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en_zoo

Laesonar 3 - Unexpected Encounters [Part 3]

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Ep. 2

 

Laesonar Episode 3

Unexpected Encounters – Part 3

 

Helga chuckled: “As for your questions, Laesonar, there are many houses like this in the forest. They used to serve as shelters for the rangers who used to watch over the area. That was before they got killed defending against the drow occupation. Now they’re just abandoned houses, but you need to be careful as you might find bandits inside – you were lucky to find us instead.”

Laesonar smiled and winked at Krisly: “Was I?” She blushed slightly and got back to her activity.

Helga: “As for us, we’ve been living in the forest after losing our families in the war. We move from one house to another as the rangers used to do. We collect edible fruit and plants and we hunt small animals. We cut down sick trees and sometimes go back to the closest village to exchange some timber for what we need. That’s how we met Ogrik: though he was often coming and going from some villages he knows, we all made the same life choice and were living relatively happily.” She frowned and turned serious: “At least until a while back.” Krisly and Elysande heard her words and approached. Helga continued: “A sad day, a band of brigands came to the village where my brother was living. He never wanted to leave because of his fiancé and her family. The brigands raided the village while their chief demanded payments from the people, proclaiming himself owner of the land.” She paused, starting to get visibly upset. “Our fate wanted us to arrive at the village exactly while my brother was trying to oppose them and was getting beaten up. We started throwing arrows at them from the forest and managed to kill a few, but were quickly located and outnumbered. We could only run back into the forest while my brother was shouting my name…” Her jaw clenched and tears appeared at the bottom of her eyes.

Laesonar took another salami from the bag: “Let me guess” He said peacefully “They wanted to know who you were so they tortured your brother, uh?” He kept chewing.

The girls were surprised by his calmness and all looked at him in silence. He continued: “He didn’t give up so they killed him, didn’t they? That’s how he died and you feel guilty about it, am I right?” He kept chewing.

Helga was taken aback by such direct comments and turned her head, while Elysande got fired up: “How can you be so insensitive?!” She shouted “Don’t you see she’s suffering?!” 

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Laesonar frowned: “I do not take pleasure in seeing someone suffer, but death is just part of life.” He swallowed a big chunk of salami “And so is pain. And this world, in particular, is full of both and a million other nasty things. So I’m not impressed.”

A moment of silence followed. Elysande thought that it really wasn’t the moment for such philosophy, yet she found some truth in those words, so she kept on uncertainly: “But... this was... an injustice. It was... simply bad. Are you just going to accept such things?”

Laesonar: “In the path of life that Mother Nature has prepared for us, good and bad merge together everywhere around us, at any given time. We can’t but follow such a path. What we can do, is make our choice in front of the events that unfold in front of us. We shall decide whether to take action or not, whether to forgive or seek revenge, depending on what each of us deems fair and just or simply on what we choose to care about.” He picked another salami from the bag and kept eating.

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The three girls were incredulous. What was more surprising? The meaning of those words, the moment he picked to pronounce them or the calm he pronounced them with? Krisly broke the silence first: “Well then, Helga has made her choice and will seek revenge and we will be at her side, indeed. Yet we already know that we have no chance of winning this battle. So tell me, Laesonar, would you help us fight those brigands? Would you deem it fair?”

Laesonar kept quiet for a moment, chewing. Then replied: “Well I am no mercenary, ya’know. And my experience has taught me not to put my nose in other people’s business. However, these brigands just seem to be overbearing boors and they’re certainly disrupting the natural flow of life here. In addition, I do feel compelled to consider the cute faces of those who have asked me such favour. And finally... Well...” He turned the bag upside-down and shook it gently, showing it was empty “Well, I do owe you one for the sausages, so yes, I’ll help you” He smiled. The girls were relieved and started to smile as well, then he added: “But at one condition.” He paused, everyone waiting for his request. “You let me stew those two rabbits for everyone to have dinner tonight.” He grinned. “Oh and that’s only if Helga actually wants my help, that is.”

While the other two smiled at each other, Helga passed a hand on her face as to snap out of confusion: “You’re the strange type, Laesonar. But for some reason I feel like I can trust you. I accept your help. Thank you for that.” She smiled, and so did everyone else.

 

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Despite the lack of salt, the stew turned out pretty well. They spent the evening eating, chatting, telling stories, laughing. It was already late in the night when Krisly and Elysande whispered into each other’s ears, getting close to the house door.

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Elysande: “Well, have you seen, Laesonar? Apart from the cooking we aren’t such modern girls after all, right?”

Laesonar: “What do you mean?”

Krisly winked at him: “We have had the stewed meat. Now just let us demonstrate something.” She indicated the house with her head. They all smiled, Laesonar grinned even more than usual. The four of them got into the house.

