Otherworldly

It sits in a harsh, snow-covered landscape, looking from a distance like a large block of ice. The ice is very glossy, looking almost like blue-green crystal in places. When you come closer, you can see that there is a wide opening at the front (and a smaller one, almost hidden, along one of the sides) and that the block of ice is in fact a massive grotto. But, don’t get too close, because the grotto has an inhabitant…

The new Grotto building set from Fanatik consists of 32 different building pieces and 4 additional props. They can be used to construct tunnels and grottos of all sizes and because the meshes have an outside (unlike the Cave system pieces) these can be used in places where they need to be viewed from both the outside and the inside. The set includes several examples in different sizes to give a sense of what you can create; for this photo I am using the largest sample build which is 164 prims. I also added other rocks from Fanatik (Boulders from the Land Shapes package) around it to merge it better with the landscape (created with the Islands from the Land Shapes package).

There are four rock textures included (one of them being this ice version) and seven different ground textures.  You texture via a root prim that communicates with the HUD so make sure to read the instructions for how to build these sets.

To get a good look at the Grotto and to test out the texturing system, make sure to visit Fanatik’s display on their home sim.

And what about the fierce inhabitant? That is of course the gorgeous Wyvern avatar from Prehistorica which comes with a ton of preset looks and even more options for manual customisation. The HUD also includes a lot of different actions and behaviours, great for photos. The size used here is the Adult, but it gets both way bigger and way smaller. If you your dragons to have four legs and two wings (yes, I know this one is called a wyvern but to me its a dragon), there is the Dragon avatar which offers the same features.