I knew who was going to be the core of the group. For about a year, I played a wizard by the name of Adjo -- who was, to put it mildly, kind of an asshole. He wasn't specifically trying to antagonize the other party members, it's just he was a wizard and a human and that made him better obviously. But part of being the better man is not to be too hard on others who can't help their unfortunate lot in life and these other yahoos were really helping to further his goals so...
Anyway, a super-fun character to play and I had a reaper mini that really captured his look. A co-worker of mine was big on painting minis and his stuff was really good (he liked Napoleonics). I gave him my mini and then it never got painted and then he was laid off and we lost touch and...blah. I never got around to getting another copy of the mini before the game ended.
But after the Shadows and Steel stuff, I decided to put together a warband centered around Adjo. Reaper minis has a wide range of interesting figures so I picked out a bunch and put them together.
And here they are: Adjo's Assholes!
Obviously, they don't call themselves that. Adjo, when he bothers to think about it, generally puts down Adjo and Company on any legal forms. For the most part, Adjo has things he wants done and these are the people/constructs/extra-planar beings he brings along to help out. Saving people, righting wrongs, dishing out justice...these are usually happy coincidences not a specific goal the group has.
Adjo has put together a group of competent, pragmatic specialists who got that way through questionable life-choices. They've (sometimes grudgingly) gained a respect for each other's talents and if they aren't all best friends, they work together like a well-oiled machine.
Adjo's first order of business was securing some muscle.
Dhavar's armor comes from the plates of an adult white dragon he killed. It was his first dragon-kill and he's kind of run with the theme. He has a suite of cold-related magical items, but Dhavar is more generally interested in taking on large-scale beasties. Dragons, remorhaz, giants, purple worms -- the bigger they are the harder they fall. Thing is, if you go around wearing dragon armor you tend to draw the attention of...well, dragons for starters, and trouble, village crushing trouble, tends to follow Dhavar around.
Von Stubben was a Captain of the Black Legion before that final unfortunate battle with The Grand Alliance. Von Stubben got away and eventually hooked up with Adjo who was sailing off to a new continent. Although an empire that has a Black Legion sounds ominous, it really wasn't too different from the various nation-states of the Grand Alliance who opposed it. All that talk about baby-eating and pacts with unholy creatures is just a lot of propaganda. Von Stubben is proud of his service and unwilling to relinquish his distinctive equipment which can be a problem even half a world away.
His real talent is a keen tactical mind and a skill at leading men. Adjo is no slouch at military planning but it pretty much relies on his spellbook and he doesn't have a lot of patience for dealing with others. When magic isn't available or some low-level fighters needs to be whipped into shape, Von Stubben is the man to call on.
But Adjo needs more than muscle and magic, sometimes you need subtlety:
Almah is the public face of Adjo's group. She's warm, charming, witty, capable of dealing with all sorts of people, and handles a lot of the public interaction with ordinary people. As you might expect, she's an excellent spy and con artist. She'd be an invaluable asset to any Thieves' Guild, but she's from noble stock and is uninterested in paying Guild dues or giving them a cut of her profits.
Almah is used to the finer things in life and can be a bit of a spoiled rich kid, but Adjo's at a level where he has Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion on speed dial so "roughing it" really isn't a factor like it would be for lower-level groups.
Callie, on the other hand, is very comfortable roughing it. She's spent years playing Robin Hood in the forests fighting oppressive Elvish overlords and the fact that she isn't a skeleton skewered to an oak somewhere is a testament to her skills. Adjo helped her put a definite end to her problems and she's signed on with him. Needless to say, things can be a little tense when they have to deal with elves, but if Almah can't cool off the situation, Adjo has any number of powerful, mind-altering charms which he will employ and Callie knows that.
Aside from raining arrows down on her foes, Callie acts as the party Scout and has a keen eye for locks, traps and other magical/mechanical devices. Raiding Elven fortresses gives one a knack for that sort of thing.
Adjo doesn't have a lot of truck with gods. For the most part, he thinks of Clerics like some kind of low-level Amway sales reps. Still, it's good to have friends in high places (for now). So he pulled in a cleric:
Aglanda isn't particularly unbalanced, but she's had her doors of perception ripped off their hinges. What's real and what's really real can be rather blurry for her sometimes. The real problem is ignorant prejudice. You worship an alien god whose presence makes reality hemorrhage and people aren't interested in joining your cult. Aglanda isn't much of a fighter, but she does have her hound.
