Day Twenty-Eight

Once again, sorry for the time between updates. But I have handed in my final assessment for the semester and should be returning to regular, consistent updates for the foreseeable future. So on with Day Twenty-Eight!

I avoided the cavern behind the wall and dug down into the earth instead. I found nothing but stone and returned to base long before the sun came up. I packed my workbench and furnace and waited for the morning. There was little noise coming from outside for a while, but not long before dawn the zombies and skeletons made themselves known.

Zombie against the lightening sky.

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Once they burnt, I could not hear anything else walking around. I was worried, as I had camped near the coast, that skeletons may be standing in the water, still alive and waiting to shoot at me, but my fears were unfounded.

Sunrise.

Creeper back west.

Let's do this.

Down on the beach, just as I was about to put my boat down, I looked north and spied the largest clay deposit I have ever seen. I mean ever.

Clay!

The deposit was two deep. In all, I collected over 120 clay. Really, I have no use for clay, but I could not just walk past the greatest deposit of it I have ever encountered; the miner in me wouldn't allow it. So when I finally took to the sea, I was weighed down with an inventory full of clay.

Eastward bound.

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Forest to the south-east.

Land ahoy.

I pulled up on the sand, blinked, and a mountain appeared before me, just to the south. Perhaps I had outraced the world-generator for once.

Oh, hello there.

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I walked around the basin of water for a closer look, then walked up the northern side of the mountain, avoiding the greater incline.

Looking up at the mountain.

Mushroom on the northern face.

Looking south at the mountain as I pass it to the north.

The land dropped around me. The mountain to the south had dropped down as quickly as it had risen up. Soon, despite my best attempts to avoid climbing, I found myself on a peak higher than the land on all four sides.

Forest to the north-east.

Looking south.

I headed south where the the way down seemed softer. There, looking both back west and east, I caught myself checking the date on my computer--had I stumbled into a desert biome?

Looking at the desert, south and west.

South west past the rear of the mountain I saw from the coast.

The sandy land continued east, too, but with a large body of water in the center. I worked my way back down to sea-level and started across the sand. As I walked, I could hear zombies moaning somewhere beneath me.

East across the sand.

Ah. That would explain the moaning.

Hee hee.

The moans of zombies followed me across the sand, occasionally joined with the hisses of spiders. Beyond the sand, I continued east over a small hill.

Just another hill. Nothing special.

 I can honestly say I was not expecting what I saw as I started down the far side. It actually took me a second to comprehend that I was looking at a lavafall.

Oh my.

Before going down to inspect the falls, I mined the two coal deposits visible in the above photo, the second of which turned out to be quite large. I didn't really need more coal, but I would probably have to use quite a lot to smelt all the clay I dug up. By the time I finished mining the coal and walked down to the lava fall, sadly, the pigs were no more.

:(

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So that was an unexpected highlight of the day so far. It's not often you find yourself mere metres from a lavafall. Moving on, a high mountain blocked my passage east. Instead, a canyon to the north-east seemed the easiest path.

Path to the north-east.

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Cliffs to the north of the canyon.

I turned to the right to take a photo of the cliffs, and discovered a tunnel leading back through the mountain to the east. Well. How could I say no to that.

A tunnel (and a death-defying mountain pig).

A quick glimpse to the north-east before heading into the tunnel.

Into the tunnel I go.

.

Much like the earlier lavafall, I did not at all expect what I saw when I came through the eastern side of the tunnel and looked to the south. Though, this was even more startling as I never expect to ever see this.

Wha?!

Oh my.

Oh my, indeed.

I was dumbstruck. Either of these falls alone would have been an incredible sight, but both of them side-by-side must surely be one of the most remarkable sights I have seen thus far. Absolutely incredible.

Looking north-west.

Both falls and the tunnel I came through.

Transfixed on the falls, I had not noticed just how strange the rest of my surroundings were until I finally decided to move on.

Crazy mountains to the north-east.

Floating islands to the south.

Looking back west at the falls for one last photo, I realised just how late the day had gotten.

So beautiful.

I decided to mush on for a few more miles. Over the next rise was a shallow crevasse leading down into a dark cavern. I avoided the cavern, but went into the crevasse to mine the visible iron.

Tempting, but no thank you.

Yes, please!

I headed north around a mountain and through a forest before it was time to finally make camp.

Heading east around a mountain.

Looking back west at said mountain.

East through the forest.

Time to rest.

On my last post, people commented with a lot of clever tips and ideas for ways I could avoid being swamped by mobs every morning. There were lots of great tips and I am grateful for all of them. Though, yet again, I waited too long and managed to forget every single suggestion as I frantically dug into the northern face of a small hill to make my camp. In future days, I promise to try out some of the tips people have made.

Looking north as the stars come out.

Day Twenty-Seven

Before I get started, my apologies for the lack of updates of late. Life has caught up to me in the shape of several ghastly assignments. I'll still try to get Towards Dawn updated a few times a week at the very least. Moving on, Day Twenty-seven:

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The torches did not seem to be working too well this night. I could hear the crunch of grass, the hiss of spiders, the rattle of skeletons, and the moans of zombies for most of the night.

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That's everything but a zombie.

There we go.

Here comes the sun.

