Personalities: Banak

This is a Reaper miniature, not sure of the name or product number. I thought he was pretty close to the representation of Banak from The Bloodstone Lands. He's a bit beefed up, so perhaps he's a few levels higher than he was when Larry Elmore painted that cover.

I don't think I like very much how the beard turned out, I should maybe have gone with white rather than black so he'd look a little more goat-like.

Here is the original cover painting for reference:

NPC: Unroch Rexohi, Quotspa, and Zerlina

Unroch Rexohi is a mighty young warrior of the Lost Tribe of the Great Worm. The Lost Tribe arrived in Archwood almost 25 years ago through a one way gate. At that time a hunting expedition came upon an ancient ruin in Lurkwood. They were examining the area and all passed through an archway. The stone archway suddenly blazed with blue fire and transported them across the vast distance to archwood. Here, the tribe essentially re-invented itself and waits for a sign that will take its people home.
Unroch has a brother named Quotspa, who is a priest of Tempus. The two brothers have recently begun adventuring together, joined in their company by a female human ranger named Zerlina.

Zerlina was born in the small Cormyr frontier town of Thunderstone. She was the daughter of two adventurers who were members of the Company of the Flaming Falcon. This company had been employed by a Cormyte merchant to clear a large area of the Hullack Forest for lumbering, and they headquartered in a log fort just inside the treeline. One night black orcs radied the fort and killed all the members of the company, and the young Zerlina was taken by the orcs and placed in a slave pen.

She was rescued by a very old druid named Tildeth and her friend, the ranger Abdenthar. These two women would raise the child, and train her in the ways of Meillikki. Zerlina became a ranger as well, and when it came time to take a follower, she was honored by a fire falcon, a fitting tribute to her murdered parents.

I lived for a very short time in Chicago, and while I was there I started a campaign with Jeff Goode (who played Quotspa), my now ex (Zerlina) and a good friend of ours named Brett (Unroch). We played once a week, but the short story is that I didn't live in Chicago very long, so it was a very short campaign. I think we played through one complete adventure--the Fountain of Health side trip in an issue of Dungeon Magazine. The real lesson here is not to invest mountains of prep and detailed backstory into your campaign...the characters could get killed off quickly or the players could move out of town...or, in this case, the DM could.

The other lesson, I suppose, is that if you are the DM, its nice if you own all the miniatures--including the PCs. I'm glad to still have these on my shelf, and will likely include them as NPCs in my campaign.

Unroch is a Ral Partha figure, I think he came with some sort of animal, Quotspa was from the Heroe Quest game set. I actually thought that was a pretty decent game, though I never played by the rules. You got some decent plastic minis and some stand up things like a fireplace and table...both of which I still use. It was fun painting him up like a priest of Tempus, because their vestments are the dried blood of their foes. To be a priest of Tempus is never to have to wash, I guess.

Zerlina is a Rafm mini, as are the lesiban duo who resuced her. These were my ex-wife's characters and she painted them herself. She seemed to give the whole D&D thing an honest roll. Didn't make my save, though.

NPC: Alzador

Alzador is a wizard of moderate level who will provide training to lower level magicians and offer magical assistance when needed, for a price. He lives in the tower on the uppermost level, along with whatever student he is currently tutoring.

Alzador has quite a few powerful magical items, one of which is his enchanted crown--but no one knows what the enchantments are. He likes to wear it while walking on the roof of his tower, but never wears it outside the building. The locals refer to him as the King of Bug Tussle, and Alzador actually thinks this is a complimentary remark!

Alzador joined the Hopeful Seven after Shandar was cast out from the group when it was still operating out of Epping, in the Kindom of Ool, on the far side of the Anauroch desert.

This miniature is another one that I got from that hobby store in San Francisco. It is stamped Ral Partha 1977 on the bottom. I bought it because it reminded me of a character I played in a play in High School, which was written (I think) by my High School speech teacher, Harvey Green. The play was Alzador and the Enchanted Crown. I had a blue robe and a big staff and a long grey beard. This miniature looked pretty close to what I imagined the character to be like. I see him pop up in hobby stores and on eBay a lot, and in almost every case the top of the staff is broken off and missing...just like what happened to mine some years back. I took a staff from the Reaper Warlord accessories and cut it to size and glued it on the hand. I think this is a nicer staff than the original, which was just a long cudgel. I just finished painting him yesterday...he's been in my collection for nearly two decades and I never finished painting him because I didn't want to paint it without fixing the staff and I just couldn't find the right piece until recently when I went through my Reaper spare parts.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the Ringo Starr who made Shandar the Pete Best of the Hopeful Seven.

