Luther the Pascha Hare

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17

Vol.

CONTENTS
C

WYRD
CHRONICLES

igate!
v
a
on
t
lick

17

FOREWORD............................................................................... 1

Conditions in Malifaux.........................................................2
:
Notey page

n
on a
turn
Click er to re x!
b
num his inde
to t

Festival Day...........................................................................7
SCENARIO: Werebeasts......................................................... 18
Building a Park..................................................................... 19
SMUGGLER's RUN....................................................................28
Luther the Pascha Hare.....................................................35
13 Lessons of War................................................................46
Tyrannus' Tutelary............................................................56
Painting CONTEST WINNERS - Frozen Moments...................70
Painting CONTEST WINNERS - Crystal Brush.....................75

content guide

stories

terrain

game sessions

Credits

mechanics

fun & tactics

painting

battle-reports

Creative Director

Graphic Artist

Contributing Authors

Nathan Caroland

Jorge Gomez
Alex Cairns

Adrian Scott
Graeme Stevenson
Mason Crawford
Bob Kuzemeski
Justin Gibbs
Marko Paunovic
Michael Kelmelis
Chris Schmidt

Layout
Jorge Gomez

Illustrations

Editor

Hardy Fowler
Jorge Gomez

Aaron Darland

gallery

FOREWORD
It's the busy time of year because the entire year is the busy time of year. We've got a lot of projects
being worked on for GenCon and beyond. April is a time of finalizing products and looking forward to what
we can do on the next go 'round, so I thought I'd touch on that for a moment.
You've seen Shifting Loyalties in open testing, and I'm happy we're getting a campaign system out there.
Through the Breach has hit its stride internally, and Into the Steam is going off to print as new
Penny Dreadfuls are shaping up. I love the way Darkness Comes Rattling has turned out, and I'm
excited for everyone to get their hands on it. And our podcast is going launch any day now:
Tales of Malifaux.
Beyond that, we've got some plans (or maybe, more appropriately, plans to plan) on products both new and
old. So stick with us, old hats, there's a lot coming 'round the bend. And for those of you are new... welcome
to the show!

nathan
(Aaron, actually, because Nathan told me I had to write this because he was REALLY Busy!)

LAZY
-AaRon

:)

Lunch!

Conditions in Malifaux
Adrian Scott
in Wyrd Chronicles #14 (which you should read, of
course!). Others like Fast and Reactivate are found
throughout every faction but almost every crew in
the game has access to more specific Supportive
Conditions. Examples range from Lady Justices
Inspiring Swordplay to give positive flips to her
crews attacks, to the Lucky Effigys Lucky Draw,
which heals the crews Leader every time he/she
flips a ram.

Well its the April edition of Wyrd Chronicles and do

you know what that means? Its Easter! So to help
bring in the Easter spirit I thought Id bring you, dear
readers, an article about that most Easterish of
game mechanics Conditions!
Wait, you want to know how Conditions could be
considered Easter-themed? Isnt it obvious? No?
Well look if you cant see the link then theres
nothing I can do to help you. Youll just take me
on my word that theres nothing in Malifaux that
represents Easter better than Conditions honest!

Offensive Conditions are those that are applied

to enemy models to disrupt, damage, or weaken
them in some way. The common Burning, Poison,
Slow and Paralyze Conditions are found across all
factions but like the Supportive Conditions, there
are many more that are specific to a particular crew
or model.

So at this point I was thinking of explaining what

Conditions are but you know what? Id be very
surprised if anyone reading this wasnt aware! So
instead, if you feel like brushing up on the specifics
then I direct you to p52 of the Malifaux 2nd ed. Rules
Manual (p61 of the A5 sized version), where you
should find everything you need to know.

Of course the line between Support and Offense

does blur in some cases. For instance Masters like
McMourning, Kaeris, Brewmaster and Shenlong can
use Poison or Burning on themselves or their crew
members to provide a range of benefits. Also the
restrictive, yet powerful Conditions from the Nurses
Take your Meds triggers (eg. Hallucinogens only
allowing Ml actions, but dealing +2Dg when they
do) could be the best or worst thing to happen to a
model, depending on what it wanted to do that turn!

Pleasure and Pain

Conditions in Malifaux can be divided into two
very broad categories Supportive Conditions
and Offensive Conditions. Supportive Conditions
are those applied to your own models to improve
them in some way. The two most common are
Focus and Defensive, and are important enough
to warrant their own article, conveniently published

Overall, Ive found that Offensive Conditions tend to

have a much bigger influence on the game than the

to inflict (and benefit from) Poison is very common

and models like the Nurse (as mentioned above)
and Hanged (with Glimpse the Inevitable to prevent
a model healing all game) can be a major problem
if theyre given free reign. As a matter of fact, about
three quarters of the Resurrectionist Faction use
Offensive Conditions in some way.

buffing Conditions do. Boosting your own models

is always going to beneficial but on the whole,
Offensive Conditions invariably have a greater effect
on the target models and the game in general. For
example, a look through the model range reveals
that while there are plenty of ways to Paralyze
an enemy model, youll find very few options for
putting Reactivate on your own models. Offensive
Conditions are also both harder to pull off (usually
at least requiring a resist duel for your opponent)
and require a little more consideration to use well.
So its for these reasons that Ive chosen to focus
on Offensive Conditions for this particular article!

Fight the Power! Preventing Conditions

So what can players do about all these horrible
Conditions being thrown around? Glad you asked!
Generally you can boil the possible tactics down
to four approaches: resisting the attack, killing the
offending model, positioning your crew to minimise
the danger, and Condition removal.

Theyre Everywhere!
The Prevalence of Conditions

Resisting

One of the common misconceptions about Offensive

Conditions is that the majority of crews dont really
utilise them to any significant degree. In truth, its
the opposite. More than half of all Masters utilise
Conditions to hamper or kill enemy models in one
way or another.

The first line of defence against negative Conditions

is almost always to win the resist duel of any
attack that applies them, for which having a high
Df or Wp tends to help. There are such models in
every faction, although in a general sense they are
more commonly found among the Guild (for Wp),
Neverborn (for Df) and Ten Thunders (for both).

Everyone knows the usual suspects McMourning

and Brewmaster with their Poison, Kaeris and
Sonnia with their Burning. But there are plenty
of others whose ability to apply an Offensive
Condition can be a significant part of how they
play. For instance Rasputinas ability to Paralyze
models with Freeze Over can be as devastating as
her high damage Decembers Curse spell. Then
theres Mollys Whispered Secret attack, which
grants negative flips to all duels, Seamus making
things Insignificant with his Bag of Tools, Zoraidas
Bewitch spell and Voodoo Doll, McCabe handing
out Slow and Paralyzed the list goes on.

The best Offensive Conditions usually come

from Ca attacks and/or attacks with a Wp resist.
Therefore models with abilities like Stubborn (Wpresist attacks suffer a negative twist to the attack
flip) and the Counterspell Aura (enemy Ca actions
lose their printed suits against models within 3)
can be very effective in negating such attacks.
Anything that boosts your crews Wp stats will also
help: the Oirans Appealing aura and the upgrades
Liquid Bravery (Gremlins) and Servant of 5 Dragons
(Ten Thunders). The Guild in particular tend to have
plenty of models and upgrades with anti-Ca or antiWp abilities, with Sonnias and Perditas crews being
typically loaded with such tools!

Of the Masters who care not for such things, all

still have access to models with some excellent
Offensive Conditions. There are too many to mention
within the scope of this article, but anyone who
can hand out Slow (eg. Convict Gunlinger, Warpig,
Sidir Alchibal) or especially Paralyzed (Crooked
Man, Warden, Performer, Widow Weaver) are always
a threat for their ability to efficiently neutralise
enemy models.

In addition, there are a few models that are simply

straight out immune to certain Conditions. Examples
would be the Monk of Low Rivers Brutal Sensei
(for Burning, Slow and Poison) and the Arcanist
Frozen Heart models (for Paralyze). However it
can actually include less obvious situations, like
the Moon Shinobis Drunken Gremlin Kung Fu
effectively turning Mollys imposed negative flip from
the Terrible Truth Condition into a positive. These

The Resurrectionists Faction in particular is loaded

with characters that hand out Conditions. The ability

models arent particularly common and youll rarely

be able to have a crew filled with them. However
they can still make a difference, especially if you
throw them directly at the model who applies the
Conditions theyre immune to.

Positioning
If resisting or killing the model with Condition-based
attacks isnt an option, the next choice is to limit the
targeting options for that model. At its simplest, this
means either staying outside range and line of sight
of the attacker, or one my favorite tactics: tying it
up with models that you dont mind being subjected
to such abuses. A sufficiently fast crew (like some
Neverborn crews) could keep well away from a
model with Offensive Conditions. However you really
need weigh up whether you can still achieve your
objectives and win the game while playing hard to
get. So sometimes, throwing something expendable
in the way is the better option.

However if you really want to flat out ignore your

opponents Offensive Conditions you need go no
further than the Outcasts and the Kings of Condition
immunity themselves. These are the truly horrible
Ashes and Dust (whos both very difficult to kill and
is flat out immune to all Conditions), and Hamelin
the Plagued with his faithful companion Nix. Both
Hamelin and Nix have the Nihilism ability to let
them ignore any Conditions they dont want. His
crew also tends to have a healthy complement of
Rats and Rat-like creatures, all of whom are either
expendable or easily sacrificed to summon a fresh
model. This makes Hamelin the closest a player
can get to playing a crew thats outright immune
to enemy Conditions, which grants them a great
advantage against Condition-heavy crews like
Sonnia and McMourning.

Exactly what works best to tie up a model with

Offensive Conditions really depends on that model.
If keeping it engaged is enough to prevent the
target from handing out Conditions (eg. it involves
projectile or melee Attack), then just about any cheap
and resilient (or at least expendable) model will do.
However models like the Nurse and Hanged have the
range on their attacks to target other models even
while engaged. In that case, physically blocking their
line of sight will help (theyll at least need to move
before attacking their target). However, keeping
in mind that so many of these Condition-granting
attacks involve the Ca stat, models that disrupt Cabased attacks can make very effective distractions.
Two conveniently cheap examples of these would be
the Night Terror and a Witchling Stalker benefiting
from the Disrupt Magic Upgrade.

Killing
The next most obvious way to deal with negative
Conditions is to simply kill the model whos
threatening to hand out those Conditions. It is
certainly the most permanent solution and against
fragile, yet very dangerous models like the Nurse,
it could be one of the best approaches to take!
However if the model applying those Conditions is
particularly resilient (a Master, for instance) then the
effort spent killing that model might not be worth
the threat it represents to your own crew.

Condition Removal
If you cant stop the Conditions piling up, theres
always the option to remove them yourself. While
not common, every crew has access to at least a
few models who can remove Conditions from other
models. As the Faction who loves to support each
other, Guild come out on top with these sorts of
models. If Lady Justice can put her sword down for
a moment she has the Restore Natural Balance
action to remove ALL Conditions within a sizable
pulse. Then theres the Shrug Off action on many of
Perditas Family models and most importantly, the
Witchling Stalkers Dispel Magic attack to remove
Conditions. If nothing else, Dispel Magic makes
the very cheap Witchling Stalker an excellent choice
for most Guild crews one has found its way into
almost every Guild crew Ive played!

Whether or not to take out the models handing out

Conditions is a decision youll need to make in the
heat of the game. As always though, it comes down
to the game objectives. Is that model actually
getting in the way of your crew achieving enough
VPs to win the game? If so, then it absolutely
needs to die!
I shouldnt need to go into more detail on how to kill
a model, right? Great, so lets move on!

Johan is another model worth mentioning. Besides

being a capable melee fighter and offering some
great synergy both with and against Arcanists,
this Mercenary (ie. he can be hired by anyone!)
is able to remove all Conditions on a model with
his (1) Rebel Yell action. Theres also the Arcane
Effigy (Arcanists/Collodi), Chiaki (Resurrectionists/
Ten Thunders), and the Monk of Low River (Ten
Thunders), all of whom are reasonably costed and
can remove Conditions on other models without
much difficulty.

The Final Word

So before this article gets too long (again!) I should
probably wrap it up. To finish with, then, Ill leave
you with something that I probably say almost every
article. So Im repeating myself, yes, but I feel
the point is so important that its worth repeating
whenever possible!
Malifaux is a game of resource management.
Whether its in the form of AP, cards, soulstones or
models, theres something to be said for prioritizing
those resources toward what will best help you score
VPs while denying those VPs to your opponent. So
while its all well and good to set up your crew and
tactics to completely neutralise your opponents
Offensive Conditions, you MUST be careful about
focusing on that to the detriment of actually
achieving your strategy and schemes. It therefore
pays to keep your eye on the prize, so to speak,
and to only prioritise countering those Conditionbased attacks that will actually prevent you from
scoring VPs!

Gremlins and Neverborn unfortunately have

the weakest options for Condition removal. The
Gremlins are limited to their Mud Toss and GremlinSee upgrades. The former grants an attack action
(ie. they cant target themselves) and is limited to
McTavish or Mancha Roja , both of whom are priority
targets for enemy Conditions and will often have
more pressing things to do with their AP. The latter is
a Kin-only upgrade that will only remove Conditions
from the bearer. On the other hand Neverborn
have access to more flexible Condition removal,
but its restricted to just two of their Masters the
Dreamers Empty Night Action and Collodi hiring an
Arcane Effigy. So unless they hire Johan, the both
Gremlins and Neverborn are somewhat limited in
their options for Condition removal.

Until next time,

Adrian

Its worth noting that a lot of the Condition removal

actions can also be used on enemy models. Shenlong
is great for this, since his Burn Like Fire Attack will
strip Defensive, Focused, Fast and Reactivate off
an enemy model and add them to himself. However,
Shenlong aside, most of the time the risk and effort
required to strip an enemy model of Conditions is
higher than the reward gained. After all, most of
the time you need to win the opposed duel with a
specific suit to cast the spell, and doing that for
something like Focused or Defensive is not usually
worth the effort. Ive therefore rarely encountered
a situation where Id want to spend resources
removing Conditions from my opponents models.
However thats not to say it never happens. I
once stripped Reactivate from Tara, and
have heard of a Shenlong player losing a
stack of Focus, Burning and who knows
what else to a timely Rebel Yell from
Johan. So while Condition removal is
rarely worth using offensively, there
will always be those odd exceptions
that are worth looking out for.

Festival Day
Bob Kuzemeski
Kaori ground the ingredients into paste, smells of
berries, sugar and ginger tickling her senses and
making her stomach growl. She glanced at her
mother for a moment and saw the woman occupied
folding pastry dough. With her mother distracted,
she dipped a finger into the concoction to sample
the flavor. Somehow, her mother noticed and slapped
her wrist playfully but sternly. Kaori never understood
how her mother seemed to see everything at once.
Whenever she asked, Tamako would smile and
explain that Kaori would only understand when she
grew to become a mother herself.

Kaori wondered if this display was more vibrant and

beautiful than the real flowers used on the other
side of The Breach. Real flowers wither and die
before origami paper loses its luster. How could the
two even compare?
Not that she could remember much about the real
world. Shed been Malifaux-side for most of her
life. Glimpses of a previous life occasionally drifted
through her mind but she had no control over what
images came or when theyd happen. Sometimes
it was a smell that would waft into her window and
shed remember her Daddys smell whenever he held
her; the sweat of hard work mixed with the soap he
used to try and wash it away. Other times it was
taste food was often different here. Sometimes
better, usually worse. The Mishiko fruit that she
worked into jam being one exception. She pitied the
real world that they should not taste its succulence.

The sharp sting on her wrist brought her focus

back to the task at hand. Her work was important,
despite its monotony. No child, particularly a curious
and active girl like Kaori, wanted to spend the better
part of a day staring intently into a pestle, wielding
a mortar until both wrists became numb. Though
her mother described the task as meditative, Kaori
knew it was something else. It was punishment for
the sin of being young.

Soon, her mother would fold the paste into the

dough she was making and tomorrow, hundreds
of flakey pastries would please everyone at the
Mishiko Blossom Festival. The very idea of it made
her stomach growl; this time audibly.

Her mind wandered. At eight, there were so many

other things she wanted to do. Her eyes strayed
from the sweet-smelling paste and glanced at the
activity around town. Down the street, workers were
hanging colorful garland from street lamps. Nearby,
a man went from to home, decorating each door
with painstakingly-crafted origami blossoms. On this
day, her drab town exploded with color; sometimes

Her mother smiled, knowing what questions Kaori

would ask. The girls inquiries were part of the
annual ritual, every bit a part of the celebration as
the festival itself.

Mama, Kaori asked, turning to face her mother.

Why cant we make a batch tonight, just for us?

Tell me the story, she said as she turned her

attention back to paste. This too was part of
the tradition.

Her eyes were wide and hopeful; she willed her

mother to provide the answer she wanted. Her
mother simply shook her head.

Of course, Ki-Ki, Tamako said. Mishiko was the

first child born to our community after we moved
here. Settling this land did not go well for us for
anyone, really. This land is harsh and difficult to tame
but there is great wealth for those who succeed.
Hope for a better life brought us here but only a few
of us will find it.

No Ki-Ki, she said with disappointed patience.

Tamakos strictness was born from her own
upbringing and out of necessity; the instinct of a
widow and mother to protect her child and to raise
a good and honest woman. Her stern demeanor
concealed an inner softness. Letting her daughter
down was an unwelcome task, one that brought
her sadness. Its tradition to wait until the festival
begins, partaking in food as both a celebration of the
day and a shared experience with our community. It
would be wrong of us to eat some now and short
others of their share.

Mishikos birth represented the birth of hope for

our burgeoning community. Seeing a child come into
this worldborn of this worldbrought a sense
of normalcy and thoughts of a bright future. Little
did we know that this girls birth was just the first
miracle she would bring to us.
Kaori knew that part of the tale. As a younger child,
she was content to celebrate Mishikos birthday.
Now that she considered herself a big girl, she
wanted to know more.

Kaori bore a petulant expression despite

anticipating the answer. Tradition was something
she still didnt quite understand even though she
tried to adhere to it.

Where is Mishiko now? she asked. Can I play

with her?

Whats so important about this festival, anyway?

she muttered.

Her mother smiled. Kaori saw both pride and

sadness in her mothers face. She was proud of
her daughters desire to know but the melancholy in
her eyes spoke of a poor end to the tale. Suddenly
Kaori wasnt sure she wanted to hear the rest. She
ground the paste more forcefully, steeling herself for
the rest of what her mother had to say.

