Rangers of Shadow Deep – Captain Fletcher

Baskerville was named by the On Table Top hobby hero Sundancer. Cheers again.
Baskerville is on my main RoSD project log but realised that my Tracker companion Eoin has a small hound on his base called Brawn. The scale difference will look ridiculous and I am happy to spend my last 5 recruitment points on him for my Captain Fletcher group.
I had thought that a hound was part of a scenario because a terrain and bestiary guide on the Facebook page said as much, but this was an error. A hound is mentioned on a clue marker table but doesn’t actually take part in the scenario.
Once the mini, from Reaper, was painted I wanted to use him so now he’s signed up.
I gave him +3 points in perception because it is one of the areas our group aren’t strong in and hounds only have 5 types of skills that they can actually be given points in.

A Hound’s Tale
The group happen upon Baskerville in a dramatic chance encounter.
Baskerville was found being attacked by a group of villagers outside a burning cottage. With a crowd of people passing buckets of water from a stream in a chain to fight the flames, the club wielding sub-crowd of villagers attacking the hound seemed to have very odd priorities given the emergency behind them.
Out of the blue Fokker ran up and began brutally assaulting the locals attacking the hound. Captain Fletcher was surprised by the ferocity of his gunner’s assault on the locals and the shock of the attack caused a lull in the beating. Fokker had always been a lover of animals, but the Captain couldn’t understand why he had jumped to the hound’s aid so committedly. The hound cowered behind a defiant panting and bloodied Fokker Blaidd. The rest of the crew drew their swords to enforce order and Eusebius demanded answers.
The leader of the crowd was in tears claiming that the hound was a stray and had killed his child. The house had caught fire, the parents had been unable to get to the crib of their child due to the flames, but the hound had dived into the home as they were forced out, hopped out of a window with the child in its mouth and blood had been everywhere.
Bosun Hancock disappeared with one of the locals and came back with the child in bloody rags, but the child was alive!
The leader apologised to Fokker for the blows he had received whilst saving the hound and the men dropped their clubs, dragged away one of the men that Fokker and knocked unconscious and joined the bucket chain to put out the blaze. The father had been certain that the dog had killed the child as there was no crying. The child must have been unconscious from the rescue through the window or through the smoke in the house, but it was now crying loudly, and the hound was thankfully acknowledged as a hero and not a child killer. The hound had hurt a couple of the club men, they clearly wanted revenge on the beast, but Fokker gave them a look that would make a demon mess himself and they looked at the still drawn blades of the sailors, sensed the change in mood and joined the bucket chain reluctantly.
Bosun Hancock tended to the hounds wound on its jowls. Baskerville was a huge hound, but seemed especially intelligent, able to appreciate that Hancock meant him no harm even though moments before humans had been attacking him with clubs. The wound had probably been caused by the jump through the window to save the child from the flames.
Captain Fletcher took Gunner Blaidd to one side as O’Morchoe and Cicatrix joined the water bucket chain. The Captain praised Fokker but was concerned that he didn’t wait for orders and couldn’t understand his reasoning for putting himself at risk. Had he known that the hound had done nothing wrong? The hound could have been a rabid beast and just as easily turned on him.
Fokker said that no hound deserves such a fate. Even a rabid hound should be ended with an arrow or a single skilled blow, not beaten. The Captain knew there was more to the reaction, pressed for an answer and Fokker admitted that a childhood memory had coming flooding back to him and triggered his reaction.
Fokker had always regretted being too young and too weak to stop a group of men from delivering a similar beating to a hound in his youth. The men just cuffed him and pushed him away and finished the cruel fatal beating as he helplessly watched on. Now he was strong enough to do something about it he ploughed in with no hesitation and apart from a bloody fist and elbow and bump on his forearm he had skilfully avoided most of their retaliatory blows.
The Captain had been impressed by Fokker’s brutality and by the beast’s temperament, apparently sensing the positive energy of his men towards it and seemingly far tamer than its savage exterior would suggest. Once the wound was washed the hound would not leave Fokker’s side. The determination of the hound to stay at Fokker’s side and the fact that no one really wanted to mess with the giant hound he became an unexpected member of their party.
On their march the fact that they couldn’t understand why the hound had leapt into that flame licked building niggled at the Captain. Was the hound possessed in some way? Self-preservation in animals makes far more sense than saving a child that the hound didn’t even have a bond with? A hound may be man’s best friend but should hold no loyalty to a child it has no ties to. The Captain had worried that if stealth was going to be a factor in their first mission perhaps having a barking hound would be a risk, but even in a couple of days the hound seemed to be taking direction and training from Fokker well. This was no stray hound as the villagers had suggested. Seemingly well fed and having none of the feral nature that manifests in most strays over time. Why had the villagers lied to him or misjudged so badly?
They strapped a piece of plate armour to his chest in the hope it might protect him in the coming fights that were bound to face them.
When it came to naming the hound, the crew took their mind off marching playing with names and having great jests at Fokker’s expense, but it was eventually the Captain that decided.
One day the hound ran full tilt at a forester, a Basker in the local tongue. The crew knew from their limited experience with him that the hound was just going to give the startled man an excitable greeting. The man saw the beast pounding towards him, the hound’s size and slavering tongue hanging out scared the man half to death and he literally shat himself and dropped his load of branches. The hound didn’t understand his reaction and just licked the old man’s face until Fokker called the hound away. The funny moment with the basker and their chance meeting him in that horrid village, Baskerville seemed like as fitting a name as any.

