[OL-FB] What a warrior must do

[Keymonus]

Somewhere in the jungle, El Oleonda, May 624

Spoiler

Ghostly voices

Down below

A suspicious jungle stroll

The mouth of the Emperor

The City of the Dead

Shadows of a distant past

Morituri te salutant

All the parties involved

End of a scoundrel

There was a little shrine, somewhere in the jungle of El Oleonda. A dozen miles East of the mysterious Dead City, it was probably built by the same ancient civilization, centuries before. The old building had almost completely disappeared in the undergrowth, crumbling under the weight of time... impossible to say whether it originally was a temple to some pagan deity, the mausoleum of a forgotten chief, or something else.
For Commander Lei Feng, these old ruins had represented a fundamental waypoint during the exhausting guerrilla campaigns against the Carnite. That day, they also seemed a good place for what he had to do.

Lei had received one last chance to escape the deadly trap set up by his enemies in Oryant, and he had lost it.
In a normal situation, he should have been proud of saving his soldiers from the double ambush in the Dead City: he didn't manage to capture the three Carnite explorers, but those men had most likely been slaughtered by the Daca natives; the Carnite attempts to find the shipwrecks of the old Lotii fleet had been thwarted again, and the Oleonese seemed to have completely different objectives... for sure it wasn't a victory, but it wasn't a complete defeat, either. However, it was not a normal situation: his enemies in the army had chosen to use him as a scapegoat getting rid of him once and for all. 

In Oryant he could only expect an execution, and surrendering to the enemies of the Empire was out of question. 
Lei unsheathed his dagger: he still had one honorable way out. Following an ancient ritual, he would soon have stabbed himself in the abdomen; then, a loyal assistant would have beheaded him with a sword.
It would have been a gruesome end, and the result of a terrible injustice, but it was the only way for Lei and his clan to retain their honor. Maybe he could become a yurei, a specter, to haunt forever the nights of his enemies... the High General Wang, coward and traitor, deserved never to sleep a quiet night again!

Lei was ready. He made a nod to his assistant and hardened his grip on the dagger... then, he noticed something.

There was a pile of rubble, in the far corner of the little shrine. Nothing too weird by itself in a ruined building, but something looked out of place. There were several ceramic artifacts, scattered all around, and they looked surprisingly well... they had been exposed to the weather for ages, not for centuries. He looked better: the pile contained also some tiles from the pavement, and was topped with bricks from the nearby pillar. Someone had likely dug a hole in that place, and then he had covered it carefully… but why?

Well, Lei’s honorable death could wait for a while…

Within a hour, the rubbles had been completely removed, revealing a little niche. That hole was probably an ancient native tomb, similar to many others he had seen on Jinzi: his men had sacked many of them, usually finding nothing but old bones, ceramics, an occasional golden trinket.

This time, however, they were far luckier: someone had replaced the original content of the grave (including the ceramics scattered all around) with Lotii coins, gold bars and, even more importantly, old maps and documents! The objects had been for sure left there by the first Lotii expedition, marooned on the island years before: nothing, compared to the treasures still laying on the bottom of the Southern Bay, but still a considerable fortune!

Lei looked at the documents. They were exactly what he had hoped, and even more: maps of the archipelago and of islands he couldn’t recognise, the log of one of the ships, the precise route of the first expedition… something the Empire had looked for ages! With those, he could now return to Oryant as a hero… and provide some annoyances to General Wang even without becoming a vengeful ghost!
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Overall view of the build:

After a long delay, here you can see the aftermath of my challenge storyline from the point of view of the Lotii officer. I plan one more MOC (the one about my main character) before moving to something different! I hope you enjoyed this part and this storyline in general!

Edited October 7, 2024 by Keymonus

[NOD]

Once again you have built a great diorama with a ruin in the jungle! Very nice detailed photos of the happenings.

Very good story. I like the story from the perspective of the Lotii officer. I'm glad that Commander Lei Feng found something important and didn't have to commit seppuku. I'm sure the Envoy will be happy with this and protect him from General Wang.

[Fraunces]

23 hours ago, Keymonus said:

I hope you enjoyed this part and this storyline in general!

I did! Nice work. Every episode has its own edge.

[Ross Fisher]

Nice twist! How many more episodes does this story have?

[Keymonus]

Hi guys! Thank you for your kind comments! At the moment I don’t have much building time, and I’m mostly sticking to small MOCs in the same colour palette (that is, mostly with the same boxes of pieces)… but I’m happy you are enjoining the result!

On 10/8/2024 at 2:14 PM, Ross Fisher said:

Nice twist! How many more episodes does this story have?

Thank you! The original plan was to close within the challenge (two builds ago), but the story closure seemed a little too rushed! There will probably be one more (from the point of view of Tristan), plus possibly a bonus one (already complete in terms of text and pictures), but I still have to decide if I want to use it now (as a closure of “book 1”) or in a future (to begin a “book 2”).

[Yperio_Bricks]

Another great moc and story! I really enjoy reading this! Nice pose of determined Lei on his knees with the dagger in his hand. The scene is set up so well and i knew what was going on before i even read the text. Good job Luckily Lei has a good eye and they were able to retrieve the treasures and documents.

[Khorne]

It's alway nice to see characters and cultures being fleshed out. Looking forward to the conclusion of Tristan's arc in this story as well.

[Keymonus]

On 10/11/2024 at 12:52 AM, Yperio_Bricks said:

Another great moc and story! I really enjoy reading this! Nice pose of determined Lei on his knees with the dagger in his hand. The scene is set up so well and i knew what was going on before i even read the text. Good job Luckily Lei has a good eye and they were able to retrieve the treasures and documents.

7 hours ago, Khorne said:

It's alway nice to see characters and cultures being fleshed out. Looking forward to the conclusion of Tristan's arc in this story as well.

Thank you guys! I don't know if this character will appear again but, in this way, I can keep it for possible new uses... after all, failing a "last chance of redemption" mission required either an alternative success, the defection of Lei, or his death! Option 1 seemed the best one!