Day 11: Mastering Fear

Though the horrors of the deep were still fresh in my mind, I abandoned reason and headed back down to the bottom of the grand staircase beneath Dunkelheim; the location where I found those diamonds. When last I left, there was a terrifying chorus of ghoulish howls. As I approached, the bottom of the stairs, I heard that maddening sound again. As I shoveled through the blockade I had built to keep the fiends away, some iron ore caught my eye. I ran into the room, and just as quickly made a right and ran away from the iron as quickly as I could. I was still just too scared to hang out anywhere near the monsters in the darkness.

Lightening torches as I walked down the dark corridors, I came across a plenitude of coal, red rock, and also happened upon some lava and a stream. There was a dripping, green, exploder sauntering toward me from atop the source of the stream, but I quickly dispatched him with my new bow. Fighting at a distance is decidedly less stressful than close-quarters combat. After diverting the stream into the lava I continued on until I heard it. A sickening, maddening noise, like the groan of an angry god. I left a marking so that I might remember this place, and built a bridge over the stream with all haste. After catching my breath, I went back to the spot where I heard the awful sound... but, there was nothing. No beast, no sound... nothing. So, I decided to head back above ground.

As I passed through the ghoul chamber, I decided to be brave and harvest whatever precious materials I could find. This was by far the most lucrative mining operations I've ever undertaken. At the end of the day, I made out with at least 32 red rocks, 35 chunks of iron ore, well over 64 lumps of coal, 3 buckets, 4 bails of wheat, and a chest. Those last few items might seem out of place. Well, they were. As I explored the cavern, I noticed some carved stone, the kind I use to make my fortresses. The kind that only skilled hands can craft. As soon as I noticed the stones, zombie after zombie poured forth. They seemed to be crowded in this open, carved stone room with a strange inflamed cage in the middle.I killed all the zombies, some hacked to pieces, some pierced with arrows. And then destroyed the flaming cage. I don't know what that was, but I have a feeling that it somehow creates or at least attracts those beasts. Also in the room was a chest filled with the wares I mentioned before, along with a strange item that looks something like a saddle. As if these strange goings on weren't enough, the floor was a strange stone covered in green slime. Having never seen anything like this before, I decided to harvest these odd blocks, 30 in total, and investigate them above ground.

Not wanting to get too greedy and overextend myself after obtaining all these riches, I decided to finally head up to Einheim. As I was exiting the staircase, I decided to seal the lower area with a stone and wooden door. I'm tired of living in fear and anxiety down below. It's time to start mastering my fear, for it is obvious that the most fabulous riches are in the most terrifying locations.

Day 10: Mastering Fire and Water

After nearly dying to a rogue skeleton at Wasserheim, I decided to secure the place so that it would be baddie proof. After a long series of experiments, I determined that there is no simple way to have automatic double doors; most unfortunate. It looks like one of the doors sends a charge when it closes, which keeps the other door open... weird. Nevertheless, Wasserheim is now equipped with a glass ceiling and automatic doors at every second except the dock.

With my fancy new bucket in tow, I started work on a water slide which will lead from Einheim to Wasserheim. Should be a fun and quick boat ride!

Not sure if I mentioned my new leisure room that I built at the top of the grand staircase in Dunkelheim, but Now that is secured with doors on either side and contains a lovely, over sized painting of Donkey Kong.

Continuing the grand staircase, I heard an entire choir of moaning zombies. Nervously I dug in all directions until a dark hole was formed in the absence of rock. The groaning grew louder. Slowly and fearfully I tip toed forward. In a few moments a zombie popped out of the darkness, but was quickly dispatched. I planted of few torches on the wall when a glitter of pale blue hit my eye. At long last, diamond lay on the floor in front of me. Unsurprisingly, the other zombies in the room depleted almost all my armor and dealt nearly fatal damage. In a moment of decisiveness, I dispatched the last one I could see and began harvest diamond. Knock knock knock, POP! Beneath this cube of ore was another one! And then one more! I was so excited and ran up the staircase as fast as I could, thought Dunkelheim, and then up the long ladder to Einheim. There I crafted the long awaited diamond pick ax. With the left over material, I crafted a diamond shovel as well. I can not understand how fantastically wonderful diamond tools are to work with; quick, durable, and compact! With some curiosity in my heart, I took the long ladder down in to the deep magma chambers and began working on the dark purple blocks, which I believe to be obsidian. Before I left, I grabbed a heaping bucket full of magma. This buckets sure is strong

With relief in my heart, I went about overhauling Einheim. Within the main entrance, there now sits a large picture of a skull and lined it with torches. There is now a much straighter staircase directly ahead of the front door than the crazy, semi natural one that was there prior. The front area feels like a farm now. Every morning, I slaughter cows and chickens that get stuck in the brand new moat and harvest a hefty yield of wheat. Following yesterday's inspiration, I made some flint and steel. For a while I had been getting tired of the permanent shade outside my front door, so I lit the tree on fire. Surprisingly, I felt a pang of regret as it and several of the other surrounding trees went up in flames. For some strange reason, wood burns forever and just floats around. I left the flaming wood there as a beacon for distant spotting and a grim reminder of the woodland paradise I destroyed.

