Basiliscus

A really nice interior scene here, love those chairs and the overhanging arches at the top. The ledge round the edge of the room is a nice touch too. Green is an unusual interior colour choice, and I think it works really well for the tablecloth and floor because of the inclusion of the gold edging. The story was nice too, I liked the different opinions of the characters. Looking forward to the challenge announcement now!

Lovely little scene here! Love that canopy roof, sometimes it's the simple things that make the best textures. You've done a great job of making the stall feel packed with goods, loads of nice little details. The urn is especially nice, I didn't even know that piece existed, so it was educational for me!

I'm not sure if we have or need a specific animal. Medieval heraldry was full of very similar designs, so no one animal was used exclusively by one family. I'd say pick whatever shields make sense for you!

Lovely work @goatman461! You've captured the haphazard floral variety of Felucia really well. The broken ship being used as homesteads is a nice touch. Good work!

A nice little insight into our guild!

Thanks for sharing the link, they are indeed stunning! A Varlyrio one, once there are sufficient builds, would be fantastic!

Where can one find these? Do you have a link?

Thanks for the honesty about the roof's Ninjago origins, I never buy sets so I've no idea what techniques are used. And thanks for the heads up about the start time, I'm frantically trying to dismantle and sort my freebuilds so all my bricks are at my disposal.

Glad to see a few people have signed up! I have been a little busy recently, but hopefully get my character introduction up this weekend. I've decided to join Black Sun, so we'll see how that goes!

Thanks! I've used that technique a few times (Tigelfah Abbey, Conzaga Manor) and I do really like it (plus I have thousands of parts for it, so it doesn't involve any Bricklink orders) even though it's terribly time-consuming. The reclining couch is supposed to be a chaise longue, hopefully that comes across in the build. The rug is just tiles, some from the Dumbledore Brickheadz set and the rest medium dark flesh and dark tan tiles. Yes, the rest of the floor consists of 2x2 dark brown tiles, think I got them in a LUGBULK order some time ago. They're a bit more reflective than I would have liked however! Yeah there's a few light gaps which aren't ideal, something I will need to remember for next time. I wanted to get these freebuilds photographed and dismantled before challenge II was announced to give Varlyrio a chance in the freebuild points, especially after Kaliphlin and Mitgardia have had a strong showing of freebuilds recently. So the shrine in the first build alludes to the background of Meiyo - my plan for Book III was to drip feed her story in every build, apologies if that wasn't clear. The basic background is that Meiyo and her younger brother lived in Nocturnus and fled Raavage to go to Varlyrio, where since the wars weren't as bad they thought they'd be safer. On the way there, Meiyo's brother was killed and she had to bury him and continue the journey alone, something that continues to haunt her. The shrine in the first picture is a dream she keeps having whereby she goes to visit her brother's grave. She feels she should have protected him, and that guilt drives her to do a better job of protecting Mychel. I hope that makes a bit more sense now? And yeah...Varlyrio needs you! Dust those bricks off and get building for challenge II! Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the story and different scenes. The interior shot doesn't use 1x2 cheese slopes, those are actually plates layered up (2x4, 2x3, 2x2, 2x1) and covered in 1x2 tiles. The cheese slopes would have had a steeper incline, I liked the more gradual incline better. Cheers man! Exactly! It felt a bit weird writing that, it might make more sense canonically for Mychel to stay at the Conzaga country estates than venturing off into the unknown, but I wanted to build more of Varlyrio (especially the western side of the island) so needs must! Thanks for the comments! Yeah, the good news is I don't know the answer to any of those questions, so it's very much make it up as I go along! I've got some ideas of how I can continue this story based on the likely challenge II categories, but I need to wait until they are announced to be sure it will fit in. So here's where I come clean...I cheated! The first one was lit normally and I used Photoshop to light it like that. It took a bit of trial and error (I used to be better with Photoshop but I haven't used it's more advanced features for some time) to get it the way I wanted. As I mentioned above I hope to build more of the western part of Varlyrio depending on the challenge II requirements. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Another glorious build @Henjin_Quilones! Nice work on the light, it does really look like sunlight coming down into the courtyard. The tree in the foreground looks amazing too, you've managed to achieve a very organic shape. The revelation here is using those 2x2 plates with the technic holes underneath as tiles, that's genius! I'm in love with that technique, and am very likely to try that one myself. It's hard to see the second row of these, they look offset, I'm not sure how I feel about that but I might need to experiment myself and see what looks good. Do you know when the challenge rules will get announced?

