tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10368720890974733442012-02-25T09:18:54.107-08:00Towards DawnLeaving the Miner's Life BehindBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.comBlogger571100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-41281260672301481092012-02-18T20:12:00.000-08:002012-02-18T20:12:37.852-08:00Day Fifty-SixI caught the faintest glimpse of the sun cresting the horizon before a sudden downpour hid it from view. I would not see it for the rest of the day.
.
Worse still, the many zombies and skeletons wandering around beneath my pillar refused to catch alight. There was nothing for it but to lower myself down and pick them off with my bow.
.
Once on the ground two more zombies came out from Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-50050028658147442912012-02-08T21:51:00.000-08:002012-02-08T21:51:08.242-08:00Day Fifty-FiveAfter a break for Christmas, New Years, and an interstate move, I returned to my nomad atop his pillar between a desert and a forest. Dusk, my trusty canine companion I had only the briefest meetings with before climbing my tower, sat obediently below me, seemingly unfazed by the zombies and creepers lurking around.
Looking east through the forest ahead.
And back west across the desert.
Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-82190381826477030182011-12-19T23:24:00.000-08:002011-12-19T23:24:58.022-08:00Day Fifty-Four
.
The sun rose over the swamp, exposing the many mobs looming in the desert around my tower.
Enderman over to the left.
.
Spider seems happy enough to leave me alone.
.
I stepped down into the swamps. There were quite a few chicken/ducks around and a gathered up a few eggs. As a commenter pointed out a few days ago, eating something other than mushroom stew for once might be nice. Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-82591219750416383302011-12-14T19:33:00.000-08:002011-12-14T19:33:56.981-08:00Day Fifty-Three
.
The rain continued through the night, giving it something of a timeless feel. I could not follow the moon across the sky. It was not until the sickly yellow of the clouded dawn appeared in the east that I knew it was time to get down and continue on.
.
Looks like I'm walking blind for now.
As the sun rose and the orange faded, I did my best to remain conscious of which way was east. I'dBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-75894811236293241732011-12-13T01:01:00.000-08:002011-12-13T01:01:24.784-08:00Day Fifty-Two
.
The sun rose over the swamp, still 90 degrees from where I was still convinced it rose the previous day. Though, that mattered little now. The daw was where the dawn was. Quite a few skeletons were hanging around the nearby hills, and I waited until they caught on fire before I descended. Still, I ended up dancing with one on the ground before he finally dropped.
On the way down.
Just aBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-59270156982665586912011-12-08T19:37:00.000-08:002011-12-08T19:38:44.965-08:00Day Fifty-One
.
Dawn rose over the forest ahead as I began chipping away at my pillar. Not before I was greeted by a friend, however.
I see you behind that tree.
Been a while since I had to use my bow.
A spider observed the conflict from atop a nearby tree, but he seemed content not to join in and let me put down my sign and carry on in peace.
.
I trekked on through the forest, passing more than a Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-35101293946675875632011-11-30T22:14:00.000-08:002011-11-30T22:14:21.822-08:00The First Fifty DaysBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-68202976696058401612011-11-30T03:39:00.000-08:002011-11-30T03:39:04.190-08:00Day Fifty
.
I spent my first night on land at my workbench. I made new tools; I unloaded old junk; I devoured several bowls of mushroom stew and crafted several more. Through the night, several spiders watched through the house's windows, but moreorless behaved themselves and made little noise. When I looked up from my workbench, sunlight was creeping around the village.
In return for their Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-78414038087440308482011-11-20T23:09:00.000-08:002011-11-20T23:26:29.605-08:00Day Forty-NineLand!
I was so excited to get out of my boat and go to shore. I did not even wait for the zombies to catch fire; the moment it was light enough to see my surroundings, I went ashore.
Waiting for the sun.
From whence I came.
Up we go!
Oh man. Oh man.
Goodbye, my trusty boat.
And off we go!
Before me was a steep-yet-climbable hill crowned in conifers (or so the Minecraft Wiki tells meBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-61535455305738867972011-11-20T00:34:00.000-08:002011-11-20T00:37:47.098-08:00Days Forty-Seven and Forty-EightThere are only so many photographs one can take of the ocean before they all look the same.