Her mother considered her answer carefully, turning

away from kneading dough to look at her daughter.
Well, Ki-Ki, we are short on time but I will do my
best to explain it. Tradition binds community. It
ties people together by creating culture. In our
homeland, the Asian community shares many such
traditions to remind us that we are one people. Here
in Malifaux, the Mishiko Blossom Festival is our own,
a celebration not honored in our homeland. Mishikos
birth was monumental when we immigrated through
The Breach. It gave us cause for hope and something
to celebrate together. It is our very own and so is that
much more special. Do you understand, little one?

Remember what I said about how difficult this

world is; how not everyone succeeds? she asked
in a solemn tone. Mishikos parents did not find
fortune here. Her father died several years after. His
work in the mines caked his lungs with dust and one
day choked off his breath completely much like it
did to your father.

Kaori nodded, though in truth was only trying to grasp

what her mother said. Like most of the community,
she did look forward to the celebration. There would
be games, laughter, music, art and food. People
would be universally happy if just for one day. She
could not understand all of what her mother said but
grasped that tradition was a good thing.

Kaori refused to look at her mother, hearing the

tears in Tamakos voice. She choked up whenever
discussing her husband.

Without his money, Mishikos mother couldnt

remain here. She decided it was time to move
back across The Breach and return to family in the
homeland. The young girl would have none of it,
insistent on staying in the only world shed every
known. No words could convince her to go. One
night, Mishiko ran away, deep into the woods. She
was never seen again.

respectful and meditative. Her work was not just

work any longer; it was honor to Mishikos memory.
And so Kaori worked for the rest of the day into
evening. She no longer thought about or even
noticed the pain and fatigue in her forearms. Her
mind stopped wandering to things she would prefer
to be doing or wondering what kinds of fun her
friends might be having. During this time, it was just
her and Mishiko.

Kaoris head filled with questions and wonder. Where

could she have gone? Did she ever turn up? Maybe
I should go look for her, she thought.

When the sun set, Tamako told Kaori it was time

to sleep. Theyd wake early to bake the pastries for
the celebration, just as they did each year. Kaori
did not argue, exhaustion setting in. She wanted to
sleep so that she could wake and enjoy the festival
even more, given her new-found knowledge. It came
as soon as her head hit the pillow; she dreamt of
children playing, everyone eating magnificent treats,
adults laughing and the world being right all
because of Mishiko. In he dreams, Mishikos spirit
was there, radiating warmth and happiness.

Her mother continued, addressing the girls

thoughts. She is long gone, Ki-Ki. I know how your
mind works, my sweet. She was five when she fled,
certain to perish on her own. People searched for
a few years more but never found her. Eventually,
her mother returned to the other side without her
husband or her daughter; a woman now broken by
loss; a casualty of Malifaux.
The searchers did find one thing, though, Tamako
added. In the lands where Mishiko disappeared, a
new tree began to grow, one that never seen before.
Vibrant flowers erupted from the tree, decorating
its branches in beautiful shades of red and purple.
Eventually, they blossomed into the fruits youre
grinding right now.

The morning sun woke her with a start. She should

not still be asleep; her mother needed her help in
the kitchen before dawns light. It was unlike Tamako
to let the girl sleep in.

She stopped working the dough for a moment and

knelt down beside Kaori, gently pulling her daughters
face toward her to make eye contact. You see, she
said quietly, the flower of that tree became known
as the Mishiko Blossom. It is the first flower to grow
from winters cold grasp and it signals the beginning
of spring. Just as the girl brought hope to the land,
her flower brings rebirth each year. She has become
part of Malifaux;her short life symbolizes so much
for us. Her birth tied us together and gave us hope.
Her disappearance strengthened our community
as we came together to look for her. And now her
blossom brings spring and sustenance. It is only
fitting that we should celebrate her memory.

Kaori threw on a robe and rushed to the kitchen,

alarmed that she could not smell the sweets
backing as she went. When she got to the kitchen,
her mother was not there, the stove was cold and
the pastry dough smelled slightly sour.
Concerned that her mother must have overslept as
well, she rushed to Tamakos bedroom. When she
flung the door open, a scene of horror accosted her
eyes and burned grisly memories into her brain. Her
mothers body lay in bed, twisted and contorted in
impossible ways. Blood covered the sheets, pillows
and bedspread even as it continuously oozed from
deep gashes that peppered the womans body. In
the rare, uncut places, purple and red welts adorned
her skin with the unmistakable patterns that Kaori

Her ended the tale with a kiss on Kaoris cheek, then

returned to her work. The girl continued with the
pastry filling, a new feeling of reverence guiding her
strokes. As her head struggled to grasp everything
shed learned, her movement grew more rhythmic,

recognized as knuckles. She attempted to rouse her

mother but Tamako was unresponsive.

She was still tucked away when the lawmen came.

They looked around the house and discussed what
had likely happened. They said that one of the
neighbors reported something suspicious when
Tamako did not attend the festival.

With howls of sorrow and fear, Kaori ran toward

Tamakos window, intending to open it and scream
into the morning sun. Terrified thoughts stopped
her from doing so. The first was the thought of
the bruises on her mothers flesh. She knew those
marks from vivid memories of seeing them on her
father many times. When he was alive, men would
sometimes visit the house and demand money
from him. While father usually paid the fees, he
sometimes had nothing to give. The men spoke
of making an example of him, beating him with
savagery that they seemed to personally enjoy.

She heard them investigate for awhile and listened

to what they discussed. Though she could not catch
each word, she gathered that the same men that
sometimes attacked her dad also demanded money
from her mother. The Guild officers said they did it
to a lot of people in town. They called them the Ten
Thunders and said that everyone in town would be
too afraid of them to cooperate and help find her
mothers killer.

After a few such visits, her father carved out a room

in the walls for Kaori and Tamako - a space for them
to hide and be safe when the men came. They called
it the hidey-hole and allowed Kaori to decorate it
however she wanted. They painted the room pink,
allowing Kaori to draw whatever she wanted on the
walls to make the place as calming as they could
for the young girl.Though her fathers cries of pain
cut through any sense of serenity, it was at least a
retreat to provide a pittance of solace.

One of them didnt even intend to ask around. He

told the other that the Thunders had sent a very
powerful message by making an example of Tamako
on a day of celebration. The two officers then agreed
to go looking for Kaori. They intended to bring her to
the orphanage.
When they left, Kaori went over their conversation in
her head. At first, she was angry that they would not
at least ask around town for information. Scared
lips never open, Tamako had once told her. If
people were afraid of what happened to her mother,
they wouldnt be much help to the officers. She had
to admit that the officers were probably right.

Several fears stopped her from yelling out into the

night, the chief concern was that the very same men
had done this to her mother Alerting attention to it
might bring Kaori the same fate.
Another fear gripped her - the fear of a child old
enough to reason but lacking the wisdom to know
better. What if they decided she did it? Horrible
things happened in Malifaux all of the time. People
sometimes did things that humans simply couldnt
do. Would they consider her some sort of monster
or witch? Would they send the Guild after to her
to poke and prod at her until they knew how she
ticked? It didnt seem worth the risk.

Amongst the jumble of thoughts that filled Kaoris

mind, her mind kept coming back to one - orphanage.
No one that spoke of the place did so above a
whisper. Its reputation for cruelty and inhumanity
trumped even that of the jails. Though Tamako had
never threatened her with it, many parents use tales
of the institution to convince their children how lucky
they were to have parents. Some even went so far
as to threaten their children, saying theyd move
back through the breach and leave the kids behind
for the orphanage if they misbehaved.

She had no desire to face her mothers killers or be

enslaved under the thumb of the Guild overlords.
Instead, she quietly closed the window and took to
her hidey-hole.

Kaoris eyes welled with tears and her heart raced with
panic. What if I end up in that awful place? What if no
one finds out who did this? How will I go on with Mama?
At her age, she didnt know the words for vengeance
or revenge but she felt the raw emotions just the

10

same. She wanted whoever had hurt her Mom to feel

that same hurt. Grief over Tamakos death, anger at
the killers and fear of life in an orphanage overtaxed
Kaoris brain and sapped her energy. Though she
tried to figure out what to do, she hid away for hours
and cried. Eventually, sleep overtook her.

until she was sitting amongst its roots. The rough

bark felt cold, which brought her some sense of
comfort. She was sweating from fear and exertion;
the trees cold touch and the nights chill air served
to help her regain some of her energy.
The darkness was not as calming. She listened to
the alien sounds of the forest and knew that she
was completely alone. Running away was impulsive
and she hadnt considered how scared she might
become. Things lived out here. They moved. She
hadnt recognized the dangers until she sat and
listened. The moments of silence she endured were
deeply quiet; no voices drifted in through windows
and the woods lacked the familiar sounds of her
mother moving about the house. What she did hear
was completely unrecognizable to her. Periods of
silence made her sob with mourning; sudden noises
brought tears of terror.

Shadows embraced Kaori when she awoke. The

house was dark and quiet; she felt that she could
finally emerge from the hidey-hole. She went into
Tamakos room but the mortician had been and one.
Through the bedroom window, Kaori saw that the
festival was still underway, though there seemed
to be little participation and absolutely no revelry.
People conversed quietly, often casting glances
toward her house. She feared they might spot her
but the nervousness passed when she saw that no
one came toward the house.

She considered running back to the town. Maybe

someone would help. Maybe the orphanage
wouldnt be as bad as people said. Sitting against
that tree, she debated for hours on what to do. What
difference does it make? None of those people can
bring Mama back. Theres nothing there for me.

She wondered if her mothers killers were out

there, blending in with the rest of the community
- or intimidating them as the officers suggested
they might. Were the officers out there, too? If so,
they would surely come for her and take her to the
orphanage. Her legs began moving before her brain
could register her desire to run awayto get as
far away from the house and these people as she
could. She fled out the back door and ran toward the
woods. She didnt know what good it would do other
than give her a chance to figure out what she could
do or make people forget about her.

The thought of living in a world where there were a

million faces and none of them were her mothers
became too much to bear. Shed rather her life be
forfeit. At least here, she had freedom. She would
not suffer painful reminders of her mother at every
turn. Especially if I die, she thought. Which will
probably happen pretty soon out here.
She lost track of time as she grieved at the base
of the massive oak. When the suns rays began to
creep through the trees, she beheld the beauty of
the forest for the first time. Golden light highlighted
leaves of every shade of green, making the trees
glow majestically. Her tears dried immediately. She
was sure this was a sign; shed not been attacked
by some kind of animal, had made it through the
night and was rewarded with a sight that she could
not have even imagined. Something now told her
that she had found safe haven.

A short time later, she crossed the forest boundary

into a thick copse of trees. Scary even during the
day, the woods seemed especially haunted and
foreboding at night. Even small trees towered over
little Kaori and every branch seemed to be reaching
out for her. She found the courage to press deeper,
running as fast as she could without running into a
tree. Having dodged under a number of low branches
and climbed over fallen trees, her legs eventually
began to burn and she needed rest.

Hunger pangs focused her attention on the more

immediate need to find food. She knew little about
the woodlands but recalled something about berries,

She staggered to the ground, leaning with her back

against a large oak tree. She slid down the trunk

11

nuts and mushrooms gathered in the forest and

brought to town. She set out in search of something.

just past her teenage years. Smooth skin and long

hair cradled her face as it cascaded its way down
to her hips. She wore a flowing dress intricately
embroidered with vines and maple leaves. The
broken ground, covered with acorns, sticks and
protruding tree roots did not not seem to bother her
bare feet. As she grew closer, Kaori saw through her,
able to look at the trees directly behind her.

It didnt take long for her to find a tree covered

with some sort of red fruit. Its branches were so
laden with berries that they nearly touched the
ground. Kaori could eat here for days if need be.
She approached the tree and plucked one of the
succulent fruits from the limb and inhaled its smell.
It was both sweet and sour, with overtones that
reminded her of an apple.

Youre dead, she said factually and without a hint

of fear.

When she opened her mouth to take a bite, a large

blackbird swooped down from the sky and knocked
it from her hand. The bird landed on the branch as
Kaori fell and scrambled back from the tree. She
expected the bird to attack and claw at her but
it never did. Instead, it perched on a branch and
cocked its head quizzically at the young girl. Only
when she over came her fear and stood did it react,
letting out a large and threatening squawk.

Mishiko smiled. I am a spirit, she began to explain

but I am not dead.

Foolish child, Kaori muttered - a phrase her mother

sometimes used when shed done something wrong.
You are going to die out here after all. Just a stupid
little girl all alone in the woods.
Oh, you are not alone, a soothing voice said from
behind her. And as for dying,wellhes stopping
you from doing that right now. That fruit is poison to
humans. You wouldnt last a week after eating one.
Kaori jumped. She turned quickly and saw a
young woman walking out of the woods. In her
panic, it actually looked like the woman was
moving through the trees; phasing into and then
out of the trunks. Her complexion was pale and
a glowing light around her reminded Kaori of the
sun coming through the trees. In this case, the
light came directly from the girl.
She smiled at Kaori. The smile contained such
warmth and love that it immediately set Kaori at
ease. She felt a connection immediately.
You are Mishiko? Kaori said, somehow certain she
was right. The girl nodded and moved closer. She
radiated beauty; her face that of a young woman

12

The look of confusion on Kaoris face drew another

smile. I chose to be what I am. The Spirit of Nature
watched over me when I fled here, a bit younger than
you are now. It spoke to me, offering me a chance
to join my soul with it. I didand I became a spirit
- one with the forest and its creatures. We are all
bound together.

I am so sorry, Mishiko added. I didnt mean to

bring your pain rushing back in so suddenly.
Kaori looked confused. How could she know how
I feel?
I am a part of you now, for as long as youll have me,
Mishiko answered. Our spirits are intertwined.

What does that mean? Did it hurt? Kaori asked.

Not at all, Mishiko answered. I simply ceased to
be a human. I left my body behind, which became
the tree you know as the Mishiko Blossom. In my
new form, I can communicate with the creatures
and plants all around me. As if to prove her point,
a family of foxes entered the clearing and began
to play. When Mishiko asked them to introduce
themselves to Kaori, they began to play around
her ankles.

How?

If I can see you, does that mean I am a spirit?

Kaori asked, surprised at how hopeful she sounded.
She wanted to be able to communicate with the
forest around her as well.

But you couldnt help my mother, Kaori spat out,

more harshly then intended.

I wont pretend I understand - there is still much for

me to learn about being a nature spirit. I know only
that when you spoke of me in reverence yesterday;
when you thought so deeply of me and meditated as
you worked; your spirit called to mine. Ive been with
you since, helping to keep you safe.

Mishiko shook her head sadly. I can commune

with the spirits of the woods but can do little in the
human world. When you ran here, to my sanctuary, I
was able help. ButI think I can also help you bring
justice the murderers.

Nonot yet. When you are ready, the Spirit of

Nature intends to ask you to join it, also. When
that happens, should you choose to, you can be
as I am, MIshiko answered. Kaori watched as she
quickly changed into a young child and then into an
old woman. You will be timeless, appearing as you
choose. You will know every creature in this wood.

Kaori said nothing at first, trying to make sense of

what was happening. Is this real? Am I still asleep,
dreaming? Am I also dead and this is the afterlife?

But that time is not now, she continued. There is

something you must do, first.

Though she knew the answers, Mishiko said

nothing. She understood that the girl needed time
to adjust. Instead, she asked a number of creatures
in the area to gather berries for Kaori. After several
minutes, they began to lay offerings at Kaoris feet
and she began to eat them.

She changed herself back into the young woman

that first appeared. A look of sadness came
across her face. Your mothers death must be
avenged. Until then, you are too strongly tied to
the mortal world and will not be able to renounce
your previous form.

Though still hungry, the fruit provided some

sustenance and replenished her energy. She
remained silent for a few moments longer,
considering what Mishiko had suggested.

Kaoris eyes welled with tears at the memory of

her mother. Meeting Mishiko filled her minds with
hundreds of questions and a sense of awe that
served to distract her from grief. The pain came
back mercilessly when Mishiko spoke of her mother.

How would we bring justice? Kaori asked. I dont

know who did it.

13

Not the individual, Mishiko answered. But you do

know others that are connected. I saw the memories
of your fathers past. We will start with them. I have
already asked some of my flying friends to look for
those particular men. When we know where to find
them, we will get the information we need.

Kaori opened her eyes then and saw the same look
of malice that Mishikos shown earlier. She almost
felt sorry for the men they were about to visit.

But they will not speak, Kaori said. Even the

people who hate those men will not help. They are
too scared.

Sleep came quickly after she again closed her

eyes, courtesy of the herbs Mishiko had given her.
Though she knew her body remained in place, she
could feel aspects of her spirit become one with the
earth below. Within a few minutes, she discovered
that she could manipulate the mound, creating the
golem Mishiko instructed her to make. She pushed
mud and rock into a humanoid shape and arranged
the sticks into claws on her hands.

A wicked grin crossed Mishikos face. Nature can

be a comforting and wondrous place, she said. It
can also be vicious and deadly. We will give them
something to fear even more.

She could not believe the power that coursed through

her as she stood and began to move. The anger and
grief that Mishiko infused with this creature made
her inhumanly strong. It was a suit of Earthen armor
and it made Kaori feel invincible.

How do I do it? Kaori asked as she finished

packing the mud, stones and branches into a large
mound. She grasped sticks in both hands and laid
down on the ground shed just built up.

Through the link she now shared with Mishikos

spirit, she could here the girls thoughts. My ravens
found one of the men entering a tea garden, where
he joined with a large group of men. You mothers
killer is almost certain to be among them.

Youre going to go to sleep, Mishiko explained.

When you do, youll think of nothing but how the
mud feels on your skin, how it smells and how the
sticks feel in your hands. Thats it. I will impart some
of your spirit into the golem, channeling your anger
through it.

The two begin moving toward the village. As an earth

golem, Kaori travelled quickly; large and powerful
legs using great strides to get her across land
quickly. Mishikos spirit was close by, as were the
pack of wolves and wild dogs that followed. Behind
them, a Mauler chuffed and growled, anxious to tear
into flesh.

Kaori closed her eyes to let sleep come but her

inquisitive mind immediately thought of another
question. Why are you helping me? she asked.
Though they may not have been the same men,
people like them harmed my own father, Mishiko
answered with sadness. They took his money or
beat him, much as youve described. Theyve done
it to countless people in our community. If not for
them, you and I may have had peaceful childhoods
and normal lives.

