Don't know how I survived

[Doc Feral]

Since my games are usually very short (my current game is my personal best, 14 days and still alive, yes I suck that bad) I never thought writing a story about my progress would be worth the effort. But my current game had some truly epically embarassing moments, not sure it will last much more but it's worth remembering.
I started near the logging camp in Mystery Lake. I spent the first night there, rummaging in the trailers for tools and provisions with good results, got an hatchet in the wrecked hut.
Next morning, I head for the dam. I thought it would be a great idea leaving the railroad track and walking on the frozen river to avoid the bridge where I usaully find wolves. Not sure if it made sense, but there was a moose (first moose I meet, on day 2 it seems to be unusual) in the way which looks at me with a clearly antisocial attitude (not to mention head lowered, horns forward and an angry moo) so I walked back and risked the bridge. Strangely enough it wasn't guarded and I make it to the trailers near the dam. On the way to the dam I found a deer carcass, I think, and chopped it up. Then the siege started. I spent some sorry days wandering in the dam, fighting wolves outside the dam, fighting crappy weather on the other side of the dam to chop up another dead deer, and fighting the risk of parasites from wolf meat. At some point I decided to quarter a wolf and chop it into tiny steaks (500g each) to practice cooking, then I messed up with the keyboard and walked into the fire. So the siege went on, dragging around my half-dead scorched self trying to sneak past Bullwinkle in search for cat tails while waiting for the burns to heal a bit and the risk of parasites to pass.
When the moose decided to move elsewhere I managed to pick up plenty of cat tails, the burns had healed and I decided to move to the Park Office or how it's called (reverse translation and all that) because it's warmer than the dam and has a workbench inside. After some unsuccessful attempts thwarted by wolves (I decided retreating would be wiser than fighting since I wasn't 100% yet) I managed to reach the watchtower, spend a night there and then reach the office. Everything perfect, right? Apart from the lack of a crowbar to open all those lockers back at the dam...
Then I decided to go back to the trailers to pick up skins and guts I've left there. On the way back to the lake I see wolves and have a really good idea. Let's leave the railroad and circle around the wolves to reach the lakeside office. So I turn right. Yes, right. Leaving the dam, the lake is on the left. I notice I've messed up but before I have the time to walk back a blizzard strikes. I make it to the wrecked hut in the Trap Zone (name not sure), earning a sprained ankle on the way. I light the stove and take a nap, forgetting to check if the temperature is going up or not. I wake up quite frozen, not to mention starving with only wolf meat in my pack and risk of infestation active again, with no firewood left. I decide to go for broke and head for Jeremiah's cabin. With the blizzard still going, I pump a stim into my wrecked self to delay death a bit and finally the cabin is in sight. I manage to crawl through the door with a couple of pixels of condition left, blurred vision and throbbing heartbeat. I gulped down a piece of wolf (starvation had already cleaned up the risk of infestation), crept to the bed and collapsed. Never thought I'd make it.

[Cr41g]

hahaha... I love an epic start... the more you have to overcome, the greater the sense of accomplishment when you survive

[Doc Feral]

Uh, I forgot to mention the TWO intoxications from a piece of meat (don't know if it was rotten or eaten raw by mistake) and a bad cereal bar. Two, not one. Just to make things easier. One of the two was still active during the nightmare march towards the cabin.

[Doc Feral]

And after resting and recovering most of condition this happened 

this game is absolutely epic.

[Doc Feral]

Well, I'm still at Jerry's cabin, shot a deer with the rifle I found in there (it started to run like crazy and after a long chase it died on the rocks right behind the cabin, next time I'll chill out and wait there for my delivery), stole a fresh kill from a wolf, fought a couple of wolves, trapped rabbits. And still the bear roaming around. I decided to go searching for firewood (and maybe trying to locate a missing dead wolf) and the bear snarled at me and chased. I ran away, and as soon as I stopped hearing its grunts and heavy footsteps I turned to look around, discovered bears can be silent as the ghost of a ninja and got flattened. I recollected myself, picked up my stuff and ran to the cabin (stopping halfway when I remembered I was bleeding).

This really pissed me off, so I issued my declaration of war "Ok, mr Fat and Furry, now I'll extremely kill you!"

