It is 1917 and despite positive developments, it is increasingly clear that Germany is losing the war. Hearing of strange, bellicose creatures on remote Mystri Island, which, rumor has it, can be bent to man's will, the German high command sends young Guards Jager officer Kuno von Schrecklichdorf to find and retreive these bizarre creatures for the Fatherland! And who better? This strapping young man, fully six foot two, is embued with a sense of honour and duty, as chivalrous as the knights of old yet determined to plunder the dark mysteries of this shrouded island, no matter what the cost. Armed with a broomhandle Mauser, quick wits, and deadly aim, he is a formidable opponent.

Scratching out survival on the fringes of the Savannah, where the grass meets the trees, are the Wildmen of the Savannah, so-called by the human inhabitants of Mystri Island because they are not quite man but also not quite ape. Having only recently found the ability to use tools -- apparently overnight, the wildmen, previously fearful and meek, have grown more aggressive, and can be a danger to isolated travelers. But can they be made allies as well?

Sculpted by Phil Lewis.

In the vast, steaming swamps of the Mystrian Interior, the most mysterious members of the Herpetile Confederation dwell -- the Salamen, wading silently through the mire in pursuit of prey.

Unlike the Reptilian Hunters their hunts do not range across the face of Mystri Island. And unlike the hulking Savannah Lords, they do not pounce on any force foolish enough to enter their domain. But if you penetrate their swamps, they will be there, silently watching. Visitors who do not molest the sanctuary of the Salamen are left unharmed, but those who do damage to the Salamen villages or their livelihood meet swift and deadly retribution, from poisoned arrows or javelins flying with deadly accuracy from the dark recesses of the jungle, or sudden attacks from young Salaman braves mounted on huge predatory birds, flightless but capable of great speed on the ground.

Most mysterious and fearsome of all are the aged shamans who control the tribes, dwelling on the deepest part of the swamps, emerging only in times of war or other danger. So skilled are they at the black arts that it is said that no counterspell can lift the hexes they place on individuals or whole armies, limbs rotting off, faces melting as the victim dissolves screaming.

When the Herpetile Confederation marches to war, the Salamen serve as shooters, skirmishers and light mounted. Whilst a mighty Savannah Lord chieftain generally serves as overall commander, a fool he would be indeed to ignore the farseeing counsel of the shamans of the swamp.

There's part of the eastern shore of Mystri Island called by all the "Nightmare Coast," and with good reason, for the living dead haunt these damned, pestilential shores. Zombies, corpses shambolically animated and desiring the brains of the living for consumption, appear from the jungle, or at times dig themselves from the very earth, sometimes seriously decayed, groping for the flesh of the living even before they have cleared the earth that has long held them. Not only men are infected by this dreadful malady, but also the giant Mystrian wolf, and packs of these Zombie Wolves rampage on the flanks of the zombie hordes, using vague brain echos of their packhunting former lives to encircle and annihilate the foes of the Walking Dead.

In command of this dark world is a pair of vampires -- legend has it, twin brothers -- one existing in manbat form and the other in the appearance of a handsome, elegantly attired yet undeniably fiendish human. The manbat wields a golden rod of terrible power, deeply ensorcelled with necromantic magic, commanding all dead things, and stealing the life from those who still draw breath.

and now, coming only recently by tramp steamer to join the brothers, is a new horror -- Londoner Jon Laney Jr., who was infected with the dreadful lycan virus whilst on the Scottish moors and is now a hunted man, for when the moon is full, he takes the form of a werewolf and devours the flesh of the living, his superhuman strength and cunning being more than a match for ten mortals. Unrepentant, he turns to the vampire brothers for the only shelter he can find.

All available to populate your Mystri Island games or add to any discriminating zombie, horror or pulp collection!

Eating swamp grasses and drier plants in the interior of the island, the armoured behemoth is a cantankerous beast with poor eyesight. If it senses something invading its territory, it simply tries to kill it! And it is more than capable of doing so, with vicious sharp plates protruding from its shoulders and a huge bony tail club that could bash in the side of a London bus.

Encased in thick armour, the Armoured Behemoth is avoided by most predators on the island as being exceptionally hard to eat! And human weapons simply bounce off it. Only a careful shot from Janice Prishwalken's elephant gun can bring one down ....

Sculpted by Michael Lovejoy.

Living in the deepest jungle in the center of Mystri Island is a gargantuan flesh eating monster called "He-Who-Kills" by the Reptilian Hunters, who venerate him like a god. Held in dread by all, this titanic creature is the apex predator on the island, towering above all, a deadly hunter who knows no fear.

Descriptions of him from 1918 vary, some asserting that he had plume nodes on his vestigial forearms, others not noticing such an adornment. As such, we have had a set of separate arm plumes made which may be used or left off. (A recent discovery of a carcharodontosaurid fossil with likely plume nodes on its arms, together with definite plumes on the arms of other coelurosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, make it more likely than not that Tyrannosaurus actually had display feathers in plumes on its forearms.)