I remembered that I actually came up with a sea shanty of my own devising. It was sparked by playing the pirate computer game Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. I started making a Blood and Plunder force and the idea came to me.

How must it have been to cast off, leaving home for months and years on end and never knowing if you’ll see home again?

For the sake of Rangers of Shadow Deep it’s just a tune to sing around the fire at night to remind them of their life together at sea, changing the word ‘England’ to Tallis, one of the main cities the RoSD lore and Spaniards to picaroons.
And before you laugh… The smell of a loved one’s hair as you sleep beside them seemed like a personal connection that everyone can relate to. Some of my friends thought I was being filthy which changed the song a bit.

Sweet Mary-Lou

I’ve spent all of my life before the mast,

Toward thoughts of my end my mind’s rarely been cast

But perhaps it’s my age,
Or my heart, to be true

My thoughts drift to Tallis and Sweet Mary-Lou

Would she miss me, would she hate me?
Would she find love again?
If she ever found out that I met a bad end
Would her heart fill with sorrow?
Would she even care?
For it’s been 2 long years since I smelt her black hair

She swore when I set sail she’d be true to the last
But I’d sworn to be home by now, many months past
I can blame warring Picaroons,
Plundering Pirates too,
But it’s the call of the sea keeps me from Mary-Lou

Would she miss me, would she hate me?
Would she find love again?
If she ever found out that I met a bad end
Would her heart fill with sorrow?
Would she even care?
For it’s been 2 long years since I smelt her black hair

A hurricane’s upon us, the tempest tugs at my bones
Alas the First Mates’ a pup, not a man fully grown
The Captain, the drunkard, led us to this black sky
To Mary, to Tallis,
My soul grows wings to fly.

Would she miss me, would she hate me?
Would she find love again?
If she ever found out that I met a bad end
Would her heart fill with sorrow?
Would she even care?
For it’s been 2 long years since I smelt her black hair

Will she miss me, will she hate me?

Will she find love again?

Will she ever find out that I met a bad end

Will her heart fill with sorrow?

Will she even care?

In the harbour of heaven, i pray we’ll meet again.

I forgot that I can give each companion 3 skill points as they sign up. So…

Quartermaster O’Morchoe… 3+ Armoury (He knows where everything is, how it works and where they buried the body of the last person that tried to mess with his storage system.)

First Mate Cicatrix… 3+ Ancient Lore (Not just old war stories but, “During the war…”)

Sea Artist Crun-Bannister… 3+ Navigation (Goes with the title. ?)

