Day 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 ceiling all night, so I decided on a less orthodox exit, by digging into the river.

Teehee.

There we go.

 The water rushed down the shaft I had dug over night, undoubtedly flooding all the torches I had placed down there. Not that it mattered. Not that I would ever return here. I swam out of the camp and started my day.

Fingers crossed...

Directly east was water. I had picked up my workbench without crafting a boat, though, so I followed the land as it crept to the north. 

.

Following the edge of the island north-east.

I came to a shady knoll beside the water. A pig was out splashing around.

This looks nice.

Morning, Aqua Pig!

Continuing east, it looked like I would finally need that boat.

Boat time.

.

It didn't last long. The land closed in around me and even though I could see more ocean ahead, I had to abandon the boat. Or dig a ravine, which I considered briefly, but it didn't seem like a very nomad thing to do.

The grass was flat for a while, but ocean was ever-present just to the south.

.

Then, after crossing a small inlet, the water was to the north as well.

Looking north.

The woods grew thicker as the land grew thinner.

Trees and water.

A big tree, but the land is running out.

Those are fairly sheer cliffs. Doubt I can swim to shore.

Okay. I guess it is boat time again.

Here we go then.

I followed the cliffs for a time until they swung around north. Then I had to hit the ocean proper for a time until several small islands appeared on the horizon.

Islands!

A literal desert island? (looking south)

Another odd island (looking north)

I made landfall on a weird beach that was part sand and part clay.

.

I gathered some sand before leaving. Mostly for glass, but I had another idea too. See, I had been carrying around a fair supply of gunpowder for some time, ever since I took out those five or six creepers last week. With some sand, I could craft some TNT. What on earth would a nomad want with TNT? Well, it could potentially make my brief mining spouts swifter. I could dig down a shaft, place some TNT, and grab any minerals from the resulting cave. Though, without any redstone to remote detonate, it could be a risky business. I'll craft if for now, and decide later if I use it or not.

Anyway, that is still in the future. For now, I left the beach and kept walking. The ground rose gradually up a hill until I came out on a clearing that looked east towards another grand mountain, though one that looked easily passable.

Hills. Hills. Hills.

Oh. Hello there.

Quite friendly looking, as far as mountains go.

As I drew closer, I spied a cavern digging into the hillside. I decided to check it out briefly.

A cavern...

...of grass?

Yep. A grass cavern. Well there you go.

Leaving the fruitless cavern behind, I began to climb. I barely had to dig away any dirt blocks, the hill was gradual and evenly stepped.

Easy going.

And then I reached the top and saw exactly what I was not expecting. I mean, there is little that I could have seen from the top of this mountain that I was expecting less.

Meep. 0_0*

A cloud. Right in front of my face. And look how high up I was! What the heck?! I was dumbstruck. I had no sense of having climbed so high since leaving my boat. This was incredible. The view just went on in every direction. Amazing! The top of this 'hill' was a mere block wide before dropping straight down. Who would have thought such a friendly looking hill could house such a cliff on its opposite side. I tried to creep closer to take a picture looking down the drop and, uh, fell. Fortunately, some way down, was another single-cube ledge. It still hurt, but my armour took most of the damage.

Ow. Thank you, iron armour!

The view from the 'lower' ledge.

Still quite a long way down...

This ledge put me in no better situation than the last. I had no choice from here but to dig my way down to the more gradual slopes. It was slow work, and I had to mine my way through stone part of the way. Once I got to sea level, I looked back at the rear side of the friendly mountain.

No, really. What the heck, hill?!

 Then I saw the cavern. How could I resist the urge to look inside such a bizarre hill? Just quickly. I clambered back up and ducked inside. There was nothing there, sadly, except a tunnel that hooked around to a northern entrance.

The tunnel and its lack of minerals.

I turned back to head at the water, and looked at the sky for the first time for some minutes.

Oh. Is that the moon?

Yes. Yes it is.

I didn't just want to sit in the tunnel all night--mobs would surely flank me from whatever entrance I wasn't guarding. Instead, I dug down into the east-facing entrance. At least there I would see the sun rise.

Not too bad for a spur of the moment camp.

I dug quite deep that night, but I found nothing. No coal, no iron. Just a heap of stone. I considered crafting my TNT, but had already unthinkingly placed all my sand in the furnace to make glass. Whoops! At least I wouldn't be blowing myself up for at least another day.

And that was the thirteenth. Almost fell to my death once, but otherwise a decent day.

That mountain is still blowing my mind, though.

Some Numbers

Hello 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 meters
Block amounts:
Air: 232479463
Stone: 228580339
Grass: 2574844
Dirt: 24419180
Snow: 0

Water: 7168713
Ice: 0
Lava: 1529851

Obisidian: 19390

Trunk: 77514
Leaves: 841805
Wood: 0
Cactus: 107

Sand: 1658828
Gravel: 6888716
Clay: 1851

Gold Ore: 117778
Iron Ore: 1126973
Coal Ore: 2453311
Diamond Ore: 48835
Redstone: 392466

Cobble: 41748
Glass: 12
Cloth: 0
Gold: 0
Iron: 0
Diamond: 0

Farmland: 0
Crops: 0
Reed: 180
Torch: 178
CraftTable: 2
Chest: 569
Furnace: 1
Wooden Doors: 0
Iron Doors: 0
Signs: 11
Ladder: 0
Railtracks: 0
Wooden Stairs: 0
Rock Stairs: 0
Lever: 0
Buttons: 0
Pressure Plates: 0
Redstone Powder: 0
Redstone Torches: 0

Mountain Guru Pig: 1

Day Twelve

The 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 canyon was just as breathtaking as the previous dusk. To the south of the waterfall I could see an O-shaped hole in the mountains. That would be my goal.

