Kermit the Timberwolf Hermit

[Drifter Man]

2 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

The stars really align against me all of a sudden.

Today is not a good day for TLD!

I don't know about the bait theory, but wolves definitely smell stuff on you while you are inside Mountaineer's Hut, and will wait for you to exit.

[Guest jeffpeng]

10 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

I don't know about the bait theory, but wolves definitely smell stuff on you while you are inside Mountaineer's Hut, and will wait for you to exit.

That's the point, I didn't have anything. Not even cooked meat or pelts. But now you say that .... the wolf acted like I was having something from the get go. Maybe bitten by bug? That would be irritating to say the least.

[stratvox]

19 hours ago, jeffpeng said:

I don't think I will ever mess with this fella. I might get lucky killing him with two flares IF I manage to fire them in rapid succession, but chances are he snows all over me and I am left with 2 missing shells and a trampled chest.

If you climb on up that fallen tree you see to the right, you can shoot at him but he can't reach you. If you can get him into moose rage he'll end up running around you making it very easy to put arrows into him until he drops.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 13

I awake at 57%, around 5 am. I go into the house, eat, return to the shelter, drink, and sleep another two hours, even if it's going to be a close call temperature wise. 6 hours cabin fever left.

I awake in a blizzard, I've already been losing heat for an hour. I go into the house, break a crate I should have broken long ago, make fire with a book about fire I read back in the day when life was sweet. Hope is oozing out of my pores while I brake the bench and take serious freezing damage. I get to keep the wood for now, because enough time has passed to throw in one of my last two lumps of coal. I make the break, the hut is warm.

I try to think constructively instead of about all the things I lost, how hard the setback really is - which is hard. I put on water and eat one of my two last pounds of venison. At 46% and expecting to lose some more I don't want to add starvation to one of my problems. I fix my food issues later - if I get to live to have food issues, that is. 2 more hours of cabin fever to suffer through.

I tear up my surplus wool toque and the fleece mittens that have outlived their usefulness and have 2 sorry pieces of cloth again. My ski jacket took the brunt of the damage, it's down to 44%. But it's cloth to heat ratio isn't exactly amazing, and I'd much rather repair my ear wraps at some point. Let's see how we do. But I should have looted that container at the engine ages ago, wolf or no wolf. I've got a gun, for Fluffy's sake.

I harvest parts of the rabbit I've still got and put on tea. The blizzard shows no sign of retreat, and my fire is down to 30 minutes. I won't get to build a snare this time either, aye? Whatever. I feed the fire one more reclaimed wood. This situation is like having survived an average at sea, but now you are floating in your life boat and you ask yourself how much you really survived, and how much you are actually just in the process of dying slower than the other people that didn't make it.

Cabin fever passes and I'm thanking the universe for it. Then I remember what they threw at me not 24 hours ago, and I take back most of my thanks. There's only so much one can justify as the universe having a plan for you before you have to admit the universe is just a mean place to be in in the first place.

1 reclaimed wood and 43 minutes left I muster the courage to dive into the winds. No sticks, just a branch, -46 FL. I drink a cup of hot tea, warm up and chance it. I'm back to playing fetch yet again, this time without much of a safety net left. When I find another branch I'm already too cold to break it. I run back, wait until the fire is down to 10 minutes .... and there goes my last coal. Channeling the power of hot beans I get the branch.

Half an hour later .... the blizzard passes. I cheat death once more, but it is not like it is a warm sunny day now. Harvey patrols the lake, so that angle is off limits. The wolves of lake and nord are on duty as well. That leaves only the landing gear. I'm not very successful and it's still -20 FL. I head back, keep the fire alive for 2 more sticks and drink some reishi to fuel my warmth yet again. I will have to make a spring for the deeper areas of the landing gear, most likely suffering condition loss, but it's my best bet for firewood.