Aiko was the first to spot natures army as they came

charging out of the woods. She stopped working her
loom and stared dumbfounded at a massive moving
mountain that walked on two legs. The apparition
that travelled by its side peeled off and began to

She was silent for a moment before adding, I

intend for this to be a very public execution. We
will let the people there know that they are safe
and protected.

14

come toward her, a pack of wolves behind it. Despite

initial terror, she felt somehow soothed as the spirit
grew closer. Its color shifted to a warm golden hue
that filled Aikos heart with peace.

guns recklessly, downing the occasional bird but

doing very little to push back the attack.
When all of the attention was on the birds, a massive
creature burst through the garden wall, breaking
through as if the bushes were made of paper. Deep
in Hyatus mind, it registered that no human could
possess that strength - but his eyes told him even
sooner. The creature was roughly human shaped
but large, bigger than a grizzly standing on its hind
legs. It seemed as if the earth itself decided to take
shape and stand, leaving Hyatu slack jawed with
fear and confusion.

Mishiko? she whispered. Though this spirit

was older than the missing girl could possibly
be, somehow she was certain it was her. The
spirit nodded.
Send word ahead, the spirit told her. Tell the the
fine and honest villagers here that Mishiko and Kaori
have come to remove the blight that constantly eats
away at their livelihood. Tell them to stay away from
Hyatus Tea Garden today. Remind them that what
we do here, we do for Tamakos memory and as a
benefit to you all.

The creature began tearing through the men in the

garden, starting with the ones that were slow to
react. It punched forward, driving sharp sticks into
their midsections, gutting them and then leaving
corpses in heaps on the ground.

Aiko nodded, a slight sense of relief and satisfaction

bringing lightness to her heart. She ran from door to
door, relaying the message that the town was about
to be cleansed.

Tamakos killer, it boomed, a gravelly voice that

sounded as primitive as the creature looked.
Where?
The thing looked from face to face as if expecting an
answer, finally setting its sight on Hyatu.

Hyatu enjoyed a life of luxury since allowing the

Thunders to use his establishment as a meeting
place. Not only did he avoid paying protection
money, he sometimes profited from the men when
they gathered for their private meetings, as they did
today. He locked the door and entered the gardens
to provide service for his customers.

Kaori was felt only hatred as she slaughtered

the criminals, taking a small amount of delight in
recognizing a particular face as one of her fathers
tormentors. It was not enough - she wanted
vengeance for her mother most of all. No one
answered her bellowed command but she soon
smelled the pungent smell of human urine coming
from the Tea Master. He had the weakest of will
amongst these menhe would talk.

His sense of mirth turned to foreboding when the

sky darkened a few minutes later. The bright sun
disappeared, hidden away by a black cloud. Not a
cloud, he realized. Those are birds!
Avians of every shape and size flew chaotically
above, purposely bringing about darkness. Some
guests looked up in time to see falcons and hawks
diving down, raking claws across their faces. Others
began to scream and run toward the bushes, trying
to get out of the garden but finding the wall of
vegetation to thick to pass. A few began firing their

She moved toward him, ignoring his repeated

proclamations that he was not a murderer. While
she pushed her way through the men, she began
to feel the stinging jabs of knives piercing her side
but found them to be mostly just an annoyance. Her
spirit felt real pain a moment later, when a bullet

15

exploded through her chest and leaving a massive

hole in her torso. She roared with rage and looked
at the man whod shot her.

and she clubbed him with her injured arm. The blow
struck soundly, with audibly snapping bone in his
arm. The sword hed held in that hand fell to the
ground below.

She plucked a large stone from somewhere in her

leg and hurled it at the shooter. It hit him hard
enough to reward Kaoris ears with the satisfying
crunch of his skull breaking.

He scrambled back and looked at the thing he was

fighting. Whats Tamako to you, anyway? he asked.
Shes just another peasant too dumb to do as
shes told.

In her peripheral vision, she could see some men

trying to flee through damaged garden wall, where
they were met by Mishiko and her wolves. Screams
of agony became a pleasing chorus as the wolves
tore them apart slowly.

The Kaori-thing took a step toward him and roared in

his face. Mother!
He laughed and yelled out, Little girl, I dont know
how youre controlling this thing but once I put your
puppet down, Im coming for you.

No one escapes, Mishiko communicated to her.

Kaori turned back to Hyatu. Where? she demanded.
He said nothing but his eyes gave the answer when
he glanced toward a large man coming toward her,
unafraid. He carried a sword in each hand. He spun
them gracefully with the movement of a master. A
moment later, he charged.
The killer was fast and agile, ducking under her arm
as she tried to gore him. Both blades swept upward,
cutting off what passed for Kaoris hand. Shed
lost the deadly sticks she wielded as a weapon.
The intensity of the pain surprised her; she heard
herself wail as she flinched away from the man. He
smiled in satisfaction.
When the other gang members saw one of their men
knock the creature back, it bolstered their courage
and many stepped forward to join the attack. She
heard many shots ring out, feeling only a few enter
burn into her core. Though the birds of prey were
doing what they could to distract the shooters, it
wasnt enough. Kaori was having trouble maintaining
her balance. She needed to end the fight quickly.
Pushing his advantage, the man sliced with one
blade, cutting deeply into her leg. Though the blade
moved through the mud with ease, a solid branch
brought it to a halt before it could sever the limb.
It brought the man close enough for her to retaliate

16

at Kaori. The Spirit of Nature has chosen you and

you have felt its power. Your mother is avenged and
your ties to this world are severed. It is now time to
choose between becoming one with us or returning
to the mortal world.

He lunged upward, pushing the blade through her

head and knocking her down with his weight. It was
his fatal mistake, she immediately realized. While he
sat atop her, pinning her to the ground and chopping
away at her with his blade, she began to reform the
golems structure. She enveloped him with mud
while simultaneously melding with the ground.

Kaori smiled. This is whats meant to be, she

said. There is nothing left for me in the world of the
living. I will join you.

By the time he realized he was engulfed, he was too

hindered to move. He screamed in horror at what
was happening to him.

I am glad to hear it, Mishiko said, looking genuinely

pleased. I have been lonelyyour company is
most welcome. Now come with me, please. I have
an idea.

Kaori brought her spirit deeper and deeper, pulling

him further down into the ground. She was the
garden; she could feel everything around her. She
was large enough to pull him under, suffocating him
completely. Only when his last breath choked off did
she leave the earth.

With that, Mishiko sunk into the garden ground and

Kaori followed.

She expected her spirit to immediately return to her

body back in the woods but instead felt Mishikos
spirit holding her in place. She appeared much like
Mishiko, ethereal, timeless and beautiful. Townsfolk
were peering in with curious wonder at the two
spirits. Expressions of horror and relief crossed
their various faces.

A few years later, children danced and sang around

the tree in celebration of the Mishiko Blossom
Festival. It was an unusual tree with a trunk that
twisted and curved upward to form what most would
call a feminine shape. Willow branches atop the
tree draped down more on one side than the other;
long hair falling down the back of the woman.

Looking over the garden, Kaori could see that the

wolves, dogs and raptors had finished off the rest
of the gang members in various brutal ways. Only
Hyatu survived.

Mama,what kind of tree is that? a little girl asked.

P-please, he begged. Please let me live. I will

serve you. I will honor Tamakos memory. I will do
whatever you request of me.

Its called Tamakos Remembrance, the mother

explained. The bright blue flowers you see trailing
down the trunk are said to be tears falling in
remembrance of Tamako, a lady who was once a
part of this community.

A smile spread across Kaoris face. It was not a

smile of warmth or joy but one like Mishiko displayed
before the attack; a malicious grin that symbolized
natures wrath. She reached out to the Mauler,
enhancing its sense of smell. The scent of blood
brought It charging into the garden in a frenzy.

What happened to her? the girl asked.

Its an amazing story about three people that made
our town a better place, but it is not one you are old
enough yet to understand, the woman explained
patiently. For now, just know that to be near this
tree and to visit this garden will always bring you
feelings of peace and safety.

Mishiko pointed to Hyatu and the Mauler descended

on him, tearing him apart with its numerous claws.
When all of the men were dead, Mishiko looked over

17

SCENARIO: Werebeasts
Werebeasts
By Justin Gibbs

There are tales of shifters, people who can change

shape in the light of Malifauxs twin moons. It is all
nonsense, of course; excuses for the barbarism of
normal humans. Wouldnt it be convenient if the tales
were true? If the people who butchered each other in
the night were just monsters, and not our neighbors.
Of course, you never know with Malifaux

Setup
At the start of the game, each player secretly notes
down one of their non-Peon models as the Shifter.

Deployment
Determine deployment randomly as normal.

Special
The first time a Shifter suffers damage caused by a
model it considers an enemy, it becomes enraged and
changes shape. The Shifters player must immediately
reveal it as the chosen model and then summon a
randomly determined Beast into base contact with it,
then sacrifice the chosen model. To determine the
Beast, flip a card which may not be cheated:
Black Joker:
Rogue Necromancy (Crossroads pg. 63)

C:

Razorspine Rattler (Core rules pg. 160)

R:

Slateridge Mauler (Crossroads pg. 119)

T:

Sabertooth Cerberus (Core rules pg. 160)

M:

Waldgeist (Core rules pg. 186)

Red Joker:
Cojo (Core rules pg. 153. May be summoned
regardless of Rare Characteristic limitation.)
Anytime a non-Beast enemy model is damaged by
one of the summoned Beasts Ml Attack Actions, the
damaged model gains the following Condition for the
rest of the game: Moon Bitten: At the end of each
of this models Activations, it must pass a TN 12
Wp duel. If it fails, use the above chart to randomly
determine a Beast, summon the Beast into base
contact with this model; then sacrifice this model.

Victory
Each time a player kills or sacrifices an enemy Beast
which was summoned due to this scenario, that
player gains 2 VP. At the end of the game, each player
scores 2 VP if they have at least one friendly Beast
summoned by this scenario in play. No more than 4
VP may be scored in this way.

Building a Park
Marko Paunovic
It was sometime in December that Aaron contacted
me to do a step by step article of a terrain build
for Wyrd Chronicles. Immediately I was up for the
job, but I had no clue what to actually do. Hills,
forests and even simple buildings have been done
to death - there are enough tutorials on similar
subjects online to fill at least a years worth of
Wyrd Chronicles.
Then fate stepped in (pun intended). I got the
whole range of Plastcraft: Designed for Malifaux
terrain for my demo games and decided to make
a piece of terrain that would both compliment the
PlastCraft terrain and help fill out my demo table.
Looking at the photos of Plastcraft terrain and their
table setup, an idea popped into my mind: make
a 19th century park. Fortunately for me, I live in
Zagreb, Croatia. The center of the city is full of
19th century architecture, parks included.
This gazebo is in one of the more famous parks
in Zagreb, and is only a minutes walk from the
towns main square (and only a ten minute walk
from my apartment). I ran the idea by Aaron, and
when he agreed I started making plans. During
January, I was busy building my park and shooting
pics for every step of the build. When the terrain
was actually finished, it was time to write the
tutorial. I grouped the tutorial by thematic steps
to help you follow along.

19

Once I was satisfied with the result, I used my

jigsaw (although a normal saw would suffice) to cut
the base into two A4 sized pieces (A4 pieces are
210mm x 297mm, or around 8.25 x 11.75). If
you dont have MDF handy, most shops that sell
photo equipment have simple glass frames with
MDF background, held in place by a couple of clips.
Its cheap and its handy. Once the base was cut, I
glued my plastic fence in place. I bought the fence
on E-bay; jJust search for an HO scale fence.
One meter of the fence cost about 10 USD (with
worldwide shipping).

CONSTRUCTION
The first step was to draw the terrain with all the
features I wanted and to make a list of materials
and bits that were needed. Because I didnt have
much time to finish the build (waiting for various
shipments to arrive was out of the question), I tried
to use materials and bits I had handy. After singling
out what Id use, it was time to start the actual build.

THE BASE

THE PLASTER
As you can see on the plans, I wanted to make an
octagonal gazebo, so I needed an octogonal base.
The easiest way to make your own walls and bases
is to cast them in plaster, and for that youll need a
mold. I put transparent plastic foil on the terrains
base, where I hade previously drawn the outline of
the gazebo. I then cut several basla wood planks
to serve as the walls of my mold and glued them
together using superglue. Because I was doing
this right on top of my line drawings, it was easy to
ensure that it was the right size and shape. I mixed
the plaster, poured it into my mold, and half an hour
later, I had my base.

First, I drew the outlines of my park on the base

(MDF board, 4 mm thick), then I put all the bits on
it to make sure it all fit. At this time, its good to
have at least one miniature handy to make sure it
can be moved through the terrain features. Theres
no point in making a nice terrain piece if your minis
cant enter it.

20

Removing the cast from the mould was easy, as it

was bendy due to the plastic foil base. Once the
base was free from the mold, I made the second
base that I would need to make my gazebo.

METAL
With the shape of the stairs complete, I needed to
make the metal sheets that would form the stairs
while making my terrain look steampunky. I used
simple card from a box of instant coffee for this,
and cut it into strips. I made the rivets with PVA
(white) glue by carefully applying it making sure it
formed little blobs that would look the part once
they were painted.

Now I needed to make the walls of the gazebo. I had

already made molds for a brick wall from an earlier
project, so I simply poured in some plaster and cut
the brick walls to size. The easiest way to make
these brick molds is to find railroad model brick
walls. Using latex milk, make the mold by covering
the model brick wall and letting it cure for about
24 hours). After sanding the sides of the walls to
make the joints look nice, I glued them together to
the base to form the octogonal gazebo. One side I
intentionally left open.

Then it was time to do the metal structure of

the gazebo. For this, I used Evergreen plasticard
profiles (I and H beams). For the fence, I used
the railings from the HO fence sets I wrote about
earlier. The horizontal roof holders were done with
H beams, while the vertical beams were crafted
from the I beams.

With the walls complete, I put another base on top

of the first, to form the floor of the gazebo.
Next I had to make the stairs. Using the same
brick wall casts as earlier, I made the shape of
the stairs by carefully cutting them down to the
desired shape and added them to a body I cut
out of HD Styrofoam.

21

I dryfitted the roof to the gazebo and it fit well.

Using strips of card, I covered the gaps between the
triangles, and then added rivets and welds using the
PVA glue method I described earlier.

ROOF
To make the octogonal roof, I first had to make the
shape of a single triangle. I wanted the roof to be
25mm high, so I started with a 25mm wooden slat,
which I glued to the center of the base, so that it
stood up vertically. Using the glued slat and the
drawing of the gazebos frame, I made my triangle
shape gluing three 2x2 mm wooden slats together,
two of them vertically and one horizontally. I did not
attach this triangle to the central upright slat.

TEXTURE
With the gazebo done, it was time to add some
texture to the base. I cut the small hills from HD
Styrofoam and glued them to the board with PVA
glue. If you look at the original design on the second
piece of the terrain, there was supposed to have
been a fountain there, but after finding this pillar I
decided it would suit the purpose better (especially
since it had some runes written on it that might
have been done by the Neverborn). Also, with its
smaller base size, it would save me space and give
more playing room while the terrain was in use.

This triangle would serve as my template. I used it

to draw eight card triangles (from the same box of
instant coffee I used earlier)Which I then cut out
with scissors. I then glued and taped them together
to form the roof of the octogonal gazebo.

22

white, followed by a layer of off white drybrush over

the grassy bits and another drybrush layer of pure
white over all areas.

I made the curbs of the terrain with some 2x2 mm

wooden slats glued with PVA glue. Once that was
done, it was time to add the texture. I normally use
three or four different sizes of grain to make my
texture. This time was no different as I used Gale
Force Nines rough, medium and fine grit for the
grassy parts.
For the paths, I used the smallest grain I had the
sand for chinchillas (which I normally use to make
facades for buildings). To get the grain to stick, I
applied watered down PVA glue to the board and
sprinkled the grit over top, starting with the roughest
and finishing with the finest. Always do it this way,
otherwise only the finest grain will stick to the board.

PAINTING BRICKS
I painted the curbs grey and the brick walls orange.
I did the same thing on the gazebo. Then I added
some red-brownish wash over the brick areas
and drybrushed it with layers of orange mixed
progressively with more white.

PAINTING
After the PVA glue had set, I started painting the
terrain. First, I undercoated everything black. Then
I used a brown color to paint all the paths; I only
drybrushed the grassy parts. When that was dry,
I used ochre paint to drybrush over all the areas.
The next drybrush layer was a mixture of ochre and

23

The CR 2302 battery gives 3V of power. Through

each LED runs approximately 20mA of electricity
and these high powered LEDs use 2.5 3 V of
power (normal LEDs use up to 2V). So when these
4 LEDs are connected in parallel (each of them is
connected to the battery itself), they need 2.5 3
V of power and about 80mA of electricity. The CR
2302 battery should last at least two games with
this setup.

PAINTING BENCHES
I found the benches on E-bay, also (search: HO
scale bench). Ten of them were around 5 USD with
shipping. The wooden parts were drybrushed brown
and off white, while the metal was only drybrushed
with silver mixed with black.

As the wires would go on the bottom of the base, I

had to make grooves for them. I did this using my
drill, then soldered the LEDs to the wires (remember
to always use the same colour on the longer leg of
the LED and another colour on the shorter).

ELECTRICITY
One of my favourite hobby shops in Zagreb has
these cool lamp posts that can be fitted with LEDs.
They are from the Decorabilia range of Stamperia
(www.stamperia.com) and cost about 5 USD per
pack of two. To make this part youll need:

The different colors will make things easier when

it comes time to connectthem to the battery. I fed
the wires through the body of the lampposts and
glued them to the base, carefully laying each wire in
its own groove. I then attached the clamps to the
battery housing and connected all the wires. Once
the battery was in place, all the LEDs lit up. Since
everything worked, I used some wooden planks to
safely secure the battery housing to the base.

a single CR 2302 battery

a single CR 2302 battery housing
about 5m of wire
4 amber LEDs

24

PAINTING THE GAZEBO

After undercoating the roof and the metal parts
of the gazebo (stairs, railings and roof structure,
I drybrushed it with the silver/black mixture
mentioned above. Then I applied brass and gold
layers to the brass parts (the base and top of
the lampposts, the railings and the body of the
gazebos roof).

