Brickmaestro

Chapter 1 “That’s ridiculous, Fen. I’ve heard that story since I was child, just like you. We’ve always known the Elemental Crystals are just a myth, and the Druid Shrine and all that. I’m not a fool. Where’d you hear that rubbish anyway, from these tin-heads bringing in your safe holdings?” Tash’baan scoffed at the hired soldiers guarding the return of some of the inn’s valuables in a sealed chest. “No - I’m not making this up, Tash. I’m telling you, the governor’s Regent was here, he’s just leaving now. There, look down the road. He had an official proclamation from the High King and Master Flagg himself. Apparently, Master Flagg’s sister actually met the legendary Historian and confirmed the myth’s origins. The Regent read it aloud to everyone in the inn – we all heard it.” Tash’baan turned and started to walk away before Fenrik called out to him, “So, are you gonna go for it? You’ve got nothing to lose.” Tash’baan looked back at his dear friend, “You’re really serious about this?” Fenrik through up his arms and said, “Come on, when have I ever lied to you before? I mean, when it was important.” Tash’baan squinted at the sand blowing by his face and looked around him, surveying the dusty little village he’d called home for the last five years – Kek’baan Al-Thir. His ancestors had settled here three hundred years ago when they discovered the natural spring below the rock’s surface. Precious water in this desert wasteland. The wide rock shelf kept them safe from sand wyrms, and it was equally distant from Qarkyr and the capital Petraea, which allowed them to cash in on local trade routes. Not a bad spit of sand, Tash’baan had often thought to himself. He had left the village as a child, not being content to grow into his ancestral shadow here; frankly, he’d never been able to sit still – always wandering, exploring, searching. He never really knew for what. Now he found himself thinking, if the water crystal really does exist somewhere, by the Gods, I could find it if anyone could. Could this be why I’ve never felt settled anywhere? Always feeling like there was something incredible to be found? “All right, Fen, I’m in – if you’re with me.” Fenrik laughed heartily and tossed his goblet against the inn’s wall where it shattered in a splash of ale and glass. “You’ve got yourself a partner, my friend,” Fenrik replied. “I’ll start making arrangements for provisions through my connections with other merchants. You get a crew together – you were always better getting people to do what you want. Besides, you’re a legend in this rat-infested hole of a town, Tash. Men would follow you anywhere to be associated with one of your adventures.” Tash’baan smiled, he knew it was true. The Baan family name could get a lot in the Parched Lands. Tash’baan the Nomad, off on another adventure, he mused. This might be one for the legendary books. He smiled to himself as he paid the stable boy who had been preparing his camel for a long, hot journey to Petraea to find mercenaries. “You there, boy – I need you to prepare and send a message to my friend Bjorek Magnus. He lives in Ondylion, Southern Mitgardia. Contact Elon Chorian if you need help – he’ll know where to find him. Tell Bjorek I require his “services” on an adventure of untold mystery and danger with a potential “royal” connection to the High King. He won’t be able to refuse. And ask him to bring that blasted lizard of his – he hardly goes anywhere without it, and he could come in handy. You return to me with an answer I’m satisfied with in five weeks’ time and I’ll pay you 100 gold pieces. Get back in three weeks and I’ll make it a tenth of a share in my Black Oil stock with the Petraea General Trading Company.” “Right away, sir. I won’t fail you, sir,” the boy replied as he hurried away. “There’s a good lad,” Tash’baan mumbled to himself.

Fantastic work. I love the old dark feel to it, and the black/transparent orange combo. I've also been finding how often builders get good results after being "inspired" by something they've seen. I need to start researching more to get better ideas for what to build. Anyway - brilliant stuff lisqr.

2) 1 vote 13) 2 votes 17) 1 vote 39) 2 votes 43) 1 vote Good luck to everyone - there is some great ingenuity on display in these entries. I'm really bummed my bricklink order didn't come in time for me to finish my Transamerica Building (in San Francisco) - got everything about a day late on April 8. Oh well, maybe next time. Great work everybody.

Nicely done. It is a shame the quadruple convex slope isn't in sand green - it would have been a nice touch. All the same, great work.

Nice work - and a clever interpretation. It's just about impossible to get those curving oriental roof lines at such a small scale, but kudos to you for taking it on. Good luck.

This is brilliant. After studying Palladio extensively in architecture classes I've always loved his symmetry and classical themes. Very nice interpretation here.

Fantastic interpretation - great scaling of the details. Very impressive work. Good luck in the contest.

There are some tricky shapes to this tower - nice interpretation though. As others have suggested, perhaps white with brown might have been more representative, but I like it all the same. For the spire you might have considered stacking technic gears of different sizes to achieve the tiered effect. Great job all around, though.

Really nice work - wonderful interpretation of the unique shapes of this magnificent structure. Perhaps the only consideration to something I might tweak would be making the spires more individual and different since that is one of the unusual defining traits of the complex. Just a thought.

Everyone else is already saying what I would have - unbelievable work. Particularly love the lower round staircase and the tower staircase - brilliant stuff. A wonderful twisted sense to it all. Continually inspiring the rest of us. Maybe if I win that $650 million lottery jackpot in California I'll finally be able to buy the LEGO collection I've always dreamed of.

This is gorgeous. I'm recently back into LEGO from the "dark ages" and it has been awe-inspiring to see the incredible ideas builders are coming up with these days. I'm particularly impressed with the tree - is that a Jabba the Hut tail as trunk? Brilliant!

Beautiful waterscaping Gabe - and a compelling story to boot. I'm secretly glad you missed the myth deadline, else you would have squashed my already feeble hopes of ever winning something in a LEGO design contest. The horse has a wonderful sense of movement to him. Nice work.

