Keymonus

Somewhere in the jungle, El Oleonda, May 624 There was a little shrine, somewhere in the jungle of El Oleonda. A dozen miles East of the mysterious Dead City, it was probably built by the same ancient civilization, centuries before. The old building had almost completely disappeared in the undergrowth, crumbling under the weight of time... impossible to say whether it originally was a temple to some pagan deity, the mausoleum of a forgotten chief, or something else. For Commander Lei Feng, these old ruins had represented a fundamental waypoint during the exhausting guerrilla campaigns against the Carnite. That day, they also seemed a good place for what he had to do. Lei had received one last chance to escape the deadly trap set up by his enemies in Oryant, and he had lost it. In a normal situation, he should have been proud of saving his soldiers from the double ambush in the Dead City: he didn't manage to capture the three Carnite explorers, but those men had most likely been slaughtered by the Daca natives; the Carnite attempts to find the shipwrecks of the old Lotii fleet had been thwarted again, and the Oleonese seemed to have completely different objectives... for sure it wasn't a victory, but it wasn't a complete defeat, either. However, it was not a normal situation: his enemies in the army had chosen to use him as a scapegoat getting rid of him once and for all. In Oryant he could only expect an execution, and surrendering to the enemies of the Empire was out of question. Lei unsheathed his dagger: he still had one honorable way out. Following an ancient ritual, he would soon have stabbed himself in the abdomen; then, a loyal assistant would have beheaded him with a sword. It would have been a gruesome end, and the result of a terrible injustice, but it was the only way for Lei and his clan to retain their honor. Maybe he could become a yurei, a specter, to haunt forever the nights of his enemies... the High General Wang, coward and traitor, deserved never to sleep a quiet night again! Lei was ready. He made a nod to his assistant and hardened his grip on the dagger... then, he noticed something. There was a pile of rubble, in the far corner of the little shrine. Nothing too weird by itself in a ruined building, but something looked out of place. There were several ceramic artifacts, scattered all around, and they looked surprisingly well... they had been exposed to the weather for ages, not for centuries. He looked better: the pile contained also some tiles from the pavement, and was topped with bricks from the nearby pillar. Someone had likely dug a hole in that place, and then he had covered it carefully… but why? Well, Lei’s honorable death could wait for a while… Within a hour, the rubbles had been completely removed, revealing a little niche. That hole was probably an ancient native tomb, similar to many others he had seen on Jinzi: his men had sacked many of them, usually finding nothing but old bones, ceramics, an occasional golden trinket. This time, however, they were far luckier: someone had replaced the original content of the grave (including the ceramics scattered all around) with Lotii coins, gold bars and, even more importantly, old maps and documents! The objects had been for sure left there by the first Lotii expedition, marooned on the island years before: nothing, compared to the treasures still laying on the bottom of the Southern Bay, but still a considerable fortune! Lei looked at the documents. They were exactly what he had hoped, and even more: maps of the archipelago and of islands he couldn’t recognise, the log of one of the ships, the precise route of the first expedition… something the Empire had looked for ages! With those, he could now return to Oryant as a hero… and provide some annoyances to General Wang even without becoming a vengeful ghost! ——————————— Overall view of the build: After a long delay, here you can see the aftermath of my challenge storyline from the point of view of the Lotii officer. I plan one more MOC (the one about my main character) before moving to something different! I hope you enjoyed this part and this storyline in general!

Nice looking ship! Fast and agile, as her task will require! All the best luck to the Thessalonike and her crew, the story is intriguing and I hope to see learn more about Giefaux and his deeds soon!

Thank you! I also liked a lot the final result with the falling objects, in close-up pictures it works very well only from certain angles, while IRL the effect works better! About the Count, expect indeed to see him again soon(ish), angrier than ever and full of vengeful intents... PS Great quote BTW! As a child, Scooby Doo was by far my favourite cartoon!

Another great addition to Essen lore! The story of "your" city is getting more detailed and interesting with every new post!

