyone fed with his bow skills, but is running out of arrows.

Albé and Guilbert are the only mounted fighters. Guilbert is one of the younger raiders, but has risen to be the nominal leader of the war band thanks to his high Charisma. All three thieves have short bows as does Warren. Raglan, Albé, Frédéris and Guilbert have slings.

One square is 10 yards.

Guilbert has selected a bend in the road to ambush the party. His plan is to hide the sling armed raiders on the right side of the road with the two melee only fighters on the other side. The horse mounted bow men will charge at the party, which will be the signal for the slingers to attack the oxen. That will allow the bowmen to dismount and attack from the front.

Click the link for a PDF of the 10 characters.

Continuing the Keep and Itching to Paint

It's going to be  a while before I can paint this keep. But I am itching to do something. I've decided that the keep has the stairs going to the right with a low wall and solid looking stone plinth.

This is just a dry fit of balsa wood while I wait for the glue to dry on the actual stairs. I think the basal wood wall will be stone, not wood, but I haven't decided yet.

While the paint dries, I am cleaning up some old models and finishing others. 

This little hovercraft was a modified Ice Rover by Revell. It was part of the Robotech Defender line. I made some changes to it to match my 1990s era Star Frontiers campaign. I used to have a spotlight on the top, but the mount vanished. The players modified it to be a transport instead of a weapon carrier, hence the wooden section on the back. 

The set was a 2 pack of a 1:72 model and a 1:48. I think this is the larger of the two. I want to clean it up and try to restore it. I also want to find the smaller one. 

Next up are a pair of F-4E's by Academy. They are 1/144th scale and went together really quick while waiting for the Keep to dry. I'm hoping that these can be painted up by Christmas for by boys. 

One of my solutions for gluing on the tanks is to use a 1/2" by 1 inch quarter rounds to support the model while I tack the pods in place.

Anyway, I'll be back at the Keep in the morning.

Keep Planning

Before I start my next major step, I need to plan the stairs. I don't like any of three options I came up with, but I think I am going to have the stairs project straight outwards. 

This would be good for 15 mm, but this is 28 mm.

This might be the best of all three, but I am not in love with it.

This what I originally pictured, but I don't like the way it looks.

In case you are wondering, the stairs are cut from soap stone. It's a great material to work with and I hope my next project incorporates more of it.

I don't know where this is going, but before the next step, I need a plan.

The Honor Guard

The players were not supposed to court any retainers or followers at the Villa. However, due to circumstances beyond their control, they will have an honor guard traveling with them until they reach Nace.

Cassia, Florentina and Lucius have been selected from the ranks of villagers by the Emperor to escort the two accused to justice and then lay their master and mistress to rest. All are slaves that were instrumental in operating the Villa del Vino successfully.

Lucius is an elderly man, however he is a former gladiator. He has a head for accounting. He is in his late 60's but is still powerful. His daughter-in-law is Florentina, the head woman of the villa's mill and presses. Her husband died many years ago and she is representing him. The final member of the honor guard is Cassia, the master's mistress and bodyguard. She was horribly beaten during the raid, but was also responsible for scattering the other villagers before she was incapacitated. She has given a statement that could free or condemn the accused murderers.

Rona has healed Cassia as much as she is able to. Gurwinder has encouraged the woman to take up her master's bow, which is a +2 weapon. Cassia laments not having it during the attack, as she is a deadly archer.

The honor guard will travel with the party several miles north to hand over the prisoners. They will then return to the Villa and transport the Master's family to it's final resting place in Nace. This is a little trickery on the Emperor's part. He wants the bodies of the family removed from the Villa proper, but also honored in a major city so that when he replaces them with his own leadership, no one will have a reminder of the former Master.

NPC stats will have to be generated for these characters as they will respond to any encounters with the enemy with lethal force, for vengeance. These will be loaded to the Pregenerated character lists when time permits.