The model includes a large heavy base and depicts He-Who-Kills in his characteristic attack stance. As one foot is off the ground, a tree branch has been included which can be postioned near the body for greater stability. However, in our opinion it is not needed -- the model is seven ounces of solid pewter and it stands up well on one leg!

Sculpted by Michael Lovejoy.

As aggressive as a rhino and as heavy as an elephant, this great horned creature grazes on the plains of Mystri Island in great herds. Few predators dare to hunt them, and most of these foolhardy enough to do so find themselves gored and crushed as the irritable behemoths demonstrate their anger. Only the Reptilian Hunters know the ways of these creatures, and can at times bend their will to employ them in war.

These come in sets of two bodies and two heads. The heads are on ball sockets and can be mounted at different angles, and this allows the modeler to create a herd with many pose variations.

When they encountered the raptors, the German explorers finally struck gold. For here were creatures of vicious and superb attack proficiency and when raised from the egg, of amazing pliability. However, when encountered in the wild, they were wily, ferocious and destructive almost beyond comprehension. Taking their eggs for shipment to Germany was almost suicidally dangerous, but anything to serve the embattled Fatherland.

Six poses of the dromaeosaur Deinonychus, a larger version of the famous Velociraptor (or of course these can be used as supersized Velociraptors of movie fame). In line with current scientific discovery, they are covered with feathers on their entire bodies except their faces, legs and hands, and have a fantail of feathers along the edges of their tails.

These would be perfect for 28mm scale Velociraptors as well -- they are just the right size for the scientifically accurate version of the animal in 28mm scale.

To read more about the raptors of Mystri Island, check this blog entry.

Living on the edge of the jungle in the center of Mystri Island are majestic big cats with enormously enlarged canine teeth, making this strong, stocky animal a giant killer, capable of bringing down prey far larger than themselves. Fierce and untrainable, the sabretooths vie for the great prey species of the island with the raptors, and the two competitors often engage in wars over hunting territory. It is an even match.

Three poses of sabretooths, with the stout, muscular frame of the species, particularly in the front of the animal. These creatures are built to go nose to nose with big, strong prey species as they axphyxiated them with their mighty canines, and were amongst the most muscular felines that ever lived.

In the steaming jungles of Mystri Island live enormous apes, larger than any encountered by man before. These creatures combine primate cunning with the strength of an elephant -- a terrifying combination. Extremely territorial and aggressive, the Mystrian Giant Ape is a formidable foe that is impossible to thwart without the heaviest of firearms.

The model is packed with a round sloted base. In addition to being a gigantic ape for 15mm gaming, it is also quite suitable as a rampaging gorilla for 28mm gaming.

To read more about the Mystrian Giant Ape, check this blog entry.

The females of this horrible species frequently reach lengths of 60 feet or more, and live underground, making multiple tunnels to the surface, then laying in wait below ground, sensing the slightest vibration and the best tunnel to use to surprise the prey. The creature will then hurtle to the surface, impale the prey with its spiky mouthparts, and suck all of the juices from the unfortunate creature, leaving a dried, leathery husk. Naturally the prey often attempts to fight back, but the bloodworm's segmented armour is like steel, protection from the sharpest spear or sword.

The males are small and inoffensive creatures that live at the roots of trees placidly sucking the sap, and are sought out by the females only for mating, though they are a delicacy on Mystri Island when they can be dug up.

A towering worm monster well over 25mm tall, this creature will be a serious menace for your Mystri Island adventurers, and would even give considerable pause to a 28mm character!

Mystri Island sustains many species of animal thought by the world to be long extinct, including the Wooly Rhinoceros, a creature continuing to live in large numbers in the frozen southern extreme of the island. Aggressive and territorial, these animals will charge anything suspicious on sight -- and with poor eyesight, they consider everything they smell to be suspicious! Few creatures combine strength and speed in a combination quite as terrifying as an enraged wooly rhino, and enragement appears to be the default temperament of the animal.

Few are the masters who can bend the wooly rhino to their will. While the savage Doyta barbarians of the south have learned to harness the strength of the animals in order to pull the war chariots of their heroes, the rhinos are best known as the mounts of the mighty Lords of the Mystrian high savannah. The Lords buy the creatures at great cost from the Doyta, for no other animal has proven capable of carrying the fearsome Lords at speed.

The very southern tip of Mystri Island is quite cold and there are subantarctic conditions, including habitation by penguins and Leopard Seals. Through an extraordinary event, one morning the penguins gained sentience and by late that same afternoon had split themselves into factions, the Kingfishers and the Penguinmentarians, and were having at each other on the field of battaile. Apparently the newly-sentient penguins had found an old history of the English Civil Wars and used that as their social guide ....