Equipped with my new found fire mastery, I fashioned a stone fireplace in the corner of Einheim's main chamber. It's nice to have a bright light and a crackling fire; the place feels cozier. Not wanting to settle for the mundane, I added a well on either side of the fireplace. One filled with water, the other with magma. Honestly, I feel a little nervous about having such a dangerous force in the heart of my most important supply point. On the other hand, it is comforting to know that I am capable of so masterfully shaping my domain and controlling such terrible power.

Day 9: Discovering Possibilities

The latest, deepest mine had some crazy magma spots, but after much ado, I finally found what I'd been looking for: diamonds! There were only two; not enough for a pick ax, but I'm almost there!!!! Something puzzling was uncovered as I delved deeper. I found this enormous patch of a greyish, metallic looking blocks. Even with an iron pick ax, these cubes were unbreakable. Determined to go down further, I continued digging in the area. desperately trying to find a hole in the indestructable cluster. "Is this the bottom of the world?", I wondered to myself.

After about 5-10 miuntes of digging, I found a hole. It was a single cube thick and the hole went very deep down. Peering into it, all I could see was blue. I threw all the dirt I had into it and peered down again... Nothing changed. Perhaps this truly is the bottom of the world, a terminal point.

Today was also my first true foray into farming. I've harvested many stalks of wheat and made bread! In Dunkelheim, I built a grand staircase in a new direction and built a safe room with glass walls along the way.

Then inspiration hit. I realized that redstone was conductive and doors could be opened with switches. After discovering, I of course promptly automated the doors in Einheim and Wasserheim. I created signs from sticks and wood and adorned this fortresses with names for the pigs and cows to see and remember for all time. A compass could be fashioned from red stone and some iron. It believe it points to the point that I wake at when after each time I expire. By combining some sand and zombie powder I created TNT! I've yet to use this, as explosives make me quite nervous. Perhaps it will work on the world-bottom blocks. I also made a snow brick and then a clay brick from balls of clay I found on an island off the coast of Wasserheim.

These discoveries will help greatly streamline my experience and work flow on this mad island. Now all I need is a plethora of iron so that I can create some mine cart tracks...

Day 8: Straight Down to Hell

Once again, I got the urge to go journey deep within the earth. I haven't seen any diamond since that one unfortunate day and thought that perhaps they are more plentiful the deeper one goes. For convenience, I decided to extend the ladder in the underground fortress, which I'll call Dunkelheim. I have explored much deeper than Dunkelheim, but didn't want to go traveling through the labyrinthine chambers every time I wanted to plumb the depths.

As before, I dug a 2 wide hole into the ground, placing ladders and harvesting coal along the way. Down and down I went. Probably about 20 cubes deep at the very least from when I started. Finally, I broke a rock and struck lava. Now, I don't know how exactly, but at this moment, I burst into flames. At this point in my life, I'd never been on fire before. Little did I know it at the time, but this certainly would not be the last. I flew up the ladder as fast as I could, hoping that the flames would naturally dissipate. This was not the case. I ate 2 pieces of cooks ham along the way to keep myself alive. Thank the gods that I decided to build Dunkelheim around an underground lake. Never have I felt so relieved as when I darted into the water and the burning was quenched. "Holy shit, that was fucking close," I panted aloud. I got some more food from Dunkelheim and decided to head back to the deep hole. Into the hole I threw several cubes of dirt. This seemed to plug up the lava, so I headed back down.

Once at the bottom, I carefully expanded horizontally and explored. I found a few patches of gold and thought, "Ha! I knew there would be rare minerals down here." Knock, knock, knock went the pick ax until some ore popped out of the destroyed block. I quickly jumped down to pick it up and just as quickly burst into flames. I have no idea how this happened, but regardless, I scurried up the ladder and died half way. This was especially terrible because I was wearing my full set of steel armor at the time. That's about 24 bars of steel. Bad times.

This bursting into flames stuff happened another handful of times before I realized, "hey, why don't I just direct the underground lake water into this chamber so that I don't have to fly a mile up every time I catch on fire." With a little effort I was able to pull it off. Because of some strange law of physics, the water could not flow onto the squares adjacent to the ladder, so I had to expand the hole. The one unfortunate part of this process was that I all 15 or so torches got extinguished as the water poured downward. Tis a small price to pay for safety!