The zombies and skeletons were taken care of, but I could still hear spiders, and I knew there was at least one creeper lurking out of sight. Yet again, I would have to make a dash for it.

3... 2... 1...

Three spiders leaped down after me. One hit me as I backpedaled. I shot arrows but they jumped manically and my shots went astray. Then two creepers joined in the chase.

Back!

I turned to run forwards and put some distance between us, only to find more creepers trying to flank me. I turned and ran north, merging the two squads into one. Spinning back around, I had enough space now to start firing.

.

Fortunately, the spiders grew disinterested and I had only the creepers to deal. I managed to take out all of them without a single explosion.

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I still don't trust them...

The morning excitement over, it was time to start the day. It was time to climb the hills to the east.

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I hardly crested the first mound before another creeper jumped at me from behind a pig.

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With that taken care of, I moved on. The ground lowered again into a plateau with hills rolling to the south and mountains rising to the north. The air also seemed overly foggy. I checked that my draw distance was still on normal, which it was. Perhaps the world is just so huge now that it is not rendering as much.

Looking east.

Looking south-east.

Mountains to the north.

Ominous cave.

Sure is ominous.

The flat, easy ground continued for a time, and I started to miss the ocean I had left behind. That was soon to change.

Looking north while coming down a hill.

That looks like an interesting mountain...

.

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I thought I had captured him in this picture, but right above the coal on the right-hand side of the overhang stood a pig, precariously leaning off the edge. He was wandering back and forth out of sight. Unfortunately, I must have just missed him when I shot the previous picture. It hardly mattered, as I was going to climb up to him to take a picture. But first, I wanted a picture of the gravel stalagmite in the shade (just visible two pictures up).

And then several things happened at once.

Pig!

The moment I took the picture, I heard a squeal and the pig that had been on the mountain fell and died before my eyes! My god! Just as I was reeling over this turn of events, a skeleton leaped out from behind the stalagmite and attacked me.

Skeleton!

Get back!

So that was horrifying. Now that there was no reason for me to climb atop the overhang, I worked up the mountain just to the south and continued east.

Looking north at the overhang. RIP Mountain Pig.

Coming down the other side, I spied what is perhaps the most peculiar mountain thus far. Not most amazing, but most peculiar.

Like a giant ant mound.

Slightly different angle.

Well, I would just have to climb it, wouldn't I? Hopefully there would be a way down on the far side.

Okay. It looks less impressive from the ground.

Up we go.

From the top, the view was fairly extraordinary.

I can't remember what way this was facing. Perhaps south. There was ocean on both north and south horizons.

So no easy way down on the eastern side...

View to the east (I turned my draw distance up to far for this).

So it looked as though the rest of my day may be interesting. Some crazy stadium-esque mountains and an eventual ocean, if the north and south waters are going to meet up (which they inevitably always do). I could not get off this mountain to the east, so I headed back down to the south.

Heading down south as another young mountain pig starts his climb.

Crazy mountains.

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I decided I wanted to go straight through the middle of these mountains. I carefully crossed a thin cube of grass into the central area.

Easy... (heading north)

Yeah, I kind of expected that (looking east).

With a bit of digging, climbing the cliff was not actually that hard.

Up, up, and up.

Looking back west at the rear of the peculiar mountain. Seems I missed a waterfall.

Atop the cliff.

Looking north through a crazy canyon.

Hmm. Might want to take a step back...

Continuing east, I soon looked out over some of the most breathtaking scenery I have seen for days. The upped draw distance may have helped. 

0_0 Looks just like a Cartograph map.

There was no way down directly to the east, so I balanced across a single-cube wide bridge to the mountain just to the north and headed down its less-steep eastern side.

Heading north-east (slowly)

Careful...

Looking east.

Sun beginning to sink back to the west.

On the horizon (further away than the horizon usually is) I could see the coast. I decided I would try to get to the beach before nightfall.

Crazy mountain to the south.

Strange overhang to the north.

The mountains came to an end with several lakes and sandy dunes before I hit the coast proper.

Looking east.

Interesting island.

.

Same island, from the south.

 I hit the coast just as the sky darkened. Looking for a place to set camp, I noticed a narrow cavern heading into the sand.

The lands I have traveled.

...And a cavern I did not craft.

I looked in briefly and placed a few torches. There was only one path, and it was quite narrow. I should be safe in here. I quickly glassed the entrance and went to survey the  cavern properly. In my rush, I forgot to place a single torch outside. Whoops.

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Now about this cave...

I ran its length hastily, placing torches and checking for smaller caverns leading in from the sides. I found nothing, save a single block missing at the very end. Beyond it, I could hear the moans of zombies.

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Just to be safe...

I still did not feel too safe. I was immediately regretting the idea of camping in a cavern that I did not dig myself. I still have nightmares about that zombie on Day Six (ish) that nearly slaughtered me. Still, this seemed safe enough. But then I looked up:

Uh, sand?

The ceiling, in places, was sand. All it would take is one block for it all to come tumbling down in an avalanche of zombies and creepers. Awesome. That was it. I could not sleep with a cavern at my back. Carefully, I mined some stone away from the sand. 

There we go. I feel safer now.

Sure is dark outside.

And so ends day twenty-seven.