Yep, I've dismantled all the free builds I built so the desk is clear, just got a couple of other non-GoH models to photograph, so all set to build for the challenge when it's announced. I appreciate Book II was primarily about civil wars, but there's plenty of new members here who didn't participate in that, so it would be good for some of the challenges to involve war in some capacity. Since Nocturnus is no longer playable, and doesn't seem to have any representation at this council, there's an opportunity for that to be a flashpoint in a future storyline.

Lovely work @Andrew Spader! Great job on the landscaping, you've built up the ground really organically using 1x1 plates and it definitely pays off. The minifigs posing is top notch too, love the way you've placed the lancers at a safe yet imposing distance. My only minor point would be the trees are a little small. They could have been larger and more imposing.

Fantastic work @Henjin_Quilones! Another lovely interior build from you, so many nice touches: love the wooden beams on the ceiling, the asymmetrical faction banners, the curved tiles on the main banner, the minifigs, and the lighting. The story was well written too, it was an interesting set up, and by the sounds of it the next challenge will be related to entertaining the peoples of Historica. I just hope soon we will get to more war based challenges, I always think those generate more interest.

The Dream (Flickr, EB) | Varlyrio | Basiliscus The Angry Lord (Flickr, EB) | Varlyrio | Basiliscus Murder at the Golden Flag Inn (Flickr, EB) | Varlyrio | Basiliscus I posted these as three separate free builds but they were merged into one EB post for story purposes. Hope it's OK to score them separately, they are substantially different.

That's my free builds and associated story up:

