[Nocturnus Civil War] Turmoil in Camp Carakath

[Exetrius]

Turmoil in Camp Carakath

[Nocturnus Civil War] Ambush in the Rakath
[Nocturnus Civil War] Onwards, to the Moruth Highlands!

The Civil War of Nocturnus was yet to reach its climax. Lord Raavage had moved into the Rakath Mountains to retrieve the Necromancer's Helm, pursued by the 1st Corps of the Zotharian army, which was moving at a strenuous pace, beyond the front line, into unconquered territory. The 2nd Corps was assigned to fend off any attacks on the city of Zotharith and the surrounding area. Meanwhile, a division had been stationed at Carakath, a miners town in the Rakath southwest from Zotharith. The division was led by Vauranglir Merehgrim, 2nd mage in the Order of Zotharith. After defeating the Spire squadron that initially had the town's surface in control - underground, the dwarves defences were holding out - no attempts had been made to retake the town from the Resistence, and life was actually relatively peaceful. One morning however, Camp Carakath woke up to a baffling sight...



Contrary to popular belief perhaps, skeletons are one of the toughest enemies for humans to face. Due to the lack of flesh, they are obviously invulnerable to flesh wounds and virtually invulnerable to arrows. It also makes them incredibly light and swift. Additionally, they are maintained by magic, which means they don't need to eat, drink or rest, and they can't drown. While it is true that they only have a very faint perception of physical world around them, their souls see the underlying spiritual world much better than humans can, enabling them to track down their enemies in complete darkness and regardless of obstacles.

It goes without saying that the fact that a pile of them, plus a mage, lay lifelessly in the middle of the camp, seemingly without any witnesses of what happened, gave rise to great confusion. All that could be done was wait in suspense for the moment Vauranglir would step out his tent and lay his eyes on the bizarre scene.

The previous night...



It was the middle of the night. Vauranglir couldn't sleep. The bed he had been provided with was too soft and comfortable to his taste, thus got up and sat down in front of his tent. The two guards in the little trade hall were craving for sleep, so it seemed, and it didn't take much to have them both drop to the floor, fast asleep, before they had even noticed their commander. He'd take over the nightwatch, but to keep him occupied he started working out a spell that he had had in his mind for a while. The hours slipped by unnoticibly. 



Suddenly, he sensed something was approaching. He blew out the candle. For a moment, the thought of waking up the guards and soldiers crossed his mind, which he quickly rejected it. Too much of a hassle. He would treat himself to some nightly fun.



Skeletons, several of them, charging towards him. Vauranglir was quite amused. Time for some exorcism...



He slayed them one by one, and then their master showed up. He strengthened the sleeping magic for the whole camp, as he felt things could get a little rougher from here.

Mage 
"Surrender yourself to the Spire and I will leave your comrades alive!"

Vauranglir
"You have me absolutely terrified. Come on, Spire lord, show me some magic!"

Mage
"Not a step closer, I will..."




Vauranglir
"An advanced targeting spell, excellent choice, very impressive! Though it feels like I've seen it somewhere before... oh wait, I DEVISED IT! Guess what, boy? I also know how to break it!"



And thus, the unfortunate lad was done for, and Vauranglir could finally rest as well, though in a more temporary way. The morning would surely bring turmoil, but whatever...

 

Hi, I'm back. I spent my (whole) weekend on setting up the scenes, experimenting with nighttime photography and editing. So, I spent quite a few hours in the dark, and right now it's past 2:00 AM here, so I guess I'm starting to turn nocturnal, just like Vauranglir. Now, let's hope someone will actually read all of this.   I'm off to bed, lol.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Exetrius
fixed broken image

[Kai NRG]

Impressive job on the tent shapes especially the one on the left!  I also really like the guild colors and the curls on the roof ends.  But my favorite part is the U design right under the roof - such a good use of curved tiles!

[zoth33]

Great scene.  I love the roof and the use of the tiles in the framing under the roof.  Nice tents.  Great story too.  The photography looks pretty good I like the night time scenes.  

[The Stad]

Everything here is great; I love your tents, the hall is unique with some great shapes, the night-lighting is very successful, and your story is quite entertaining. Well done!

[TitusV]

Good to see there at least some life left in Nocturnus (well, eh, life, Nocturnus, kind of a contradiction... Anyway, you get what I mean  )

As Kai has already mentioned, the pillars with the guild shields (nice detail using a grill tile for the Spire one  ) are great, but the best part is defenitely the curve under the roof. Simple, yet giving this build so much elegance and character  

Looking forward to the continuation of the story!

[W Navarre]

That's a fantastic MOC!  Really good arches and tents, and neat lighting too! 

[Exetrius]

On 5/8/2019 at 3:30 AM, Kai NRG said:

Impressive job on the tent shapes especially the one on the left!  I also really like the guild colors and the curls on the roof ends.  But my favorite part is the U design right under the roof - such a good use of curved tiles!

