Here is the official post for this year's Halloween Project. There's one more lore post and then a breakdown of the piece.
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Entry 3: Retribution
The Eye Collector continued its reign of the terror having evaded all attempts to capture of kill it. Desperate, a group of mages from Tirald and its neighbor, Ceran-Kal sought out the aid of the legendary Demon Smith. The elusive smith known for crafting many of the powerful artifacts in the realm was known to offer his services to the right cause for the right price. After weeks of searching, the team of mages managed to find one of the smith’s forges in the south deep within the caverns of Mount Kemdraes, an active volcano. Laying themselves at the feet of the arcane smith, the mages pleaded for help. The attacks had been growing in frequency and it seemed none were able to stem the efforts of the Collector. After considering their case, the Demon Smith offered one of his relics. A great metal club known as the “Binding Crusher Rivulgrem” was known for being able to dispel arcane runes and could combat the spells of the Collector. The Smith urged the mages to find a suitable warrior and invoke the power of the artifact at the site of the Eye Collector’s power. If wielded with conviction, the weapon contained enough power to stop the demon once and for all.
A lone knight named Felrinn, heralded among the Ceral-Kal as
the “Huntress of Purity” was tasked with confronting the Eye Collector in its
layer within the caves. Taking the artifact, Felrinn carefully traversed the
winding caverns until she came upon a massive altar at the center of the caves.
Carved out of black obsidian and filling a vast hollowed section of the
caverns, the altar was decorated with thousands of preserved eyes. Waiting at
the center of the altar was the Collector itself. It had foreseen the coming of
the knight and sought to take the Demon Smith’s artifact from her.
Felrinn
fought the Eye Collector to a stalemate using her unmatched combat prowess and
the spell-countering power of Rivulgrem. Though she was able to keep the demon
from trapping her in its spells, she was likewise unable to overpower it. Over
time, the knight started to tire and the Eye Collector began to gain the
advantage. Bloodied and backed into a corner, Felrinn remembered the words of
the Smith. Using the last of her strength, the knight invoked the sleeping
spirit of the Binding Crusher. The resulting force that conjured forth knocked
the Eye Collector back while drawing a powerful arcane energy from the stolen
eyes on the altar. Felrinn’s physical form was absorbed and reborn, imbued with
the souls of those taken by the Collector. A black-robed creature emerged from
the vortex. Narrow fanged jaws split the dark flesh of its face while the head
was round and bulbous in shape. Adorning the head’s surface was countless
unblinking eyes. The Binding Crusher was also altered by the ritual, its
surface covered in eyes of various colors. Hefting the great club before the
Eye Collector, the newly created being introduced itself as Vrethkol, the vessel
of Insight Vengeance. Empowered by the rage of all the souls plagued by the
Collector, Vrethkol renewed the attack and eventually dealt the demon a fatal
blow. After scattering the remains of its foe, the Insight Prophet split the
unholy alter apart and buried it beneath the rocks. The victims avenged at
last, Vrethkol disappeared into the world. It’s said that the many-eyed one appears
at the site of great tragedy to gather wandering souls and seek out retribution
for them.<>
Vrethkol's mask was definitely a focus on detail rather than complexity compared to previous entries. The idea of a creature whose head was adorned with numerous eyes was the main theme. I've linked an Imgur folder of the various project stages here. For the mask itself, I followed the same process as previous entries with a foil face impression/shell and then the layers of construction before a cloth skin. The numerous teeth and glass "eyes" were definitely the most tedious part. The robe was bought on-line from Amazon
For Vrethkol's weapon, Rivulgrem, I wanted to create a larger club-type object. This project was the first time I've used Styrofoam as the core of the weapon before moving on to the construction phase. This proved to be fairly versatile but very messy as the foam tended to flake into particles. Rivulgrem's handle is a PVC pipe that I twisted and glued into the Styrofoam blocks. The rest of the details like the eyes and spikes were added during the rest of the construction. After the skin and paint were applied, the weapon remained very light and easy to carry.
Here's the Youtube video for the project:
Overall this was an interesting project. I'd like to do more experimentation with wearable body pieces in addition to just the masks. Also, I will be trying out some EVA foam instead of Styrofoam. I know that's what a lot of cosplayers use.
That does it for this year's Halloween project. I'll be back soon with more updates!
Thanks for visiting!
~Zan