Shadelocke – A grimdark fairytale

One of the quests that we will face ends with this monster. He will be some sort of boss fight but nothing is written so far. I ordered him from Mierce Miniatures and wrote a short review over at my site (here).

Not sure about the beaked crotch but I’m to lazy to change that now. 🙂

This will be the first time I use my airbrush for more than priming so it will be an experiment. I hope I can do it justice but make it look decent will be good enough 🙂

I managed to get some colours onto it but I feel that its time to break out the brush for some details and control. It was fun to use the Airbrush but it’s not as easy at it looks to get the colour at the right place.

The moon of Shadelocke is divided into courts that fight for control. No one knows how many courts that exist but only a handful of them are strong enough to fight for a place next to the Monarch.

The Monarch is the silent ruler of the moon and no one has heard from him for generations. In fact, no one that now lives have even seen him as he lives behind the Iron doors. Some whisper that he is a prisoner and want to set him free while others want to win his favour.

This is the tale of two courts that both have found a prophecy and how they will follow this to find their way to win the regents favour.

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Led by the blood thirsty queen Sweetdream this court seek the favour of the Monarch so that he and the queen can mate. It is her belief that if they would mate she would be fertile again to feed her decadent court.

This is Jonas court and he is a lightning fast painter. As I write this he has sculpted and painted several more of these evil fae.

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Court of the bramble is an unholy alliance between the noble fae and the lowly dryads. They seek to turn flesh into tree and to become one with the moon. Something only the Monarch can grant.

I’m much slower in my hobby and even if I have created a few more since this photo was taken I have still to add some paint to them.

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There are some more texts to flesh them out over at my normal blog Miniaturedarkness if you care to take a look. My part of the thorn moon invitational is up there as well with a few short stories to set the tone.

I will try to break down the project into parts so that it will be easier to plan and to get an overview of the work.

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We are creating two fae courts that both will play a part in the saga as they both are looking for a way to win the favour of the Monarch – the silent ruler of the moon.

The first court is called the Court of the ecstatic thought where the queen sees the monarch as a mate to breed with in order to again be fertile. The other court is called the Bramble court where fae and dryad have wed trying to meld themselves with the moon.

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Part two is to create a few smaller boards to play out key battles on and quests that the two courts partake in order to find what they need.

It is in this part where the narrative is told and created. Narrative takes president over the actual gaming itself but we have looked around for a good rule set. The new Killteam release looks very promising so I will get back on that very soon as the release day is around the corner.

I have also dabbled in trying to create some mini games to help telling the tale as they send their champions on quests. The first one was a small card game that played like a tarot but the basic mechanic was flawed so after a few tests I had to go back to the drawing board.

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In the third part we want to create a bigger board to represent the throne room hidden behind the iron doors. This is where the final battle will take place and the tale of Shadelocke is concluded.

It is the end of the tale but also the beginning of the final final part of our story. After they have gotten their Monarch we leave Shadelocke be as the millennia pass and time twist the poor souls that survived the winter. We comeback to it as the empire of man yet again find a way into the Crataegus Fragmentum and the thorn moons in what is called the Thorn moon crusade. Here a final battle will stand as they strike for the heart of the moon in the very same chamber behind the iron doors.

I want the final part to be an invitational where like minded people can join in and be a part of that final chapter. But this is so far into the future that I will come back to that if we manage to actually finish the original saga.

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So what do you think? A grand plan indeed and I hope to take you all with me as I slowly works toward the finish.

The campaign is placed within the Crataegus Fragmentum and the timeline that Ironsleet has created. This is taken from their own site:

“In short, the Thorn Moons are a secluded region in the Crataegus Fragmentum, an area that has been cut off from the Imperium of Man for ten millenia. A route from Terra was only recently discovered, and still passage is uncertain and can take anywhere from a few months to decades. The Moons themselves are a cluster of over a hundred astronomical bodies, orbiting an incalculable center of gravity. Whatever caused the Thorn Moons to be rediscovered now, can only be guessed at.”

If you haven’t been there head over to Ironsleet and look at their amazing creation and creativity. This project is a salute to the amazing and supportive inq28 community out there.

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Our own story begins thousands of years before when the Imperium of man first came here and settled. We will explore one of the moons and the experiments conducted there.

Viewed from the eyes of these poor souls the fairytale is written as they struggle to survive another winter.