[AMCRA - Puvel] Exploring Fiorentia (The Island of Flowers)

[Puvel]

PRELUDE:

Coming from a merchant family, Puvel knew investments were the key to building up resources. So he spend little over a year establishing sources of income. Saving these funds finally enabled him to pursue his goal of becoming an explorer of the newly found islands. 
Thanks to his connections the Crown, permission was given to start exploring the Island of Flowers, recently renamed as Fiorentia. 
A tradeship dropped him off, along with a platoon and some early settlers,  before setting sail again to get more supplies in Arlinsport. 
They would have plenty of time to explore and hopefully discover some hidden treasures on this beautiful island.
 
Before the ship departed Puvel had time to write a letter to his fiancée back in Arlinsport.
 
My dearest Matilda, 

I heard stories about this island being stunning but it’s exceeding my expectations in ways you can’t even imagine! 
The description of the passerby ship does not do justice to the sheer beauty of this place. The beaches are white as snow, not at all like the ones back home. I am truly overwhelmed by the diversity of the flora. 
I have no doubt I will be able to join the Royal Society of Natural Philosophy after sending a report on the exploration of the island. Another dream come true! 
On the voyage here I had many great discussions with leftenant Hornblower. He is a proper educated gentleman and saw a lot of the new world already. 
According to preliminary maps the island has hills and a large lake, I wonder what marvels we’ll discover there.
I definitely look forward to our adventure here! 

Yours truly,
Puvel 

 

[Darnok]

Wow...

 

"Island of Flowers" indeed. You did an awesome job of creating this scene. I absolutely love the flowers in the background, but that water-to-beach transition is equally impressive. There are lots of things to see in this, and I really adore the whole thing. Well done!

[Mesabi]

Nice Build Puvel. The Flowers are very well done, and the lifeboats seem well modified as well. 

Only criticism is you should put up a map showing where you landed. 

[Garmadon]

Your beaches are always superb, and this one's no exception - awesome build, Puvel, and great job depicting the flora here!  Looking forward to seeing more! 

[SilentWolf]

Great job on this beach scene Puvel. You have started off with an excellent portrayal of the flowers that makes me really look forward to seeing more. So many colors!

I like the way you do your water and beach transition. The rowboat bottoms and seats are also a great touch. Lastly, I note the use of hands as banners off the back of the rowboats, nice part usage. 

[Spud The Viking]

An extremely pretty build! The colours and minifigs are so well done, an all round excellent build!

[Kai NRG]

Lovely white sand beach, the tan sets it off very nicely.  The water itself looks great too and the flowers definitely go with the island's name!   Looking forward to seeing where this goes!

[Legostone]

@Puvel

Shortly after landing, Puvel stumbles upon a large brightly coloured beetle, obviously one of the rumoured gem-bugs. While the Royal Pioneers survey the landing site, he takes the time to describe and draw the beetle for the Royal Society. (67 dbs added to adventure treasury)

After a few hours surveying the terrain around the landing site, dark clouds gather above the expedition. It has every appearance of leading to a storm over the colourful paradise, even before exploration has truly begun, and Puvel and Leftenant Hornblower has to make a decision.

Safe choice: Get your tents out! Let's set up camp and wait out the storm without getting our uniforms wet!

Risky choice: No time to waste, let's press on! It's too beautiful here not to continue our exploration, and that storm will surely change direction any time soon now.

Elaborate: Chop down a few trees, and let's build some rudimentary shacks! This will help us endure the storm, and bring some Corrish order to paradise - just as it should be. Build two small residential properties and one vignette showing the rapid construction work.

Note: In any case, the adventure requires one build to continue. If you decide on the elaborate choice, a total of three builds are required as mentioned. Your story should clarify which option you are taking, but you are welcome to interpret the options creatively. Let us know if you have any questions.

[Elostirion]

Such a beautiful depiction of this lovely island. I really, really hope you select "elaborate" so we can see more of your highest-quality MOCs. Lovely!