FLOCKING
Once the paint dried it was time for flocking. I first
pinned the trees to the base and added static
grass, gluing it down with PVA glue. I also used
some fir trees that were also pinned and I added
some poison ivy to the gazebo.

Once the base layers were done, I applied two

special effects made by ModelMates: Rust (to
silvery bits) and Verdigris (to the brass bits). Just
apply these generously and after about ten minutes
drying time, use a slightly damp ear-cleaning tips
to remove any excess effects and add direction to
the effects (rust usually runs down a slope). Finally,
using green washes and glazes I added the moss
effect to the brick walls of the gazebo.

All that was left was to take pics and enjoy a game
on my new terrain!

25

26

WYR11009
Darkness comes Rattling is a cooperative board game for
2-6 players that follows the story of the Tribes of Man in
their quest to save the world from corruption and Darkness.
Each player will guide a mighty warrior and traverse a world
of shadows, spirits and other dangers as they combat the
coming night. Will you make the ultimate sacrifice? Will you
become a mighty warrior, able to fight off corruption? Do
you have what it takes to face the DARKNESS?

SMUGGLER's
RUN
A one-shot ADVENTURE FOR THROUGH THE BREACH
Mason Crawford

Destiny Steps:

Pleased to meet ya, she says, shaking your

hands firmly. Her accent is odd, and it takes you a
moment to place it as Cajun. Im Arcadia Benoit.
Ive been told that you folks can keep a secert.
If thats true, Ive got some good busness for ya.
She places a hand on the door to her distillery as
she waits for your promises of secrecy.

CRSC AR: When the accounting passes you by,

could be appropriate if the Fated dont bother to
confirm how much moonshine theyre getting from
the Gremlins.
CREC 12R: You will return with the balm for all
ills, could easily describe the Fated returning
with high proof moonshine; no matter what your
pain is, alcohol that strong will take it away pretty
darn quick.

Once given, Arcadia opens the door to the distillery

and leads you inside. Surprisingly, there arent
any stills or any other kind of brewing equipment
in sight just wooden crates filled with empty
bottles. Truth of the matter is, I aint no brewer.
She smirks as she lifts a fancy bottle out of the
crates and angles it so that you can see the River
Hopper label.

Prologue

More of a smuggler, really. See, the Guild has

all sorts of restrictions against sellin Gremlin
moonshine in the city, but there aint no
restrictions on human moonshine. She returns
the bottle to its crate. So, what I do is, I get some
Gremlin hooch shipped up here, cut it down with
water so it dont kill anyone, then put it in fancy
bottles and sell it as whiskey. It probably aint
good enough to fool no expert, but that dont stop
us from makin money.

The adventure opens as the Fated have been

contacted by Arcadia Benoit, a local distiller who
is responsible for River Hopper Whiskey, a strong
drink with enough of a kick to impress even career
drinkers. Shes heard that the Fated are capable (or
cheap) and has asked them to meet with her at her
distillery in the Riverfront Slums.
Read the following to the players:

Arcadia shakes her head. What does stop the

money is when the Gremlins dont deliver the
hooch they promised. Been a week now, and I
dont got no shine to sell. Im too busy here to go
runnin off into the Bayou to shake it out of em
myself, and my damned fool brother too fraid of
the Caimons to do it himself, so here we are. What
do ya say? Are you my runners?

The River Hopper distillery is smaller than you

might have imagined and a bit more shoddy, too.
Its not falling down, but its clearly been designed
with form over function. The woman that meets
you at the door is dark skinned and wearing a
faded brown coat over an untucked white shirt.

28

Arcadia will offer the Fated a total of 5 scrip per

character up front, and another 15 scrip each after
theyve managed to unblock her supply lines. She
wants them to take the train down to Edge Point
(which costs 1 scrip for fare) and meet up with her
brother, Pierre. Shell give them a piece of folded
paper with directions to get them to his hut once
theyre in Edge Point.

When the Fated ask him about the Gremlins, read

the following text:

Pierre can point them towards the Gremlin distillery,

and once theyve retrieved the moonshine, hell
bring them back to Malifaux on his boat (along with
said moonshine). Arcadia doesnt have any love for
the Gremlins, but shed rather not lose a business
partner over a misunderstanding. If theyre actively
trying to cheat her, though, then she doesnt care
what happens to them.

Pierre motions for you to follow him as he heads

over to the side of his shack that hangs over the
river. Theres a wide-flat-bottomed boat moored
to a hook jutting out from the huts side, but
Pierre ignores it as he points off into the swamp.
You wanna find da little possd, you take my
pirogue, take it out past that big tree dere, just
keep on paddlin til you reach their little shack.

Little possd like da make the misere, they

do. Pierre shakes his head like a long-suffering
father. Supposed to com round five, six days
ago, but did dey? Nah, nahaint nothin come
in from da Bayou.

Pierres pirogue his boat has a single small

paddle. Theres a small sail rolled up in the
bottom, but Pierre pulls it out and tosses it into
his shack when he notices it. Ya aint gon need
dat in da Bayou, sha, less you wan get caught
in da trees.

Scene 1: Fun Times on the Bayou

The train down to Edge Point is on time, and the trip
is uneventful. Once the Fated arrive in town, read
the following text:
You disembark at the Edge Point Station, a pale
shadow of the station back in Malifaux. But then,
Edge Point is something of a pale shadow itself,
and the languid, sleepy pace of the town feels
unnatural after all the tension and excitement
of the city. Its perched right on the edge of the
Bayou, which lends Edge Point a bit of a muggy
atmosphere, and insects buzz around overhead
with annoying tenacity.

The Fated will also have to bring the Gremlins their

payment: a wooden crate packed with two boxes of
ammunition (each measuring about 10 x 4 x 7).
Pierre wont expressly tell them whats in the boxes,
but its not a huge secret if the Fated decide to peek.
If the Fated attempt to convince Pierre to head into
the Bayou with them, he refuses, claiming that the
Caimons the gators will eat him if he does. Hes
genuinely terrified of the gators and always skirts the
edges of the Bayou whenever he takes a shipment
of shine up to his sister in Malifaux. The Fated can
attempt a TN 14 Convince Challenge to talk him
into reluctantly coming with, but hes agitated and
paranoid the entire time, and leaps from the boat
and swims for shore after only a few minutes into
the Bayou proper.

Finding Pierres dock (which is actually more of a

hut that leans out over the water) isnt too difficult
if the Fated follow the directions that Arcadia gave
them. If the Fated wander around town or lose the
map (somehow), they can get directions by asking
anyone in town. Pierre isnt really liked so much as
he is tolerated, and anyone asking about him is likely
to earn some judging looks from the townsfolk.
Pierre Benoit turns out to be a wiry man with dark
skin, an unpleasant odor and a thick Cajun accent.
While initially suspicious about why theyre poking
around his hut, he warms up considerably once they
mention his sister.

29

Catfishing: As the Fated slowly make their way

through the swamp, they catch sight of two Gremlins
alongside the riverbank, about fifteen yards to their
right. One is wearing pants and a large work boot
like a hat, and the other has on just a dirty shirt.
There are fishing poles in their hands (theyre trying
to catch some catfish), and they give the Fated wary
looks as they drift past. If hailed by the Fated, they
make rude gestures in return.

Read the following text as the Fated enter

the swamp:

The outer edges of the Bayou are dominated

by mangroves, but there are a few scattered
cypress and pines trees looming over their small
islands of solid ground. Everything is draped
with green moss, and the air is humid and
tinged with an unpleasant odor. The insects are
soon a constant annoyance, and some of the
mosquitoes are almost as large as your thumb.
As you paddle forward through the brackish
water, you occasionally see a few ripples caused
by something moving beneath the surface.

I Think I Just Lost A Bet: A snorting squeal draws

the attention of the Fated to a small, floating piglet.
A stick of dynamite has been shoved up its bottom,
and its body is bloated, hinting at the gasses
that have built up inside of it. Its tiny feet wiggle
helplessly as it slowly drifts towards the Fateds
boat, and the only thing that makes the scene less
humorous is the burning fuse thats trailing behind
it. The stuffed piglet was sent after the Fated by a
Gremlin Taxidermist, who is hiding behind a nearby
tree and waiting for the boom (TN 9 Notice).

The Fated will have to participate in an Ongoing

Challenge in order to make their way to the
Gremlin Distillery.

The Fated have one round to shoot the stuffed pig

down (Df/Wp 4 (7), 4 Wounds), which might be
difficult if nobody has their weapons drawn when it
appears. If they succeed, it explodes in a squeal
of falling bacon, making a tremendous boom that
rocks the boat. If the stuffed pig isnt killed, it floats
closer and explodes as the fuse runs out, dealing 3
damage to everyone in the boat (who must all pass
TN 10 Acrobatics Challenges or fall into the water).
The boat remains intact its pretty sturdy but it
will develop a few minor leaks that will require one
of the Fated to bail water from it every so often.

Finding the Gremlin Distillery

Skills Allowed: Labor, Navigation, Wilderness
Target Number: 9
Duration: 1 hour
Success Requirement: 6
Failure Requirement: 4
When the Fated reach the required number of
Success Requirements, they will arrive at the
Gremlin Distillery and may proceed to Scene II.
If the Fated reach the Failure Requirement, however,
they get turned around and drift right into the center
of a small Gremlin village. There are about a dozen
Gremlins all in all, and none of them look too happy
to see the Fated. They dont immediately attack, but
if the Fated dont immediately turn around, theres
likely to be a fight. Alternatively, they Fated could
attempt a TN 10 Social Skill Challenge to gain some
directions from the Gremlins.
In any case, the Fated will have to begin the Ongoing
Challenge over again, but with a + to their flips if
they managed to talk the village Gremlins into giving
them directions to the Distillery.

The Taxidermist will peek out after the explosion,

but will run off after realizing that his pig-bomb didnt
sink the boat and kill the Fated.
Cant Stop the Buzzing: The Bayou grows thicker
around the Fated as they continue towards the
distillery. Have the Fated make TN 9 Notice
Challenges. On a success, they hear buzzing sounds
and look up just as three Skeeters come swooping
down from the canopy to get some fresh blood. Those
who fail this Challenge are caught off guard and are
considered to be Slow in the first round of combat.
The Skeeters are essentially just giant mosquitos,
each about the size of a full-grown man with wide,
buzzing wings. Theyll swoop down onto the boat
and try to latch onto the Fated; once attached,
theyll shove their proboscises into their chests and
start to feed.

After each Duration, have the Fated encounter one

of the following events:

30

the left of the hut have been knocked down in a

clear path of destruction; it looks as if something
massive recently stampeded through the area.
There are three Gremlins outside on the dock,
wrestling with a belligerent pig. The pig is nearly
as large as a man, and the Gremlins seem to be
doing their best to get two kegs strapped onto its
sides. Another pig stands nearby, its legs shaking
beneath the heavy casks that have been strapped
to its body.

skeeters
Peon (4), Living
Might
2

Grace
3

Speed
5

Resilience
0

Charm
-5

Intellect
-4

Cunning
-3

Tenacity
1

Defense
7 (11)

Walk
7

Height
2

Initiative
6 (10)

Willpower
3 (7)

Charge
9

Wounds
4

When the Gremlins notice the Fated approaching,

theyll drop what theyre doing and rush over to greet
them. Of course, this now means that the pigs are
unattended; feel free to describe various acts of pigrelated chaos behind the Gremlins as they speak
with the Fated (such as the pigs trying to eat casks
of moonshine as large as they are or coughing up
something interesting, blinking at it in surprise, and
then eating it again).

Skills: Martial Arts 1, Notice 1

There are three Gremlins at this distillery: Shelby

Rae, Ginny Lou, and Biter. Theyre easily excited,
high-strung and more than a little bit drunk. Read
the following text to the Fated once they dock at the
distillery:

Talents:
Cant Stop the Buzzing!: This character gains + to
disengaging strikes.
Flight: This character is immune to falling damage and
may ignore any terrain or other characters while moving.
(1) Proboscis (Martial Arts)
AV: 6(9)========== Rg: y1======== Resist: Df
Target suffers 1/1/2 damage.
X Sluuuurp!: When damaging, deal +1 damage, then this
character heals 1 damage.

Howdy thar! The three Gremlins flash friendly

almost too friendly grins at you as you pull
your boat up to their dock. The one that spoke
is wearing a bowler hat and tattered blue jeans,
while the female at his side is draped in a dirty
white shirt that drags behind her on the ground.
The third gremlin is naked, save for a lobster trap
which he seems to have gotten stuck over top of
his head.

Scene 2: The Gremlin Distillery

The Gremlin in the bowler attempts an elaborate

bow, almost losing his hat in the process.
Ahm Shelby Rae, and this heres Ginny Lou.
He motions to the Gremlin in the large shirt,
who curtseys in a polite manner. Neither pays
attention to the third gremlin, who seems
preoccupied with trying to chew his way out of
the trap on his head. You here for the shine?
Cause we was just getting ready to bring it to
you hummies, sure as stink on a Silurid. The
female Gremlin nods in emphatic agreement.

When the Fated reach the Gremlin Distillery, read

the following text to them:
As you turn the bend around a large bank of
cattails, the Gremlin distillery comes into view!
Its a ramshackle hut perched atop a dozen poles
that barely manage to keep it swollen planks
above the waters surface. Vines and moss are
draped across its roof, and its porch stretches
out into a long dock. Some of the nearby trees to

31

The Gremlins only have around half of the moonshine

that they had agreed to deliver to Pierre, and theyll
happily turn over that portion in exchange for the
ammunition Pierre sent as payment. The Fated can
attempt TN 9 Scrutiny Challenges to get the feeling
that the Gremlins are a bit too eager to make the
trade. If they press the matter, a TN 9 Bewitch or
Intimidate Challenge will eventually get the Gremlins
to reveal that they only have half the whiskey, and
that the other half sort of walked off into the Bayou.

interested in marrying a Gremlin (for some reason),

Shelby Rae is serious with his offer, though the Fated
are unlikely to be invited to many social gatherings
back in Malifaux City once word gets out. Most
likely, the Gremlins will end up cutting the Fated in
on their next batch of moonshine. They could sell
this to Arcadia for a tidy profit (around 40 scrip), or
even go into business for themselves (though thats
likely to make an enemy of Arcadia).
If the Fated agree, Shelby Rae will inform them
that the Whiskey Golem answers to the name of
Woodford, and that he should follow them back
just fine. He does not ask or care about what
happened to Bubba (Shelby Rae never liked him
much anyways).

Read the following text to the players if they ask

about the rest of the moonshine:

Shelby Rae rubs the back of his bald, green

head. Ahh ysee, bout that

Of course, the Fated could just cut their losses and

return with the moonshine the Gremlins do have
to Pierre, in which case hell either be annoyed but
happy to at least have some of the moonshine (if
the Fated only paid for the half they received), or
quite upset (if the Fated paid for the full shipment
and only came back with half). If they overpaid, hell
try to talk the Fated into going back to the distillery
(at night; increase the TN of the Ongoing Challenge
by +2, and when the Fated arrive at the Distillery, the
Gremlins have all departed with their ammunition,
never to return).

The Gremlin wearing the lobster trap raises

his hands up in the air. KING OF DA BAYOU!
he shouts, drawing winces from the other two.
Shelby motions to the female, and she grabs
onto the trap and starts dragging it and the
attached Gremlin away from you.
Sorry bout him, Shelby Rae says, spreading
his hands out in a what can you do? gesture.
That side of the familys a bit pig-loco. Same
thing that happened to Bubbahe got a bit
too deep into the shine and rode our Whiskey
Golem off inta the Bayou. He motions to the
path of destruction leading away from the
hut. It was half full of shine! We thought hed
stumble on back, but aint nothing like that
happened, so we tried to get the hogs to carry
the shine, only they keep tryin to drink it, and
dont like all the weight and

Scene 3: An Angry Drunk

The path of destruction left behind by Bubba and
the Whiskey Golem isnt too difficult to follow; the
Fated can float their boat right down the trail without
having to make any checks to stay on course. Read
the follow text to the players as they depart:

Shelby Rae bites his green lip, then takes

off his hat and holds it in front of him as he
looks up at you with big, watery eyes. Ifn you
could reckon up enough courage to go track
the Golem down and bring it back, wed be
plenty grateful. My sisters of marryin age?
He raises a questioning eyebrow. or we can
just give ya some free moonshine from our next
batch. Ifn ya dont fancy pretty ladies, that is.

The path of destruction is surprisingly easy to

follow the trees have been knocked down
to either side, obstacles the Whiskey Golem
cleared aside during its rampage.
After about an hour of floating along the still
water, you catch sight of what could only be the
Whiskey Golem. Its nearly twice the size of a
man and much wider, and seems to have been
constructed entirely out of kegs and casks. Its
buried hip-deep in the muck of the Bayou, and
is struggling quite unsuccessfully to free
itself. Moonshine is slowly leaking from small
fractures in its kegs, and the entire area has
the strong scent of alcohol lingering over it;
youre pretty sure that you could get drunk just
from drinking the swamp water around it.

The pigs arent as good at wading through the Bayou

as the Golem was, so the Gremlins are eager to get
their Whiskey Golem back. If the Fated are actually

32

If the Fated earn enough Success Requirements,

they manage to free the Whiskey Golem. Assuming
they call it by name (Woodward), itll trudge along
behind them as they return to the Gremlins. Of
course, the characters might just decide to bypass
the Gremlins entirely and return to Edge Point with
a new Whiskey Golem servant, which will no doubt
earn them the ire of the Gremlins.

The Whiskey Golem has been stuck in the mud for

almost a week now, and its been slowly leaking its
high-proof contents into the water the whole time.
Its only down about a third of the half-batch it was
initially loaded with, so theres still enough inside it
to make unsticking it worthwhile. If the Fated can
teleport it free of the mud, then thats the easy
solution. Otherwise, getting it unstuck is handled
with an Ongoing Challenge:

If the Fated reach the Failure Requirement, however,

theyll end up busting open the Whiskey Golem
and getting showered with high-poof moonshine;
each character will gain Poison +2 and will have
the Dazed Condition for the next few hours. This
effectively destroys the Whiskey Golem.

Unstick a Whiskey Golem!

