When I browse my favorite miniature online stores, I often take a peek at the special sales section. Minis at a discount price are my nemesis, because often I find at least one nice figure that I buy. Mostly, these are old models or discontinued lines. The noble knight was one of these, but I don’t remember what manufacturer made the figure. I used him as an NPC in my Storm King’s Thunder campaign in the town of Triboar.
When playing a long-running D&D campaign, the Dungeon Master will probably use some sort of evil cult eventually. At least, I do! Evil cults are great antagonists, as they have evil minions and allies like devils, demons, or dragons. So I was very happy that the Reaper Bones Kickstarter included a couple of cultists I could use for my Storm King’s Thunder campaign.
I can’t seem to remember for the life of me, where I got these four dwarven warriors from. I ordered them online somewhere at a bargain sale, they were produced by a manufacturer I also don’t remember. Of course, I searched everywhere on the web for them, but I haven’t found anything, yet. It’s a pity, because these are great models and I would love to have more from their line of miniatures.
A couple of years ago, I painted Reaper Bones orcs. Some time ago, I repainted them and added more orcs from the second Reaper Bones Kickstarter to the horde. WizKid’s Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures line also has some orcs! These are “original” orcs as depicted in the D&D 5th edition monster manual. As my players were en route to an encounter with orcs in the village of Triboar in my Storm King’s Thunder campaign, I decided to give these new orcs a try.
Ankhegs are insectoid monsters as big as a horse, they burrow underground, can detect vibrations in the earth, and spit acid when they are not attacking with their claws. In D&D, these beasts are interesting opponents in dungeons, caves or while travelling overland. I don’t exactly remember where I put an Ankheg encounter in the Storm King’s Thunder campaign, but it was definitely there. Reaper has some great Bones miniatures for these monsters, why not just take three of them?
In the lair of the goblin wererat, my players encountered a lot of rats. Large rats, small rats, rat swarms. Reaper was so nice to include a dozen of Rats in the first Reaper Bones Kickstarter. But this post would be boring, if I only show you the old and plain regular rats. So I also include the wererat miniature I used for the goblin wererat. However, at the time we played the session, the mini was only primed. Baltor, one of the player characters, was bitten by the wererat goblin during this session. He became a wererat himself! A great chance to finish painting the miniature and use it for the hybrid rat form of my player.
In the cave of the goblin tribe that attacked Nightstone, a goblin wererat and his pack of rats waited for the adventurers to find them. The goblin had a nice range of different beasts to send after the intruders: rats, giant barrow rats, and rat swarms. Reaper packed these miniatures in the first Reaper Bones Kickstarter, so now I would paint and use them all here 😉 Let’s start with the barrow rats and the swarm!
After things cleared up in Nightstone, my players started to explore where the goblin raiders came from. They followed them into a nearby cave. Surprise! Rust monsters live in a forgotten pit there. These classic monsters are the bane of every fighter using metal weapons and armor: They are gradually destroyed (in 5th edition) when fighting the rust monsters.
A group of Zhentarim called the Seven Snakes arrived in the village of Nightstone after the goblins were dealt with. Their leader Xolkin Alassandar is a sly bandit captain. His gang wants to meet up with a Zhentarim spy named Kella Darkhope who hid in the village a couple of days before. Both NPCs needed a nice miniature. Dub Bullock from Reaper would make a great bandit leader. For Kella Darkhope I, used a female rogue miniature from my old bag of minis.
More goblins! The Pathfinder Goblin Pyros from Reaper Miniatures are a group of goblins with torches. They were part of the second Reaper Bones Kickstarter, and they were perfect as a part of the goblin raiding party pillaging a village in my Storm King’s Thunder campaign.