Easier said than done. The chubby plantigrade is sneaky. And there's the slight issue with the extreme violence it can deal out when wounded. Luckily I noticed that if i jump down from the rocks in front of the hut I'll land on some jutting stone which is rather inaccessible for mr Fat and Furry. So as I saw it walking in the flat field between the cabin and the hut I leapt on the rocks and shot it. Hit! Good, the bear panicked and started running around. And around. And running some more. At some point I leapt down and went back to the accessible area, thinking this would stop it from running like crazy and search for vengeance. It worked, and as I saw it running up the path I leapt down again. I heard grumbling, then probably it remembered it was wounded and panicked again. And it ran, and ran, and ran around again. It's still running, the sun has set and I decided to go the hell to sleep. When I jumped down from the rocks I noticed the blood trail on the path, so it's still bleeding. Tomorrow I'll see if it dies. Talk about toughness.

[Doc Feral]

After a night of sleep I walked out of the cabin and went searching for the bear. I found the carcass behind the rocks. After a whole night it was like 1% frozen. Did it keep running around all night? Anyway I quartered it and went back and forth three times carrying all fur, guts and pieces to the cabin. Had some fantasies about wearing its paws as boots, since they looked large enough, but it's not possible. And thus ended the earthly career of the bear from the sky. Another strange animal was about to enter the game.

It took me a day or so cooking all those steaks. My cooking and butchering skill is improving. I tried to get to the Nameless Pool (name not sure) but missed it and walked back in disappointment to the cabin. The next day a moose walked in the front yard. I decided it was hunting time, and thought I could take it out like the bear, wounding it and waiting for the bleeding. Wrong. Unlike deer, wolf and bear's, moose blood is like glue. Bullwinkle ran away a bit and then calmly walked back. I had another of my brilliant ideas, hiding in the hut to shoot, since it's so low I had to crawl to get in and there are some spaces in the wall to shoot. I hit the moose once and crawled back a bit, it charged at the hut and stopped a few paces away. This made me feel safe, which of course is the best way to get squashed. Since bleeding is not an issue for the moose (and I thought the bear was tough) I decided to shoot again. It charged the hut one more time and since I've forgotten to retreat to the center it tore through the wall, clobbered me (cracked rib), went back outside and put the wall back in place. Or something like that. When I got up the moose was outside and the wall was good as new. At that point I felt quite hostile towards the moose, I shot again and the legendary carpenter moose finally died.

[Hotzn]

Epic story, +1. And you got a moose!

[Doc Feral]

Update, nothing particularly entertaining but it will do.

After cooking the moose I went to the Nameless pool and found another bear. I used most of my remaining bullets (not so many, I had three or four and I have only one left) to kill it and brought the fur back "home". Then I took a bit of rest crafting a wolf jacket while thinking about a trip to Milton. I still need cloth for repairs and a crowbar. So I packed up some gear (not too much, since going to Milton means climbing) and set off through the cave. Everything fine (apart from getting intoxication from a piece of moose, it was at least 62% good, quite unlucky) until I noticed the cracked rib is still cracked. And that's the annoying part. It says I need to rest 1 more hour, but I slept a whole night and it's still cracked. I'm currently carrying too much weight for the reduced capacity, maybe I need to rest AND be unencumbered to fix it. Anyway I walked back to Jeremiah's cabin in disappointment and turned the moose skin into an extra bag. I decided to make the bag since moose are rare and not particularly aggressive, so should I find one it would probably leave me alone, unlike wolves and bears. Not to mention I'm short on bullets and still have no bow (no saplings nor arrowheads, I should consider going lumberjack and daring a trip to Forlorn Muskeg). Crafting a coat was attractive, but repairing it in case of wolf or bear attack would be extememely troublesome. The extra carrying capacity will be helpful when I'll decide to leave the cabin for some other base, considering that my original plan (before getting lost and almost dying in a blizzard) was to settle by the lake in the Camp's office.

[Doc Feral]

Note to myself: I'm not hungry for attention, I'm just writing my adventure since some details may help other people.

So I was in the cabin, with a damn blizzard going on outside, and I decided to use my time in a smart way making a pair of rabbit mitts. So I did, getting risk of cabin fever in the process. I wasn't particularly happy since my cracked rib showed no intention to heal. I stopped playing Wolverine and decided a bit of medical help may be more useful than the regenerative powers I somehow suspect I don't possess. So I used a couple of bandages and popped some pills (ok, this sounded nasty) and I was as good as new. I then headed to the cave on my quest for some cloth and a crowbar.

