The Piscithopter Hydrophobia

[robuko]

That dream again. Sinbad couldn't quite remember. How could a fish be so big? And What was the connection to his father? Where was his father? Oh, well, never mind. He picked up the scrubbing brush and launched into the chorus of his favourite tune. "Why are there so many songs about rainbows.."

"Sinbad!" called his mother, Alethea. "Cover yourself. There's a witch here to see you! What are you getting us into?!". "A witch?" mused Sinbad. He didn't know any witches.

"Salaam, Sinbad. My name is Byarssh. I am the sorceress of the Petrea General Trading Company. This is the Head of Intelligence, and Ali Janari of the Qarkyr tribe. He bears the colours of Lord Flagg, and he comes in peace. Let there be no more bad blood between the mummies and your family. I have come to explain what your father was doing when he left you, and to ask for your help."

"What is she talking about Mother?"

"I cannot allow this!" frowned Alethea.

But The Head carried on, "Your father has discovered that the Holy Crystal of the Qarkyr mummies had certain interesting qualities with respect to water. In short, it hates water. He planned to carry it away from Petraea, to bring back water to our desert heartlands, and to revolutionise long distance travel all at once by using the power of the crystal to propel an air-ship through the sky over the seas. But he vanished somewhere around here, an isle of mist, fog and sorrow. We need the crystal back. And we need you."

"Why me?"

"Sinbad, you are the chosen one"

"I have already lost one man I love to this cursed crystal, must I lose another too?"

"I am chosen, Mother. I will answer the call"

Sinbad and Ali Janari had trouble finding a captain who would take the anywhere near the cursed isle, but eventually they took on as crew on the Hinde under mad Captain Ahab. He lost the ship to a great white whale, but that's another story. Luckily, Sinbad, Ali Janari, and ship's mate Montgomery Scott were able to desert Ahab on a lifeboat before his madness took down the Hinde. And through the fog and mists, destiny brought them to the cursed isle of Serendib, where they are greeted by the bones of an airship, and a mysterious ghost.

"Travellers, welcome to Serendib. You must help me. Misery and woe"

"Hang on a minute mate, we're practically shipwrecked. Ali, let's tie up the boat first. I am Sinbad of Qarkyr, and these are my travelling companions Ali Janari and Montgomery Scott."

"Sinbad? While I lived, I had a son of that name. A beautiful boy, with a smile that would melt your heart and a laugh like liquid gold. Misery and Woe. Ali Janari, Salaam and peace everlasting to you and your people"

"Father?! What in Historica! We have come to rescue you! What do you mean, while you lived? Do you not stand before me now?"

"Sinbad, my beautiful boy! See what a man you have become! Alas, I am a pale shade. I cannot return to the gods while the Roc holds the Holy Crystal of the mummies."

Ali Janari spoke, "Where is the Crystal you stole from us, villain! Return it!"

"Were you not listening, my friend! The Roc has the crystal and I cannot return to the gods"

"A rock is a crystal, what are you talking about?"

"No laddie" said Mr Scott, "The Roc. A giant big bird that carries of elephants in its mighty jaws and such like. Terrifying things. One lives?"

"Yes, Mr Scott, and it tore our piscithopter from the sky and tore it to shreds. Poor thing, it thought it found fish heaven, and it was just gas inside. It was quite disappointed, I think. Anyway, it has the Crystal, up there in its nest."

Sinbad jumped up like a desert scorpion, and set off for the cliff. "Doesn't look too big to me!" he said.

"But Sinbad!..." his father's words trailed off in the breeze

"Allez-oop, come here birdie. Someday I'll find it, the rainbow connection", sang our hero.

"Oh crikey, that's a big egg!" Sinbad realised there might be more to this than he thought. "Hello, Mister Roc. I am Sinbad of Qarkyr, and I have come to take back the Holy Crystal of Qarkyr"

"Hello Sinbad. Do you have any fish? I'll have to ask my Mummy about that, she like shiny things"

"Your Mummy?"

"Yes, she's just coming back right now"

An horrific beast with breath like stink and eyes of molten malice swept down and crashed into the tower. It fixed its prey with a beady glare and clacked its mighty jaws. Sinbad cried, "Good morning, Mrs Roc!" and explained the situation, offering his father's shiny compass as a trade. Much to his surprise, the Roc agreed quite pleasantly,

"Look, I have too many of these stone things, they are only useful to help me digest mammoths and I haven't found one in ages. It's nice to have something a little bit different, help yourself. Your Dad's a nice bloke, isn't he? Been a bit down since he died, though, maybe this will cheer him up. Sure you won't stay for dinner"

So Sinbad recovered the Crystal, through sheer good manners. he quite like the Roc's company, which was good because it took his father and Mr Scott a few weeks to rebuild the Hydrophobia. Luckily there was a volcanic vent on the island to fill the gas bags, and his crew were able to fashion the skin from the sails of the unfortunate Hinde as it washed ashore. Of course, the Holy Crystal did the rest, and they were soon feted as heroes back in Qarkyr.

