Dragonsnail

Dragonsnails are gigantic chaos-mutated pond snails that mostly sport one or two heads, and enjoy eating people. They inhabit the swamplands of Prax, in particular the Devil's Marsh, where they presumably originated.

Pictured here are two dragonsnail miniatures. The snail on the left is a Drakesnail from the Dreamblade CMG (Chrysotic Plague #20). The snail on the right is a Ral Partha dragonsnail from the Creatures of Glorantha boxed set (RuneQuest 10-402), also available in the Dark Denizens blister pack (RuneQuest 18-015).

The earliest dragonsnail miniature, however, was produced by Archive Miniatures, and faithfully replicates the artwork by Luise Perrin from RuneQuest 2nd edition (shown at the top of the page). It is a particularly difficult miniature to find, and remains high up on my hunt list.

All the available dragonsnail miniatures are two-headed versions, so anyone wanting a one-headed (or three headed) dragonsnail will have to make their own. Probably not too difficult to do using seashells available in any craft store.

I just quickly made a couple of mock-ups out of Elmer's-Tack, but when I have some time, I'll make up some proper one-headed dragonsnails.

Vul-Kar

While doing an image search for OSR artwork, I came across an illustration by Stefan Poag that reminded me of the Vul-Kar idol from the Fireball Island game made by Milton Bradley that I bought a while back to use as a piece of dungeon terrain.

The idol is made up of three pieces molded in a very dark brown plastic.

I decided to wire it up with some LED lighting to spiff it up a bit and make it look more like the artwork from the game. To do that, I drilled out the eyes to allow the LEDs to shine through.

I then drilled two small holes in the base to accommodate wiring for the LEDs, and a larger hole for a burning flame.

The flame is a Mega Bloks torch flame from their old Dragons line.

I wired it all up in series, soldered the connections, and used some electrical tape to hold down the loose parts.

9 volt battery attached, and voilà!

As an aside, Vul-Kar bears (at least to me) a strong resemblance to Zardoz.

Zardoz (or Vul-Kar) may also have been an influence on the decoration on the front of the Iron Claw Goblin Stone Thrower as well.

100,000 Hits

1/72 Multiverse has finally reached the 100,000 milestone!
A big thanks to all the readers who have made this possible.

I will have to confess I've neglected posting for the month of July because of that massive time sink known as WoW. Other than entering a MUD way back in the early 90's, I have not looked into playing any of the MMORPGs that are now so popular among gamers (though I do like looking at their various character and monster designs). At the behest of some friends, I signed up for a free month-long trial of WoW, and took advantage of a huge discount on the game and it's expansions. Frankly, because we are scattered all over the world, this is really the only way I can game with members of my old gaming group.

MMORPGs are just about what I expected. The mindset of most players is definitely that of a video gamer for whom "death" is a mere inconvenience, and clearing levels as fast as possible is the main objective. Still, I guess it's more about the social aspect of gaming with friends that makes it enjoyable.

Now that I've leveled up to where I can participate in the same dungeons as everyone else, I should be able to get back to a more regular posting schedule.