A Mix of Finished Figures

 I finished an assortment of figures last night - some that I have definite plans for currently, and some that were sitting primed and I was waiting for other things to arrive. Let's take a look, shall we?

First up, an assortment of Sword-and-Sorcery literary characters. Most of these are from Bronze Age Miniatures, but all are sculpted by David Soderquist.

 While I'd painted Elric previously, he's now joined by one of his longtime companions, the short yet affable Moonglum of Elwher. A thief and mercenary, Moonglum is an incarnation of the Eternal Companion, just as Elric is the Eternal Champion, two bound to fight side by side throughout the multiverse. 

 Fafhrd, a giant red-haired northerner, and his diminutive friend the Gray Mouser, were created by Fritz Leiber and his friend Otto Fischer, and are a pair of cynical but charming rogues who go through a series of picaresque adventures over a span of stories written between 1939 and 1988. There's an excellent 1991 comic adaptation of seven of the stories with art by Mike Mignola, which I used for color inspiration. 

 Conan the Barbarian and his love interest Belit, from the story "Queen of the Black Coast" by Robert E. Howard. Belit is currently sold through Dragon Bait Miniatures, rather than Bronze Age.

 An extremely Frazetta-esque barbarian painted as Conan as well. 

Next up, some more modern figures:

 Two figures from a Copplestone "Girls With Guns" pack I got the other day, painted to join my Jamaican street gang.

 "Corporate Ninjas" from Pontoonier Miniatures, armed with swords and silenced pistols. They're chunkier sculpts but I like the look of them. I painted them with greenish skin and red eyes for a change - are they undead? Possessed? Aliens? Plenty of possibilities. These will be seeing play in "A Fistful of Kung Fu."

So that's 14 more finished figures! I'm certainly pleased with that. The figures I'd ordered for next February's big Fistful of Kung Fu demo table arrived yesterday as well, though I haven't had a chance to lay them out and take photos yet, so let's update the tracker. Things are still looking good! 

 

Miniatures Acquired: 246

Miniatures Painted: 252

Terrain Acquired: 8

Terrain Painted: 10

Scatter Acquired: 15

Scatter Painted: 24

 

Faffing About

 I've been puttering away at plenty of things, and not completing hardly any of them. I did finish the jungle terrain with the Olmec head:

I'm pretty well pleased with how it turned out. 

In other news...

My friend Chris sent me an early birthday present. I'd enthused on BlueSky about the old I-Kore "Celtos" line of Celtic fantasy miniatures, having discovered it's still in production through Brigade Models. I'd been eyeing these models since the early 2000s, but never had a good justification for buying them (and especially back then, when I was in my late teens and didn't have meaningful money coming in). Chris pulled a whopping collection of Celtos Sidhe figures (basically elves) out of his own pile of shame, including archers, swordsmen, mages and dragon riders. 

I may or may not rebase them, but either way I'm overwhelmed by the generosity! 

Besides that...

I found out a local friend of mine has a Wargods of Olympus army from Crocodile Games, which inspired me to dig out the Wargods of AEgyptus army I painted most of back in 2020; the two games are cross-compatible so it's entirely possible I might actually get a game of Wargods in without having to drive to Historicon or Adepticon for it. 

Having been dissatisfied with the contrast paints I used on the Basti Archers (leading them, and the army, to be left unfinished back then), I stripped the paint off them to start fresh, and I cleaned up one of the chariots I'd bought and built some sub-assemblies for painting. 

Once painted, the horses will have their tabs trimmed off and the entire assembly glued just to the 50x100 chariot base. I've misplaced one of the chariot runners in the past six years, which is annoying but not insurmountable. 

I'll do these with contrast paints to match the rest of the army, though the Basti will be getting a blue and white color scheme instead of the turquoise and red look I tried in 2020, and probably some more variety in their fur colors. Also, all of the bases in the army are getting redone to replace the awful "baking soda and superglue painted as sand" thing I tried to do back then. 

