One Inch Square

Crawling Claws are creepy little undead creatures that have been around since the early days of D&D.  In 4^th Edition they made their appearance in Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead, and have several variants (Crawling Claw Swarm, Crawling Gauntlet, Lich Claw, etc.), but it in each case represent severed hands, paws, or claws, reanimated by necrotic powers or necromancy.

In a recent game, my players entered a tomb in which the skeletal remains of failed tomb robbers had been reanimated to protect it.  To enhance feeling that some magic force was manipulating these remains, I threw a few Crawling Claws at the party, in the form of reanimated skeletal hands.  Since Wizards of the Coast had not, to my knowledge, produce a suitable miniature, I had to go in search of a substitute.

After much searching, I finally managed to find a pewter hand charm sold by an online jewelry supply shop that would make due in a pinch.  The size was perfect:  not much more than half an inch long.  Of course, since they were supposed to represent skeleton hands, I slapped a quick couple coats of white paint on them.  I also clipped off the loops since I obviously wasn't planning on using them as charms. Finally, to make them easier to manipulate, I affixed them each to a plastic chip with a bit of sticky tack.  Voila, instant Crawling Claw!