Laesonar 4 - The Paladin of Emptiness

[en_zoo]

Ep. 3

 

Laesonar Episode 4

The Paladin of Emptiness

 

Laesonar checked the situation from his hidden position.

“So, they took up residence in that building, or?”

Helga frowned and her face darkened.

“Not quite. This used to be a sort of guarded inn on the trading route between Weastioven and Laelariel. They’ve been using it to make their prisoners rot before executing them in Weastioven. When the moment arrives, they come and pick them up. It seems today is one of those days; the chieftain in person is here with his lieutenants and captains. Can you see the chieftain’s personal guard? He’s the man who killed my brother!”

Krisly almost stood up, trying to get a better look.

“So they must be important prisoners. Who are they? Is that guy an orc? I can spot a lot of blood!”

Laesonar answered promptly:

“SHE is a HALF-orc, and yes, she must’ve been tortured. The old man looks like a merchant. As for the third, we should set him free. I can sense there’s definitely something interesting about him.”

 

Elysande, silent so far, finally spoke up:

“But, Laesonar, they are so many! We need a good plan.”

“Sure, sure. Helga, the bodyguard is all yours. And Krisly, I’d like your first arrow directly on the chieftain, can you do that?”

Krisly was right about to express her concern, when Laesonar suddenly sprang out of the bushes, katanas in hand, reaching quickly for the first guard. The surprise effect played against the latter, whose head dropped down in a matter of seconds. However, the clang of the helmet hitting a stone attracted everyone’s attention.

Laesonar’s path got blocked by two bandits, his katana clanged on the shield of the first one. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an arrow flying up and landing at the chieftain’s feet, missing its target. But he also saw a second arrow plunging right into the chieftain’s throat immediately after. He was taken aback.

“That arrow came from a different direction, it cannot have been Krisly’s… ?!”

Helga took her chance. With a shout, she ran towards the chieftain’s personal guard, who was checking on his dead master.

Wisely enough, she didn’t wait for the man to confront her. Instead, she threw her axe from a distance, ripping up the man’s leg, who shouted in pain. A war horn echoed loud in the air while she quickly reached her target, landing him the fatal blow.

“This is for you, my beloved brother! May you rest in peace!”

Still busy with his fight, Laesonar checked the situation around. The sound of the horn had summoned more bandits who were now pouring into the courtyard from the inside of the building as well as the back of it.

“Well done, Helga! Now get the keys. Set that prisoner free!”

Elysande suddenly appeared at the back of one of his opponents, cutting his throat with her short sword.

The prisoner was freed from his chains. He stood up, picked up a long sword and finally spoke up with a calm, soothing voice:

“I am very much in debt for your assistance, Ladies and Gentlemen. But please, the man with the horn is mine! Now let’s get done with this!”

He pointed his sword towards the sky, reciting mysterious words and performing a circular gesture with his left hand.

Before long, the effect of the spell was in place. All of the bandits looked confused, one of them even fell on his knees. Laesonar took advantage of the confusion and got rid of his heavy armoured opponent with a precise hit. Elysande felt weird.

“Wh… What’s going on? I feel so good!”

Laesonar felt like never before. A powerful energy quickly filled up his entire body, renovating his strength, sharpening his intellect, nourishing his vital spirit. He decided not to control it and instead let go. With a shout, he literally jumped above and into a group of enemies.

“YYiiii-hhaaaaaaa!”

The freed prisoner was astonished, then grinned.

“Whoa! Your friend has got quite the agility! Let’s get at it, everyone, it won’t last for long!”

 

Arrows started raining down from Krisly’s direction, while everyone got into the fight. The battle that had initially looked so tough was actually over in a matter of minutes.

Helga looked at the ex-prisoner while catching her breath.

“So what did you do? Which kind of spell was that? Are you a wizard?”

Laesonar was piercing the corpses of the bandits to make sure they were dead while picking up any gold he could find on them.

“He’s a paladin. And he’s just casted the most powerful and enjoyable Bless I’ve ever experienced.”

