The Hound Of the Willbrooks, a spooky Pulp Alley solo AAR

                              NICKEL & DIME PRODUCTIONS PRESENT
                                          The Hound of  the Willbrooks
                                 Based of a story by Sir Arthur  Conan  Doyle
The family curse had been playing a lot on Lord  Willbrooks mind of late, the hound that had taken his father's life & left his own right arm badly scared from when he was a young boy has it would seem returned.
Howling in the night & sheep found thorn a part have the locals retelling the tails of yesteryear.

Basil Holmes consulting detective & his companion Dr Nigel Watson, who have been hired by his-lordship have arrived at Willbrook Manor, only to be informed by the butler that the Lord has gone out onto the moors.

Also out on the moors are Lord Willbrook's daughter Winnie, Doctor Stubs, his closest neighbour Stilton & an escaped lunatic, Holmes has already solved the mystery but it will be for little use if Lord Willbrook dies this night.
"Quickly Waston" he says "there's not a moment to lose.

As a full moon shines down a blood chilling howl resounds over the moors filling all those that hear it with fear.

Holmes with Watson lagging behind heads towards Stilton who he has spotted.

The hound has picked up the scent of the Doctor who is on his way to the Manor.

When Stilton seen Holmes running towards him starts to back away.

The hound pounces on the Doctor &

in a frenzy rips out his throat, before releasing another blood curling howl into the night.

Holmes mean while see Lord Willbrook walking along the path with his Daughter just behind him & runs over to him saying " Your Lord-ship it paramount that you get back to the Manor asap.

   Waston  under the orders of Holmes has his revolver aimed on Stilton.

But before Willbrook can even move the hound has rushed them.

A mist is now starting to rise on the moors as Holmes says to Willbrook " run my Lord " as he grapples with the huge hound.

Stilton has somehow manged to give Watson the slip, as the mist starts to ticking, "Quick Watson after Willbrook" Holmes yells out while still engaged with the beast.

Watson takes off after Willbrook as Winnie stands paralysed with fear. 

Holmes under the onslaught of the attacks from the hound Holmes is knocked to his feet,

but is back on them again in a flash but the hound seems to hesitate & instead of attacking Holmes again take off after Willbrook who has started to run away from Watson.

Wilbrook is frozen in terror at the sight of the hound bearing down on him.

Knowing that the he hasn't a chance to get to Willbrook before the hound, Holmes draws his revolver & shoots the beast,

giving Lord Willbrook the chance to get away.

"It's ok now Miss you get along home" Watson says to Winnie " Mr Holmes & I will go after your father, the hound won't last much longer with that great big hole Holmes put in his side"

Winnie returns to the Manor as Holmes & Watson take off into the thicking mist after her father.

Cut
Designers note, once again Pulp Alley has turned up trumps, this was a solo game played with the 4 minor plot points on the table & the major only been added after the reward card with +1 experience was drawn which happened to be the very first one that the hound got for the Doctor minor plot point.

To create the hound I used the terror rules & for Holmes & Watson the Duo perk which lead to a quick & I think very balanced game, I also so had it that when possible the hound would go for the major plot point above anything else once it was on the table.

The long grass patches are perilous terrain & the mist that starts to form at the end of turn 3 will tiger a horror test if they should come into contact with Holmes or Watson, sadly none of these came into play but worth having anyway.

Stilton who you might have guess was the villain behind the hound & ended up  giving  the red herring for the reward when his plot point was completed by Watson, meaning things couldn't have worked out better if I'd planed them.

The game end all square thanks to Watson completing the Winnie plot right at the end, as for the lunatic plot point well he seems to have gotten lost in the mist, one last interesting point about this game before I rap up was that given there was only 3 models in play & it been solo in meant that every model got a card from the solo pack at the start of his turn.

Well that's it for this post, as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.
 

When a shoot goes wrong

With work having started again on  The Heart Stone of Africa (fear not the next chapter is already complete) I thought I give you folks a little insight into a shoot that went wrong lol.

So I started work on getting the set ready &

to say I was happy with the way the set came together is to be telling you dear readers nothing but the truth, well would I tell you anything else ?

So with the stars in place it was time to get the camera rolling, all quite on the set please.

The weather was fine & the actors all followed the directors orders with aplomb.

You wouldn't believe how difficult stars can be sometimes. 

So with the days shooting done & sent back to the studio everyone was well pleased with themselves.
That's when the mistake  was noticed, what mistake Frank I hear you say the shots look fine.

Yes they do I agree with you, the problem is their meant to be headed down river lol.

A great looking set set up & taking apart & a days filming wasted, this could really put the production way over budget & to add to the problems after a blazing argument with the Director I fired the guy, So if any for you guys fancy the job let me know in the comments below.

Well that brings this sorry post to an end, as always my thanks for dropping in & don't forget if your interested in the Director's job to sent in your CV detailing your latest work. 

Chapter 3, Down by the river

 NICKEL & DIME PRODUCTION'S 
                         proudly present's 
  CONNEMARA FEENEY & TAYLOR DAVIES 
                                     in
           THE HEART STONE OF AFRICA

The start of this adventure can be found here. http://ifitwasntforone.blogspot.ie/2017/03/connemara-feeney-taylor-davies-prelude.html

A half days hike brought them to the banks of the river, with the plan been to follow it downstream.

