The Artefact by MarkHirst
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Description
We arrived at the old mine workings late afternoon, with the ever-present cloud and mist hugging the mountainside.
I'd seen facilities like this before; small scale or exploratory operations designed to exploit a local concentration of ore, or provide larger operations with additional access points to the precious minerals below ground.
Like the installation at Monazite Creek, decaying houses and sheds filled the valley bottom. Rail tracks and conveyor belts criss-crossed the area, joining shallow pits and processing sheds to the main hub hiding in the trees.
The labyrinth of buildings and equipment became an instant playground for my hunting party, and I had to remind them again that wild animals used old buildings and workings as lairs. They would pick up bits of rock and show them to me excitedly, only to learn that it was some worthless quartz or feldspar.
I was happy to let them explore for a while, so I wandered around the ruins myself, eventually finding the open mouth of the mine entrance. The rusty rails disappeared into the gloom, and I tried to imagine the bustle of engineers and screech of wagons serving robotic drills and diggers in the depths below.
As I turned back to the light, a glint in the track ballast caught my eye. Pushing the loose stones away, I found a rounded blue pebble that fitted easily in the hand. It felt cool and metallic to the touch, yet peering at its surface gave the impression of glass, a glass that carried not a single scratch or imperfection of any kind. I thought it was some discarded fragment of spoil, but its perfect symmetry spoke of something old and alien.
I brought it out into the light as my hunting party rejoined me, and we passed it to each other trying to discern the faint lines embedded in its surface. After a short time, it joined the pile of other rocks and quartz gathered by the party, while we sat down by the mine entrance to eat. Imagine our surprise when later in the evening, a ball of light erupted from the blue pebble. It swirled around for a moment before showing what appeared to be a map of the area. Small lights sat in a cluster near the centre, and I realised that the lights were our party. Ghostly shadows marked the buildings and trees, with faint whispers showing the contours of the ground around us.
For a moment we were lost in wonder, fascinated by the spectacle. That changed when we saw other points of light at the edge of the ball, and I could see that it was a group of people approaching us. Something wasn't right, and the lives of my party would depend on what I did next.
Putting the blue stone in my pocket, I called the party together, and sent them into the mine entrance. The look on my face must have convinced them, and in a few minutes we were out of sight. I peered out with my binoculars for almost an hour, till I eventually caught sight of the other party. My heart leaped as I saw that they were bandits, crazy people living outside civilisation, and rumoured to be mutated by the dust. They moved with purpose, and I realised that they knew exactly where we were.
We barely made it down the tunnel when the first of the grenades exploded. As the second deafening bang filled our ears, the supports gave away and the ceiling collapsed with a dull roar. In an instant the light had gone, and we were trapped inside with barely a day of food and water between us.
-- Mona Asuridanavan, in the Candor wilderness
Quite a delay since the last picture. Work has been crazy mad, and likely to stay that way for a while.
V3 figure with Shadow Dancer and customised textures. Hair by Kozaburo. Warehouse District buildings by Stonemason.
Rendered in Vue 6 Pro Studio with contrast adjustments in Photoshop CS2.
Thanks for looking, comments appreciated.
Comments (29)
Darkwish
Great Vue work! EXT pic!
evs69
Fantastic scene - love the character and pose. Lovely background/environment :)
meselfr
fantastic :)
PapaSkip
Great work on this!
Legion1
cool pic and nice fluff
Star4mation
Super scene and story :)
Jilly
Fantastic story, lovely picture.
drace68
Great story and accompanying image. Always glad to see your posts.
yully
Very nice scene!
neelzonline
Strong composition and a great image.
thecytron
Nicely put together!
texboy
great atmosphere and story!!
Xpleet
XLT!
geirla
Great story! Nice image... I like the grew sky and trees, plus the abandoned look of the compound; looks like someplace out here in the Pacific Northwest.
dbrv6
Great Vue Work and story! Enjoied reading and looking.
johnny_damnit
Wow very nice. great lighting.5+++
Colin Online Now!
Glad your absence was nothing serious! I Need my weekly 'Cambrian Moons' fix - I was going into withdrawal!
LBAMagic
Excellent scene
Jucce
Very good looking environment and nice story.
castaneda
I like how your characters always stand out within the scene. Excellent
WZRD
I got all excited when I saw you had posted - and the name - "the Artefact" - told me I was in for a treat - and I was no disappointed. Love the misty desolate ambience, can't help wondering if that Artefact isn't some Lazloi technology - if so it's raising more questions than answers! All I can say is it's a damn shame you have to work and a pity you can't do this stuff full-time!! Brilliant work as usual.
Odessey
You do have a way with these scenes, they seem to mesh very well with the storyline. Each one compliments the other !
PoserHobbit
Superb image!!
kjer_99
I truly like that background, Mark. And the Mona Asuridanavan character is always a pleasing one.
Elcet
Really great image, well composed. I like the mist that allows the girl to detach herself correctly from the BG. Top-notch work!
Mikeall
Background is rather special and frames the character perfectly.
hoskins78
A superb image! Great looking detailed setting - and the atmospheric depth is wonderful :) Cool looking lady too!
chimera46
Dammed dirty mutants...
duncanlong
Nice work... The texturing and detail give a real sense of depth and realism.