Bosun Hancock… +3 Survival (Often being on shore parties, land based raids and standing in as the surgeon’s support Aloysius knows his herbs and his tourniquets and his survival skills.)

Gunner Blaidd… 3+ Tracking (An upbringing based around hunting and trapping prey has often been of use to his captain and has been honed as a point of pride for him.)

Blaidd (Bl-aith) is Welsh for Wolf. So Fokker wolf seemed fun to me and Welsh is always fun for fantasy sounding names.

Fokker is made from a NorthStar Ghost Archipelago crewmen sprue body and arms, with a NorthStar Barbarian head and Warlord Games ECW helmet.

The helmet neatly ties him in with his First Mate, the knife at his back ties him with the swordsmen and his captain and the red sash helps tie him with the tan and red theme of the group.

With all that effort to make him part of the team, I still went for different basing. This was mainly because I can see the rest of the group making their way into crews for Blood and Plunder with the 20mm basing advised. The only archers in Blood and Plunder tend to be Caribbean natives, so I figured I could more easily reuse Fokker in Frostgrave or other fantasy skirmish games if he was based this way. The basing does tie in with other recent RoSD basing i have been doing, so it won’t look that out of place.

Fokker is from the southern climbs of Alladore. The great forests, their marches protected by hard men, forged in the hard frontier life style. Fokker was taught to hunt with a bow from a young age, was set to probably become a professional hunter and skinner, but sadly a drunken fight got out of hand and changed his life forever. A chance blow, a wild connection to the temple, killed his opponent and he was found guilty of “wanton bloodletting”. He was only 16 years old. The judge decided to wave the death sentence and banish Fokker from the Nar region and sentenced him to 20 years servitude with the Alladore Navy. This was an uncommon decision, but a secret mandate from Tallis requested men for the Navy due to fresh concerns of a war with Lorenthia. The war never materialised, being at piece for decades, but the heightened political tensions at the time saved Fokker’s life.

Fokker is a gunner. He had worked as a Bosun among other roles, but he never had designs on being a Captain. Initially he resented being found guilty, especially when such drunken brawls were part of the culture. It was a wonder more lives hadn’t been lost in the same chance way, but over the years he matured, became very pragmatic and stoic and his bravery and skill in battle became the talk of the fleet. Now he has completed his 20 years and still serves the navy that has become his home and his family. Heading back in land, with villages and and hamlets looking much like the lands he grew up in, he has mixed emotions. Fokker is a man of few words and rarely wastes much time dwelling on his feelings and distracted himself, checking his quiver for the umpteenth time that morning as they marched on.

Bosun Aloysius St John Hancock is named after another comedy character. Tony Hancock from Hancock’s Half Hour.

The dagger at his back and a quick revisit of the Zandri Dust and red elements were the only refresh required.

Aloysius is the first to volunteer for missions on land, the first to request shore leave when they find safe harbours and the last man to leave dock and cast off when they leave.

Mainly because he can’t swim.

Most of his waking moments at sea are plagued with the anxiety of this fact, but only his captain knows of his phobia. The captain had tried to teach him in the shallows and the rivers on their years of voyages together, but sadly the fear is deeply entrenched in his psyche and the lessons descended into paniced scuffles or sobbing.

The fear has made him a blur of activity on ship. The hull is checked for leaks constantly, all elements of ship maintenance are never delayed and the men mistake his anxiety for diligence and a prime sense of duty.

The Captain is glad that this mission in land would ease Aloysius’ anxiety for likely an extended period. The Captain also was sad to have Aloysius with him, or any of his crew with him in part, because he would much rather have faced the coming dangers with strangers he cared little for. There would be sacrifices to make and he was usually less sentimental or hampered by such thoughts when orders were to be carried out. The tales of the supernatural and the pressures of command were weighing on him heavily , but the burden would be carried and the tasks completed. There was glory to be made of this misery and fame and fortune that would hopefully buy his men an early, and in some cases a timely and affluent retirement.