Boswel:"Now that we have our bearings it would be wise to stay back about a half a mile or so from the river as it turns & twists a lot in this section & there no point in adding miles on to our journey & beside river edges are always dangerous places"

Weber:"Then why in hell did you bring us down here sir ?  & would it not be quicker & easier for everyone if say yourself  & the co-pilot pushed on while the rest of us remained for a few days till you returned for us in boats, as I really don't think Maud is up to hiking for a couple of days in this heat & terrain.

Boswel:" An't none of you experienced enough to survive out here on your own for that length of time, this place isn't like a Sunday afternoon stroll in the Black-forest you know, it will be much safer  for us all to stay together even if  a bit slower"

Weber:" Well of all the ....

Dufour:" Hold your horse's there sir, Boswel know's more about this land then the rest of us put together & as I'm in charge of getting us all back in one piece I'm doing what ever Mr Boswel thinks is best so were all hiking out together"

"This is going to be a very interesting few days" Connie whispered to Taylor giggling
Taylor:" I agree, I think Herr Weber is more use to barking out orders then having to follow them & while he keeps saying he doesn't think Maud is up to the journey I've the feeling he doesn't fancy it himself"

Connie:" Look over there Taylor aren't they magnificent ? I think I'm starting to fall in love with Africa"

Boswel:" We'll have a half hour rest here before heading off, if anyone is going to do any personal business please don't go to far & stay vigilant at all times"

Connie:" That reminds me, if you'll excuse me Taylor"

Taylor:" Of course, I need go find a tree myself" he said with a grin.

As Connie rounded a bush something twinkling in the sunlight caught her eye, as she moved towards it she noticed it was coming  from a skeleton of a person that was lying on the ground mostly covered by the undergrowth

Not been the squirmy type Connemara didn't yell out but bent down to examining the remains to see what had caught her eye, she undoes the strap of rawhide from around the skeleton's neck & holds it up for a closer look.

 She knew at once what it was & had enough wits about her to shove it in her pocket before calling to the other's, a stone of this size could turn people very quickly out here so she was taking no chance's, she would talk to Taylor about it later.

Connie:" Hey you guys over here I've found something" she called out.

First at her side was the Dufour who could hardly believe his eye's, then the other's arrived in one's & two's.

Boswel:" See what I mean about this been a dangerous place ? I wonder what happen to this poor soul ?"
Taylor:"Best see if there's anything that can tells us who he was, looking under the bush they find an old  leather carry pouch.

Defour picks up the pouch &  opens it, searching  inside it, he finds was small pouch of tobacco, a clay-pipe & some documents proclaim the owner to be a Belgium man by the name of Claude Peeters.

Dufour:"  Well at least we know who he was" he says putting them  them back into that pouch with the other stuff.
 Defouf" We'll hand it over to the authorities when we get back, now if everyone is ready I think it time to push on"

Maud:" Surly we're not going to leave here without burying the poor man ?"

Dufour:" That's exactly what we're going to do, we do not have pick's or shovels & as he's been here along time I don't think he'll mind:

Later on after they set up camp.

Connie:" Taylor I've something to tell you that I didn't want to say in front of the others"
Taylor:" I thought as much you've not been yourself since you found Peeters, come spit it out "

Connie:" When I found him, in fact it was how I found him he'd this large stone on a rawhide around his neck, my guess is it's a diamond I didn't want the other's to know as if it is it's worth a fortune & greed can do funny things to people"
Taylor:" You done right, keep it out of sight & we'll report it when we get back"
Connie:" Don't you want to see it?"
Taylor:" I'll see it when it's safe to do so but for now you just keep it out of sight, it's getting dark we best get back to the camp"

 A couple of Hyena's look down on the camp as Taylor does his turn on watch

Cut
Well that's it for this post, my thanks to the wife for the helping hand & as always my thanks to you for dropping in & if you'd care to be a movie critic your comment would be welcomed.

On Location Willbrook Manor

Willbrook Manor or any other Manor for that matter is my latest building & as is the way of things we'd the camera crew out taking shots.

This is a kind of building I've been wanting to do for a long time as it one that can be used in many ways & setting, well as I've might have said before I do like stuff to be flexible, more on that later.

This is the first building I've done were I went the extra mile with added detail & I'm more then pleased with the result.

The building is made from cork tiles (aren't they all I hear you say) with some card to make the corner stones, for the other detail work I used Hirst molds.

Windows are always a thing I find to be a bugger & by that I'm talking about the glass, been a carpenter the frames are simple, so what I did was used clear plastic with black card behind it, this gives them a bit more of a reflective look which you can kind of notice at the top of the window on the left in the picture above above, more on all that another day. 

The two sides I left plain as to allow for butting other building up to them, be it stables or whatever depending on what I'm looking for at the time.

The back I've made very different from the front & have not really gone for a lot of detail, but by leaving a large area of plain wall above the door I should be able to add different kind of signs depending on what I need the building to be.

As you've seen the front & back are a lot different but which is which ?

To change things around I've now turned the building around, I've also turned the roof around & gone is the dome you seen in the pictures above.
If you look at the picture above & the very first picture you could be forgiven thinking their different places.

But things have changed even more so as I've now added a base, some of you might remember this base was use for my airport terminal building in another post.

Which brings me to my next point bases, I decided a while back that I would no longer put my buildings on bases so as to give me (yes you guessed) more flexibility, this way this house can be set up in the middle of a town or as it is now & will blend in either way.

Lets change things once more shall we ? & take a look at Willbrook Manor in an up & coming production.

See what I mean about not having a base ?
That's a rap for this post, as always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to leave a comment it would be welcomed.