Day Forty-Seven. More ocean.
Day Forty-Eight. More water.
And so the ocean went on for two more days with no end in sight. Then, in the middle of the forty-eighth night, something miraculous happened. I stumbled out of my mind-numbed haze of just holding down 'w' as I realised why the stars were Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-34889741730182530282011-11-15T18:41:00.000-08:002011-11-15T18:41:39.781-08:00Days Forty-Five and Forty-Six
I continued my trip across The Vastest Ocean Of All Time Ever throughout the night. As the sun rose on Day Forty-Five, no land was to be seen.
Nothing to the east.
Nothing to the south.
Nothing to the north.
Onwards, then.
I spied a small island early in the morning and pulled over to place my sign.
.
The morning continued as the last three days had continued: with ocean and the Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-28797609206995703422011-11-06T21:02:00.000-08:002011-11-06T21:08:43.923-08:00Days Forty-Two to Forty-Four
Sunrise. Finally.
It was the longest night ever, but the sun was finally rising. A new sunrise of a shade the nomad had never seen before.
.
Looking east, I remembered where I had fallen asleep: on the edge of a continent, looking across east to the southern point of another island, and what seemed like a vast ocean to the south of that.
.
.
The island ahead looked mountainous and Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-63733995337837290792011-09-20T14:56:00.000-07:002011-09-20T14:56:32.654-07:00Down off Your Pillar, Back on Your Feet.
I owe you an apology.
I never meant to abandon Towards Dawn. I don't think I ever anticipated just how much effort and time it would take to continue, nor how mind-bogglingly popular it was going to be. Since writing the last day waaaaay back in March, uni got intensely busy and I also started picking up more freelance writing work.
And I would have been content to just let it die, but two Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-24450709041393953372011-03-15T04:37:00.000-07:002011-03-15T04:37:48.372-07:00Day Forty-OneAfter dreaming he traveled across the world to attend GDC and then back to Australia to begin writing a thesis, the nomad woke up as the sun was rising on Day Forty-One. The mountain to his east blocked the view of the sunrise, but it wasn't long before slithers of red light crept along the northern and southern horizons.
Looking south from my pillar.
The only mob I saw all night, waiting Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-7331092685707326232011-02-23T02:59:00.000-08:002011-02-23T02:59:44.103-08:00Day Forty
Skeleton watches the sunrise.
My fear that mobs would swim out to my island in the night was unfounded as the sun began to rise. I watched the skeletons and zombies burn on the eastern shore and the few spiders wander off, disinterested, before I climbed off my tower and swam ashore.
Finally!
Desert ahead.
I followed the grass to the south and crossed the small sand-bridge. A mountain Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-72079881284123912192011-01-08T22:02:00.000-08:002011-01-08T22:02:40.600-08:00It feels like nearly every second post this past month has been an apology for not posting more. Sadly, this is another one. I got ill near the start of December, and then there was a death in my family, and then it was Christmas, and then I got ill again, and now I am in the process of moving houses. All this time, I've had other writing deadlines to reach and Towards Dawn (and, even worse, my Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-21030967034716264492010-12-13T22:49:00.000-08:002010-12-13T22:51:40.428-08:00Day Thirty-NineThe mountain to the east blocked my first views of the morning until the red rays of sunlight crept around the northern and southern edges of the horizon.
North-east
South-east
The moon setting over the frozen ocean back west.
As the daylight cleared the mountain proper and the skeletons and zombies began to burn, I lowered myself to the ground. My four cacti had grown somewhat overnight soBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-54220230408728296052010-12-08T20:52:00.000-08:002010-12-08T20:52:55.211-08:00Day Thirty-Eight
A star-less night.
The night was darker than usual. I could see no stars and not even the moon. At first I thought perhaps a large cloud was passing slowly overhead, but then, just before dawn, I realised I had just bumped 'F' and turned the draw distance to short.
.
If you look closely, you can just spy a zombie hanging out in the water below the tree.