Skills Allowed: Labor, Leadership
Target Number: 9
Duration: 5 minutes
Success Requirement: 6
Failure Requirement: 4

In any case, after the first Duration passes, all of

the noise will disturb a nearby resident: A very large,
very drunk frog. It ate Bubba after the Whiskey
Golem first got stuck in the muck, then ended up
getting drunk as the moonshine pouring from the
Whiskey Golem contaminated its home. Its near
the end of a three-day bender by the time the Fated
arrive, and its not happy.

Trying to unstick the Golem is hard work. Each

time a character fails a Challenge made as part
of this Ongoing Challenge, they gain the following
Condition: Tired +1: This character suffers -1 to
any duel involving a Physical Aspect. Lower the
value of this Condition by 1 for every 30 minutes
this character rests.

Read the following text to the players:

Suddenly, a portion of the muck rises up to

reveal a titanic frog, almost as large as a house!
Its eyes are rolling in every which direction and
its tongue hangs out of its open mouth. Youre
not sure whats wrong with it at first, but then
it belches and its rancid, alcohol-laden breath
washes over you in a warm cloud. The giant frog
is drunk!
Worse yet, it appears to be an angry drunk

The frog begins the fight about 8 yards from the

nearest Fated, and fights to the death (its too drunk
to care about things such as survival).

33

If a Fated actually agrees to marry Ginny Lou, then

theres a wedding in their future! Someone will have
to deliver messages to her family (all across the
Bayou) and arrange the wedding proper, which will
no doubt involve plenty of bacon, moonshine and
guns. This could be a very fun adventure, with the
Fated forced to keep Ginny Lous family from getting
drunk and killing each other (or the Fated) before
the wedding is finished. Of course, a gathering of
so many Gremlins in one area might also attract
the attention of the Ortega family, who view such
a gathering as the perfect time to do some pest
control.

giant drunken frog

Enforcer (7), Living, Swampfiend
Might
3

Grace
2

Speed
2

Resilience
1

Charm
-3

Intellect
-2

Cunning
-2

Tenacity
1

Defense
5 (11)

Walk
5

Height
2

Initiative
4 (11)

Willpower
3 (10)

Charge
6

Wounds
7

Once the Fated return to Pierre (presumably with at

least some of the moonshine), hell sail them up
along the edges of the Bayou towards Malifaux City.
The trip takes almost a full day, so if its late at
night, hell wait until morning to leave (the Fated can
sleep on his porch if they wish). Alternatively, the
Fated could just purchase tickets and take the train
back to Malifaux, though that will cost them 1 scrip
per ticket.

Skills:
Evade 3, Flexible 3M, Melee 3, Notice 2, Toughness 2
Tipsy:
At the start of this characters turn, it may suffer 1 damage
and move 1 yard to generate 1 additional general AP.
(1) Sticky Tongue (Flexible)
AV: 5M(12R)====== Rg: z8======== Resist: Df
Target suffers 1/1/2 damage.
R Pull and Drag: After damaging, push the target 3
yards towards this character.

Arcadia is good for the money she promised the

Fated, which amounts to 10 scrip per character. Its
a healthy sum, and as she pays them she makes
it a point to reiterate that their arrangement was
a confidential one. She cant have people knowing
that shes reselling Gremlin moonshine, after all.
If the Fated push her with threats about revealing
her scheme to the Guild (and succeed at a TN 12
Intimidate Challenge), shell kick in an extra 5 scrip
per character as protection money. If the Fated fail
this duel (or attempt to Intimidate her further), she
refuses to pay and instead hires some mercenaries
to take the Fated out (which is probably an adventure
in and off itself).

(1) Crushing Frog Jaws (Melee)

AV: 6 (13) ======= Rg: y2 ======== Resist: Df
Target suffers 2/3/4 damage.
C Swallow Whole: After damaging a Ht 2 or smaller
character, they are swallowed by this character and gain
the following Condition: In Mah Belly: This character
is paralyzed. At the start of each of its turns, this
character suffers 2 damage. End this Condition when
the character that applied it is killed.

If the Fated fail to return with the Whiskey Golem,

then Arcadias business is in jeopardy. Without a
steady source of Gremlin hooch, she wont have
anything to sell and will be forced to look into other
suppliers. If the Fated are willing, this could be the
springboard for future adventures into the Bayou as
they track down Gremlin brewers and try to convince
them to trade their moonshine to Arcadia. Of course,
giving bullets to Gremlins could have dangerous
repercussions down the line

If the Fated return the Whiskey Golem to the

Gremlins, Shelby Rae will be grateful to the Fated
and will happily allow them to marry his sister or
to take a cut of moonshine from their next batch
(though hes less enthusiastic about that option if
the Fated take it). With the Whiskey Golem, theyre
able to resume their shipments to Pierre and get
Arcadias shipments back on schedule. None of the
Gremlins ask (or care) about Bubbas final fate.

34

Luther the Pascha Hare

Graeme Stevenson
Hogwash! Little Radley blurted, folding his
tiny arms.

Ill do just that. Ill see em and Ill say to em Hey

boys, you know Boil says he saw a giant rabbit?

Is so true! rejoined Boil, his normally-ruddy face

an especially deep maroon.

Hare, Boil corrected again.

An theyll say What, now? an Ill say Why, thats
right Boil saw himself a giant rabbit, an he says
you two saw it too, and theyll say Well, hes crazy
an a liar cos we never saw nothin like that.

No it aint it aint even that much true! Little

Radley pressed his thumb and forefinger together in
demonstration of how non-existent the truth behind
Boils claim was.

Its a hare, Boil insisted again. An I aint no liar.

Ask anyone. It comes back every year in the springn
eats street kids. I swear its true.

What would you know, Radley? You werent

never there!
Pah! Giant rabbit, he says. Little Radley looked
skyward as if to invite an invisible audience to join in
the ridicule of his companion.

Feller, your tongues gonna swell up and turn yeller

from tellin all them lies.
I aint lyin, Radley, I saw it.

Aint no rabbit it wuz a hare, Boil corrected hotly.

Little Radley shook his head emphatically. No
you dint.

Little Radleys expression made it obvious he

couldnt care less. You made it up.

I saw it and I aint lyin and if you say another word

about it, Ill lick you right here, Boil threatened,
balling his red fists.

Did not, neither, Boil said. You cn ask Grimy Pete

and Flutter. They saw im, too.

35

In saying that, Radley did often skate too close to

the edge of what could be tolerated by the other
street urchins and, in the wrong company, that sort
of behavior was liable to leave you hurt and bleeding
in a ditch someplace.

Well, you best go ahead and lick me, cos I dont

believe a word of it, Radley said. Not word one.
Ill do it, too, Boil continued, desperation starting
to bleed into his tone. Ill do it, so youd better just
watch out.
Thats for your lickin, Radley said contemptuously,
spitting into the dirt. You a yeller-mouthed liar, Boil.
The larger boy fizzed and ground his teeth, but he
didnt strike his small companion. He wasnt a
violent child by nature and everyone knew Little
Radley got his name because he was abnormally
small and weak for his age, with an outsized head.
It just wouldnt seem right to beat up on him when
he couldnt defend himself properly.

A sulky silence descended as Boil leaned against

the fence and scuffed his bare feet savagely into
the dust, and Little Radley turned to look the other
way, affecting an air of benign indifference to his
companions distemper.
Presently, along came Sunny, whose disposition was
exactly as youd expect from a name like that.
Hey, fellers, she chirped, giving them a wide, gaptoothed grin. Whatcha doing?
Boil stayed quiet, excavating a hole in the dirt with
his toes and keeping his stormy expression lowered.
Dont mind him, Little Radley said, hopping down
off the fence. With his feet on the ground, the crown
of his head barely reached Sunnys chin, and he was
three years her senior. Hes just sore cos I called
him out.
What for?
For bein a liar, Radley said, matter-of-factly.
I aint no liar! Boil snapped, but didnt raise his
head. He was frequently very bashful around Sunny.
He is too, Radley continued, undaunted. He says
he saw a giant rabbit.
Hare, Boil corrected yet again. I says hare.
Whered you see it, Toby? Sunny asked. She was
the only one of the group that ignored the big red
welt on his forehead and called him by his real name
(which was probably the reason for his bashfulness).

36

Boil worked on his excavation for a few seconds

while he pondered whether Sunny might be leading
him into a trap.

The three of them settled into silence, although a

more companionable one than before Sunny had
come long. Presently, she started up again.

Night before last, he said when hed convinced

himself further ridicule wasnt imminent. In th
alley behind the Ewell Meat Works.

Im hungry, she said.

Little Radley glanced up at the sky, which was turning
to burnished copper as the evening drew in.

Sunnys round face creased while she thought.

Dont hares eat grass an stuff?

We could go by the Cunningham factory, he

suggested. They usually clearin out the bread
ovens around now. Might be a few burnt loaves
tossed out.

Not this one, Boil said. It ate up Bart Lovetree in

one gulp. Down he went.
It ate Bart?

Sunny nodded vigorously burnt bread was far

better than no bread at all. Why, I bet we get a
whole loaf each.

Sure did. Picked him up an ate him like a cherry.

So how come it dint eat Flutter, nor Grimy Pete?
asked Little Radley pointedly.
How do I know? It sorta hung over em for a while,
then gave em somethin out of a basket and went
off down the alley.

I bet we do at that, agreed Radley and they fell

into step. Boil followed after, his fists thrust into his
ragged pants pockets, jealous of Radleys proximity
to Sunny and unable to budge his wounded pride
enough to do anything about it.

A basket? It had a basket? Radleys voice was

climbing steadily to the heights of incredulity.
Thats what I said, werent it?
Whadya think it gave em, Toby? asked Sunny,
evidently not as challenged by the concept of a giant
hare carrying a basket.
I couldnt see, but the two of em lit out afterward
like they was on fire, thats for sure. Aint seen
neither of em since.

The Cunningham Bakery was one of dozens in that

district of Malifaux, and provided almost exclusively
for the poor. The ingredients that went into a
Cunningham Cob were uninspired and the resultant
bread was of dubious merit, but it was cheap and
plentiful and those were the only things that a
starving family could really afford to consider.
The best cobs were to be had early in the morning
after the flour sacks had been delivered; every
sunrise found a long queue at the bakerys gate
waiting for the first trays to be brought out of the
ovens. By midday the best of the ingredients had
been used and the caliber of the bread took a

Well, thats awful convenient, said Radley, dryly.

Dont think Id wanna eat Grimy Pete, either, Sunny
commented. Lessn Id washed im first. The boy
was notoriously filthy, even for a street urchin.

37

downward turn, as did the price. The queues were

just as long, though those waiting in them were
decidedly leaner and shabbier, and by evening
all that was left of the flour and yeast were the
sweepings from the dough room floor. These last
offerings were sold in batches, five cobs to a coin
mostly, and were bought by the poorest and most
desperate of those who still had something to make
a purchase with.

I aint never seen so much in one place, said

Sunny. This was patently untrue, but served to
bolster their spirits nonetheless.
They had scavenged one whole cob about the size
of a squashed coconut, three badly burned halves
and about a dozen fist-sized chunks. The whole cob
looked almost supernatural, sitting there brown and
pristine among the blackened cast-offs.

When the bakery closed its gates at sundown,

those who hadnt scrip or good fortune enough
to acquire a meal went around to the tip at the
back of the factory, where the oven boys dumped
the charred detritus from the ovens over the wall.
These blackened chunks were squabbled over with
all the passion a starving soul could muster and by
midnight there was never so much as a crumb left.

Reckon thats yours, Boil said magnanimously,

nodding at the cob. You brought back the most.
Well half it in three, Radley said judiciously, all
trace of his former scorn evaporated. That way we
all get a taste.
This was more than agreeable, and all eyes watched
as he carefully tore the bread orb into three pieces,
handing one to each of his friends. They all tucked in
ravenously, pausing frequently to exclaim the merits
of this freshly-baked wonder around bulging cheeks.

By the time the urchins arrived a sizeable portion

of the bread had been grabbed, but experience
and a sharp eye had taught them that the refuse
wasnt always hurled over the wall in the same
place and it paid to linger a distance from the
center of the scrum.

Caution is an admirable thing in all walks of life, and

doubly so when you live on the edge of the knife
like the Malifaux urchins. A moments relapse is
sometimes all it takes for a situation to turn sour
and this is exactly what happened to our feasting
protagonists when Red Eddie and his gang came
around the corner.

Sure enough, they heard crunching feet in the gravel

on the far side of the wall and a second later, a
shovelful of broken bread flew overhead. Little
Radley was especially adept at scavenging bread
in the gathering gloom. By the time the adults had
realized what was going on the three of them were
hot-footing it back along the alley with hot chunks
clenched in their fists and Little Radleys inverted
shirt bulging with cobs as black and misshapen as
coal bricks.

Lean and rangy like a pack of dogs, these werent

urchins but rather miniature thugs. There wasnt so
much as a trace of starry-eyed innocence left among
the lot of them it had all been beaten or starved
out by harsh living on the streets.

They ran for a long time hard experience had taught

them to be wary of hungry adults who would pursue
them in the hope of wrestling away their prize. It was
almost fully dark before they came to a halt in the
shadow of a rotting music hall still sporting a few
flecks of blue and red paint from some forgotten
carnival era.

Red Eddie was the tallest and oldest of the troupe,

as befitted a leader of adolescents, and his sullen
pinched face was almost hidden beneath a greasy
curtain of unkempt hair. His fringe hung to the tip
of his nose but failed to mask the spiteful eyes
behind. He carried a rusty knife in his boot (being
on the upper echelon of street life allowed him the
luxury of footwear) and when they werent thieving
or threatening, Eddies hands worked ceaselessly
at each other; picking, rubbing and squeezing with
nervous energy until the flesh was raw.

What a haul! Little Radley breathed as they

piled the bread on an upturned crate and stood
admiring it.

38

One of the many unsavory rumors about him was

that the red on his hands was actually a stain
from knifing his father to death. Even the youngest
urchins on the street regarded this myth with high
skepticism, but there was no doubt that Red Eddie
was mean enough to have done the deed.

Radley said nothing, curled into a tight ball.

What do you want, Eddie? asked Boil. We got

nothin but that bread, there.

As for his gang, their specifics are not relevant here,

save to say they lent sufficient weight and menace
to the older boy to ensure any ensuing confrontation
was completely one-sided.
There was a short scuffle in which Sunny and Boil
received buffets about the head and Little Radley
was shoved hard enough to sprawl him full-length
in the dirt. Ankles were stepped on and shirt fronts
grabbed so that there could be no escape while
Eddie surveyed the still-uneaten spoils.

That aint bread, snorted the villain. I had bread

afore an it werent all black and crunchy. Despite
this criticism, he was lifting the chunks and stuffing
them in his pockets. Truth of it is, this is below me.
A man has thave standards.

Dont take it all, protested Boil, but there was no

conviction in his voice. In truth, if this was the extent
of Red Eddies villainy for the evening, theyd have
got off lightly.

Whats this? he said, poking absently at the

blackened bits on the crate. Three little rats eating
coal, eh?

Ill take as much as I likes to take, an youll keep

your trap shut about it, Eddie countered, pushing
the last few pieces into his bulging shirt. You dont
wanna make me reach fer my boot, do ya?

We aint rats, muttered Radley, but even he was

careful to keep his defiance inaudible around
Red Eddie.
We had pork, dint we, boys? Eddie gloated.
Snatched us a hog right outta Crumbs window,
cooked it over a box fire.
Crumb was the butcher with a shop a few streets
away. Boil doubted that they could have run off with
an entire hog hed seen one gutted and hanging
in Crumbs shop weeks before and it looked bigger
than he was but the thought of hot crispy pork
made his mouth water, a delicacy hed smelled often
enough, but never tasted.

It was no secret that Eddie carried a knife and there

was nothing he liked better than produce it and
threaten the little ones with its rusty ragged edge.
He protested mightily that it was all their own doing;
that theyd ragged him and sassed him until hed
had no choice but to reach for it to quieten them,
but the sadistic truth was right there in his eyes
that hed have drawn it anyway, just to see their
expressions.

He sharpened it on a rock every night, and made a

poor job of it. Any household in the city was like to
have a better piece of steel in the kitchen drawer,
but Eddie crooned about his ragged weapon like it
was a boon from the Gods.

You never had no pork, blurted Little Radley before

he could stop himself.

You best not make me, he was saying, his raw

chafed fingers hovering. You just best not.

Red Eddie kicked him hard in the stomach, hard

enough for the air to burst out of him in a loud squawk.
I says we had pork, little rat. Dont you sass me.

39

I aint making you do nothing, Boil said, glowering

back with as much conviction as he could muster.
Just dont take it all, is all I says. We aint eaten
and thats all we got. He tactfully left out the fact
that each of them had wolfed down a cob third
seconds before.

up a gear, waving his knife in ever-increasing circles

and raising his voice. Or maybe Ill leave you a nice
scar to remember me by. Howd ya like that, rat?

Little Radley had responded to Sunnys pleading too,

but in a different way. A surge of indignation and fury
had completely dowsed his fear, and unfortunately
washed away his common sense at the same time.
Well go on, then, he said.

You gotta mind your betters, boy, Eddie stated.

I deserve this bread moren you, which is why Im
takin it. Tirin work, bein an inspirin example to
you rats, an a mans gotta eat.

Eddie looked around as his associates-in-crime to

let the moment hang. Say what?
Whos this man you keep talkin about? muttered
Radley, but unfortunately for him his comment
landed right in a moment of uncommon silence and
his private sarcasm abruptly became very public.

I said do it, Little Radley repeated, his voice

trembling. Youre the man. You drew the knife.
Do it.

Oh, you gone an done it, now, said Eddie, reaching

down to his boot with exaggerated grandeur. I told
you not to make me, but you done it now.

Radley, shut your hole, Boil said, sensing that his

small companion had badly misjudged his opponent.
Go on then, big man, Radley continued recklessly,
heaving himself into a sitting position. Go on and
do it. You take our bread, you beat us, you wave
that thing around like youre the Governor General
hisself, so do it. You got the sand to kill me? Or is
you just full o hot air?

Little Radley watched with equal parts resignation,

contempt and fear as the older boy slowly drew the
filthy knife from his shoe. It was almost uniformly
brown other than the notched line of silver at the
edge where Eddie methodically ground it against
a stone every evening. A person was more likely
to die of tetanus than any wound something so
dull and ugly could inflict, but it was a piece of
steel in the hand of a sadistic impulsive bully and I
suppose thats enough to put a touch of fear in any
sensible person.

