DW, Chancellor of Valoria - Shrine Discovered

This fan build is from DW, Chancellor of Valoria, titled "Shrine Discovered."


This build was for the annual 12x12 Build of Forgemas challenge on the Discord, and uses a clever twist on perspective!

Here is what he says about the build:
"Shrine Discovered is the classic story of spelunking adventurers happening across a mysterious trap door in a cave. What may lie within? Unfortunately for them, an entire four level temple complex complete with forced kobold labor, a mad wizard, and lizardfolk tribe. Thankfully Zaltar isn't involved here, so they're not in for a full Dungeon of Doom adventure! I imagine a very Dungeon Crawl Classics kind of adventure down here.

I wanted to create a build to show the flexibility of Dwarven Forge to tell stories outside of the horizontal. Plus I love making unique builds using terrain trays to prop up layers. What is fun about this type of build is you can extend it out in horizontal direction both towards the viewer on the bottom and inwards on the trays. For example, some of the rooms I made are double deep (can you spot both?) to give a sense of depth. I also included a hallway just below the rope-room that goes a ways inward and turns giving me a place to hide a light and a give the viewer a sense that this complex is much larger than just this cut-through.

The more basic top layers speak of storage and light use, while the vaulted layer is clearly the goal of any good adventuring troop (loot!) Finally the ridiculously wonderful jade antechamber provides so much texture that just a couple of props were necessary to complete the picture (can you identify the demonic figure on the altar? He's got history!)

What surprised me in building this was just how easy it was to give a richness to the build using just a few bits (treasure, crates, etc.). I love bits and I love Dwarven Forge miniatures so I really wanted to give them pride-of-place in this build. Working in the vertical means everything I placed really pops and tells a story without having to use a huge amount of it or layering it thickly. In horizontal builds I find myself putting in tons of bits to give the same feeling so it was fun having to be more judicious.

I hope you enjoyed my build, and that it gives you some great ideas. Spending time on the Dwarven Forge Discord has really improved my building. This build is my third entry for the 12 12"x12" Discord build challenge for December; get out your pieces and join us!"

For this build they used:

"Mostly basic pieces from Jade Antechamber, Vaulted Dungeon, normal Dungeon, and basic Caverns. A Cavern trap-door (from caverns door pack) was used up top where a Caverns log bridge rope descends into the complex. Bits come from all sorts of mostly DF sets. Wonderful lizardmen courtesy of DF; the rest from Wizkids. The build is supported by a terrain tray on each level propped up by pieces and wooden blocks (corner walls would work just as well). I used the lava/dark stone trays with the dark parts facing down to help make the picture work (I would LOVE a dark/dark theme on a tray for this kind of build!)"