This was the first night I had spent Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-20647598682295157272010-12-05T18:45:00.000-08:002010-12-05T18:45:21.926-08:00Day Thirty-SevenBefore I get started, someone requested to see my inventory, so here you go:
.
A couple of notes: every night I craft a chest in which I place all the useless things I pick up during a given day such as dirt blocks and spider webs (and a flower, it would seem). This picture was taken at night, pre-chest, so things are a bit messy. I always carry at least two picks and two spades as well as a Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-39063110782966305562010-12-02T05:24:00.000-08:002010-12-02T05:24:23.207-08:00Day Thirty-SixThe night passed slowly. I spent what felt like weeks atop my pillar, watching the skeletons and creepers wandering below on the sand. I took a few pot shots to pass the time.
.
Dawn at last.
Looking south.
Nearly time.
Flames began to lick at the zombies and I began my decent, cautious of the many creepers I could see off to the south.
Down we go.
Wait a minute. That isn't a cactus..Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-1896989538546452010-11-22T01:03:00.000-08:002010-11-22T01:03:22.995-08:00A Brief HiatusMy apologies for the utter lack of updates this past week. My life became very hectic very abruptly and I now have more writing commitments that I must deliver in the next week or so than I anticipated having. Towards Dawn will return to its regular schedule early next week. I appreciate everyone who has been reading and commenting with motivation and suggestions and I'm sorry for the delay. I'llBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-19619078370565824442010-11-16T23:37:00.000-08:002010-11-16T23:37:59.277-08:00I Knew That Mountain Looked Familiar!
Thanks, Glynn and Michael!Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-74904443389307045362010-11-15T20:23:00.000-08:002010-11-15T20:23:02.453-08:00Day Thirty-Five
.
The night was eerily quiet. At one point I through I saw a skeleton looming behind a mound to the north, but it was just a sheep.
Where are all the mobs?
As the sun climbed higher I looked to the horizons, but not a single mob was in sight. Warily, sensing things were not right, I chipped away at my tower and returned to the ground.
Still no mobs.
My defenses did more harm than good :(Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-75366538540350642452010-11-13T23:09:00.000-08:002010-11-13T23:09:24.212-08:00Day Thirty-FourI dug deep beneath my island in a tight spiral until I hit a vast, dark cavern network. I took several tentative steps into the cave, hoping a block of diamond might just appear before me. Of course, it didn't, and I hastily retreated back up my shaft before mobs could swarm me.
Back in my island camp, there were no mobs to be seen so I knocked down a wall and went outside to gaze at the stars.
Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-37743250954313702022010-11-10T00:34:00.000-08:002010-11-10T00:34:33.739-08:00Day Thirty-ThreeWhile I felt relatively safe atop my cactus-circled pillar as I knew exactly what mobs were around me, I was sharply aware of just how easy it would be for me to fall to my death. I spent the entire night crouching, watching the mobs walk back and forth over the desert.
Nearly morning
So many creepers!
Oh wait. Some of those are cacti.
Muhaha!
Once the burning was over, one lone spider Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-63099493505669632882010-11-08T00:27:00.000-08:002010-11-08T00:27:33.971-08:00Day Thirty-TwoAll night I was accompanied with the hissing of spiders. They were directly above me. I had no idea how I would get out without them dropping on me. I didn't really have anywhere to run. Eventually, the sunrise begin to split the horizon like a scar.
.
.
I had what I thought was a clever idea. Instead of breaking the glass, I would dig beneath it and swim out to a safe distance before rising Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-20398035523381664282010-11-06T20:16:00.000-07:002010-11-06T20:16:36.717-07:00Day Thirty-One
Western window.
I dug out a window in the western side of the monument so I could follow the moon. Far below, skeletons and creepers were moving over the countryside.
.
I tried mining for a time, but I did not expect to find much. I was fairly limited in the direction I could mine, too. Any direction except straight down just exposed me to the night. Eventually the sun began to rise and Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-80422403172017573172010-11-02T21:08:00.000-07:002010-11-02T21:10:49.850-07:00Day Thirty
.
Day Thirty. One more day and I would have been walking east for a whole month. Though, the spiders and zombies scampering over my roof seemed determined to not let that happen.
