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A couple of weeks before Christmas, a competition was launched on the site to design a new NPC for the game with prizes ranging from a copy of the recently reprinted Revised 4th Edition of Talisman from Coiledspring Games, to download codes for Talisman: Digital Edition and the newest expansion, The Harbinger, from Nomad Games and Asmodee Digital.
There were more entries than I could have hoped for, but eventually I picked the entry from Katie B, The Storm River Serpent idea as the overall winner, and as a special “treat” I set about making her ideas into a downloadable expansion so that everyone might give it a go.
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| Features > Fan Creations > Small Magic |
Katie’s idea was based on one of the cards from an expansion called Small Magic made in the style of Gary Chalk, the original artist on Talisman, by Paul Humphreys (also available on Talisman Island!)
I had to use a bit of creative license in order to keep the rules down to one side of rules and a character card, but after a few emails went back and forth, I think we’ve managed to come up with something that remains faithful to the original intent of the design.
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| The City Serpent | The Village Serpent |
You may not have noticed, but on the board for the latest edition of Talisman, Ralph Horsley has added a couple of serpents crossing the Storm River. One near the City space and the other near the Village space.
The one near the City seemed to be somewhat more serpent-like, so that is where she has her starting space.
I say she, because this serpent is most definitely female! She is based on Mamlambo, the goddess of rivers from Zulu mythology.
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| Across the Ettenmoors Nightmare Deck | Hoarwell River Serpent |
Of course, a NPC designed to strike fear into the hearts of players needs suitable art, and although I have generally tried to find artwork for a homebrew project that is under Creative Commons, I saw the image of the Hoarwell River Serpent and absolutely fell in love with it!
It was created by Guillaume Ducos for The Lord of the Rings Card Game from Fantasy Flight Games and everything else I looked at after finding it did not make the grade, so I just had to use it.
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| Fiendish Snake Stats Card | Fiendish Snake Miniature |
Obviously it’s a bit difficult to package a 3D miniature into a download, so I’ve made up a small token for you to use.
If you happen to have some older prepainted miniatures from the Dungeon & Dragons Miniatures game though, you could do worse than grabbing a Fiendish Snake designed by Jeff Carlisle for the Blood War set to use as Mamlambo.
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Mamlambo rests beneath the waters of the Storm River, and guards her domain jealously.
Anyone that tries to cross the river without taking the sensible option of using one of the bridges, is in danger of being dragged to their doom as well as anyone foolish enough to travel with them.
She’s also attuned to the sounds and smells of battle, and whenever a character fights with an Enemy, she is alerted.
What about psychic combat and the use of Spells such as Water Walking? Well, the villagers of the realm do tell tales about another giant snake in the Storm River…
So, what are you waiting for? You can download the expansion using the link below and let me know how you like her!
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| The Serpent Expansion for the Revised 4th Edition of Talisman |