I make a run for it as temperatures rise above -20 FL for the first time this day. I'm mildly successful, wrap around through the Bay of Cattails, where I gather the last few still left there, pass onto the lake, sneak to the northern shore and find some more sticks. I know I put myself in harms way here, but it's a risk I feel I have to take. I cross the lake on the east part, and suddenly I notice that the deer is missing. Was that the reason the Death Bowl wolf was down here?

I manage to kill a bunny with the second stone and head home. I'm exhausted and freezing, so I immediately sleep an hour. Waking up at 5:30 pm with 37% condition left I count sticks. 31. Not bad, not good. It will probably have to do. I repair my 35% ear wraps. 0.7°C for 1 cloth. I eat my last meat, my last crackers, drink up and head for the shelter. I repair it and sleep nine hours.

[Guest jeffpeng]

33 minutes ago, stratvox said:

If you climb on up that fallen tree you see to the right, you can shoot at him but he can't reach you. If you can get him into moose rage he'll end up running around you making it very easy to put arrows into him until he drops.

I have no arrows. I won't get any arrows. I'm (as I have learned by now) a Snowball. I can't leave TWM, so I will never get a knife, a hatchet, a bow - let alone arrows. But thanks for the tip! I might be able to use that strategy at another run.

[Dan_]

Man, this wolf sucks. I've had him circle the hut aimlessly as if his pathing algorithm got into a bad loop, I even managed to shoot him from the open window once. 

I'm not sure if this is directly related to bait, as I can attest to not be carrying anything inside the hut as he was stalking me from the outside. 

[Guest jeffpeng]

56 minutes ago, Dan_ said:

Man, this wolf sucks. I've had him circle the hut aimlessly as if his pathing algorithm got into a bad loop, I even managed to shoot him from the open window once. 

I'm not sure if this is directly related to bait, as I can attest to not be carrying anything inside the hut as he was stalking me from the outside. 

Maybe that wolf has just an AI flag "Be an assassinating freezer" set. I don't know. But it is the most valuable lesson for me this run. No matter how Kermit 7 ends, I've learned a ton, I know my stick spawns by heart, I won't make that container mistake again, I know all I need to know about sleeping so that I can sleep long periods of time, I know I can place the shelter behind the hut if I need to, I even have a new descent strategy in place that will - if it works - improve my chances tenfold. The longer I go on, the more I believe that 30 days can be done if I play them picture-perfect and RNGeezuz is on my side more often than not.

I'm calling it now: Kermit will succeed eventually!

It's also a great character building experience. I'm already a resilient person. If life gives me lemons, I make lemonade. It's how I work. But playing Snowball is literally trying to succeed at the impossible until you make it. Life give you lemons? Build a lemon trading empire, get rich and roll with it. More people should play this.

[Drifter Man]

That's right, Snowball (and other extreme variants of TLD) teach you to work with whatever you have.

When going to the Landing Gear, did you try climbing up the steep slope on your left? There's a fair amount of firewood up there, 15-20 sticks, in two places. There can also be a corpse. You can then go down, end up near the path to PV, turn back and return to MH, with sticks all along the way.

[Guest jeffpeng]

1 hour ago, Drifter Man said:

That's right, Snowball (and other extreme variants of TLD) teach you to work with whatever you have.

When going to the Landing Gear, did you try climbing up the steep slope on your left? There's a fair amount of firewood up there, 15-20 sticks, in two places. There can also be a corpse. You can then go down, end up near the path to PV, turn back and return to MH, with sticks all along the way.

That's the corpse I always talk about. Usually has a torch when it spawns - but I never found it yet. But no, I usually don't climb up there, but sometimes wrap around to come home from there. But I'll take a look next time. Thanks

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 14

I officially surpassed Kermit 5! Hooray. (Imagine some party horns blowing, coughs and sounds of aching bones in the background)

69% condition. I awake thirsting. There really is some randomness to it, or did I fail to fully drink up? I need to keep an eye on this. The weather isn't in a celebratory mood.