 

The man smiled proudly:

“Your friend is correct, my lady. I am Armin Mainardus. At your service.”

Helga was pleasantly surprised.

“A paladin?! Which sort of? Which God do you worship?”

Armin frowned and turned serious.

“My lady, in the path of Mother Nature I could find no God to worship, as the supreme forces of Love and Death fight an endless battle bound to have no winner. My devotion have I found by looking beyond that battle, where those forces merge and are one, in balance. It is contact, it is paradox, it is supreme Emptiness born from the All coming together. It is sheer, untouched vital spirit.”

A moment of silence followed. Laesonar grinned, the three girls were perplexed. Elysande broke the silence first:

“Oh my! You do sound exactly like Laesonar!”

“And who would this Laesonar be?”

 

“That would be me. I must confess, master paladin, I had lost hope of hearing such wise words in this crazy world. It is nice to meet you. And say, where is your shield?”

 

Armin was surprised and quite intrigued. He looked at Laesonar coming towards him, then smiled deeply and shook his hand.

“Well met, Laesonar. As for my shield, it must be inside with my other things.”

 

A raspy voice joined the conversation from the middle of the courtyard.

“I wouldn’t want to interrupt, but my wrists would be grateful if you could free them from their chains too. I’d also respectfully suggest to leave the presentations for later and get away from here as quickly as possible. Finally, if master paladin can also heal wounds, I reckon the ‘lady’ here could do with some help.”

Armin looked at the half-orc in her paddle of blood.

“I might have enough power to stop the bleeding, but then I’ll need to recover. Do you know any safe place nearby? We could all do with a bit of rest.”

 

Krisly pointed at the forest.

“We know the woods around here pretty well, we could camp somewhere for the night.”

Armin checked on the half-orc.

“She isn’t bleeding anymore. I need to collect my things inside. Oh and those shields with the bear heraldry, we should take them with us. I’ll explain later.”

 

Laesonar was quick to answer.

“I’ll take care of that. Everyone else, please go with Armin and check the inside of the building for any food we can take with us.”

Finally alone, he approached the chieftain’s corpse to inspect the arrow that killed him. He recalled the scene in his mind: “No one seems to have noticed. Could I have been the only one seeing that second arrow? Or was it just my imagination? Here, I was right. This one is different from Krisly’s.” Had his memory not failed once more, he could’ve recognised the mysterious arrow. “Damn my memory! I’m sure I’ve seen this craft-work before… !”

 

He hid it under the chieftain’s corpse as he heard the others coming back. Elysande’s voice reached him:

“We’ve found bread and dry meat, as well as everyone’s possessions!”

“All right then. Let’s get out of here.”

 

------------------------------------

Dear diary,

Laesonar is as reckless as ever. Today he literally charged into a bunch of armoured men! What is worse, I had to help and he definitely noticed something! How I wish he would think about his actions in advance for once!

Love,

L.

 

 

Extra shots:

whole MOC before story events (the right corner is cut, I know, I couldn't do any better  )

 

 

whole MOC after story events:

 

 

figs - check Flickr for short description:

 

 

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hey everyone, sorry for the wait!  I do have a million comments and details, but I reckon you guys have already read enough so far  so, just quickly: I got half my collection (greys, greens, yellows, ...) back over Christmas and couldn't wait to go for a grey wall , which, by the way, I'm not totally satisfied with. On the contrary, I was pleasantly surprised by how well normal green and sand green go together. 

My main problem this time was photography - given the MOC's size, lightning ect. but even just framing were a real hassle! I have hence went for a first attempt at editing (main pics only), which I think improved things, though the final main pic is still missing a corner and it's a tad too bright, probably?

As for the story, it's still too long, but I think it flows a bit better now that I've followed @Exetrius's example and implemented @MassEditor's advice (cutting off the speakers' names) - thanks for that, guys 

Any other comment I'll leave for now. 

C&C most welcome as usual.

