The Gnawling Horde: Beastpeople for Five Leagues from the Borderlands

 The Beastpeople of Utavoll are few these days. They live on the margins and rarely enter spaces occupied by humans. They are kin to the fae folk but do not associate much with them for reasons that are not apparent to the human geographers that have explored Utavoll.

To humans, the Beastpeople resemble a variety of animals, hence the name. This resemblance often leads humans to treat them as beasts rather than as fellow sapients. Among themselves they refer to their own kind as Gnawlings, a word that translates roughly as The People. They live in tribal groups and subsist as hunter-gatherers for the most part. A rare few trade with the humans for new technology that they do not produce themselves. Gnawling art is particularly prized by humans for its delicate, primal style.

My Gnawling collection consists solely of Demonworld Beastmen figures from Ral Partha Europe. Although it would be possible to fill out the roster with different types of beastpeople for the different groups listed in the rules, I have chosen to use only armoured and unarmoured beastpeople. These provide good flexibility at a good price. The only thing really lacking is the full range of missile weapons listed in the rules, but I am fine with using generic missile troops to represent all the types of missile weapons. It's not like my opponent is going to complain!

Unarmoured Gnawlings

The bulk of the Gnawling horde is unarmoured tribespeople, who fight when needed but are not warriors per se. They are artisans and hunters and people from many other walks of life in the tribe and are expected to pick up weapons when needed. Sometimes they go out into the world to earn a little extra loot and that is when you are most likely to encounter these people.

Unarmoured Gnawlings

Armoured Gnawlings

The armoured Gnawlings are generally those who make a living from warfare and raiding. They have more opportunities to gather better weapons and armour. Some are bodyguards to tribal leaders or personal retinues, who serve full-time in the tribal warband. Others are outcasts who fight for the love of fighting or because they prefer the life of a raider and robber to tending the herds.

Armoured Gnawlings with Leader

Missile Troops

As hunters, the Gnawlings use a range of missile weapons to bring down their prey, and these weapons also work in warfare. Although my missile troops are all javelin throwers, these can stand in for the slings and crossbows listed in the rulebook without any issues other than the aesthetic.

Gnawling Missile Troops

The Oldest Kin: Lizardpeople for Five Leagues from the Borderlands

 The Salamander Folk of the Northern Wastes are more legend than reality to most. They are the remnants of an ancient civilisation that once ruled the whole of Utavoll but their civilisation fell to internecine intrigue, murder and warfare. Now they live more peacefully in small extended-family groups. However, they can be fearsome foes when their ire is aroused and the more powerful among them know terrible magics that can rend a person limb from limb with just a gesture.

All of the Salamander Folk are from Alternative Armies, except for the Needle Fang Pack which is from Checkpoint Miniatures.

Salamander Folk with light armour

These lizardpeople will stand in for all the foes with light armour, which is most of the list. They are the ordinary clan members. Their scales are hard enough to ward off some blows and they are moderately trained, but they are not normally called to war. Many use the axes and hammers of their day jobs when they go to war, while wealthier Salamanderfolk may have bronze swords.

Salamander Folk with mixed hand weapons (Alternative Armies)

Salamander Folk with partial armour

Some lizardpeople are more warlike than others. These ones supplement their hard scales with a shield and train for warfare . They are the Ravager Brood, the War-Strong Brood and the Battle Champion Brood. Their role in the clan is to defend the others, so that their less warlike clan members can pursue their lives in peace.

Salamander Folk warriors

Salamander Folk with missile weapons

Salamander Folk favour javelins, but some also use bows for hunting. These figures will stand in for any missile troops they need.

The javelineers carry light shields and a small number of light spears that can be thrown or used in melee as needed. The javelin is a favoured weapon in the swampy terrain the Salamander Folk live in. It used both for spearing enemies and for spearing fish and other water dwellers for dinner.

Salamander Folk javelineers (Alternative Armies)

Salamander Folk who specialise in the use of the bow are generally those who have got tired of a diet of water-dwelling food. They are skilled at shooting birds from the surrounding trees and at feathering their foes with arrows whose large heads cause grievous wounds that take an age to heal, if the target survives at all.

