[Freebuild] The Black Goblet

[ZCerberus]

Trian could hardly believe it to be true.  Avalonia had faced many challenges, but never one quite like this.

"In the Plains near Albion no less," thought Trian as he gripped the reigns of his loyal steed, Charon.  

The threat was different than those of the past- the Blackhand, the Drow- this threat was worse- Crimson Falcons.

"If only I had been here during the Fracture- perhaps I could have stopped the rise of these vermin!"

The Order of the Crimson Falcon were more than just another single lord with a lust for power gathering disgruntled vassals to their call- they were mysterious, dealing in lies and deceit with a cult-like zealousness to their leader.  Whoever that was. But now the Crimson Falcons were flying their banners in the open- rumors of silver and crimson standards flying in every city in the Guild- every city except Albion- for now. 

"The enemy within- sowing deceit and fear- tearing the Guild apart from inside- spreading like a plague over all the lands... it is more insidious than any dark lord could ever be!"  Trian steadied his thoughts as Charon picked up the pace.  He needed to reach Grimlemore to see the tales for himself.  The Black Goblet, a tavern where he had celebrated many battles won before was now Gtimlrmore's homebase for the cultists.   

"If I am to fight this scourge, I need to see it for myself!" Trian thought.  "If the Falcon is in the Plains- what will I find in the Withering Woods or Mystic Isles?"

The silver and crimson banner flies over The Black Goblet as a Crimson Falcon stands guard by the Falcon Gate.

[NOD]

Very beautifully built castle, I like the architecture!  

[zoth33]

I like the texturing here.  The roofs look great.  The doorway arch is a nice touch.  I really like the tree design also.  Great job with this one.  

[Captain Braunsfeld]

Excellent building style. Very consistent. More! 

[LordsofMedieval]

Love the circular element to the tower.

I so wish Lego wasn't so expensive. Even a 'small' castle like this has to be 3k+ pieces, and thus over a thousand dollars. It's magnificent, but out of reach for so many of us.

[Crazy bricks]

My word, I think I can design half decent MOCs and then you rock up with this! That is incredible, truly gorgeous!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Another masterpiece of technique! 

My favorite part is the tower with the rounded front.

The well is nice too and the area with the tree, the mushrooms and the classic wizard dressed in blue!

[JopieK]

Looks really nice. All the details are wonderful!

[GeoBrick]

A nice stepped-up -and outward structure, both horizontally and vertically. Very pleasing to the eye, and the color of the roof only accentuates it.
Maybe a golden coat of arms above the covered landing would look better to separate these Crimson Falconst from the regular Black Falcons? But I'm not sure if all the elements you used are available in golden.

[_TLG_]

Really cool castle, there are many nice details!

[Kai NRG]

The colors on this are so good, I love the dark red roof with the olive vegetation.  Such a good layout too with that higher tudor section in the middle.  Great semicircle on the tower too!

[W Navarre]

I already praised this on flickr! I just wanted to point out that maybe in order to prevent the harsh contrast between the style of stonework on the curve and the rest, you could perhaps have implemented a lot of staked round edged 1x2 plates throughout all the rest of the walls as well. Apart from that small critique this is spectacular, well composed! 

[soccerkid6]

So good seeing you back with some more castle epicness

Super pretty layout with the contrasting stone and wood structures, especially with how you setup second floor galleries under arches

Fabulous use of rounded tiles to frame windows, and the doorways echo that style nicely while adding some more extravagant detailing

Very pleasing combination of colors too!

[Gideon]

Great build overall, especially the various brickbuilt detailing

[Grover]

Gorgeous build!  Love the colors again, and how they and the story continue the Crimson Falcon plot.  The roof here looks great, and I'm glad that you used the new 1x2 round plates to make a rounded tower. I always wondered what that would look like on a small scale (someone posted a monstrous curve a while back in the historic forums), and it looks pretty good as a technique. You did a great job incorporating the various detailing and texture in the bricks to make it blend well.  Your color detailing is great too, using smaller plate sized off-colors rather than whole brick off colors, which tend to be too blocky for my tastes.  The dark grey stonework around the front door is very aggressive and seems to give a rather dangerous feeling.  I think the black falcon built above the main door and the black goblet sign are both excellent.  Also, easily overlooked, but rather difficult to make look good, are the corners on the dormers.  They are really clean, which is quite impressive for a brick build tile roof.  Awesome work!