So let's update that tracker:

Miniatures Acquired: 116

Miniatures Painted: 87

Terrain Acquired: 1

Terrain Painted: 5

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

Elric of Melnibone

 I had to put the Warhammer Orcs aside; I got hit with a bad case of painter's block and just couldn't keep going on them. Instead, I pulled out some Sword & Sorcery (and Sword & Planet, it's interstellar cousin) figures from Bronze Age Miniatures and got them cleaned up, glued to bases and primed; I've been eyeing Bronze Age's figures for a very long time - since the days when about half their catalogue was "blank" figures intended for you to sculpt your own hair and clothing on to, but it took me quite a while to pull the trigger.

Last night, I pulled one of them and set to work. Bronze Age lists this figure as "Grey Elf Wolf Lord with Rune Sword" but he's pretty immediately identifiable as Elric of Melnibone, a creation of British author Michael Moorcock. First appearing in print in 1961, Elric was conceived as something of an anti-Conan; instead of being a big beefy barbarian who eventually makes himself king, Elric is a sickly albino sorcerer-king, ruler of a cruel race, too conscientious and empathetic to be loved by his subjects, and kept alive by the vampiric powers of his demonic sword Stormbringer. He's doomed to bring about the end of the world, a fate he struggles to free himself from. 

Elric's story continues on in music and roleplaying games, and has served as inspiration for later characters across a variety of media. My introduction to him actually came in the form of the Blue Oyster Cult song "Black Blade," which Moorcock had collaborated on with the band to develop the lyrics. 

Outside of his eyes and the gems on his sword, I tried to sticker to cooler and neutral tones as much as possible for the color palette; I do intend to go back and add some snow to his base to "chill" the composition further, I just didn't have the time to do so tonight.

I've also had some fun stuff arrive today - Forge of Ice is taking over production and sale of Barbaric Splendour's "Ophidian Menace" figures as Kevin from Barbaric Splendour has had to step back from the business for health reasons, and Alex was kind enough to send me a set of figures since I'm doing some freelance writing for him.

As well as a spectacular piece of resin-cast terrain:

This gateway is part of a set of crumbling stone walls and towers he's been working with Ian at Fenris Games to develop, which will hopefully be going on sale later this year. Part of why he sent this to me is because I'm one of the people who made this piece possible; the battling monitor lizards design on the doors was based on a drawing done to illustrate an RPG scenario I wrote for Alex, set in his Bronze Age Lost World setting of Azor. 

Gina also ordered me some more Bronze Age Miniatures figures, and I placed an order with Gringo 40s, so it's time to update the tracker:

Miniatures Acquired: 97

Miniatures Painted: 87

Terrain Acquired: 1

Terrain Painted: 2

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

Boo!

 I've been progressing very, very slowly on the Wolf Tribe, with a lot of time spent going back and doing touch-ups or finding recessed areas I've missed. Between that and the "15 different shades of brown" color palette, I felt like I needed a quick and easy win at the hobby table. 

I think my second Tribal warband, my Northstar Neanderthals, are going to be done almost entirely in speed paints just to make the process faster. 

A dip into my Pile of Opportunity later, I pulled out "Borley, Male Ghost" from Reaper Miniatures' Dark Heavens Legends line of metal figures. Sculpted by Bob Ridolfi (my absolute favorite sculptor for undead figures), I reckoned it would be a fast and easy paint job.

Over a coat of white primer, I painted the entire figure with GW "Nilakh Oxide.". This is a fairly thin blue-green, intended for creating verdigris effects on metals. Over white, it functions like a wash, pooling pigment in the recesses. Once that had dried, I gave the whole figure a light drybrush of Reaper "Misty Gray" before giving the eye sockets a light glaze of GW "Bloodletter" (an out of production glaze). I picked out the eyes themselves with Reaper "Phoenix Red" and finally dotted the pupils with my old bottle of Vallejo "Golden Yellow." 