I decided that I will photograph the mini the first time before I put the varnish on it, that should be a fair compromise.

NPC: Ransom

Ransom the Thief was an adventuring partner of Too Bad Jim before joining The Hopeful Seven.

Ransom was a very accomplished thief before settling down in Bug Tussle. At one point he was captain of a great flying ship, and he has traveled further over the Realms than most have dreamed of going.

His two great failings are that he easily falls into unrequited love and then he turns to drink for comfort. Too Bad likes him, but disdainfully refers to Ransom as an "accidental worshipper of Sharess."

Ransom still has retains all of his thief abilities, but when he is drunk they are at 1/2. It would take a good long drying out period to get them back to full strength and Ransom would be constantly in danger of falling off the wagon if he undertook any adventuring these days--in particular if he is around Too Bad Jim, who takes delight in the fellow off the wagon and baiting him with questions about his love life or taunting him with tales of the objects of his affection (both past and present) visiting him in his temple.

Ransom rarely leaves his house, which is fashioned like a small castle. It is in a poor state of repair however, and a bit of an eyesore. Ransom will provide training if he is sober, otherwise he will make any sort of promise necessary in order to get a drink, and promptly forget that promise as soon as he has the drink in hand.

Although he has drunk away a vast portion of his adventuring fortune he still has enough that his house is well stocked with drinks and pipeweed, one of the primary reasons you can find Putnam, the Captain of the Guard from Fort Aumry, there on most evenings. Ransom and Aumry dress up in various ancient uniforms they have collected and sing songs from armies both ancient and modern, human and demi-human.

This miniature and somewhat sorry character were the ones I used in Goode's world. When Ransom was adventuring, he was quite a clever and charismatic thief. Once he wished for a flying ship and it fell on him out of the sky...smashing into kindling. Too clever by half. I think Jeff took pity on me and rewound time until I could get the wording of the wish exactly right. Once we had the flying ship, Too Bad, Ransom, and Snod's dwarf character...whose name escapes me...all went flying around being Wind Pirates with Too Bad creating a barrel of gin a day.

At any rate, Ransom is the final original member of the Hopeful Seven. I left him in this sorry state to remind me of the bad end I might have come to had I not left my wind pirate days behind me and reformed.

NPC: Too Bad Jim

Too Bad claims to hold the office of Exalted Grand High Priest of Sharess—and does, in fact, maintain one of the few remaining "temples" to that diminishing power. Sharess is a Lesser Power whose worship is waning in the Realms as more people lean toward Sune and Lliira.

While Sharess worshipers appreciate beauty and parties, Sharess is the god of the idle rich and decadents of any stripe, catering to less socially acceptable pleasures and outright hedonism. Her portfolio includes lust, free love, sensual fulfillment, drunkenness, and excess of all kinds. The local farmers wives would not call this a temple, but are more inclined to refer to it as the "shameless whore house" run by that "degenerate little man".

In addition to the "clergy" or prostitutes, if you will, Too Bad Jim also has a mighty fine tonic he calls “Holier Water” that is really nothing but gin. This gin is magically created by Too Bad himself, who was granted a wish on one of his adventures and which gave him the ability to create gin at will.

Regardless of anyone’s opinion of his religion, he is a fully qualified priest and will pray, cast spells, heal, and provide other services for a "donation". The "temple" does rent rooms, but only by the hour.

Too Bad Jim also has a small shop called "Priest in a Poke" where he sells items which might be needed by travelling clergy of all faiths.

When we played in high school, each player had a party of 5 members. You've met the original 5 already...Galen, Groot Hairfoot, Thom the One Armed Bandit, Christo Lackey, and Shandar the Ashen One. I used a different mini back then for Shandar, but I don't think I still have it. It was a very tiny wizard leaning on a staff. I like the Heritage Gandalf mini much better, it is closer in scale to the others.

