Day Nineteen

I dug several tunnels overnight but found nothing but dirt and stone. I returned to camp and began crafting my signs for the morning--one for the day, one for the mountain pig's memorial Alas, I didn't actually have enough wood on me for both. I would have to go grab more wood in the morning then return to camp and craft it before I bury mountain pig's, uh, cremations, and start my day proper. It would be a late start, but that is okay. I went and sat by the entrance and waited for the sun to rise. The stars were crawling across the sky. Everything was rather quiet and peaceful. Until:

Ah!

Sneaky creeper...

The creeper wandered off again long before the sun rose. But now I could hear lots of sounds outside. Footsteps, slurping, moaning. I saw no more movement, though, until the sun began to rise.

.

 And then I saw lots of movement.

Oh. Hello.

The spider was scuttling right at the glass, eager to get inside. The sun was up, yet it was still acting violent. I stood as far back as possible, broke the upper block of glass, and fired a volley of arrows.

.

And another one.

Two spiders attacking me in daylight. Odd. Perhaps the spiders behave differently in this land. With them gone and the sounds of burning zombie subsiding, I equipped my sword and ducked outside. I expected the creeper to still be nearby. Sure enough...

Meep. Fall back!

That worked.

It was time to get to work. Outside was littered with feathers and arrows.

.

Supplies

I returned to camp, crafted my signs and chests (one for useless junk, one for mountain pig's grave), and packed up my workbench and furnace. Instead of heading east, I backtracked west to where I came down the mountain. There I dug three squares straight down, placed the chest, placed mountain pigs cremations inside, and filled the hole back in with dirt. I placed the sigh as monument and stood silently for a moment. 

.

Ashes to Ashes.

R.I.P

I thought about saying something, but there was nothing to say. The sun was getting high. It was time to move on.

On with the show.

I stopped to pick the mushrooms spied in yesterday's pictures before heading down the gentle hills to the coast.

Enough for a few bowls of soup.

A new apprentice, perhaps?

Heading east.

Looking back west from the coast.

And back to the north-west.

At the waterside, I debated what to do. Directly east, I could clearly see the opposite shore. It hardly seemed worth crafting a boat for. To the north, a beach curved around, but it would be a bit of a walk. Meanwhile, directly south, the river looked like it might open up into a larger body of water south of the island.

The beach wrapping around north.

I decided to go with the boat, but shortly after jumping into it, I changed my mind and just headed east. Why waste time with the southern passage that might not actually take me anywhere?

A passage to the south?

Stuff it. Just head east (looking a bit north-ish in this picture).

There was more water just beyond the land directly in front of me. Perhaps I would dig a quick trench and take my boat through.

I'll just stop up here and dig a channel through...

...or not.

With driving like that, it would probably be unwise to craft a second boat. Instead, I decided to stick to the land and just walk east.

Islands to the south-east.

Big stone mound.

Moving on, going by foot was clearly the right choice. Rivers occasionally came inland, but the main body of water was drifting further and further south. On the positive side, however, things were looking pretty flat for once.I covered quite a lot of ground in a relatively short amount of time.

Heading east.

A small, drained lake.

A larger lake, flowing in from the north.

Hills to the south.

Easy walking to the east.

Hills to the north.

An awesome mountain standing by itself.

As I approached the mountain, I noticed a couple of floating shapes directly ahead of me. At first, I thought one was growing out of a tree, and I got quite excited. Alas, they were just floating dirt blocks. Still, these may be the lowest floating blocks I've seen yet.

.

A mere two blocks off the ground.

East past the mountain.

Before moving on, I climbed up into the cavern on my right. 

Ominous...

I decided to do a quick recon, see if I could find any iron. But the cavern quickly split into a honeycombed network, and I didn't want anything coming up behind me and ambushing me, so I backtracked out and let it lie.

Moving on, I found some more cool monuments just to the north. I paused for a while to check them out.

Looking north.

That is kind of cool.

The waterfall goes quite a way back.

As I continued east, the mountains kept looming up to my north.

Pretty tall..

They were slowly pushing me south, too. But I was still making some ground eastward so it was okay.

.

End of the mountains.

The land opened up once again into a wooded meadow and I continued to make good time. Some hills rolled to the south and ahead of me, but nothing that caused me to slow down.

Hills to the south.

Easy path east.

Directly in my path, the ground opened up in a wide scar, as though a giant earthquake had sundered the earth.

Dear me.

Why hello there.

Looking back west beneath where I came from. Looks like a deep one.

The group became pocketed and unstable. Crevasses dropped away into deep shafts. I stumbled into a sand-filled hole at one stage. A single cube opened inwards to another cave. I ignored it and went on my way. Carefully.

.

More hills.

One of many innocent looking ditches...

...that wasn't innocent at all.

Sun getting low.

As careful as I was being, I guess it was only a matter of time.

Grabbing a quick photo of a mountain to the south as I walk...

Ow.

By the time I clambered out, the sky was darkening.

I blame you for this, mountain.

Continuing on, I rounded a hill to its east-facing side and began to dig my camp, just south of a cool overhang.

Oh look. A mountain sheep. I hadn't noticed it!

Safe for the night.

I mined for a bit, but that was cut short when I almost instantly stumbled across a large cavern right beneath me.

Not sure if you can see the waterfall to the left gushing down to the south. It was a big cavern.

I blocked it back up and returned to camp. My iron supplies were lowering, but not to a level I had to worry about for quite a few more days. I sat by the fire and sipped my freshly cooked mushroom stew.

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