Phadeout

[ESL] Hojaroja Episode 1: A discrete arrival

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Hojaroja, Otoño, the Prio Seas, March 617

32495735884_60a15a53c2.jpgHojarojaEp1_1 by Phadeout, on Flickr

Alejandro felt the rowboat jar against the sands and come to a halt.  He could see the Eslandian soldiers waiting on the beach, the commanding officer looking put out but well-presented and his men equally well turned out and alert.  With Nacho he disembarked and walked through the sands towards them, seeing the letter in the officer’s hand and knowing that the orders had arrived before him.  The officer would be unsettled, knowing that a civilian had effectively taken over the operations on Otoño, as Hojaroja, the only settlement of any size at all, and the scattered holdings on the island had previously been under a form of martial law due to the strong local Mardier presence.

The MCTC had been resolute though, it was time for a sign that Eslandola wasn’t in going to sit back in the Prio seas, they were looking to expand their influence, the reports of unusual, and therefore hopefully precious minerals in the soil would be invaluable for the war effort and, as long as the troops could protect the settlement, Hojaroja could become a thorn in the side of the Mardier war machine, forcing them to engage another threat and spreading themselves thinner and thinner again.

33210532081_c1cda19cd7.jpgHojarojaEp1_2 by Phadeout, on Flickr

Alejandro paused in front of the officer who cleared his throat, and with an almost imperceptible nod of the head said “Don de la Calle, Otoño and Hojaroja are honoured to have you here to assume governance of the settlement, I am Capitan Henrique Velasquez and am at your service, and I trust your journey was satisfactory.”

“The journey was fine, I understand however the reason for me rowing ashore from a mile out is because you were concerned about the possibility of a Mardier assassin attempting to remove me from my role before I had even begun.  Is the island so unsafe?”

“We had received intelligence that an attempt was being planned, we used a decoy on El Heraldo de Oro and we succeeded in flushing out the agent, he will be interrogated and we hope to gain information about Mardier plans in the area and also how they knew of your arrival so far in advance.  Rest assured that your safety is of paramount importance to us.”

Velasquez turns to his aide saying “Escort Don de la Calle to his residence and make sure he has everything he needs I will return to the fort and try to get some answers from our new friend from Mardier.”

“Lead on, Lieutenant, it has been a long day and I think I will save the full tour for the morning.”

With that Alejandro and Nacho followed the soldier through the tree line and on to Hojaroja.

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Great to see you building again Phadeout, and this is definitely a nice MOC with all those red leaves! :thumbup:   Good work on the transition from dark tan to light grey also - great idea to include some smaller stones on the bottom - but I think when you do a MOC that has both water and terrain, it generally looks better to do either studs-up terrain and non-studs up water (could be loose, or tiled, or SNOT), or vice versa.  Having the same texture on both kind of blurs the line and is less visually attractive.  Really nice touch with the yellow flowers though!

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Excellent build, Phadeout, and great to see Hojaroja beginning to expand!  Very nice terrain and posing, and for some reason I really like the benches in that rowboat as well! :thumbup:  Keep it up! :classic:

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At Kai, tried a few options with the water before this (couldn't find my bag of 1x2 trans light blue tiles which would have been the first option) but appreciate the cc - it all helps!  

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The build is well done. I have no issues with the surf.

I'm guessing that a Truachesh settler, upon hearing the name, would spell it O'Gharogha. That roughly translates as 'from our grandchild.'

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Excellent build and story! I really like the shape of the beach, and the water and rockwork are both well done. Of course, the dark red leaves do a great job of identifying the locale. And the story positions the build within current events nicely. Well done all around! :thumbup:

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Glad to have you back building!

The MOC is really cool, the colour choice is amazing, especially the blue parts on land work out wonderful!

Edited by Elostirion

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Nice build! I really like how you did the water. How you did the rowboat is nice as well. Overall, it's a great build!

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Great scene! I think I'm going to enjoy seeing the 'Autumn' Isle fleshed out some more, it was definitely one of the more interesting choices in the last round of island picks!

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Neat build. The dark red trees are pretty in their own right, but the gradual change from water to sand to rocks is also built very nicely. I don't mind the studs-up look at all. And that collection of minifigs looks great too - the CMF Swashbuckler is one of my favorites, and the green-torso pirate from 2015 was practically made for BoBS! Keep it up. :thumbup:

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