Eddies flirting hold around the knifes hilt had

become a hard grip and the tendons were standing
out along the length of his forearm. You want this?
he asked, his voice somewhere between concern
and a terrible excitement.

Eddie dawdled the knife between thumb and

forefinger, his lips splitting to show teeth almost as
brown as the blade. Maybe Ill take an ear to remind
you whos in charge around here. Or maybe a finger.

Yeah, go on an do it! Little Radley struggled to his

feet Eddies goons had backed away as soon as
this odd outburst started. Look me in th eye an
do it, if you can. What do I got to lose?

Dont, Eddie! wailed Sunny, who was at her center

a gentle soul and didnt really understand why
people couldnt just get along. Circumstance was
cruel enough without people going out of their way
to make things worse.

Radley, Boil hissed, but the damage was

already done.

Were this any common-or-garden schoolyard bully,

Little Radleys bluff would no doubt have worked and
forced his tormentor into a blustering retreat. His
judgement, however, had failed him and he could not

This distressed protesting was precisely the sort of

theatrical nutrient that Eddie craved and he went

40

see what Boil already knew that Red Eddie was

more than just a product of jealousy or lack of good
parenting. He was what clever men with spectacles
and pipes a century later would label a sociopath,
to whom matters of empathy and morality were
completely alien. To Eddie, there was no reason
in the world why he shouldnt do exactly what this
mouthy urchin was daring him to.

hear it drawing long,

whistling breaths through
its muzzle, for the shape of
the head looked distinctly
animalistic.
Fragrasy
childer flowers

Red Eddies repertoire

of henchmen broke
then shoving past
Eddie and Sunny to
pelt back along the
alley and vanish.

He took two quick steps and gripped Radley around

the throat, pinning him against the brick wall and
bringing his knife hand back in preparation for a
hard thrust. Boil tried to lunge forward to help his
friend but was held fast by goons who looked almost
as astonished as Little Radley himself.
It would have ended right then for Little Radley,
impaled on a rusted blade in a dingy alley in the
back end of nowhere by a callous maniac, but for
that all-too common situation in Malifaux where a
dark deed is stayed because it is interrupted by
something far, far worse.

Little childers, said a slow, sibilant

voice. Little pink childers

All eyes rolled around to the far end

of the alley, where a towering shape
moved among the shadows. It slouched
its way towards them, moving with an
unsteady lopping gait. It didnt appear
to be in any way human.

Sweet little childers it said with in a

voice like syrup poured over rotted meat.
All in a row

Boils first instinct was to flee, and so was his

second, but Radley was still pinned to the wall
with Red Eddies knife hovering in mid-air, frozen
in the act of violence.

Oooh, so wonderful fresh and smellsome,

continued the voice as it drew closer. They could

41

The urchins would have done the same, but neither

of them could bring themselves to leave Little
Radley, sandwiched as he was between Red Eddie
and some awful thing of the night.

There were brownish stains on the filthy waistcoat

and a strong coppery stink from the hares
hands. The fur looked sodden and the urchins
suspected that, had there been more light in the
alley, the hares hands would not be black but a
deep vital red.

The thing loped closer and closer until finally it

crossed a narrow slice of gaslight from the street
beyond their alley and the urchins saw something at
once farcical and nightmarish.

Radley became aware by degrees that the hare had

something over one arm a wicker basket at least
three feet across, with rusty chicken-wire securing
the contents, which for the moment lay in shadow.
Radley found he wasnt in the least curious.

It was a giant rabbit. Or to be more precise, a giant

hare. Easily seven feet in height before the massive
over-arcing ears were taken into account and wearing
a threadbare tweed waistcoat with tarnished brass
buttons. Elsewhere, the giant Lepus was covered in
a course mangy fur.

Boils story suddenly didnt seem quite so far-fetched.

Mister, he tried, clearing his throat. Mister, we

aint done nothin but take a little bread what was
bein thrown away, anyhow. Cant we just go?

Little Radley might have laughed but for the truly

horrific nature of the creature. It trembled steadily
as though afflicted with palsy, stank of carrion,
and sported a gigantic pair of bulbous, blood-shot,
weeping eyes that rolled from urchin to urchin
with a feverish glaze reserved for an animal in the
final stages of hydrophobia or myxomatosis. Or
perhaps both.

The hares bulbous head immediately swung his

way and its mad eyes crawled over him, almost a
physical sensation. It took a step forward so that
it loomed over him and he found he was staring
straight at its belly. For a creature complaining of
hunger its stomach was grossly distended and
moving. Radley had a disturbing thought that its last
meal might not be dead yet.

Sweet childers, it said as it cast a foul-smelling

shadow over them. Nights veil, she draws oer
us one and all, and Luther must perform his
judicaterment once again, yes he must. Tired, Luther
is. Tired, and so very hungry

Tiny, tiny childer, it breathed, a single spot of froth

dropping from its muzzle on to Radleys cheek. More
years on you than the others, yet you stand the
shortest. Luther must weigh you most carefulish.

The glassy eyes swept the small group, each one of

them dumbfounded.
Before Radley could respond, the enormous hare
leaned close and took a deep breath through its
nose. It breathed in again and again, eyes halfclosed while it drew up his scent with such force he
could feel his hair fluttering.

Evaluatering is called for, a solemn office. Ancient.

Luther must weigh all the souls, all the little childer
souls. The animal lifted a black hand ending in
talons a full six inches in length, cradling an invisible
soul in its palm. He must, he must. Luther is
compelled; he must discharge his office. Promise,
he did. A puss tear oozed down his blunt muzzle, but
the urchins were unmoved. A heavy air of violence
hung about this creature, and there was not even
a fleeting moment of pity to be found among them.

Uhhhhhrrrrrrr, Luther gurgled and reeled back, the

scent filling his lungs. He bared triangular incisors
longer than Radleys forearm and chittered at length
before letting the air out in a foul rush. Sweet,
brave childer. Luther sees it neath those tiny ribs,
tastes it in his head. Good soul. Good soul.

42

As soon as he said this, the basket under his arm

began to shiver and jostle as though a number of
terrified things within had abruptly begun to fight to
put another occupant between themselves and the
baskets mouth.

Sunny continued to bubble softly, hiccupping while

Luther rummaged in his basket of screaming
rabbits. A special one a treatish one Luther must
find. Reward the good, yes. Reward them.

He pulled free a particularly plump rabbit whose fur

shone like snow. Luthers hand-prints on its flanks
looked shockingly red. With a practiced motion,
Luther snapped its neck squeezing a surprisingly
human shriek from the animal in the process and
bestowed this macabre gift on the crying urchin.

Reward the good, Luther said, almost to himself

as he thrust a hand into the basket. Reward the
good, yes. Luther knows.

He pulled out a rabbit, snowy-white and kicking madly.

While the urchins stared with incomprehension,
Luther stretched the coney between his long arms
and twisted. The rabbits neck went click and all
fighting ceased.

Yes, so soft this one is, loving pet this one, maybe,
eh? he suggested. Pet now, yes? Stroking and
singing, yes? Warm, this one. Cuddlish. Eat later.

Reward, yes, Luther said, handing the dead rabbit

to an astonished Radley, eyes darting from the boys
face to his reward and back again. Nice, yes? Is
still warm. Tasty. Rich. Bloody.

Thank you, sir, Sunny managed between her sobs,

remembering enough manners to attempt a small
curtsy while clutching the dead rabbit to her breast.

Luther turned to face Boil, who had shrunk back

against the alley wall, his heart hammering.
Wordlessly, the hare leaned over him and snorted; a
long, deep inhalation while the urchin tensed to flee.
Things had gone too well for too long this creature
wasnt terrifying and blood-soaked for nothing, and
Boil suspected he was about to find out why.

Little Radley swallowed his nausea.

Slow and menacing, Luther swung to face a whitefaced Sunny and leaned over her.

Ahh, the childer flower, he said as he began to draw

in deep breaths. Sweetness such sweetnesss
lovelish fleshy childer ahhh

Instead, the hare made a non-committal grunt that

sounded like good enough, hauled a screaming
rabbit from the basket, killed it and shoved it in the
Boils face.

Sunny was frozen to the spot, sobbing quietly while

Luther sucked in her scent, twin tear tracks leaving
pink trails through the grime on her face. At length,
the animal exhaled and immediately drew backs
its chops in a terrifying grin that showed layers of
hooked teeth that no hare, enormous or otherwise,
ought to have possessed.

Four pairs of eyes swiveled to Red Eddie.

Astonishingly, the boy didnt look all that frightened.

Smell me, now, he said. And then Ill have one of

them rabbits you got. A big one. Ill have me some
rabbit stew I can mop up with my bread. This last
comment seemed aimed at the urchins even though
Eddies gaze never left the huge hares.

Such gentlement, such warmness, Luther

exclaimed, reaching down to carefully press a
razor talon against Sunnys cheek. Childer, it gives
heart to poor Luther to find a soul so shineous, so
gleamish. Sweet, dear childer.

Childer, Luther intoned, looming over the boy until

43

he almost vanished in the shadow. Dark childer.

Weigh you, Luther must. Justicize you.

The urchins didnt need a second warning. In a

heartbeat they were down the alley and away,
legs pumping for all they were worth, rabbit prizes
flopping and slapping madly.

Go on then. I want the biggest rabbit youve got.

In the end, it turned out that rabbit tasted far better
than burned bread.

Luther drew in a breath, a thin whistling keening

breath unlike the others, and the urchins could see
the hackles at the base of his neck begin to bristle.

Black, childer, Luther said slowly, still hanging

over the boy. Black and rotted. Luther smells it.
Cruelish. Vicious.

So? Red Eddie was obstinate to the last. Give

me my rabbit.

Hours and miles later, Luther crouched in his burrow.

With the stone in place, the entrance was hidden
from view and he could tend his brood.

Oh no, Luther murmured, somehow seeming to

grow taller still. Not for this one.

He hunched over, retching softly and steadily until the

massive bulge in his stomach shifted. The flexible
snake jaw opened once more and he disgorged his
charges out onto the dirt. One after another, bulbous
rubbery eggs surged from his gaping mouth, landing
with wet slaps. There was still a suggestion of a
child in each, an amorphous figure squirming and
twitching within the veiny membranous skin.

His big head split as his muzzle opened. The others

heard a click as his jaw dislocated like a snake
and gaped wider and wider, opening a wet red cave
rimmed with barbed teeth. Eddie finally seemed to
realize what was about to happen and bolted or at
least tried to.

Exhausted and starved once again, Luther nudged

the eggs to the base of a far larger pile. The skins
would harden and they would shrink, he knew. In
the weeks and months to come, they would slowly
dry out until they formed a hard and brittle shell not
much larger than a melon. It was cruel to rob poor
Luther of his meal, he felt, but it was his curse and
his burden. It was his task.

Luthers long supple arms snatched him into the air

before he could take a step and with a single motion
rammed the boy into his mouth. His throat distended
as he gulped and, like a furry python, the huge hare
swallowed the boy in a half-dozen muscular lurches.

The urchins watched with a confused mixture of

horror, fascination and relief as their arch-enemy
joined the already sizeable bulge in Luthers
abdomen. The hares jaws clicked shut and he licked
his jaws with a long black tongue.

It would take a full year for them to transform

completely, during which time he could sleep down
here in the cool earth and forget his hunger.

Run along now, little childers, he said tonelessly.

His head turned a fraction so that one bulging red
eye danced across them, perhaps contemplating a
further urchin canap. Luther is always so hungry
so hungry reward the good, yes, but Luther grows
weak. Run along now. Temptation is here.

By the time Luthers season had come round again

the eggs would be beginning to hatch. A fresh crop
of soft white rabbits would emerge rewards for the
good childers.

44

FINAL ROUND

13 Lessons of War
Michael Kelmelis
I encourage you to seek out a copy of the book
yourself and, if you have not already done so, read
through it. Because the book is specific to war, not
all Sun Tzu says will be directly compatible with
Malifaux, but a significant portion of its lessons can
be applied.

Michael is a regular writer on the Guessing Zero

gaming website at guessingzero.com, and is a co-host
of the podcast Gaming Done Right on the Guessing
Zero Network.
Last issue, I talked about how to play Malifaux
without engaging in violence, seeing it through the
lens of Thich Nhat Hahns Being Peace. Through the
Buddhist teachings, we were able to see a different
way to play. By avoiding violence and concentrating
on the other options you can bring to the table, your
knowledge of the game and understanding of what
choices you have available grows. A player who
understands more of what his models are capable
of is in a far better position to win than a player who
knows only one or two ways to move forward.

Sun Tzu breaks down his book into thirteen chapters.

There are many lessons that can be drawn from
each one. I will be covering a single lesson from
each chapter, and how it pertains to Malifaux.

One: Laying Plans

But the world of Malifaux is not a place of peace.

Malifaux is a world torn by violence and conflict. It
is a place where its very citizens are under constant
threat of harm. It is a place of war. And no teacher
understands war better than the Chinese military
advisor from the fifth century BC, Sun Tzu. His
treatise, The Art of War, is still widely read today,
and by more than just military commanders. Its
lessons are applied to psychology, to business, to
legal strategy, and more. Today, I will be applying its
lessons to Malifaux.
To discuss this book completely in relation to
Malifaux would take far more than a single article.

46

The art of war, then, is governed by five

consistent factors, to be taken into account
in ones deliberations, when seeking to
determine the conditions obtaining in the
field. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2)
Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5)
Method and discipline.
Sun Tzus first chapter covers the planning a
general does before the battle even begins. It is
no surprise that he begins here much of Sun
Tzus philosophy revolves around his belief that the
more prepared general will win the war. And when
it comes to planning, there are five core areas
that the general will need to understand before
engaging on the battlefield.

The first of these he calls The Moral Law. Far

more important in true war than in Malifaux, it is
simply the understanding of the people who will
be engaging in this war. Are they willing to follow
their leader wherever he leads? That might seem
unimportant in Malifaux. Models have no mind of
their own; they will perform whatever actions their
general gives them. But that is not always the
case. Your opponent may have methods like Obey
to force your models to behave in ways you do not
wish them to, or they may have ways to Paralyze
your model, preventing them from carrying out your
orders. I have seen a Rail Golem poised to kill the
opposing Master only to be brought low by a simple
Crooked Man Paralyzing him for three turns in a row.
All the strength of your army is useless if it cannot
be applied. Know what your opponents models can
do to prevent your models from carrying out their
orders. A Crooked Man may be a cheap model on
the opponents field, but if he keeps your strongest
model in check for majority of the game, he becomes
one of your opponents best models on the table.

what your ultimate goal is from the game, and know

what your opponents is. Know how well those two
goals synch up.
Finally, Sun Tzus last core area is the Method and
discipline of the army. In terms of Malifaux, this
refers to knowing your model selections inside
and out. Know the strengths and weaknesses of
your choices. A Samurai, for example, is strong
at ranged combat, but is particularly weak against
Obey, Terrifying, and other Willpower-based attacks.
Review your models, and review your opponents.
Know where your weaknesses are in your Faction
and determine whether your opponent is capable
of capitalizing on those weaknesses. Know your
strengths and whether those will be particularly
effective against parts of your opponents army.
Sun Tzu makes it absolutely clear: the illprepared general will lose before he even steps
foot on the battlefield. The one who has done
his homework and research before taking the
field will take the day.

Sun Tzus second and third core areas are Heaven

and Earth. Heaven refers to the time of day the battle
will be fought, the weather, and the season. Earth
refers to the terrain that the battle will be fought
on, the distances between points on the battlefield,
and other such matters. In terms of Malifaux, these
combine to make up the state of the board you will
be playing on. One should always review the board
before formulating a full battle plan. Some models
excel at different jobs, depending on the board
makeup. When playing Guild, for example, Perdita
and the Family should be a strong consideration
when the terrain shows plentiful open alleys for
gunfighters to line up. The Guild Pathfinder and
his traps should be a go-to if there are strategically
important choke-points on the board. A bell-tower
with a nice view of the battlefield should make you
consider Nino. And if you see long gaps between
cover, taking faster models like the Lone Marshal
and Pale Rider will help cover that distance quickly
without keeping the model in the open.

Two: Waging War

Hence a wise general makes a point of
foraging on the enemy. One carload of the
enemys provisions is equivalent to twenty of
ones own, and likewise a single picul of his
provender is equivalent to twenty from ones
own store.
Malifaux has a number of resources to balance
when playing. Cards and Soulstones are obvious
resources, but there are others to consider as well.
One often-overlooked resource every general must
consider are the Action Points (AP) his models
provide during a game. If you are lucky, your minions
will provide you with ten AP in a game two for every
activation and an activation in each of five turns. If
that minion is killed prior to the end of the game,
the number of AP available drops for each turn he
no longer activates.

The fourth core area is the Commander, which refers

to the qualities a leader should have: wisdom,
benevolence, courage and strictness. Know the
measure of this in yourself, as well as your opponent,
as best you can. Does your opponent have more
skill or less skill than you in the game? Does he or
she have more or less experience than you? Know

Almost everything the model does requires AP. If

you want the minion to step out of his deployment
zone on the first turn, that is already one of his AP,
and assuming he does not die, is 10% of what he

47

will do that entire game. When looked at from that

angle, every AP is an incredibly valuable and limited
resource. As such, they must be spent wisely,
because there are not many available to be used.

Three: Attacking by Stratagem

It is a rule in war, if our forces are ten to
the enemys one, to surround him; if five to
one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to
divide our army into two. If equally matched,
we can offer battle; if slightly inferior in
numbers, we can avoid the enemy; if quite
unequal in every way, we can flee from him.

So when your opponent gives one of his AP to you,

accept it happily and with open arms. I do not mean
that an opponent will actually hand you control of
his model for an AP (though with models like Zoraida
out there, maybe he will). What I mean is to watch
how your opponent spends his AP. He may be doing
you a favor. If you want to get your Ice Golem up
the board faster, maybe it is worth cheating down
when your opponent tries to Lure him with a Rotten
Belle to ensure that it succeeds, even if it pulls you
not exactly where you want to be. If you are looking
to get your Flesh Construct into melee with your
opponents Ice Gamin, be happy when he spends an
AP that moves the Ice Gamin closer to you. That is
one fewer AP that you have to spend. Every AP your
opponent spends to close the gap with your models
is one fewer you need to spend on your models to
close the gap with his.

