I remember many moons ago, whilst in my early teens. and we were playing AHQ. White dwarf 125 to be exact, had a quest in it that captured my imagination.
"The dark beneath the world"
whilst this was also my first exposure to Gotrek & Felix, whom would go on star in many books from the black library. it was one particular character from this quest that caught my imagination.
the description itself had my imagination running. some vile creature so distorted I'm sure even descriptions would fall short.
For years I always sought out to proxy this troll. but alas like many of my proxy ventures in the past, it never quite satisfies my soul.
so of course. now. whilst many more moons have passed I've decided to make my own.
now whilst the picture does show a pretty repulsive looking creature, I still don't feel that the image provided with the quest properly fit how my imagination perceived from the description.
so after reading the actual short story that the quest was created from, i decided that this whole creation of a chaos troll is going to be an adventure in itself.
"I have found it," he cried. "The lost blade, Karaghul. I have found it! Sigmar be praised!"
From behind the heap of treasure a huge horn-headed shadow loomed, twice as tall as Aldred, broader than it was tall. Before Felix had time to shout a warning, it tore off the Templar's head with one sweep of a mighty claw. Gore splashed the ancient stones. The thing lurched forward, pushing through the mound of treasure with irresistible power.
Felix had heard tales of trolls, and perhaps once this had been one. Now it was hideously changed. It had a gnarly hide covered in huge, dripping tumours and three enormously muscular arms, one of which terminated in a pincer claw. Growing from its left shoulder, like some obscene fruit, was a small, babyish head which glared at them with wise malign eyes. It chittered horridly in a language that Felix could not recognise. Pus dribbled down its chest from a huge leech mouth set below its neck.
The bestial head roared and the echoes reverberated through the long hall. Felix saw an amulet of glowing greenish-black stone hanging from a chain around its neck. Warpstone, he thought, placed there deliberately.
He did not blame Faragrim for running. Or Belegar. He stood paralysed by fear and indecision.
From beside him he heard the sound of Zauberlich being sick. He knew warpstone had created this thing. He thought of what Gotrek had said about the long-ago war beneath the mountains.
Someone had been so insane as to chain warpstone to the troll, to deliberately induce mutation.
Perhaps it was the rat-men, the skaven that Gotrek had mentioned. The troll had been down here since the war, a festering abomination changing and growing far from the light of day. Perhaps it was the desecration of their tombs by this warpstone-spawned monstrosity which had caused the dwarf ghosts to walk? Or perhaps it was the presence here of the warpstone, of pure undiluted Chaos.
The thoughts reverberated through his mind as the roar of the mad thing echoed through the vault. He stood unable to move, transfixed by horror, as the monster came ever closer. Its stench filled his nostrils. He heard the hideous sucking of its leech mouth. It loomed out of the gloom, its pain-wracked, bestial face hellishly underlit by its glowing amulet.
(From Gotrek and Felix - Trollslayer)
That is pretty much all the description we get. so why do I feel so compelled to create such a little written about character?
God knows. but it sounds like its gonna be pretty cool.
so a little chop down on the descriptive features
- Horn-headed.
- Hideously changed.
- Gnarly hide covered in huge, dripping tumours.
- Three enormously muscular arms, one of which terminated in a pincer claw.
- Growing from its left shoulder, like some obscene fruit, was a small, babyish head which glared at them with wise malign eyes.
- Huge leech mouth set below its neck.
- Chain warpstone
thats plenty to go off right?
plus I like the idea of a description like this. it allows the mid to run wild. and with that. im going to allow my chopping and putty skills to go wild also!!
so lets break down the descriptions into something visual.
Horn-headed.
now these are quality models. that. by any means would be the nearest proxy possible for this character. however. I aint about to spend 50 quid on 3 trolls. But I like how the horn sprouts out of the side of the face giving a horrendously distorted look. so will take some sort of approach like this.
Hideously changed.
I think as long as i stick to something along the design of the forge world figure above. then this should be cool
Gnarly hide covered in huge, dripping tumours.
so first thing that springs to mind here would be Throgg the troll king for the gnarly hide
that rough textured skin mixed with the odd spike with sore and boils like something seen on a nurgle creature would work really well.
Three enormously muscular arms, one of which terminated in a pincer claw.
ok 3 arms is easy..the pincer?
im thinking something along the lines of Slaneesh deamonettes and keeper of secrets
Growing from its left shoulder, like some obscene fruit, was a small, babyish head which glared at them with wise malign eyes.
OK- straight away i think of 1 thing here..then get thrown off scent.
firstly i am not going to be putting a "obscene fruit" anywhere on this figure. but i will put a babies head. and the thought here was of this thing/dude
yup Kuatu from total recall. that should do the trick.
but definately not sprouting from some obscene fruit. (ill let your imagination help you decide why i wont follow the exact description here lol)
Huge leech mouth set below its neck.
ok so this confuses me. it could be a second mouth like seen on throgg's stomach. or it could simply be a huge lumbering jaw that hangs down from the head.
yet the 'leech like' description throws me completely off scent. i think i will go for the 2nd option here
but leech like? im not sure.
mierce miniatures have a few models that in my mind fit this leech like description
but alas. im still unsure. so i think i will be playing this one by ear and seeing how it goes so this will most likely be the last thing i do on it. as i will want something that 'fits' so seeing how it all pieces together will be a better option.
Chain warpstone
there are a few options i could take here. throwing a chain around its neck with some warpstone amulet. but this would be relatively hindered by the head and the mouth.
chains wrapped around the troll with warpstone embedded would add to the whole tortured and transformed beast.
IF skaven had of done this. they would of hammered warpstone into the troll.
so im going to keep it relatively ambiguous on this front. I like the idea of chains wrapped around the troll. but i also like the idea of tormenting it further with the warpstone.
so i think ill go for both with the hammered warpstone. held in place by chains!
i feel this will give an overall. "slave to chaos" sort of vibe.
so where do i go from here.
firstly. im not going to sculpt this from scratch.
as i already have some river trolls sitting doing nothing in my vault of mini's
this will be a heavy modification of a river troll.. but as you can see these are good models. and its always good to have a good foundation.
over the next few months ill post updates on my progress and see if i can infact create this creature that has been lurking around in the deep for so so long.
