Henjin_Quilones

The Pies of the Spiderwitch (on behalf of the Resistance) Somewhere in southern Nocturnus, perhaps nestled into the tumbled foothills of the Rakath Mountains, or perhaps near the shores of the salty sea, dwells the Spiderwitch. No one quite knows where she came from, or what she is precisely, or even how long she has dwelt in her halls of weathered stone; but everyone knows to avoid the roads and paths that lead to her treacherous snares. That being said, it seems, for the unwary traveler, especially those merry men from Avalonia come to fight in the civil war, that all paths for miles around lead inexorably towards her tower, as though drawn to the center of a vast web, no matter which direction one turns or how quickly one runs. It is said that she prefers it when they run. She likes the excitement. It is also said about her that no one has ever tasted a pumpkin pie better than that of the Spiderwitch. The veracity of those accounts may be doubted, as no one has ever left from her den alive to spread the tale abroad, but those same rumor-mongers quickly add that no one leaves because they cannot bear to live without the pie. The pumpkin pie is so magical, so enchanted, that even the hideous form of the Spiderwitch is rapturous in its beauty and charm to those under its spell, and the men and elves, and everyone else, never leave because they are so in love with her. So love has blinded them. But who can truly say? If you ever care for a bite, stop by. You might just find yourself a permanent inhabitant. Or ingredient. Bon appétit! Occasionally the Spiderwitch has been known to forget the pumpkins altogether, substituting other, just as tasty, ingredients. But usually she just puts everything into the pie and says the right spells... Edit: In case anyone is wondering how to properly make a pie of this sort, here is the recipe: 6 Avalonian heads, drained 3 medium sized pumpkins, baked and blended 2 c. green slime 2 c. beer 3/4 c. dragon horn, powdered 6 c. shredded carrots 3 stewed orc tongues 5 c. fireweed stalks, diced and cooked 8 c. sugar 1 c. cobweb 2 medium dragon eggs 3 tbsp. cinnamon 1 tbsp. nutmeg 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract 2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. pixy dust 1 pinch eye of newt Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix all the wet ingredients in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and then gently mix into the wet, being careful to stir briskly to avoid clumps. Grease a large pie pan and pour in the pie mix while muttering the crust incantations. Bake for 45 minutes or until the center is firm. Allow to cool for several hours. Serving suggestion: Whipped Avalonian blood topping and a nice pumpkin spice beer to wash it down. Serves 10-15. __________________________________________________________________________________ .................................................................................................................................................................... Thanks for looking! C&C welcome. There are more pictures on Flickr, too, if you click on any of the pictures above. I do not have a light brick, but by shining a flashlight through the back of the oven I thought it created a nice fiery glow.

The dragon head is particularly nice! I love that feature. As a whole I think the build has a lot of promise, but it seems slightly lacking in the details that really make a building "pop", that give it the "wow" factor. These are details like the tiling that LJ mentioned on the ground (LittleJohn, as well as his brother, SoccerKid6, are some of the builders you want to look at and pay close attention to for their details), as well as some sort of more refined transition between the building and the roof, instead of just a plate stuck on top with one stud of overhang. They are also details that require more pieces, especially small pieces like cheese slopes, and take time and patience to perfect, but they really bring a build from the "that's nice" category to the "that's amazing" category. However, I really do like what you have done here and think that it looks good. The vines growing up the building are well-layered, and, as I said before, that dragon head is great, especially the layered angle pieces on the snout. Keep up the good work!

Glad you like it, LJ! Your Nordheim Fjall was something of an inspiration for the rocks. I like the bridge, too.

The portal is very impressive. The fire is well done, especially so in the back-lit picture where it is all aglow. Good work! The crew, too, looks intimidating. I am hoping the wyrm never gets out!

The platform looks great! The straw bales look good, and it looks like it was a good idea to put them there to stop all the arrows that miss. I second Milo, I think they need to keep practicing! Maybe they'll get an arrow to actually hit a target someday... A great little build.

Lovely build you have here! The rocks look great, with the snow covering, and like SK, I love the angle of the bell tower supports and the tower itself. Great work. The roof of the cottage is great, too, capturing the appearance of shingles quite nicely. I also enjoy the stonework of the walls. The only thing I did not really like was the thatching, but on second glance that looks pretty good, too. So I guess I like the whole build. But where did you get the bell?

You could keep him in all three builds as things get bigger around him...

Thank you! Glad you like it. Thanks, BC! Thanks, SK! I'm glad you like the trees, as they were one of the more challenging parts of the build. I can build a dozen Avalonian trees without breaking a sweat, but Nocty trees, especially with a blood river and craggy rocks, are another matter.

This is great! I love how much you can suggest with just a few details, like the fence and path, and the bag of carrots, too. It looks fertile and lush, which is impressive on such a small (and well done) irregular base. But as others have said, the scene-stealer is really that scarecrow.

