Spader

Thank you very much! For whatever reason, the inside of forts come easier than the outside...... This is just the beginning... :) Thank you for the kind comment!

I'm gonna echo previous commenters, but with good reason. The roof is fantastic, the building quite nice, and underrated is the posing and picture quality. Keep it up!

Very clean, I love the tiled floor, and that is a superlative use of those star wars planet things!

Brings Minas Tirith to mind, a little. Very good scaling and nice work!

Excellent coloration, nice architecture, and the sloped stone street absolutely make this build.

the river flow is beautiful here, may have to use that design myself. Very nice!

Orsen Waythe is something of a nomad, so it would be reasonable to run into him anywhere in the vicinity of the Wastelands. That said, you may be better served using the Mayor of Gromm (the town that is 'the crystal in the rocks of the wasteland' according to Waythe) or Raven Fernwood, the wealthy businessman, politician, and partner in the Black Lodge Trading Company (frankly you could put him wherever you want in Varlyrio, he travels alot). Feel free to use Fernwood or the Mayor (if you're building in the area) in anything you do. Given how fast I finished my first, I think I can get one more in before the deadline. But we shall see. Speaking of which..... My entry to Cat. C

And here is my entry, done quite a bit earlier than expected (thank you, no homework this week)

Previously... <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Raven Fernwood was a bigger man than I had thought. I had expected a meeting with one of the heads of the Trading conglomerates, or perhaps their representative. Instead, tucked in an alley in the town of Gromm, the Governor of the Wastelands was staring past me. We were standing outside of a monastery of some kind, or at least I assumed a monastery. This was it. This was my chance. Refusing to look at me, the Governor cleared his throat. "I understand you know Raven Fernwood." "Perhaps I do." He opened his mouth, then closed it. Struggling, he managed, "So you are the survivor of the civil war inside the Marauders we have to deal with." A fire welled up inside me. All forethought left me. I slammed my helmet on the cobblestone street. "I'm no Marauder. I am Aarinstahrr of the Black Lodge, Raxus Orsen Waythe, warrior of the wastelands. You didn't get a new band of Marauders. The Marauders are dead and gone, in the ash heap of history as far as I'm concerned. And I was the one that broke them." Where disgust had once been, intrigue replaced it. "Why?" And then my speech came to me. "Perhaps you haven't realized, Governor, but a Queen sits on the throne of Historica. For many a year, we have had freedom in our affairs, with no one to rule these lands. And we have flourished. Gromm was once a hut and a well, and now it sits as the crystal in the rocks of the wasteland. But the Queen has acted, taking from one mouth to give to another." "For the good of those starving," he replied, slowly. I smiled. A wolfish smile. I could see it unnerved him. "Sure, of course. For the good of the people. And then, Governor, for the good of the people she will move our troops to borders more important to her. And then for the good of the people, she will take our wealth, which we bleed for, and give it to those who can't pull themselves out of a bottle. She will create charters, without which it will be illegal to trade as we have. And we will be powerless to stop her." "She is a good woman." "So were many, before they felt the power in their hands. I know not her heart, but I have seen the lust of Kings, and I assure you she is not immune from it. None are." "Then we are once again under a..." The Governor looked at me. "Unless we act now. I am no refined gentleman, but I am not a barbarian. Where the Marauders brought chaos, I can bring order. Order necessary to maintain a free Varlyrio. Order necessary to see our fruits continue to mature. You and I, we will check each other. As long as we stand united, Varlyrio shall bow to no grant Queen. But if I am to be an agent of order, I need a seal." "What do you need?" And here came the money part. I was gambling, gambling more than I ever had. What I was asking was not just a risk to myself, but to Varlyrio. But I needed it. "I need to appointed Judge." "The Wastelands haven't had a Judge since Revolwold," The Governor murmured. "Nonetheless it is what I require. Think, Governor. The return of the Judge would mean trade routes would be even safer than they were, more open to commerce. And more to the point, Queen's edicts would be under my purview to enforce. But as the Judge's code states, my duty is to enforce just laws, and just laws only." "I am taking an awful risk, Orsen Waythe. If I am to do this, I must have one question answered. Why did you leave your leader, at a moment your aid would have been indispensable." Unexpected, but bitter all the same. In the end, it was a small price to pay, but I still hated paying it. "I was his son, not his 'adopted son'. He wished me to marry my half-sister, and she wished the same. He told me I would do it, or die. So I left." "Oh that our secrets will remain better hidden," The governor said, with genuine weariness. "You shall have your warrant. I will bring back the position of Judge of the Wastelands."

Duly noted. And mccoyed answered your question well enough I think. Thanks man! Yeah that's not a bad idea, just need to brush up on that HTML.....and thank you much for the compliments on the story! I'll definitely go with a different color in the future...thanks for the feedback! I need to work on my photography setup, and hopefully once that gets improved so too will the picture quality. Thank you so much for the compliments on the story and build! Thanks! In hindsight, I should perhaps have done a straight angle wall, instead of the layout I did. You're right too that the frame provides little defense in any real way. Thanks for the feedback! Will do, and thank you much! Much appreciated!