And safe it now was! I expanded the chamber and directed the water flow at any magma discovered along the way. It went wonderfully. This was the smartest I had ever used water before. I continued to expand and create bridges over the water and after a short while I broke into a huge magma chamber and a few branching paths. My hard work paid off as I harvested several chunks of silver ore and plenty of coal. This deep, deep area will be the launching point for my next excursion. I am determined to find more diamond.

Day 7: Wasserheim

Today I created another base, this one is right next to that beach entrance I had recently dug. Since I had been thinking about boats recently, I wondered, "if I get this water soread throught the corridors will I be able to quickly travel them by watercraft?" So I dug and dug, and placed sand and learned about the physics of water. I only nearly drowned about 5 times. Around my work area I used stone to create a castle like structure on the ice. I noticed that when I placed torches near the ice, the ice melted and wouldn't return. This is how a got the water to start flowing the way I wanted. I channeled the ocean into a 3 cube thick streak and slowly worked it downward until it hit the corridor Unfortunately, water doesn't go very far in a straight line, but I felt accomplished regardless.

I dubbed this beach front fortification "Wassterheim", my home on the water (literally). I started to built two bridges from Wasserheim, one straight into the ocean, to the east, and the other to the south, until I ran out of stone. During the construction of Wasserheim I noticed an incredibly important concept: the sun always rises in the east. This is hugely important data. Now, whenever I lose my bearings, I can just looks to the sky and know which way north is. I am no longer blind when far from home.

With all the extra sand I created an enormous amount of glass. Einheim, which is contnually being fortified and expanded, was retrofitted with this new material. By using glass instead of stone I can:

1. have full visibility of my surroundings

2. see the sunrise from the safety of my fortress

After a stroke of genius, I discovered how to make a full set of armor: boots, leggings, chest plate, and helmet. Before, all I knew how to make was a helmet and that provided minimal protection. I feel like a warrior now, fully armored in steel and master of the mountains, waters, and depths.

Day 6: Expanding

Not much to report today. From my mountain top, I've been branching out and leaving trails of torches so that I can find my way back. This land is huge. As always, I've gotten lost a few times, but always find my way back. I dug some underground paths heading from one of the chambers below Einheim. One pops up near my stone monolith (now covered in torches) and the other pops up near the beach. Though it should have been obvious, I found sand at the beach. I wonder if I can somehow make glass with it?

Day 5: From the Highest Mountain to the Lowest Depths

Following the success of the vertical passage from Einheim to the underground fortress, I decided that I should do the same thing from the top of the mountain that my home sat beneath. Up I climbed with very little interference. When climbing, a shovel is essential. It is much easier to create a man made dirt staircase than to try to find a natural path to the summit. Once I got to the top, I got to the edge, which was almost directly above Einheim's entrance. I had planted a tree in front of my home, so now there was a lush span of green beneath me. I counted a few spaces back and dug down just as I had before. My intention was to connect Einheim to the mountain top. Apparently I overestimated the distance, as I wound up in the underground chamber. It was interesting to have a single beam of light shine so deep underground.

I continued to customize this underground fortress. I'm quite proud of this little world I've created far beneath the surface. Occasionally, one can hear the howling of zombies and the clacking of skeleton bones. I try to either hunt down these terrors or seal off the corridors I sense them coming from if I'm too frightened to engage.

Day 4: Two Regrets

Silver, gold, and redstone were plentiful in my secret magma chamber, so I went back down to explore. I found several, larger magma chambers in close proximity. And even enough diamond to make a pick ax! Upon expanding that initial chambe off to the right, I uncovered a water source and directed it into the larger magma chambers to great success! It appears that when water touches magma, the heat is extinguished and a dark purple block is left in its place. I have no idea how to destroy these blocks, or if it is even possible! The silver pick ax did nothing. I made my first golden pick ax and quickly realized how awful it is. Gold is a soft metal and is less effective than even a stone tool :| After directing water around and collecting some precious minerals I decided to head back up to my new home and renovate. I put real steps all over the place to make it easier to move around. To provide visibility in a safe way, I constructed simple turrets above the front door. Today was a good day :D

When I awoke I felt like doing something exciting and nwe. I learned how to make ladders and thought to myself, "stairs help us move down at a decent pace, but what if it go STRAIGHT DOWN?" So right within the entrance of my primary base (which I just decided shall be henceforth know as Einheim!) I dug down down down. I made the hole 2 cubes wide, so that I wouldn't plummet to my death upon hitting a cavern. This was wise, because after going about 10-15 blocks straight down, I hit open air and heard lots of zombie groaning. Using dirt, which falls straight down, rather than floating in space, like rocks, I built a simple staircase leading to the floor. One of the zombies got killed by the man-made dirt avalanche in the process :) After cleaning up the remaining baddies, I lit the room and explored. What a crazy cavern! There is a waterfall, which feeds into an underground lake and feeding into that same lake is a magma fall! There are tons of caverns connected to the massive one I uncovered which I slowly explored. "This would make a great base camp," I thought to myself. And so I set out to shape this cavern into an underground fortress; a place for me to feel safe and regroup before exploring the deep, dark unknown. I went crazy with stairs! At this time, I had collected hundreds of rocks and today I used them all. Bridges were crafted, columns were constructed, walls were torn down and rebuilt. Then something unfortunate happened.