I think overall he looks like a glowing spectral figure, with extra-glowy red eyes, and I'm really happy with how he turned out. 

So what's next? 

I've got a few games of Fistful of Lead on the schedule at my local game store in the coming weeks, and I think I'll need to paint 2 or 3 figures for those. 

I've also picked up the PDF of "Devilry Afoot," a solo/co-op folk horror game from Nic Wright at Irregular Wars. The 17th century setting grabbed me more than The Silver Bayonet's Napoleonic era, and I do love my solo games. The ghost I've painted above join the bestiary for this game; I've got Ghouls, Vampires and Werewolves already, so I don't need much more than just Witches, Revenants and Innocents (NPC villagers for the player-characters to rescue) to add. 

Despite not intending to order anything until next payday, I had a bad day at work yesterday and responded by ordering a couple packs from Bloody Miniatures to represent my Hunters. C'est la vie. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 90

Figures Painted in 2025: 86

Demo Day AAR

 So yesterday, March 8th, the game store I've begun visiting locally - Harlequin Hobby in Cheektowaga NY - held a big day-long event (literally, noon to midnight) for people to demonstrate games they love and stir up interest. I signed on to run quick demos of Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead - the only truly indie game there, everyone else was running games with global distribution networks and marketing budgets that the store already stocked. 

Since I didn't need as much space as something like Warhammer 40K, I got put in the upstairs gaming hall - something I didn't even know the store had until yesterday! I got set up alongside a guy running Marvel Dice Throne and another running Marvel Crisis Protocol. My demo scenario was pretty simple - small gangs of orcs squabbling over division of treasure after a battle. Scaled it down to a 2' x 2' board and created warbands of just 3 figures apiece using my Oldhammer Orcs. 

The first hour and a half were pretty quiet, but a couple people walked by and asked about my set-up and I gave my sales pitch of what the game is and why they should play it. A lot of people were wowed by my painted metal figures as well. 

From 1:30 to 4, I ran four 20-30 minute demo games in pretty quick succession, and gave my sales pitch to probably 10 additional people, including a couple of store employees who couldn't sit down and play for 30 minutes. I only remembered to take photos of the last demo game, unfortunately.

Everyone who sat down at my table had fun, and left with a smile on their face, which is more than I could say for some of the other games I witnessed. I didn't get a chance to wander the demo games downstairs in the main play space, but a bunch of Warhammer 40K players showed up and decided to take over some table space across from me for a pick-up game, to practice for an event next weekend. Those guys just looked miserable the entire time they were playing, and an argument over rules broke out between a pair of identical twins - imagine the Marx Brothers mirror gag with Harpo and Groucho pointing furiously at PDF files on an ipad and you've got an idea. 

At 4 o'clock, after my last game wrapped up (and I was only scheduled for noon to 4) and I was putting my things back in my bag, a guy who'd drifted by and glanced at my table a few times came up and asked if I was still running games because he wanted to play. I apologized, let him know I'd only been booked for noon to 4, but informed him I'd be back to run more in the coming weeks because it's a game I love and there's definite interest at the store for more. 

Magnetize, Magnetize!

 Not much exciting going on at the moment on my paint desk, but I am working my way through magnetizing all of my orcs and goblins' bases and their movement trays. That's where the bulk of my hobby time has gone for the past week.

The movement trays are 3D printed, with spacers to convert to Warhammer The Old World unit footprints (which is a lot more appealing than rebasing 200-ish figures). Each slot in the base has a depression for a little magnet, so I'm gluing magnets into the trays and gluing squares of sheet steel to the underside of each base. Once the weather improves I'll hit the movement trays with a coat of green spray paint and flock the tops so the bases blend in. 

As you can see, there's a couple units here left to paint and even more in boxes behind them. The biggest limiting factor is going to be that the green I use for their skin is no longer being made, so once my stockpile runs dry I may have to stop. 

