What's good for the goose

During the Middle Ages, there was a belief that certain types of geese emerged fully grown from driftwood through spontaneous generation (with goose barnacles being some sort of embryonic form).

This legend was propagated without any sort of critical evaluation in natural history texts by scholars like Gerald of Wales in a manner similar to the Google AI.

British Library Royal MS 13 B VIII

While this myth was challenged by Frederick II in his treatise On the Art of Hunting With Birds, it wasn't really until the 18th century when it became fully discredited.

Biblioteca Vaticana Pal. lat. 1071 f. 14v

In 1/72 scale plastic, I think the only live goose may be from the Linear-B Roman Market set, but I was hoping to find some options from HO scale manufacturers.

Busch makes two sets of geese (wild and domestic) that are repaints of the same models, but they look more like ducks to me. Faller has a set of Hens, Ducks and Geese, and Woodland Scenics has a set of Geese & Chickens. I don't have any of these sets because they are rather pricey.

The geese that I do have are from Preiser, Noch, and Merten.

The Preiser set is of Ducks, Geese & Swans (14167). Even for HO scale, the swans look tiny, giving me reservations about the size of the geese.

Based on the size of the birds, I identified a total of four geese in two poses (one hissing, one swimming), however it is very possible that I miscategorized some of the geese as ducks.

The Merten sets include Geese and Ducks on Land (724), and Geese and Ducks Swimming (736). I think that both sets are now available from Preiser.

The figures come attached to sprues (at least for the original Merten releases), so there is the risk of damage or loss during removal unless you have a deft hand at working with such tiny parts.

Based on body size and neck length, I identified six geese in each set. I think that there is one duplicated pose in each set, but I'm not 100% sure. Again, there is the possibility that a couple of the birds I thought were white ducks are actually geese.

The Noch set is of Chickens & Geese (15772).

There are eight geese in the Noch set; four standing (three poses), two flying (two poses), and two swimming (one duplicated pose).

Looking at all the geese together, the Preiser bird look small. The Merten goose is larger, its body close in size to the Noch goose, but its neck is shorter, while the Noch goose is the largest.

Preiser, Merten, Noch standing

Meanwhile, for the swimming poses, the Prsiser goose is very small, while the Merten goose appears larger than the Noch goose.

Preiser, Merten, Noch swimming

I wish there were S scale options to compare with, but out of all the models, I think the Noch geese are probably the closest to being compatible for use with 1/72 scale figures.

It's been a while since I've seen a goose in real life, but when I think of how big they should be, images like these come to mind.

To Pastures New, James Guthrie, 1883

The Goose Girl, Stanley Royle, 1921

Die Gänsemagd, Paul Hey, 1939

Motocycles Comiot,
Theophile Steinlen, 1899

In any event, most adventurers probably don't give geese a second thought when it comes to danger, but players of Where Winds Meet consider them creatures that should not be triffled with.

Victory and defeat are unpredictable in the Jianghu.

However, perceptions may have changed with the introduction of the Goose Hydra in 5th edition D&D. The monster is derived from the MTG card The Goose Mother, where it is classified as a Bird Hydra.

Google AI claims that the Goose Hydra originates from 3D printed models created by various people in recent years, but monsters such as the Deep Goose existed ten years ago. There are likely even older incarnations.

My own model was created from splicing together the heads of a gaggle of geese from a bag of plastic farm animals that I believe are bootleg versions of Britains figures.

I gave the monster five heads, since it provided the most streamlined look while preserving the integrity of the individual necks for each head.

To Heal or Not to Heal

You have been eaten by a grue

The mysterious light-fearing grue is a monster that hails from the days of the green-screen monitor, and appeared in Zork and other interactive fiction games made by the now defunct Infocom.

The creature was created by Dave Lebling (as the equivalent of a bottomless pit) to limit the ability of a player to progress in the game without first solving puzzles related to getting a light source with which to see.

The name was taken from The Eyes of the Overworld, in which Jack Vance provides little information outside of one cryptic line of text.

Well...hmmm. Here is a statement, somewhat less explicit than others, in which he analyzes the half-men, little more than a brief set of notes:
'Gid: hybrid of man, gargoyle, whorl, leaping insect.
Deodand: wolverine, basilisk, man.
Erb: bear, man, lank-lizard, demon.
Grue: man, ocular bat, the unusual hoon
Leucomorph: unknown
Bazil: felindore, man, (wasp?).'

- The Eyes of the Overworld

The descriptions found in Zork are not clear either, and often conflicting since grues are never actually seen. In one game a grue is said to have a scaly gray arm, but in another, a grue is described as being covered in fur. Various pictures of the grue (found in The Zork Library) have shown the creature as scaly and reptilian.

As far as miniatures go, you can probably use any type of monster to represent grues. My own choice was to use 6th ed. GW Chaos Furies minus their wings.

Kneadatite was used to fill in the slots for their wings, and sculpted to match the fur on the miniature.

The Furies are somewhat bat-like, have variable numbers of eyes, and suitably fanged and clawed.

A couple of the Furies are holding skulls, which I'm going to say are grue-lanterns. These lanterns project the equivalent of a Sphere of Darkness that give the grue some degree of protection and vision in the presence of light.

Startled adventurers may see the eyes in the lanterns and mistake them as being part of the grue's hand, but this is just their minds playing tricks on them due to the stress of seeing a grue.

Another monster which reminds me of the grue is the ghast. I don't know if the Infocom grues were influenced by ghasts, but both creatures live in the darkness and are harmed by light.

Ghasts are described in some detail in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, and are said to tear at victims with their teeth and maul them with their sharp hooves in a manner similar to descriptions of grues with their fangs and claws. They are also described as having eyes that are colored similarly to those of the grue.

"...there glowed in the gloom of that great cavern's mouth first one pair of yellowish-red eyes and then another ... After a moment something about the size of a small horse hopped out into the grey twilight, and Carter turned sick at the aspect of that scabrous and unwholesome beast, whose face is so curiously human despite the absence of a nose, a forehead, and other important particulars."

- The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath

Many artists draw ghasts with a tail, while others depict ghasts as being more human-like. I lean toward the more human-like interpretation since it aligns with the AD&D assertion that ghasts are practically indistinguishable from ghouls, but I think tailed ghasts can look quite horrifying as well.

Dreamquest Ghast Hunt
by Deviant artist Ito-Saith-Webb

Ghast by Deviant artist Dragon-Storm

Ghast by Deviant artist TickleMeCthulhu

The only ghast miniatures that I have are made by RAFM (Call of Cthulhu 2942).

They are massive compared to the Grenadier ghouls (being closer to the size of a large 1/72 horse), and their legs don't really have the kangaroo-like appearance described by Lovecraft, but I think Bob Murch did a great job with the face.

I also plan on making a tailed ghast using the RAFM war newt (Reptiliads RAF03010).

I cut the head off of the war newt and was going to attach a random kroot head that I had lying around, but now that I need it I can't seem to find it anymore.

Ummm... Now what?

Rock paper scissors

Invasion of the Pod People

Somehow I like the Russian DVD cover
more than the cover of the domestic version.

The doppelgänger is often described as a supernatural double that heralds some sort of misfortune for the person whose form it takes. In this context, the doppelgänger does not necessarily have a physical body, and is often only a vision or spirit.

The D&D monster is rather different in that it is more like an evil twin that seeks to steal your identity for its own nefarious purposes (NSFW). In this respect, they are very similar to the pod people from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

In fact, when I first saw the miniature of the Horrorclix Pod People (Nightmares #019), I thought that it would be perfect as a D&D doppelgänger.

Even though the monster is entirely too big for use with 1/72 scale figures, I picked up a few of the models just for the pods.

The pods are much larger that the ones depicted in the movies, but that's fine, since I'm not really concerned about having doppelgängers be identical to pod people.

Doppelgängers haven't been particularly well characterized, so capitalizing on their similarities with the pod people allows me to give them a relatable background with a provenance from pop culture.

One of the clix pods I had was broken, so I turned it into an overturned pod. The ground cover looks pretty sad, so I'll need to do some Google image searching to do a better job of representing forest detrius.

I also have some Kubrick ovomorphs which can be used as seed pods. They have a pebbly texture to the surface rather than the veined leafy appearance of the clix pods, but they could pass as an alternate type of seed pod.

I think that Minimates also makes some similarly sized ovomorphs, but they don't look very good. I'm pretty sure that they are hollow with an open bottom, and made of soft rubbery plastic.

Now that I have the pods, I'll probably need to create some doppelgängers. I'm not sure what I'd use as a base figure though, so that's another project for the back burner.

!!!

Hantu Penanggal

The Penanggalan is a type of vampire that originates from Southeast Asia, in particular from the Malay Archipelago. It was probably brought to the attention of most D&D players by the Fiend Folio, but in the same year the Fiend Folio came out, a film called Leák was released in Indonesia. This influential Indonesian horror film is considered a cult classic, and brought the Penanggalan into the world of cinema.

Thai version

UK version

The film was banned in its home country, but is still available from various sources. The 2007 Mondo Macabro DVD is considered the definitive version in English if you are interested in getting a copy.

There are a surprising number of Penanggalan miniatures available, but the only one that I think is not too big is the one from the Pathfinder Battles line (Maze of Death #024).

The miniature has lungs and entrails, but I'm unable to tell if the sculpt includes any other organs (in most descriptions of the Penanggalan, the lungs, stomach, and intestines are always mentioned). The miniature looks good alongside 1/72 figures, and in fact her organs are so dainty that I doubt it would be necessary for her to take a vinegar bath to fit into a 28mm body.