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TheTrickster

The Trickster's Tall Tales

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Gather round the campfire, folks.  The Trickster has been on all sorts of travels in these many lands of Wurm and will regale you with the tales of his travels.  Like the journeys themselves, some are long and some are short.  Some might even be true!

 

Many are solo, usually by choice; occasionally the choice was my own.

 

My travels have taken me to what feels like many places, yet I know that there are many many more which I am yet to explore.  Until I get where I am going, let me share a little of where I have been.

 

 

p.s. I like making word-pictures, but actual pictures are beyond my meager hand-eye co-ordination.  If anyone wants to contribute graphical representations of my tales, feel free.

 

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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Starting Out.

Spoiler

 

Well, I arrived in Haven’s Landing with no clue how to do anything except maybe wander around.  Fortunately I was shown the ropes a bit, and guided into areas to try out some skills and practice a bit.  I am impatient, so practice was minimal.  As Dale Kerrigan said, I dug a hole.  There was other stuff about digging, levelling, flattening, but I didn’t pay much attention.  I am sure it’s nothing I will especially need.

 

I wandered about town for a bit, but couldn’t seem to do much and town life isn’t for me anyway.  Where to go?  I found a noticeboard of some kind, promoting villages.  Here’s one that seems interesting, in the far North West of the island.  The mayor was not online when I tried to message him/her so I decided to start heading for the village and periodically try again to communicate.   A bit of a look at the in game map convinced me that I might not find an easy Northern route so I planned a meandering path starting out South West, then West and only then turning Northward.  I was a bit stuck when I couldn’t see a way across the Crystal Canal (I had no idea I could swim!) so sort-of backtracked a fair way North again before I found a bridge.  I came across a town called Happy Hippoes or something like that.  I found a man standing in a small square pen.  How odd!  Oh, well.  Onward I go to my new Wurm village!

 

 

Edited by TheTrickster

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What’s with the bears?

Spoiler

 

Not far past Crystal Canal and Happy Hippoes, on my way to the NW corner of Independence, I got caught by a bear.  I had no real idea of what to do, and I was quickly killed.  On respawning back at Haven’s Landing, I headed straight back to get my gear from the corpse - I had not really read much of the wiki at this point and didn’t know how secure my stuff was.  Little did I realize that the bear wasn't done with me, and was still hanging around.  I somehow managed to recover my gear and quickly run away without getting caught. A bit further along the coastal highway I also saw a crocodile and a wolf, and now fairly cautious of wild animals I went the long way around them and then back onto the road.  A little further on, I discovered I had not been cautious enough, and another brown bear spotted me.  I ran a few laps around some locked buildings but couldn’t shake him.  Inspired, I ran into the sea..... AACCHH!  IT CAN SWIM!  Cue Benny Hill music as I ran around trying to find a way to shake this bear.

 

Bears 2, me zero.

 

I respawned at Freedom Markets this time.  I hadn’t paid much attention to the dialog, so didn’t know I could respawn somewhere else.  I had by now discovered better maps and sorted out where I was, generally where I died, and the route from one to the other. Once I had the bear and its chew toy in sight, I pitched my tent a little way off, so that when the inevitable happened I would have a nearby spawn point.  The bear seemed to be wandering off, so I ran in grabbed my gear. No, the bear was NOT wandering off.  More mad running, and I headed for the tent thinking I could enter it and be safe.  Bears 3, Me 0.  My latest corpse was inside the tent.  So was the bear.  So was the newly minted me.  Benny Hill sequence again until I was again inspired.  I got a reasonable distance away from the tent before Bears 4, me 0.  I then respawned inside the tent, with my gear-holding corpse.  Hooray!  I left the bear harrying deadme#4 and headed back up the highway towards Freedom Markets.  

 

I came across an anaconda in the middle of the road.  By now well-paranoid about dangerous animals, I climbed the steep verge, and came back down on a side road.  As I was trying to edge back onto the highway beyond the snake without attracting its attention, I miss-stepped and slid down a very steep ravine to wind up trapped in between terrain and an estate wall.  I managed to get out of that and was wandering about trying to work out where I was and how to get back to somewhere useful when suddenly another bear appears in my target window.  I am quickly killed - bears 5; me 0.

 

What the heck is a “Venerable Champion Brown Bear” anyway?

 

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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It's Village Life, Jim, but not as we know it.

