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A barren, frozen planet. A pristine icefield, burnished and cleared by constant katabatic gales. Graven in elegant Old High Martian glyphs a meter deep in the never-thawing ice, a mathematical proof of such beauty and elegance as to make a genius weep...and a series of universal planetary coordinates. No advanced species could forbear to investigate further! These are the work of the Neh-Thalggu, more commonly known as the Braincrabs. Know them. Fear them. Do not trust them. Rugose and four-limbed, the first instar is little more than a brain-shaped crustacean beast. (Little Nolzur's Intellect Devourers, came with the Alhoon or Illithilich.) They are shed when the parent has a surfeit of brains and wishes to jettison lesser ones to make room for greater. Most perish, being less clever than their prey. But if one can bring down a sentient creature through luck and stealth and devour its central ganglion or brain...it begins to grow, absorbing the knowledge and cunning of its prey, much as some sea slugs repurpose the stinging cells of their prey and make them their own. After absorbing a few brains, the instar grows into a juvenile. This involves generating more frontal eyes and a pair of brutal skull-cracking pincers. Recently-added brains are sequestered into thin-shelled bubbles, an adaptation to make sure other, stronger Braincrabs do not kill them when marauding. The juveniles are very dangerous, acting as psionic predators with the strength of a tiger and the intelligence of three or four sentient creatures, all brought to bear on the problem of obtaining more brains. Depending on its previous history, it is very likely to outwit the average sentient being. A Braincrab that has assimilated more than eight brains again metamorphoses, this time into a mountainous, many-limbed hulk, a spiny rugose colossus with a first-class think tank worth of neural tissue working for it. Psionic power abounds, and the elder Braincrab can create immersive illusions at-will or psychically dominate lesser wills. The really unpleasant bit is the way it will out-argue you and succeed. It can make an excellent claim to being a Utility Monster, better at experiencing both reality and pleasure in the cosmos than us single-brained chumps. And what gives it the most pleasure, on the level you and I could never experience? (for so it claims, and has data to back it up--is the data faked? if so, it's too good for us to be able to tell!)? Why, devouring and assimilating more sentient brains! Do you have inconvenient brains in your society? Antisocial or sociopathic ones? It can redirect those energies! Oh, it's a persuasive monstrosity! The Martians fear and detest them, of course, having as they do great juicy brains practically dripping psionic energy. But hunting something that is hunting you, while your strongest weapon is their favorite prey--it's not easy! A Martian High Intelligencer can outwit all but the eldest Braincrabs, but the gamble is a perilous one indeed. You do NOT want a braincrab with the powers of a High Intelligencer. That's how you get a planet converted to a brain farm, which in turn leads to Great Old Ones. Not even once! Oddly, the best defense against the Braincrab is a hive of the insectoid Mandibulate Commonweal. One has the intelligence of a beast, two of a slightly smarter beast, five of an average human...and a whole hive can rival a supercomputer. Their individual brains are not worth a Braincrab's attention, and yet the hivemind can outmaneuver it intellectually as easily as the workers can swarm and savage it physically. The Commonweal will not gain knowledge from the reclaimed brains, though. Only nourishment. Below, how to make a juvenile Braincrab.

I've managed to steal away for long enough to put together another photo from the series I took the other day. This time its Reapers take on the intellect devourer. I painted it with the help of my son, who was excited to use "Clear Magenta." The "clear" series has become very popular in our house because they add a nice bright pop, even when used sparingly. I had seen this model disparaged on the internet some years ago, but I actually think it is an excellent interpretation - very alien and it fits with reapers portfolio of similar creatures well. I prefer the insect like scythe legs over a dog body, for sure (so many dog monsters already). That it is available in bones is all the better. I foresee needing to repose a few at some point to create a pack of them.

Since our Wizard Most Wild started painting his Mind Eater, I decided that I should work on the ones that I started earlier... So these 2 guys were used as the mold master for the heads of my Intellect Devourers, in my Reapercon '16 Diorama entry, as well as color scheme test beds.... From that Wip thread: So tonight I added some Deep Blue to their legs... Hopefully will get these two done by the end of the year.... Thanks for looking!

