NiceMarmot

I think this is probably a good place for the orcs. Perhaps they should be mostly in the foothills of the mountains, venturing out onto the plains only to harass the occasional Avalonian caravan? I'm not sure they should have control of where the Qarkyr road meets the escarpment, but allowing them to interrupt it occasionally might be interesting. Another decent spot for them would be the northern parts of the Westersands desert, between the Arkbri River and the Wither Woods. From there they could easily raid the southern parts of Avalonia. Just reminds me that I've really got to get new versions of the maps out soon!

Feel free to use any of my MOCs, pics, etc. Good luck with the effort! BTW, I found a ton of yetis when I went to the LEGO store looking for CMF 11s. Picked up two. Lucked into one Tiki dude; they seem quite rare. I hear ya about the climbers. Found a lot of policemen also.

Gex Marmota, reporting for duty. Looking forward to book II, and hoping to have more time to build. Gideon, I hear you about the administrative duties of the high council. That's why I nominated my wife to attend all of the meetings! I'm kinda excited to build some Nocturnus style stuff. Just ordered three of the Halloween accessory packs on-sale, and picked up a Ghost Train set for 35% off.

Ooh, I'm liking this civil war thing already. Off to a good start. So what's the difference between the two sides, besides different leaders? Do they stand for anything different, or different beliefs, or different species? Or just two guys who want to rule the same place? And CBB: I always thought Nocturnus was the right guild for you. You produce beautiful flowery landscapes, but I think your heart and mind were always in the darklands!

Welcome to Kaliphlin! May your camel never tire, and may you never run out of sunblock! (ancient traditional greeting there) Very nice introductory build, by the way. I like the SNOT ground with irregular edges! Don't worry about the Lord thing. You can call yourself Lord or Count or Chief Self-flagellating Officer, or whatever. You can pick a city to live in, or be "at-large". If you want to have a geographical base, you could live in one of the larger cities that support multiple characters (Petraea, Qarkyr, and Barqa), or found a new city / town, or live in a town / city that has been named but doesn't have anyone in it, or live in someone else's town with their permission. For instance, my character is based in the Messahmuk area, but he doesn't "rule" the city (although he is on the Council of Elders). However, I'd kinda expect that anyone else wanting to base their character there would ask first (at which point I'd say yes), and would try make their local MOCs fit with the storyline I've started to lay out. Anyway, that's probably more information than you need at this point. We should probably keep a list of "unclaimed" towns on the wiki. So that newcomers can see what's already been named but available. Do we have a comprehensive list of characters and where they live? I suppose Damaximus' city guide would help. (And I should get busy redoing the maps!) BTW, I think you mean Petraea University, right?

Thanks for the heads-up on this site! So much easier to update than BrickBuildr.

Hit the San Mateo / Hillsdale store yesterday, and they had all of the ones you got (except perhaps the 1x2 lavender plates), plus: 1x2 trans blue tiles! 2x2 white jumper plates trans blue and purple 1x1 cones palm fronds I ended up getting four cups worth of it all. So you might want to drive up to San Mateo!

I think that feeling the Bavarian girl might land you in some serious trouble with the Munich police...

Masa, Received your letter today. Apologies for the belated response, but we were traveling down under, and you know how impossible it is to have the mails forwarded via ship through the Southern Ocean. In any case, I'm all tied up with the rebuilding efforts here in the Muk Valley and so on (ugh), but I think I've got the perfect person to help with your quest for the potion ingredients. His name is Farouk; he helped out on the quest for the Water Crystal. He's young, but he's as sharp as a razor, and one hell of an eager kid. Walking encyclopedia sometimes, but he'll have no problem figuring out where to find the ingredient. He's getting to be pretty handy with a mace too; not a bad kid to have watching your back. I realize it's a bit late and after the deadline, but if you still need someone to round up one of the ingredients, well, send a message back with this falcon, and I'll put Farouk on the trail right away. Let me know if I can help out with the siege of Eastgate. I might be able to escape the local politics for a good ol' battle like that! Yours in Kaliphlin, Gex

I can join this one. However, I probably won't be available to start building until mid-next week. I could probably do some planning and story creation before then however.