.
The sky grew lighter and the zombies burned. But the spiders remained and their interest in me did not wane. I walked back and forth in my room and the spiders followed me atop the glass. The moment I smashed a Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-12408852239149124392010-11-01T01:14:00.000-07:002010-11-01T01:14:22.703-07:00Day Twenty-Nine
There's something odd about the grass...
The world I woke up in was not the world I fell asleep in. Something had changed. It was in colour of the grass, in the quality of the morning sky.
Somethings don't change, though.
I listened to the zombies burn, eager to step out into this new world. The creeper climbed up atop my camp and refused to come down. I waited a minute with my bow ready Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-67616918066042136642010-10-30T03:26:00.000-07:002010-10-30T03:26:51.142-07:00Day Twenty-EightOnce 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 Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-81198612604332945762010-10-24T02:35:00.000-07:002010-10-24T02:35:43.069-07:00Day Twenty-SevenBefore 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:
.
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 theBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-91059859680500097322010-10-20T02:47:00.000-07:002010-10-20T02:47:31.406-07:00Day Twenty-Six
.
I mined a lot that night. Instead of spiraling down, I dug a wide shaft into the mountain, three across, about ten high, and perhaps twenty deep. It took all night an countless stone picks, but I had wood and stone to spare so that was not an issue. It turned out to be quite effective, I hit two veins of iron and an extensive vein of coal for my trouble. For some reason, i did not take a Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-29092819298674449152010-10-18T01:15:00.000-07:002010-10-18T01:15:31.933-07:00Day Twenty-FiveI needed more iron.
I was getting desperate. I was using stone picks again. I still had twenty-something ingots, but the number was going down more than it was going up. So on the night of the twenty-forth day, when my mining hit a vast cavern network, I did not turn around; instead, I stepped down into the darkness.
Into the darkness.
My heart was pounding pretty hard.
I was frightened, Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-19618044128346325432010-10-15T20:13:00.000-07:002010-10-15T20:27:49.819-07:00Day Twenty-Four
.
The torches did not seem to work as well as the previous night. I heard no zombies, skeletons, or creepers (no one ever hears the creepers), but the spiders were deafening. Occasionally one would scamper past the glass, but I could hear others overhead. I broke the glass, ran outside, and turned.
.
The spiders jumped down off the hill and gave chase... for about two seconds. Then they just Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-54763386590109371362010-10-14T04:12:00.000-07:002010-10-14T04:12:09.405-07:00Day Twenty-Three.
.
The night passed silently. Perhaps setting up the perimeter of torches around my camp actually worked. Again my mining proved entirely fruitless. While I waited for the sun to rise, I packed away my workbench. I made sure I removed my coal from the furnace before I packed it up also, this time. But then I remembered I was yet to smelt the four iron cubes I had found during the day yesterday Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-18022485197890044312010-10-13T00:20:00.000-07:002010-10-13T00:20:33.089-07:00Day 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.
.
.
.
From the way they kept throwing themselves at the glass, I sensed Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-53705253488910587882010-10-12T04:35:00.000-07:002010-10-12T04:35:08.869-07:00Day Twenty-OneBefore I begin the day, I must recall some of the events of the night.
Not long after glassing up the entrance, I noticed I had left a one-block hole in the roof. Fortunately, I blocked it up before any mobs fell in, but something strange happened. I placed the block, and my entire screen filled with dirt and I began losing health. I was being crushed. I had no idea what I had done. I lost Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-29955501002439864312010-10-11T17:55:00.000-07:002010-10-11T19:25:04.461-07:00Recap: The First 20 Days
Got it? Good.
Also, Gerard Delaney was able to get a proper Cartograph map of the world thus far for me. I've annotated it with campsites and a few significant landmarks (but certainly not all of them). If you are interested, you can download the .png file here. And if that link on MegaUpload does not work, try this one on MediaFire.Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-7416182213587936742010-10-11T03:14:00.000-07:002010-10-11T03:14:32.900-07:00Day Twenty
.
The sunlight started to glimmer through the tree. The tree that I would have to cut down once the sun was a bit higher. See, once again I had made camp without gathering any wood for my sign or my chest. Moments later, my view of the sunrise was rudely interrupted.
