Darl Mandos, “Mandos the Magnificent”; and a Monster May(hem) Update!

Unlike most of those taking part (see below), I’ve been making slow progress on my Monster May(hem) projects this month. I recently hit a wall where I’m doing more staring than painting, so to give myself a kickstart I decided to crank out my Character of the Month for May. This month I decided to do a sorcerer.

(If you don’t care about my sorcerer and are just here for Monster May(hem), scroll down below.)

Even as a youth, Darl Mandos always stood out among the citizens of Snakehollow; renowned as the fattest and laziest halfling any of the village elders could recall. Darl’s appetite and corresponding gluttony was already legendary by the time he reached the age of 55, the so-called prime of his life. There seemed to be nothing he would not eat or drink if it was offered (and often when it was not); nor would he stop until every last morsel was gone. “Enough” was not a word that Darl Mandos ever understood.

When not eating, he was content to while away his days doing nothing, sleeping, or looking for more food. Although he was tolerated by the folk of Snakehollow he pushed the limits of their hospitality on more than one occasion. It turns out that there is such thing as a Halfling who eats too much and does too little, after all.

Put simply, Darl didn’t feel he should do anything he didn’t enjoy. He didn’t enjoy farming. He didn’t enjoy brewing. He didn’t enjoy baking. He DID enjoy meats and vegetables, good beer and fresh bread and pies, though; so he decided he would occupy his time with eating, along with his beloved companion and the one thing able to eat just as much as Darl Mandos: his goat, Mingo.

Darl would have lived a life remarkable only for its idleness had not Tom the Winker moved into a farm on the outskirst of Snakehollow. Tom the Winker was a miserable sort who rebuffed all attempts at friendship and good-neighborly-ness. He got his nickname among the halflings of Snakehollow because of his seemingly uncontrollable habit of winking, a tic he picked up, unbeknownst to them, because a mule he was beating decided to beat back. When Mingo wandered onto his land, Tom the Winker took that to mean Mingo was now his property. He threw the goat into a pen and promptly forgot all about it.

Mingo was likely to starve before he was butchered by Tom the Winker; but, much to the amazement of the people of Snakehollow, Darl Mandos decided to do something he had never even considered before in his life. He decided to act.

When Tom the Winker saw the obese halfling on his doorstep, he laughed aloud. When Darl asked politely for the return of his friend, Mingo, Tom the Winker grabbed a threshing flail and shook it in Darl’s face, threatening to use it on him if he didn’t leave immediately. That’s the last thing Tom the Winker remembers about the encounter. When he awoke from a peaceful slumber several hours later, he found Mingo gone. He also found the half-wheel of cheese that was in his sideboard missing, along with half a dozen eggs and a smoked ham.

The residents of Snakehollow expected Darl to return from Tom the Winker’s farm bruised, bloodied and without a goat. Instead, they discovered something about Darl that he already knew about himself. Darl Mandos was a sorcerer, born with an innate talent for magic. Through magic, he was able to put people to sleep and produce other effects as well, such as opening locked pantry doors and entrances to preserve cellars. While Darl found his abilities more convenient than, say, finding a key first; he didn’t like to use them overmuch because doing so required effort.

Since the folk of Snakehollow learned of Darl’s talents, he has become of service to his people, whether he likes it or not. In truth, he has warmed to his role a bit. He likes to yell things like “Presto!” and “Alakazam!” whenever he pulls off a big spell.

Darl’s familiar is the enormous goat named Mingo who is much like his master: fat, well-fed, good-natured and somewhat lazy. Mingo takes frequent naps.  Most afternoons, Darl joins Mingo if he has nothing else to do (and he rarely does). Darl accepts payment for his magical services in baked goods and beer. He doesn’t want to go adventuring (too much effort); but he does enjoy the feeling that he is contributing something to his community for a change.

The miniature I used for Darl Mandos is Reaper’s Del Brairberry, Halfling Wizard; sculpted by Glenn Harris. The Carrion Crawler is a previous Monster May(hem) submission by Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures, painted in 2019.

Just because I’m dragging ass this month doesn’t mean everyone else is. There are some truly awesome Monster May(hem) submissions already, with more to come. Here’s the blogroll!

And here are some links to the submissions so far!

Matt from PM Painting has outdone us all so far. He got his hands on Cthulhu: Death May Die and has used Monster May(hem) as an excuse to plow through the awesome miniatures in the game! Good on you, Matt! So far he’s done an Elder Thing, a Shoggoth, a Byakhee, some Ghouls and Deep Ones, and a Star-Spawn of Cthulhu! No way does Matt have all his Sanity anymore; you can paint that many blasphemous horrors and not expect a rubber room in your future!

