[Nocturnus Civil War] Ambush in the Rakath

[Exetrius]

Ambush in the Rakath

In the ever so restless Nocturnus, the civil war that eventually brought Lord Raavage to a fall carries on. Following his defeat, many armies under the command of the Black Spire were either annihilated or liberated by the forces of the Resistance. The remainder scattered and fled into the Darklands's wilderness, in a desperate attempt to avoid immediate death. However, the struggle to stay alive is not a capability possessed by all beings in Nocturnus, and particularly not in Raavage's armies. Once the magic casters are taken out, the undead soldier puppets collapse. But some are different. Those that have been infused with souls can maintain their existence, but their time is limited.

They had been on the run for several days. Every bone was aching, several places had started to go numb. They seemed to have lost their pursuers somewhere along the way, but they were on their last legs. The Rakath mountains are a harsh place for the living, cold and barren, but the skeletons faced different problems. Their souls were on the verge of disembodiment. The magic energy that moves their bodies wouldn't last a day longer, forcing them back into dangerous territory.

 

At last, they sensed the very faint presence of mana, coming from an abandoned tower. The door wasn't shut, one of them entered while the others stood guard.

 

A window opened on the upper floor, an arm held out a mana crystal and waved it around triumphantly. They were saved!
However, the moment of joy was only brief. The enemy appeared too quickly; it had been set up from the start!

 

With stronger will than ever, but practically defenseless, the skeletons headed into their last battle... 

 

 

For the glory of Free Nocturnus!

 

Additional shots:

Spoiler

 

Hello Guildies and others! It has been a while! My apologies for my inactivity, I hope this Nocty build is to your liking. In my opinion, too little of the Nocturnus Civil War lore has actually been built in bricks, so I thought I'd start with that instead of my personal saga. Some techniques that were new to me here were the wall texturing and the modularity. Though not really visible on the shots, it features an opening roof, a ladder, a staircase, and an opening front door. Also, I had a bit more practice with trees/scrubs, which I think turned out nicely. 

Btw, I want to thank my sister for lending me here excellent camera; my shots are a lot sharper because of this! 

That's it from me today, comments and criticism always appreciated! 

Edited September 16, 2018 by Exetrius

[Gideon]

Nice figs and a great rendition of the Nocturnian terrain, lovely to see that the darklands are not forgotten!

[W Navarre]

Great job, the shrubs are well made.  I think it's nice how the tower has stuff inside, and the use of large rock parts in the back is also neat! 

[halixon]

Love the tower! The slanted roof is perfect. The terrain is also very well done! Good job Ex! Can't wait to see more from you!

[zoth33]

The walls on the tower are great.  The roof is a nice break of color.  The landscape has that Nocturnus feel to it nicely done.  The story is pretty cool too.  

[Exetrius]

On 9/16/2018 at 1:10 AM, Gideon said:

Nice figs and a great rendition of the Nocturnian terrain, lovely to see that the darklands are not forgotten!

Thanks, Gideon! Anything to prevent them from slipping into oblivion!

On 9/16/2018 at 1:15 AM, W Navarre said:

Great job, the shrubs are well made.  I think it's nice how the tower has stuff inside, and the use of large rock parts in the back is also neat! 

Thank you! The BURPs came in handy to fill the gap (the only proper use of them, right? ) indeed. 

On 9/16/2018 at 7:28 AM, Windusky said:

Love the tower! The slanted roof is perfect. The terrain is also very well done! Good job Ex! Can't wait to see more from you!

The roof was a challenge. First of all, the colour balance and texture, then to make it close around the walls with bracket pieces, and finally to attach it in such a way that it both fits and opens. Great to hear it turned out so well, thanks mate!

6 hours ago, zoth33 said:

The walls on the tower are great.  The roof is a nice break of color.  The landscape has that Nocturnus feel to it nicely done.  The story is pretty cool too.  

Glad you like it, including the story! 

[narbilu]

Nice scenery, love the tower... well done

[TitusV]

Good to see Nocturnus is not dead yet 

Some great vegetation (if one could call it vegetation, of course  ) and a very nice tower Exetrius  

[Exetrius]

On 9/17/2018 at 11:29 AM, narbilu said:

Nice scenery, love the tower... well done

Thanks!

21 hours ago, TitusV said:

Good to see Nocturnus is not dead yet 

Some great vegetation (if one could call it vegetation, of course  ) and a very nice tower Exetrius  

Thanks, man! Yes that is vegetation, thank you very much !

[Henjin_Quilones]

So good to see something new from you, Exetrius! The whole build feels so very Nocturnian, from the color choices in the landscape to the grimness of the tower. I enjoy the landscaping, including the very obvious vegetation (perhaps @TitusV was merely comparing this relatively barren landscape with his home in lush Avalonia?), but especially the rocks; they are nothing fancy, and just two colors, but they are very appropriate. The story is fun, too! 

Great work keeping the Darklands alive! Or at least undead...

[Basiliscus]

Lovely details on the tower walls and as already mentioned the roof slopes perfectly.

The landscape is suitably barren and very evocative of Nocturnus, shame that guild isn't included any more but I guess it made sense due to its lack of players. I'm sure it'll be woven into various stories in book 3!

[TheLordOfBricks]

Ahhh, nice. Well done creating a good detailed scene on a small space. Keep it up! :)

[Exetrius]

11 hours ago, Henjin_Quilones said:

So good to see something new from you, Exetrius! The whole build feels so very Nocturnian, from the color choices in the landscape to the grimness of the tower. I enjoy the landscaping, including the very obvious vegetation (perhaps @TitusV was merely comparing this relatively barren landscape with his home in lush Avalonia?), but especially the rocks; they are nothing fancy, and just two colors, but they are very appropriate. The story is fun, too! 

