The Vengeful Ranger Ch. 2 - Growing Threats

[Merc4Hire]

Ch. 1 - Ruins of Erendir

With no leads and desperate to find Osiris, Aravorn grew impatient and so decided to trust in Thruk's word. Thus, he traveled to the Siccus Badlands where stumbled upon something unexpected. 

As Aravorn delved deeper into the plains of the Siccus Badlands, he heard the sound of a rumbling that kept growing louder and louder. At first it did not worry him much. After all, he knew of stories about the monolithic beasts that lived in Nocturnus. Instead, he wondered if he would finally catch a glimpse of them. Curious, he followed the rumbling and got as close as he could. When he did, Aravorn peaked over one of the rocky hills but was astonished at the sight he did not imagine to see.

"By the lords... its a siege beast...", he proclaimed as the creature roared its loud cry. Stunned by their sheer size, Aravorn almost couldn't look away. At least until his eyes were drawn to an even more troubling sight below. "And an invasion force of hundreds...". His innocent curiosity quickly became deadly concerns. "Why are they mobilizing their soldiers? The war is over?". Aravorn wondered in deep thought until he was interrupted by a coming group of soldiers. 

"Get moving! Pharan expects us to be there by dawn. Now march!", the commander shouted.

Aravorn quickly hid himself atop the cliffside. "Looks like that tip from Thruk was right", Aravorn said to himself. And as he secretly watched the passing soldiers go by he noticed their distinct armor. "Its the Toraga people, the barbarian tribe of half man and half orc. I did not expect that they would join Osiris' ranks, especially since they don't do well with taking orders. But I shouldn't be surprised, after all they do revel in the pride of brute strength. Still, why would they join the defeated Spire?". Aravorn quietly pondered as he noticed two soldiers part from the line.

"Look at 'em, barking Pharan's orders. Here we are breaking our backs while that filthy Pharan sits in his throne room all day".

"Aye, I heard its cause he gets special treatment. Something about him being one of Lord Osiris' favorites. Even gave him the fortress near the mountain range of Grum, or what's left of it anyway".

"That spoiled filth ain't no warrior! He ain't deserving of a fortress".

The disgruntled two continued to banter with each other. "Looks like they're not on good terms with Pharan", Aravorn thought. "But they're still following his orders and now they're headed to a fortress on the mountain's of Grum. That's all I need to know". Aravorn unsheathed his sword.

"Wait, did you hear something?", the two unsuspecting soldiers looked unto the hill beside them only to see Aravorn's blade strike them down and so quickly that they could not react.

With this new information, Aravorn's doubt had ceased and his new-found certainty made him all the more eager. "Stay where you are Pharan. I'm coming for you". 

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Hey guys, I'm back with a recent weekend build and this time with the AT-AT walkers of the Castle universe, a war elephant. This build is actually based on [DustyBricks] brilliant Lord of the Rings Oliphant. I took a few liberties with the design, primarily with the basket. And although I unfortunately didn't have the wedge pieces to make my ideal basket design, overall I'm satisfied with the end result. As for the story, this was a bit of a rushed chapter since I haven't had much free time, but I thought it at-least got things moving. 

So tell me what you guys think and thanks for viewing. 

EDIT: Also, please ignore the spoiler tag. I screwed something up that put this entire post in a spoiler; many apologies 

 

 

 

 

With no leads and desperate to find Osiris, Aravorn grew impatient and ultimately decided to trust in Thruk's word. So he traveled to the Siccus Badlands, but what he found he had not expected. 

As Aravorn delved deeper into the plains of the Siccus Badlands, he heard the sound of a rumbling that kept growing louder and louder. At first it did not worry him much. After all, he knew of stories about the monolithic beasts that lived in Nocturnus. Instead, he wondered if he would finally catch a glimpse of them. Curious, he followed the rumbling and got as close as he could and when he did, Aravorn peaked over a hill but was astonished at the sight he did not imagine to see.

"By the lords... its a siege beast...", he proclaimed as the creature roared. Stunned by their sheer size, Aravorn almost couldn't look away. At least until his eyes were drawn to an even more troubling sight below. "And an invasion force of hundreds...". His innocent curiosity quickly became deadly concerns. "Why are they mobilizing their soldiers? The war is over?". Aravorn pondered in deep thought until he was interrupted by a coming group of soldiers. 