Fistful of Lead Fantasy: Battle for the Goddess

 I've had cavemen on my mind lately; between seeing people painting Lucid Eye figures on Facebook, and David Sullivan's posts on his blog about the game Tribal, I've been itching for some stone age action. So I've placed another order at Lucid Eye for a copy of their "Savage Core" rules and some Ice Age-ready Amazons, and ordered Tribal 2nd edition with a tribe's worth of Bobby Jackson-sculpted cavemen. In the meantime, I got out some Lucid Eye "Neolithics" cavemen I painted last year, along with some "Cult of the Cyclops" cultists from Forge of Ice. Going through my terrain box, I found a Venus of Willendorf-style idol from Reaper Miniatures, and a scenario was born. 

A lush, isolated valley holds the ruins of an ancient temple, and with stands the Goddess - a fertility idol of untold age and potency. Two sinister groups - one, the Cult of the Cyclops, led by the vicious and conniving Kandar-Itaa; the other, a gang of thuggish prehumans led by a terrifying and alien Pterro-Man - have converged on the valley, both with evil intentions towards the idol. 

 

The Pterro-Man, with its second in command, Chief Mu-ok Man-God and his tribe, sought to perform a ritual at the feet of the Goddess that would give the Pterro-Man greater influence over other tribes of prehumans, bringing them under its evil sway. The Pterro-Man can fly and exert hypnotic influence over humans (in proper Burroughsian fashion), while the cavemen have an assortment of traits making them much more vicious in close combat.  

 

Meanwhile, under warlock Kandar-Itaa's direction, the Cult of the Cyclops seeks to corrupt the Goddess, ensuring that there would be a huge increase in the number of cyclops mutations born across all the kingdoms of the Hollow Earth. Kandar-Itaa himself has spellcasting powers, Urgu the Cyclops is large and frightening, and the rest of the cultists are armed with bronze swords and studded dinosaur-leather armor.

 Both groups began to fan out as they moved towards the Goddess; before long, Urgu and one of the cultists encountered Torg the Hunter and a lesser tribal warrior, while Kandar-Itaa blasted Mu-ok Man-God with a Searing Bolt. The ape-man chief, writhing with pain, lost his next activation, while Urgu bashed Torg to death with a huge, roughly-shaped chunk of obsidian. 

 

 

 

The smell of blood drew a huge predatory dinosaur into the valley, where it beelined towards the first humanoid it saw: Jaal, one of Mu-ok's tribal hunters. Jaal managed to stick the gigantic beast with his spear, and another tribal warrior raced to assist.  

 

The giant dinosaur quickly ate both Jaal and the lesser warrior, striking fear into the hearts of both the Pterro-Man and Mu-ok Man-God. The Man-God lived up to his name and shrugged off the fear, charging the dinosaur...and getting eaten. The dinosaur, sated, stalked off. 

 Meanwhile,  a pair of tribal warriors charged Urgu and a nearby cultist, savagely beating them with clubs until both the cyclops and the cultist fled the battlefield. 

The Pterro-Man, rattled by the dinosaur eating so many of its underlings, was not able to put up a strong defense when Kandar-Itaa and his followers arrived in the temple. The Pterro-Man died shrieking under the hacking bronze blades of the Cult of the Cyclops, while Kandar-Itaa himself polluted the mystical power of the Goddess. A new, darker future dawned for the tribes and kingdoms of the Hollow Earth...

All in all a great game, and a fast one too; I think this one was over in about four turns. No complaints here, because I got a late start playing tonight, so I'm very satisfied with how this one turned out.

Da Red Bastids - 25 Orc Boyz

 Back in 2021, as part of the 4th Old World Army Challenge, I painted two blocks of 12 Orcs from Warmonger Miniatures. I love the pot-bellied, barefoot aesthetic of these orcs, as well as the sheer variety of sculpts available (including plenty of nose-pickers and raspberry-blowers!). 12 figures set these up nicely as units that could be used for Dragon Rampant or Warlords of Erewhon, but I knew if I ever wanted to play WHFB, Kings of War or Oathmark with this army, I'd need to bulk the units up. November 2022, I decided to finally do just that and purchased an extra 26 Orcs during Warmonger's Christmas sale. I painted three figures in January, got sick of using brush-on primer, and decided to wait until the weather warmed up and dried out so I could spray prime the rest.

Over the past week, I finished up the first unit, including a new banner and new shields (also from Warmonger) because I didn't want to be fussed trying to remember where the shields I'd used for the original 12 came from and getting more (I'm pretty sure they were WHFB 6th edition Skeleton shields, actually). No longer "Dem Lads Ova Dere" or "the Beans Regiment," they are reborn as Da Red Bastids tribe.

I even did the smart thing and numbered their bases so that I can rank them back up like this in the future.

Fistful of Lead Fantasy: "Ambush!"

 It's been a while since my last game, so I decided to get myself organized to play something; I was showing my Oldhammer Orcs off on Discord the other day, and that got me inspired to use them for a Fantasy skirmish. I picked out the Archmage Lutholio to oppose them and a scenario from the second volume of the Fistful of Lead fantasy trilogy and away we went!

The set-up for this scenario is that Archmage Lutholio and his retinue have been hunting the orc warboss Thrashemall Bonegrinder through the dusty hills; when they pause at a bubbling spring to refill their waterskins, Bonegrinder's mob sprung out at them from ambush. Notably, Bonegrinder himself was held in reserve.

 

ARCHMAGE LUTHOLIO'S RETINUE (Group Trait: Fearless)

• Archmage Lutholio (Leader; Spellcaster, Cunning, Impervious), armed with a Sword and Staff 
• Captain Arnulf von Grenzstadt (Sergeant; Brute, Determined), armed with a Sword, Shield and Heavy Armor
• Hans (Regular; Cunning), armed with a Sword, Shield and Light Armor
• Franz (Regular; Thundering Charge), armed with a Sword, Shield and Light Armor 
• Halfling Scouts (Rabble; Deadeye, Small, Slippery), armed with Bows

 

BONEGRINDER'S MOB (Group Trait: Bloodthirsty)

 

• Warboss Thrashemall Bonegrinder (Leader; Veteran, Inspiring, Fearsome Appearance), armed with a Sword, Shield, Heavy Armor and riding a Warboar
• Wyrdboy Oldgit Finkem (Sergeant; Spellcaster, Cunning), armed with a Sword and Staff
• Bogloaf Gunderstank (Regular; Ferocious) armed with a Two-Handed Axe and Light Armor
• Zagrot Scabknees (Regular; Solid as a Rock) armed with a Sword, Shield and Light Armor
• Foamin Mad Arsegit (Regular; Flurry of Blows) armed with a Club, Shield and Light Armor
• Goblin Rabble (Rabble; Ranger, Small, Slippery) armed with Bows 

Activating first, Lutholio threw a fireball at the goblin rabble, incinerating one of the little blighters and sending the other two scurrying for cover. Not to be outdone, Oldgit Finkem waved his staff and summoned heavy clouds, bathing the battlefield in darkness. Zagrot Scabknees leapt out of cover to attack Hans, while the first turn saw everyone else more or less moving into position.  One of the surviving goblins fired a shot at Lutholio, putting a Shock token on the wizard.

 

Turn two is where things started to get interesting. Lutholio tried to recover from Shock and rolled a "1," meaning he routed off the battlefield entirely. Not only did this not bode well for the rest of his retinue, but it also meant that the orcs couldn't get the victory points for killing him. 