I built a bridge adjacent to the magma fall. This was the first one I had ever seen, and like any good explorer, I wanted to experiment with it. Perhaps I could alter its flow as I had with the water from earlier. "Let's try plugging it," I thought. All it took was a few tries and a few stones and the primary light source in the room disappeared. "Interesting," I thought. Then I promptly broke the rocks with my pick ax to bring the flow back. The rock shattered and behind it was more rock. By plugging the flow at its source, I had completely extinguished the flow. The was the first moment in my journey that I felt genuine sorrow and regret. What an amazing fortress this would have been, with carefully channeled lava and and water placed at my whim! Alas, this place will have a lovely underground lake, but nothing volcanic within it.

I don't even remember how it happened, but I died soon after. I was carrying the diamond pick ax, some iron ore, and plenty of red stone. It's all gone now. I haven't seen any diamond since that day.

Day 3: Never Dig Up

Feeling a little homesick for the surface, I built a very long, rudimentary staircase straight up and found a few caverns along the way... I get lost in them fairly frequently. Eventually I ascended into a cavern that turned out to be at ground level. I poked a little hole out and made a front door, with torches outside to mark its position. I set up the essentials: a large chest, workbench, and forge. Though I didn't realize it, this new base was to become my primary one. Outside, I built another large stone monolith, much like my first one. After it was constructed, I looked around, hoping that I could find my original shelter somewhere nearby. Alas, it is nowhere near and it is getting dark. I decided to head back down into the lava chamber to explore.

Discovery! With a little experimentation, I realized that I can place stone in the lava and just walk right over it. I made a little bridge over the lava patch and starting digging for silver. I saw some directly above me and started digging. Before I knew what was happening a groaning, green monster was attacking me! Though I had a sword, I was too caught off guard to take it out. I whacked the beast a couple of times to no avail. He killed me in a matter of seconds.... Dying is sad and frustrating. Though I learned an important lesson about being extremely careful how you dig and to always keep your blade at the ready.

I woke up above ground and immediately started panicking. All of the items I was carrying had disappeared. The area around me didn't look at all familiar. I punched some trees to get some wood and fashion my basic equipment. After running around for a minute or so, my heart suddenly lifted. In the distance I could see one of the familiar stone monoliths I had built. As I ran swiftly toward the structure I saw the torches hanging around the door to my second and now primary base.

Day 2: Getting Your Bearings

When I go outside, I get very nervous. It's too easy to get lost and visibility is poor with all the snow. I've built a few large stone structures as landmarks so that I might spot them from a distance to find my way home. The deeper I dig, the more interesting things get. Claustrophobia is something I struggle with as I plumb the depths. I make some of the corridors wider to deal with this. After digging deeper still, I found an underground stream. I followed it and it lead me to the outside! I put a door down and some torches outside so that I might be able to find this entrance more easily.

From here, things get a little hazy. I remember digging down quite deeply and finding a magma flow, silver ore, some crazy green cubes jumping around, and red rocks. Red rocks can only be mined with a silver pick-ax. Thankfully I had found enough silver to make one. Somewhere along the way I discovered how to use a forge. I created some smooth stone from regular stone and created some silver bars from the ore I've collected. This lava area is very exciting! I put a forge and another work bench right next to the lava. I'm going to do some experiments in the morning.

Day 1: The Begining

The first few entries of this journal will be a little vague. I decided to start this journal after realizing how exciting and amazing my island is. Here's my story...

I arrived on the island. Because of recent survival training, I knew how to craft a few things: workbench, sticks, pick-ax, shovel, and torches. I promptly started punching some trees to get wood. I found a nice little spot at the foot of a mountain and dug into it. I figured out how to create a door and sealed myself in, making sure to keep the place well lit. I put a workbench in my new home and promptly learned how to create a chest to store my things. Immediately after that, I accidentally discovered how to create a large chest :) I made a forge, but have no idea how to use it. Once night fell, I started to dig. I get a little lost sometimes, but I always make a nice trail with my torches and I can backtrack my way home.