Looking good...

I sat and just took in the view for a while then returned to the furnace. I packed the iron in my inventory and packed away the furnace. I had a lot of iron now. The next night I might replace all my armour and tools. For now, it was time to explore the canyon. I decided a boat would be the best way to take it all in.

.

So pretty...

I parked beside the three trees. Before I climbed up to the hole, I found a small tunnel underneath that worked around to beside the waterfall. I explored it quickly, finding more iron ore (which I took) and more coal (which I left).

.

Beside the waterfall.

My admiration for the canyon sated, it was time to climb up to the hole and be on my way.

Through the hole, looking south and east.

Looking directly east. Guess I'm heading further south, then.

Back north-east at the outer side of the canyon mountains.

The eastern path was blocks so I drifted further to the south. I could have gone up and over the foothills, but a rather curious tunnel was right before me.

Hello there, tunnel.

I could see sunlight on the far side, so it seemed safe enough. Still, I placed torches as I went, not wanting to trip and fall in a pool of lava. The tunnel slanted down deeper into a cavern to the south, but a shaft of sunlight directly in front of me would get me back on the eastern trail.

Up to the sun, Brendan, not down to the mines.

The shaft though, did not end on my level. It kept dropping down.

Meep.

I dug away around the shaft's edge and back up to the grass. The land here was still hilly, but at least it was flat enough to pass over now.

.

I defied my unconscious urge to keep drifting south and forced myself to go back around the north side of the next mountain. I had already drifted far south today. Still, I ended up filtered into another canyon.

.

Hey, Pig.

The valley, it turned out, was quite amazing.

Looking south east.

.

I decided not to explore the valley and to instead keep moving east. I climbed up the next hill and soon found myself on a sheer ledge looking down into yet another valley. Perhaps the one I left behind swung back up from the south to join this one.

I feel like I am looking across a road into someone's window.

I worked my way down to the flat ground and was on my way. Around me, some weird things were happening. Nothing too out of the ordinary, though, just the occasional floating block and odd shaped mountain. I thought little of it and kept going.

Hmm...

Climbing another hill, I found an entrance to the cavern. It stood out as the entrance seemed to have been gouged out of the mountainside with a knife.

It was hard to get it on a good angle.

I could see the mushroom as I neared. Jumping in to get them, I could see the cavern went for some way. Far to the south, either sun or lava was lightening another cavern.

Mushrooms! And an ominous tunnel...

Back down the western tunnel.

I backed out the way I had come in and looked to the east at a rather strange mountain.

Is that a big floating rectangle?

From this angle, I couldn't tell if it slanted down on the other side. Regardless, I decided I must climb the weird mountain before I moved on. The southern side was sheer cliff, so I would have to move around north to the hills. As a climbed down my current hill, the view to the south opened up, showing more weird mountains and floating blocks.

The floating blocks freak me out.

Off the hill and before I could begin climbing Weird Mountain, I found a cow in desperate need of a spade-wielding hero.

It's stuck!

Yay!

(Full credit goes to my girlfriend, Helen, for first convincing me that saving poor animals trapped in holes was a good use of my time. I strongly recommend it to everyone).


Moving on, I climbed the lower, more normal, levels of the mountain. As I got higher, the mountain got stranger. In the end, I was climbing a staircase a single cube wide into the clouds.

SO WEIRD.

Should not have looked down. (Back south and west)

In the end, I had to dig away a single cube of dirt to get to the top. When I arrived, I was not alone.

Some kind of Mountain Guru Pig?

Clearly, I had eaten the wrong cave mushrooms. I had climbed a stairwell of dirt to a floating rectangle and a mountain pig. Sure. The eastern ledge was sheer. There would be no way down except the way I came up. Still, I might as well enjoy the view while I'm here.

My eastern path.

I stayed a while with the mountain pig then worked my way back down. The stairs were even more daunting now as Not Looking Down was not an option now.

The staircase.

From the northern side looking up, the rectangle could be seen in all its weirdness.

.

The floating block is a nice touch.

At this stage, I was fairly sure reality was starting to break down. Perhaps I was nearing the edge of the world? Time would tell. For now, I worked my way across the sand through the break in the mountains I had spied from atop the mountain.

An old riverbed, perhaps?

Goodbye, fair Mountain Guru Pig!

Beyond the riverbed, the meadow of trees was almost disappointingly normal.

.

I should have watched my thoughts, though, as they soon ended.

Ocean time. Again.

The sun was already fairly low. I wasn't about to go repeating the same mistake as two nights ago. Just to the north I could see what looked like a complex of caves. I blocked off one end with some dirt and glass, and made myself a camp.

I guess this is home for the night.

Cosy...

It had been an exciting day. The canyon in the morning, the waterfall, the crazy rectangle mountain with its Guru Pig. Certainly, it more than made up for the previous day's non-adventure.

I crafted some tools and placed the iron I had found during the day in the furnace and started some mining. That did not last for long, however, as I broke into the broader cave network.

.

I blocked it up, returned to my camp, and just waited for the sun.

I wonder if Guru Pig is still on his mountain?