I exited the cave (note to self: from Mystery Lake to Milton always take the tunnel to the right), marched to the rope and climbed down. As soon as I got down I looked around and complained about being hungry. A wolf was crawling behind me to attack, then it heard me saying "I could eat anything" and noticed the wolf fur I was wearing and of course it ran like hell. I found a cave and settled for the night (there was a corpse with an hatchet in front of the entrance and an abandoned backpack inside). I decided picking up every single mushroom, lichen and rosehip is a wise move, at least you have something useful to do while warming up near the fire or just waiting for dawn. The next morning I went to the other rope, the wolf saw me again and panicked once more, and I climbed up.

In the park's office I found another rifle and some bullets, along with a couple of saplings I felled near the rocks. And another hatchet, I may try selling them to the sasquatch, if I meet one. I headed down and found the Orca gas station locked as usual, decided it would be oh so rude to chop down the door with an hatchet and went for a walk down the street to the collapsed tunnel. As we know from videogames, tv series and comic books the crowbar is the iconic weapon for escaped convicts, so I found one near the prison transport. But then again, if the convicts escaped why they didn't take it? Maybe they already had enough for everyone? Does it mean the prison transport carried a large supply of crowbars? I'm not sure it makes all that sense. Oh well. I went back to the gas station.

[Doc Feral]

Homo homini lupus. Sed mulier lupo tigris.
Note 1: I'm playing a woman, after playing Wintermute I wanted a different voice acting.
Note 2: homo homini lupus is an ancient latin proverb which translates as "man is wolf for man" meaning that trusting people is a bad idea. I added "Sed mulier lupo tigris" which means "but woman is tiger for wolf".
After this latin lesson I'll go back to storytelling, maybe explaining what it was about.
Once settled in the Orca gas station I started planning. My mission was raiding the town in a curtain ripping frenzy, felling saplings and grabbing all tools and good clothes I could find, along with some skins and other useful stuff.
And that was my usually brilliant plan. Everything seemed to go smoothly until I reached Paradise Meadows Farm. That place was crawling with wolves. Since I wasn't planning a hunting trip the rifle was safe in a locker back at the gas station, and I suck at shooting wolves anyway. In the end I hacked to death at least five wolves near the farm, stopping to skin a deer carcass or two and pick up another rifle and one more hatchet for my collection.
Going Xena on a pack of wolves took some toll on the girl, so she took a day or two of rest while repairing clothes.
Carrying all stuff to the park's office was easy, but then I decided to follow the river and pick up cat tails. As I reached the bridge I was about to climb out but another pack of wolves came out to play. After the battle three wolves were running around bleeding and whimpering, I wasn't running nor whimpering but bleeding indeed. The big house was near and it became my new shelter for healing and stitching.
As I started feeling better I crossed the bridge thinking that a trip to the church would be nice. I noticed a deer carcass and went to skin it. As soon as I finished the task I heard the unmistakable grunting of a bear, so without even seeing it I decided it was time to run like crazy and forgot about the church.
In the end the drawers in Milton park's office are full of every kind of stuff, including two rifles and maybe three hatchets (a rifle and one or more hatchet are still waiting in Mistery Lake), and the big house is carpeted with wolf furs and some deer skins. And there still are some dead wolves scattered around.
My original plan was picking up some tools, cloth and saplings. Battling ten or so wolves wasn't part of it. Oh well. Now that you mentioned it, I need a hacksaw too. But before leaving the Milton area, there's still the trip to the church, and the radio tower with the nearby caves, and maybe revenge against the bear which scared me away...

[Drifter Man]

On 23/04/2018 at 2:19 AM, Doc Feral said:

It charged the hut one more time and since I've forgotten to retreat to the center it tore through the wall, clobbered me (cracked rib), went back outside and put the wall back in place.

On 04/05/2018 at 2:35 AM, Doc Feral said:

As we know from videogames, tv series and comic books the crowbar is the iconic weapon for escaped convicts, so I found one near the prison transport. But then again, if the convicts escaped why they didn't take it? Maybe they already had enough for everyone? Does it mean the prison transport carried a large supply of crowbars? I'm not sure it makes all that sense. Oh well. I went back to the gas station.

On 04/05/2018 at 2:35 AM, Doc Feral said:

A wolf was crawling behind me to attack, then it heard me saying "I could eat anything" and noticed the wolf fur I was wearing and of course it ran like hell.

Good ones (and others too)  I look forward to the continuation of the story.

[Doc Feral]

2 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

Good ones (and others too)  I look forward to the continuation of the story.