 

Spoiler

 

I was back at the Freedom Markets after my last bear-related mishap and in chat voicing my discouragement with a game that seemed mostly about going back to get your stuff.  Someone chimed in and offered to not only help me locate my gear but to give me a ride there and back again.  

 

Once back in possession of my stuff and wandering around Freedom Markets, I found another ad for a different village, this time in the NE corner.  It sounded similar to my earlier choice, so I messaged the mayor, who was online!  I joined up and teleported in.  Always read the fine print.  The "Village" consisted of 2 users, with a sum of 4 characters, but non was particularly active.  I recall exactly once when both players were in game at the same time as me.  I had a free room with a bed and storage and free use of the crafting  areas, so that was nice.  I had no real permissions, though, so I couldn't even pick up stuff if I dropped it on the ground.  I chased a wild rooster for days trying to lead it, because I didn't know I didn't have that permission.

 

The mayor offered me his old house out of town, so I set up a smallholding based around it.  Rookie mistake.  When both the mayor and the one other villager became completely inactive, there was absolutely no way I could keep up with the decay on an off-deed house owned by a long-absent player.  Maintenance became an almost constant chore.

 

There were 3 other deeds on the island, 2 seemed abandoned altogether and the mayor of the other one would occasionally log in for a minute or 2 and be gone.

 

It looked like I had become a hermit

 

.

 

Edited by TheTrickster

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Welcome, Stranger

Spoiler

 

I was living on the Northern shore of Parris Island, basically alone in the village I had joined and alone on the island, with the exception of creatures.  The area I was located was protected with 3 of the island's 4 guard towers but beyond those it was what I called the DMZ (Dangerous Mob Zone). 

 

One day, in the midst of my isolation I saw a tent on the North shore.  Imagine my excitement! 

 

Despite looking around I could find no other sign of anyone within my safe area, so I rowed around the island to see if I could find someone. 

At the very end end of the long jetty on the Southern tip of the island, a corpse.  A hellhound standing over it, and quite a lot of mobs in the water and on the jetty.

Maybe, when getting mobbed by mobs as they ventured South, the player thought they would keep going South to the safety of the next tower, but there was no next tower.  With nowhere left to run, they look to have made a stand at the end of the jetty, and ultimately fallen.

 

It was the closest I had come to having a visitor in weeks.

 

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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This is all totally normal

 

Spoiler

One day I gave an old shovel to a giant anthropomorphized cow-thing, just because someone else told me I should.

 

So, yeah, that's a thing that happened.

 

 

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Sounds like you had quite the adventure. Glad you found yourself a little slice of heaven after that grueling start. Would love to hear how you've since faired.

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3 hours ago, Antony said:

Sounds like you had quite the adventure. Glad you found yourself a little slice of heaven after that grueling start. Would love to hear how you've since faired.

Thanks.  I am happy to keep telling stories, but only if people are interested.  I have been trying to keep things chronological - sort of a chronicle of the "highlights".  I think my start really was a bit on the "gruelling" side, which may be why I just don't grind.  I am much happier in Harvestmoon Lagoon on Release, where the degree of my hermitage is entirely within my own control.

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I'm interested to hear more.  was nice to hear your wurm adventures.

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I only wanted to grow some grass! (or Read the Manual).

 

Spoiler

Why am I in this dark mine slogging away for iron ore?  Well, the reason is a very good one.

 

I had taken over my mayor's old off-deed estate (20/20 hindsight - don't EVER do this unless you WANT to do nothing in Wurm but repair buildings).  I had started capturing a number of animals, so as to start some small holding.  I converted a large stone building to a pig & sheep pen.

 

I needed to feed these animals, and the ground in there was packed hard.  I had been cutting grass and leaving plenty of large piles of it for feed, but this was becoming a time-consuming chore, so I figured I would plant some grass.  The village had a farm and I had had some experience planting potatoes and the like, so I activated some "mixed grass" and went to plant it on a tile.  Nothing.  No "plant" option of any type.  What was going on here?  A quick look at the wurmpedia and, BINGO! I needed to cultivate the packed dirt with a shovel so I could plant.  

 

Okay, cultivating has been done for 15 tiles, time to plant the grass.  I get a nice tile of... steppe.  Wha?  I must have done it wrong.  Cultivate that away, plant the grass, steppe.  Hmm.  Time to read up.

 

So, to plant a grass tile, I need thatch.  To make thatch I need a leggat.  To make a leggat I need... a plank  -no problem- ,  a shaft -no problem- ,  7 large nails -oh- .  I have no large nails.