Thanks for reading/watching! ^^

 

Ep. 5

Edited May 19, 2017 by en_zoo

[jakbar]

Wow, this story is good. That's my first time when i see a story with LEGO images. I will maybe try the same in a bit of time.

The map scene looks amazing! I like the little wooden barrier and the road sign. Is the tower empty inside, or You have put something inside?

[Littleworlds]

Excellent build and amazing storytelling. The fight scenes are very immersive and superbly photographed. Getting such pictures done with minifigures is not a small feat! Great work!  

[Merc4Hire]

Fantastic build and enjoyable read! Exceptional work on the fight scenes and on keeping the story going. Also, well done on the terrain, thick vegetation and a good variety of textures and colors.  

[The Maestro]

Great build en_zoo, that tower is awesome. As usual your landscaping is superb and I love the story. Can't wait to see where it goes.

[Henjin_Quilones]

Great job, En_zoo! The landscaping is quite nice, and I love all of the trees. You did a good job varying all of the different colors enough to prevent an overload of one particular hue, but did not mix them up so much that they got jumbled up and blah. The rickety and abandoned nature of the woodwork around the property looks appropriate, and the random wagon wheel in the background really helped. Good action, good build, fun story. My main complain is that it bothered me that Helga has fleshie legs and cleavage (with the Wonder Woman torso backwards, too--which does not look bad, actually, except for the breasts on her back) with yellow face and arms. I found it distracting the whole time I was looking at the pictures. 

[Legofin2012]

Great story! The build is very nice too, large landscapes can be difficult, but you manage very well, and although with no over complicated techniques still looks fantastic! I particularly like the build after the story, a clever idea to show the progress after war. The tower looks very sturdy, great work! 

[TitusV]

You have imporved a lot, en_zoo! The andscaping is great and I really like the surroundings (especially the wooden fence is quite cool). The tower isq nice as well, only nitpicking would be to use only one style of pathway: either light bley or dark bley, and round or normal tiles. But everything else is great!  

[halixon]

Love this. The build is awesome, as well as the figures, and you've got a great story going on.

[soccerkid6]

Your builds just keep getting better! The huge irregular base and foliage create a wonderful Avalonian atmosphere The guarded inn is also excellent, looks very solid, yet ancient

Another excellent chapter in your story too

[en_zoo]

On 05/03/2017 at 7:31 PM, jakbar said:

Wow, this story is good. That's my first time when i see a story with LEGO images. I will maybe try the same in a bit of time.

The map scene looks amazing! I like the little wooden barrier and the road sign. Is the tower empty inside, or You have put something inside?

Glad you like it ^^ Mine is only one of the many stories that accompany MOCs, you can find many more!

And no, there's nothing inside. I reckon I'm not that good yet 

 

On 05/03/2017 at 8:17 PM, Littleworlds said:

Excellent build and amazing storytelling. The fight scenes are very immersive and superbly photographed. Getting such pictures done with minifigures is not a small feat! Great work!  

Thanks, glad you like the story and nice to hear about the pics as it was pretty challenging and one of my aims - let's see if I can do better 

 

On 06/03/2017 at 2:29 AM, Merc4Hire said:

Fantastic build and enjoyable read! Exceptional work on the fight scenes and on keeping the story going. Also, well done on the terrain, thick vegetation and a good variety of textures and colors.  

Thank you! Happy to hear the story flows well together with the pics! ^^

 

On 06/03/2017 at 4:10 AM, The Maestro said:

Great build en_zoo, that tower is awesome. As usual your landscaping is superb and I love the story. Can't wait to see where it goes.

Thanks Maestro! Good to know that someone got curious about Laesonar! 

 

On 06/03/2017 at 4:56 PM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Great job, En_zoo! The landscaping is quite nice, and I love all of the trees. You did a good job varying all of the different colors enough to prevent an overload of one particular hue, but did not mix them up so much that they got jumbled up and blah. The rickety and abandoned nature of the woodwork around the property looks appropriate, and the random wagon wheel in the background really helped. Good action, good build, fun story. My main complain is that it bothered me that Helga has fleshie legs and cleavage (with the Wonder Woman torso backwards, too--which does not look bad, actually, except for the breasts on her back) with yellow face and arms. I found it distracting the whole time I was looking at the pictures. 