In Malifaux, both sides place down an equal-sized

force. On the whole, there is no player whose force
outnumbers the others. But it is a mistake to take
the game at the level of the entire board. Often
times, there will be pockets of activity throughout
the battlefield.
In a game of Reconnoiter, there may be three small
areas where fighting is occurring. In Squatters
Rights, there may be a large battle around one
objective, with smaller battles taking place
elsewhere. When you realize your opponent has
Breakthrough as a Scheme, you may look to open
up a new front on the battlefield by sending a model
to engage a scheme-runner.

There are other ways that your army could get an

advantage with AP as well, if your opponent is
properly situated. If you need to destroy one of your
opponents Scheme Markers he just placed, have
Zoraida Obey him to Interact and do that for you. He
is already in place so you will not have to move any of
your models. If you have Yan Lo and your opponent
has just placed a Scheme Marker that needs to be
removed, Lightning Dance with him, placing Yan Lo
next to him and getting your opponents model out
of the way, and then Interact to destroy the Scheme
Marker. It is more efficient than moving up and
trying to kill the model.

In this way, a game of Malifaux is not simply a

battle of equal stones, but rather a game where
both generals must determine how to deploy their
equal forces around the battlefield. This creates
many smaller uneven battles throughout the game.
And it is in those engagements that Sun Tzus words
should be heeded.
If you are in a position where you outnumber your
opponents forces significantly, attack him and, if
possible, prevent him from escaping. If you have
slightly larger strength than your opponent, divide
your forces so your opponent cannot focus his
attack on your models. When the battle shifts
to where the odds are not in your favor, however,
consider retreat. Evaluate the rest of the board
and determine whether you can abandon your goals
there without sacrificing the game.

Be aware of the changing battle situation, and when

your opponents actions help to save you AP, make
sure to take advantage of it. There are so few of
them to go around in a game.

48

On the battlefield, it is important to lay traps to

try to trick your opponent. A straight-forward
fight leaves too much to chance. Equal armies
have an equal chance of losing in a straight-up
fight. Instead, Sun Tzu suggests obfuscating the
intentions of your models.

Four: Tactical Dispositions

Security against defeat implies defensive
tactics; ability to defeat the enemy means
taking the offensive.
Standing on the
defensive indicates insufficient strength;
attacking, a superabundance of strength.

Malifaux is a varied game. During every activation,

there are hundreds of combinations of choices that
can be made. Some are good choices, others are
mistakes. And then there are those that appear
to be mistakes at first look, but actually leave
you in a stronger position. Luckily, since every
situation is unique, there is no single playbook
for good and bad choices. That means that your
opponent will not know whether the move you are
making is good or bad.

Sun Tzus feelings about defensive tactics is not

hard to determine: through defense you can keep
yourself alive, but little more. Only through attack
can you achieve victory.
In Malifaux, there is more than one avenue of attack.
The opposing models are certainly available to
attack, but there are also Strategy and Schemes.
Attacking those are where the battles will be won.
It is not enough to simply collect your own points
and defend them. That way simply leads to a tie.
To win a game of Malifaux, one must be on the
offensive as well.

Put yourself in a position of appearing weak. Move

one of your models so that it is just in range of
being charged by one of your opponents models
that you want to lure out of formation. Have your
sniper shoot at a model that does not look like an
immediate threat out on an empty flank, which in
turn opens up that flank for your models to claim.
Make moves that your opponent might see as a
mistake, and then close the trap when they try to
take advantage of the mistake.

There are, essentially, four main ways to influence

the Victory Points in Malifaux. Achieve your own
Strategy, achieve your own Schemes, prevent your
opponent from achieving his Strategy, and prevent
your opponent from achieving his Schemes. To
win a game of Malifaux, you will need to show
superiority in three of these four ways of influencing
Victory Points. In order to assure victory, then, you
will need to attack your opponents Victory Points in
either their Strategy or their Schemes, if not both.

Six: Weak Points and Strong

Appear at points which the enemy must
hasten to defend; march swiftly to places
where you are not expected.

At the same time, Sun Tzu says the good fighters

of old first put themselves beyond the possibility
of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of
defeating the enemy. Attacking is required to
defeat the enemy. Defending is required to not be
defeated. Only through success on both fronts can
victory be assured.

In Sun Tzus eyes, unpredictability is important

to winning a battle. An enemy who knows your
plans is already on the road to defeating you. A
general, therefore, must be able to make moves
in a game of Malifaux that the opponent does not
expect to happen.

Five: Energy

This does two things: first, it puts you in an

immediately advantageous position where your
model has arrived somewhere unexpected; second,
it reminds your opponent not to take everything they
see at face value and makes it easier for you to
accomplish more obvious goals. If your Silurid uses
Leap to cross over a building and charge a nearby

Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there

may be seeming disorder and yet no real
disorder at all; amid confusion and chaos,
your array may be without head or tail, yet it
will be proof against defeat.

49

enemy model, your opponent will need to reinforce

that point on the board, but will also need to keep
in mind that your Silurid is capable of moves like
that in the future. Your Silurids influence over the
board has increased, and your opponent will need
to rush to defend positions closer to the Silurid in
the future.

books, no one remembers whether you killed your

opponents Nekima, or if you simply forced her back
for a crucial turn. If you can convince your opponent
through a show of strength that it is a better move
for him to abandon a strategic point on the field for
a turn or two, you have gained an advantage.
As such, it is often better to attack en enemy model
and leave an obvious path of retreat available than
it is to attack and close off all avenues of retreat.
We have already talked about Action Points as a
resource earlier. This is another situation where
your opponent may do you a favor by gifting you
some of his AP.

Another good application of this lesson is to

remember the common board placement for most
generals: the support models remain in the back of
the army where they are less vulnerable to attack.
Fast-moving models with good maneuverability
can slip behind the enemy lines to the support
models, forcing the enemy to move some of their
defenses back or they risk losing their support.
That redeployment of their defenses can create an
opening for your other models.

It might seem counterintuitive to let a large model

escape, but consider two risks that go along with
attacking an enemy with the intent to kill them.
First, you will have to use more resources to land a
kill than you likely will need to force a large model
to retreat. Dropping an opposing Henchman to a
mere handful of wounds is often enough to convince
your opponent to drop back with them. Doing so
saves you the additional AP that would be required
to kill the model. Second, forcing your opponents
big models into a position where they cannot retreat
gives them one option: attack. While the chances
it comes up on any particular flip are not high, any

Seven: Maneuvering
When you surround an army, leave an outlet
free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.
Killing all the enemy models is not required to
win Malifaux. When cards are down, the game is
decided by Victory Points. Once the score is in the

50

Malifaux player who has been in the game long

enough has plenty of stories of the Black Joker
landing on Defense when you are attacked by a
particularly nasty model, or of the Red Joker landing
on damage and killing an otherwise-perfectly-placed
model of yours.

The second way is to make trouble for them and keep

them constantly engaged. Making trouble for these
models could include inflicting Slow or Paralyze on
them to take away their AP, or it could be something
along the lines of sending a Ten Thunders Brother
with his high Df value into melee with it to try to hold
it in place and keep it from influencing the battlefield
too much.

If you do not need to kill an enemy model and it

would require significant resources to do so, let
the model go. There are only so many turns in the
game, and so many Action Points available to use.
Odds are good that if you force your opponent back,
their impact on the game is going to be severely
reduced, and at little risk to yourself.

The third way Sun Tzu recommends to handle a

hostile chief is to set a trap for the model, and to
convince the opponent to send them away from
a more strategic part of the battlefield. You may
do this by putting a juicy target near them, or by
laying a Scheme Marker in a place where only the
opponents hostile chief can reach it to discard it.

Eight: Variation of Tactics

No matter the method chosen, and often the chosen

method will vary in each situation, the hostile chiefs
in your opponents crew will need to be dealt with in
order to allow you to achieve your goals.

Reduce the hostile chiefs by inflicting

damage on them; make trouble for them,
and keep them constantly engaged; hold out
specious allurement, and make them rush to
any given point.

Nine: The Army on the March

When you look over your opponents crew, you will

see a Master, you will see some models that are
included as grunts, and then there are the middleof-the-line models. These are often the Enforcers
or Henchmen. They are the ones who you can tell
will be leaned upon for some heavy lifting. The
Valedictorian, Teddy, Cassandra, and Ototo are
some great examples. When they sit across the
table, you know they are going to cause trouble.

When an invading force crosses a river in

its onward march, do not advance to meet it
mid-stream. It will be best to let half the army
get across, and then deliver your attack.
Earlier, Sun Tzu gave his instructions on when to
attack the opponent. The more you outnumber your
opponents models, the more quickly and decisively
you should attack them. It is not always possible
to have a battle in which you drastically outnumber
your opponent, but you can engineer situations to
swing the odds in your favor.

These are the models Sun Tzu suggests controlling.

In Malifaux, these are the hostile chiefs. Your
opponent is expecting to use them to accomplish
his mission. Which means it is incumbent upon you
to make sure these models are contained.

In the example above, Sun Tzu essentially is

instructing you to pay attention to the terrain and
to the models within it. He specifically calls out a
river in this example, but in Malifaux it seems far
more likely that this will come up near forests. If
your opponent has a few models that are supporting
each other in or near a forest, and wishes to attack
with them, he will reach a point where he will have to
move them out of the forest. Due to the back-andforth activation order in Malifaux, once the first model
comes out of the forest, you will have an opportunity
to attack before support can arrive to help him. If

Sun Tzu recommends several different methods

of containing these models.
The first and
most obvious in Malifaux is to inflict damage
on them. In Sun Tzus world, inflicting damage
on an opponents army takes away its fighting
capability. In Malifaux, models are almost always
capable of fighting at full strength until they are
dead. To contain them through inflicting damage
in Malifaux, you must inflict enough damage to
remove it from the table entirely.

51

you have some control elements available in your

army, you can also now take advantage of them to
ensure the support does not arrive. Use Lure to pull
a model away from its support. Use Obey to force
the support to walk backwards, forcing it to take up
precious Action Points to get back in position.

In terms of Malifaux, what Sun Tzu is saying is to

ensure that you have a plan for victory once your
models leave the safety of terrain. They should not
leave that cover if in doing so, there is little gain and
a lot of danger.

Deliver a decisive blow to part of your opponents

army before its support catches up and you will
have a distinct advantage over him.

Eleven: The Nine Situations

If the enemy leaves a door open, you must
rush in. Forestall your opponent by seizing
what he holds dear, and subtly contrive to
time his arrival on the ground.

Ten: Terrain

When your enemy makes a mistake, capitalize on

it. In a game of equal skill, the game will often
be decided in favor of the player who notices his
opponents mistakes and takes advantage of them
most effectively.

Ground which can be abandoned but

is hard to re-occupy is called entangling.
From a position of this sort, if the enemy is
unprepared, you may sally forth and defeat
him. But if the enemy is prepared for your
coming, and you fail to defeat him, then,
return being impossible, disaster will ensue.

The best way, then, to ensure your opponent makes

a mistake is to foster an environment where your
opponent is more likely to make mistakes. After
a game is begun, every player has a set of factors
they hold dear. Some players may hold one of their
support pieces dear, or a pair of ranged models
that are able to hold down a strategic point on the
board. Others may hold the Scheme Markers they
have placed dear, or the two Stash Markers in the
new Guard the Stash Strategy (see the Gaining
Ground 2015 document under downloads on the
Wyrd website).

Unfortunately, Sun Tzu was not writing The Art of

War with Malifaux terrain in mind. His terminology
is a bit off. Nonetheless, there are good points
that can be taken from his words, for example, his
description of entangling terrain, and the hazards
that go along with it.
In Malifaux, entangling terrain is any piece of terrain
that offers some protection, but is hard to return to
after it has been abandoned. I would add to this
that the models within also should want to abandon
it for some reason, otherwise there is no conflict.
Nino sitting atop a tower is not exactly occupying
entangling terrain because he would never sally
forth from that spot to defeat someone.

If you can identify what your opponent holds dear

and put pressure on it, you can force your opponent
to change his plans and come to you. Use a Terror
Tot to Sprint through a forest and engage a pair of
Guild Riflemen if you have identified those models as
key to your opponents plans. Any time an opponent
has to change his plans midgame, it leaves a larger
opportunity for a mistake to be made, and a larger
opportunity for you to rush in through the door left
open. By engaging the Guild Riflemen, your opponent
may need to send Santiago Ortega in that direction
to extract them, which means whatever Santiago
was initially going to be doing is left undone and the
door is left open for you to rush in.

Instead, I would consider something like an open

building or forest to be entangling terrain. There is
an advantage to occupying it: it provides cover and
protection. But the models who might be occupying
it could also gain advantage by leaving it to attack
the enemy. Returning to the terrain would prove
very difficult, if you do not kill your opponent after
leaving the terrain. It costs valuable AP to return to
the safety of the terrain, and that is only if you are
able to avoid the disengaging strike.

52

should be gathering intelligence on the enemy and

preparing for the coming conflict. This is one of the
many places that Malifaux differs from warfare. At
the end of it all, Malifaux is a game where the point
is to have fun. The objective might be victory, but if
both players are not having fun, there is no reason
to engage in this over a different game.

Twelve: The Attack by Fire

In order to carry out an attack with fire, we
must have means available. The material
for raising fire should always be kept in
readiness.
Unless you are playing Sonnia or Kaeris, what Sun
Tzu says about attacking with fire might seem to be
unimportant. But consider what he says in a larger
context. Sun Tzu instructs on how to use fire, under
what conditions it should be used, where to target
with fire, and how to prepare for an assault with fire.

So while Malifaux does not engage in the use of

spies to ferret out secrets and plans from your
upcoming opponent, Sun Tzus underlying point that
one should research and learn as much as possible
before a battle holds true. There are many things
a player can research before a game, and there are
many sources for a player to gain that information.

This kind of foresight should be taken with any

resource with which you intend to win the battle.
If your strategy relies on certain Conditions (like
Fire, or Poison, or Fast), ensure that your crew is
prepared with models that can apply that Condition.
McMourning and his crew use Poison to their
benefit. Make sure that, when selecting your crew,
you have enough models to apply Poison to gain
benefit. You must have the means of attacking with
Poison available.

One of the first things you can do to research is to

make sure you know and understand the rules to the
game. At the very least, read the rules thoroughly,
and keep up-to-date with the FAQ and errata on the
Wyrd website. Wyrd does a good job of laying out a
regular schedule of updates: every two months, the
FAQ will be updated.
Beyond the rules, you should understand intimately
your own master and faction. Read the cards,
front and back. Read them again. If you have any
questions about what they do, research online. Ask
questions. Make sure you know what your models
are capable of. Experiment with them on the table.
Try using them without making attacks to better
understand what other uses they have. Engage
stronger models to understand how resilient they
can be.

Then, during the course of the game, these means

must be protected, often disproportionately to the
rest of your models. If your opponent targets and
kills the three models you brought to the table that
can easily distribute Brilliance, for example, the
models which key off of Brilliance will no longer gain
the benefit you planned for them. Keep your models
that apply those key Conditions protected so they
are available to strike when necessary.

Once you understand the game and your own

faction, it is time to learn what your opponent could
bring to bear against you. Read the capabilities of
the other factions and other models. After reading
their cards, research them on places like Pull My
Finger (http://pullmyfinger.wikispaces.com/), a
community-run wiki site that gives an in-depth look
at the models and tactics in the game.

Thirteen: The Use of Spies

Hostile armies may face each other for
years, striving for the victory which is decided
in a single day. This being so, to remain in
ignorance of the enemys condition simply
because one grudges the outlay of a hundred
ounces of silver in honours and emoluments
is the height of inhumanity. One who acts
this is no leader of men, no present help to
his sovereign, no master of victory.

Finally, once you have a good understanding of the

models available, it is time to get an understanding
of your opponent. Often times this is the most
difficult part of preparation and the part most
players forego, but it is one that can give you an
edge. It will not outright win you a game, but it could

In Sun Tzus view, spies are of critical importance

to warfare. Ideally, for years prior to a battle, spies

53

be the difference between you picking a model for

your crew with a weakness against your opponents
favored crew, and picking a model that will be able
to withstand his typical assault. Are you attending a
tournament where you expect a particular player will
be one of your final opponents? Does he indicate
on his blog that Tara is his favored master? If so,
then do not choose Bete Noire as one of your key
models as Tara will not be forgiving to her.

Both books, despite one being about Peace and the

other being about War, advocate the same thing.
A head-on confrontation is not the desired way to
fight a battle. Avoid the conflict entirely and instead
utilize peaceful methods for achieving the goal. Or,
if that is impossible, engineer situations on the
battlefield where the fights are in your favor. Make
all the preparations possible, keep your eye on the
prize, do not be distracted, and through that, you will
be able to achieve victory.

At the end of the battle, it is likely the more prepared

general who will win the day. Knowing yourself helps
to prevent defeat, but it does not ensure victory.
Knowing your opponent helps to overwhelm your
opponent, but does not prevent your own defeat.
Only by knowing yourself and your opponent can you
achieve victory.

Tzu, Sun.The Art of War. New York: Barnes & Noble

Classics, 2003.

Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

If you know the enemy and know yourself,
you need not fear the result of a hundred
battles. If you know yourself but not the
enemy, for every victory gained you will
also suffer a defeat. If you know neither
the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in
every battle.
Sun Tzus treatise The Art of War is one of the
greatest books written on how to approach and
win engagements of any kind. While some of what
he writes deals with very specific situations that
arise on the battlefield, understanding the reasons
behind why he wrote about those situations is key
to winning a war.
I hope you have enjoyed these past two articles
where we explore Malifaux tactics through eastern
philosophies. Understanding that Malifaux is a
game comprising of far more than simple violence
through Thich Nhat Hahns Being Peace brings a
new avenue of victory to your table. Not all battles
need be won through violence, and not all conflicts
need be solved at the end of a sword. Often times,
avoiding a fight in Malifaux will yield more Victory
Points than taking one head on. With Sun Tzus
The Art of War, we learn that careful planning and
preparation will decide more battles than card flips
and Soulstones will.

54

Tyrannus' Tutelary
Chris Schmidt
A Wicked Wabbit This Way Comes...

places? After snipping out the individual pieces (for

this task I tend to use a pair of fly tying scissors),
I dry fit the parts together. In the rabbits particular
case it is extremely important that you attach the
tongue of the rabbit before you assemble the halves
together. Beyond that crucial step, the parts fit
together quite nicely: there are no major seams to
file down.