To make large nails I need a small anvil -check- , and a lump of iron -sigh- .  To make a lump of iron I need some iron ore, which I can get from an iron vein in a mine.

 

So, I am here in the dark chipping away for some iron ore because I want to feed my sheep.  A perfectly good, wogical reason.

 

Edited by TheTrickster

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It's not the fall that kills you.

 

Spoiler

I was out exploring my little island, "hunting" creatures by poking them and then running away calling for help (also called the "little sister" technique).  I have always felt the call of high elevations in Wurm, not least of all because I can see for more than a few tiles in every direction (my prey instincts are very strong). I was high up travelling along a rocky ridge and noticed a little downhill and to the left/inland side a number of nasty animals. There were several.  I don't recall now all of them, but among them there was definitely a lava fiend, a giant spider and a troll (each way out of my league at the time). 

 

I have never really measured aggression radius so I was keeping my eye on all the nasties as I moved along above them, so I would see if any of them triggered.  Not watching where I was going I stepped off the ridge to the steep righthand/coast slope and rapidly slid down to a small shelf between the sea and a cave entrance.  Ouch!  That hurt!  The fall had been particularly damaging and my health was down around 10%-ish.  My vision was red, but not too red to see right in front of me, maybe a tile away, a giant scorpion who had DEFINITELY spotted me.

 

I ran backwards to get some room, fell straight into the sea, and kept going a little to make sure I was out of range.  I looked about me, a little to the north was another little shelf just on the far side of a little "dent" in the cliff.  I hoped the "dent" created enough of a barrier that the scorpion would not path-find around it and I could get away, so I started swimming for this other shelf.  I couldn't simply walk out so had to climb.  I was almost on the shelf when I ran out of stamina and fell back in the water.  I tried to approach the shelf again and promptly drowned.  I knew nothing of last gasp at this point, nor of drowning in general (when it comes to reading the manual I am in the "when all else fails" camp).

 

The fall didn't get me.  The scorpion didn't get me.  Even the swimming didn't get me.  It was trying to get out of the water that killed me.

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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Hello, Harvestmoon.

 

Spoiler

In my very meager dealings with other players, at least two visitors had mentioned Harvestmoon Lagoon on Release as a village very welcoming of new players.  I decided I would head over and see how it fit.  I loaded what I could in my row boat, and what I couldn't load I stored in a locked BSB and crate inside a little fenced off and locked pen near the shoreline.  I headed off, missed the lagoon and sailed down the east coast of the little island, circling it clockwise and coming back up to HML from the South.  Ultradude was very welcoming (I can't recall if I found him in local or PMed him through the forum) and set me up with a house right on the water. Well, "house" as in a 3x2 house plan (with a bit of wall) on a good-sized lot.  There was a forge and a bed and large crate full of resources -  and I think also a large anvil of better ql than mine.  I had the basics covered so set about building a house.  It was all a bit trial and error, but I wound up with a three story "tree house" - with roof sizes decreasing with each new floor and the only exterior walls above the ground floor were on one side facing some large ships.    I then explored the town a bit.  

 

Holy cow, the stuff in the "mancave"!  I had come from a small deed for which I had very few permissions (I could sleep in the bed, cook meals and use the forge - basically use the building I lived in - but that was it).  Suddenly there is equipment and resourcing to do anything I would want to do.  I did get a bit lost following the underground connection between the main cave and the iron mine, but the less said about that the better.

 

I met a variety of other citizens over time, and have found there is a strong sense of community.  I can explore the surrounding area with ease.  I can fashion my own little plot as I wish.  If I am short, the main cave holds bulk materials of all sorts.  If I have surplus, I can put it in the main cave for someone else to use.  Farms galore, animals galore.  All sorts of different buildings and aesthetics.

 

I think I am home.

 

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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The underground connection between the main cave and the iron mine never used to be there.  I actually made it by joining up old caved in paths but it is much better now. They fixed the route while I was away lol.  The old, underground water route is no more 😉

Edited by Zexos
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Kind of a shame they fixed it, really.  It was a bit of an adventure in and of itself.  

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No, seriously, WHAT'S WITH THE BEARS?

