[COR - ChVE - Part One] The Lost City of Gold

[Ayrlego]

Previously....

The Curious Case of the Bottled Message - Bregir

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At the same time as Captain Jonathan Cooke (RN) was dispatching his urgent message to Montoya on Cascadia, Colonel Dirk Allcock was in his temporary office in Jameston with his cousin Commander Matthew Allcock (RN) when the soldier entered with a message. The pair had been reviewing plans for the Corlander colonies in the Paradise Isles. Matthew Allcock had recently been appointed military administrator of the settlement of Port Woodhouse and Dirk was still coming to terms with the vast responsibility of Governorship over the three fledgling colonies of Celestia, Cascadia and Garma’s Key.

“Sir, there is a Mardierian officer here to see you” announced the soldier with a sharp salute.

Dirk raised an eyebrow at his cousin, the appearance of a Mardierian officer was highly unusual in the new settlement.

“Bring him in thank you Tom.” Replied Dirk to the soldier.

The officer entered, making an impressive figure in the orange uniform of a Mardierian cavalry officer.

"Sirs, May I introduce myself as Major Silvano Modignani" he said with an elaborate bow.

"A pleasure Sir," replied Dirk, "I am Colonel Dirk Allcock, Governor of the Paradise Isles, and this is my esteemed cousin from the Royal Navy, Commander Matthew Allcock"

"A pleasure" nodded Matthew, "May we enquire to what brings you here Major? We have heard your forces are hard pressed on the Isle de Medio"

"Indeed, and it is for that reason I am here, I come with an offer which I believe will be of mutual benefit to both our nations."

Dirk nodded for the Major to continue. Major Modignani then dramatically pulled an enormous piece of gold from a large sack he had been holding. The gold had been worked into a large plate with an intricately carved patterns on the outside and a human head carved in the centre. The style was unlike anything either Corlander had seen before, although it vaguely reminded Dirk of some of the local natives old stone carvings.

"Well Major, I believe you certainly have our full attention now, do please continue" stated Dirk.

"Of course Governor," he smiled. "This has recently come into our possession from an Eslandolan we captured. We ah, managed to persuade him to tell us where it came from and, to our surprise, it apparently originated from your very own Cascadia. It appears he was part of an Eslandolan party charged with sneaking onto your new possession in search of a fabled lost city of gold, and he claims that his expedition found it. They removed this gold seal from a temple in the jungle outside the city, as they were a small party and the natives were great in number. However on departing, they were ambushed and the entire party was killed, save our man, who escaped with the gold. He was on his way back to Eslandolan headquarters to organise a stronger party to raid the city. It is claimed it contains enough gold to fund an army."

"An interesting story to be sure Major, but it still doesn't fully explain why you are here, of course we will happily take possession of an artefact plundered from Corlander territory..." smiled Matthew Allcock, allowing his cousin to remain silent in contemplation.

"Well, we couldn't allow such a horde to fall into the hands of our enemies, if I am frank with you gentlemen, they are already far better financed here in the colonies than we ourselves are. We could go after the gold ourselves, but of course we respect the sovereignty of Corrington too much"

"You mean you are already overstretched and can ill afford to make another enemy at this time" stated Matthew.

Dirk noted a flicker of annoyance cross the Major's face.

"Not at all. We were able to persuade the pirate greenback to reproduce a map to this lost city. I am here to offer it to you gentlemen."

"Just like that, you would give us this map?" scoffed Matthew, still allowing Dirk to remain a dignified silence. The pair had used this routine often since assuming duties in the Paradise isles.

"Not exactly, as I admitted, we are hard pressed on the Isle de Medio. The mercenary greenback scum and there piratical Garvian allies must be driven back into the sea. Mardier went to some expense to obtain this information and return this seal it you, naturally we would like some small compensation..."

"ah and there it is," smirked Matthew, "my guess is that 'small' will prove to be expensive - how do we know you are selling us the real thing?"

"I am to remain here until you have verified the information. If it proves incorrect, you need not pay me. If however it proves solid, I will rely on your honour as gentlemen to honour our bargain"

With that the negotiation began in earnest. A suitable figure was agreed on (strictly confidential of course!), and Major Modignani left to find accommodation after handing over a rough map.

"Well cousin, what do you think?" asked Matthew, "I have a feeling you'll be handing your Gubernatorial duties to me while you gallivant off around Cascadia?"

"Indeed," replied Dirk calling for the officer of the day outside. On entering he gave the young Captain his orders.