Which was nice.

[Erynlasgalen]

The Hydrophobia is ingenious, we need to have a whole fleet of them! Then we can stage races out in the desert with them.

The first picture is great, I love the perspective on it. I especially like the transition from the water to sandy beach, its perfect. The whole scene looks like it came directly out of an old adventure novel.

Great entry!

[Cara]

All accosting him in the bathroom Nice job on those tiles!

[I Scream Clone]

Great Roc, great story and nicely built MOCs with the atlas reference background being a nice touch. Good luck robuko!

[Gabe]

Great stuff robuko - beautiful clean builds with lots of awesome details. The perspective in the first photo is just gold! I love the tone of your story too - a touch of Prachett maybe? (I lol'ed at the "head of intellegence") Your presentation is great as well, with the old maps - is that an actual book you have photographed for your background? It looks so sweet.

[soccerkid6]

Great story I like your characters a lot, you really brought them to life Excellent builds as well, I like the wall decorations in the bathroom.

The beach scene looks good as well.

[Basiliscus]

Fantastic work mate! excellent entry all round. I like the different builds you have presented. The photo editing with the map at the back is cool.

A great entry for Kaliphlin, and good luck in the contest!

[Kayne]

Great entry Robuko! The adventure theme in here is amazing!

[Ecclesiastes]

Nice entry! I also really like the Hydrophobia, it's an epic design!

[Mike S]

Nice job on those tiles!

I agree! The island and Roc nest were awesome as well.

[de Gothia]

So much to like in this entry! The tiles in the bathroom, the hair of one of your adventures and the border on the large moc! Great entry!!

[Christoph]

Robuko, you are a very good story teller, as always, your stories know to entertain . Already in the beginning, Sinbad dreaming in the bathtub...

I like your entry very much. I do not understand why you sounded a bit pessimistic about your build in the Kaliphlin thread ('two studs high')??? Because the island turned out nice and the guardian and the piscithopter are excellent. And the pieces fit together very nicely.

I also do not understand how you got the piscithopter flying in your first picture. Is this a forced perspective, a photoshop, or is it hanging on a thread?

[NiceMarmot]

Great storytelling as always! So funny. And great builds too. I agree we need a whole fleet of piscithopters.

[Rogue Angel]

I enjoy all of your MOCs, and this one is no different. The bathroom is Very well done, and I really like the cliffs as well. I like the use of the Roc as the guardian, and I was really impressed with what I could see of the mother Roc.

Great Entry!

[Si-MOCs]

"So Sinbad recovered the Crystal, through sheer good manners."

HAHHA

awesome.

I love your take on the challenge - and as always I love your builds - they're so unique and fun !

and this one is lives up to your other builds

The bathroom tile work in particular is inspired.

[robuko]

Thanks all for your kind comments. I am always trying to stretch myself with something new and hopefully original on the historica builds. I am sure you can tell, I had a lot more scripted than I built, maybe some scenes will come as free builds. It was the first time for me to try the diagonal tile floor/offset wall technique, which I think was inspired by de Gothia.

The beach is set on jumper plates and SNOT slopes for a smoother transition, it took a really long time. Funnily enough I came up with this from watching waves on a beach, and just when I thought I had it licked with something original, gabe used something very similar for Berigora harbour! The water was inspired by gabe's fantastic catamaran. I wanted to set the rest of the rocks on a swivel plate and hinge, like the tower, but I ran out of time and it's ended up being fairly boilerplate. I initially wanted the ruin to be the wreck of the Hydrophobia, rather than a building, but it would have meant a much larger build, so I ended up with what is meant to be a suggestion of a ruined and overgrown fort. There are quite a lot of original techniques on the trees in the jungle, but it all merges into green ha ha. This was also my first time to use photoshop seriously, what a steep learning curve - I can see I made a lot of mistakes. The background is a rather beautiful map of the Aegean.

I do not understand why you sounded a bit pessimistic about your build in the Kaliphlin thread ('two studs high')??? Because the island turned out nice and the guardian and the piscithopter are excellent. And the pieces fit together very nicely.

I also do not understand how you got the piscithopter flying in your first picture. Is this a forced perspective, a photoshop, or is it hanging on a thread?

Thanks Christoph - it really was 2 studs high until just before the deadline, then I saw gabe build like a dervish and I knew it could be done, just I had to sacrifice some of the techniques I wanted to develop. The fist picture is a composite done in photoshop, which is why the scale of the airship looks odd - it is nearly as long as the base of the island in reality.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Very enjoyable and different! A great collection of well built scenes with great details and presentation. Thats a great perspective shot of the island with the air ship flying off! Love the ending, a very original and light hearted take. Excellent work