Onward for Alladore, onward for glory and one day… eventually… peace.

This guy was painted from the same Wargames Foundry Seadogs and Swashbuckers range as the others. He is one of my favourites from the range so wanted to include him in this project.

Neddie is named after characters from my favourite radio comedy show. The Goon Show. Neddie Seagoon, Major Denis Bloodnok, Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister. I just got lost on a meandering odd name search in my mind and so Neddie was christened. Well he was actually christened Eddard, but that name seemed ominous and his friends all call him Neddie. ?

He was given a Skelton Bone Army Painter primer to start, Wraithbone on the ruffs and Jokaero Orange hair. Mostly painted in the same Zandri Dust and Flesh Eater Red Contrast Paint as most of the others he ties in neatly as part of the group. Neddie is based on a penny that I have painted the planking on.

The book says that archers and swordsmen should have daggers.

I found daggers I liked on a Ghost Archipelago crewmen sprue I had bought off ebay, for Blood and Plunder conversion work.

To tie them together as a group I painted the daggers the same and hung them at their back like the dagger sculpted on the Captain mini. Some military kit treatise they all instinctively have confirmed to.

The Sea Artist is a role is not to paint seascapes but was a name for navigators. An experienced Seaman, Neddie has seen his fair share of action and has a rich flairful style to his swordsmanship. Well educated, but never lording that over his peers, he is a very affable crew favourite on any voyage.

And with a shield added we have a man at arms.
Captain Fletcher’s First Mate, Marcus Cicatrix.

Again he has a scar that is born from a piece of flash I wasn’t confident i would move well enough and just made it a feature.

The addition of the shield actually suits the model well I think. I found the shield in a bits box, primed but abandoned for some reason. The shield is most likely from the Barbarian NorthStar plastics box set sprue.

I chose to use the same simple blue and white stripe motif over leather that I have used as militia colours on a shield and clothing amongst my pool of Rangers of Shadow Deep characters.

I liked the idea that when the king gave these old seadogs access to the armoury this old veteran chose a gnarled leather covered shield. Then on the march to the dark wood, worrying that if he dies on this escapade he may be mistaken for some lily livered land lubber, (his words not mine) he takes time to paint a crude white wash anchor on his shield. At least then there’s an outside slimmest of chances that if they find him dead that they’ll bury him at sea with full honours, as he’d always thought would be a fitting way to end his days.

He got a slight spruce up on the paint job but nothing major. Zandri Dust is the main tan colour for all the minis in the group and I used the Flesh Eater Red Contrast Paint on most of the group too.

The name Cicatrix is actually a word meaning the scar of a healed wound. I was going to double down on the wound reference and call him ‘Mark’ but didn’t feel that really rang true with his surname. Adapted to Marcus seemed to work better.

Marcus has been through horrors and bloodshed aplenty in his time on the highseas, but is finally feeling his age. He doesn’t complain, but his friend and Captain Eusebius can see the aches of old war wounds are getting to him. The news of the Shadow Deep encroaching on their borders filled the whole nation with dread, but as loyal servants of the crown they answered the call to return to the mainland for fresh orders. The threat of attack from the sea seemed diminished now that some of their long-standing political enemies had sadly succumbed to the dark clouds. Raids on shipping from their coast had stopped suspiciously and abruptly. Eerily abruptly at the best time of year for such privateering.

Cicatrix is in the last winters of his life, but still a man to be reckoned with. If anything, the twinges, of what he can only assume will become arthritis one day, have just made him more economical and precise with his blade swings. He is always the first to chorus his captain’s orders and challenge decent, but when he said he would follow his captain into the very depths of hell… he had always expected it to be figuratively, not as literally as it felt right now.

I started to flesh out the characters of the companions in my head. I started thinking on the two shields I would need to make two of my Wargames Foundry minis carry, to be more specific to Rangers of Shadow Deep.

But one guy with a sword and shield looks much like another and even though I knew one would have a breast plate, I wanted more distinction.

So I was thinking of bucklers and shield types but I opened my mind to other objects. I wanted to show the Barbarian’s strength and berserker spirit. I thought that carrying a gun port cover would look cool and thematic at first, but realised even a small one would look odd. If I made it too small you wouldn’t recognise what it’s meant to represent, but make it too big and it would topple the mini and look like a walking door.

Then I settled on him wielding a chain. I had picked up a roll of hobby chain really cheaply online.

Even though there’s some chain draped hanging over his forearm I never really saw him wielding it like a whip, but more as a shield to fend off blows with the thick metal protection to his fist and forearm.

I know the chain would be unfeasibly heavy, but giving classic fantasy barbarians gigantic swords that would weigh as much as the holder or sporting nothing but a loin cloth is also unrealistic. The chain as a shield gives the mad strength aspect of classic barbarians a nod.

“Black Pate” gives this eye patch wearing, battle scarred veteran, blunt instrument of war… a sinister air that I think works for him. Black of thought and deed, grim faced and hearted but you’re glad he is on your side.

He once smiled at you, but he was gutting an enemy marine at the time and you don’t like to dwell on it.

The eye patch was actually only incorporated because there was a nasty piece of mold flashing that covered his eye and I just embraced it rather than remove it and have an ugly eye as a feature that screamed bad prep work.

I heard the name Black Pate from the Royalist forces in the English Civil War. Patrick Graeme of Inchbrakie marching with Montrose in Scotland. (ECW, often gets called War of the three kingdoms now, if you’re down with the kids. )

I spent a lot of points on recruitment because I wanted to go fairly Wysiwyg with the sculpts and the in-game troop types. When i realised there was no ranged weapons in a fairly elite force I felt I really needed an archer to flesh out the group and that took the extra points.

Running around with just swordsmen seemed like it might be a bit predictable and was unimaginative. So found that with the addition of a couple of shields I could make one mini a Barbarian and one a Man at Arms.

My other band has a lot of ranged attack options so I was glad this troop would be different.

So my 130 cost was allocated thus:

• 35 – Barbarian (hand weapon and shield 5+ strength skill)
• 20 – Man At Arms (hand weapon, shield and light armour)
• 20 – Archer (bow, light armour, dagger and quiver)
• 50 – Swordsmen x2 (Sword, light armour and dagger.)

Only spent 125, but hopefully the extra 5 will be a handy contribution later when recruitment opportunities crop up.

I had already painted the captain and three other minis as pictured thus far. I was going to use them in Blood and Plunder but the fashion sculpted is set for Elizabethan England, not the 17th century of that game.

I will be amending them to suit the RoSD in a fairly wysiwyg way.

To make a Ranger you are given 10 points to spend. Without giving you the complete rules breakdown on how that works (Buy the rule book, the game is great) I will just say how they were allocated.

• 2 Points on improving the opening Ranger stat line (+1 Health and +1 Fight)
• 1 point on skills (This allows 8 skills to have a +1 during test rolls. In keeping with a sailor I chose – Climbing, Leadership, Navigation, Perception, Picking Locks, Strength, Swim and Traps.)
• 4 Points on Heroic abilities, that are usually once per scenario buffs (Evade – to step out of close combat freely, Focus – to add +8 to a skill test roll, Roll with the Punches – To halve the amount of damage caused in a lost fight action and Hand of Fate – a single reroll.)
• 3 points on recruitment, to improve my companion Recruitment Points by 30 points to 130.

I also gave Eusebius a sword and a throwing knife, so he can literally take a Snapshot once per battle with his knife.

Captain Eusebius “Snapshot” Fletcher.
Got the nickname through being a particularly hasty and bad boule player, but people think it’s based on accolades about his artillery mastery. Why dispel a harmless cantrip?

In game, I am trying to keep to the theme that sculpts suggest, so my Captain will not have heavy armour or a shield. I am taking heroic abilities and improving his stats in the build stage to make his longevity seem down to skill and trusting in fate. Sailors of old famously held superstitions close to them and a lucky captain inspired and gained the trust of their men.