Seat Yourself at Any Table

Friday, October 30, 2015

As the Halloween weekend approaches, and fancy dress parties loom on the very near horizon, I find myself getting a bit thirsty for the cavalcade of beer and alcohol that's just around the corner. That brings me, naturally, to The Rusty Dragon Inn, the next set of prepainted plastic Pathfinder Battles gaming figures! The set, now scheduled for a January release, adopts a "tavern" theme, with many of the figures in the set being appropriate for tavern-based encounters and battles. Early reaction to news of the set had some folks worried that maybe the set would include too much bar stuff, or too many NPCs, and over the last several months worth of previews I've done my best to assuage those concerns with previews of all manner of generally useful creatures and characters, whether your heroes are in the tavern or not.

No more. By my count I have six figures plus an updated and much-improved case incentive to preview, and all but ONE of those figures fits hand-in-glove with the tavern theme. The outlier figure will have to wait for next week, but I suggest all minis fans start chilling their pint glasses immediately. There's some heavy drinking up ahead!

Every good bar needs a Bartender, of course, and the The Rusty Dragon Inn is no exception! This sassy, saucy lady is more than happy to pour you a foamy brew or share rumors from the local community—for the right-sized pile of coins, of course! I don't know why, but I appreciate the fact that she's got a dishrag. Adventurers can be such messy folk. The Bartender is a Medium, rare figure.

I suppose the Bartender's dishrag might come in very handy once adventurers make a mess on this table! Randomly inserted about one-per-case in exchange for an uncommon figure, this Medium table is just one of a handful of useful bits of dungeon dressing spread out through the set (others include the previously previewed wagon, cart, and bed). I suspect a lot of folks would appreciate more tables than just the one they're likely to get in the set. As with the bed we previewed last week, I'll see what I can do about getting a promotional repaint, but there is not currently one in the works. But there may be more news on this in the next couple of weeks...

One of my favorite gods in the Pathfinder pantheon is Cayden Cailean, god of beer, wine, freedom, and bravery. With a sword in one hand and a frothy beer in the other, Cayden sometimes manifests in local bars to check out new brews. Here we see him in mortal form—he became a living god by drunkenly passing the Test of the Starstone. It just so happens that Cayden makes a GREAT proxy for a drunken player character, or a short-term ally of the party who gets them into trouble by always being a little too deep in his cups (or in his tankards, as the case may be). I love the expression on his face, which came through great on the paint master I saw a few weeks ago. What a wry bastard. Love him. Cayden Cailean is a Medium, rare figure.

By my count, we've got one more rare and two more pieces of dungeon dressing before we get to the grand finale!

Happy Halloween, everybody! See you at the bar!

Erik Mona
Publisher