I did wonder how well sets that are basically unchanged from a design less than 5 years old would sell. IMO it was a weird choice to lead with, but oh well. I do think a Jango Slave I would sell like hotcakes given that the last one we saw was very simplistic compared to the advances Lego Star Wars has made, purely in new pieces.

Strange. Given that they rolled out the new design, I would've thought they would give it to someone, but apparently not. Blue legs don't make sense to me either given that they printed a skirt for her...........I may try out different legs on the minifigure when I get her.

It'll be interesting to see if Dorothy has the mid-sized legs the HP Minifigure series introduced.

Admitting I'm something of a purist at heart, most minifig customs I have done have no actual alteration (just mixed & matched lego parts) but my sister offered to paint one of my fedoras, and I was shocked at how much better it looked. It was a lesson in how far a little custom work can go. The Shadow is a comic hero that was the main inspiration for the original Batman, V for Vendetta, and many others. I hope you guys like this minfig, even slightly modified, as much as I do. "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

A slightly bigger base would have served you well here, but I like the building and other commenters are dead on about how good that crooked tiling looks.

Absolutely love the tiling on the ground there, and that's some creative parts usage.

Finished my 1D a day before I left, just now got the story written out. Now for that Challenge II build.....

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> The Gauntlet had been thrown down. Never in my wildest dreams had I entertained the idea that the Marauders would fall for my trap so perfectly. They were the old guard, furious at an affront to their 'honor'. All it required was an easy sale of some Black Lodge Dragon armor to the Queen's troops. Just as I foresaw, instead of making their presence felt, after a raid and nothing more than a few broken bones, the Queen's troops left in a huff, ready to tell their monarch of the barbarians in western Varlyrio. Then I struck. The information on their camp had not come cheap, but it had come so easy I feared the worse. So instead of a march, I led shock troops, my lancers into the Marauder camp. In one swoop, I broke the reigning power over these wastelands for 20 years. But the treacherous line I would have to walk was only getting harder. The Company's forces were holed up in Fort Defiance. Thanks to the last Aarinstahrr, Fort Defiance was well supplied and had the geographical advantage of covering the only water for many miles. And while the last remnants of the Marauders were destroyed, here I plotted. I summoned the only two other stake members in the company, neither of which were particularly thrilled with the turn of events. "I suppose I needn't ask which part of you did the thinking about this particular decision." Corcoran played a soldier, a politician, a businessman, but none of them as well as he played a cynic. "My thoughts exactly." Raven Fernwood was a man of means and had taken a risk investing in Black Lodge given that the Company had just been taken over by an illegitimate son who had not been seen in years. But while he was a bigger liability than Corcoran, he was also more amiable to my ideas. "Read the dispatches coming from the Queen's court. We just bought ourselves the Queen's blessing for a business we just eliminated our main rival in." I smiled. "Perhaps you don't realize the-" "I damn well know what the Queen's hand means," Fernwood interjected. "I never swore fealty to some grant monarch. It's the last thing we need." "You think I'm putting all my eggs in a sovereign hundreds of miles from here? Think bigger. This is PR. I would never have taken down the marauders this easy if not for the fact that people hate them. We cannot let that happen." "Which is why I opposed expanding into protection in the first place," Corcoran complained. "No, stop and listen," I snapped. "The Wastelands bow to no king. But some law and order is required. And if we want a free Varlyrio, we need to be the thing keeping it free. The Queen's protectionism won't stop after she gets a taste of the money, let alone the power it holds. If we become the order around here, no Queen's edict will be enforced without our say-so." Raven Fernwood started to smile. "This could work." "Not only work, but this is a solution to more than one of our problems," I said. "All that we need is something, even the tiniest shred of legitimacy. Which is why you two are here. I need to know who to approach." Corcoran looked interested for the first time. "I may have an idea on that front. There are larger Trading Companies that pay for their own private armies, but don't particularly like maintaining them. If you can put on the face of a gentleman, they may just bite. I can get you the locations of their offices, but that may be the best you get." "Give me a few days, and I will have a proposal that they will tell their wives they came up with," I said. My partners shook hands and nodded. I had won the war. It was time to win the peace.

Interesting story and well done forced perspective.

Could've sworn I already commented on this, but anyway excellent work here! The lighting compliments well, and the forge itself is quite impressive.

Thanks! I think do-gooder is the last description Waythe would ever have applied to him. Not to say he won't improve the place he's at, just to say humanitarianism is the last thing on his mind.

Are there instructions for this thing? I'd love to try, even imperfectly, to get this built in bricks

I like the thing, but it feels like a step back given that the last two modulars tiled the entire first floor (the diner tiling is some of the best Lego has ever done for a set). I too will never buy lego knock-offs and appreciate the quality, but I just feel that jacking the price up for a modular that is good, but not great the way the last few were is a bridge too far. If Lego had just been willing to put a little more detail and a few more pieces I would've happily picked this up, but as it is I think I'll keep my fingers crossed for the Lego ideas car wash/record shop next year.

Nice little tribute to the savior of our fallen race.

History, believe it or not.