[Ayrlego]

I'm with Elos here! That is a very beautiful looking beach and the assortment of flowers is stunning. Landing of Fiorentia was well worth the wait! If you do go for the elaborate option let me know if you need an assist with a build - seeing your beach makes we want to break out my flower collection!!!

[blackdeathgr]

Excellent! Can't decide what I like more! The beach, the posing, the flowers... everything is really well built!

[Puvel]

Thanks people! Beaches and flowers are always fun to build

Looks like I'll have to go find some trees now  

[Puvel]

PART TWO:

 

My dearest Matilda,

Reading about explorers and their adventures surely is a lot more relaxing than the actual experience! Still, this is more exciting of course.

Disaster almost struck on our first day here as we’re currently hiding from a massive storm heading our way. I spotted the big dark clouds forming in the distance on time as I was looking at the marvellous scenery through the looking glass. We kept track of them to check the direction they were going and unfortunately they are moving rapidly towards us. I’m just happy we spotted the storm on time so we had time to prepare. Looking at those clouds I wouldn’t want to be wandering about right now. 

The expedition is full of experienced soldiers that know how to handle a crisis so we quickly made up a new strategy. We decided not to take any chances and chop down some of the rare trees here. Leftenant Hornblower figured the leaves would make a decent roof, unfortunately there weren’t much of them. So I suggested slicing some of the tree trunks and using the bark as well. We ended up being able to construct 2 simple shacks, let’s hope they’re strong enough to face the upcoming storm!

Affectionately yours, 
Puvel

 

Preparations:

 

The bark shack:

 

The leaves shack:

[Kai NRG]

Wonderful trio of builds, love the bright color and both those shelters look great, but especially the leaf one, fantastic use of those spikes, it really looks wonderful!  

[SilentWolf]

I am liking the builds for this stage. The leaf roof is exceptionally done, and the bark shack has a very hurried but efficient manner about it. Probably the only critique would be that I would have liked the minifigures to seem more hurried in their tasks for the second two builds. However, the great color and staging of the builds more than makes up for it. 

[Professor Thaum]

Really nice ! the leaved one is beautiful ! And the shinny colors reflect the paradise style of the island.

[Garmadon]

You, my dear sir, are really the master of lime green!   Love the colors on these builds, and the activity is really well done too!  Great job with the vegetation also - really looking forward to watching as you uncover more and more of this island! 

[Puvel]

On 16/11/2017 at 1:49 AM, Kai NRG said:

Wonderful trio of builds, love the bright color and both those shelters look great, but especially the leaf one, fantastic use of those spikes, it really looks wonderful!  

Thanks Kai! Should have placed the leaf one in a bit of an angle too actually, can't really see that it's a sloped roof with the leaves hanging over the woodwork now. But glad you like it anyway 

On 16/11/2017 at 3:22 AM, SilentWolf said:

I am liking the builds for this stage. The leaf roof is exceptionally done, and the bark shack has a very hurried but efficient manner about it. Probably the only critique would be that I would have liked the minifigures to seem more hurried in their tasks for the second two builds. However, the great color and staging of the builds more than makes up for it. 

Thanks SilentWolf! You have a good point there.  I'm not the best at minifig placement, I'll practise a bit more  

On 16/11/2017 at 7:50 AM, Professor Thaum said:

Really nice ! the leaved one is beautiful ! And the shinny colors reflect the paradise style of the island.

Thanks Professor! Now I've got that song from Moana in my head 

21 hours ago, Garmadon said:

You, my dear sir, are really the master of lime green!   Love the colors on these builds, and the activity is really well done too!  Great job with the vegetation also - really looking forward to watching as you uncover more and more of this island! 

Thanks Garmadon! Never been called a master before I think! Used up all my lime in these builds, so will have to destroy them before the next stage.