At any rate...how did the Hopeful Seven become 7 in number?

Well, in college I started playing in another campaign, this one run by Jeff Goode. He was a really amazing DM, and I had a lot of fun. One of the other players in that game was Stan Ruth, who was in the theatre program at Iowa with me. His character in the game was Too Bad Jim, and this is the miniature he used. I've done a minor repaint on it because the enamal paint has really chipped away. I tried to keep the flavor of his original paint job, though. Too Bad was a priest, but I don't think Jeff was using a specific campaign world or mythos. I remember that Too Bad got a wish, and he wished for the "Create Gin" spell-like ability.

Stan gave the mini to me after Jeff moved to go to grad school and we stopped playing. I incorporated the character into the Hopeful seven...because we didn't have a priest.

NPC: Galen

Galen, in his day, was one of the greatest fighters in the Realms. He often had terrible tangles with his brother Morgan (LG hm Paladin 18), but it has been quite some time since the two have locked horns. Morgan is not a frequent visitor to Bug Tussle.

Galen was the leader of the Hopeful Seven, and a dual classed fighter/bard. He is currently retired and living in Bug Tussel, the town he helped found after he and his companions destroyed a giant insect infestation. He owns and operates a tavern called The Fighter’s Own.

Despite the tavern’s name, it is a haven for all travelers, not just warriors, although fighters are certainly are the target demographic. This is a favorite haunt of sword swingers of all levels who come to drink and to boast of their exploits or to meet with other adventurerers to plot new ones.

This miniature is the one that represented me when we played in high school. I know the paint job is horrible and the colors look like Mike Grell tried to sculpt Santa Claus, but back in those days when all you had was Testor's model paint, there weren't nearly so many colors to choose from.The mini had a lute on his back, which I scraped out the sides and painted like my own Hoefner Beatle Bass--left handed, of course. I really liked the mini for use as my game alter ego, because it was left handed, had a guitar of sorts, and did look like Mike Grell's Warlord. I was a very big Travis Morgan fan in those days. Still am, actually. I could repaint him to improve the look a little, but I think I'll keep him exactly as is...because the paint is also part of my personal gaming history.

NPC: Thom, the One Armed Bandit

Thom is another member of the original Hopeful Seven. Before he lost his arm he was a brigand who waylaid travellers on the highways outside of Epping, in the kingdom of Ool. Early in their career, the band that would become the Hopeful Seven were set upon by Thom and his bandit boys. In the fight, Galen severed Thom's sword arm. The rest of the unlucky bandit's compatriots fled and left him for dead. Pleading for mercy, Too Bad Jim healed him, but could not reattach the arm. Thom now asked them to kill him outright, for he had few prospects as a one armed man in a very dangerous world.

Moved to pity, Galen spared him his life and determined to show him that he could be useful, in spite of his lost arm. He was accepted into the company and proved himself invaluable on a number of occaisions due to his wealth of accumulated experience and the lockpicking skills of his remaining fingers. He remained with the company until they retired in Bugtussle, where he opened a shop and became a merchant. He named the store after his infirmity, and the nickname he'd had since that meeting on the road so many years before.

Thom mis the proprietor of The One Armed Bandit, an outfitters where many items for the road are bought and sold. Thom still has some less than savory connections, in spite of a gradual alignment shift over the years.

The shop has just about anything (non-weapon) you need for long journeys and if it hasn't got it, Thom can get it for you in less than 7 days. Every item on the Miscellaneous Equipment Table on page 67 of the PHB can be bought here, at twice the price listed.

This is another of the minis from that Heritage Paint 'n Play set. His arm was broken when I opened the box, and I could never get it to glue back on and stay, so I just left it that way and started calling him "the one armed bandit" which I still think is pretty funny.

Because of Thom’s handicap, he only earns 15 skill points per level, as it is harder to learn to do the skill with only one hand. He also suffered a penalty to his base wall climbing ability, so 30 points were taken from his starting 60 and placed in other skill areas.