 

Spoiler

During the recent halloween drop I continued my normal habit of exploring, but I was considerably more opportunistic in attacking mobs I came across.  Normally I am a bit of a live-and-let-live kind of traveler unless I am hungry, but definitely more of a cut-a-swathe kind of adventurer for the duration.  I took a trip to Pristine and sailed along the south coast of a longish island running east-west.  I had many stops to admire and kill the wildlife.  Here's the weird thing, though; it was mostly brown bears.  Probably 4 or 5 bears and only about 3 other animals in total.   I turned north and sailed towards the big lagoon, and killed 3 more bears swimming in the water.  I turned east to cruise along the north coast of the island and came to a settlement, with 1 wolf and 3 more bears.  I headed a bit further along and beached on the eastern end of the settlement, 1 bear in the water and 1 on land and while I was fighting the one on land, another came up behind me.  I then rounded the eastern end of the island to turn south, 2 more bears, one swimming and one standing in the shallows.  As I came back out to open ocean, I saw another bear swimming near the eastern side of the outlet.  I left him be. 

 

I killed 14 or 15 brown bears in quick succession.  I think my first couple of days in Wurm have been avenged.

 

 I got no halloween drops from them, though.

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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This is...green

 

Spoiler

Having seen all the pretty colours some people have on their objects, I decided I would try some dye-making so I could brighten up my bit of the world.

 

Making dye is hard.

 

Correction; making a little dye is not particularly hard.  Making a lot of good dye is hard.

 

I like black.  I decided I would read up on how to make black dye.  I did some reading, and decided that blue seems a nice colour. 

 

A nice rich, royal blue.  I read up on this dye.  If I read it correctly,  blue dye cannot be made in large lots, but only 1kg at a time.  How about red?  Oh, same deal.  1kg lots only.

 

With proper consideration, it seems that green is a really nice colour.

 

I read up on green.   It seemed easy to make, and conveniently I had travelled with quite a lot of good-ish quality copper.  I tried my hand at making up a decent amount (a small barrel full).  Success!  The quality seemed reasonable, and when I painted it on a wall it seemed almost neon-bright.  I am happy with this, so paint every paintable surface of my house neon green.  I fiddle a little with mixing, and proceed to dye all my armour dark green.  That saddle and bags look a bit plain in brown.  I wonder what colour I shall paint them?  Nice!   (I also did a set in blue/red/purple, so my team of two is coloured like running lights 😄)

 

The sail on my boat?  GREEN!   My rowing boat, hiding in the grass, GREEN.  A bit more fiddling with the mix, and I have some khaki.  Perfect to go on my bedrolls, as khaki canvas is the proper colour for a swag.  Another sailing boat, and this time both the sail and boat got the green treatment.

 

I am nearly finished my knarr, and need to decide on a colour scheme....

 

 

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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A long ride, a slow death, a friendly stranger

 

Spoiler

I had taken to exploring on horseback.  On horseback I could maintain a good speed even though carrying too much to walk at a reasonable pace.  I had done a clockwise circuit south from Harvestmoon through the Wild Coast, down to Fishy Anvil, then across via Shangri-la then up along the Eastern Wall to head back to Harvestmoon through Tiki Sandbar. 

 

I thought I had covered so much area, but when I looked at the map later I discovered I had never left the NE quadrant of Release.  I avoid using maps when I explore, preferring nasal navigation and then a later comparison to the map.  

 

I decided another trip was in order, so this time I headed west, back through Tiki, and to the long tunnel under the mountain, coming out at what I have found is Blue Mountain Lake.  As I exited the tunnel on the west end, my horse threw me out of the tunnel while she remained inside.  Clever horse; all around the tunnel mouth were nasty critters.  There were a couple of spiders, and a couple of trolls, and I can't remember what else.  By the time I realized I was sans horse I had progressed a little way away from the tunnel so I ran/waddled  toward the nearest guard tower wailing for help.  As I knew the guards would only engage one creature at a time, I kept on going to put as much distance in as possible.  I ran over the little crest on which the tower sat and down the other side and over towards a castle.  The gates were locked so I came out a bit and prepared to swim, although my health was quite low so it would be a last resort.   

 

Suddenly I am dead and looking at the respawn window/menu.  The event log told me I had been killed by a tortoise.  I respawn back in Harvestmoon, put on my second best set of armour, grab my second best sword and shield, and this time sail around the coast for my corpse run.  I beach the boat and quickly head over to grab my gear from my corpse.  I have fat fingers, so instead of opening the corpse to take the gear, I pick up the corpse.  The tortoise is still there and comes after me.  At this point I discover that on this deed I cannot drop my corpse, so I am hurting and carrying a corpse that itself was already overloaded.  I am veeeery slowly approaching my boat with tortoise easily keeping up to repeatedly bite me.  I was still stretching for my boat when I died again.  A very "slow" death.