Salamander Folk with bows (Alternative Armies)

The Cold-Blooded Priest Band

The priest caste has ruled the Salamander Folk since before records began, which is not surprising because the priest caste are the ones that keep proper records. Unkind people say that they destroyed the records from before they took over society, but all right-thinking people know this is a baseless conspiracy theory. Not all priests sit in the temples writing histories of the Folk. Some go out into the world to ensure that the Folk are maintaining religious standards and not backsliding. These are the Cold-Blooded. Most are armed with standard polearms, but a small number of them have magical polearms with jadeite blades that shoot bolts of green fire. It is said that the Jadeite Polearmes were a gift from the gods, and that only a chosen few, those most pure of heart, can use them.

Salamander Folk priests with Polearms (Alternative Armies)

Salamander Folk priests with enchanted polearms (Missile troops for the Cold Blooded. Alternative Armies)

Hunter Beasts

Hunter Beasts, as the Salamander Folk, call them or Iguanasaurs, as the humans call them, are lizard beasts the size of a large bull. They are used as draught beasts by the Salamander Folk when tamed. Wild Hunter Beasts are not to be messed with. The females in particular are hugely aggressive and protective of their herd, and they will attack if the unwary traveller gets too close to the herd.

Iguanasaurs (Alternative Armies)

Needle Fang Pack

Needle Fangs are the size of a large dog and similarly intelligent. They are trained by the Salamander Folk just as dogs are trained by humans. Their name comes from the many rows of needle-like fangs in their mouths. They are loyal to their trainers and protective of them and their pack. While not particularly deadly when encountered individually, they are mostly found in larger numbers that can be a threat even to experienced adventuring bands.

A pack of Needle Fangs on the hunt (Checkpoint Miniatures)

The Whispers from Beyond: The Synod of Reason in Five Leagues from the Borderlands

The Synod of Reason is a cult that roams Utavoll seeking to enforce pure reason on the inhabitants there. Cultists are recognisable by the prominently carried Little Blue Book of Reason that each carries. Upon joining the Synod, each member goes into seclusion to make a copy of the Blue Book of Reason. Because of this, these books are as different in appearance as the cultists are. The only point of congruence is that many cultists are driven mad by the process of copying the text. Given the nature of the world, it is often argued that this is the only logical and rational response to the world generally and to the chthonic horror of a life of pure reason that the book conveys specifically.

Although often viewed from the outside as a monolithic entity, the truth is that the Synod is a hotbed of schism and argument as the militant, rationalist philosophers of the Synod's upper echelons spend days arguing over the minutiae of the Blue Book of Reason as revealed to the cult's founder Immanent Kannulae. This has resulted in running battles between different sects within the Synod. The two main power groups within the Synod's schismatrix are those who believe in the Cold Blue Light of Reason and those who believe in the Clear Blue Light of Reason. There is no reconciling their positions and those who have tried have been branded heretics and executed, as is only reasonable and logical when dealing with people who cannot think properly. Despite their clear doctrinal differences in interpreting the Blue Light of Reason as either Cold or Clear, to the average outsider, there is no obvious difference.

In Utavoll, the Synod represents a threat to order as schismatics, heretics, and other odious types attempt to enforce their own brand of enlightenment and rationalist philosophy on the populace. Wandering bands of cultists can be found all over, and, worryingly, seem to be channeling nameless horrors from other dimensions or even summoning them directly.

Unarmoured Cultists

The Sinners from RPE's Demonworld range are the poorest and most addled of cultists. They represent any unarmoured cultist foes. They are poor and broken specimens whose brains have been twisted by the Little Blue Book of Reason. They are little more than sword fodder and go by many names: The Taken, Broken Fanatics, The Outcast, Whisperers and more.

Armoured Cultists

The Demonworld Death Guard figures are the better class of cultist. They represent any cultists with armour. Their brains may be addled like their poorer brethren, but they have retained enough of themselves to survive in the world and to take care of themselves properly. Some can even pass for normal(-ish) when mixing in society more generally, although they will always wear something blue, even when not in their robes.

2 Slingers, a Crossbowman and an Archer (Two Dragons)

Cultists with Hand Crossbows (RPE)

These guys provide missile support for the cultists and may well appear in other army lists to save me a lot of extra painting. The guys with hand crossbows will be cultists with throwing knives and will appear as assassins or master thieves in other lists.

Skeleton Warriors (RPE)

Zombies (Alternative Armies HOT range and RPE)

Undead Heroes and Leaders (RPE)

There are two types of undead in my collection: zombies and skeletons. I plan to use them fairly interchangeably as the different types of undead in the Whispers army list and in other places where I need humanoid undead. The key element in choosing will be my whim and the speed they are meant to move at. The hero/leader figures will also feature as Death Knights.