Actually we should probably let Ska know when we have periods where we'll be away so he doesn't assign us stuff. And more importantly, let him know when we have a period where we have some time, but won't be able to build (like being on a business trip or something with no access to LEGO). Then he could assign us a non-building task, and we'd feel like we were still involved even though we weren't building.

I'm sure you don't need an earthquake as an excuse to spend two full days in the pub!

Not to mention a bunch of earthquakes!

Didn't go to Christchurch, so missed that show. We flew into AKL and connected immediately down to Queenstown, and then spent about 19 days driving back up to Auckland. Really great trip, except we hit a lot of rain on the South Island. Seriously, it rained nine days in a row, then one clear day, followed by another four days of rain. What's up with that? Kiwis clearly have a different view of the weather. Many times when we'd talk to a local about the rain, they would say something like "What? This isn't really rain. Look, you can still see the other side of the road. If it was really raining, you wouldn't be able to see those sheep over there..." Our itinerary was: Queenstown, Te Anau, Milford Sound, Wanaka, Fox Glacier, Franz Josef, Punakaiki, Nelson, Motueka / Abel Tasman NP, ferry to Wellington, Wellington, Taupo, Rotorua, Matamata (Hobbiton), Waitomo, Auckland. It was all great, even in the rain. Hobbiton, by the way, was really good, much better than we had expected. It's done to a very high standard, and the attention to detail is fantastic.

BTW, I'm fine with having council members at-large (e.g., Robuko, Erynlasgalen, etc). I don't think we should make people pick a city or location just so they can be on the council.

Good idea and great work so far. I'll get you some information on Messahmuk. I don't want to rain on your parade, but isn't this the kind of stuff for which the wiki is ideally suited? Easier to maintain and format, can link directly to a particular city, don't have to worry about the topic being pushed down, etc. Maybe we use this thread for discussion and move the definitive city guide to the wiki? There's already pages for a lot of cities there.

I think this is a good way to handle it, Ska. We really need someone who can more actively communicate with the other guild leaders, so we're in the loop on things. Happy to help out if you need it -- just let me know. No travels planned for a while DM - not sure if we need a great general or not, but I'll bet Ska and I could give you a run for your money on armies! I say we appoint generals as and when needed to fit the job. If have a battle that calls for deviousness, treachery, cruelty, and ruthlessness, you'll be the first on my list And I mean that as a compliment!

Ah that explains it. Great entry too, Z. Thanks for the link too; I hadn't caught up on the general GoH thread yet.

Thanks! I owe you some major compliments! I'm back, although it will probably be a few weeks before I'm able to put together any builds. Gex was contemplating his (potential) future role on the Kaliphlin Council of High Lords, as there had been some rumors about the Messahmuk Council of Elders nominating him for it. He was, however, quite surprised when the council voted on the issue. His wife, Countess Wyndifera Edwardhi, was nominated and unanimously approved for the post! Apparently the council thought that Gex was traveling and adventuring too much to be a reliable representative, and that his mind had never fully recovered from certain unspeakable horrors in his adventuring past... He was slightly miffed, but the countess told him to shut up and quit complaining -- this way he could still have influence without having to attend a bunch of boring meetings. Maybe, but he was still a bit ticked, although he felt a lot better after a full day of sand-worm riding in the Dune Sea with his buddies. OOC: If our main character should be the one on the council, I'm fine with that too, but I thought this would be a good chance to expand beyond Gex a bit. OK? BTW, not that I've been nominated for vice-leader, but I don't think I consistently have the time to do the job well, although it certainly would be fun. I'm definitely happy to help with guild administration however. For instance, I'll get another version of the maps going shortly. Perhaps we should make a list of tasks and roles, and then assign them out / ask for volunteers, so the vice-leader doesn't get overwhelmed? We could also rotate these roles regularly to keep people from burning out.

