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Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Day Twenty-Two

Creepers and Spiders
As the moon lowered in the sky (my camp faced west so I could see it fall) a myriad of creepers and spiders were strolling back and forth among the trees. Strangely, I could not hear a single zombie or skeleton, just lots of creepers and lots of spiders. This would be an interesting morning.

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 From the way they kept throwing themselves at the glass, I sensed that these spiders would be the kind to attack me at daytime. I packed up my workbench and furnace while considering what I should do. Distracted, I forgot to remove the coal from my furnace before dismantling it and lost about sixty coal. Whoops.

Time passed and the spiders and creepers remained outside. There was nothing for it. I stood back and broke the glass. A creeper attacked instantly.

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Now what?
I could hear the rest still walking around and atop the hill. If I crept out I would surely be attacked from behind, no matter which way I faced. So instead, I ran. I counted to three and just bolted out the door, turning and backpedaling instantly.

Get back!
 Three spiders and two creepers started chasing me straight away, and a third creeper came down the hill to join them. I killed one of the spiders and the other two seemed to hesitate and gave up chasing me. But the creepers persisted.

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I was still running backwards. I had no idea what was behind me. I could be heading straight into another three creepers or a deep chasm or a pit of lava. I had no idea. I unleashed a barrage of arrows.

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With the creepers taken care of, I spun around. Sure enough, another creeper was, uh, creeping up behind me.

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I could see no more creepers. I was clear. I headed back to collect all the dropped gunpowder, keeping a weary eye on the spiders, of which there seemed to be three again.

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My sign ended up some distance from my camp once my frantic sprint and shootout was complete. Moving on towards the east, the plains were broken up with snaking cracks and the occasional cave. Looking into the darkness, I spied a few cubes of iron and brown mushrooms in a few of them and warily mined them while keeping one eye open for any zombies lurking away from the sun.

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Mushrooms
More caves...
And iron and mushrooms :)
More easy walking ahead, it seems.
The hills were calming and the walk relaxing. But atop a hill to the south was a sobering reminder that it was still too early to let my guard down.

Creeper on the hill.
Is it watching me?
I walked backwards until it turned and walked back in the opposite direction. I kept my sword equipped, though, just in case. I saw no more creepers that morning, however. I made good time as I trekked across the flat ground. Sometimes a cliff would rise up to the north or south, but nothing that blocked my path.

Cliff pigs to the south.
Mountain to the north.
Quite a large vein of coal.
Time to replenish my supplies.
Beyond the mountain, the going was unevenful for some time. The occasional pitfall kept me vigilant.

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Not a whole lot to see here.
Small stone mound.
Forest to the south.
Before a low mountain range stretching north to south across my path was a honeycomb of caves open to the sky.

Looking east.
Underground waterfall.
Careful steps...
Looking back south-west at the caves.
On to the mountain.
The mountain was easy enough to climb. Certainly nothing like those I encountered a week ago. I dug one, perhaps two, dirt cubes in total. There was also a vein of coal in the base that I mined before moving on.

Hill climbing.
Atop the mountain, the landscape was slightly more interesting. There were more trees and the ground continued to slope upwards.

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Might take a peek...
Sure looks ominous...
...perhaps not.
Moving on.
More forest.
After walking among the trees for a while, I came across a rather strange patch of land. Slithers of stone were protruding seemingly at random among the grass. Almost like the remaining foundations of a long-since forgotten building.

Strange.
And that was really the only interesting thing I saw for quite some time, I'm afraid. For a lot of the afternoon I just continued through the forest. It was a very big forest, though, and that in itself is kind of cool.

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I did find a mushroom in a cave entrance, however. And exploring further, the cave was in fact a tunnel, so I walked through it.

This is looking north-west. The tunnel hooks back to my right (east).
Ooh. Let's go this way.
Surprise! More forest!
Twin trees.
The scenery was getting monotonous. I just kept walking forward, occasionally jumping, hardly paying attention to my surroundings. Apathy was setting in. Sure, I was making great time and on a map I had probably covered a huge amount of ground in the past two days. That was certainly exciting, but I wanted to see something cool, something new. I was sick of plains and forests. I almost cried for joy where I stumbled across a random ditch of sand.
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For glass and TNT.
Aaaaand more forest. Sigh.
Sun setting back west.
Perhaps I was being punished. Remember when the landscape seemed to be telling me to turn south a few days back? Perhaps it was a warning, that I was heading into a boring land of flat ground and trees. Oh well. I have a mission and I will stick to it.

Sure enough, after just one more hill, the forest ended.

No trees! Yay!
I could see no ground to my south beyond a brief incline. I sensed an ocean.

Yep! (looking south-east)
Following the land east.
The sky was growing dark, but at least it seemed as though the scenery might change for me in the morning. I decided to make camp on the beach for the night. In a vain attempt to not face a  swarm of mobs in the morning, I surrounded my camp in a ring of torches. I'm not sure if it will work or not, but it is worth a shot. The skirmishes the past few mornings have been unwelcomed, to say the least.

Mob-b-gone... hopefully.
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An uneventful day, but a lot of ground covered. I guess I can't complain.

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