 

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Whole MOC:

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So, my comments about the house are in Chap. 2, what else can I add? I’m pretty satisfied with the big tree. As for the fir, I followed LJ’s advice and it does look better now, can still be better, I reckon. As for the weeping willow, I reckon everyone here knows where the design comes from  It proved to be much more difficult than I thought (and it fell down at least three times..) – I think it can turn out better, I’m going to have to try again ^^ As for the water, I wanted to try something different from the (only) other time. Not sure yet, but I reckon I prefer this one.

As for the photography, it looks like the sun has abandoned Berlin for a while, so this proved to be very difficult! I think I’ve entered a new (philosophical?) sphere when trying to add light without creating shadows…

 

More Pics!

All C&C are most welcome! Thanks for reading/watching! ^^

 

Ep. 4

Edited by en_zoo

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Very nice, En_zoo! This looks great. I'm glad you have that overview picture at the end, as I was curious to see the whole thing instead of just the closeups. You've done a great job with your foliage, and I think I like this forest even better than your last one. The big tree is the best. The story is what sells it, however, and it was a bunch of fun to read it. The different faces that you use throughout added a great deal to the story, as you managed to illustrate the different emotions of the characters quite nicely. 

I have only a few points of criticism. First, the olive green bushes in the front aren't working for me. They seem like a few leaves dropped in a pile instead of the carefully-wrought trees that you have in the back. Second, I'd get rid of the small pine/fir made with the flower stalks, as they just don't look very good in my opinion, and you don't need it with everything else you have here. And third, while you did a great job of making the shack look run down and dilapidated, it would be nice (from a visual standpoint) to have more contrast in it; three shades of brown mixed and matched make for a hard-to-see building. The details fade away into obscurity. 

Otherwise, though, this is great! I love what you can do from an arborial perspective, and I can't wait to read more of your story! Keep up the good work. 

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Though all the images are very Nice, the overview  image at the end still surprised me with How beautifull your build is!

 

As HQ commented on the previous chapter: these minifigs are great!

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Great build, the whole seen comes together nicely! As for the story I'm looking forward to the next part, an interesting story with just enough humor. Laesonar seems like he's in for an interesting night :grin:

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Very nice landscaping, especially that weeping willow! :wub:  Good job on the rumble-down roof too!

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On 13/11/2016 at 8:46 PM, TitusV said:

Though all the images are very Nice, the overview  image at the end still surprised me with How beautifull your build is!

 

As HQ commented on the previous chapter: these minifigs are great!

Thank Titus, nice to hear from you! :classic:

On 13/11/2016 at 9:50 PM, Legofin2012 said:

Great build, the whole seen comes together nicely! As for the story I'm looking forward to the next part, an interesting story with just enough humor. Laesonar seems like he's in for an interesting night :grin:

Thanks Legofin, I'm glad you enjoyed he story. As for the night.. hehe, I know, right? Lucky guy, that Laesonar! :grin:

On 14/11/2016 at 8:15 AM, ZlatanXVIGustaf said:

The whole build is fantastic. I love the trees, especially the fir. 

Thanks Zlatan, trees are one of the things I've been working on recently, so I'm happy to hear. ^^

 

On 14/11/2016 at 1:10 PM, Kai NRG said:

Very nice landscaping, especially that weeping willow! :wub:  Good job on the rumble-down roof too!

Thank you Kai, as I mentioned, the design for the weeping willow isn't mine and when I looked into it, I did think it would be easier (and more stable!) :blush: I reckon it turned out pretty well, but shall be trying again. And the same goes for the roof, really - really glad you liked both :classic:

 

On 13/11/2016 at 7:38 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Very nice, En_zoo! This looks great. I'm glad you have that overview picture at the end, as I was curious to see the whole thing instead of just the closeups. You've done a great job with your foliage, and I think I like this forest even better than your last one. The big tree is the best. The story is what sells it, however, and it was a bunch of fun to read it. The different faces that you use throughout added a great deal to the story, as you managed to illustrate the different emotions of the characters quite nicely. 

I have only a few points of criticism. First, the olive green bushes in the front aren't working for me. They seem like a few leaves dropped in a pile instead of the carefully-wrought trees that you have in the back. Second, I'd get rid of the small pine/fir made with the flower stalks, as they just don't look very good in my opinion, and you don't need it with everything else you have here. And third, while you did a great job of making the shack look run down and dilapidated, it would be nice (from a visual standpoint) to have more contrast in it; three shades of brown mixed and matched make for a hard-to-see building. The details fade away into obscurity. 

Otherwise, though, this is great! I love what you can do from an arborial perspective, and I can't wait to read more of your story! Keep up the good work. 