 

I hurriedly  - and carelessly - respawned and discovered I was at "Sloping Sands".  I decided I needed to look at the map.  Hoo, boy, was I going to have fun getting back.  I dodged and ran, called guards, sheltered in towers, and wound up between Bonduelle and Blue Mountain lake, just about out of patience and time.  I saw someone in Local Chat, and unashamedly begged for a ride.  They gave me a lift on the back of their wagon all the way back and took on the serial-killing tortoise while I recovered my horse, gear and corpses.

 

I am so glad that my Neon Treehouse has a bed in it.

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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The Mystery of Astrix

 

Spoiler

@Platynaposted a topic in the forum saying that something had been hidden in the village of Astrix and she had a prize for the first to find it.  I need little excuse to explore, I hadn't been on Indy lately, and who doesn't like prizes?

 

Sailing over and finding Astrix was simple enough.  I wandered about, looking at stuff.  There were a few clothing items lying on a path, and lots of unlocked containers.  I couldn't see anything that to me satisfied the clues Platyna had given, so I did a bit of my more typical exploration, venturing into the surrounding areas and generally seeing what is what.  At one point I saw in the distance, magnificent in its fish-out-of-water context, a knarr sticking out of the side of a mountain spire.  Having explored a few deeds, and in my exploration of Astrix utterly failed to find the hidden treasure, I sailed back home to Release.

 

A day or two later, knowing that I didn't know grew to an itch I just had to scratch, so off I sailed again to Independence to have a look around.  Since I thought I had stuck to the clues pretty closely on my previous attempt, I decided to apply them as broadly as possible this time - for instance I decided to treat as "outside" any area open to the sky.  Still no banana, or whatever it was that was hidden.  In true sour-grapes fashion I decided to blame poor clue giving rather than my poor ability to interpret the clues and I once again headed home.

 

Nope.  Still can't abide the itch of not knowing;  I sail again to Astrix.  This time, I see a couple of other treasure hunters moving about as well.  I was near some trellises facing a semi-distant wagoner camp when my tormentor appears in PM to tell me that I am warm but two others are much closer, practically on top of it.   Wait, what?  I can see two other people, at each end of a ramp/bridge.  I madly scurry up the bridge to where I saw one person and look around some more, then come back down and look around where the other person was.  Not a sausage.  I keep up a bit of banter with Platyna.  I have been convinced for some time that this has something to do with the written word.

 

Standing there looking at a trellis that has been renamed "Hold" it slowly dawns on me that a lot of these trellises seem to have been renamed.  Haaaanng on a SECOND!!  There is a POEM in the trellises!

 

Yay!  Itch scratched.  I also have been given a renamed silver coin to commemorate, which duly goes into my coin collection.  

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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I blame the keyboard

 

Spoiler

It isn't my atrocious typing.  It certainly isn't my old eyes reading small type on a small screen.  It is the keyboard at fault.   

 

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

 

 

I undertook a commission for some bulk materials, and agreed to get in touch to sort out delivery.  Every time I entered Wurm, I fired off a PM only to be told the character was not online.  I tried looking them up on the fora, couldn't find a user.  I was figuring I was going to be stuck with the materials, and even asked on CA Help how long to wait before considering the order abandoned.  Eventually, as a last ditch shot in the dark I decided to check my PM logs to make sure I had the name right.  Hmmm, should have started with that.  Where there were two t's I had only been using one.  I sent a forum PM with two t's, arranged delivery, all done.

 

Another time, I put some stuff up for sale and found a buyer very quickly.  More quickly than I expected, as I was still sailing home and had decided to take on a shark in the bay.  I told my buyer "I will be a few minutes.  I will mail it as soon as I finish dealing with this huge shark."   Or at least I thought I told them that.  That missing t?  It seems to have showed up here, replacing the k in "shark".  My poor buyer was hoping this was a typo and not an extreme case of over-share.

 

Edited by TheTrickster

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On 11/22/2020 at 5:14 AM, TheTrickster said:

Thanks.  I am happy to keep telling stories, but only if people are interested.

It is always delightful when players share their new experiences within these Wurm worlds, especially when told in such a interesting, humorous and detailed manner as you have done here. Brings back to mind experiences long ago as the paths of learning the game had been revealed through my sometimes blundering missteps. Then there is always the benefit of putting them into words for your own enjoyment. Well done!

