Train Tuesday Part 138: Grow Your Own

Greetings, fellow gamers. Boy, this has been one toasty summer. Better stay inside and roll more dice…ya know, for safety’s sake. Let’s begin!

Ongoing railroad readers probably remember that The Forgotten Rails intentionally tries to dress up some of its Constructs to look as human as possible as to not freak out local Waterdeep residents. Well, the next evolution of mechanized workers is to move into the dangerous world of lab breeding. Like, why wouldn’t 3M want more laborers with a touch of human tendencies? So, today’s post explores that slippery slope.

We’ll jump right in with our first DnD 3D-printed miniature. This extra creepy Soul Larvae! This monstrosity is a free download, courtesy of the mighty Schlossbauer, and DM Ben thought it was perfect for this next phase of our Hovertrain setting. We love when TTRPG STLs inspire our campaigns.

With Kimmy Utah’s painting hands full, DM Ben jumped in to finish these freaky fellows. Nothing to coloring these petri dish creatures.

• Prime Flat Black | Slapchop.
• Forehead P1: Layer ASP Princess Pink.
• Forehead P2: Drybrush center ASP Murder Scene.
• Talons: ASP Grim Black.
• Skull: Contrast Skeleton Horde.
• Teeth: GSW Parchment + Soft Wash.
• Body P1: Layer FAN Necrotic Flesh + Strong Tone Wash.
• Body Stitches: ASP Murder Scene.
• Sack P1: Layer ASP Boney Matter + Red Wash.
• Arms: Light drybrush FAN Barbarian Flesh.

De-plating these guys takes a light touch, and it’s likely you’ll lose a hand or two in the process. Don’t sweat it; consider it a limb that simply hasn’t fully formed yet. We also might circle back and add a gloss varnish to these guys to make them a bit more slimy.

So, even though these soul larvae are genetically bred in a lab (which will be a future encounter in itself), they’re transferred to an egg to grow faster. From there, the Forgotten Rails scientists ultimately remove the brain at maturity and are trying to inject it into their existing Construct Creations.

For the human incubator eggs, we actually found several possibilities, but today we’ll start with this Aliens-movie version by Tri Fin Studio. They have this free face-hugger set, and it’s straight out of those classic movies!

• Prime Flat Black.
• Egg Body P1: Stipple FAN Triumphant Navy.
• Egg Body P2: Stipple FAN Cultist Purple in the egg center.
• Stitching: thin edging of FAN Alien Purple.
• Inside/Top of Eggs P1: Layer FAN Cultist Purple.
• Inside/Top of Eggs P2: Drybrush FAN Magecast Magenta.
• Inside/Top of Eggs P3: Drybrush FAN Spellbound Fuchsia.
• Tentacles P1: Drybrush FAN Triumphant Navy + Dark Tone Blue Wash.
• Tentacles P2: Light Drybrush FAN Alien Purple.
• Shine: GSW Gloss Varnish Wash.

We did a full gloss on the egg opening and then a 50-50 watered-down version on the egg bodies. Again, we’ll show you a couple more hatchling variations and color schemes before settling on one. The next version will be more fleshy.

We definitely think this egg cluster would work great, though! DM Ben will ultimately create monster stats for these, but he likes the idea of them starting out very weak and requiring heavily armed guards. Some fun one-shot encounters could include infiltrating the secret lab where they’re rumored to be growing, plus a cool transport Hovertrain encounter…so watch for those DnD scenarios in the future.

Until next time!