As we continue to shelter in the Gdaycave, I continue to slowly work through the Silver Mountain that shames me for my lack of painting speed. I picked up Black Bella, Duchess of Dread, at Gencon 2019, one of the Riot Quest heroes that was available for purchase, and it wasn’t long before she found herself on the painting table, but for lack of a better term I stalled.
The studio scheme for Black Bella is white leathers, and something I started painting her accordingly but I just wasn’t happy. White is a challenging colour to paint smoothly on a good day, but even though I’ve had plenty of experience with it on my old Menites, it just wasn’t working for me on a character named Black Bella. I contemplated redoing her in black leathers, but then this happened, and I’m much happier with it. In deference to her name, she does have black lipstick.
One of the characters that is making the journey to Riot Quest Season 2, Bella is one the fastest heroes in Riot Quest. Her base speed of 6 means she moves faster than Helga On Wheels, and her 4/5 defensive stats put her on par with Eiryss and Scythe. 3 Stamina is pretty standard, but her Dueling Bladesroll one action, two boost, and two power dice, making her one of the deadliest melee combatants in the game.
As a Fighter class hero, she gets Charge as a standard, adding an extra power die to her attacks. If an opponent tries to run away from her blades, Dirty Fighterlets her roll a power die for bonus damage as she stabs them in the keister. Should they choose to stand and fight, Side Step means if they miss, she gets to reposition. All in all, she’s very stabby and highly mobile.
Now, should you pick up Black Bella as a mercenary for Warmachine – and yes, she does play for the Protectorate – 4pts gets you a MAT 7 Weapon Master with sword and dagger attacks, DEF 17 in melee thanks to Duelist, she can murder her way through a unit like the Whitemane used to thanks to Killing Spree, Ripostewill let her utter a pointy rejoinder should someone try to hit her, and just for fun she’s functionally MAT 9 on a charge with her sword thanks to Brutal Charge.
I’m now picturing Bella and a pair of Allegiants of the Order of the Fist running down a flank toward an opposing flag…
Black Bella, Duchess of Dread, is available from your FLGS or preferred online retailer. Whether you’d like to stab opposing looters in Ironhead Fortress or to add her to your ranks on the tabletop, if you’ve got the coin, she’s got the blades.
Alright, you got me, I really just wanted an excuse to say Poop in a post title. Even though the term Poop Deck doesn’t actually refer to poop (originating with the Latinpuppis, and making it into naval parlance via the French la poupe – lookit, you learned something today!), there’s definitely something being swabbed by the newest heavy warjack to join the Talion Charter and other privateers of the Iron Kingdoms, the Swabber.