Mutated Cultists or Werewolves (RPE)

Some cultists are so strongly affected by copying the Little Blue Book that it channels nameless horrors into their bodies and mutates them. The Corrupt, as they are known, are terrifying opponents but almost mindless in their ferocity. They have little relationship to anything we would call reality and know only the hunger of the chthonic horrors that whisper directly into their minds from beyond the veil. These guys will also appear as werewolves in the campaign.

The Daughters of Xeribulos (RPE)

The Daughters of Xeribulos are minor demons from a nameless, inexpressible dimension known only to demonologists by its reference code: Di 5c0. Despite their almost human appearance, the Daughters will shake your body down to the ground if you are not careful and will burn you up in a Di 5c0 inferno before you know it. Staying alive when they are around is hard and for many adventurers, an encounter with the Daughters is their last dance. The Daughter's live for this. It's how they get their freak on and that's the way they like it. I am using these figures as Fog Born, and other demonic types, such as the Crystal Wards in the Lurking Foes list.

Cultist Heroes and Leaders (RPE)

In any circumstance where I need distinct leader figures, these guys will appear. They can also appear as specific monster types from other lists where a warrior type figure is needed and they fit the story.

Magic Using Foes (RPE)

These are not specifically cultists, but they look the part for summoners of nameless horrors from beyond the veils of reality, so they will do duty both as generic wizardly foes and as cultist magic-users. I'm already planning how I can use them in Frostgrave and which schools each most suits.

Orcs / Dusklings for Five Leagues from the Borderlands

 Having finished all the Orcs I intend to paint for my Five Leagues from the Borderlands campaign, I thought I would catalogue them here. The figures are all from the Ral Partha Europe Demonworld range. Most of my 15mm fantasy figures are from the Demonworld ranges although I am adding figures from other ranges, and, indeed, other scales to fit the needs of this campaign.

The Orcs are the major threat in my campaign, so I focused on painting them all first. I now have enough to field any faction from the Duskling list, and some of these will do double duty as unique foes, members of other factions, or could even become party members at some point. I also have in mind the idea that I could run a campaign from the Orc perspective, where the Orcs are defending their homeland from the invading Humans and Elves, but that will have to wait until the current campaign is over.

The basic principle behind my collecting and painting for the current campaign is genericness (is that a word? It is now). I'm not collecting figures for each enemy type. I am collecting figures whose traits fit a bunch of different enemy types. So, this is how the Orcish roster looks.

Unarmoured Orcs

My unarmoured Orcs will fit any army list that requires cannon fodder with no armour and a basic melee weapon. This means they could be brigands, poorer members of a proper army or anything else. Only one entry on the Duskling list requires unarmoured troops, so I do not have many of them, but they can be mixed with other troops as I wish.

Light armoured Orcs

I have opted to use figures with shields for Orcs in light armour. Dusklings in light armour are the most numerous enemy type in the list. I painted the standard bearer and the horn blower on a whim, not because I needed them, and I'm planning to go back and add a design to the banner but have not been inspired yet. Like their unarmoured brethren, they can stand in for a variety of troops from other lists.

Orcs in Partial Armour

I'm counting chain as partial armour in my campaign although some of these could well count as wearing heavier armour if I felt like it. Like all the others, these guys can stand in for a variety of other troop types.

Orc archers

These guys provide the missile support for all of the other Orcs. I don't actually need this many for Five Leagues from the Borderlands but I am sure they will come in handy for other games.

Orc characters, leaders and heroes

I have a few different Orc leaders and heroes. They get fielded when I need leader figures as part of the Orc warband, and will also appear as unique foes, heroes, or other character figures from other enemy tables, as and when I need them.

Orc shamans and wizards

Five Leagues from the Borderlands has Dusklings who hate magic. One of their special traits is that they will pick on your spellcasters even when your warriors are a better target. Generally, this means that my Orc warbands will not feature spellcasters, but it can happen and these guys will then appear. They can also be evil necromancers and other nefarious spellcasting types from other enemy tables.

So, that is the major threat that my party must defeat. These Orcs will also come in for other games I play. They will be Gnolls in my Rangers of Shadow Deep games, and the spellcasters among them can lead warbands into Frostgrave. I also now realise that I have the basics of a Dragon Rampant warband here, so I am going to have to explore that idea more. I do like flexible figures!