Meiyo woke with a start. The bed was warm and yet she felt a chill inside her. Her feathers were drenched in sweat. She'd had the dream again - only this time the feelings were more intense. She lifted her hand to steady herself on the bedside table, and it was shaking. Ascending the cold grey steps, with only a single lamp to light the way and yet she felt the darkness encroaching on her, overpowering her senses. And there it was. The shrine. The resting place of her young brother, barely out of boyhood. The one she was to protect. The one she failed. This time, she knew what had triggered her fears. Two days past Mychel had received a messenger in Illaryian. After Meiyo had inspected the boy for weapons, and confiscated a knife in his boots, she had let him in to see Mychel. It was a message from his father, which read, "Depart the capital at once. Come to our country estate with your bodyguard and tell no-one of your goings. Staffen.". As always it was cold and to the point. They rode across the countryside that afternoon, cloaked and without the trappings of power a Conzaga son could expect to travel with. Tired and covered in dust, they were summoned in to see Staffen immediately and, much to Meiyo's surprise, she was to join the Conzaga lords. Staffen's brute Minos confiscated her swords. She felt naked without them, but it was not her place to argue. Unlike the messenger, she hadn't given up her black knife tucked in the sole of her boot. Staffen was staring at the fireplace when they entered. Minos took up position, silently, in the corner of the room. The evening sun lazily made its way through the grated windows, falling onto the unlit fireplace. "Father, I came as soon as I got your message", opened Mychel. He walked past his father to inspect the parchments on the table. "In broad daylight. To one of our own. The insolence!", bellowed Staffen. "To whom father? Of what do you speak?" "If you haven't heard then Nestur has managed to keep it quiet. I hoped as much.", muttered Staffen, still staring into the fireplace. He turned to face his son, "An attempt was made on Bernaldo's life this morning." "What? Is he hurt? Where is he now?", the concern on Mychel's face genuine. "The idiot is fine, much to this family's detriment!", retorted Staffen. "Father, you cannot...", began Mychel, but he was cut off. "He was drinking away our profits from The Golden Flag in the capital, along with some of Nestur's men. He went to relieve himself, and when he returned one of the soldiers had collapsed from his stool. The men took him outside, thinking him drunk, but he began coughing blood. He had been poisoned. Stone dead, in the middle of the morning. Surrounded by our own men. Our enemies think us weak!", spittle flew from Staffen's chin, he was furious. "But who would do such a thing?", consternation clear on Mychel's face. He looked at the floor deep in thought. "Oh, your brother has no end of enemies, acting the fool as he always is. Let's see, there's the Duc D'Elancon, his wife bedded; the miller who's daughter he compromised; the servant from Avalonia who's wife caught his eye, the list is endless! The boy needs to let off this unbounded energy in the heat of battle." "And what would you know of battle old man?", thought Meiyo. She'd never be able to say it of course, the Conzaga's would take her head, but the old man had grown fat on trade and never seen the horrors. If he had, he wouldn't wish it on his own flesh and blood. "Anyway, enough of that no good scoundrel", continued Staffen, "I did not invite you here to discuss his many failings. Until we can get to the bottom of this mess, I want you out of the capital. With the queen on the mainland so weak, we will need allies in case war erupts again. The last time Varlyrio was largely saved from the worst of the fighting, but that is no guarantee next time round. I want you to take your feathered pet", Meiyo stiffened at the insult, "and go far from the eastern lands. Bribe the dwarves. Impress the goblin clans. Find the elusive Kolgari elves. It won't be easy, but it will be safer there until this dies down." And that was it. Her master was to escape the clutches of those wishing him harm by venturing into the little known. All Meiyo knew is that she had failed her brother. She didn't plan to add Mychel to that list.

Yeah, my understanding is Challenge II starts 15th December and ends 31st January, I think @Rogue Angel mentioned that in another thread. I think there's been a lack of activity in the run up to Xmas, hopefully things will pick up again next year. Thanks for the comments on the build - just gonna get dinner and upload the other two MOCs.

Another great build @mccoyed, and a badly needed freebuild. I've posted the first of my build trilogy on Flickr, one is photographed and ready to upload and the final one needs a bit of post processing. I'll get them all up tonight so they're counted in this freebuild period. Hopefully that will help us with points. I hope you all have cleared your schedules over Xmas, and have challenge 2 entries in the pipeline (once the category is revealed).

Really nice little scene! So many great parts usages - is the tan in the wall a 1x2 Technic plate repeated? Also on the floor are those 2x2 dark tan tiles? How did you offset them like that? The fig posing is well done and I like the parts used for the monkey faeries. My only comment would be it would have been good if you had Photoshopped out the trans clear stands, but it's a minor point. Great work!

Really nice work @mccoyed! Love the white and blue stripes on the floor and the way they make their way round the edge of the build. The statue is nicely done too, and while the exposed anti-studs on the arm are noticeable, I don't think it's as bad as you think. Maybe one of the new upside down 2x2 tiles would cover this up? Enjoyed the story too and it's nice to see these knightly orders getting fleshed out! It's good to see more Varlyrio freebuilds because right now we need the points!

I'm guessing that the factions are getting released one per day? One further question I have is - can factions go to war? I don't see anything in the rules saying they can't. Surely if two factions build on the same planet containing a holocron there's going to be some friction.

Totally agree with @Kwatchi - the MOC in the Black Sun faction introduction is fantastic! Another piece of masterful writing, currently I'd like to join all three factions please!

Another great faction introduction, I like the way it's written from one character's perspective, totally different from the CFS in both writing style and faction mechanics. Just four more to go!

Lovely minifig parts usage! The lime green looks great. Lovely work on the seabed too.