Ace work there Michael! It’s an honor to have my minis painted for the first time!
I’m guessing this is what it feels like to be a parent…
Now we just need moar bits! Stay tuned for distribution folks, likely after this first contest. I’ll look forward to wacky combos and more of you aces dabbling some paint on the boys.
Here at CDO we get things DONE. Groundroots have taken hold, this project will grow!
Wow amazing stuff. What do you guys use to scan miniatures?
a scanner?
just kidding… I use an openscan mini (and classic for big stuff). It’s an open source photogrammetry rig. Fairly cheap compared to actual proper scanners, just WAAAAY slower.
Time for Oss. No lore for Zharr Vyxa so had some fun. Trying to make each unique. Hope you like it.
The Brazen Bastards.
A Beginning
Part 4.
Oss Crookfinger.
Oss was dead. He knew that. He had known it for a while. How could he not know? How long had he been a Soulsmith? One hundred? Two hundred years? You could not handle the souls of the dead for that long and not recognise death. He must have extracted, forged and bound countless numbers of them. So he was dead. Oss knew that. Yet he was tangible. He had a body. He walked, he talked. He ate for Hashoot’s sake. And it wasn’t Undeath. No, he was sure of that. He knew the oily, viscous feel of Necromantic magic. Undeath was an occupational hazard if you worked with souls. There were always gates between death and undeath that could open. But working in Shyish they were more like a revolving door. He had seen his fill of the undead. Probably more than most Soulsmiths. So what was it? It couldn’t be the armour could it? Sometimes he regretted ever making it. Yet the thought of losing it filled him with a cold terror.
He looked around. Unzi wasn’t in armour. He did have that particularly disturbing jewel in the head of the rod he carried. Oss’s fingers itched to get a hold of that. But that was very different magic from his armour. Porco barely wore any and Karpok’s was leather and tusks. Unless it had been made from particularly ancient Necromantic walruses he did not think it would count. Yes, the new warrior Zhiekward wore armour. And good stuff, if he was any judge, but magic? No. Maybe they each carried something different that had brought them here.
Sargoth had warned him. Every Soulsmith knew you took new bones and bound souls into them.
‘ You don’t know as what’s in old bones. Don’t know what the mix will do if there’s summat left.’ ‘Old bones is often still intact for a reason.’
Yes, Sargoth had known. But Oss had too. It had not been an accident. He had felt the power in them. That is why he had used them for Hashoots’ sake. The armour was much more powerful. It magnified and focussed his own magic to a shocking degree. After putting it on he had advanced rapidly through the guild. Others had noticed of course. He had never been that talented before. There had been whispers. He laughed quietly to himself. If they had been the only whispers he could have dealt with that. It was the ‘other’ whispers that had caused the problems. That still caused the problems.
They had started soon after he had put the armour on. Insidious, subtle. They could almost be his thoughts, but they weren’t. Even now he sometimes struggled to know which ideas had been his and which theirs. The experiments were theirs. Surely they were theirs. He could not, would not have thought of them. They had been successful, mostly. But not well received. His methods were regarded as unorthodox, unnecessary, and risky. It had become increasingly hard to replace assistants. Even the hobgrot slave masters had began shunning him. It had been ridiculous! His weapons were stronger, his constructs deadlier! His genius had been ignored. The whispers were right about that. Fools, hidebound fools. They had asked him to leave. Him. The best of them. Well he would show them. We would show all of them. We would bide our time. Build our strength. With our knowledge we could assemble an army of constructs. An army of undead. We would return to Zharr Vyxa not as a rogue Soulsmith, but as conquerors, rulers of those who had doubted us. They would bow before us. They laughed . A deep soft resonant sound.
Oss stopped and closed his eyes. Breathing deeply he slowly separated his thoughts from theirs. It was easy to get lost. He had to guard against that.
He looked around at his companions. No one seemed to have noticed. He did not think he had said anything.
Concentrate. Ignore them. Concentrate on the problem at hand. Why was he here? What had brought this disparate group together? It was not Necromancy. So, what was it? Where was it? He paused. That posturing fool of a sorceror was right about one thing. Wherever it was, it was better than the other place. Even the whispers had not liked it there. The fighting, the killing, the … wrongness of it all. He had hated it. Hated it and feared it. Yet he had fought. So long. So many fights. He tried to remember them but his mind slid away from the memory. The feeling stayed, but the details eluded him slipping like smoke through his fingers. Had it been a test like Unzi said? He shivered in his armour. If that had been the test, did no one else but him worry what they had been ‘chosen’ for?
Oss was dead. He knew that. But he also knew he was still here, somehow. He knew he wanted to stay alive, dead, undead? Whatever it was. To do that he was going to have work with these cretins. He supposed they would have their uses. He could manipulate them. They were no match for him. Even the sorceror. He talked to much. It was a sign of insecurity. Yes. They would be useful. They could be used. Even the savage. Alive or dead, eventually they would serve us. Eventually they would all serve us.
They laughed again.
Another great addition! Bone armor causing dissociative identity disorder is a great spin! Death and Chaos combined!
Teasing powers of the dead out of old bones is a fun concept with many magical possibilities to pull out of thin air.
Glad you liked it. There is no fluff for Zharr Vyxa so I could play. I reckoned CDs use anything invluding daemons so when in Rome/Shyish. Also taking the idea that all the bastards are outcasts/misfits somehow. That way they can have their own character.
Uther my man, your lore makes me want to work on bastard stuff!
Michael, the greatest compliment you could give me is to say you are inspired by my humble scribblings.
Thank you
Oh and Unzi will come soon
Eddy you fuckin troll haha
Voting thread for the Artisan’s contest is now live. Lots of great inspiration for this project. Link will be added in the inspiration post.
Hello again folks! Presenting my submission for the Bastards Art Challenge and also a bonus bastard!
Rut came about after I finished my first drawing and wanted to venture into the lands of Turnip28 and exercise the Rutabaga meme. With @Uther.the.unhinged 's multiversal bastard lore it seemed fitting to try and pull from some alternate fragment of Hashut, thus Rootshut. Side note: I really enjoy manipulating the rune of Hashut and convoluting it to a similar but different theme.
This concept was my first foray into digital drawing and I really enjoyed trying something new outside of my comfort zone of messy ink pen scribbles. This one is very much inspired by several bosses from Sekiro and is intended to be a worshipper of Hashoot from the East.
Someday maybe I will get around to sculpting these, or maybe someone else will beat me to it!
This one was my favorite. Would make a great model!
Brilliantly corrupt version of Hashut. Nice Pythonesque nod there with the trumpeter as well (didn’t really look closely at that until much later)!
Interesting Eastern concept as well!
Glad you caught that! I don’t know why but I wanted some kind of Terry Gilliam in the picture. It seemed fitting sounding his arrival but couldn’t quite integrate it to the dwarf itself.
He is gorgeous. One of my favourites.
Late to the party, but this was my favourite entry in the AC and of course an instant vote. Love the design, and it’s beautifully executed. 
Gotta dig into Turnip28 someday. I’d really like to know more about what it is all about, but I have a feeling that “It’s about the turnip” is all the information I’ll be getting. 
Well shit in a shed, what do we have here?
With the settling of the first Bastards themed contest, and Bastards starting to get out in the world. It is past time.
WITNESS… the table of contents post has been updated with links to the cheap-as-free bastards. Tear your black shriveled hearts out in the name of the dio of your choosing. Polish your eggplants. Gingerly hike up your pants. Knock your hobgob socks off. Piss in your printer vat in preparation for a mighty wash-load of fear stained under-trousers.
All we need to do now… is make more in the name of Rootshut, Hashoot, and all of the other trendy edgelord Hashut fragments we can dream up.
Hope to see some these showing up in blogs! (and BATGs hoo hoo ha ha)
Thankyou v much guys. Ill have to get my printer working again for these. Cheers
This is such a brilliant range of minis that capture the chaos renegade vibe! Is there anywhere i can get these files? Id love to add a few to my helm army!
Thanks for the kind words. You’re in luck we just added scanned file links to the table of contents post at the top of the thread!
Looking forward to seeing what you do with them!