I got a bunch of the macaroni tiles, started arranging for a bit, and then the 'U-wave' came to me. The curves continue on the sides, with the large macaronis, but I still need to get that on photo. The roof curls were partly inspired by this build by Thorsten Bonsch. 
Glad you like it! 

On 5/8/2019 at 5:13 AM, zoth33 said:

Great scene.  I love the roof and the use of the tiles in the framing under the roof.  Nice tents.  Great story too.  The photography looks pretty good I like the night time scenes.  

On 5/8/2019 at 5:49 AM, The Stad said:

Everything here is great; I love your tents, the hall is unique with some great shapes, the night-lighting is very successful, and your story is quite entertaining. Well done!

Thanks, guys! Good to hear you enjoyed the depiction of the scenes and story!

18 hours ago, TitusV said:

Good to see there at least some life left in Nocturnus (well, eh, life, Nocturnus, kind of a contradiction... Anyway, you get what I mean  )

As Kai has already mentioned, the pillars with the guild shields (nice detail using a grill tile for the Spire one  ) are great, but the best part is defenitely the curve under the roof. Simple, yet giving this build so much elegance and character  

Looking forward to the continuation of the story!

Thanks, mate! The shields are more intended to represent trade counties within Nocturnus actually (it's only a small town), but obviously there's one to honour the Guild of Nocturnus, and one for a major Spire city. What you identified as a grill is in fact a printed 1x1 plate (this one), but I reckon it's a detail that makes it stand out.  

16 hours ago, W Navarre said:

That's a fantastic MOC!  Really good arches and tents, and neat lighting too! 

Thank you, Navarre!

[Eoin Wallace]

The photography is great, the build is great and the story is also great!

[Exetrius]

On 5/9/2019 at 3:44 PM, Eoin Wallace said:

The photography is great, the build is great and the story is also great!

Haha, thanks man! 

[Grover]

Awesome story and build!  I love the texture on the roof and the great shapes you got out of the tents.  I wish I had thought of that for military tents years ago.  I really like that you're furthering the Nocturnus story despite the area being unplayable for the moment.  Really clever use of the lightning bolts and trans yellow for the magic, too.  It looks great.  Very well done!

[Exetrius]

7 hours ago, Grover said:

Awesome story and build!  I love the texture on the roof and the great shapes you got out of the tents.  I wish I had thought of that for military tents years ago.  I really like that you're furthering the Nocturnus story despite the area being unplayable for the moment.  Really clever use of the lightning bolts and trans yellow for the magic, too.  It looks great.  Very well done!

Good to see the tents are getting so much love! They appear clean and sleek on the outside, but colourful hinge-bracket and clip-bar connections dominate the inside.  It took time to figure it out.

As for the magic, I feel like I keep rambling on about it here in the Guilds, but not actually translate it to bricks all that much. Incorporating it here was sort of a relief, and I'm glad you like it!

Yes, I'm happy to prove myself a loyal Nocturnian! More to come.  

[The Last of Nergoue]

Great architecture in the building in the back, also the magic effects are very nice. 

[Exetrius]

16 hours ago, The Last of Nergoue said:

Great architecture in the building in the back, also the magic effects are very nice. 

Thank you!

[Umbra-Manis]

Great scene here, especially the effects and lighting!

[Exetrius]

13 hours ago, Umbra-Manis said:

Great scene here, especially the effects and lighting!

Thanks, man! 

[soccerkid6]

Man that hall is gorgeous Fantastic use of colors, and the pillar setup combined with your use of macaroni tile gives a beautiful fantasy look

Nice mix of reddish brown and dark red for the roof too! The stone podium below the hall has some neat SNOT steps and your tents are some of the better ones I've seen.

Definitely my favorite build from you yet

Edited June 5, 2019 by soccerkid6

[Exetrius]

4 hours ago, soccerkid6 said:

Man that hall is gorgeous Fantastic use of colors, and the pillar setup combined with your use of macaroni tile gives a beautiful fantasy look

Nice mix of reddish brown and dark red for the roof too! The stone podium below the hall has some neat SNOT steps and your tents are some of the better ones I've seen.

Definitely my favorite build from you yet

High praise, thanks SK!  I feel like I have improved a lot in the SNOT department last year or two, surely thanks to building mecha for a while. I'll do my best to sustain this level of quality in my future GoH builds! 

[mrcp6d]

The pavilion in the background is really awesome, but for me those tents steal the show; they're perfectly executed.

[Exetrius]

11 hours ago, mrcp6d said:

The pavilion in the background is really awesome, but for me those tents steal the show; they're perfectly executed.

Thanks a lot! 

[en_zoo]

Awesome job, Ex! I love the details between columns and roof and while the lighting steals the scene, what really excites me is reading yet one more time about Nocty during the war period!

[Exetrius]

12 hours ago, en_zoo said:

Awesome job, Ex! I love the details between columns and roof and while the lighting steals the scene, what really excites me is reading yet one more time about Nocty during the war period!

Thank you, en_zoo! I'm happy to get one more positive comment on my build, my photography ánd my storywriting!

Hail Nocty!