Ah yes, the Hound. Adjo has always had rather a bad run of luck with hounds/wolves/canine-creatures. Hellhounds, Frosthounds, Blink Dogs, Dire Wolves and all other manner of dogs have had their teeth (and status effects) on him at one time or another. Although this is surely random chance, Adjo feels that maybe it's best to confront his bad luck.
Aglanda's Hound (like several other "Hounds" that have worried Adjo in the past) isn't actually a dog at all. In fact, it's not clear what resemblance her trans-dimensional horror has to any known canine -- probably it was the only word that floated to the mind of the first poor soul to see (and survive) one of these creatures. It displays a disturbing level of intelligence and has limited ability to teleport. It can carry party members with it, but aside from Aglanda, no one would do this except in the most dire emergency. All in all, it more than makes up for Aglanda's lack of combat skills and when the two work in concert they can be brutally efficient in clearing a room of foes.
Which only leaves us with the boy and his toys:
Adjo we've discussed at some length. He's now on a plane-hopping journey of research and discovery. He tries so hard to be reasonable but everyone wants to do it the hard way.
The purple whirlwind in back is Nfskr, an astral spirit. The whirling swords come in real handy as does the ability to fly and turn invisible. He really comes into his own when the party is traveling the planes, having a good sense of where and where not to go. Adjo isn't really one for binding demons or the like. Nfskr was basically the first person to join up with Adjo and mostly sticks around because it's interesting (and because Adjo built a magical bracelet that lets Nfskr stay on this plane as long as Adjo is alive -- the astral plane is super boring so it's worth it to keep Adjo alive).
Adjo also spent a short period of time researching the warforged and their construction. As a sort of weekend project, he put together an Iron Cobra which he calls Thrax. Adjo originally intended to use Thrax as a night watchman when he made camp. Over the years, Thrax has been upgraded and can now talk and has a fair amount of intelligence. Thrax still has a number of magical sensors that help identify trouble, but Adjo now uses him much like a smartphone. Thrax stores and curates a great deal of information for Adjo sparing him a lot of tedious book writing. Thrax can attack either by constriction or with a bite that has a variety of toxins with different effects.
So that's it. The figures were a lot of fun to paint. I like modern military figures because they paint fast -- everyone is all one uniform color. I like fantasy figures because they are (or can be) colorful and unique and Adjo's charming band is full of character.
One last photo: The Mage, The Myth, The Legend -- Adjo!
A bit about my process
As you can tell, it's a bit of a rainbow squad. Every figure has some major color that they sport which is different from everyone else's. Callie was interesting in that I used model railroad paints for her greens. She has a dark and light green that were both used by the Burlington Northern Railroad -- the line that ran through my hometown as a kid and which I have a fondness for.
The Hound is my first foray into wet-blending a model. It came out OK, but man...reds/oranges/yellows take for-freaking-ever to put down in an even coat. I mean, I knew this going in and the final result is actually quite good, but I was worried it was just going to be a hot mess.
These photos were all taken with my new iPhone. I think they came out better than previous photos (taken on my iPad). I used the phone's flash because without it the minis were too dark. However, with the flash, the highlights look a bit harsh. On the table they look great, so I'm still working on photographing these guys.
Finally, I still have no idea how to paint eyes. The eyeballs are just so small that all I ever get are bleary smudges. :/
Bonus Figures!
As I was finishing up Adjo's crew, I got involved in a new D&D game and a friend of mine wanted me to paint a figure for her character (in another game).
So here they are:
Tia (on the left) is for my friend. She's a fighter who specializes in ranged weapons. A pretty straight-forward Robin Hood type figure. On the right is Pinja she's the Paladin I'm playing in my D&D game. Reaper has a really good selection of miniatures and a good number of their female figures look like they're actually ready to fight and not just cheesecake (though they've got lots of those kinds of models too). Still, finding a human female with chainmail and a polearm? This was pretty much it. Still, I think she turned out pretty well and she's sporting the colors of her order and that was fun to do.
I'm planning on moving house so these will probably be the last minis I paint for awhile. I really need to start bulking up my terrain collection. I want to start using those 15mm WWII figures I've got but they need something to fight on.
