By Ed Fortune
Modern Dungeons & Dragons is quite cinematic in its approach, with epic battles and big scenes. (Which probably explains why they made an actual Dungeons & Dragons movie.) In the epic Dragonlance Shadow Of The Dragon Queen, we get a lot of huge moments, especially when the Red Dragon Army arrives to destroy everything the adventurers hold dear. Wizkid’s Dragonlance – Red Ruin & Red Dragonnel is one of the miniatures Dungeon Masters can use to express to players exactly how bad things are about to get.
Let’s unpack that quickly; One of the villains that make any band of heroes do everything they can to stop is Red Ruin, a mysteriously masked commander who rides a sleek and powerful dragon-like creature called a dragonnel. These monsters are the distant cousins of red dragons that can’t breathe fire but can fly much faster and are more agile. They typically swoop down, grab some hapless victim and either swallow them whole or rend them into bits before dropping them from the sky.
Red Ruin delights in harrying foes and wields an ember lance – basically a flaming spear – and fires explosive bolts from her crossbow. They are essentially the bad guy fighter ace who is dangerous on land but utterly lethal in the sky and effectively one of Dragonlance Shadow Of The Dragon Queen’s mid-level bosses.
The Wizkids model does this villain justice. Red Ruin herself comes in two halves; her upper can be attached to a saddle or a pair of legs so you can have them either on the back of the dragon or running towards the players wielding a massive red spear. They look every part the villain in either mode, with the mask/horned helmet thing being particularly sleek.
The Dragonnel is a gorgeous piece. Red and gold, with spiky armour across its spine. The wings are long and broad, the creature is in full dive mode. The model we received needed quite a bit of force on one side to look ‘snug’, but mostly it fits together okay. Its legs are tucked back as the thing looks like it’s going swoop down, eat, and devour the adventurer’s loved ones as Red Ruin cackles maniacally, which is exactly what you want from this mini.
A solid addition to the Dragonlance range.