Well, I've finally read through the full Kaliphlin Guild thread! Only about a million other posts to read... @runmymouth: My character lives in Messahmuk, and has been the only one building there so far. He doesn't "rule" the city, although he is on the Council of Elders or something. You're welcome to place your character there too, or claim an open city (Ras-El-Akhen springs to mind as a good candidate if you like swampy New Orleans-style locations...), or build a new city. Congrats on the nuptials! Thanks for including me. I saw the large group photo, but will have to go back and spot myself. 100 sigfigs! That's amazing. ZC won the challenge? I thought the guild leaders weren't eligible to win? Can someone point me at a post with info about "Book II" of GoH? It's referenced quite a bit in the Kali post.

Wow. I hadn't realized this, but as I'm reading through tons of posts trying to catch up, it became apparent that I hadn't really been reading GoH (and EB) since mid-March. So I've got a zillion posts to read. I'll probably comment on some stuff in this thread so I don't bump a bunch of old posts just to say "great job". Speaking of great jobs... Big kudos to the Inside Kaliphlin team! That was just a fabulous effort! Great job to everyone involved, and especially to Kai, whom I think organized it all. I will try and get some of those new locations onto the next version of the maps, which are way overdue, btw. And some big kudos to Ska for his epic Battle of Queenscross thread! That looked like it took some major work and time, although I bet it was a lot of fun. Now back to reading all these posts... Anyone care to point me at some of the highlights of the past few months? And who won the final challenge?

Yes, that's a really great museum. Amazingly well preserved ship, and a fascinating exhibit on how they raised it and preserved it. I really liked it when I lived in Stockholm. There's also a good ethnographic museum nearby, but I'm not sure that would be on my list if I only had a day and half in Stockholm.

Hello everyone! I'm back from our world travels (OK, just Aussie and NZ in seven-and-a-half weeks, but it sure felt like going around the world)! It was a fabulous, epic trip, and the whole family had a great time. I actually checked out of EB a bit earlier than that, just because of work and trip preparations. I'll probably need a few days to get over jet lag, and to read a few thousand posts in this forum to catch up, but am really looking forward to getting re-engaged with GoH and EB. And to you Aussies and Kiwis out there, sorry I never got organized enough to hook up with you all on our travels. We were barely organized enough to make there and back ourselves... Anyway we didn't have any extra baggage allowance at all for pick-a-brick legos for you unfortunately. We brought way too much stuff... Anyone want to quickly summarize for me GoH important events and happenings since probably mid-May or so? Otherwise I'll just settle in for some reading... Gex / NiceMarmot

They had plenty of S9s in the store at Legoland. I thought about trying to find some more Forest Maidens, but didn't have the time. You can never have enough conquistadors! Those are some really nice minifigs! Not sure if they're the best ever, but I'm very happy with all the ones we got; they're very nicely done. Definitely looking forward to getting more Revolutionary Soldiers, Warrior Women, Tomahawk Warriors, and Romans. I forgot to mention that we got two Medusas. Want to also get a Librarian, a Grandpa, and a Decorator. Cannot have enough of those Forest Maidens and Cyclops!

Hello Kaliphliners! Sorry I've been away from EB and GoH for about a month. Real life has intruded, and we had a short vacation too. I definitely miss you all and the forum, although I'm not thrilled about the vast amount of posts to catch up on! I have a lot of reading to do... I probably will not enter the challenge ; not enough time at this point. If I get a chance, I will try to whip together a few small builds, but it's not looking good at this point. I have the story outlined and the builds planned, but nothing more than that. The only good LEGO news coming out of our household recently is that we hit Legoland California over the vacation. My son of course had a fabulous time. The park seems a bit better maintained than it was a year and a half ago when we were last there. We also managed to pick up some Series 10 minifigs there -- a Roman Commander, some Warrior Women, some Tomahawk Warriors, a Sea Captain, a Revolutionary Soldier, a Trendsetter, a Baseball Player, and a Bumblebee Girl. Can't wait to use some of them in upcoming builds. Welcome to Kaliphlin, SSchmidt!