Well done! This looks very nice. The foliage is nice and thick, the terrain is varied, and the trees are diverse in color, trunk, and style. It looks like, well, a forest, which is a great compliment. My favorite part is the tree with the tan/dark tan trunk; the colors look good together and create a beautiful birch-looking tree. The story was engaging and the fig posing complemented it well. My only criticism is formatting: in the future, start with the story right away and leave the notes and additional, overview pictures until the end. That way you can hook a casual reader more easily. The explanatory material can be a bit dry and might turn some people off before they look through the whole thing. Otherwise, though, it is a great start to your story and a wonderful build!

Thanks! I love the feel of the old school builds out in the Darklands, and wished to emulate that. I'm glad it managed to capture something of that feel for you! Thank you! Glad you like it.

Very nice! you certainly did quite a bit of SNOT-work here, which looks great. The rocky spur coming down from the trees by the Drow is the best, I think, though since the whole terrain is SNOTed that is just one detail I like. The terrain is so varied, and I like that a lot, especially the road set down in a defile like that. Your Drow look great, too, particularly that leader with his gilded armor. I have just two things that I think could be done to improve the build. The first is that the border, rather than making the whole thing look sharper, actually detracts slightly (in my opinion) due to the presence of so many visible studs, especially surrounding a (relatively) studless build. I think it would be improved by some tiles on the top of the border, or else trying to find a way to make the border SNOTed too to hide the top studs. The second suggestion I have is to have fewer, but thicker, trees. What I mean is that you have a bunch of trees, but they are fairly sparsely leaved, and I think it would look better to consolidate it a bit to have more leaves per tree, but fewer trees. That being said, I think that the story does a great job of accompanying the build and was fun to read. The decision at the end to kill the Drow and take the gold surprised me a bit, I have to say, but I guess I am more accustomed to Avalonian customs than to Nocturnian savagery. It was a good twist.

I'm not sure I would buy a set just to learn a technique. If you like the minifig selection, or are enamored of the parts, or something, then of course buy it, but if you are curious about how something is put together Lego has all of the instructions for sets going back to at least the early 2000s posted on their website. I have done that a few times, like when I wanted to know how they created the structural integrity of the Avengers' Helicarrier so I could try to build a spaceship that size. I am a bad MOCer in that I dislike going to the PAB wall and just buying bricks, even though I know it is the best way to get what I want sometimes and often regret not doing so later, but I so love the thrill of opening a new set and putting it together right away that I have a hard time saying no to sets. But buy what you want and learn the techniques in other ways. That's my recommendation.

This is a fun build, nicely incorporating some elements from modern race sets with the days of yore in Historica. I was hoping the duke would have a horse-emblazoned Ferrari shirt on, though, rather than just his red armor... But seriously, this is well-done. The red looks good as an accent color throughout, appropriate to the Ferrari theme, and are those stacked tiles creating the brick effect on the corners? There looks to be too much of a groove to be mere plates. It looks great either way. There are many lovely details, like the brown flower pieces on the duke's canopy and the staggered stands to create an angled racecourse. My one real complaint is that I do not like the solid blue for water in the water trough; I would have preferred some type of trans-blue to be used, but it is a good detail anyway. Also, (and I think there is no way around this so I am not sure it is a fair complaint,) it seems remarkably static for a race scene; the horses are the only steeds that look to be moving in any way, with the camel, ostrich, and scorpions all looking like they are just standing there. That is the fault of the pieces, since they are made that way, but I wish there were some way to imply that they are all hurtling along at breakneck speed instead of perhaps being out for a leisurely stroll. The crowd, though, is full of action, and looks very vibrant, though it would be nice if they were also wearing Ferrari clothing (or perhaps representing the other teams, too, a bit more obviously--besides the mummies, of course). I also love the two chariots, especially the mummy's. The way you hooked up a team of scorpions is delightful! Another great build from you, LJ.

Thanks Garm! They give it an interesting look that is not often seen in Lego mountains, almost volcanic-esque in my opinion. Thank you ME! I am glad you like the build. I used many of the black hairpieces that I have for these fine fellows (and two ladies, too!), even including a Superman curl there if you look closely. I always feel bad for Orcs and the like for getting the short end of the stick stylistically, so they got a makeover, a full spa treatment even. Most impressive is that their hair still looks this good after weeks on the march... Thanks en_zoo! It was very deliberate, and I am glad you caught it. Well, it's actually Pantene Pro-V, but thanks! And the ladies use Maybelline products, or maybe they were just born with it. Who can tell?