I'm trying to keep it funny to avoid taking the game too seriously, and throwing jokes here and there gives me more occasions to practice my english than simply reporting facts.

[Doc Feral]

I've met a werewolf. I'm not sure wether it's worse than a wendigo or not, but surely that was no ordinary wolf.
I'm carrying all the miscellaneous stuff I've looted in Milton down from Milton Park into the cave, then I plan to carry everything up to the tunnel and back to Mystery Lake. Talk about a long hard work. Before I tell about my supernatural adventure I have to remind that old joke about the guy who tries swimming from France to England. He's almost there, the White Cliffs of Dover are less than two hundred meters away, and he says "Crap, I'm too tired to continue, I'll go back". It happened more or less the same. I tried climbing up the rope after another trip up and down. I reached the top of the cliff, all I needed was doing a push-up and the climb would have been over, but no, I started slipping and I had to climb all the way down. Oh, well.
Let's get to the werewolf. I was going to the cave with a load of loot, and I heard it snarling at me. I ran to the cave, and I know running may be a mistake, but I made it inside and went deep in. The wolf (?) followed me all the way in, and that's totally weird. Then it attacked, and I immediately picked the hatchet and gave one of my best fast clicking performances, but it was useless. I blacked out, when I got up I had two bleeding wounds, a sprained wrist, one canadian wool cap in pieces and some stuff scattered around, not to mention lousy condition. A good thrashing even for bears' standard. But then I noticed the blood trail leading out. So that's my theory: the thing was a werewolf. The steel blade couldn't hurt it, of course no silver hatchets are available, but as I was about to die I landed a knee to the jaw out of sheer luck, so its supernatural fangs did what steel couldn't and it bit its tongue off, running away to die of blood loss.
Now the question is, will my character TURN? I would surely enjoy going lycanthrope and beating up bears. 

[Doc Feral]

Of nightmare kitchen and bear grilled.

If anyone was asking about it: no, still no sign of lycanthropy. Not sure about moon phases, anyway.
So I managed to carry all looted equipment, materials and shiny things from Milton to Mystery Lake. I carpeted the cabin's floor with furs and skins (and guts) and got to work on a bear coat. I'm not sure about the effective usefulness of an enhanced bedroll, and I thought the fear factor may be worth a try. Of course it's a long task and I have to be careful avoiding cabin fever. I'm starting to think having the workbench inside a house may be a disadvantage, but Paradise Meadows farm is a nuclear powered wolf manufacturing plant and I immediately discarded the idea. As I made multiple trips from the cave to the cabin I noticed another bear, and I decided to kill it and exploit the occasion to hone my butchering and cooking skills.
I kept a couple of raw wolf chunks for such an occasion. They're totally rotten, to tell the truth, but it seems they attracted the bear towards the cabin. Maybe the bear was planning to bury the stinking things, I don't know. Anyway, it noticed me and understood I was the one tainting the landscape with disgusting trash and rose up to roar before heading for me to deal out a well deserved beating. A shot from my rifle and my leap towards the unreachable rock ledge thwarted its plan and it fled bleeding.
The next morning I set out to find the bear, alive or dead. It was conveninetly dead near Max. Who the hell this Max was anyway, and why does everyone know his name?
I lit a fire and quartered the bear, then carried the skin, guts and chunks to the cabin.
At this point a LONG process of chopping up meat started. Tearing up is more correct, since I used no tools. To add some extra munchies and stuff I set a couple traps nearby. Chopping was long, but not as troublesome as cooking. I tore up the bear in hamburger sized pieces, with the intention of raising the cooking skill.
Before it came to that I managed to catch parasites, due to my daily consumption of a piece of bear meat. 1% is more then 0%. It had to happen sooner or later. And then I even got an intoxication from a piece of not-so-good meat. That meat was laying in the snow from the first bear I got, freezing cold or not I was a bit careless.
All this raw meat piled in front of the cabin attracted a wolf, which attacked me and was dealt with with an hatchet. No, I didn't chase it.
Tearing up the bear made me gain level 5 harvesting. Now I can harvest meat from totally frozen animals and I'm faster.
Cooking more than a hundred pieces of meat was nasty. I used up all my supply of coal and firewood, but it was worth it, because I finally gained level 5 in cooking too, which means no more parasites nor intoxications. Not sure if it applies to meat I cooked before leveling up.
Anyway, I spent too much time inside and I felt cabin fever on the way. In the end I managed to sleep in the open placing the bedroll on the elevated floor of the wrecked hut, and this neutralized cabin fever. Now I have a monstrous supply of bear meat.
What shall I do next?
Back to Milton. The church and trailers weren't looted, many areas are still unexplored, natural medicines and possibly saplngs are there for the taking.
Back to the dam. Using one of my three or four crowbars now I finally can open all those pesky lockers.
To the lake: Moving all my stuff and myself to the Camp's office, fishing and looting the lakeside cabins.
Beyond the dam. Pleasant Valley and the Coastal Highway are waiting for me.
Forlorn Muskeg. There's the forge for arrowheads, and going all the way to the Broken Railroad could be a good way to find at least one hacksaw.
I need to think about it, as I quaff mushroom tea and chew on bear steaks.