Thanks HQ, glad you notice all those details (especially colours distribution)! And lolol I actually didn't realise to have turned that torso backwards xDD I also didn't realise that that kind of pink on cleavage and legs was actually supposed to go with the fleshy head as it happens for many other figs o.o I reckon the colour confused me.. Thanks for pointing it out, gonna need to think about a solution 

 

On 06/03/2017 at 9:16 PM, Legofin2012 said:

Great story! The build is very nice too, large landscapes can be difficult, but you manage very well, and although with no over complicated techniques still looks fantastic! I particularly like the build after the story, a clever idea to show the progress after war. The tower looks very sturdy, great work! 

Thanks Legofin! I'm really good to hear - I have a preference for large landscapes as they're normally more immersive, so I need to learn how to deal with them ^^ Glad you liked the 'after' build too!

 

On 06/03/2017 at 9:50 PM, TitusV said:

You have imporved a lot, en_zoo! The andscaping is great and I really like the surroundings (especially the wooden fence is quite cool). The tower isq nice as well, only nitpicking would be to use only one style of pathway: either light bley or dark bley, and round or normal tiles. But everything else is great!  

Thanks Titus! Good point about the pathway, what I imagined was probably better for a size bigger than this; will keep in mind!

 

On 07/03/2017 at 5:58 AM, Windusky said:

Love this. The build is awesome, as well as the figures, and you've got a great story going on.

Thank you, Windusky, I'm really glad you liked all 3 things! 

 

On 11/03/2017 at 2:44 PM, soccerkid6 said:

Your builds just keep getting better! The huge irregular base and foliage create a wonderful Avalonian atmosphere The guarded inn is also excellent, looks very solid, yet ancient

Another excellent chapter in your story too

Thanks SK, always good to hear from you. Also glad to know that you're following the story ^^

[Grover]

Very nice!  The whole scene has a great feel, and the tower is very nice.  I really like the mix of new light bley and old light grey pieces.  The upside down 75° slope corners are great, too.  Very well done.

[en_zoo]

On 15/03/2017 at 4:15 AM, Grover said:

Very nice!  The whole scene has a great feel, and the tower is very nice.  I really like the mix of new light bley and old light grey pieces.  The upside down 75° slope corners are great, too.  Very well done.

Thanks Grover, I'm still wondering about the mixture of greys, so good to hear that you like it ^^

[Blufiji]

Great group of scenes, The minifgure posing is well done sir. I can also tell that you took the time to write an entertaining and well thought out story.

[LittleJohn]

Wonderful build, En_zoo! As I've come to expect from you, the landscaping is fabulous and has just enough color to keep it interesting, but not too much.
The tower itself looks great, with the nice inset windows to give some depth change, plus a nice vine growing up the side.  The mixing of new and old gray looks good here too, and I like the angling of the fence to make a nice rounded corner. Looking forward to more of the story!

[en_zoo]

On 22/03/2017 at 5:03 PM, Blufiji said:

Great group of scenes, The minifgure posing is well done sir. I can also tell that you took the time to write an entertaining and well thought out story.

Thanks Blufiji, I've almost missed your comment - always good to hear from you and really glad you liked the story! ^^

 

On 03/04/2017 at 3:40 AM, LittleJohn said:

Wonderful build, En_zoo! As I've come to expect from you, the landscaping is fabulous and has just enough color to keep it interesting, but not too much.
The tower itself looks great, with the nice inset windows to give some depth change, plus a nice vine growing up the side.  The mixing of new and old gray looks good here too, and I like the angling of the fence to make a nice rounded corner. Looking forward to more of the story!

Thanks John! I had (have) mixed feelings about mixing the 2 shades of grey, so I'm glad to hear. Nice to know you're following along the story too!