NiceMarmot

Verified? I don't think so. You just have to post a build with a story that takes place in a certain geographic location, and then request that be added to the maps. Not all locations can fit on the maps, so it depends a bit on where it it is and how important it is to ongoing stories. If it's a location that crammed in near a bunch of other places, so there's not much room on the map for a label, and you only build one small MOC there and will never build again, I'll probably leave it off the map. But if it's a location kinda on its own geographically, and you're going to use for an ongoing storyline, it will probably make it onto the map at some point.

Hello all. I'll be updating the Kaliphlin maps over the next few days (at long last!). Please let me know if there are any towns, cities, points of interest, etc. that you all would like added to the maps. The general rule is there must at least be one build in a location before it makes it onto one of the maps. I know that Scaevola has some outstanding map requests. Ruadh has made it onto the latest versions already. Anyone else?

If anyone needs to build up their army, Castle Forest Ambush 70400-1 is currently on sale at Amazon and ToysRUs for $7.98. With four minifigures, that's about $2 per minifig, including weapons and shields. That's about as cheap as I've ever been able to build up the army. Plus you get a dog!

Very nice build. Love all the details and NPU such as: the drawers, the legs on the coatrack made of frogs, the dagger door hinges, the Boba Fett jetpack torch holder, etc. The floor, the statue, and the stained glass are well done, but the furniture is really top-notch. We don't see much great furniture in GoH actually. All around great work. +1 for UoP. As for the story discussion, a short story, or even a one sentence description would have been nice. But I'll take a build with no story over no build at all any day.

Nice job. Love the bird catching a fish. Good round tower, nice foliage too. I agree with a few rocks in the creek, or maybe give it a bit of windiness. Also I think you've oversaturated the first and third photos by a bit. Or maybe it's an HDR filter or something. I like the effect you're going for there, but I think it's a bit too much.

Very illuminating ! Been meaning to buy some lighting. What do you think? Easy to use? Well-constructed?

uh oh. Hope you all have a 700 foot wall of ice up there

Sneaking in under the wire, my category A submission for the dwarves!

Category A for the dwarves! Go short guys! http://www.eurobrick...howtopic=104553 Front View

I meant to do all three categories of the Dwarven challenge, but of course ran out of time. So I have an extra long intro story for a rather small build. Front View Southern dwarf Abdullir Lapiscarver and his compatriots pay their respects to the ancient statue of Wandrir Southseeker, deep in the mine tunnels under Mt Erezhi in Kaliphlin. Back Left Side: Back left side Back Side: Back side Right Side: Right Side The Rickety Bridge: The Rickety Bridge Thalir loses his footing Thalir loses his footing The statue of Wandrir Southseeker statue Bridge again: Bridge Closeup Look who's here! And he's lost a ring in the lava... Look who's here! Fire demon in the lava cave below Fire Demon in Lava Pit And here's the big story: Old mother Lapiscarver was giving her son, Abdullir, a beardful. "You're not joining those old fools in Mitgardia!" she demanded. "They're being led down the proverbial mineshaft by the beard! We Kaliphlin dwarves have no quarrel with the Avalonian elves, and even the Drow are decent trading partners, as long as you watch your back. Why go up there and get yourself killed?" "We dwarves must stick together, and drive out the heathen scum!" the youth retorted. “Solidarity with our oppressed brothers from the north! The dwarven peoples rise up as one! Even though we southern dwarves were accidentally shipwrecked in Kaliphlin centuries ago, we should still support our Mitgardian brothers!" “What are you talking about?” his mother scolded. “Wandrir Southseeker wasn’t on a pleasure cruise when he was shipwrecked. He and his clan were forcibly exiled from Mitgardia at spearpoint. They were lucky to escape with their lives." “Kids these days; they don’t know anything.” sighed the old crone. “Our ancestors didn’t want to go back, and didn’t feel very brotherly towards to Mitgardian dwarves. When Thonur Granitefist came to power in the North, and invited the southern dwarves back, Wandrir sent his emissary back north packed in barrel of black oil, with a lapis lazuli stuck in his mouth. That’s how the southern dwarves felt about going back north." “Well,” Abdullir hesitated for a second before recovering his fervor. “High Priest Grart Forgesplitter says that now is the time for dwarves to stand together, to protect ourselves from the tree-hugging infidels. If we don’t fight the elves now, pretty soon they'll be overrunning Kaliphlin itself!" His mother didn’t say what she really thought about the self-appointed “High Priest” Grart. That would only make her son defend him adamantly. “The best way to protect Kaliphlin dwarves is to stay home and build up our armories. The Revolword war seriously depleted our weapon-stock, and we need good armorers and weaponsmiths to replenish. Even though you're just a young dwarf, you’re one of the best in the region. You’re the Lord’s Armorer in Sandstuck. What about your responsibilities?" Abdullir felt a tug on his conscious, but refused to let it gain ground. “Mother, I’m 97 years old now. I know you think that’s young for a dwarf to be out on his own, but I’ll be with others, good strong young dwarves like Cragin Foebasher, Barek Graniteleg, and Kirthen Stonethrower. Grart says I’m to be the leader of the group. I can’t let them down." “Phah!” snorted his mother. “Altogether that lot is about twenty karats short of pure gold! Cragin only knows five words, and four of them are kinds of rock. Barek keeps losing his tools and weapons everywhere. And Kirthen was banned from the mines after the third time they found him whimpering lost in the under-tunnels. Why do you want to fall in with those losers?" The young dwarf did not react well to this criticism of his compatriots. “They are true dwarves of the pure golden way, sworn to brotherhood on the holy anvil of Southseeker himself! You shall not dissuade me! We go to purify the north of its elven infestation!" "Well, I see that you're as stubborn and firm as obsidian. Promise me two things though," she conceded wearily. "Maybe. What?" asked Abdullir carefully. "First, if anything bad happens, you go straight to Lady Sharitah's cousins in Valholl and get them to help you. Don't trust the dwarves to help you. Regardless of what you think, you're not one of them; you're an outsider, and they won't hesitate to throw you to the wolves. Be careful of any special tasks they give you; they're probably setting you up because you're dispensable." He nodded slowly. "OK. The Lady gave me a letter to give to her cousins, so I have to stop in Valholl and see them first anyway." His mother looked him in the eyes and added, "And secondly, you must visit the statue of Wandrir Southseeker in the mines at Erezhi, and pray for your safe return." Abdullir stroked his beard as he thought it over, and then assented. "It's on the way. The boys won't mind; I'm sure. If it will make you feel better." So our youthful dwarf and his compatriots soon found themselves winding through the caverns deep under Mt Erezhi, far below the fabled mines still being worked by their relatives. The negotiated rotting, ancient wooden bridges across lava pools, taking care not to provoke the man-bats, gollums, and fire demons that live nearby. Finally they came upon a spire of rock in a large cavern, topped by a huge, old grey statue of a strange, beardless dwarf, the ancestral leader of the southern dwarves, Wandrir Southseeker. I'd like to a get two subjects approved for the UoP DoH program: Landscape Design - extreme environments (lava), and Landscape Design - studs up rocks and cliffs Thanks for looking (and reading)!

