mephistopheles Posted June 14, 2012 (edited) History of Woodward Chapter One: The Black Widow Inn When the elves settled down in the forests of Avalonia they avoided Darkwood forest. The few man who had a chance to talk with the elves could sometimes hear them talk about an evil shadow lying over the forest found in the middle of the East Region. Truth is that during the years before the Avalonians came on thundering into the land on their mighty horses the area of Woodward was chaotic and life there was really hard. But on a first glance nothing seemed to justify the fear of the elves. People lived in small villages in this area and mainly worked as woodcutters, carpenters and hunters. However nobody dared to enter deep into the forest. They made sure to leave the forest with the last sunlight and only few returned who missed to do so. Those who returned lost their memories of what happened in the forest and more than often they woke up screaming and bathed in sweat during the night. However as long as one kept out of the forest after dark could struggle on with their miserable life. It was in one of these little villages that a mysterious old woman arrived. She claimed to be the widow of an old merchant and after her husbands death she left her home to leave all the memories behind. Since she was wealthy and seemed nice to the townsfolk people welcomed her to stay. The old woman called Martha bought the biggest house in the village and hired workers to bring it in a good shape. With the arrival of Martha every day seemed less worse than the day before and even the forest seemed to become less frightening. The workers hired by Martha from other villages settled down here and this settlement become to grow and flourish. Martha turned her house into a tavern. More and more foreigners came to visit and of course they stayed at Martha’s tavern. The people named their village Marthaville as they didn’t forget the cange she was bringing. As days went by Marthaville became the biggest settlement in the area. More and more people travelled through. It was no surprise that nobody noticed if sometimes one of them disappeared. It took awhile until the first people noticed that Martha seemed to become younger. With time the mysterious disappearance of travelers was noticed by some of the more suspicious people. Some of them started to wonder how that old woman that once arrived could still be alive. It didn’t took much to find a link… What happened in the next few days belongs to the darkest days of Avalonia. When the people gathered to question Martha she didn’t waste any time. Some of the few survivors of that day claim that she summoned a pack of huge black spiders that poisoned and killed everybody who gathered in front of her tavern to question her. A rule of terror followed. Of course the rumors spread out and visitors stayed away from Marthaville. Marthas true personality poisoned the land like the spiders did their victims. With the lack of travelers to devour Martha raised a death tax. Every month the village had to send her a human as a sacrifice. At the time when the remaining population lost all its hope and faith a group of mounted man arrived lead by a nobleman called Mephistopheles. Martha opened her taverns door and all her victims that were sent to her as a sacrfifice swarmed out being turned into half-man-half-spider creatures. But they couldn’t withstand the steel of the Avalonians. At the peak of the battle Martha cast a poisonous fog around the tavern that forced the heroic man to retreat. But she didn’t anticipate that not everybody of her enemies were humans. A young werewolf warrior called Rufus whom the poison could do no harm rushed into the tavern with his large axe and soon he returned with Martha’s head. After Martha’s death the people of Marthaville wanted to burn her tavern down, but Mephistopheles stood up and told the people that the time of destruction has ended. From now on an era of construction and prosperity will begin and he promised that he will clean the area of all evil. From this day on he was known as Lord Mephistopheles. One of his first actions was to rename Marthaville into Woodward, since he will ward over Darkwood from here. Since his new folk was still afraid of the tavern and nobody wanted to sleep in it Lord Mephistopheles refunctioned and rebuild it into a barracks for his men. As time passed by and the entire area flourished under the rule of Lord Mephistopheles he built a new larger barracks. Marthas former house stood empty for a while. Lord Mephistopheles decided to reopen it as a tavern. History is one of Lord Mephistopheles’ favorite discipline so he named it „The Black Widow Inn”. Time healed the wounds and now more and more travelers visit Woodward to spend a night in the Black Widow Inn so that they can brag with their bravery. As always I post the pictures of the house itself first, since building a surrounding will take me 1-2 more month. The top of the house was built during the time when Lord Mephistopheles used this building as a barracks. Also the windows and wall decorations of the second floor were renewed during this era. The first floor is the original design Martha built when she bought the house. With Rufus and Taesha (Taesha now runs the Inn): Corner view: Side view with chimney: More pictures on my Flickr page! I hope you guys enjoy this! Edited June 17, 2012 by mephistopheles Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MikeyB Posted June 15, 2012 good back story and a great tease for photos. now I will spend my day Sunday refreshing this page! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
soccerkid6 Posted June 15, 2012 Creepy story Now I want to see some pictures Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
de Gothia Posted June 16, 2012 Sounds very promising! Can´t wait for the pics! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mephistopheles Posted June 17, 2012 Post updated with pictures! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
de Gothia Posted June 17, 2012 Absolutely wonderful!! So much to love here! The different balconys, the chesse slopses in the wall and some great photographing skills as well! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
soccerkid6 Posted June 17, 2012 I have to say I was not expecting something of this level The texturing is great, and the cheese slope designs in the wall work wonderfully The supports under the balcony are neat, and I can't remember having seen them done like that before. Excellent use of the printed tiles as well. Now I want to go build a house Keep on building, you just keep getting better! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
robuko Posted June 17, 2012 Superb build, with lots of great details. I really like the cheese mosaic walls, how did you keep them in place? Lord Mephistopheles well deserves his honour. And so does Rufus! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ZCerberus Posted June 17, 2012 That turned out really well!! Great job man! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ecclesiastes Posted June 17, 2012 Stunning! I love it, the balconies and the mosaics and al the use of the dark brown. It's all very well done. Does it has an interior? And are you going to make any surroundings? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mephistopheles Posted June 17, 2012 Stunning! I love it, the balconies and the mosaics and al the use of the dark brown. It's all very well done. Does it has an interior? And are you going to make any surroundings? Thanks to all of you guys! No, it doesn't have an interior. The reason for this is simple: I plan to build a large town and I won't be able to reach the house or look into it. I think Derfel didn't make any interiors in Durnovaria for the same reason. Yes, I will make a surrounding! It will just take me quite a while. I'll update this post once I am finished with the surrounding. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Niku Posted June 17, 2012 I am in awe. This is great, awesome details. Nice story too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Derfel Cadarn Posted June 17, 2012 What an excellent build! Very interesting design with great details in the walls really makes this stand out. Nice work, keep this up! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cara Posted June 18, 2012 Great MOC Lovely diamond pattern, shutters and details. I really like this build. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Captain BeerBeard Posted June 18, 2012 Look's like Avalonia is going to stay at the top! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Legonardo Posted June 18, 2012 very nice! lots of detail in this one, Although it needs a base keep up the good work! ~Legonardo~ very nice! lots of detail in this one, Although it needs a base keep up the good work! ~Legonardo~ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mephistopheles Posted June 18, 2012 Superb build, with lots of great details. I really like the cheese mosaic walls, how did you keep them in place? Lord Mephistopheles well deserves his honour. And so does Rufus! Quite easy: the slope wall is just a little bit higher than the brick wall behind. 2 stud wide plates put on the brick wall can put enough pressure on the slope wall to keep them in fix position. What you cannot see in the picture is that due to this pressure the dark blueish grey corners a little bit curved. Impossible to notice from the distance. This way the house is solid enough to be transportable if done carefully. I wouldn't dare to shake it though... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rogue Angel Posted June 20, 2012 You've gone cheese slope crazy! This is a beautiful build. Quite the story too! A very solid, well detailed build. Great job! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