Intrepid explorers Janice Prishwalken and Richard Smith-Grenville had heard from their ally, the Reptilian Hunter Stalks-at-Dawn, that, in his words, "the ice birds are behaving strangely." Richard scoffed at the notion that birds could aid the German war effort but Janice insisted on investigating, knowing as she did that their German foe was not too proud to investigate any paranormal activity on the island. After a journey of four fraught days, she got pummelled with quite a few well aimed snowballs for her efforts!

These are 15mm-scale penguins (they are approximately 8mm tall), who, being now civilized, have seen fit to form themselves up in Regiments of Flippere (24 shotte with snowballes, 11 doughty pikemen with icicles, and one standardbearere with squid on icicle standard) or Regiments of Seale (ten fierce leopard seales, eighteen carefree, impetuous cavalieres with snowballes, plus a high commander and a standardbearere). Snowballers shoot at the enemy, the Regiments of Seals are (relatively) fast moving as the creatures glide along on the ice, attempting to bowl over the enemy, although the staunch icicle men will poke at the seales and attempt to turn them aside.

We suggest that these are useful for more than pulp gaming! Indeed they can be used as straight English Civil War gaming, except the casualties are simply birds who have been hit by snowballes and whose feelings have been hurt! Rarely is there even a scratch suffered in the Penguish Civil Wars. Sculpted by "Whiff Waff." Chris Yaro has put the regimentes in snowy little dioramas, which are not included.

Read more about the coming of the Mystri Island penguins to sentience

It was a simple act, done many times before. Albrecht, one of v. Schrecklichdorf's Stosstruppen guards, tossed a hand grenade up at a coconut to dislodge it from a tree -- but no one could have anticipated what came next. The "potato masher" hit the ground, exploded though it had not been armed, creating a steaming hole in the ground, obviously having unearthed some sort of cavern. A rank odor quickly wafted from the hole, and a moment later, something worse emerged, whatever it was -- as large as a man, but with shiny armoured skin, unblinking orbs for eyes, rending mandibles, a razor sharp horn emerging from the top of its head, antennae, and swordlike claws for arms, it was ... an abomination!

As the dumbfounded Germans looked on, another such creature popped from the hole and let out a disagreeable whirring click of a sound. Then came another, and another, and ....

Tempting as it was to run from these horrors, now massing and looking intently on the little German search party, v. Schrecklichdorf realized that something had to be done, and fast, for they kept coming, and coming, and coming -- by thunder, thought v. Schrecklichdorf, would they ever stop? And now it was seen that upon their backs grew vestigial wings which periodically propelled the creatures forward along the jungle floor at great speed with a chitinous whir that made the skin crawl. Von Schrecklichdorf quietly gave the order, "we must seal that hole." And so the battle began ....

"Old school" bugmen with a thousand uses, from pulp to horror to sci fi to fantasy to Lovecraftian gaming! There are little cups on the sides of the heads to hold wire antennae if you wish to add them (we recommend it!). Sculpted by "Whiff Waff."

Lithe Reptilian tribesmen to stalk silently across your gaming table! Five different exciting poses. I love lizardmen, but thought there were enough big hulking lizardmen out there, basically orcs with reptile heads, so made these like a reptilian version of stone age peoples who inhabit jungles -- perhaps a bit on the small side, but tireless, wiry, muscular and fit. They are totally naked so as to fit into any gaming background that uses fantastic elements. I think they'd made superb Venusian natives in a Victorian sci fi adventure too, for instance!

Sculpted by Dom Seys.

The Accursed Getinmahbeli

Getinmahbeli painted and based by Richard Lowles.

This line covers the strangest of all the human tribes of Mystri Island, the Getinmahbeli, or at least what's left of them (they had the men for dinner and the children for dessert), cursed to suffer from hunger despite the obvious surplus of nutrition they are taking in. This leads to a nonstop rampage through the jungles and settlements of Mystri Island, waxing ever swollen as they devour their way across the island, confronting and consuming new prey. Design Note: These are essentially Kalinga headhunters, and use the weapons, shields, and dress of those people, although of course the historical Kalinga headhunters are extremely fit men who generally fight nearly naked! They were fashioned so that, in addition to the accursed tribeswomen, they can used as a humorous take on the DBM Polynesian and Melanesian list for the Moluccas. (As such, for those so inclined, a discounted price is available for large batches of the Getinmahbeli.) While these are sculpted as 15mm, because of their proportions they would make terrific little female pygmies in 28mm scale as well! Well, "little" in terms of height anyway ....

Code	Contents	Price (US$)	Order/Progress
MYST-100	The Accursed Getinmahbeli (set of 19 models plus 3 baskets of heads)	$13.99
MYST-100H	The Accursed Getinmahbeli (six complete Getinmahbeli sets)	$74.99

About the Accursed Getinmahbeli