Drop Zombie!
No you may not come in. And about that sunrise you are blocking...
Yeah. That sunrise.
Bye bye.
.
I Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-46636532179240668072010-10-09T01:44:00.000-07:002010-10-09T01:44:18.998-07:00Day NineteenI 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. ItBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-59517103804617859692010-10-08T05:15:00.000-07:002010-10-08T05:18:07.857-07:00Some Math
[Hello. Sadly, the regular Towards Dawn update won't be appearing today as I just simply have not had the time to play or write it. I'll make up for it by doing at least one post over the weekend! In the meantime, my good friend Sean Di Lizio has been doing some math, and I thought I would share them with you. They may be considered depressing, if you see the goal of Towards Dawn to Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-53119682804402076332010-10-07T04:08:00.000-07:002010-10-07T04:41:46.066-07:00Day EighteenAs I waited for the sun to rise, as I do every night, I decided to do a spot of mining. Usually I don't record much about these quick adventures as there is nothing exciting to say. I spiral down until I hear mobs or find a cavern and then I stop. As I mined on the seventeenth night, though, I made a fairly important discovery: I was camping not on a mountain so much as an overhang.
Oh my.
Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-37275686270081929072010-10-05T21:30:00.000-07:002010-10-05T21:30:49.483-07:00Day SeventeenI did not see the moon all night. The jutting cliffs around me hid the celestial body from me and forced me to just sit and tap my fingers and craft torches until the sky began to lighten.
Nearly time.
Now I just have to figure a way up.
I should probably wait for that zombie to burn...
There truly was no simply way over this mountain. So far I had avoided extensive construction and Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-69635847393248553252010-10-05T01:17:00.000-07:002010-10-05T01:17:57.590-07:00Day SixteenMy overnight mining was fruitless, turning up not a single cube of coal or iron. I was fully packed and ready to move on before the faintest shades of blue coloured the sky.
Light enough.
Let's go!
I was keen to get going to make up for the hours lost shooting creepers from my tower the previous morning. But perhaps I was a tad too eager.
You can *just* see the burning zombie, top right.
Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-30061452202356329912010-10-04T01:42:00.000-07:002010-10-04T14:40:53.010-07:00Day FifteenThe sun rose slowly. As it climbed, my predicament became ever more apparent.
Looking south-west
Looking east. Zombies still not burning
Looking north-west. So many creepers.
Oh. And some pigs. Help me, pigs!
The sun was fully above the horizon now, yet the skeletons and zombies did not burn. What if Notch had updated the game overnight. What if sunlight no longer harmed them? It seems Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-84367169945288184242010-09-30T20:38:00.000-07:002010-10-01T04:17:09.327-07:00Day Fourteen
Time to move on.
The last hours before dawn, I could here zombies and skeletons outside. I wasn't sure if they were downhill on the grass or directly above me in the tunnel. Last thing I wanted was to knock out the wall and have a zombie land on me. I stood back as far as I could as I opened my cave up to the morning.
No zombies yet...
I walked out of the cave backwards, sword in hand. The Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-74820091044684441892010-09-30T02:39:00.000-07:002010-09-30T02:39:16.803-07:00Day Thirteen
Almost time to get going...
I'm not a superstitious person. But when you are spending your days walking across new lands, when a single misstep could send you tumbling into a pool or lava or a dungeon full of skeletons (which there are a lot of lying around, if those Cartograph numbers are to be believed!) it pays to be careful.
A spider had been scuttling back and forth over my glass ceilingBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-41306954533413581342010-09-29T22:48:00.000-07:002010-09-29T22:48:00.931-07:00Some NumbersHello all. I'll be posting Day Thirteen's entry in a few hours (after, uh, I play it), but in the meantime, here are some crazy numbers that I got out of Cartograph! Unfortunately, I am having trouble getting the map image to work properly (the image is meant to be at a resoluton of 10,400 x 800!) but I was still able to get these somewhat staggering numbers:
Map surface is: 4067328 square Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-18430765908294218982010-09-29T03:53:00.000-07:002010-09-29T03:53:05.355-07:00Day TwelveThe sun began to rise long before my iron had finished smelting.
