Challenge VI: Eric Grimmson Abroad

[kabel]

Eric Grimmson is an acclaimed Mitgardian politician and former diplomat to Mpya Stedor Kaliphlin. The Mitgardian leadership has sent him to Varlyria to hire direly needed swellswords.

Part I:

It was a good day for Sven Thorsson, the captain of the Mitgardian cog "Lady Emma". The wines he had ordered at the St. Gustavo winery had finally arrived in Illyria, where currently he was staying at the Casa de Mitgardia, the official Mitgardian trade mssion in Varlyria. Sven was sure that these wines were so good that most certainly he would make a nice margin himself, as the ship the young captain was leading actually belonged to Eric Grimmson. Maybe he could even start saving for a ship of his own. The "Lady Emma" was old, almost rotten and not really the kind of ship for anyone who had graduated from the Naval Academy in Mpya Stedor, Kaliphlin, lead by the famos Chendrico the Sailor. But Grimmson, who was Mitgardian ambassador to Kaliphlin at the time, had taken him under his wing and so he owed him something.

A shout from the canals interrupted Sven's musings, a new load of barrels had just arrived:

Sven oversaw the unloading, updated his accounting, sighed and finally made up his mind to see Eric Grimmson, who surprisingly had arrived from Mitgardia just the other night. Sven was sure that by now the old man would be up and wanting to see him attend. Yet he wondered: What did his mentor want, why had he come here, did he not trust him with the wine trade? Sven felt a little akward.

"Sven, my young friend, why don't you join me for lunch. I've ordered chicken and Varlyrian cheese, really excellent if you ask me!" said Eric Grimmson and laughed this furious roar that he was famous for in all of Mitgardia and Mpya Stedor.

"Oh actually, I am not that hungry my Lord, I've already eaten my lunch." replied a scared Sven Thorsson.

"Ah come on Sven, then at least sit down and pour yourself a goblet of that great wine you've aquired. We have serious matters to discuss, things are not well in Historica and you really need to know!"

So Sven finally sat down and listened to a now dead serious Eric Grimmson: The Jarl was missing, so was Steen Larsson. Victor Revolword had taken Cedrica and Elon Chorian, the new Mitgardian leader, had sent him here in order to hire a company of sellswords that were willing to risk their lifes for the Mitgardian cause.

"But Mylord" a deeply worried Sven interrupted "Mylord, please forgive my interrupting you, but you know as well as I do that the Varlyrians would never mingle with the Historican affairs. They trade with us, and that's it. Are you willing to risk this relationship?" Sven felt his dreams of buying his own ship (and possibly finding a Varlyrian wife) vanishing beyond a wall of stone grey mist.

"Well son, there is one thing you haven't really understood yet. The Varlyrians want gold, that's all they care for! And gold is what the will get. Trust me, I've traded with them long before you could even think of peeing on your own. So let me handle them, I know how to get them!!!"

Eric Grimmson was shouting by now and Sven was really ashamed. How could he possilby think that Eric Grimmson did anything dumb? He was Mitgardia's most trusted diplomat!

"Look Sven, there on the canal! An official barge from the Varlyrian government, I knew they would take the bate! And oh, by the way, I bought a new ship. A carrack! And you'll be its new captain" said Eric Grimmson and smilingly patted his young friend on the shoulder:

And so Eric Grimmson managed to buy himself into the Varlyrian army. Despite their own problems with the current orc uprisings in the mountains, they offered the Mitgardian top diplomat to go and try to find some boys who'd be willing to fight, on his own expenses. They wouldn't care, as long as they were paid the correct amount! And so the deal was sealed. Eric Grimmson and Sven Thorsson went ahead to find themselves some mercanaries. However, their secret meeting hadn't been as secret as they would have wished for:

Part II:

So the officials of Varlyria had declared that they'd stay out of the Historican's affairs. Why bother something that was so far away? They had enough problems fighting loose orc gangs in the mountains to the east. However, they were always interested in making the extra gold coin and the Mitgardian diplomat Eric Grimmson could convince them to let him hire some Varlyrian sell swords. And as soon as Eric Grimmson had the go to hire some mercinaries for the Mitgardian cause, he headed for a bar in the harbor disctrict to throw a big party. Beer, wine and food were for free, so dozens of curious young men had shown up to get wasted for good:

All that was required of them was to sign a paper, and wear one of these helmets. Silly Mitgardians they thought, why would they want them to see get plastered wearing a helmet?

And so as the evening carried on, more and more young Varlyrians were forgetting why they had come in the first place: beer, wine, women, adventure? (war!)

The Varlyrian serving maidens however, were annoyed considerably by the behaviour of their country's young men -

"take your dirty hands off you drunk pig!":

more pics here when public: http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=522408

Part III:

After a long night of heavy drinking, early in the morning the Mitgardians had packed their newly aqurired mercinaries and put them on a ship. They had convinced quite a number of young Varlyrians to join the Mitgardian forces. But truth be told: they were a sorry lot. Untrained, lazy, drunk (if allowed to drink) and easy to be tempered. Still, after the battle of Queenscross Mitgardia lacked fighting men and so they could use (as cannon fodder) every available lad they could find. Eric Grimmson and Sven Thorsson were the last to arrive at the ship that was harboring outside on the Bay of Illyria.

"So Sven, there she is in all of her beauty! Did I promise too much?"

"Mylord, I'm speachless she's is such a great ship!"

"Yes, isn't she. We have capable carpenters in Mitgardia!"

"Mylord, what do you call her?"

"She is called 'Rose of Asgard', the pride of the Mitgardian fleet!"

And so Lord Eric and the young captain boarded the ship. However, what they saw did not promise a peaceful Voyage. The sell swords were sober by now and some already regretted what they had gotten themselves into. Fortunately there were some Mitgardian guards on board and all the weapons were stored belowdecks.