Roger from Rantings from Under the Wargames Table has jumped in with two Prehistoric Cats, with a possible scratch-build to come! (I love that guy!)

The dread Carrion Crow has started his submission, and all I can say is…“WEN-DIIIIII-GOOOOO!” Happy to see the Crow is back!

Dave from Wargames Terrain Workshop sculpted a Krayt Dragon (seen on The Mandalorian) from scratch and painted it, and man, does it look awesome! You continue to amaze me, Dave!

Azazel is KILLING IT!! He painted a Coral Golem, an Umber Hulk and a Sand Kraken (which is a truly terrifying beast from Shadows of Brimstone)!! HIs painting skills are insaaaane!!!

Tom (no relation to Tom the Winker; wink, wink) from The Good Ground has jumped in this year and painted a Red Slaad! Tom’s the only person I “met” on Instagram who already knew me from this blog, so I’m thrilled he’s on board this year! (To my knowledge, he has never beaten a mule.)

Mark A. Morin painted this amazing Aztec Temple Sacrificial Altar! I know, it’s not technically a monster; but Mark asked if he could include it and it looks so great I couldn’t say no! (Plus, I’d be a hypocrite if I said HIS building doesn’t count as a monster…stay tuned to see why…) Check out Mark’s Aztec project he’s been plugging away at; it’s truly inspiring!

You guys are putting me to shame with the quality and frequency of your submissions. I haven’t had a chance to swing by your respective blogs long enough to leave comments, but I’ll be there shortly! Thanks again for making this so much fun!

12 thoughts on “Darl Mandos, “Mandos the Magnificent”; and a Monster May(hem) Update!

  1. Dave Stone

    Wonderful work on Mandos Keith, really like the colours you’ve gone with and the back story is excellent, all you need now is a really fat goat ! LOL
    There has been some excellent entries so far this year for Monster May(hem) and look forward to seeing what else people come up with before the close.

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      You and me both, Dave. There have been some fantastic submissions thus far. Makes me glad I’m not giving out prizes…I’d have a hard job selecting a winner. As far as a fat goat, I looked high and low, because I thought I had a goat miniature. Turns out the only one I have is pulling a cart with a wizard on it. You can see him here…from WizarDecember years ago! Thanks for the compliments!

  2. Dick Garrison

    I like Darl, nice bit of painting there, great background story too (perhaps you should write a book? you have the characters and skill obviously).

    The Carrion Crawler is superb by the way (Though I thought a Carrion Crawler was someone who sucked up to Jez! ).

    Some great entries so far, I have now set to work on my scratch build, and hope to have something to show by the weekend.

    Cheers Roger.

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      Thanks, Roger. I’m flattered you think I have the skill to write a book. Now all I need is the motivation. I’m a bit too much like Darl here in my personal life.

      That’s definitely what Jez should call his fan club. “The Carrion Crawlers.” Ha!!

      Looking forward to your builds, as always.

  3. Matt

    Excellent job on the sorcerer matey! I love the vibrant colours you’ve used, and the expression on his face. And as per usual the backstory you’ve given him is superb.

    My sanity is certainly slowly slipping after spending so much time painting Lovecraftian horrors (and I’m not talking about the dogs). I’ve got a couple more to go up soon, and three more of them are basecoated and ready to be lovingly caressed with a paintbrush and/or sworn at fluently and loudly. Still, just like last year, I’m loving the challenge and having a ton of fun.

    Very much looking forward to seeing your project!

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      Thanks, Matt. This guy is actually a bit slimmer than I wanted, but I lack the green stuff kung-fu of Roger and Dave, so I made do. He was actually based on a character I created as a pregenerated option for my players to use in a one-shot D&D game, but I changed his back story a lot.

  4. MARK A MORIN

    Thanks for the shout out and I am enjoying the Mayhem. I only wish I could comment on WordPress directly – but not sure why that does not seem to work. I tried unfollowing and refollowing and now I can’s see how to follow this page – oh noooooo.

    Carrion Crawler and Mandos are very cool and you chose great colors. Hoping I can figure out how to follow you again – and will take any suggestions!

    1. The Angry Piper Post author

      Looks like by the time I got around tot replying to this, you already figured it out! Thanks for the kind words, Mark; and thanks for your participation this year!

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