The Journey Upriver

[Jareth]

Here is a link to "the Prelude" the first part of my story.

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=68208

The water upstream of the Ebon Wall was calm on this cold windless day, and the clear surface reflected the arches of the black elms that touched above the waters. Once this river teamed with salmon smelt, and chorus frogs added their voices to this cathdral of nature. Now Mire Crows lurked beneath the surface and ate anything that swam, while other predators hid along the banks. Today, only a lone lasher hid silently by the Compass plants near the banks.

Soon the slience was broken by voices, and a pair of rowboats paddled into view like two lost ducks.

"Look, all I'm saying is that you shouldn't call me 'Thief'" Said the first voice.

"But you are a theif, you have to be a thief, we have a fighter, a wizard, a druid who counts as a cleric so the fourth must be a rogue and you don't have a musical insturment so you aren't a bard. Besides, those side classes are rare is small parties and we already have a druid so..." Replied the second.

"So, I have to be a thief because none of you are? Or is it becuase something got stolen and it must have been a troll who stole it?"

"No, not at all, nothing got stolen. That's not what makes you a thief."

"Right, I didn't steal anything so I'm not a thief."

"No, you have the skills of a theif, so you are a thief."

"But I didn't steal anything."

"Right."

"So I'm not a thief."

"No you are a thief whether you steal or not."

"But that doesn't make sense! How can I be a thief without stealing?"

"Well, I'm not casting any spells right now, but I'm still a wizard. Besides who else goes adventuring in leather armor?"

"I don't know. Someone who can't afford chain mail?"

Finally Belladonna could take no more. She turned from her Figurehead like pose of vigilence and hissed "Quiet you jaybirds, danger is near!"

Almost as if this was the signal the black lasher lumbered upright like living ink and coiled it's striking tentacles like vipers. Mr. Tarnish reached for his pickaxe, but The Tacomancer was quicker pointing his staff and declaired a cryptic word. "QUESO!"

Waxen Strands shot out from the staff engulfing the beast. It soon was enmeshed in the web, and a smell similar to spoiled milk filled the air.

The trees, once silent were now abuzz with various bird calls and the rustling of small animals fleeing the area. The water rippled with the sudden movements of the boats and a lone tentacle flopping in the water. Gradually both grew still, but not nearly as peacefull as before. The four heroes continued rowing ountill they could no longer be seen. Finally even the waves stopped splashing, leaving only one sound. The creak-crack of the Mire-crows. They always seemed to know when dead or helpless meat lay nearby.

If someone was still there, they would have seen one of the rarest sights in northern Nocturnus. A Lasher....afraid.

Here is a good overall view.

And I thought it would be a shame not to have some closeups of the trees.

Here is a link to part 3 Here are the links to parts 2 and 3

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=68984

Edited April 30, 2012 by Jareth

[soccerkid6]

Nice trees and river! I think a white background would up the presentation though.

Good work all around and I like the lasher in the web

[Balthasar]

Nice job! I like the SNOT-water and the riverbed. Those flowers look beautiful. The skew-tree is a great feature as well.

Compliments for your courage on trying-out difficult tree designs

[natesroom]

Wow I wish someone would do a Tree building Guide that could be updated and then stickied... i know Defel did like 3 in his Stickied post but 2 of these are unique and would be nice to practice building.

[turtleman2020]

Awesome trees and that hermit crab is a great design

[Angeli]

love the angles of everithing, and, ofcourse, trees ;)

[I Scream Clone]

I dig the many tree designs you have experimented with, and agree with others that a nice white background would make it an easier MOC to view, good job nonetheless.

[Jareth]

Thanks Guys!

@Natesroom: A tree guide is a great idea! I've been toying with the idea of making some instructions. Perhaps I'll work on that after the third challenge is over. In the meantime, I did find that this part

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3741

is a whole lot easier to use to make angled branches than this part

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=298c02

The hinge part is hard to remove from the arches I usually use for trees without stressing the part.

@ I Scream Clone & Soccerkid6: Yeah, My last MOC had solid walls in the back. It was a tradeoff choice between a white background and natural sunlight. I am going to try taping a white posterboard to a chair and see if that works.

Gah! So many ideas so little time.

[Ecclesiastes]

Indeed a great job! Love all the different styles of trees and flowers!

[kabel]

Now why does the dialogue remind me of the Hobbit, which I'm reading right now great stuff, I can really feel the scary atmosphere of this place. Well done!

[NiceMarmot]

@Natesroom: A tree guide is a great idea! I've been toying with the idea of making some instructions. Perhaps I'll work on that after the third challenge is over. In the meantime, I did find that this part

I had started last week to create a list on the Wiki of links to interesting building techniques, because there were so many cool things being done here in GoH, and I was losing track of all the neat techniques I wanted to try. I had started bookmarking them, but that quickly got a bit unmanageable. I've only got a few tree techniques listed so far, but feel free to add to it.