I can afford another hour of sleep before I start to lose temperature while sleeping. I get inside the hut. In there the general temperature is 1°C colder, but the bed has 2°C more warmth. So .... I sleep another hour. 6 am, it's -6°C FL in the hut, but I try to stave off having to light a fire by passing another hour in bed. I know, not very exciting, but my firewood is minimal at 29 sticks, and my margin for error has evaporated almost entirely in what I call the "Day of Curses". I really cursed a lot. Even for me.

As FL reaches -7°C I start a fire with my other fire starting book. No torch left, 95% chance sounds like the next best deal to me. I smash open my 25% peaches before they turn completely inedible and put them to warm up. Awaiting a day with heavy condition loss again I keep myself above starving. Yes, I will get to that container, and if it's the last thing I do - which is highly likely. Once my rabbit from yesterday turns 50% frozen I harvest the meat and cook it. I gain Carcass Harvesting II. Hooray again!

I store all the meat in my stomach. As they say: It's not smelly if it's in your belly! - which is technically untrue, but at least wolves don't care. I eat my peaches with a cup of reishi tea already ready to grab - but I'm lucky. I grab some hot beverages and get going. 

-18 °C sounds like a lot of fun. Let's head to the ravine - this time without ambushes, please. The lake wolf is patrolling far, but I cannot see the nord wolf, which makes me alert. Harvey the bear is nowhere to be seen as well. I head over to the Engine Gorge and risk a peek onto today's playing field. I see the wolf on the far side of the container and make a judgment call. I never goated this slope before, but I think it's actually doable. Let's find out.

I drink a hot herbal tea to stave off freezing for a bit longer and get to work. The goat down there is easy! The wolf keeps walking away from the container and I have an easy time looting. I pull out everything I can without looking and sprint the the Cave of Engines to warm up. Then I take inventory.

What a successful loot! Two jeans are beyond my wildest dreams, and a hoodie to boot. The sport socks will make excellent cloth as will one pair of jeans once I get my deerskin panties - which are just a shot away now. Between all of my loot I gain 1.9°C of FL, which is pretty much the biggest increase I could have hoped for. Sadly I cannot search the cave for respawned coal as @Serenitysuggested since I have no torch. I warm up a bit while I tear the leather shoes to pieces.

I decide to make the long way home - Three-Way-Cave, Halfway Cave, Broken-Tree-Bridge, Wing, Forest Cave - mostly to collect on firewood. Maybe I can score and eat a rabbit on the way, which would prompt a stop at the Halfway Cave - maybe not a bad idea to warm up as well. I get going. The two bunnies die in a flurry of rocks - they never stood a chance. At close range my accuracy really is impeccable. I'm freezing, so stopping at the Half-Way-Cave really becomes a bear necessity. I collect some firewood at the cave's entrance, start a fire just over the cold-line, and succeed at first try. I'm at 57%.

I put fire on for two hours, put some beverages and a can of tomato soup to warm up and get to work on the bunnies. I decide to actually extend the fire so I can harvest the guts. Discarding the rest I put the guts to cure in the cave. I cannot risk being smelly with both the wolf at the Wing Woods and especially that mad snow from the Death Bowl. I pull a singular torch and let the fire die. It's 5 pm as I leave. I won't be home for dinner.

Temperatures are a marvelous -6 FL. Two bunnies tempt me on the way home, but I decline respectfully. The deer carcass however .... it's a hard thing to turn down. I remember the other one near the climb and already dream of two deerskin pants. But NO Kermit, you will not get stupid again. I might have an opportunity to return later, but today it's just too late and too risky. I pass the bridge and cling to the rock wall on the left. I drink a cup of coffee before it gets cold. The added rest will help me to make a run for it in case the Death Bowl wolf is in a bad mood again - which he generally is as I learned far too recently.

