Skull and Shackles
North of Port Peril and the Shackles region lies an enormous whirling hurricane in perpetual motion called the Eye of Abendego, and just north of that is the Arch of Aroden a thin passage to what is known as the Inner Sea. Commanding the Inner Sea, and now turning their eyes outside to the Arcadian Ocean (where the pirates of the Shackles ply their trade) is the grand nation of Cheliax. A lawful evil society based around devil worship, the Chelish field fleets of naval vessels to support their control of the Arch of Aroden and gain influence and control of the greater ocean. For more information on the nation of Cheliax in the Pathfinder world, check here.
Essential to our purposes in the Skull and Shackles campaign is that the Imperial Navy of Cheliax are the primary formal navy and pirate hunters of the region and the campaign. More worrysome to aspiring pirates is the sheer might of the Chelish forces. Their ships of the line include the Chelish Man-o'war, a massive three-decked vessel that normally is fitted with 20 ballistae per side and huge catapults on both the fore- and aftcastle. As if that is not bad enough, the current Vice-Admiral of Chelish forces who has been tasked with the elimination of piracy in the Shackles is the infamous Delthretta Pavane, a deeply cursed woman whose raw savagery is augmented from a most dire pact with some devilish force. Vice-Admiral Pavane has been equipping her naval crews with not only the normally-sturdy Chelish Marines, but with strange devil-bred hellspawn made from the unholy matings between devils and sea beasts: sharks, sea monsters, and worse.
Behold, the Scythean!
For instance, the most recent reports from a few sailors who managed to survive their ship being wrecked by a Chelish attack talk of a large beast which was driven onto their decks by its Chelish Marine handlers. The strange beast seemed to be a cross between a devil and a plesiosaur, and tore into the pirate crew with unmatched savagery. This corresponds to similar stories of small two-legged shark creatures that were delivered by strange agents on floating rafts to assail other ships north of the Eye of Abendigo. For now, while the massive hurricane continues its whorl, hopefully the Imperial might of Cheliax and their devil-bred ocean beasts is held in check.
The regions of Golarion that are primarily involved
Privateer Press
So while in the Pathfinder campaign, the models will represent the devil-bred forces of the Chelish navy, they're the Legion of Everblight in Privateer Press' twin games Hordes and Warmachine. The painted model, the Scythean, is the first heavy warbeast that I've painted for my force. I like the way the color scheme worked out on the model with a lot more area. The prior ones, the Shredders I posted about first in this post, had only smaller areas that were in the red-to-orange spectrum. I really like the way it came out in the larger model.
Side and back view
The Scythean is a seriously nasty foe in combat, with brutal attacks and the ability to punish large groups--it has a chain attack ability that goes off if it hits with both of its initial attacks. While I have plans on doing a Ravagore and a Carnivean to give some depth of options for my force, I decided to paint up the Scythean first. The reason: simplicity. I'm still learning the game, and the beauty of the Scythean is that it's just a face-wrecking melee critter. Plus, I'm saving the complex tech for my next addition: the Throne of Everblight
Awww Mikey, give us a little lickery-kiss
It's still being assembled, because the kit is HUGE. But I wanted to do a Throne as it's honestly the model that inspired my vision for this force. I pictured a massive beast that burst up from below-decks in a ship due to the commands of a master sorceress. Normally, the Throne has kind of a parapet at the top. I changed it up, with some Sculpey and bits from other models, plus ample numbers of the coffee stir sticks I am using for decking, to look as if it burst up from below decks.
It came from below!
That shot of the full model gives a good sense of my intentions. I still have work to do on it, such as finishing the tentacles, adding the pirate details to the sorceress on the deck, and putting on the broken and splintered deck from the base (which I am going to at least try to paint a recessed image underneath... we'll see how good my painting skills are). But I'm really pleased with the progress thus far. I love the look of the piece for Privateer Press--let alone what sort of horror it will be for the Pathfinder gaming table in my Skull and Shackles game!
Legion of Everblight
Models Painted: 4
Points Painted: 15
Warlocks Painted: 0
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