After facing Cyanwrath, my players snuck into the cultist camp in Episode 2 of Hoard of the Dragon Queen. There, they met the local cell’s leader: Frulam Mondath. I found the perfect mini for her in Reaper’s Devona (77036).

My players didn’t fight her in Episode 2 when infiltrating the camp, but had to face her when they returned into the camp later in Episode 3. Most of the cult has moved camp by then, only a small force of the Black Wing of Tiamat stayed behind to guard a special cave in the camp. Frulam was among them. However, she escaped eventually.

Again, the art for the Wearer of Purple comes from Bryan Syme. I looked through my miniature portfolio and found a nice bones miniature, that fitted very well. Although Reaper’s Devona is a caster with a magical staff and no visible armor, this is still the best mini I found.

Devona was part of the original Reaper Bones Kickstarter, and there are very nice paintjobs of her. My two favorites are Pixel’s version (white/purple/red) and the version by MGM Painting (in red/black/blonde).

In addition to looking cool, a proper cell leader needs some bodyguards! I had a couple of D&D miniatures that would fit perfectly: Harmonium guards from the Blood War set (#08). They wear a helmet with spikes that could be interpreted as dragon masks, which the basic fighters of the Cult of the Dragon are using. I talked a bit about the Cult and their equipment a little while ago. So I decided to repaint both of them to be Dragonclaws.

Basing and Priming

I decided not to do anything too fancy with Devona’s base and just glued the mini on a 25mm plastic base. After that, I applied some small rocks and sand. The guards were already based and there was little room to add anything, so they just got a little sand on them. The minis were then primed with Vallejo Black Primer and then dusted with the airbrush to achieve zenithal lighting. I am very sorry, but I forgot to take a picture of Devona after priming, so I can just show you the Harmonium guards:

Painting

According to the cultist’s color scheme, the minis would wear purple cloaks and grey metallic armor. For Frulam I tried to keep the colors as close as possible to the art of Bryan Syme, using lots of purple and a bit of gold.

It took me two attempts to find a color scheme I liked for the Devona miniature. In my first attempt, I used very little gold and painted her face rather dark. After taking some pictures, I saw that I hated it. So I started over and repainted most of her. I mainly used drybrushing and blending on her clothes, I didn’t even use a wash. As an afterthought, I maybe should have put a little more effort in highlighting and shading the gold parts of the armor, but … meh.

After finishing the minis, I put some static grass and tufts of grass on the bases and sealed the minis with Matte Varnish spray. I think they turned out quite nice, at the end.

Here they are all together in a group shot. Frulam Mondath, wearer of purple and leader of the Greenfields cell of the Cult of the Dragon and her two Dragonclaw bodyguards.