NPC: Christo Lackey

Christo Lackey is another core member of the Hopeful Seven, and lives in Bug Tussle. He is a sturdy fighter and excellent horseman. Now retired from adventuring, he runs My Father's Blade, a pawn shop for weapons. is a cruel joke. Many who come to get money in time of need do indeed pawn their father's swords and armor. This is the best shop of its kind in the area, and things pawned are often sold long before the money is raised to retrieve it. Many a fine family heirloom has changed hands here. Of course, it is a convenient place to unload all those extra weapons picked up after a fight or scouting mission to the catacombs. Christo will pay 25% of the value of any weapon, and then sells them for three times cost. As a result you can find real bargains here. He admanantly reprimands people who call his wares "used." He prefers to call them “proven” weapons.

Christo is also adamant about not being a fence for stolen goods, and will accept no weapon without a signed piece of paper assuring him that you are the sole and rightful owner, all these papers are then kept on file. A used version of most any weapon in the Arms and Equipment Guide can be bought here (75% chance in stock and 10% chance of a defect. If one is present, roll on the weapons defects table and then haggle for a price).

In addition to the normal fare, Christo has a fine collection of more valuable weapons and is quite proud of them--many worth thousands of gold pieces. Theft is infrequent as it is also widely known that some of the magical shields hanging from the walls are actually imprisoned monsters that can be released to fight as an ally of the shield owner. Also one of the items in the shop, no one knows exactly which one, is an ever vigilant sentinel.

This is another of the very first miniatures I ever owned, and it came in the same Heritage Paint 'n Play set.

NPC: Groot Hairfoot

Groot Hairfoot is one of the original members of The Hopeful Seven. He is an excellent sneak thief and very skilled with the bow. His particular specialty is finding and removing traps.

Now retired, Groot runs Hairfoot's Barefoot Inn in Bug Tussle and trains novice rogues as a sideline.

This miniature is one of the oldest in my collection. It came in the Heritage Dungeon Dwellers Paint 'n Play set I got when I was still in High School. The little feller's been on more adventures than you can shake a shortbow at.

NPC: Dwarf with No Name

The Dwarf with No Name is a gruff and mysterious ranger who arrived in Bug Tussle with a frail and injured young woman two years ago. The woman was Ada Janko and she'd come to study magic under the instruction of Alzador the Mage of Hopeful Seven.

The dwarf never says anything, to anyone, for any reason. Many believe that his tongue was cut out, but that isn't true. You can sometimes see him licking his cigar butt and he will stick it out to scare children away from him. No one knows who he is or where he comes from, except that he knows the trail through the Dagger Hills like an expert and has been known to frequent the Broken Dagger in Dagger Falls. Some people say they have seen him in the company of a beautiful elven woman in tattered chain mail on the edge of the Border Forest, but nobody much believes this.

In any event, he has taken on the role of guardian of the young wizardess, and she has grown very fond of him, feeling as though he is almost a father figure. He never lacks for golden coin, and there are many rumors of a vast horde hiden in a secret cache out in the wilds of the Dagger Hills.

I got this miniature on that same mystery trip to California. I have always loved the sculpt. Unfortunately, over the years, mine has been dropped or something, because his cigar broke off and his hat is crushed down over his eyes. I could proably get another one on eBay, but this one has been in my collection so long, it just wouldn't feel right. I can probably make a new cigar for him out of brown stuff.

NPC: Corwyn Leafsong

Corwyn Leafsong is a very young High Elf who has made a home in the Dalelands. She was born into a small group of Sun Elves who had not left for Evermeet, but instead elected to remain in a settlement in the Border Forest north of Dagger Falls. They did not interfere in the affairs of humans in the dale, but did watch them closely and monitored the trade route along the River Tesh. She is currently 153 years old. When she was only 53, her family was wiped out in a drow attack on her settlement. Her mother hid her, and so she escaped the ruthless, murderous dark elves. She has lived alone since then, but vows to one day track the drow that killed her family. She believes that Colderan Morn, the Mage Lord at the time, was partly responsible if not directly. He was known to have had dealings with the drow, and may have ordered them to eliminate any elven threat to his authority in the dale.

Corwyn has searched the surrounding lands and as yet has found no passage to the underdark. She suspects that the tunnels might be inside the town walls, but she has never yet been inside the town gate. She prefers to keep her existence a secret.