Check out the big brain on Brad! Sorry about the shaky pictures, I could not get an angle where my camera did not fall over, so I had to hold it. And since I have a bit of shakin' goin' on, these were the best I could take. Basically this is a massive exposed brain on some spidery legs. One would expect it to be somewhat psychic... and it really should not be all that difficult to deal with, just herd some zombies towards it...they will absolutely FEAST on that. 77229: Mind Eater (=D&D Intellect Devourer) Reaper Bones KS2 Bonesium PVC 40mm base

Hey folks! I was looking through some old Forgotten Realms stuff the other evening, and came across my copy of FR1, Waterdeep and the North, and looking at the cover art by Keith Parkinson, I decided that I would like to attempt to re create that as a diorama. So I spent some time with the figure finder, and tried sorting through the characters shown: Beholder- Not sure yet which one I will use to do Xanathar.. The fighter- no mini really jumped out at me when I sorted for male human scale mail. I tried assorted weapons, but again nothing clicked. The CPA- again, sorting human male cloth / clothing and nothing worked... The Dwarf - 03626: Gruff Grimecleaver seems to have good possibilities, the fact that the peg leg is on the opposite side is immaterial. The Drow lady- I would have though a female drow in a bikini and boots would have been relatively easy to find, but again no luck searching under female elf / dark elf... Intellect Devourers- Nothing comes up under that term, and not really sure what to convert from.... I thought that a puma/cougar mini could be modified... I am willing to do modifications.... So if anyone has any suggestions for me, that would be great! Thanks George

I don't know what Reaper call it, but it looks a bit like the old D&D Intellect Devourer to me, so that's what it shall be.

I received my Reaper Bones II Kickstarter stuff a few weeks ago, and while I had a little bit of Buyer's Remorse at not having purchased a few additional bits and pieces from the campaign, that's mostly due to having started new projects that things would have worked well for in the time since the campaign ended, and then finally delivered however many months late it was. I didn't even bother keeping track of that this time around. Overall it's a solid bunch of models for PVC, and I picked out a few that I thought would make nice, quick painting projects. The first was the Bronze Bull/Brass Bull/"Gorgon" which I have been working on, and just need to finish the final touches on (probably later this weekend). The second and third are these two ...thingies. Now, my nerd-background is solidly on the Warhammer/LotR side rather than the D&D side, so when I saw the 03603 "Cython" and 03582 "Mind Eater", I saw silly-weird Rogue-Trader-esque space aliens, rather than D&D critters, and decided to paint them up in that spirit - somewhat inspired by Cheetor's Alien Flora and Fauna project (and the fact that they looked like they'd be quick and easy enough). So in the spirit of all that, I thought I'd paint these suckers up. Knowing that of course, the things must be "inspired by" some kind of D&D or Pathfinder critters, I also asked Tarmor if he knew what these things actually not-are. He informed me that the 03603 "Cython" looks a lot like a Grick from 3rd edition D&D and that 03582 "Mind Eater" is a direct "copy" (ripoff) of an Intellect Devourer from all editions! Tarmor also kindly provided me with a couple of pictures that I then used as paint references. Now that I've done the photography, I'll be adding some Gloss Varnish to the Brain Diner, and these two will be done and dusted. Since I rarely play D&D/Pathfinder (every few months I play the occasional session run by Orez. I think we're level 3 or so?) I don't know when or if these will ever see the table in their "proper" form, much like that not-Purple Worm. Anyway, both figures were reasonably quick and easy to paint, and the various blending of tones was fun and turned out pretty decently as well. Now it's back to bloody goblins!

I've been working on some of the Dungeon Horrors from the new Bones box. Here's what I have so far: The Mind Eater is almost finished, but I'm pondering a creative base for him since he's a bit big for medium, and making him fit on a base/map could be a challenge if he's sitting down. Thinking about designing finding something for him to stand on. (Also C&C on the paint job would be fantastic). The Chthon is still in the very beginning stages. I've slathered him with Brown Liner and base coated him with the primary colors I intend to use. I'm trying to decide a few things on him. First and foremost, what colors to paint the tenta-teeth and also whether or not to try to free hand suckers like the MM art from 5e, or whether to make the tenta-teeth more fleshy on the inside (or both really). My painting skills are relatively rudimentary (I have, and have read for the most part, the Bones LTPK, but haven't had a chance to paint those figs...plan to work through them together with the missus when we both have time to sit down). But that's also pretty much the extent of my paint supply too (plus the promos from the past year, some samples, and a selection of craft paints purchased for various other projects and mini painting).

Hi, I haven't painted or even posted here for the last few years and just recently picked up the brush again. This is an old mini by Grenadier (I think), finished in my usual get-it-off-my-desk-quality. Was still fun to paint, though! So here's some old Grenadier goodness for you. Enjoy!