A whole new world

[aestrix]

There is a forest that likes to pretend that it's ordinary. It isn't, it's quite bizarre. Every night, in fact, zombies and other horrible monsters swarm this place, looking for people to kill. Not that they've found anyone, the forest itself is quite empty of residents. But they search anyway, during the night, shambling and groaning and occasionally leaving body parts lying around. Those disappear pretty quickly, but it still happens. Then the day comes, and they depart to who knows where, swearing (if mindless monsters could think, or in fact swear to anything in particular) that they'l be back the next night. Repeat ad nauseum.

It's currently in the day portion of this cycle of directionless attempts at violence. Maybe this day will be different from all of the others.

But then, probably not, it's a very boring island without anyone here.

Comments

[aestrix]

It sort of explodes, actually. But it leaves small mysterious items in its place, along with the mess. The mess that is partially on Sable.

[greatestgift]

"Eugh!"

She picks up the small mysterious items anyway.

[aestrix]

The small mysterious items are: two little balls of gel and three coins made out of copper. The gel consolidates itself at the first opportunity, the coins do not.

[greatestgift]

The coins go in her pack. She prods the little consolidated ball of gel, assessing it for likelihood of getting goop on things.

[aestrix]

It's surprisingly neat! It does not want to get goop on things, it wants to stay a little goopy ball of gel.

(If she's paying attention, the 'she can craft' portion of her head has had a new addition. She can craft torches, now.)

[greatestgift]

Okay, then, sure. She will craft torches.

[aestrix]

Torches! They are sticks that are on fire. Surprisingly they're at an ordinary size. They consolidate, and the fire doesn't actually appear to be hot. Just - bright.

[greatestgift]

Sable prods the fire at the end of the consolidated torch.

[aestrix]

It doesn't burn her.

[greatestgift]

Weird.

Also weird: they can be put, like the wood blocks and the workbench. She puts them all in a row along one wall of her cottage, just out of a superstitious desire not to shove them in her pack in case the fire decides to start acting like real fire all of a sudden. Maybe attaching them to her wooden house isn't much better for that purpose, but at least she isn't wearing her house.

And back to construction.

[aestrix]

She isn't interrupted, this time. But the remnants of the slime she killed slowly fade away, like she was never partially covered in goo at all. How... tidy.

[greatestgift]

Well why'd it have to go and explode on her in the first place, then?

She makes a door and places it and finishes the roof. There. And now she goes outside again and looks for the creepy guide-thing.

"What's the pickaxe for?"

[aestrix]

The guide is wandering around aimlessly outside. He looks up when addressed. "You should do some mining to find metal ore. You can craft very useful things with it."

[greatestgift]

"Ugh," says Sable. "How?"

[aestrix]

"Use a pickaxe to mine through dirt, stone, and other materials. Some pickaxes are better than others - a copper pickaxe couldn't mine through obsidian."

[greatestgift]

"Am I going to need to mine through obsidian? Oh, whatever," she says.

She puts her axe and sword away and gets out her pickaxe and, rather than start randomly assaulting surfaces until she finds something useful, extends her groundsense down and out to see if she can sense anything. "Ow, ow, ow..."

[aestrix]

There is copper and iron down there! They're surprisingly pure veins, divided up into cubes.

[greatestgift]

Of course they are. Of course.

Sable assaults some dirt with her copper pickaxe.

[aestrix]

The dirt doesn't stand a chance. The iron and copper are exactly where promised, and predictably consolidate into two little perfect cubes of ore.

[greatestgift]

She climbs up again, filling the dirt back in along the way.

"What do I do with the ore?" she asks the guide.

[aestrix]

"Now that you have some ore, you will need to turn it into a bar in order to make items with it. This requires a furnace!"

[greatestgift]

She sighs heavily.

"How do I make a furnace."

[aestrix]

"You can create a furnace out of torches, wood, and stone. Make sure you are standing near a work bench."

[greatestgift]

"Ugh."

She has some stone left from her mining adventure. She goes inside and collects up some torches from the wall and stands next to the workbench to see if it has furnaces available.

[aestrix]

It does! She can make a furnace, now.