"Get moving! Pharan expects us to be there by dawn. Now march!", the commander shouted.

Aravorn quickly hid himself atop the cliffside. "Looks like that tip from Thruk was right", Aravorn said to himself. And as he secretly watched the passing soldiers go by he noticed their distinct armor. "Its the Toraga people. The barbarian tribe of half man and half orc. I didn't expect that they would join Osiris' ranks, especially considering they don't do well with taking orders. But I shouldn't be surprised, they do after all revel in the pride of brute strength. Still, why would they join the defeated Spire?". Aravorn wondered, as he noticed two soldiers part from the line.

"Look at 'em, barking Pharan's orders. Here we are breaking our backs while that filthy Pharan sits in his throne room all day".

"Aye, I heard its cause he gets special treatment. Something about him being one of Lord Osiris' favorites. Even gave him the fortress near the mountain range of Grum, or what's left of it anyway".

"That spoiled filth ain't no warrior! He ain't deserving of a fortress".

The disgruntled two continued to banter with each other. "Looks like they're not on good terms with Pharan", Aravorn thought. "But they're still following his orders and now they're headed to a fortress on the mountain's of Grum. That's all I need to know". Aravorn unsheathed his sword.

"Wait, did you hear something?", the two unsuspecting soldiers looked unto the hill beside them only to see Aravorn's blade strike them down and so quickly that they could not react.

With this new information, Aravorn's doubt had ceased and his new-found certainty made him all the more eager. "Stay where you are Pharan. I'm coming for you". 

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

Hey guys, I'm back with a recent weekend build and this time with the AT-AT walkers of the Castle universe, a war elephant. This build is actually based on [DustyBricks] brilliant Lord of the Rings Oliphant. I took a few liberties with the design, primarily with the basket. And although I unfortunately didn't have the wedge pieces to make my ideal basket design, overall I'm satisfied with the end result. As for the story, this was a bit of a rushed chapter since I haven't had much free time, but I thought it at-least got things moving. 

So tell me what you guys think and thanks for viewing. 

Edited November 18, 2017 by Merc4Hire

[TitusV]

Wow, that's a mighty war machine you've built there  

I also like the different approach to the presentation, without a base. Overall, lovely MOC!  

[Henjin_Quilones]

Your angular approach to landscaping looks good here, with the small tan bit of earth. The trees end up looking almost out of place, though, since they are so full of round shapes; it is a difficult conundrum, since making blocky trees (a la Minecraft) would also look strange, I think. The siege beast looks great, though more articulation in the legs might be nice. Besides the articulation, I think a better differentiation of textures would be good, too; by that I mean that the headlight brick hollow stud for an eye looks good, but then gets lost among the other studs left on the elephant, especially on the ears and the tusk connections. Thus some way of better differentiating between them would be good (maybe with a 1x1 round tile or plate for the eye, or else putting a bit of flex tubing through the eye socket to give it some more color and depth). The tower structure works well, though, and complements the elephant nicely. 

[soccerkid6]

Magnificent war elephant! The basket and spikes for the tusks work perfectly

Excellent minifigure combinations too

[de Gothia]

Great elephant here! Really captured from the LOTR movies! Well done!

[mccoyed]

That elephant is awesome. I usually think brick-built animals look pretty terrible, especially the Lego ones (like the Fenris wolf from Thor: Ragnarok), but this is one of the best I've seen especially at this scale. Hat's off.

[LittleJohn]

Magnificent elephant! Brick-built creatures are one of the hardest things to build in Lego, but you did a fabulous job here; I especially like the shaping of his legs.
The basket/tower on top looks great as well, the rounded sides were a nice touch.

 

[The Maestro]

I love this style of landscaping you have developed but the tree looks a little too symetrical with the pattern of light to dark leaves. The oiliphant is excellently done and the basket is great although like the others some articulation would be good.

[Gideon]

Excellent brick-built elephant!
This would certainly qualify for credits in the subject "brick-built animals" at the University of Petraea