She wears the armor of her father, and the sword he weilded. The armor was somewhat damaged in his fight for the survival of the elven settlement, but still affords a great deal of protection. The sword, Trollsbane, was created to slay regenerating creatures. She also found and kept the dagger of throwing owned by her mother.

Some 15 years ago, she met and befriended a strange and silent dwarven ranger in the Border Forest. Together they have spent many years searching for tunnels, each for their own, unspoken reason.

This miniature is a Ral Partha piece from a Dragonlance boxed set. I don't know that setting at all, and couldn't tell you a thing about the original character she was supposed to represent. I think she was supposed to have black hair, but I wanted a traditional elf in my little No Name Group.

One thing that is difficult about having elves in your party is that their base starting age is 100 +5d6. What did they do for 150 years or so before they started racking up experience points? To me, it is a head scratcher, so I just had Corwyn hunting tunnels for a century or so. Not many XPs in walking around looking for secret doors and not finding any, but you'd think she'd be bored out of her elven skull by that point.

If any of you who run elves in your campaigns have figured out a good way to deal with the huge age differences in party members when you start including elves and how you account for their great age but paltry experience/lack of levels, please let me know how you handle it in your campaigns.

NPC: Costa Janko

Costa is the brother of Ada Janko. He has a home in Dagger Falls, which was inherited from their parents. He works as a bartender in the Broken Dagger. Like his employer, Tharwin One Eye, Costa lost an eye and wears a patch. Recently, however, Costa lost his job at the tavern due to taking ill with the sleeping sickness. Tharwin can't afford to keep him on if he can't work and because of the fear of the illness is unlikely to let him return to work if he recovers. Lack of employment will force the novice rogue to take to adventuring to meet expenses, and he will join his sister in the No Name Band

I really like this miniature a lot. It is stamped Ral Partha, 1982. He's quite detailed, including the eyepatch, and I love his stance. I named him after a friend of a friend I met in New York many years ago, but recently that friend of a friend discovered this blog and asked me not to use his name, so I've changed it. If you remember the previous name, please forget it.

I think I picked up the miniature during a trip to San Francisco one summer. I remember staying with another friend of a friend there for a month or so, in an apartment on the corner of Taraval and Great Highway. I think I took a series of busses to an amazing hobby store way across town, where I bought a large number of individual miniatures. But it could be that I'm conflating that trip with one of several business trips I took when I was doing some commission work for Kaiser Permanente. At any rate, he's been on my shelf for a very long time...maybe since 1982.

NPC: Ada Janko

Ada was the apprentice to Alzador in the town of Bug Tussle. She was born in Daggerdale and often visits her brother, Costa, who lives in a house in Dagger Falls. When she first left Daggerdale to go to Bug Tussle to seek to study under Alzador, she foolishly tried to cross the Dagger Hills by herself and was beset by brigands. She surely would have died were it not for the intervention of a gruff and silent dwarf who is very handy with a crossbow. The dwarf has remained her companion ever since, but has never said a word to anyone, anywhere, so far as we know.

She studied for over a year with Alzador and left his tower when her brother fell ill with the Sleeping Sickness in Eleasias, 1368.

In my current campaign, Ada was originally going to be used as a hook to get the PCs to Dagger Falls and into the Doom of Daggerdale module...but it turned out that it wasn't necessary. They were sent there by Shandar as part of the quests undertaken for him. Still, it will be a comfort to the PCs to have a few friends they knew from home in the strange town, so the details of the hook I'd planned on using were left in place...Ada's brother still came down with the sleeping sickness. The Janko house is near the burned Lathanderite temple and so could provide limited background information and a potential haven inside the town. Ada could also provide needed healing for the party if they had to scramble up due to taking a beating from the hook horror or something else equally nasty.

I got this miniature ages ago. She was made by Ral Partha. The No Name Band are a little NPC group that I toyed with using as my own party to play test areas I'd send the regular PCs through or to play on my own using randomly generated dungeons with the random dungeon generation system in the 1E DMG. Never seemed to have time for that though. They've managed to remain useful low level NPCs to have around, though. You don't want high level NPCs like Randal Morn rushing in to save the day all the time. Low level NPCs keep the focus on the heroes.

