The Vault

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Whiteline Nightmares: Slagger Beasts

As with the Savages of yesterday, I've hit a golden streak in regards to getting some post apocalypse figures finished and photographed. With that said, here's some Slagger Beasts for your viewer enjoyment:







Slagger beasts often take the form of a bipedal, humanoid creature which measures around 2 – 2,5 meters in height, but variants include specimens with a height of up to 4 meters. It has a well developed and massive muscular structure and prominent teeth which allows it to rip most materials apart in mere seconds. It is believed by some Vault scientists, as well as scholars from the Guild of Silicium that the ‘slags might actually be a mutation of an ape like strain; seeing as they have started to observe very primitive social interaction between several nests out in the ruins of the wasteland.

Slagger beast pelts are a sought after commodity within the settlements of the wasteland as their hides makes for excellent armour whilst some say that eating raw slagger beast liver should provide a man with regenerative abilities although scientists and scholars alike have yet to determine whether this is a common attribute of the slagger beast or if a rare strain of mutation lead to such a development.

About the figures:
The first of the two slagger beasts (or 'slags) is from Privateer Press, specifically their Pyre Troll from their Hordes line up of games. The other 'slag, is from Hasslefree Miniatures, specifically their Aquatic Troll. Both were painted in a very similar pattern, with some P3 Beast Hide as their base coat and sharing as many colours as possible between the two. 

Uses in the game:
The initial idea for adding the 'slags to Wasteland Chronicles was to have a generic beastie, not unlike the Deathclaw of Fallout fame, but something that wasn't quite out there in terms of power. The 'slags do form up a sort of community, with female 'slags and 'slag pups, which can prove to be quite a nuisance for any would be scavenger who happens to stumble upon their lair.

They can also serve as bodyguards for some psykers who take control of the poor 'slag, puppeteering it along against its will. And it could make for an interesting encounter line where the players are litterally besieged by 'slags, and have to figure out why they're on the prowl.

Or perhaps a mad scientist has found a nest of 'slags who all have that rare regenerative strain in their genecode, and has sent our hapless adventurers out to retrieve as many samples as possible. But perhaps another budding genetisist is out there, looking for the very same blood samples as the characters. And also, how are you going to go about capturing a walking bundle of muscle? Or reverse the tables and have the players be the 'slags, trying to survive against the evil humans.

But most importantly, they serve perfectly fine in the role as a big, bad monster to make the players sweat a bit during a rather routine "go fetch the crate... deep in the 'slags' nest!" scenario.

Next up:
As I said yesterday, the next thing is going to be a review of Combat Zone and it's possible use for post-apocalyptic wargaming. Stay tuned!

1 comment:

Dr. The Viking said...

Aqua troll = awesome!

Pyre troll = aweful!

You paintjob is fine on both though... but no matter how great the paintjob, I just don't like that pyretroll head - way too cartoony!