HQ, your comments are inspiring to say the least! Happy to know you like the closeup shots in relation with the story. As for the olive green bushes, I do have my 'good excuses', but yes I agree - I need to find a better design.

I'm really interested in your point about contrast and obscurity for the timbered house. Would you rather have it mono-reddish brown? Or maybe you'd replace the dark brown with a slightly brighter colour [I can only think about dark orange, though]? Or?

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2 hours ago, en_zoo said:

I'm really interested in your point about contrast and obscurity for the timbered house. Would you rather have it mono-reddish brown? Or maybe you'd replace the dark brown with a slightly brighter colour [I can only think about dark orange, though]? Or?

I think perhaps it is the fact that you have a bit of dark brown here, a bit of dark orange here, a bit of dark red here, and the rest all regular reddish brown that causes what I mean. If, perhaps, you could find a way to make the trim dark brown and the walls regular brown, or something like that, it would look better. At very least I would get rid of the other shades being randomly mixed in without much rhyme or reason. 

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Hmm I wanted to avoid having only one shade on the walls, but I see what you mean. Thanks for the input, I'll try something out :classic:

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I like the foliage, it's dense but not overwhelming, the trees are built solidly, with enough covering, particularly the willow. The house is unique, but I think it could really do without the reds and oranges as Henjin pointed out, as well as bringing a bit more order to the wood pattern (blending the dark brown and brown). Good work on the irregular base and the blending of the green/sand green and dark tan...I don't think the light tan path is needed as it contrast with the rest of the build too much but thats just me. Again agreeing with Henjin, the olive green could probably be left out, or at least blended among the the rest of the foliage better, and I think the lavender grass and red flowers can go all together, as it may be taking away from the build rather than adding it. Other than that, the build is very aesthetically pleasing and a solid Avalonian representation. 

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Quite a nice landscape, and it's great that you angled the building on the base :thumbup: Very cool trees, and the ground layering works well :classic:

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On 19/11/2016 at 5:25 AM, Blufiji said:

I like the foliage, it's dense but not overwhelming, the trees are built solidly, with enough covering, particularly the willow. The house is unique, but I think it could really do without the reds and oranges as Henjin pointed out, as well as bringing a bit more order to the wood pattern (blending the dark brown and brown). Good work on the irregular base and the blending of the green/sand green and dark tan...I don't think the light tan path is needed as it contrast with the rest of the build too much but thats just me. Again agreeing with Henjin, the olive green could probably be left out, or at least blended among the the rest of the foliage better, and I think the lavender grass and red flowers can go all together, as it may be taking away from the build rather than adding it. Other than that, the build is very aesthetically pleasing and a solid Avalonian representation. 

thanks for the detailed comment, Blufiji, I appreciate it. what can I say, I love colours so I always have to struggle with myself not to put some more in :blush: good that you pointed out all of this, I'll keep it all in mind! ^^

 

On 22/11/2016 at 4:00 AM, soccerkid6 said:

Quite a nice landscape, and it's great that you angled the building on the base :thumbup: Very cool trees, and the ground layering works well :classic:

thanks Isaac, always nice to hear from you :classic:

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Wonderful build, en_zoo! :wub: The foliage is excellent, though I might have to agree with Blufiji about the lavender grass. However, I personally like the red flowers; maybe if there was another little clump or two of them, they would blend more smoothly into the landscape as a whole. All the trees are very well done too, particularly that weeping willow :drool:
The building looks great, with the vine climbing up the side, and the roof turned out quite nicely. One suggestion for the house, would be to add a little something to the top of the chimney; just some cones, or 1x1 rounds bricks, etc. would work nicely :classic: 

+1 for the UoP credit. Overall another fantastic build, looking forward to your next one! :thumbup:
 

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Amazing landscaping man! The last photos  is superb... all this folliage around... :wub:

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On 08/12/2016 at 2:16 PM, LittleJohn said:

Wonderful build, en_zoo! :wub: The foliage is excellent, though I might have to agree with Blufiji about the lavender grass. However, I personally like the red flowers; maybe if there was another little clump or two of them, they would blend more smoothly into the landscape as a whole. All the trees are very well done too, particularly that weeping willow :drool:
The building looks great, with the vine climbing up the side, and the roof turned out quite nicely. One suggestion for the house, would be to add a little something to the top of the chimney; just some cones, or 1x1 rounds bricks, etc. would work nicely :classic: 

+1 for the UoP credit. Overall another fantastic build, looking forward to your next one! :thumbup:
 

thanks John, really glad to hear ^^ and thanks for the suggestions - will keep in mind!

 

On 08/12/2016 at 3:17 PM, Gunman said:

Amazing landscaping man! The last photos  is superb... all this folliage around... :wub:

thank you, really glad you like it ^^

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