Christoph

It is very well written! (one notices that a lot of thought went into the program) Although - for Abu Ali it will be a bit hard to become an Apprentice or a Bachelor again... Anyway, the lessons he is looking for are not taught in a lecture room... Maybe you could use a picture of Gabes truly wonderful lecture hall? (if he agrees?) http://www.eurobrick...showtopic=87781 I think this would represent the dignity of our grand university very well. By the way, fellow Kaliphlins... http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=88244 Do not loose trust in Abu Ali He has to follow his heart...

To those who stay at home: My mind cannot rest. I am on the road again ... looking for truth. But this time it won't be pleasant. This time dark shadows cloud my way. I do not know what I will find in the East. But I do know that I will go there. I am off to look for truth. Friends! Forgive me! - even though you cannot understand... Yours, Abū Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā

Sign me up, please! Whichever side I'm on... at least I will be fighting against the dark side.

Trust me young ZCerberus: I have been to the West, I have been to the North, and I have been to the East as well. But in stubbornness and evil there is no truth! Abu Ali

Dear fellow Kaliphlins, I send greetings to all of you. I was away (sorry!) and my mind may still be clouded. But do not worry: I am still busy seeking for truth! You are doing a wonderful job keeping the guild in good shape (especially the building industry seems to be in a very good shape). (Please understand: truth seeking is a full time job so my posting frequency will not be enormous...) Yours, Abū Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā

9) Ecclesiastes =1 10) lisqr =1 11) Cara =1 15) gabe =1 16) Basiliscus =1 Thanks to all who gave their effort, I have a good time viewing all the different builds (not only the five that I picked as the best)

Robuko, you are a very good story teller, as always, your stories know to entertain . Already in the beginning, Sinbad dreaming in the bathtub... I like your entry very much. I do not understand why you sounded a bit pessimistic about your build in the Kaliphlin thread ('two studs high')??? Because the island turned out nice and the guardian and the piscithopter are excellent. And the pieces fit together very nicely. I also do not understand how you got the piscithopter flying in your first picture. Is this a forced perspective, a photoshop, or is it hanging on a thread?

Ah, Professor Tobias Felix Moniker the third... a good and very respected colleague of mine... I am glad he helped you to find the crystal. Maybe you should visit him and thank him? Or did our youth not learn any manners? Your entry is very nice, I especially like that you presented your story like a movie (the first picture of the characters, all text as dialogues, action pictures...) but also the build is excellent . Well done for Kaliphlin!

You can do it, Gabe! Faster! It is a pleasure watching you making progress so fast. I can literally feel the haste when I read your words... I like watching sports... It looks like your building frenzy will produce a fantastic entry ! I wish good luck also to all other guild members (who I hope work as fast as Gabe to get their entries finished!?) Good luck Mikel, NiceMarmot, Basiliscus, DaMaximus, and who else has some wip going... I hope you can make it!

You can build plants out of any piece, don't you? I like this creative piece usage very much. The blond hair, all these heads from Atlantis creatures... At first I was not too sure about the black raft on black water, but now I think it works because of different texture and height. The unexpected pol-men are great as well! I think for me this is one of my favorite builds in your (altogether huge and epic!) challenge three entry.

Even your wip pictures were great and I enjoyed them a lot. Now it's finished and even better. I especially like the vultures and all the green that re-occupies what men had once built. Also that you chose to present your story in the form of letters makes it very authentic. And I like the end titles of all the protagonists (like in a movie) . So what is he doing, the guy behind the tree?

Thank you for the comments, I really appreciate it. I am glad you like the story. The mechanism for the opening of the flower and the round base were the main challenge for me. Somehow for this build it was difficult to take a picture that shows an overview. (I am not really satisfied with the one I showed.) The round base is made with the technique by John Boozer (your first link), which works very well. (But not all diameters are possible.) The flower technique I saw first in a moc by Siercon and Coral, who credit eilonwy77 on their flickr page. both, how'd you know?

Greetings, fellow guild members! Look at me, trying to be a bad guy: If you wonder why, read on! Mikel and NiceMarmot, the WIPs look amazing! Abū Alī

I am looking for the blue flower I am looking and never find it Me dreaming that in the flower My good luck is blossoming* So you want to know how I found the blue crystal? It is a story that you may not believe, but then, how many crystals have you found in your life yet? The knowledge about where the water crystal might be hidden was not very difficult to obtain. I simply read it in a book by Novalis,** okay, it was not clearly written... but I suspected. The difficult part was to get there... First, I took my camel and a bellows (an apparatus with which you can deliver pressurized air). And then I put both in a non-parking zone in the midst of Petrea on a busy workday. And waited... and waited... until finally the police showed up. Then it only took a little effort to argue and some heating up so the situation could escalate. In the end I managed to spend the night in the prison of Petrea. I knew that being bound in jail was a prerequisite for finding the crystal. This is because you acknowledge freedom much more if you are in danger of loosing it. I rejoyced but did not show it on the outside. I was looking forward to the night. In the night I dreamt of the blue flower. You should know that one cannot dream of the blue flower being complacent after a delicious dinner, sleeping in a warm and cosy bed. No, you have to feel a little uneasy, a bit like a teenager. I am a good dreamer. It didn't take me long and me, the camel, and the bellows arrived altogether at the blue flower. So you ask why did I need a bellows? Well, the water crystal was hidden in the flower, the flower protected the crystal. Now it was time to use the bellows. So I blew wind on the wind detector. When it turns, the blue flower slowly opens up.*** It showed me its secret... and there it was: the water crystal! I easily picked it up and felt like the champion of Kaliphlin! Wait, you ask, what use is a dream and a crystal found only in a dream. Well, I am a good dreamer and the blue flower is very powerful. The next morning, when I woke up in the prison, guess what I was holding in my hand! Unlike on my way in, the guards didn't check my pockets on my way out. Cheers, Abū Alī *Ich suche die blaue Blume, Ich suche und finde sie nie, Mir träumt, dass in der Blume Mein gutes Glück mir blüh. Joseph von Eichendorff **The youth was restless on his bed and thought of the stranger and his stories. "Not the treasures are the ones who have awakened such an unspeakable longing in me," he said to himself, "far from me is all covetousness: but I long to see the blue flower." [...] But what attracted his notice most, was a tall, light blue flower that grew beside the spring and touched him with its broad, glossy leaves. (Der Jüngling lag unruhig auf seinem Lager und gedachte des Fremden und seiner Erzählungen. »Nicht die Schätze sind es, die ein so unaussprechliches Verlangen in mir geweckt haben«, sagte er zu sich selbst; »fern ab liegt mir alle Habsucht: aber die blaue Blume sehn' ich mich zu erblicken." [...] Was ihn aber mit voller Macht anzog, war eine hohe lichtblaue Blume, die zunächst an der Quelle stand und ihn mit ihren breiten, glänzenden Blättern berührte.) Novalis: Heinrich von Ofterdingen ***some underlying technic

DaMaximus, I understand that you want some numbers when you tell stories. I agree with NiceMarmot that the actual number of soldiers in an army is not more than some thousands (and most of the times much less). When you tell stories you can, however, exaggerate quite a bit (Scare our enemies!). So I am fine with any number you put in your story. I would not like, however, a strict conversion between minifigures and actual soldiers. I think a minifig is a minifig and that alone can be a force to be reckoned with... In most mocs (besides pure army building) such a conversion would not make much sense in my opinion. Abu Ali is unique and does not come in ten-packs!