 

Zagrot found himself fighting Hans and Franz, and getting wounded. Bogloaf rushed Captain Arnulf, which didn't go well for him; the Captain immediately Shook Bogloaf, then activated and attacked again, wounding the orc. Oldgit Finkem kept his spell of darkness going for a second round, keeping ranged attacks limited. Foamin Mad Arsegit charged the Captain as well, with no better results than Bogloaf had. 

At the beginning of Turn 3, Thrashemall charged onto the battlefield, immediately trampling one of the halflings into paste. Captain Arnulf stepped over Foamin Mad's carcass and finished off Bogloaf Gunderstank. Oldgit Finkem, allowing the darkness spell to dissipate, cast "Lightning Bolt" on Captain Arnulf, frying him instantly. Zagrot, down and getting kicked repeatedly by Hans and Franz, managed to crawl away and route off the table. 

 

The next few rounds are a little samey-samey; Hans and Thrashemall stay locked in combat for a bit, while Hans darts off to challenge Oldgit; the remaining halflings squabble with the remaining goblins. I will say that Hans really held his own against the orc warboss for a lot longer than I expected he would, and managed to score a few hits of his own before being gutted and stomped into the ground. 

 

Hans made short work of Oldgit Finkem once he managed to close into melee with the orc spellcaster, and the remaining halflings finish off the goblins before one of them routed from shock and the other got run down by Thrashemall. At the end it came down to Hans versus Thrashemall, and when the dust settled, Thrashemall was fleeing the battlefield as fast as his pig could carry him. 

In the final tally of victory points (counting each group of Rabble as only 1 point), the Wizard's Retinue scored 10 VP, while the orcs scored 3. But with Lutholio fleeing the table at the first sign of actual danger and leaving his men to die in his absence, we'll see how long it is until the Tower of the Archmage is under new management.

Talanka, Ogre Shaman

I signed up for a *lot* of painting challenges on social media for October, and so far this is the one I'm the proudest of having completed. I spent two weeks on this "Talanka, Ogre Shaman" from Reaper Miniatures and I think it's some of the best work I've done, ever. She's a heavy chunk of metal though, so my wrist is very glad to be done!

Fistful of Lead Fantasy: "The Haunted Ruins"

 With October being here and Halloween being on the horizon, I figured it was high time I got some spooky gaming in! With the Chaos types I just finished, I was in a Fantasy mood, and as luck would have it there's a scenario in the Fistful of Lead Fantasy: Might and Melee book with warbands duking it out in a haunted ruin as ghosts swirl around them. Perfect!

The Archmage Lutholio and his retinue, and the followers of the Blood God, commanded by Korgan Bloodaxe, both arrived at the haunted ruins, following rumors that an enchanted sword was buried somewhere within. To find it, they would need to decipher clues carved on five timeworn statues. Each time a statue is deciphered, it spawns a ghost that moves randomly around the battlefield. Any figure that activates within 6" of a ghost has to past a Hard Task roll (8+ on a D10) or gain a Shock token, reducing their effectiveness. The sword is hidden under the final statue, meaning by the time the sword is obtained, there will be five ghosts moving around. 

ARCHMAGE LUTHOLIO'S RETINUE (Group Trait: Fearless)

• Archmage Lutholio (Leader; Veteran, Spellcaster, Observant), armed with a Sword and Staff 
• Zweihander Wilhelm (Sergeant; Brute, Determined), armed with a 2-Handed Sword and Heavy Armor
• Hans (Regular; Cunning), armed with a Sword, Shield and Light Armor
• Franz (Regular; Thundering Charge), armed with a Sword, Shield and Light Armor 
• Halfling Scouts (Rabble; Deadeye, Cowardly, Stealthy), armed with Bows
  

FOLLOWERS OF THE BLOOD GOD (Group Trait: Bloodthirsty)

