Because captain João's guide, navigator Le Pierthy, cursed to exist as a bodiless head, was living proof of what happened to those who braved the safeguards of the Great Bonanza unprepared, João accepted the offer. But he soon wished he hadn't.
Of the pirates' new allies, the first to arrive were some unfortunate slaves who had escaped into the wilderness. Exhausted and starving they came upon a native village, where de Belleville resides as the villages protector and de facto leader. When the desperate slaves were caught, trying to steal food from villagers' stores, her justice was cruel.
Through dark magic and the clever use of natural toxins, those the Witch deems criminals are damned into a shadow existence, knowing neither pain nor fear and having no will save that of their mistress.
The only thing they crave, is to eat salt, which would release them from their torment.* To prevent this, their mouths have been sewn shut with crude stitches.**
The presence of these creatures is most unnerving to the mortal pirates, but none of them dares to ask de Belleville to leave for the fear of sharing the fate of her servants.
* The current hypothesis is that the perpetuation of the "zombi state" requires the body to be hyponatraemiac for the toxins used to remain effective. This causes an overpowering hunger for salt and the fast increase in blood sodium levels after consuming large quantities of salt leads to central pontine myelinolysis (breakdown of the white matter of the brainstem) and death of the "zombi".
** The crudeness of the stitching of due to their creator being well versed in the dark arts and witchcraft and less so in actual arts and crafts. Any connection to the author's poor modelling skills are purely coincidental.
These unfortunate souls (soullesses?) are tribal warriors from the Wargames Foundry Darkest Africa -range.
They stand a bit shorter than the pirates, so I put some cardboard between them and their bases to add a little height. You can also still see the little numbers on the back of the bases I painted while basing them, to make sure that they still rank up when finished without them poking their spears in each other's backs.
I added bits of string for the stitches over their mouths. Not quite happy with the way that turned out, with just two bits of string, they look more like fangs, which not what I wanted at all. The paint job I like better, I just went for a sickly green with some blue on the noses, lips and fingers to suggest cyanosis.
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