The passage to Historica itself prooved to be almost desastrous. Heavy autumn winds were rocking the sea and many a sell sword didn't even manage to survive the voyage. To make things worse, the "Rose of Asgard" reached Historica way too late. Victor was said to be gone but bands of former hand soldiers were still roaming the woods. As soon as the Varlyrian sell sword heard of this they vanished with all the weapons they had been given. Eric Grimmson was devasteted: He had failed his mission, lost a huge amount of his own gold and now he was afraid to meet his Mitgardian superiors to tell of this loss. At least he was still the owner of "Rose of Asgard" and Sven Thorsson had proved an excellent captain. Maybe he could convince him of sailing beyond the Varlyrian waters into seas no Historican had seen before!

Edited May 1, 2013 by kabel

[Gideon]

Nice interior! You have really captured the feeling of a vibrant inn

That green plate under the floor in pic #2 disturbs my eyes somewhat however, but other than that I think this is a great build with so many details to discover and enjoy!

[Kayne]

MMM...Rotisserie Chicken...my favorite! Looks good all around here!

[kabel]

thanks guys, glad you like it.

@gideon: now that you mention it, it strikes me as odd too. I might as well go ahead and change it, as I wanted to redo some pictures anyways.

@kayne: roasted fowl, that's how you lure in the young guys ...

[soccerkid6]

Great detailing in the walls and the two level design works very well

The rotisserie chicken looks delicous and the chimney is excellent. Looking forward to the next build

[kabel]

thanks sk, I originally wanted to do a third level, but ran out of bricks, this being the last of the three mocs I started building. So I left at two stories.

I changed the green plate and retook some of images.

[Maxim I]

Great interior!!

A lot of fine and funny action going on in the MOC!

Also very great wall detailing you did

[Esurient]

I like it! Especially the little details like the brick-in-brick elements that made the whole MOC seem realistic!

The chimney and the barbecue corner looks great as well!

[Ecclesiastes]

Great work, especially the texture on the walls and chimney. And ofcourse the minifigs, excellent posing: the drunk guy is such a win!

[Derfel Cadarn]

This is a great detailed interior scene, very cosy and packed with things to look at. Nice work

[kabel]

thanks for the praise guys. This is actually the first interiour I've ever build, I and actually really like it myself too quite a bit. I even found a Lego store in Kassel (Schmidt's Bunte Steine Welt) where I can display my mocs in the shop's window. And this moc is the first I can actually display there!

@Eccs: the drunk guy actually started this whole moc. It's fun too see how somtimes a whole moc elvolves around a simple minifig posing.

@DC: thanks man, quite an honor to recieve a feeback from you!

[Mike S]

Great interior and posing!

[kabel]

Thanks Masa. I got so inspired by building this interior that I started to incorporate more interiors in the mocs to come! That's why I posted build two before build one.

[Brickington]

Great Build! Very nice use for the "cheese" slopes.

[kabel]

Thanks Brickington. I'm glad someone is finally is commenting on the cheese because I thought it was funny.

[kabel]

chapter one finally done after about half a year of collecting red, dark red and orange 2*1 paltes. Gee, I would have never thought it would take that long. So I decided to include my big Varlyria building as chapter one of my entry for challenge six. I also worked some on the story. Oh befor I forgot, thanks DM for the shild mouting tutorial! That was really the last thing I was bending my mind about without finding a good answer!

Edited April 25, 2013 by kabel

[Mike S]

I really like this Mitgardian trade mission in Illyria. Awesome design as well as the little islands!

[soccerkid6]

Good decision to use the Varlyrio build for challenge VI, I think it is your best build yet!

The layout is great and the buildings themselves are gorgeous, love the crane on the right building and the porch on the left one

The SNOT water is quite effective here, and I agree with Masa that the islands are a nice touch

Cool gondolas too, you really are great at doing builds in the Varlyrio style

Edited April 26, 2013 by soccerkid6

[de Gothia]

That Varlyrio house is beautiful! Love it! Have to agree about the islands. They give the whole moc a more natural feel to it!

[kabel]

Thanks guys,

@masa: the water was about to fall off, that's why I needed those islands as an anchor. Sort of a last minute idea.

@sk: thanks man. but could it be that you are confusing left and right?

@dg: well it took me half a year to build this, so it better be beautiful

Unfortunately I couldn't take more pictures. The light was starting to fade und my paper background was too small for a build of this size. Maybe I take better pics today.

[Ecclesiastes]

Sweet, the red works so incredibly well for Varlyrio. And as usual your water looks great as do your gondolas! Looking forward seeing the third build.

Unfortunately I couldn't take more pictures. The light was starting to fade und my paper background was too small for a build of this size. Maybe I take better pics today.

Same problem here.

[kabel]

Sweet, the red works so incredibly well for Varlyrio.

thanks mate! I actually got inspired to build Varlyrio in this style after I had gone to Tuscany in October. Everything!! there is made of bricks and only covered with marble or lime stone. That's what I was trying to portray here.

[Infernum]

Great build Kabel! I love the colors for the houses, and the water is great! The islands are a great touch. Your best yet!

[kabel]

Thanks Infernum. The combination of red, dark red and orange is something I came up with for the whole GoH project. However, doing two complete buildings in that way does require a lot of 2*1 plates, it includes some 800 or so. So I'm glad you like it!

[Infernum]

Thanks Infernum. The combination of red, dark red and orange is something I came up with for the whole GoH project. However, doing two complete buildings in that way does require a lot of 2*1 plates, it includes some 800 or so. So I'm glad you like it!

Wow! 800 1x2 plates! That must have taken forever to collect!