+1 on all subjects. This is really very nicely done. Great idea, and very well executed.

Jan 4th? Oh crud, I thought I had until the 31st for some reason! Well, I've had the part A built for a while. Guess I probably won't get the rest completed. Maybe part B will happen.

Really nice job with this! I gotta get a table saw like that... +1 on the UOP claims

BrickCurve - I kind of like the bridge idea, although both would be good. Finished my challenge build A , except I can't find one minifig I need for it... Raining heavily the past few days here in Kaliphlornia (finally!), so I can't really take good photos anyway, but hope to have it up soon. I was disappointed in the LEGO sales this November. Didn't buy anything at all, unlike previous years when I've found good deals to be had. Did anyone get any good deals?

Good tree, really wonderful house, and a very nice base! I agree that the tree/tower transition isn't great. I dint think it's your build, but instead just the oddity of a stone structure on top of a tree. Perhaps it would look better if the tower base was wood?

2A. We've see a lot of flying creatures witht the Mount Up competition. Would be a change to see some underground action. Nice build- good rockwork and a nice tree.

Great work! Really like this beautiful interior; well done on the half-timbered look. And nice furniture too!

Great. I think I got it. But just in case... tell me the whole thing again; I wasn't listening.

Welcome cookiesdad! You have excellent judgement, as exemplified by your choice of guild. Your post all sounds pretty good to me. Pretty much any unclaimed area is OK, and as for the towns with people building in them already, if you ask nicely, you'd probably be welcome there too. We're not nearly as territorial as those tree huggers in Avalonia; their green tights get them all riled up... (By the way, I think those are the "Wither Woods" north of Eastgate, although you'd be welcome to put a Whispering Woods somewhere else...)

Good luck! We'll miss you. Maybe there will be some time for some LDD builds...

I've BrickLinked some short legs and beards, so I'm ready to go! (Well, I will be as soon as the pieces arrive...)

Has anyone played around with this round wall technique? I stumbled across it this morning while fooling around with ideas for the Dwarven Challenge. It's of limited usefulness, due to high parts usage (~84 to complete a one-row circle), and fairly fixed dimensions of the wall -- about 4.5 inches in diameter all the way around. But the look is kinda neat -- with tan and dark tan it might look like thatching. You can offset pieces across rows to build up more than one row. In spite of the non-standard connections, it's pretty solid.

Nice job on the windows and the frames. And great bear claw! Like the others, I like the clean, simple design of Mitgardian architecture!

Definitely up for a dwarven collab. Once the team list gets updated, let's get a PM for all the members going so we can plot in secret.

thanks for pointing out the elves theme. I've been so out of it this year I didn't even know about that theme. the parts and the colors look pretty interesting. Especially like that new fence piece. I don't buy a lot of sets these days unless they are on clearance. But I will probably definitely Bricklink some of those parts. By the way, you don't want to know what Auto-Correct suggested when I was typing "I don't buy a lot of sets"... Glad I caught that one before I hit Post; could have been quite embarrassing!