 

=Ayes=

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Thank you very much for the kind words.   I think I am overdue to pen a bit more.  Ah, if only I could create more time in a day!

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A Peculiar Parade

 

Spoiler

I had been out for an overland ramble; with my team of two and my cart I was poking into the hills and hollows that I would simply sail past otherwise.  I picked up fruit, made some fresh meat, explored some ruins, roped a calf.

 

I figured it was time to head back.  As I mainly wanted to just get back as directly as possible, I ignored all the critters I encountered on the road.  I figured they would follow me for a bit but I would eventually leave them behind.  I was coming up on a wee bridge and figured I would see who was still with me.  It was like a bizarre parade of sorts.  There were a couple of wolves (one a champion), bears black & brown, one anaconda, a couple of crocodiles and in the middle of it all, a calf.  I had been out for a good couple of hours, and for a while I was honestly baffled why a calf would be chasing me.

 

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Sleeping With The Lights On - Sort Of...

 

Spoiler

I had spent many hours expanding and renovating my house and could stand a change of pace.  I dug out some of my salvaged items and set to work improving them to a useful standard.  Lots and lots of actions.  I mean, lots.  I was kind of in the zone, and I was even imping the stuff I was using to imp the other stuff.  I eventually decided I had had enough of that; it was time to pack everything away and tidy up.  

 

As part of tidying up, and the general "home improvement" going on, I decided to set up a salvaged bed in my second floor "soft crafting" area before calling it a day.  I got the bed all sorted, and noticed I still had a log in my pockets so figured I would do just one last imp action.  After hundreds of actions on tools, weapons and armour this low-q, found-in-the-long-grass bed goes rare on the first action.

 

Oh, well, hopefully the shine won't keep me awake at night.

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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The Nomad Life for Me

 

Spoiler

Being a nomad/explorer/mountaineer by natural inclination, when I heard of lands of Wurm that not only encourage such things but quite effectively require it I said, "I shall give this a whirl".  That is literally what I said.  You can go check if you want.

 

Upon arriving at Stormfall, all my hard earned-skills and characteristics were gone.  As to possessions, I recall I had a tent, and some crude tools and nothing else.  Looking about I see a nice big hill, which I start to climb, and in no time I find I am climbing the highest mountain I can find.  I need to get up above the treeline to have a good look around, because all I can see from the lowlands is a whole lot of fir trees.  Fir trees are just the worst.  They reduce visibility to a couple of tiles, sometimes less.  I carefully climb from safe footing to safe footing, sometimes having to backtrack and try a different approach, but I am steadily gaining altitude.  It is hard going and the ridgeline is in sight when suddenly, I am attacked by HUGE SPIDER!  In my current state I am no match for her, so I turn downhill and run.  Suddenly, I am seriously injured, with my vision fading to red.  I am not sure why, because as steep as the ground is there are not big drop-offs to account for the amount of damage I have taken.  Then I notice them, lurking there almost mockingly.

 

It turns out firs aren't the worst after all.  Firs hiding thorn bushes are the worst.

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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Well, it isn't a prairie...

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I am no townee.  Even the little basic township forming on Stormfall is too city for me, so I  wandered around exploring the landscape.  Stormfall itself has neither sand nor clay, so campfires would be the pinnacle of furnace technology at least until people had sailed off and returned with resources.  Lots and lots of timber, though, and without even mining I gathered more iron than I could easily carry.  In fact, it turns out that as great as it is being nomadic, it is hard to travel light enough to go about on foot but still have the necessary equipment.  I had already caught a horse, so I built a cart and got about with a team of 1 until I could find another horse.  It couldn't climb all the mountains with me, but served quite well, and I could park it and climb the last bit easily enough.

 

I knew that sailing was going to be absolutely critical to life in the Stormfall cluster, so started looking for a little bit of coast, not too far from ocean lanes but not too close to neighbours.  As I wondered the coastline it seemed that whenever I figured I was almost far enough away from the last dwelling, I would come across another.  Someone had started clearing a path behind their house, so I explored a bit and came out at some fresh coastline, and found a spot with a really very nice outlook.  I decided I would set up camp.  I planted some crops (a bit of cotton, a bit of wemp, a bit of food) and fenced it.  This is where I would build my boat.  I had brought some Walnut sprouts with me, so cleared an area and planted a little grove.

 

I thought about building a shed, but then it dawned on me.  A small farm, a little away from a pioneer town, a walnut grove - if I built a Little House I would have become Laura Ingalls.

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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