Progress continues on my Dagon posse, and this session saw the Priest of Dagon completed alongside three pistol armed cultists and a rifle armed cultist. I also finished the basing, giving the whole group the appearance of emerging from a forgotten swamp rather than standing on gaming bases. Mud, stagnant pools, reeds, and patches of decaying vegetation have brought the warband together into a force that already has plenty of character, although there is still more to come.

There are places where the marsh never truly sleeps. The locals avoid them after dark, speaking only in whispers of strange lights over the water and voices carried across the reeds on nights when the mist hangs low. Fishermen who stray too close sometimes vanish without a trace, while those fortunate enough to return refuse to speak of what they found beneath the black water.

At the centre of the growing cult stands the Priest of Dagon. He is not simply a leader but a preacher of ancient truths, proclaiming that mankind’s dominion over the land is only temporary. His followers believe that the sea remembers everything, and that beneath the quiet surface an ancient power waits patiently for the faithful to prepare the way.

The three pistol armed cultists form the priest’s closest followers, fanatics who protect him with unquestioning devotion. The rifleman provides a watchful eye from the edge of the swamp, his silhouette barely visible through the reeds as he guards the approaches to whatever forgotten shrine lies hidden beyond the marsh.

The swamp basing has probably been my favourite part of the project so far because it helps tell the story before a single die is rolled. The dark earth, wet ground, reeds, and murky pools suggest a landscape that is slowly surrendering itself to the sea. It feels like the sort of place where every ripple on the water deserves a second look, and where every patch of mist might conceal something that should never have left the depths.

The posse is not quite complete. Still to join the cult are the mysterious Emissary of Dagon, a scaly hybrid whose humanity has almost disappeared beneath the marks of the Deep Ones, and a tentacled hybrid whose very appearance hints that the transformation is far more advanced than anyone would willingly imagine. Together they should give the force an even stronger sense of creeping corruption and cosmic horror.

With those final three figures still on the painting bench, the congregation is steadily growing. Soon the Priest of Dagon will no longer be preaching to a handful of devoted followers but to a gathering that marks the beginning of something far older and far more dangerous than the unsuspecting world above the swamp could ever understand.

The swamp bases

Also Crooked dice have some excellent figures to fit in.

3 Sets of Townsfolk, cultists, Deep Ones, a priest, and Dagon himself! I am sorely tempted! I am still hunting for a figure that might suit Robert Olmstead, the narrator of The Shadow Over Innsmouth. It is remarked that his eyes have the same strange quality seen in all descendants of Obed Marsh. In the story’s final pages, he learns he himself is the great-great-grandson of Obed Marsh and a Deep One, and in time will become one of the amphibious monsters he witnessed in Innsmouth.

Maybe this one from Crooked dice.