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A nice clean sculpt from Crooked Dice's Fishfolk Stars. Grenouille here looks surly and pop-eyed, straight out of the Gilman Inn, but could pass for a full human with poor job satisfaction. And that is exactly what he is doing, here at the Hotel Metropole! I love his slouched posture. He will work for you but will not be servile, or even solicitous. Other personnel at the Hotel Metropole, most of whom we have seen elsewhere. The maids and footman are from Artizan, as is the barkeep. The chef, of course, is Reaper (77462). The head of housekeeping is also Crooked Dice, and will get her own post.

Painted up a number of sailors and fishpeople, as many of you know--but I'm always looking to expand the diversity of my human crew and the grotesquerie of my Innsmouth cadre. So here are Tyrell and Yarmouth, out on a crab-fishing trip. Both are from Crooked Dice. More angles on our anglers here. The folk from Innsmouth town know where the fishing is good! There's some as say they can call the biggest catches to their boats! Subduing the catch though--that's a different matter. Fortunately, Yarmouth is a burly customer. Break out the butter sauce, lads! Tyrell definitely looks weirded out, and correctly so, but there's going to be time enough to worry about horrible cult secrets after the crab-steaming. And if weird eldritch stuff starts going down, anything that can crack that shell is a good weapon to have at hand.

Fishfolk Fisherman and Fishfolk Fishwife from Crooked Dice. The fisherman, in oilskins and sou'wester, is a perfect blend of the Gorton's mascot and his product. The bug-eyed fishwife with cleaver was a delight to paint, especially the Atlantic salmon. A shot of some of the Waite Fish Packing Concern's employees, featuring some old friends from RatTrap and BlackCat: The Real Housewives of Innsmouth (including a repurposed Bonnie, 50293, with improvements upon her previous appearance): and one of just the fellas: Golly gee willikers I love painting fishmen. Special credit also to the Dreadmere Fishing Boat, 44032, the perfect touch for the setting.

I'd have posted this earlier with my other Innsmouth Folk and Deep Ones, but this fishy lady is just incredibly topless. Can't be easy to wear a shirt with that dorsal fin, though. https://postimg.cc/gallery/2o30vfwb4/ Links to the individual images, https://postimg.cc/fkbfc69C https://postimg.cc/yktjYvWP https://postimg.cc/BtwcMM50 https://postimg.cc/HVc0KX37 This is a fantastic sculpt, somewhere between advanced-stage land-dwelling Innsmouth folk and full Deep Ones/ Hordes Bog Trogs. She looks very Harryhausen, for some reason, maybe the gill frills, maybe the plates. Anyway, enjoy!

"Worse things happen at sea," the saying goes. Here is one of those Worse Things: Father Dagon, God-king of the Deep Ones, Lord of the Waters. This is a truly tremendous sculpt, colossal in size and bulk. He comes with four limbs, three tail-pieces, a phosphoresent angler lure, and a big ol' base with a big ol' eldritch obelisk. Here's the turnaround: Peekaboo! And here are some top-down views; there's simply too much Dagon to be captured by any one angle. A suitable antagonist/boss for a pulp submarine faction! Here is the etiology of the Innsmouth Degeneration: young folk are just kind of pop-eyed, then in later young adulthood, the thirties or so, they experience rapid hair loss, skin coarsening, a broadening of the mouth, and an expansion of the finger and toe membranes. The eyes become greatly enlarged, the back hunches and the upper thoracic vertebrae extend. The feet also enlarge, and numerous physiological changes take place, adapting the patient for high-pressure environments. The gills set in in the fifties or sixties. At this point, the patient is almost completely scaled. Walking and breathing on land become laborious. The patients take to the water soon after. But that is not the end of the transformation. The patient is now unrecognizable as human, as spines and barbels grow in. A tail may or may not emerge. The patient packs on muscle and blubber of distinctly fishlike quality. The dorsal fin is very pronounced, as are the claws. Growth slows dramatically once the patient reaches a half-ton or so, but does not stop. There is no theoretical limit to how big a Deep One of truly advanced years can grow, and they do not die of old age. Here's a vignette I think I'll call "Out of Our Depth." I'm quite pleased by the lighting on that second shot.

These two Innsmouthers are delightful. The thing about Bonnie is that she is grotesque and slatternly, but doesn't have any *sculpted* bits that definitely scream "dead." So why not have her be degenerating into a fish-person, with those bulging eyes and gill-fold jowls, and that hunch that will start growing a dorsal fin soon? The Mutant is from a 3-pack of Studio Metals apparently made for Deadlands: Hell on Earth Reloaded. It's a great set; comes with three identical hunched and agonized mutants and three mutant arms. (the other two are a mantis claw and a veiny polydactyl hulk paw. You'll be seeing them around, don't worry). "Oh, once I fell for an Innsmouth gal / She meant the world to me / My one complaint was her fishy taint / That drove her back to the sea." --Massachussetts regional sea chantey; most of the other lyrics are unprintable. And here's a group shot, with and without flash:

Can't make Deep One hybrids without Deep Ones; that just stands to reason. Got these fishy Bones fellas before the Bones Deep Ones came out. Probably overdid the metallics, and will probably do so again. 77215, Eregris Darkfathom I painted up first; did not notice it's a cultist in a fish suit; thought the face was part of the mouth. I do like the flowing robes and the coral scabbard. 77187, the Tiik Champion, is a delight. Huge and hunched-over, with a Dunkleosteus profile, truly a terrifying beast from an elder era. 77186, the Tiik Warrior, I'm pretty pleased with. 77212, the Baron, I should probably revisit and put some shiny razzamatazz on his fins one of these days. There's one more fishy friend I need to post, but for reasons probably more aesthetic than biological, she is NSFW and will need to be linked.

A few citizens of Innsmouth town, out on the docks. Forgive the uneven lighting; I was shielding the flash with my hand. These fellows are from Rattrap Miniatures and hoo boy are they great sculpts. I especially like the way the dorsal fins are growing in on a couple of them. Here's Fishy Pete. "I yam what I yam," says he, and what he is is a blasphemous mingling of fish, amphibian, and mammal. He's strong to the finish because the blood of Father DAGON runs in his veins. Jimmy and Morgan work at the Innsmouth Fish Packing plant. Morgan's still a little sensitive about The Change. And Pretty Sally, the town beauty back about ten years ago. "Don't ever fall for an Innsmouth gal / they're charming as can be / but you'll find it strange when they start to change / And they'll drag you down to the sea," as the chantey goes.

Some more fine citizens of Innsmouth! These are from Black Cat's line of Deep One Hybrids. Casting quality is sometimes an issue with Black Cat, but in the case of these horrible chums, that's more of a feature than a bug. Here's a couple more employees of the fish-packing plant: And some of the local fishermen/fishmen. BONUS! For a Call of Cthulhu game, I made a business card:

A fitting adversary for the Benthic Walker and my aquanauts, this burly fishy brute packs a massive steampunky harpoon cannon and a cape made of human leather. (How aquatic species do their leather-tanning, I don't know, but it seems to work for this guy.) He's also adorned with fishhooks, which must be a bold countercultural statement among fishmen. Like a necklace of bullets and syringes for a human, I guess. Big fella, he came with a Large base but could pass for a very burly Medium creature in my opinion. This brute is not some lungbreather hybrid from Innsmouth; this is 100% Deep One stuff. Oh yes, also the rotten hands and bones on the gruesome cape. Trophies of the Ones that Got Away, perhaps?