Quickie

Hey! Here's a quick photo of the desk this week.

Proper photos soon =)

Ace

Temple of Terror... finally

But first, some new acquisitions...

A good friend at work was generous enough to give me these lovelies...

1/24 Tamiya car kits? Oh yes... I know just what to do with these... a little bit of Mad Max inspired lunacy is called for I think...  =)

Also on the table...

My one and only Infinity miniature (so far) - started working on this wonderful sculpt last week, its going pretty well I think? I always find it exciting to start painting/modelling something you haven't tried before, you sort of try a bunch of techniques that worked on previous minis, find that wont suit, rip your hair out for a bit, then go back to it and make up a new approach on the spot!
I'll update when she is all done =)

Here are the first four of my Goliath gangers after a few layers have gone down. They're going to be a LOT more colourful than this when done... trust me. (Incidentally, the Juve - third from left, is one of my all time favourite miniatures ever. I dkw...)

Speaking of gangers here is the next member of my 'Red Cross' gang for post apoc stuff. This little guy originally sits on the back of an R75 BMW Afrika Corps bike... he's moved up in the world (funnily enough to another GERMAN vehicle... hmm) More pics later!

Ok so

#14 Temple of Terror

Bit of a forgotten book I think, this one. When I first picked it up to begin this review I realised I had probably only read it the once as a lad. Not an auspicious start...

A wee bit in and you find yourself surrounded by some familiar guff, however.

Yep, Yaz is back and so are the Dwarf's from StoneBridge! Basically you're playing the same schmo who rescued the Warhammer from Darkwood forest in "Forest of Doom" and have been hanging out lapping up the hero status ever since! Well probably something like that, anyway you get yourself tangled up in a quest to race an evil dude with a cool name (Malbordus, very evil and quite cool sounding) to a place in the Desert of Skulls and destroying his hidden artifacts before he can use them to armageddon the crap out of everything. Right, so get to place, fight baddies and break stuff someone else wants.

Easy?
No.

There are a few very interesting twists in this one, I wont spoil them apart from to say that looking for the artifacts becomes a sort of gambling game when a MESSENGER OF DEATH is sent after you and hides his infernal letters of DEATH at points you might expect to find a very important item.
The bastard.

Other than that the book is a very solid Ian Livingstone affair, lots of good locations and fights, some great enemies and useful items.

One of the more esoteric baddies to beat up is this blighter. I know, crocodile with lily pad hands was what I was thinking too...

As per Ian's usual approach the book is light on actual puzzles and revolves more around good character interaction and direction. That being said it is a much easier book to get through than say, DeathTrap Dungeon, I think I went through that six or seven times before I found the Gem I was looking for!

This guy was my favourite encounter.

Shall I talk about the art?? I usually do!
Bill Houston provides us with the interior illos for this book. And very nice they are too. As the first 'desert' themed adventure of the series you'd expect the book to be pretty heavy handed on the eastern themes and Aladdin pants, and you would be right! Not that it matters as the Lost City of Vatos is beautifully captured and populated by Bill, especially with this lovely Lady...

Ah, my dear my dear. If we only had 400 sections together... but you are too evil and twisted I think
...and the blasted Dwarf's still need saving. So much to do, so few sections to do it in...

Speaking of twisted and evil, this is our mate Malbordus. One of the better entrances for a villain in these books.

The cover is again delivered by Chris Achilleos, and again references a scene that doesn't make it into the book? Who cares. Its a good pic and pretty much sums up what welcome you can expect in Vatos!

Sorry if this has been a bit of a ramble, too long between the read and the write, and I'm totally buggered =(

Read it, look at the lovely pictures and enjoy =)

Ace.

Getting there!

Sit tight, loads of stuff on the way.

Now if I could only devise an escape plan I could get out of work early...