[Doc Feral]

So I decided it was time to raid the dam once more, since I've found plenty of crowbars and I had some vague memories of miscellaneous stuff left in lockers for mobility's sake. So I temporarily suspended my bear coat project and set off on a long walk. I shot two wolves out of pure hatred, left them for the crows and moved on. I immediately felt embarassed as I stopped in the red derailed train for the night (I decided to go for a not-so-indoor shelter to avoid cabin fever), as I found a crowbar right in font of the door. Oh well. I spent the night in the train and marched on early in the morning. I recovered a good deal of items left behind from the beginning of the adventure, opened all lockers and picked up some more cloth. I also shot another wolf, this time butchering it to have something to chew during my looting rampage.
After picking the dam clean of useful objects I went to the Camp's Office, planning to move there my base.
After making some trips and moving all my stuff I decided to do some fishing and raid all the lakeside cabins. Days went on not so relevantly, I killed a couple wolves for self defense (I definitely doubt wearing wolf AND bear coats is particularly terrifying, the scare ratio is maybe 10%, and I'm generous). I tried performing a dark ritual with a dead wolf but I gave up, I'll try again later planning more carefully and with a larger stock of firewood, the fiery pentacle always lacked a point or two. Dark rituals do wonders for your sanity when you're alone. When life gives you shoggoths you scream tekeli-li, after all.
Anyway, the failed incantation embarassed me, so I decided to think something else and go down the railroad to reach that awful frozen swamp called Forlorn Muskeg (a forlorn beer keg would have been more appreciated) where a forge is supposed to be. Since I read somewhere that a large workshop for repairing trains is not too further away I marched through the swamp with a brief pause to leave my stock of scrap metal in a wrecked train (I even found a hacksaw nearby, yeehaw) and moved right to the workshop. I had to dodge a rockslide blocking the railroad and managed to escape wolves until I dashed into the workshop.
I had a fight with a wolf, and to my horror I noticed my moose satchel was quite damaged, but then I was very happy to find it could be repaired with plain old leather.
Inside I found another hacksaw and other tools. I then moved on to the hunter's lodge on a nearby hill, where I had some fights with wolves. And look and behold, another moose appeared.
I was really cautious this time, trying to find a good place to shoot the beast without receiving a trampling for my troubles. I vainly circled the swampy clearing one or two times, then the moose moved near enough to the cabin for me to position myself right behind the fence with a clear and short way to run for cover. I took the shot and whaaaat? Heartshot! Down with one bullet! Shine my boots, Buffalo Bill!
Now I,ve taken the meat to the front door of the cabin, planning to light a big fire and roasting it all. Which is quite useless, by the way. I'll just wait for the moose skin to dry, meanwhile I'll prove myself I can survive for a long while eating only what I can hunt. Anyway I'm not walking all the way back with a truckload of meat to attract bears and wolves and slow me down. I'll carefully pick the cabin clean, decide what to bring back, then I'll probably go back to Mystery Lake, drop my cargo and go back for the forge.

[Hotzn]

Maybe I overlooked it, but which mode are you playing? Voyager?

[Doc Feral]

Stalker, looks like I forgot to mention it. I don't think parasites are an issue at voyager level.

[Doc Feral]

In the end I died because I clicked to sleep instead of picking up the bedroll.

[Pillock]

11 hours ago, Doc Feral said:

In the end I died because I clicked to sleep instead of picking up the bedroll.

Oh no!

Well, please continue to report your future escapades. I enjoyed reading this.

[Doc Feral]

I've started another game, the beginning is not so epic but I'll try keeping track of it.

[Drifter Man]

"You mis-clicked and faded into the long dark". Anyway, looking forward to your next story.