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy this part of the storyline too! About Frederick von Undingen, we’ll see… I plan to reuse it, but I don’t know how soon will this be. For the moment, he is considered “fallen on the battlefield” by Carno military reports but, as you said, scoundrels are often lucky! Yes, BTW plan to use him as an enemy for Tristan in the future. Thanks! It’s a technique working very well when you see the build, in close-ups it’s great from some angles and just ok from others, but I plan to use it in the future for more falling objects! Thanks! About the natives, the only canon tribe of El Oleonda are the Tyree’De, even if somewhere it was stated that they are one of the tribes living on the island (and possibly not the only one). In my stories, I now and then needed something slightly different, so I adapted them a little and introduced other smaller tribes. Below some notes on how I use the various tribes but, again, it’s just for clarity in my builds, and not canon at all! -the Tyree’De themselves in my builds wear red scarfs on the head and sometimes some “Asian” hat. They also have sometimes the war maces you introduced. They mostly live on the coasts (and possibly on other islands too),and were joined in the past by some Lotii sailor marooned on the island, who also taught them some new technologies. -the Tamaco: I needed a small tribe providing scouts to the Monomonto (and that now has switched allegiance, or is at least neutral). They have red face paints and either some sparse “samurai” weapons and armour pieces, or bone helmets. They appeared a couple of times. -the Daca: probably “barbarised” descendants of an ancient civilisation, they live in the interior, close to or into the ruin complexes. I had mentioned them a few times in the past too (“careful, we are close to the Daca territory” or similar), but nothing more. They have primitive weapons, simple clothing, and a lot of tattoos or face paintings.

Somewhere in the jungle, El Oleonda, May 624 They had snatched the prize out of his hands! But it was not over, not yet. He would have put his hands on that treasure, in one way or another. A warrior appeared in front of him, the face horribly painted. The Daca raised his wooden spear, but he was a second too slow: Frederick von Undingen cut him down with his sword, without even slowing down. He would have returned, he swore. He would have returned with more men and some good cannons, maybe a company of Namerian mercenaries... and he would have wiped out those savages from El Oleonda, he would have killed them all! Then, the treasure of the Lotii fleet would have become the key to a new life of wealth and, even more importantly, power! Frederick only needed to reach Seawatch alive, and the cards would have turned in his favor again. Some would have been angered with him for his failures, but nothing he couldn't handle. Professor Wagner's group had been massacred, leaving no useful notes behind. In their abandoned camp, however, Frederick had found a little booty of Lotii gold: not much, but enough to convince his friends in Aden to forget some little things and support his future endeavors. They had little time to lose, however, since the Oleonese seemed to have captured a survivor of Wagner's expedition... if he only had ordered Kurt to shoot that man first, he would have felt safer about his plans. The bushes in front of Frederick disappeared, suddenly replaced by a small clearing. Somehow, he managed to stop his run, just a few steps before a cliff and the violent rapids below. Frederick realized immediately that he was in deadly danger: his little group had been cut out from von Stern's column, which was now on the opposite side of the stream. The Daca, instead, were all around them again. The Essians jaegers were fighting fiercely -they were excellent soldiers, he had to recognize that- but the warriors seemed just too many. His loyal Kurt shot a warrior at point blank, killing him on the spot. A second and a third one were already running towards him, spear in hand... with no time to reload, his musket was now nothing more than a robust club. Two warriors were almost upon him. There were no battle cries, as usual... only the low, menacing hiss anticipated the attack of the Daca, together with their hellish drums. Frederick raised his sword in a high guard, bracing for their attack. He deflected a spear lunge directed at his face, then turned to his right, aiming for the chest of the incoming warrior... but his right foot found nothing but air. Before he could even realize it, Frederick was falling. Frederick tried desperately to recover his balance, but the dirt at the edge of the cliff was too slippery. For a moment he remained almost still over the roaring water, staring at the triumph on his enemies' face. Then, the bag with the gold dragged him behind, towards the rapids and a watery grave. He was still holding it, he realized. His ticket towards wealth and power. Ironic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This MOC, as you can see, represents the aftermath of my TC2 storyline, from the Carno point of view. I plan to publish a conclusion scene also for the other parties involved, that is the Lotii and Oleon, before moving to my future plans. Since I really liked this storyline, the setting, and the characters I had created, I thought they deserved a proper conclusion for their journeys. I hope you liked my storyline and these conclusive scenes too! For possible newcomers, Frederick von Undingen, graf von (Count of) Wiesemberg, is a borderline psychopath, a villain in my storylines, and probably a sort of loose cannon also for his nation. This should explain his very questionable points about massacring all the natives of El Oleonda, the complete disinterest in his comrades dying, and similar amenities. Here he receives what he deserves, but there will be no body available for burial... if this is really von Undingen's end, or if you'll see this character again, remains to be seen! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Lotii gold falling into the river from a different angle. A better angle, in my opinion, but the MOC was too small to show the scene from this point of view. Since I like the result, I'll attempt something similar in the future. Overall view:

Slowly coming back to answer the newest topics... I love this entry, and it is amazing how you created a full diorama just as a "frame" for your entry! The choice of the "Oriental-style" (or rather Southern-style, given our geography) portrait is very original and really appropriate for the time frame! I also love the setting, with the half-said story about the desert uprising, leaving much to the readers' imagination!

Thank you! I had planned to make a villain reappear completely disfigured, but indeed no yellow option (apart from possibly the old Quirrel/Voldemort face) seems available, and I can’t turn all the other characters in flesh versions… fair enough, I’ll probably resort to making him wear a mask or similar!

Thank you! I was referring to the spoiler on top of the last entry (All the parties involved). If it’s better for organisation purposes, below there are links to all the parts of The Cypher storyline. You may directly use this post for reference: Ghostly voices - Free Build, not to be considered Down below A suspicious jungle stroll The mouth of the Emperor The City of the Dead Shadows of a distant past Morituri te salutant All the parties involved

Thank you! Yes, all the previous parts are linked to in the initial spoiler

Thank you for the great organisation effort! Only a minor thing: the conclusion of my story (“All the parties involved”) seem to be missing from the entry index. In the end I didn’t merge my entries in a single topic… too bad, but at least I managed to close the storyline on time! Now I’m really looking forward to seeing what Era III will bring to our little world!

Hello everyone! For a storyline in the RPG part of this forum (Brethren of the Brick Seas), I plan to make a believed-dead character reappear. Could anyone give me a suggestion about a yellow head looking severely scarred or burnt? There are several suitable parts in flesh colour (Anakin from Star Wars, Cavendish from the Lone Ranger, and many more), but I can’t think about a similar part in the traditional yellow colour. Thanks!

Thank you! I read that several of the ancient buildings were somehow painted and decorated, and I wanted to play a little on this comparison! Despite the small scale and the simple architecture, I'm very happy about the result! Thanks! This MOC wasn't in the original plan, and it grew almost by chance... but I love it! As usual with ghosts and supernatural things, I kept it borderline between being a vision/hallucination and being something "real". It is something I only did a couple of times, but I love the way it turned out!

Thank you! I managed to answer when my storyline was already completed, so you know how things have ended! Don't take the sea zones too literally, but I wanted places with highly recognizable symbols allowing to point to places out of the map... I have no clue whether these lands might exist, or if they are just blank spots in the MRCA map have been destroyed by the ancient cataclysims too. Thank you! An arena was in a corner of my mind since a long time, even if I had thought of placing it in New Oleon or in a nearby state... who knows, maybe in the future... Thanks!

Thank you! This was probably the most intricate story I built, and I overestimated the time I had, so it really was a funny ride! I'm glad you liked the final result! I don't have precise plans about von Undingen, at first I had planned to just make him die, but it seemed a little waste, and I think I need a nemesis for my main character... so expect to see him again, maybe with a scar or an eyepatch! For the developments on El Oleonda, only time will tell... this is something beyond what I can decide with my storyline, but I hope we'll see some more action there! Thank you! Tristan will remain my main character. Before new EGS rules will be defined, I think I'll build more adventure-themed things than properties, so you'll see more about him soon! Thank you! The treasure is something I wanted to keep for a proper storyline... it's something I introduced in an older challenge, but I never found the time to properly focus on it! It was a little bit a rush, as I had to leave for a sailing trip and I'm only today back on dry land... with a little more experience about sails and nodes! Von Undiingen's head is from a pick-a-brick desk in a LEGO store, the code shoud be this one: 3626cpb2792. It's a quite versatile part, I think I already used for at least 10 background characters around my MOCs!