the safe hΘle

several months ago i purchased a few wild west gaming items and when i got this idea to create a western theme Perilous Tales campaign i needed something that would resemble the Whateley family from the lore of H.P. Lovecraft. i was not sure where to find such an obscure collection of figures, especially for a western theme but i looked high and low. i looked at other game systems and found that Dracula's America had a great selection of horror themed miniatures that i wasn't even aware of. so i got the box set of the Church of Dagon miniatures, which basically screams Lovecraft in the name. after looking over what the set had i knew this was perfect for what i needed for Perilous Tales. the old father, the mysterious daughter, the deformed son, and even some not so well looking fellows. all i needed was the "Dunwich Horror" but i had a spare alien figure from my discarded Zombicide Invaders board game. several of the followers of Old Whateley. Old Whateley and Lavini...

once again the Paint What You Got challenge has been thrown out and since i had fun doing it last year i figured i would join up and do it again. Dave over at Wargames Terrain Workshop has issued the next challenge once again . the challenge runs from December 26th, 2025 to February 26, 2026 and basically you paint whatever you have. and since i always have stuff to paint i use the challenge to paint specific miniatures that i have been dragging my feet on for some time now. last year i used this challenge to get the majority of my western figures completed, because i was just anxious to get them on to the table-top and play with them. and by the time i joined the challenge the area i live in was getting hit by horrible cold weather and just couldn't get outside to spray anything. so basically i was coming down to the wire and getting what i wanted done for the challenge completed. this time around for the PWYG challenge I figured I would up the ante and get two major projects don...

when i bought my first set of CMON Clash of Eternia board game in the bonus box there were mini He-Man and Skeletor figures. these were about half the size of the actual figures with two poses each. and at the time i really didn't have a use for them so i chucked them out, not knowing what i could do with them in the future.  with my second set i bought back in April i went and saved all the miniatures just in case i needed something or even parts for conversions. it wasn't until recently i began binge watching MotU episodes on Youtube and came across an episode (s2, ep51) where Man-At-Arms was testing out a duplication device and later on Skeletor got his hands on it. more into the episode Skeletor uses it and creates little duplicates of himself. and as i am watching i remembered i had those mini He-Man and Skeletor figures in a box. took them and gave them 25mm thin bases and a quick paint job. re-watching the episode i thought up a scenario for Space Weirdos, eventually i w...

 recently my D&D group was able to squeeze in a session on thanksgiving weekend and this past weekend. and through all the action and mischief that was taking place, i noticed one thing that has been a occurrence for sometime now and it's how much little i need to create an encounter for them to enjoy themselves. over time especially this year with our group we have been more role-playing than playing the game with large table set-ups.  with all the papers, books, and the DM area there isn't much room on the table to create an elaborate table display to game on. certainly if an encounter is created randomly out of the blue. like several weeks ago a group was sent to take down a raised skeletal dragon. and i wasn't even sure if we were going to get to that particular fight so i didn't make room for it, but somehow we got to it so i just put the essentials down on the table for that encounter, which was a crashed sky-boat, the adventure party, and a dragon.  and in th...

back in 2023 i repainted a few plastic lions i got from an animal toy bucket from Wal-Mart and thought it would be really cool to set up a scenario based off the movie "the Ghost and the Darkness." now fast forward today and while i am spending my vacation getting some painting done, i figured i would take a break from my western Perilous Tales campaign and play a fresh game with a home brew scenario. basing it roughly off the movie the two lions are the only villains in the game with many perils to make the game interesting and somewhat of a pain. in a game of Perilous Tales there are five villains and three perils. but since there are only two villains i picked the peril, Utterly Horrible to fill out the rest of the villain list. making characters roll for horror checks throughout the game in my mind gives that uneasy feeling like you are being stalked by these monsters of the jungle. the objectives are: Kill the Master, Get Evidence, and Escape!.  the perils in the game ar...

now King Randor has a proper regiment of guards to protect the kingdom! getting the Eternian Guards done awhile back i finally got the Palace Guards finished as well. these were tricky because of their halberd blades kind of bent and warped. so i had to fix that or my OCD would go off and drive me crazy. i noticed one of the palace guards had it's head looking forward instead of off to the side like everyone else, so i clipped two other heads and glued them looking forward. now with these guys done and complete i think i might begin to focus on getting the Evil Horde and Great Rebellion finished. even though i always find odd ball characters to do i really need to buckle down and get them done. I have been dragging my feet on them for some time now.

