An Ancient Treasure

[gedren_y]

Millennia ago, when the great city of Kaligem was at it's height, a magical golem was created to serve the Emperor. It was controlled with a small carving of red jade topped with gold, but only the ruler of Kaligem could make the golem respond.

Over time the golem was needed less and less. Eventually it was moved into the secret treasure vault, to help the Emperor manage the vast amounts of gold and gems.

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Fourteen hundred years ago the Kaliphlin Emperor had moved to the new capitol, Cedrica. When it was decided to move the treasure to Cedrica as well, the current Emperor could not make the golem move. The Emperor was no longer the ruler of Kaligem.

Workers tried to move the golem for days, but they couldn't get it to budge. Even the pedestal it stood upon wouldn't move. Eventually it was decided that the golem would have to stay. The control carving was later placed in the Cedrica treasure vault, and simply forgotten about.

Centuries later, the current King (before his fall) unknowingly gifted the control carving to the Mitgardian Jarl, who gave it a place of honor in Valholl.

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During Victor Revolword's occupation of Cedrica, his brother Kaïn discovered the secret of the golem and became obsessed. And when rumors began to circulate about Kaligem being found, Kaïn's obsession passed into a determined madness.

Kaïn's capture at, and subsequent escape from, Valholl was orchestrated for the sole purpose of finding the control carving. Now he has it. If he can find and conquer Kaligem, the golem will be his to command.

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"I feels it, Master," Gibble, the deformed orc babbled, "It's down, Master. Down! Down! Down!"

KR Top 01 by gedren_y, on Flickr

Kaïn had no magical senses, so he was forced to rely on Gibble, and had been following him for days in the badlands.

KR Top 02 by gedren_y, on Flickr

Kaïn swung his scimitar into the sand, only to have it clink against solid sandstone millimeters down.

"No entrance here," Kaïn growled, "But we are close, and Kaligem itself shouldn't be much farther."

"Down, Master, down!" Gibble continued to babble, until Kaïn chopped his head off and took the control carving.

KR Bottom 01 by gedren_y, on Flickr

KR Bottom 02 by gedren_y, on Flickr

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Here's the top without figs.

KR WO Figs by gedren_y, on Flickr

[Yzalirk]

Awesome! But that Squidward head is really freaky!

[-Horizon-]

Awesome! But that Squidward head is really freaky!

Yeah, adds to the annoyance factor....

The Sand on the roof looks great.

[Lord Vladivus]

Nice sand! And the golem looks cool too!

[Maxim I]

Such a nice golem!! And I really like the architecture of the cellar!!!

[robuko]

Oho, the plot thickens! Things could get very interesting. ... Love the squidward head, shame it didn't stay on his shoulders. That sand/stone technique looks very good in the first two shots.

[Gunman]

Inderesting texturing at the last photo gedren :)

[Scaevola]

Great sand on top. Nice job with the lower architecture as well

[LordDan]

Nice sand technique. The architecture of the chamber on the bottom is very cool. I especially like how the Ceiling is tiled.

[gedren_y]

The golem idea has been in the works since the end of Book I, but had to wait until I finished some more important story builds. I think the Mark 3 Iron Man armor works quite well.

The ceiling tiling is rather simple. For the tan tiles, I bought the Friends buildable jewelry box. It had lots of those inverted 2x2 tiles. for the reddish brown tiles, I used a technique known as "Defying the Brick with the U-Clip." The Brickarms u-clip can be used for snot techniques to connect the bottoms of thin plates/tiles together. This technique also should not violate the contest rule about non-Lego parts, as it is an aftermarket accessory intended to be used with Lego.

[-Carson Haupt-]

Very interesting.

[soccerkid6]

Very cool sand effect with those round pieces and the underside of the roof being tiled is neat

[Gabe]

I like the sand pattern, very cool. Perfect use for the Iron Man minifig too!

[gedren_y]

The sand technique is one I've used before a couple of times. It was inspired by something I saw in an MOC a while ago. That builder (can't remember who) had used those round plates in dark bley to create a stone footpath on a green baseplate. There is also a technique using those to create a cobblestone street, but it is parts intensive.

The Squidward head was a last minute change from a standard orc head. Some of those licensed figure parts can be difficult to find a use for if you don't build in those themes. I was lucky that I had it mixed in with my orc figure parts. It gave the scene the needed comic edge.

[Gideon]

Very nice minifigs and sand technique!

I think you still need to work on your photography however, maybe backing away with the camera and zooming in instead would eliminate the blurriness? (Provided that the cause is that the camera is too close to the figs and can't focus)

[de Gothia]

Love those minifigs!!

I agree with Gideon here, your mocs deserves better photos... Try to take a photo of the whole moc, the overall shot you have now is cut in the bottom. Little things that adds so much to the presentation.