The War Rabbit

Intro
When I was offered a chance to paint a model
for Wyrd Chronicles, I couldnt have been more
excited! The range has been getting more and
more personality to it over the last year, and I was
thrilled to paint anything at all. However, I then found
out that this is the month we would be looking at
the War Rabbit, and I was blown away. I love the
Gremlin style and slightly unhinged mentality, and
that means we can have some fun with the model
and still be firmly within their ethos. Conceptually,
I envisioned the entire piece with a pastel feel to
it to give it a somewhat Easter theme. This would
allow me to use the really striking colors that I tend
to enjoy while also keeping it from becoming garish,
which is always a concern when using the color
combinations that Easter can throw at you.

Prep
The first thing I do with a model is picture how the
model will be assembled and what steps Ill take to
paint it. At first, this is a pure assembly question:
do I have all the pieces and do they go in the right

56

The next question is how much assembly will I

do before I begin to paint. I decided that for my
purposes I would paint the model in four pieces:
the base, the rabbit, the rider, and the Gremlin that
hangs on.

Paint & Materials

A quick word on materials that I routinely use. For
this project I am using a Masterson Wet Palette
Sponge with Reynolds Parchment Paper as the
surface. My paints of choice are Vallejo Model Color,
and unless specified otherwise that is what I am
using. I generally use two brush sizes, a size 0 from
the Scharff Series 3000 line of Kolinsky Red Sable
brushes and a size 2 from the Winsor & Newton
Series 7 line. Models were airbrush primed with
Badgers Stynylrez white primer and mounted for
painting on 3M 5lb carpet tape.

Bunny - Eyes

For the eyes I started with a base of Black Red in

order to give the eyeball some depth. Following the
base, I defined the half-moon shape I wanted the
iris to have with a mix of Black Red and Sunset Red
at a 1:1 ratio. This gave me some guidance as to
where the eye would be looking, and if it had any
expression to it. My third step was to add a little
light to the eye itself with a mix of Sunset Red and
White at 2:1.
Finally, I topped the light reflecting in the eye with
the Sunset Red and White mixed at 1:1. At this
point I realized that I had painted over some of the
iris that I was working with so I added another dot of
Black Red. To complete the eyes I put two very small
dots of White in the eye in order to give the eyeball
a point of reflected light.

Mouth

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I started with a mix of Black Red and German Grey

1:1 for the mouth in order to give a strong contrasting
backdrop. The tongue, being a cute bunny tongue,
was based with a mix of the base color and Brown
Rose at around 1:2. This was then highlighted by
adding additional Brown Rose to the prior layers mix
at 1:1. A final highlight was added to the tongue by
feathering the very far edges with pure Brown Rose.
Painting the tongue like this gave it some depth and
volume inside the mouth while also drawing a bit of
attention to it.

The Teeth

Growing up around all those Gremlins does not

make for a healthy rabbit. To reflect this I gave the
teeth a somewhat uncared for look, starting with
basing the teeth in Beige. The next step was to
give the teeth some plaque in the form of Japan
Uniform WWII (for the shade between the teeth and
the gum line).

58

Spots were added to the teeth around where I

planned on doing some yellowing, using the original
base color of Black Red and German Grey at 1:1.
The next step was bringing up the highlights on the
teeth, essentially the enamel with Pale Sand on the
front of the teeth. The final highlight on the teeth is
pure white, followed by adding just a few more teeth
spots over the lighter sections with the base color.
This gives a not so healthy, perhaps slightly rabid,
feel to the mouth.

Fur White

The white fur of the rabbit is quite a challenge.

The difficulty is in deciding how much of the fur
will actually be white. Generally for miniatures this
means a large proportion of it should have white on
it. Counterbalancing this is a desire to maintaining
some sense of volume. Too much white and it feels
flat, too little and it is no longer white.
I felt that the appropriate way to start the fur was to
paint a base coat of Pale Sand throughout the area
to be white fur. I created a wash using equal parts
Japan Uniform WWII and Pale Sand. This was lightly
applied in multiple layers to the shallow curves of
the rabbit to give those contours some depth, such
as behind the head, the eye sockets, near the legs,
and base of the ears.
A further wash of German C. Black Brown, Japan
Uniform WII, and Pale Sand at 1:3:3 was then
created and applied in the deepest parts of the
contours to define the shape and ultimately bring
out the whitest areas by providing a counterpoint.
The white fur was applied in two distinct phases.
The initial phase was painting White directly over
the sculpted fur of the model that had either pure
Pale Sand, or Pale Sand shaded by the first wash.
This was to allow some shade to come through
but also bring out the white fur. The second phase
was painting White where the highest highlights
would be found (cheeks, tops of the ears, eye brow,
haunches, and tail). In these places there should
be no Pale Sand remaining, only pure White. These
blotches gave the white parts of the rabbit a better
sense of volume.

Fur Brown

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The original intention of the rabbit was to create an

entirely white creature. However upon examining
how the rabbit would look, I decided that a brown
underbelly and feet would allow me to do two things:
the first was to create visual interest in the model
itself. While white is good, it can be visually boring
in large quantities. The second was to create a
natural shade color, darker than the white to solve
the problem of shading the white underneath.

The bunny claws are relatively straightforward in

terms of technique and color. A base of Black Red
is initially applied to the toes of the rabbit. This
effectively separates the bold white color from the
dark of the claws.

The base of the brown fur started with a coat of

pure Beige Brown. A wash of German C. Black
Brown was then applied to the entire brown area,
making sure it darkens only the recesses. This gave
the brown a little more depth. The sculpted fur was
then lined back over with the base of Beige Brown
focusing primarily on the sides and leaving much of
the underbelly alone. The next highlight is a mix of
Beige Brown and Pale Sand at 1:1, applied on an
assortment of the sculpted fur.

The first highlight is mixed 1:1 from Black Red

and Beige Red, which is applied via lining to the
knuckles of the toes. The second highlight is pure
Beige Red. Lastly, for the toes a highlight of Salmon
Rose is applied as a point of reflection nearest the
light source. The claws themselves are based with
a mix of Japanese Uniform WW2 and Basalt Grey at
2:1. A successive highlight is placed at the apex of
the claw with the base color and Pale Sand at 1:1.
Finally a last bright highlight point is painted on with
pure Pale Sand.

Nose

Dont be afraid to be somewhat random here, it is a

living creature, chaos is part of it and will help with
the feel of organic material. A final highlight over the
tips of the previously painted lines of Beige finishes
off the fur.

Claws

The rabbit nose and the upper part of the claw are
basically the same paint scheme. A base of Black
Red is initially applied to the nose of the rabbit.
The first highlight is mixed 1:1 from Black Red and
Beige Red lined over the base towards the top of
the nose. The second highlight is pure Beige Red
following the light. Finally a highlight of Salmon
Rose is applied as a line of light for the pink bunny
nose. Not a lot that is complicated here, just try not
to add too many additional colors into the piece to
keep it harmonious.

60

Any good rabbit rider needs a saddle for his trusted

steed. In our Gremlins case he picked a leather
one, worn down from repeated use. The saddle was
based with a mix of Leather Brown and Basalt Grey
at 1:1. The Grey desaturates the intense brown
and ages the leather some. A shade of the Base
color and Dark Red mixed at 1:1 is glazed on to the
saddle in uneven spots. This will eventually signify
some wear and tear on the leather itself.

Saddle

The darkest shadows are created with German C.

Black Brown and are only applied in the deepest
crevices and underneath the lips of the leather
saddle. Highlights on the leather are begun with
hatch marks on the top sections of the leather
using a mix of the base color and Pale Sand at 1:1.
Additional wear and tear, in the form of quick lines
and spots, were added by painting a mix of Japan
Uniform WII and Leather Brown at 1:1 and then 2:1.
A final highlight in the form of additional hatch marks
are applied along the very top of the leather to give
it a final pop with Pale Sand. As a last measure in
order to bend out the layers and add a sense of
wear, a glaze was applied using the original base
color. This should give the leather an organic and
beaten look to it.

61

For the next stage, I added highlights in the form

of a mix of Blue Green and Medium Grey, evenly
balanced at 1:1. I placed this highlight at the midpoint of the eyeball and covering the top half so as
to make it appear he is looking up at the sky. Adding
some white to the prior stages mix gave me the
brightness I was looking for, though it seemed to
me that it was just a bit too great of a jump. In order
to solve for this issue, I took a very thin glaze of the
base color and gently applied it to the entire eyeball.
I placed a dot of Dr. Ph. Martins Black Star Matte
Waterproof India Ink for the iris so the focus of the
gaze is to the sky rounded out the work.

The Primary Rider

Eyes

The Pants

Initially, I painted the eyeball and socket with Dark

Sea Blue. The riders eyes started with a base
of pure Blue Green that almost (but not quite)
extended all the way to the bottom of the eye. I
chose this hue as I felt it would pop well on the
Gremlins face, but it is also very similar to the egg
shell color on the base.

For the riders pants, the goal was to mimic (at

least in a small way) worn jeans. I started by base
coating the pants and the suspenders with a mix
of Ultramarine & Neutral Grey at 1:1. The grey

62

desaturates the Ultramarine nicely, which is what

you would see in a pair of jeans with some mileage
on them.
Following the base coat I shaded the jeans with a
combination of the base coat and Dark Sea Blue at
1/1 ratio. I paid particular attention to both how the
jeans folded and the inseam of the pants in order
to give them the depth they needed to stand out. A
final shade was then added to the jeans using pure
Dark Sea Blue in the creases including where the
crotch and zipper seams come together.
Highlighting was accomplished by increasing the
amount of Neutral Grey versus Ultramarine, two
parts Grey to one part Ultramarine. This was to
desaturate the tone further, as you would normally
see in jeans. Ultimately a top highlight with Pale
Sand, very lightly applied, over the top creases in
the jeans and the occasion hatch mark made them
slightly more worn.
After that I decided that maybe hippie jeans would
be a nice touch. So using some Deep Yellow, Pale
Sand, Brown Rose, and Blue Green, I added some
flowers and eggs onto the pants. I mean honestly,
what is a Gremlin without a pair of flowered hippie
chick jeans?

The Hat

So our intrepid Gremlin rider decided that the best

way to complete his outfit was to put on a hat that
looked like an egg. The color was taken directly from
the paint scheme of the pink egg that sits on the
base of the model. Basing initially was Sunset Red
mixed with Neutral Grey at 1:1. The band around the
hat was then touched up with Pale Sand.
Shading the hat itself was done with a mix of the
base color with Dark Sea Blue at 1:1 and feathered
as much as possible into the crease of the hat
and band. Once the shadow was done, I turned to
highlight the color in order to make it pop by building
it back up to pink. The first highlight was done with
pure Sunset Red glazed over the top of the hat and
brim leaving a bit of the base and shadow exposed.
A further highlight is a mix of Sunset Red and
Pale Sand at 1:1. This is glazed over the previous
highlight and only touching the very top of the hat
and brim edge. Finally the highest reflection is lined
with equal parts Brown Rose and Pale Sand, along
the brim in limited amounts, as well as adding an
Easter Egg design on the very top of the hat.

63

and Deep Yellow at 1:1. To this mixture was added

additional Deep Yellow in even proportions to create
the second highlight. This second highlight was also
added to the Gremlins fingers as well as the bulging
muscles he is displaying to make them stand out.
White was also added to the second highlights mix
in order to bring out the brightest spots, this time
targeting places such as the cheekbone, nose, chin,
ears, and very top of the muscles on the figure.

The Skin

For the rider, I wanted to add something distinctive

about it that stood out beyond all other Gremlins,
something that will draw the eye to the Gremlin on
top. In this case it was the pink nose and chin. Over
the finished face I glazed over a base of Brown Rose
mixed with Black Red at 1:1 followed by an additional
glaze of pure Brown Rose, and a final highlight of
1:1 Brown Rose and Pale Sand. Additional features
of the face were added, such as the inner ear being
painted with a base of Brown Rose followed by the
ear canal of Brown Rose and Black Red 1:1. The tiny
little teeth were given a quick swipe of Pale Sand
and that rounded out his face.

The Second Rider

Second Rider Hat

The base of the skin for the rider Gremlin was Yellow
Green. As I wanted to keep the skin tone for the
Gremlin lighter, I used more yellow based hues for
the remaining highlights since yellow is a natural
highlight color for some green hues.
The first shadow of Yellow Green and Yellow Olive
at 1:1 was feathered slightly under the Gremlins
muscles, armpits, eyes, and belly to begin to add
depth to the model. The final shadow, made up
of pure Yellow Olive, was feathered in the darkest
spots: underneath the pecs, the belly button,
armpit, the eye sockets, and where the fingers
were clenched.
After the shades were accomplished, I began with
feathered highlights where light would begin falling
on the Gremlin: his upturned arms, face, and chest.
The first highlight was a mixture of Yellow Green

64

The second riders hat is basically the same color

scheme and process as the bases robin eggs, with
a few notable differences. First, I started with Dark
Sea Blue as a base. Second, I added additional
wear and tear in the form of a Pale Sand highlight
along some of the edges. This coupled with some
thin slash marks differentiates the hats some.
The reason that I chose this same color scheme is
to create a sense of unification and balance on the
miniature. It is entirely possible to have too much
color on the model. I do like to try to create some
harmonies in my models by using similar colors
over and over again. The hats for both riders are a
good example as they reflect the egg shells on the
ground. Some painters will also add a touch of color
from elsewhere in the model to a mix in order to
bring out subtle harmonies.

Second Rider Pants

The second rider has much of the same features,

in terms of color scheme, as the primary rider. The
pants and skin tone recipes and sequences are
identical. When painting the pants of the second
rider, I decided that it was a perfect opportunity to
add a little additional interest into the figure.

65

As with the first rider, the concept is worn jeans. It

is important to remember where your light source is
coming from: in this case the creases of the jeans,
and the booty! Given that his booty is up in the air,
it was worth adding some interesting tidbits. A worn
spot on the right was just a simple unadorned hatch
mark to break up some of the expanse of blue. The
bullseye on the other side is some simple freehand
of Dark Red and Pale Sand.
The important thing with any freehand is to break
down the overall form into simple geometric shapes.
In this case it is simple, a big red dot, a medium
sides white dot, and a smaller red dot. Ultimately
all freehand can be broken down to that simple
concept. Give it a try!

Second Rider Skin

Painting the skin tone of the Second Rider is (again)

the same process as that of the primary. One thing
to look out for with skin is emphasizing the contours
of the model by increasing as much as possible
the contrast. One of the most difficult things to do
initially is taking shadows as deep as they can go,
and bringing your highlights up as well. Try to give
the model the full range of light. In the skin tone for
both the primary and secondary rider, using green
as a base you can look towards mixing yellow into
the green for highlights.

66

You may have already noticed that adding white to

a mix will change the tonal value of the tint. This
desaturates the tone and you will lose vibrancy.
Look to the color wheel for ways to highlight and
shade your colors without using black or white, it will
make your work more interesting.

of which is required for proper mounting. Some light

grasses and depressions are molded into the plate
as well, so you do a really simple paint job with just
grassland (or you could conceivably pour Realistic
Water into the base and create a swamp). I would
imagine it would also be a simple task to use the
egg that acts as a stand on another piece of custom
terrain and mount the rabbit that way.

Its All About The Base, No Trouble...

In painting this base I decided that I wanted a more

grassland feel to the environment. I base coated the
grasses with a darker green hue. Color really didnt
matter to me at this point as I wasnt entirely sure
what color I wanted to make the grasses, and I was
completing the eggs first.

The Eggs

The robin eggs were based with a 1:1 mix of Neutral

Grey and Turquoise. The next stage was a simple
glaze of pure Turquoise. To highlight the robin egg
further, I added Blue Green to the Turquoise at a
ratio of 1:1. A final top highlight was then added
to both eggs using a combination of Blue Green
and White evenly mixed. The eggs insides were
then painted in with Japanese Uniform WWII first,
and then a mix of Japanese Uniform WWII and Pale
Sand at 1:1.
For the pink egg, the base was Sunset Red mixed
with Neutral Grey at 1:1. This became the deepest
pink color. I then turned to highlight the color,
building it back up to pink. The first highlight was
done with pure Sunset Red glazed over the top of
the egg. A further highlight is a mix of Sunset Red
and Pale Sand at 1:1. This is lined over the previous
highlight and only touching the very top of the egg
where it was broken.
Finally, the highest reflection is pure Pale Sand
only placed at the sharp edges of the broken egg.
The egg whites were painted quickly first with
Japanese Uniform WWII, and then the yolk was
dotted with a mix of Japanese Uniform WWII and
Pale Sand at 1:1.

The base of the War Rabbit is actually quite

interesting. Incorporated into the base are three
separate eggs which you can add to the model, one

67

white glue. To this I sprinkled on some mix flocking

which included both dark and light green.

The Base Finished

Finished Pictures

The grass is the last step. I decided that the base

coat should be a bit brighter so I used German
Camo Bright Green. This almost seemed too bright,
and I was tempted to fix it. I ended decided to leave
it and see what would happen, though. Once the
base coat was done I went over the raised portions
using small lines of a mix including German Camo
Bright Green and Flat Yellow at 1:1. I paid particular
attention to around the circumference of the base.
Lines were painted all around pointing in to the
center in order to give a feeling of volume to the
grasses. A final series of grasses were created in
the same way only this time using two parts Yellow
for one part German Camo Bright Green. These
lines were painted over the raised portions in the
second highlight.
After this I added some additional basing materials:
light green flock from Woodland Scenics dipped in a
little white glue and attached to the base. As those
pieces dried, I attached some of the Army Painter
flower tufts here and there to add some additional
interest. Once both of those terrain elements were
finished, I went back over the flock and some of
the bare grassland areas with a little watered down

68

69

Painting CONTEST
WINNERS
Frozen Moments

WINNER

DIORAMA

- KML -

70

DIORAMA RUNNER UP

- Birdissimo

- cmztech -

71

DIORAMA SECOND PLACE

CREW WINNER

- SpiralingCadaver -

72

CREW RUNNER UP

- KML -

- Viruk -

73

CREW SECOND PLACE

1. SpiralingCadaver

2. Birdissimo

WINNERs
SINGLE MINI

3. virtualonmars

74

Painting CONTEST
WINNERS
Crystal Brush

Joe Orteza

WINNER
75

SECOND PLACE
Third Place

2. Syndjinn Scott, Pickman Studios

3. Elizabeth Beckley

76

UNTIL NEXT TIME!

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