Very clever use of the dishes. It's got a great Alice and Wonderland feel to it. Now you just need a big brick-built caterpillar sitting on the big mushroom asking "Whooooooo are youuuuuu?"

Yes - the wyrm in this myth is a young one - the "giant" guardian wyrm for Challenge 3 will be larger and different. Thanks for the compliments - I'm still just coming back from the dark ages and trying to find my own LEGO "voice".

Beautiful work as always. Everyone else has noted the brilliance of the table map - I love that. Apart from the very original building you've developed a wonderful storyline as well. Talented builder AND writer. Inspiring stuff for those of us that wish we had the time to do these kinds of builds. Awesome!

Thanks for blowing my cover (just kidding) - that's actually exactly what I was planning to do for Challenge 3, although the giant wyrm will look quite a bit different from this one. I was hoping to make a big surprise with it, but no matter - everybody has great ideas.

"It was when the waters that once covered our land were divided and the dry land appeared that the wyrms came. They were terrible beasts, many of them could swallow an entire caravan in one gaping mouthful. But soon, our Fathers began to understand the way of the wyrms, could identify their movements and signs. The people became less fearful - even the bravest nomads would travel the sands with their flocks and could lead them to safety on the rocks before a wyrm attacked. When our noble father Tish'rok dared to tame them, many of the community laughed him to scorn. But he was undaunted in his determination to conquer the creatures and saw a future when the wyrms could be used to cultivate the lands. On a bright, hot morning, he set out with his companions to an area known to be common to wyrm travel. He waited patiently with his blade and chain, supposing that he could wedge his blade between the hard scales of the wyrm and fashion a harness to ride it. Soon they felt the tell-tale rumble of a wyrm coming to the surface. Suddenly the wyrm burst forth from beneath a dune Tish'rok's companions were perched on, sending is father tumbling down the other side of the dune. In a single movement, Tish'rok bounded off the dune, scrambling up the mountain of sand cascading down from the wyrm. He even managed to wedge his blade into the beast, quickly wrapping his chain around it. With the blade embedded in it's back, the wyrm picked up speed and began to turn violently. Tish'rok tried to hang on, but, well. . . you know the rest of the story:

"Taming the Wyrm" - Mini Challenge entry: I, Tashbaan, recently visited my niece and nephew in Barqa while pursuing some real-estate ventures (good pasture land is hard to come by these days with inflation and all the underwater properties from the speculation land market). As they often do, they asked about my travels, but when they quickly became bored with my adventures they demanded I tell them the legend of our noble Fathers, the ancient Wyrm-riders. So I began: "It was when the waters that once covered our land were divided and the dry land appeared that the wyrms came. They were terrible beasts, many of them could swallow an entire caravan in one gaping mouthful. But soon, our Fathers began to understand the way of the wyrms, could identify their movements and signs. The people became less fearful - even the bravest nomads would travel the sands with their flocks and could lead them to safety on the rocks before a wyrm attacked. When our noble father Tish'rok dared to tame them, many of the community laughed him to scorn. But he was undaunted in his determination to conquer the creatures and saw a future when the wyrms could be used to cultivate the lands. On a bright, hot morning, he set out with his companions to an area known to be common to wyrm travel. He waited patiently with his blade and chain, supposing that he could wedge his blade between the hard scales of the wyrm and fashion a harness to ride it. Soon they felt the tell-tale rumble of a wyrm coming to the surface. Suddenly the wyrm burst forth from beneath a dune Tish'rok's companions were perched on, sending is father tumbling down the other side of the dune. In a single movement, Tish'rok bounded off the dune, scrambling up the mountain of sand cascading down from the wyrm. He even managed to wedge his blade into the beast, quickly wrapping his chain around it. With the blade embedded in it's back, the wyrm picked up speed and began to turn violently. Tish'rok tried to hang on, but, well. . . you know the rest of the story:

I really don't mean to be pestering - just trying to get a good handle on the expectations for this. It seems like it would be really hard to judge and evaluate between a 21000 Sears Tower type set versus a 21010 Robie House type set in the same category because they're such completely different styles and sizes. Maybe I'm missing something here?

Is there a size limit? For example, most of the Landmark series sets in microscale are considerably smaller than some of the larger Architect series houses (i.e. Robie House). Will there two separate categories for microscale buildings (typically 8x10 bases) and the larger ones?

Brilliant work. For whatever reason, this is first time I've seen this one. I particularly love the masonry look of the technic pieces; but, overall, you've established a wonderful sense of style and believability. It looks fantastic.

Depsite the fear of ingratiating myself on my noble guildsmen, I was wondering if one of you could clue me in a bit more on the "mini-challenge" that I heard mention of a few pages back. I've been out of town for a while and working 60-70 hours a week (doesn't leave much time for creative exploration in bricks) so I missed the initial discussions about it. Unfortunately, I also wasn't able to get my embassy (in the Avalonian port of Brulum Harbor) done in time, but will still post it as a free build later. Hopefully things will slow down a bit at work and I can get back to building what I really want to build (as a construction manager I ironically much prefer the little plastic bricks to actual building materials).

Very nice attempt. The Argonath in LEGO is very ambitious. I'd say, doing the whole thing in light grey (or light bley) would give the best overall look, but brick availability notwithstanding, you've done a great job. Keep tweaking it.

Brilliant work! I love the believability/reality of it. The layout with angled wall gives it real character and the interiors are really well done. Perhaps I really like it because it looks like the kind of thing I might actually have the parts to build versus some of the more extravagant creations of the guild leaders and longtime collectors. It's very inspiring to see a build like yours and think - "wow, I might really be able to put something together like that." Great job - one of my favorites.

Very impressive - would make a pretty imposing Nocturnus ship too. Awesome work!