[Elostirion]

BEAUTIFUL! Especially the first one with the gentle green slopes and all those flowers. Just lovely.

That small pond, the slicing of the leaves, chopping of the tree, those flowers, those orange flowers - so cool!

[Ayrlego]

On 17/11/2017 at 4:32 AM, Garmadon said:

You, my dear sir, are really the master of lime green! 

^ This!!!! 100percent agree - MASTER is the correct word!

I admit I was worried as the deadline approached that we wouldn't see this adventure progress - Glad I was wrong!

As usual an excellent use of bright vibrant colours (The isle of flowers was a great choice for your style!) combined with great minifig posing and interesting structures. Great job!

 

[Professor Thaum]

On 16/11/2017 at 2:35 AM, Puvel said:

We decided not to take any chances and chop down some of the rare trees here.

Er... Should we understand that you chop down rares species only to avoid some rain drops ?

or that in this island they are very few trees to make descent shelters ?

 

that's to say if you are exploring like a wiseman with the british touch as expected for a gentleman of Corrington or like an american prospector (damn' it !! where is the dough ! Holy bishop shit !)

[Puvel]

On 18/11/2017 at 10:56 AM, Elostirion said:

BEAUTIFUL! Especially the first one with the gentle green slopes and all those flowers. Just lovely.

That small pond, the slicing of the leaves, chopping of the tree, those flowers, those orange flowers - so cool!

Thanks Elostirion! Was fun building slopes for that one, hope to make some more once (if) the expedition reaches the hills

On 19/11/2017 at 10:46 PM, Ayrlego said:

^ This!!!! 100percent agree - MASTER is the correct word!

I admit I was worried as the deadline approached that we wouldn't see this adventure progress - Glad I was wrong!

As usual an excellent use of bright vibrant colours (The isle of flowers was a great choice for your style!) combined with great minifig posing and interesting structures. Great job!

 

Thanks Ayrlego! Deadlines are always a good motivation to finish builds 

On 20/11/2017 at 7:43 AM, Professor Thaum said:

Er... Should we understand that you chop down rares species only to avoid some rain drops ?

or that in this island they are very few trees to make descent shelters ?

 

that's to say if you are exploring like a wiseman with the british touch as expected for a gentleman of Corrington or like an american prospector (damn' it !! where is the dough ! Holy bishop shit !)

I'd like to think I'm a Corri gentleman indeed! There are only a few trees on the island according to its description:

On 31/8/2016 at 2:33 AM, Dannylonglegs said:

The Island is sparsely populated by trees, allowing a great diversity of sun-loving underbrush flowers and grasses. 

[Bregir]

I had clear suspicions that putting you on the Fiorentia would yield some absolutely fabulous builds, Puvel, and you never fail to disappoint! The bright colours and simple structures are fantastic, and you have a way of making even the simplest little things look great! Keep up the good work - can't wait to see where this leads!

On 11/22/2017 at 2:24 PM, Puvel said:

Deadlines are always a good motivation to finish builds 

Noted...

[Legostone]

@Puvel

The Storm had finally passed, the shelter had held up. There hadn't been much time to explore while they were out there finding the place for the basecamp; several interesting aspects had been spotted while getting there and getting the materials to build the huts. What to do now?

Option 1: Continue building up your basecamp - we are here now, let's get a bit more comfortable and settled before we head out exploring!

Option 2: North: Go further inland into the hills and the inland lake. What may one find here?

Option 3: East: The cove appears to be home to many curious fish and corals. Go explore the reefs.

Option 4: South: A wreck, looking like it has been there for centuries, had been spotted on the way here. It may not contain anything valuable to those looking for gold, but maybe something valuable for us?

Option 5: West: These flowers and beetles are obviously the hallmark of this island - why not start here on the hilly slopes near the coast?

 

Notes:

A minimum of one build is required for the adventure to proceed, but more is encouraged.

a map of what has been spotted is here: