Dr. Petrie Compiles his Notes

"I glanced up from my notes. Smith settled into the white cane armchair, and began to surround himself with clouds of aromatic smoke. I took up a half-sheet of foolscap covered with penciled writing in my friend's cramped characters, and transcribed the following, in order to complete my account of the latest Fu-Manchu outrage:

"The Amharun, a Semitic tribe allied to the Falashas, who have been settled for many generations in the southern province of Shoa (Abyssinia) have been regarded as unclean and outcast, apparently since the days of Menelek—son of Suleyman and the Queen of Sheba—from whom they claim descent. Apart from their custom of eating meat cut from living beasts, they are accursed because of their alleged association with the Cynocephalus hamadryas (Sacred Baboon). I, myself, was taken to a hut on the banks of the Hawash and shown a creature... whose predominant trait was an unreasoning malignity toward... and a ferocious tenderness for the society of its furry brethren. Its powers of scent were fully equal to those of a bloodhound, whilst its abnormally long forearms possessed incredible strength... a Cynocephalyte such as this, contracts phthisis even in the more northern provinces of Abyssinia..."

Chapter 19, The Return of Dr. FU-Manchu, Sax Rohmer

Dr. Petrie's Reflections

"Any one who has been forced by circumstance to undertake such a vigil as this will be familiar with the marked changes (corresponding with phases of the earth's movement) which take place in the atmosphere, at midnight, at two o'clock, and again at four o'clock. During those fours hours falls a period wherein all life is at its lowest ebb, and every Physician is aware that there is a greater likelihood of a patient's passing between midnight and four A. M., than at any other period during the cycle of the hours.

To-night I became specially aware of this lowering of vitality, and now, with the night at that darkest phase which precedes the dawn, an indescribable dread, such as I had known before in my dealings with the Chinaman, assailed me, when I was least prepared to combat it. The stillness was intense."

Chapter 16 The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, Sax Rohmer

My Civil War Collection: Another View

Some time ago I made a post that featured a set of 1/87 scale American Civil War miniatures in various stages of being painted. Recently I found an image that included the whole extent of my HO gauge American Civil War collection. Granted, it is not a very good image, but it is the only one I have that depicts most of what I purchased when these miniatures were still available. I don’t believe K & L is still in business. Whether their molds were sold and some other company is now producing their line of products seems doubtful.

Cannon Pictured Here:
AP 1	12 pd Napoleon
AP 2	10 pd Parrott Rifle
AP 3	3" Ordiness Rifle
AP 4	12 pd Howitzer
APH 1	20 pd Parrott Rifle

DEMOISELLE JEANNE D'Ys

"Mais je croy que je
Suis descendu on puiz
Ténébreux onquel disoit
Heraclytus estre Vereté cachée."

"There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:

"The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid."

...

When I opened my eyes, I looked around in terror. Jeanne was gone. I saw the stream and the flat rock; I saw the crushed viper in the grass beside me, but the hawks and blocs had disappeared. I sprang to my feet. The garden, the fruit trees, the drawbridge and the walled court were gone. I stared stupidly at a heap of crumbling ruins, ivy-covered and grey, through which great trees had pushed their way. I crept forward, dragging my numbed foot, and as I moved, a falcon sailed from the tree-tops among the ruins, and soaring, mounting in narrowing circles, faded and vanished in the clouds above.

"Jeanne, Jeanne," I cried, but my voice died on my lips, and I fell on my knees among the weeds. And as God willed it, I, not knowing, had fallen kneeling before a crumbling shrine carved in stone for our Mother of Sorrows. I saw the sad face of the Virgin wrought in the cold stone. I saw the cross and thorns at her feet, and beneath it I read:

"PRAY FOR THE SOUL OF THE
DEMOISELLE JEANNE D'Ys,
WHO DIED
IN HER YOUTH FOR LOVE OF
PHILIP, A STRANGER.
A.D. 1573."

But upon the icy slab lay a woman's glove still warm and fragrant."

The Demoiselle D'Ys by Robert W. Chambers

The Yellow Sign

"Let the red dawn surmise
What we shall do,
When this blue starlight dies
And all is through."
...

"At the same moment he raised his head and looked at me. Instantly I thought of a coffin-worm. Whatever it was about the man that repelled me I did not know, but the impression of a plump white grave-worm was so intense and nauseating that I must have shown it in my expression, for he turned his puffy face away with a movement which made me think of a disturbed grub in a chestnut."

The Yellow Sign, by Robert W. Chambers

Kings of War Undead Revenant Troops - Skeletal Dog

Skeletal Dog or is it a giant undead rat? This miniature is molded from polystyrene plastic and measure 10mm tall and is 30mm from the tip of its tail to the end of its snout.

According to Mantic Games Kings of War: Evil Army Special Rules, having one or more of these undead rats or are they dogs, increases the “Evil Dead Rule”. “The unit recovers one point of damage it has suffered for every point of damage it inflicts in a melee.”

Sink the Bismarck-Free Print and Play Game

Sink the Bismarck is a free print and play solo game, but I have played the game with two contestants before. Instead of rolling for both sides, just pick the side of the attacker or the defender.

The basic premise of the game is to sink the battleship Bismarck. The Sink the Bismarck PDF includes an 8.5 by 11-inch game board, twelve British Swordfish torpedo bombers, and instructions on how to play.

“The game ends once 5 torpedoes hit the ship. You'll will also score points for each aircraft and torpedo you destroy.”

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Alternative Sink the Bismarck Game

Poltarnees, Beholder of the Ocean

Talking of the Poltarnees, Beholder of the Ocean. “And the ghouls and ghosts, whose highway is the night, are kept in the south by the boundary of magic.”

Poltarnees, Beholder of the Ocean, Lord Dunsany

Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Flesh Moulder

The Flesh Moulder stands approximately 35mm tall and is a monster from the Descent: Journeys in the Dark (Second Edition) board game. “Flesh Moulders study the living, and are capable of rending or knitting living flesh as it suits them.” This is one nasty character, here.

Atlas 1/87 Scale Figures

I recently found these Atlas 1/87 figures while rummaging through a box of my model railroad stuff. You might remember my making a post on 1/87 scale figures where I featured some of the same Atlas figures. It seems I have duplicates. However, that is not a bad thing on a large layout.

The figures could be used to depict characters in the 1940’s or 1950’s eras. These figures, six to a runner, are molded in a dense flesh colored plastic.

Palanlri (Seeing Stones)

"They are not all accounted for, the lost seeing stones. We do not know who else may be watching." —Gandalf to Saruman, in The Fellowship of the Ring

The Palanlri were seeing stones. There were seven in all and were used to communicate in Middle Earth and beyond.

“The lore of the Stone’s has since been forgotten and can only be partly recovered by conjecture and from things recorded about them. They were perfect spheres, appearing, when at rest, to be made of solid glass or crystal deep black in hue. At their smallest, they were about a foot in diameter, but some, certainly, the Stones of Osgiliath and Anon Sul, were much larger and could not be lifted by one man.”

Unfinished Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien, pg. 472

The Drúedian

The Drúedian are a race of peoples mentioned in Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales. The Drúedian were unattractive in appearance; “they were stumpy (some were only four feet high), but very broad, with heavy buttocks and short thick legs; their wide faces had deep-set eyes with heavy brows, and flat noses. They typically grew no hair below their eye brows (with the exception of a few) a small tail of black hair in the midst of their chins.” Those who were to grow these tails were highly favored and held in high esteem.

Unfinished Tales, J.R.R. Tolkien

The Istari

This is the first in a series of three posts of interesting quotes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s, Unfinished Tales. The posts will highlight three obscure facets of Middle Earth.

“Wizard is a translation of Quenya istar (Sindarin ithron): one of the members of an “order” (as they called it), claiming to possess, and exhibiting, eminent knowledge of the history and nature of the World. The translation (though suited in its relation to “wise” and other ancient words of knowing similar to that of istar in Quenya) is not perhaps happy, since the Heren Islarion or “Order of Wizards” was quite distinct from the “wizards” and magicians of the later legend.”

During the Third Age of Middle Earth there were five wizards:

Saruman	the White
Gandalf	the Grey
Radagast	the Brown
Morinehtar	the Blue
Rómestámo	the Blue

A Set of Four, Set Seven

Game Piece, Yellow
Source: GearWorld
Size: approximately 18mm

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Toxotes
Source: Age of Mythology, Greek
Size: 30mm

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Egyptian Priest
Source: Age of Mythology, Egyptian
Size: 30mm

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Flesh Moulder
Source: Descent: Journeys in the Dark
Size: approximately 35mm