Shoot, I was hoping no one would notice that spot with all the exposed studs on the rocks! I took off a few pieces there while I was trying out different things in that crack area, first a rat, then the snake, then two snakes, and back to just one, and then I forgot to put the pieces back in place at the end of it. I didn't notice until I was editing the pictures and by then it was night, and I figured it would not be a big deal. Oh well. What can you do, right?There are actually eight of those 1/8th ball pieces in the rock, to the point that it became almost a stylistic theme. I chose to top the section of mountain with it for that reason. (The others are harder to spot as they are oriented in all different directions). But thank you for your kind words!

No, not really. Don't wait. Book III might still be months away, and there is much building to be done in the meantime! Pick a guild, introduce your primary sigfig, and start building. There are a few minichallenges up over in Nocturnus that are open to anyone, and Mitgardia has a members-only build going, but otherwise feel free to build whatever your medieval-MOCer's heart desires. I personally recommend Avalonia, as it is my place of residence, but there are many good things found all over the place. There are even days I wish I had chosen Mitgardia or Nocturnus, since they have some pretty fun stuff there, so I do not think you can really go wrong with what you choose.

Thank you! The bridge was fun to make, inspired by the one in the SW Ewok Village set but improved upon. And the rocks were a fun, multi-directional puzzle. Glad you like the result. Thanks, Titus! I needed something to break up the dark red, and nothing seemed to work until I saw those trans-neon green pieces. I thought the effect was appropriate to Nocturnus and its hostile environment. Well, I have to say that the dark red-neon green river is not supposed to appeal to anyone...personally I'll take a nice, crystal clear stream any day over a blood red-and-neon sludge. But it seemed to fit the landscape, and I lacked enough of other colors, like lime green, to have a go of it. I am glad you like the rest of it, though.

Welcome, Brynden! LDD is a perfectly acceptable means of building if that is what you have at your disposal. Don't let a lack of bricks hold you back!

My entry to this minichallenge: Crossing the Sayn Gwinos River http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=140457

Resistance sympathizer King Zalgel has sent Urkan, his chief general, from his city of Griznâg in the depths of the Enchanted Forest of Avalonia to join with his royal cousin, Frykka the Brown, in Nocturnus in battle against the traitorous Black Spire. To get there, the band of orcish soldiers has had to brave many hazards, from fierce-eyed Elvish hunters, roaming human cavalry patrols, deserts, fell beasts, and now, at last, the towering Rakath Mountains. On the eastern side of those lofty peaks runs a river, red as freshly spilled human blood, called the Sayn Gwinos River by those who have made the maps. A single bridge crosses the that crimson stream, passing through the ensnaring webs of many deadly spiders. Will the orcs make it to Frykka's warband alive, to swell the ranks of the Resistance against Raavage's tyrannical reign, or will they perish in the mountains, struck down by noxious rivers and venomous arachnids? Time alone will tell... ___________________________________________________ ...................................................................................................... Introducing my second build for the Nocturnian Minichallenges. The photography hopefully looks quite a bit better for this one as I took some advice I was given and took the pictures outside in a shady spot with my old point-and-shoot digital camera. All the grey for the rocks makes me appreciate LittleJohn's Nordheim Fjall that much more...

You have made an interesting little cave here! My favorite part is the stalactites hanging down from the ceiling. A few of things to work on: first, photography (I am terrible at this, so I won't give you any tips; others, better than I, can do that ); second, sizing, since it does not fit into the 16x16 template--though it could with a bit of modification, especially the removal of the tan baseplate; third, your stone work is very, very busy, with every imaginable texture included, from hinges to grill bricks to brick-relief bricks to the log bricks and more, and it is just too much. I know that you have said that it is all of your grey, and that is fine, but in the future try to avoid so many textures at once; each of them, alone, looks good (except the grill bricks, acknowledged as being inferior for stonework), but together it is just a jumble. I love the story, though, as well as the image of Wodinn, and hope to see more from you soon! p.s. For which side is this built, the Resistance or the Spire? You should edit your post to declare for one or the other, per challenge rules.

Yes, it is better. The dark grey in the wall detracted from the dark grey of the rock outcropping; this allows the rocks to be their own thing.

Lovely little wall there! The detail under the battlements with those modified clips, or whatever they are called, looks fantastic. The only part I do not really like is the amount of greebling on the wall itself; there just seem to be too many different textures and colors going on all at once. The back part of the wall, though, looks great, with the vendor's stall and the little kitten trying to get the fish. Well done!

Beautiful! It almost perfectly captures what I imagine eastern Avalonia looking like, with those grasslands, wetlands, and varied forests (of course the Mystic Isles and Enchanted Forest are a whole other animal when it comes to flora and terrain). The trees are lovely, even the angular boxy ones, since there is not really any other way of building them that I can think of, and the pine forest looks good, too. The small amount of human activity in the corner give the whole thing visual interest and brings it to life, particularly with those small details noted by the others. The grain field is perhaps my favorite part, though that marshy area is a close second. Excellent work!