Getting light...
Hurry up, furnace!
(If you are wondering why there is a chest there, I have been leaving a chest at every camp and filling it with all the excess dirt, stone, and coal I have taking up room in my inventory).
While I waited for the furnace to finish, I packed up my workbench and went to place my sign. The Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-14209892224999374162010-09-28T04:25:00.000-07:002010-09-28T04:27:27.508-07:00Day Eleven
.
Realisation dawned on me with the sun: I had made a horrible mistake.
Having crafted the last of my wood into sticks, I had none left to craft my sign. The sun was probably not high enough yet to be burning zombies and skeletons, but the morning was silent save the distant mooing of a cow. I broke down the glass and crept outside.
.
.
There we go!
I went back into my cavern to fetch myBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-47849436822425832292010-09-26T22:13:00.000-07:002010-09-26T22:13:13.539-07:00Day TenThis had to be the longest night in history. There was nothing I could do but sit there, my eyes drifting skywards to the crawling moon then darting back to the creepers. I considered shooting arrows at them, but I didn't want to aggravate them if they were happy to leave me alone. As the moon eventually sunk below the horizon, I started to edge forward slowly, leaving the creepers to their Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-2002969828778658622010-09-24T02:08:00.000-07:002010-09-24T02:08:39.008-07:00Day Nine Wasting time rearranging my inventory, I heard a cow moo. I dug away at the wall, peered outside, and sure enough it was time to move on. I packed up my workbench and furnace, left a pile of coal and stone and dirt in a chest, placed my sign, and set off.
.
A nice view to wake up to.
.
Exploring this valley before moving on did not cross my mind until I was well on my way. A pity, as I hadBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-17108566516158917492010-09-23T03:09:00.000-07:002010-09-23T03:09:22.262-07:00Day Eight
A new week begins.
Week two. My spirits are lifted somewhat. A whole week survived. Conversely, I have seen so much in such a short space of time, and I still have so much more to so. I am out of my cave and trekking east again as soon as the sky lightens. Not a single creeper or spider is waiting for me. A good start.
Good morning!
The ocean is creeping in again. I chop down a tree as I go,Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-18974442255543941832010-09-21T23:43:00.000-07:002010-09-21T23:43:52.790-07:00Day SevenAs the moon set and the sound of zombies burning welcomed the morning, I christened my new bow with its first kill.
I feel less bad about killing those spiders now.
I collected the feathers and the arrows from the dead zombies and skeletons, climbed up the hill, and finally walked through my hole. It was time to move on. Looking ahead, it seemed the terrain would let me pass for once.
A Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-33959715537671088092010-09-21T00:18:00.000-07:002010-09-21T00:18:16.722-07:00Day SixThe loudest night of the journey thus far, the fifth night was. Skeletons, zombies, spiders, and creepers were all accounted for outside my little den. I had not considered the previous night that by camping in the western side of a cliff it would be later in the day before the sun eventually appeared to burn up the mobs. But burn they eventually did, and the spiders calmed down. But I still had Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-35625137771697389192010-09-20T00:48:00.000-07:002010-09-20T00:48:52.966-07:00Day Five
And on we go.
My fourth night was uneventful. I heard no mobs outside and found few resources in my little mine. The sun rose and I said goodbye to my hovel beneath the majestic mountain. 'Majestic' to look at, at least, but now I had to figure out how to get over it.The incline seemed more consistent to the south (to my right), so I went at it with a spade and managed to clamber to the top.
Brendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1036872089097473344.post-73899446516254711122010-09-19T00:55:00.000-07:002010-09-19T00:55:52.328-07:00Days One to Four
And so it begins.
Day One
The sun rises over the ocean. I spend my first morning collecting wood for tools and a simple boat. By midday I am sailing east into the unknown. Later than I would have liked to start, but it feels good to be on my way. Quite some time passes before I see land again.
I leave my boat on the sand and head up the hill into a forest-filled valley. Back towards home, theBrendanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01772283679871140397noreply@blogger.com4