"Assemble the Light Company for immediate departure, call for Dr Percival McCallum, he is the Royal Society anthropologist who recently arrived. Also get my Davy Russell. We depart for Camp Isaac and Montoya before nightfall."

 

 

[Bregir]

First, great build. The yellow/dark tan combo goes really well together, especially with brown complements. I am still not entirely sold on the grille bricks, but have to admit they work pretty well here. I like how the wall is half-stud offset from the timbered parts and the foundation. The various furniture is nice (Can I get a close-up of that candlestick?), and I like the choice of torso for the Mardierian Major.

The story is great - I like how you worked around the challenge description to support Mardier, without directly working against Eslandola. (The challenge description makes that quite complicated... As someone suggested, perhaps it was written by an Eslandolan... )

And more so, the more I hear about that golden city, the more I want to explore it! Can't wait to see more!

[Professor Thaum]

Nice built and interesting story to cling on...

 

Special mention to the oil lamps !

[gedren_y]

Mardier is claiming they got this off of an Eslandolan, when it was an Eslandolan who turned over the sealed uisge bottle in King's Harbour. Suspicious that.

[Bregir]

24 minutes ago, gedren_y said:

Mardier is claiming they got this off of an Eslandolan, when it was an Eslandolan who turned over the sealed uisge bottle in King's Harbour. Suspicious that.

Oh, this is separate info from that in the bottle.

[Kai NRG]

As an Eslandian, I can't say I'm exactly enjoying the story so far...   but looking forward to seeing where it goes!  As for the build - top notch as always, beautiful job on those walls!  Splendid photography too!  

[Brandon Stark]

This build has a lot of nice little details in it, and I hope you don't mind me borrowing a few of them. The bookshelf is really nice with all the items on it, especially the candle. The design on the walls is also very detailed and probably my favorite part.

 

[Capt Wolf]

I like the frame and plaster walls of this vignette. The olive plates add a nice touch of color. The coat tree with hat and baldric hanging from it is a nice room detail, as are the candles. The medium dark flesh masonry bricks also give a nice color variation to the build.

10 hours ago, Bregir said:

I like how you worked around the challenge description to support Mardier, without directly working against Eslandola.

I'm interested to see where this story goes. Technically, there is no Eslandola side to this part of the challenge; there are only pro-Mardier entries and anti-Mardier entries. As such, I hope Corrington shows Mardier who's boss on Cascadia!

[Bodi]

Nice built! Very inspiring work. The story is pleasant to read too.

[Garmadon]

 Excellent build and brilliant photography as usual, Ayrlego - the walls are textured neatly, the furniture is great, and the whole is just as polished as one would expect a Corry officer's room to look!  Great job with the details like the hat rack (I may need to borrow that sometime ) and the shelves, and I'm looking forward to the continuation of the story (though I don't doubt but that there's something slippery about the Mardierian's offer there... !)

[Ayrlego]

Thank you for the comments all. A few quick points,

@Bregir, @Professor Thaum and @Brandon Stark The candles are actually copied from @Garmadon - you can see them in this build here:

Corrington Fortress by Robert4168/Garmadon, on Flickr

On 5/11/2017 at 6:25 AM, Capt Wolf said:

Technically, there is no Eslandola side to this part of the challenge; there are only pro-Mardier entries and anti-Mardier entries.

What I meant is that it was very difficult to come up with a scenario where you could build for Mardier (as I feel we needed to at least make you guys work for your victory! ) but your main character doesn't openly assist them. For a pro-Eslandolan build all you needed to show was Mardier not getting the gold - so easy to come up with a story that doesn't directly support Eslandola, yet counts for their side. Not so with Marider, as you have to show Mardier directly benefiting, which is difficult to do if you want to involve your main character and yet still maintain your factions neutrality.   Hope that makes sense - also definitely no ill will towards Eslandola (my CatA entry was pro-Eslandolan!) but like I said I feel you guys with your legions of talented builders needed to actually have a sense of challenge!

[Capt Wolf]

5 hours ago, Ayrlego said:

I feel we needed to at least make you guys work for your victory!

Oh, you are! And we're not assuming any victory.

5 hours ago, Ayrlego said:

definitely no ill will towards Eslandola (my CatA entry was pro-Eslandolan!)

Totally understood. We were heartened to see most factions (cough, Oleon, cough ) built some on both sides in the challenges.

5 hours ago, Ayrlego said:

I feel you guys with your legions of talented builders needed to actually have a sense of challenge!

Thanks! And there have been some very talented entries from all factions in these challenges. It's been impressive.