Safari Goes Under the Mountain

The second destination for this week's Safari was on Kinky Haven grid, run by Wendie Blackthorne who was there to greet us, in her cute spelunking outfit - surprisingly un-grimy considering the fiendishly difficult tunnel and cave system she had invited us to experience, the creation of her friend Lizzy Borden. No, she didn't have an axe. I know you were wondering. Well, that might not be entirely accurate...

Wendie Blackthorne, front, and Lizzy Borden behind her.

This is a huge region, so of course we were limited in how much of it we could see in our short visit, but the girls had organized themselves in such a way that we were able to get a good idea of the variety and magesty of the build without being rushed too much. 

The tunnel style build is one of the most difficult of all to pull off, as it's a tricky game of proportions when you are trying to create a closed-in atmosphere that is also cam friendly. The labyrinth needs to be at challenging but not so frustrating and cramped that the immersive feel is lost for the player-visitor.

Lighting, textures, sounds and objects all come together to surprise, spook, and delight throughout this enormous build, where every tunnel suggests more discoveries - and does not disappoint.

We met on the big plaza outside the mountain.

Lizzy Borden: Welcome to The Mountain. This is The Mountain of the Ancients who attempted to build a tower to Heaven in the shape of a pyramid.....but it collapsed along with their civilisation. What you are about to see is the remnants and evidence of attempt at restoration by the descendants.

Lizzy Borden: Please head to the Great Gate

Roffellos Kisses: gate is huge!

Lizzy Borden: BEHOLD! THE MOUNTAIN!

Forest Azure: aaah

Angelic Kisses: wooooooooowww this is magical...definitely not what I expected

Forest Azure: it reminds me of something in WoW somehow

Lizzy Borden: We are now in the Hall of the Four Seasons... do be sure to look up

Thirza Ember: Lizzy, did this evolve, or does it represent an fixed idea you had before you started building?

Lizzy Borden: This particular Hall is pretty much as I imagined it. You must understand it is thousands of years old. The Mountain has taken over 2000 hours to create so far.

Max.Well: c'est etonnant cette construction tres haute, ça me plait

No time to hang about, there were more astoniching parts of the build to sample.

Lizzy Borden: Welcome to Hades

Wendie Blackthorn: oooo time to roast some marshmallows

Roffellos Kisses: wow getting hot in here

Latecomer Wizardoz Chrome soaks up the warmth.

Angelic Kisses: this is sooooooo cool, figuratively speaking, of course

Thirza Ember: lol only someone as hot as angelic could find hades cool

Angelic Kisses

Thirza Ember: is the build designed principally as a piece of art, or for events, or role play or a quest?

Lizzy Borden: All of the above. My concept for the whole this is a giant Labyrinth

Handy arrows helped us navigate underground

Thirza Ember: james would love this all these mouselook tunnels

Wendie Blackthorn: there are miles of tunnels

Max.Well : j'aime bien aussi le tunnel il est tres bien fait

Lizzy Borden: This is The Fungi Forest, please go where you wish. But beware of the fairies and critters... be sure to look up

Wendie Blackthorn: it's very relaxing here

Thirza Ember: it's charming, but with a hint of danger

Wendie Blackthorn: yes mind the avatar eating plant

Lizzy Borden

Lizzy Borden: You'll prolly need several hours or days to get to grips with it all. This particular cavern took about 2 months to build

Wendie Blackthorn: I would recommend spending a day in each chamber to be sure and see it all

Forest Azure: Lizzy, what sort of roleplay would you suggest people could do in here?

Lizzy Borden: LOTR, StarTrek away team.

We moved on to a Buddhist-inspired part of the build. For simplicity's sake, Lizzy teleported us to the various points of interest, truncating by necessity part of the charm of the build, which is your gradual discovery of new environments, but needs must. The idea here is to ger from the pavilion to the statue by crossing the courtyard What could be more simple... or so you think, until you meet your first collisions script.

Lizzy Borden: You'll need to cam around here some before you go walking

Wendie Blackthorn: /me wonders who will be first

Thirza Ember: so is it true this is super sneaky?

Lizzy Borden: Yesh

Forest Azure: /me tries a first toe

Lucy Afarensis: Hi Thirza

Thirza Ember: hey Lucy you made it! this is an invisible maze the walls keep disappearing

Mal Burns: so many sits for james to be missing!

Thirza Ember: haha Lizzy how did you come up with this one! love it

Lizzy Borden: <--- is insane

Angelic Kisses: Craziest maze ever...nice

The maze alone could have kept us busy for hours I guess, just trying to defeat its insidious walls. But we had miles to go before we sleep, so onwards and... downwards.

Lizzy Borden: This is the entrance to The Creepy Caverns. 

Great lighting and truly creepy, subtle faces peering out from within the rocks makes this part of the build very atmospheric.

Lizzy Borden: Early explorers tried to mine for stuff. The tunnels connect to other parts of the Mountain, as well as there being other caverns beyond

Max Well: le labirynthe aussi est bien fait, il y a de grandes salles dans ce labyrhinte, on ne s'y attends pas, c'est une surprise

Lizzy Borden

Lizzy Borden: This is The Vampire's Mansion, full of secrets and passages

Forest Azure: is he in?

Lizzy Borden: He like to be inivis

Forest Azure: too bad

Wendie.Blackthorn: /me picks up the cup and drinks the elixir

Lizzy Borden: I'll take us to the swimming pool... You can really swim in the pool

Forest Azure: it is absolutely amazing, this place!

Lizzy Borden: I'm afriad you've o0nly seen a very small fraction of it

Roffellos Kisses: this is such a clever build it flows brilliantly

Lizzy Borden: Ideally , you would walk through the tunnels to each location, and prolly find yourself lost in the process

Wendie Blackthorn: I'm always amazed by the things Lizzy makes over here

Thirza Ember: Is there an ideal start point on the region?

The Elfen Gate

Lizzy Borden: Two: The great Gates Where we started, or the Elfen Bridge... But this is a work in progress so things will change and evolve

Forest Azure: yes, thank you both, Lizzy and Wendie

Lucy Afarensis: oh my... Been fun, sorry I could not get here sooner

Lizzy Borden: Wendie gave me the tools and I threw prims at the wall and see what stuck

Roffellos Kisses: thank you for showing us here

Lizzy Borden: I thank you all for honoring us with your visit. Please feel free to return anytime

Forest Azure: oh, i surely will, this is really great

Angelic Kisses: You've done a stupendous job, goodnight!  thank you for the tour Wendie and Lizzy

HG Address:  kinkyhaven.com:8002/The-Mountain

hop://kinkyhaven.com:8002/The-Mountain/195/188/165