Malacus Harn, proprietor of the Hirstopia bath house, never had intentions of running an establishment of this sort. Ultimately though, it serves his needs.
You see, Malacus feels dirty. It was not always thus. During an adventuring career spanning weeks, he acquired a mental affliction that he cannot scrub away,
no matter how hard he tries.
Being a miser and a bully, Malacus was ill prepared to challenge creatures in their homes. Acquitting himself with second rate equipment and the blustery
overconfidence of one used to belittling those around him, he set off alone seeking his fortune. Little did he know, the kobolds he was intent on robbing had
no fear of him and would not cower like the local populace. When his initial challenge met with bared teeth and weapons, Malacus realized the error of his
ways. However, it was too late. He failed to use chalk (1 cp at the local market!) to mark his path into the lair. Making a wrong turn in his hurry to escape
certain doom, he ran deeper and deeper into the cave.
Ultimately, one of his many wrong turns led him into the dung room. Careless foot placement and an errant pile of something slippery ended in the sickly
squelch of poor Malacus landing in the offal pit. At this point, his pursuers caught up with him. The comedy of the situation did not escape them, and their
sibilant laughter still haunts Malacus' dreams. Fortunately for him, covered in their putrescent leavings, he was no longer fit for eating.
Malacus was taken before the Kobold Lord. Being a crafty individual, the lord found a use for Malacus. He was to deliver something fresh to eat during each
cycle of the moon, or the geis set upon him by the kobold wizard would cause him to return to the caves as the next meal.
He was released at this point to return home. Along the way, Malacus heard the sound of bubbling water. Wishing to scrub himself clean, he followed the sound
to a small pool. Throwing himself in, he was stunned at how warm the water was. An idea came to him then. He obviously was not the adventuring type, so would
need another way to generate income to purchase animals to give to the kobolds. After hours of soaking and scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing, he decided to
build a bath house over this spot and take advantage of nature's gift. The income garnered from charging entry to the bath would provide him a comfortable
life style, a means of satisfying his curse, and the opportunity to bathe whenever he felt like it (the horrid feeling of kobold offal still clings to his
limbs and the scent fills his nostrils).
Over time Malacus developed a strong taste for wine as a means of numbing his senses a bit. The frequent bathing and scented body oils just could not block out
the memories like a good bottle or two of wine.
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For those of you who took the time to read the back story, I hope you enjoyed learning a little about the proprietor and how the bath house came to be. The
story should unfold a bit more as I build more (I have to see if certain things will work in the build before I write more about Malacus and his problems). I
developed and scrapped several ideas before coming up with something I thought would work. I've done some of the building, and thought I'd post a bit
for people's interest and my own motivation to keep after it. Real life keeps getting in the way of my hobby time.
This first picture is a mock-up I did of the front door. Ultimately I'm going to use the door from the cavern mold instead of the one pictured. I'm
posting this to show the door casing, as there is too big of a gap around the door when using the small brick mold arches. I'm going to try and incorporate
a wine theme into the build (because Malacus is addicted, it's interesting, and wine tastes good). I may keep the cowardly lion door knocker, not sure yet
how it will look.
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The next pic is just of the walls of the first floor. I wanted to have plenty of room to work with inside the build, so went with just one small brick width
for the walls. This gives me an extra half inch over doubling the small brick or going with regular chip stone. Of course that meant lots and lots of the
little individual bricks, so I ended up making a custom mold to speed casting.
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This pic is a progression of the paint scheme I'm going with. The brown base coat is some mis-tint I picked up at Home Depot (Ralph Lauren though, nothing
but the best for Hirstopia). The other colors are mixes of Vallejo paints. The third image is after the application of an ink mix I made from P3 inks. The
lowest part of the image is after a dry brush to highlight and tone down the shine. I can provide the colors and mix ratios I used if anyone is
interested.Ultimately I'll hit it with some Dull Coat to eliminate the shine.
I figure Malacus bullied the local brick maker a little to get a discount on clay bricks. They don't all match, but the price was right.
I'll try and get another update in a few days. I will be gone next weekend (real life again), so don't lynch me if it takes a bit longer.
Rob
Edit: I'd appreciate any comments or thoughts on the paint scheme I've put together. When some people look at a color wheel, they think "useful
tool". My thought is more like "oooh, a rainbow"...