• Korgan Bloodaxe (Leader; Veteran, Two Fisted, Street Fighter) armed with an Axe, Mace and Heavy Armor
• Sargus Jawbreaker (Sergeant; Thundering Charge, Determined) armed with a 2-Handed Axe and Heavy Armor
• Grim-Gory (Regular; Brawler) armed with a Mace and Light Armor
• Three-Eyes (Regular; Ranger) armed with a 2-Handed Axe and Light Armor
• Argor Bloodhoof (Regular; Flurry of Blows) armed with 2 Axes and Light Armor

With time being of the essence (at the beginning of Turn 6, I would roll a die to determine if it was the final turn or not), both warbands fanned out immediately into the ruins, with Lutholio casting the spell "Light-Footed" on Hans and depositing him right in front of one of the mid-table statues to start investigating immediately. Hampered by their heavy armor, Korgan, Sargus and Wilhelm struggled with statues nearer the edge of the ruins; the Halflings spread out to take up shooting positions, while the beastmen (who maybe can't even read), moved in to get violent. 

 Hans deciphered his statue, unleashing a ghost, and was almost immediately confronted by Grim-Gory, though he actually won the fight and pushed the beastman back, making room for the halflings to pepper him with arrows (ineffectively).

Korgan deciphered his first statue and moved deeper into the ruins, while Sargus continued to puzzle over his. Franz managed to decipher a statue towards the middle of the table, bringing the total for Lutholio's retinue up to 2, and the number of ghosts on the table up to 3. Three-Eyes and Argor Bloodhoof converged on Franz's location, though Argor stopped long enough to bisect a halfling on his way there.

Lutholio cast "Light-Footed" a second time to get Franz away from the beastmen and towards a third statue, though unfortunately this put him directly in front of Sargus, who decided to take his frustration at the translation out on him. Meanwhile, Hans, pursuing a fleeing Grim-Gory, got charged and dismembered by Korgan.

Sargus returned to his statue, finally completing his translation (releasing Ghost #4), while Korgan moved towards the center of the table, and the beastmen turned their attention towards the two remaining halflings and Wilhelm. Lutholio hit Korgan with a Fireball, incinerating the blood-crazed warlord, and Wilhelm began to cleave through the beastmen as fast as they came at him.

With Wilhelm hacking and slashing at their foes, Lutholio stepped in to begin deciphering the final statue as Sargus joined the fray, being wounded by Wilhelm but managing to stab the knight on his way down, leaving them both wrestling in the spreading pool of blood. 

The Ghost King awakens as the enchanted sword is found!

Really? You floating there is inconvenient to everyone.

Armed with the enchanted sword, Lutholio stepped in and finished off Sargus; Wilhelm activated on the Queen of Hearts, healing his Wound and allowing him to stand up refreshed and finish off Grim-Gory. The sun rose over Lutholio's victory as he gathered up his wounded and slain followers and set off for him, leaving the followers of the Blood God, slain to a man, for the buzzards. 

All in all, a great use of my Sunday evening; I made a few mistakes in play (I forgot that Lutholio's retinue had the Fearless group trait, meaning they ended up taking more penalties from Shock tokens than they should have, for the first half of the game) and it really wasn't a scenario that Korgan Bloodaxe's men were going to excel at meeting the victory conditions for, but I had a lot of fun. There were a couple moments where ghosts parked themselves squarely in the middle of fights - at one point, all but three figures on the table were within 6" of the same ghost - so everyone was collecting Shock tokens pretty much constantly from Turn 2 onwards, even with three of the ghosts ultimately just circling one corner of the ruins for the final three turns. 

Speaking of Turns; in the setup for this scenario there is a turn limit; at the beginning of Turn 6 I rolled a D10; on a result of 1-6, it would be the final turn, 7+ would tell me the turn the game ended on. I rolled a 9. Wilhelm finished off the last of the Blood God's followers (also, holy crap, Wilhelm successfully fought and put Out of Action 3 of the 5 members of the enemy warband) on Turn 8. Armor definitely prolonged some of the early fights, but Wilhelm's 2-handed sword ignored the beastmen's light armor and cut a pretty quick swath through them.