since resuming my Perilous Tales campaign with the Wolf Man episode i unintentionally created a mini storyline within my campaign that will feature the infamous Whateley family. as one of the villain scenarios in the rulebook i was so looking forward to creating a western version of them being a Lovecraft fan. but to get there we have to stay on the road that is haunted by creatures and undesirables. the episode is the giant frog monster. ( the swamp fiend from the rulebook. ) the group continues towards the Whateley's farmhouse and soon discovers that there is more here than a reclusive family. gossip around town says that some of those graves are filled with children who didn't make it past their first year or stillborn. just sad. the objectives are: Destroy the Idol, Rescue the Prisoner, and Tell Us What You Know.  the perils in the game are: Creeping Death, Driven Back, and Mired. which all were randomly generated. using the Eagle Eye trait to spot some minions, the game st...

continuing painting some more from the Mantic Games Haunted Manor box set, these minions i figure are supposed to be the deep ones from H.P. Lovecraft's stories. but since they lack the fish characteristics i call them the muck people. and not too long ago i found out that these figures are from the Hellboy board game, so i might look on eBay for a few more to add to the group. i had my next Perilous Tales scenario figured out and sorted but in my head it didn't fit with the theme that i had started. so i pulled these out, painted them quickly and got them table-readied for the next installment of my western themed Perilous Tales. i didn't know how i was gonna use these originally for Dungeons and Dragons, but for a modern pulp or even a wild west, these would work nicely. as i am writing this post, i am definitely thinking of getting a few more for other table-top games i enjoy playing. the one muck man who seems like they are wearing pants i didn't feel like that is  ...

yeah i was listening to some classic rock tunes including the Animals "House of the Rising Sun" while i was painting this piece of terrain for my wild west collection. but anyways back in july i purchased a ramshackled house from Renedra Limited and when i started to build it the first thing i thought was damn this thing is small. i got a little worried but then i've seen movies where folks in the wild west lived in small homes and such, so i just put it in the back of my mind. i painted it based on how it is displayed on the box, mainly grays and light drybrush. i actually didn't want much color on it because i wanted to keep the feel of how decrepit and ruined it is. when i went to paint the chimney i used a light shade of red oxide for the bricks. i went back over it with a black wash and then once dried, a very light drybrush of some light gray.  a spirit haunts the grounds of an old run down home. with the fear of the house being too small after it was built i pl...

for sometime now i bought a few packs of core spawn crawlers from Wizkids through their Critical Role miniature line, but i really didn't know what color scheme i wanted to go with. and after some time of really getting tired of looking at them unpainted, i just threw some light brown and some green on them. what's nice about these is that three come in a pack of different poses so i got two packs. there is also a core spawn emissary and a core spawn seer i would love to also get and maybe a few more crawlers to create a nightmare for my D&D group. three different poses from one pack isn't that bad. i have to say the poses are all nicely animated. the ravenous brood of everything that is creepy and threatening.  little Posie Pocketfull stares down what could be just her imagination. to expand my collection of scatter pieces for my dungeon sessions, i purchased a box set of Mantic Games Haunted Manor plastic set. and in this set there are several different creatures that...

it's been awhile since i have done a Perilous Tales game and i recently got some miniatures done specifically for a game. i also thought it would be kind of cool to have a number of games connected to each others with a specific storyline bringing them together. the episode is the Wolf Man. on the edge of the land owned by the recluse Whateley family, Abraham Puckett and company make their way out from town to make sure everything is on the level. with all the strange occurrences happening around town, Puckett thinks he knows where the source is coming from. the objectives are: Kill the Master, Destroy the Idol, and Set the Explosives. the perils in the game are: Creeping Horror, Utterly Horrible, Earthquake, which all were randomly generated. using William Loomis' skill of Eagle-Eye was able to spot the threat marker that was the main villain werewolf. with some decent dice rolls, was able to take him out in one turn by forming a firing squad. after taking out the werewolf, th...