Great work keeping the Darklands alive! Or at least undead...

Thanks a lot! I consider it my Nocturnian duty to keep the spirit of Nocturnus fresh. So therefor I wanted to make this quintessentially Nocty, seems like I succeded. Btw, @TitusV is just teasing me for a little. I should blow him away with an Avalonian landscape, sometime.  But in all seriousness, I did consider to add some little white or pale pink flowers to give more life and diversity to the scene, but decided not to because it strayed from the Nocty image I was going for.

Thanks again, Henjin!

10 hours ago, Basiliscus said:

Lovely details on the tower walls and as already mentioned the roof slopes perfectly.

The landscape is suitably barren and very evocative of Nocturnus, shame that guild isn't included any more but I guess it made sense due to its lack of players. I'm sure it'll be woven into various stories in book 3!

Thanks very much! Agreed, not viable for role play participation at the moment, but I'm working to warm some hearts for Nocturnus again. 

6 hours ago, TheLordOfBricks said:

Ahhh, nice. Well done creating a good detailed scene on a small space. Keep it up! :)

Thank you!

[TitusV]

Of course I was only referring to the vegetation not being vegetation when compared with the real vegetation of our lush forests (wow, that was a lot of vegetation for one sentence)  

For being Nocturnian, however, I really like them Exetrius!  

[Gabe]

Ahh... its good to see a fresh Nocturnus build. It does feel strange that it's not a playable guild for the moment, it might not have had the most builders, but it had some very talented and imaginative ones. I love the story about skeletons desperately trying to keep thier crumbling bodies together by magical means, and the build is the perfect setting for thier desperate last stand. Great way to humanise the travails of being undead!

[Henjin_Quilones]

Well, of course Titus was just teasing! That's what we tree-hugging tights-wearing Avalonians do, whenever we are not bragging about how great our own land is. It's probably because we are so well fed by the fertile fields flush with verdant vegetation, so we can't imagine people barely managing to scrape by with just some shriveled little shrubs. I mean, those poor little skeletons need some meat on their bones, but they'll never get fully fed in barren Nocturnian mountains; they need to get some nourishing Avalonian produce in their non-existent undead bellies to fatten up a bit... 

And you should build an Avalonian landscape sometime; I'd like to see that. Have I mentioned that Avalonia is great enough times yet? Because Avalonia is great...

[Exetrius]

11 hours ago, TitusV said:

Of course I was only referring to the vegetation not being vegetation when compared with the real vegetation of our lush forests (wow, that was a lot of vegetation for one sentence)  

For being Nocturnian, however, I really like them Exetrius!  

4 hours ago, Henjin_Quilones said:

Well, of course Titus was just teasing! That's what we tree-hugging tights-wearing Avalonians do, whenever we are not bragging about how great our own land is. It's probably because we are so well fed by the fertile fields flush with verdant vegetation, so we can't imagine people barely managing to scrape by with just some shriveled little shrubs. I mean, those poor little skeletons need some meat on their bones, but they'll never get fully fed in barren Nocturnian mountains; they need to get some nourishing Avalonian produce in their non-existent undead bellies to fatten up a bit... 

And you should build an Avalonian landscape sometime; I'd like to see that. Have I mentioned that Avalonia is great enough times yet? Because Avalonia is great...

 There is this smile stuck to my face right now and you two are the culprits. Thanks for brightening my evening! 

 

7 hours ago, Gabe said:

 I love the story about skeletons desperately trying to keep thier crumbling bodies together by magical means, and the build is the perfect setting for thier desperate last stand. Great way to humanise the travails of being undead! 

Thank you, Gabe! I gave the story quite a bit of thought and this is exactly what I was going for, so your compliment is much appreciated! 

[mccoyed]

Nice to see Nocturnus again!

[Grover]

Yay for Nocturnus!  Glad to see the story continue!  I like the colors and the story, and the interior (although not visible without the extra pics) looks good, too.  Out of curiosity, is this a new or old building in Nocturnus?  You might be able to take a few more chunks out of the building, making it more crumbling from civil war damage or something, if you wanted to show off the interior, although if this is a new building, it may have stood the onslaught better and thus not as crumbling.  Great job!

[Exetrius]

17 hours ago, mccoyed said:

Nice to see Nocturnus again!

Delightful, isn't it? 

10 hours ago, Grover said:

Yay for Nocturnus!  Glad to see the story continue!  I like the colors and the story, and the interior (although not visible without the extra pics) looks good, too.  Out of curiosity, is this a new or old building in Nocturnus?  You might be able to take a few more chunks out of the building, making it more crumbling from civil war damage or something, if you wanted to show off the interior, although if this is a new building, it may have stood the onslaught better and thus not as crumbling.  Great job!

It's and old, civilian building, but hasn't taken damage from the war. Not everything burns down to the ground during war, nor does it get smashed by ogres or destroyed with magic. Besides, sword and arrows don't leave traces on buildings the way guns and tanks would in this day and age. Thanks for your question! 

[soccerkid6]

Exetrius returns
Unique landscape style, but it looks oh so good for Nocturnus The little tower is nicely built, particularly with that roof and modular floors Fun idea to show the split floors through making each 'float'.

Those new brown grass stalks are making me jelly

[Exetrius]

On 9/21/2018 at 8:13 PM, soccerkid6 said:

Exetrius returns
Unique landscape style, but it looks oh so good for Nocturnus The little tower is nicely built, particularly with that roof and modular floors Fun idea to show the split floors through making each 'float'.

Those new brown grass stalks are making me jelly

You got it, the mage is back! 

Glad you like it, SK! Too bad I didn't have enough trans clear studs to make both floors float simultaneously, I bet that would look even better. 

The brown stalks I got from Bricks & Pieces, always a good resource for stuff like that.