Devils: Gelugon

I admit that ever since I started playing D&D I've had a real fascination with Devils and Demons. That didn't make me want to kill myself or kill anybody else, and the only reason anyone I knew was "bothered about Dungeons & Dragons" was because I would talk their ear off about it.

As I go through the Monstrous Manual I'm making, I linger long on the Baatezu (which prior to 2E were devils).

Please enjoy my minis of the Gelugon, or Ice Devil.

Vreesar is a named Ice Devil from the Villain's Lorebook supplement. I've made this figure a named personality because it is the OOP Ral Partha Ice Devil and I'm very unlikely to ever get another one. I like the paint job on it. I painted it with the Snow Shadow Master Series paint by Reaper, because it very nearly matched the shade of light blue used on the WOTC Ice Devils. I tried using the Reaper blue ink to do the shading, but it bled and I ended up using it as a wash instead. It came out this amazing electric ice blue. So, I went with it on all my ice devils.These are the version of the Gelugon done by Reaper Mini. The product name is Mantis Demon and it is sculpted by Bob Olley. It is a little smaller than either the WOTC or the Ral Partha versions, but adds a lovely variety to the species and they are easy to get hold of so you can build up a pretty massive army of them pouring out of Stygia. I painted them the same way as Vreesar. The eyes are a shade of bright green from Reaper, I forget which, and then washed in the green ink.And here they are all together for reference. I've got 3 of the WOTC minis, but I'm not sure I'm going to experiemnt with adding the ink wash to them.

What I really wish I had were 20 or 30 pit fiends, but with them going for $25 a pop or better on eBay, I've got to find another source for the pit fiend personalities and armies I'd like to build. You can't find the Ral Partha pit fiend anywhere anymore, it is too highly sought after and worth over $90 per mini now.

The only Reaper pitfiend is the perosonality one I am using for Bel, and if Bel is a pit fiend of tremendous size, I can't really buy more of them for that purpose. Maybe I can talk Reaper into a smaller set of pit fiend minons for their big guy.

Are you listening, Matt?

Devil: Martinet

Martinet
Constable to Asmodeus

This is the WOTC Half-Fiend Ogre. Whatever a half-fiend ogre is. I realize that the description for Martinet is more of a diplomat than this armored sword holding guy, but most fiends are naked or nearly naked so I'm taking his wearing armor as a sign of the fact that he is "not greatly powerful himself" and that even with the backing of Asmodeus fiends will want a modicum of physical threat present in order to take the diplomat seriously.

At any rate, this is the best use I could find for this particular mini.

Devil: Geryon, Lord of the Fifth

Geryon
Arch-devil

This is a wholly scratch built mini. I took the snake body of a WOTC Fienish Snake and cut off the head. (Don't tell the wife I used her best and sharpest carving knife) Then I took a DC Heroclix Wendigo and cut off his legs. (Don't tell the wife I did it again)

Next, I found a small screw which I used to bore into the torso of the wendigo to about the right length of additional snake body needed. Once I did that, I plugged up the empty space with green stuff. I added some detail, put the wings from the succubus I used for Fierna, and then painted the whole thing to come as close as I could to the illustration in the Book of Vile Darkness.

It isn't a particularly skillful sculpt, but it makes a servicable mini.

Devil: Glasya, Consort to Mammon

Glasya
Princess of Hell

This is a composite of a Reaper demoness. Glasya is described as having a fluked tail, which is here made from a Reaper phase cat's tentacles and some green stuff. A little more green stuff rolled out and glued to her forehead became her horns.

I wasn't sure about how I'd feel about the copper skin, but the description is very specific about it...in the end I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

Devil: Fierna, Daughter of Belial

Fierna
Princess of Hell

Actually, after the Reckoning, she co-rules with her father Belial, but none of that has probably happened yet in my world, which is in 1368 DR.

She is another Reaper mini, a succubus, but I took off her wings and filled in the holes in her hair with green stuff. It was her hooves that made me decide to use the Reaper Belial for her father.

Devil: Titvilus, Duke of Hell

Titivilus
Duke of Hell

This is a good representation of the devil named Titvilus. It is actually a Reaper faun or satyr, but I added wings from an old lead Ral Partha demon.

Devil: Hutijin, Duke of Hell

Hutijin
Duke of Hell

This is another Reaper mini that works pretty well as a hellish personality.