I make it to the cave and find nothing but two cedars. Damn! So that flare is just as random as anything else. I leave again immediately and pick up some more reishi on the way. I spot the moose, but not the wolf, which makes me worry. I realize I'm seriously struck with (even more) heightened wolf anxiety after recent events. Walking up the slope to keep clear of most of the Forest I sprain my wrist. Worrying intensifies. Things get cold now, but I don't want to sprint stamina and be left sitting duck in case I need it. -12 °C, but I still have some heat left in me.

On the slope the Death Bowl Wolf barks at me. I take into the forest instead, where I spot the other wolf to the right - he didn't spot me - yet, at least. I try to keep calm and lose him among the trees. He just won't give up and is still on me as I am leaving the forest and hike into the hills towards the lake. I can see the outskirts of the lake until the permanent panting and growling becomes more distant and finally .... ends. My heart is pounding in my chest.

Almost there I finally start to freeze. It's okay. I'm alive. I won't die tonight. I'm okay. I reach the hut at 51% percent. The two bunnies, the soup and the coffee staved off starvation the entire time. Even if expensive on the calorie side, it was worth it. 26 sticks and two cedars are enough firewood to be on the hopeful side. I repair and enter the shelter, eat 4 cattails, drink up and sleep 9 hours. Today was a good day. Despite the close call at the end of it hope creeps up on me yet again.

I'm not out of the race just yet.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 15

The Aurora greets me good morning at 5 am. I'm not thirsting, but are at the expected 1%. I must have messed up last time. Condition is at 82%. I almost feel elevated. I enter the hut -3 FL, which would have been -5 just yesterday. I pass time in bed to save firewood and eventually decide to not make fire at all as three liters of water will get me through the day. I also will starve myself again today. I've eaten much to lushly the past few days. My reserves in cattails is dwindling, my meat reserves are depleted, my canned food is down to two pork & beans, one tomato soup and three ruined peaches I keep for the utmost emergency.

I don't dare to repair my shoes. I'm not entirely sure if I am accurate, but I think I will need the entire 61% of my sewing kit to make my deerskin pants - which are just a day away. With my hacksaw having no other used than to harvest carcasses now I looted all the containers I saw out the guts of a frozen rabbit that has just 25% condition left. At 26% percent my hacksaw is hopefully good for at last one more deer. Getting materials for a second deerskin pantie however will be adventurous.

I pass two more hours in bed. The weather outside turns blizzard, but it is warm enough in bed to prevent heat loss. It will be quite the uneventful day if I keep this up - but maybe that's just not such a bad thing after all. It's already 1 pm when the blizzard - which felt more like a summer storm - ends and reveals an actually beautiful, but cold day at -18°C FL.

I decide to take @Drifter Man's advice and look up the slope behind the hut. Before I even get up there I find 8 sticks already and pay with spraining my glass wrist for it. Amazing. I find 4 more until I reach the top of the slope, but don't dare go further in this weather. I don't want to take any unnecessary damage. I find some more around the hut and come home with a total of 45 sticks. Plus the two cedars that's actually almost decent. I eat a cattail and sleep two hours to cure my wrist and warm up.

I get up and fail to spot the Lake wolf. I chance to look for some leftover cattails. Doing so I spot the deer of the Lake who has returned yet again. Harvesting areas usually inaccessible to me I manage to find 14 cattails - more than I anticipated. This must be counted as a success, especially since I take no meaningful freezing damage. The only true downside that at 5:30 pm I'm way to rested to sleep my 9 hours. So I spend an hour in bed and head out yet again, gambling on a rabbit in the grove towards the Landing Gear.

Woefully disappointed I find nothing. At least I get to sprint away some rest and "gain" valuable fatigue. I go to the snow shelter and repair it. I eat 5 cattails, drink up and got to sleep 8 hours - which I know I won't fully get - and while the evening is already unusually cold, I feel like a blizzard is rolling in. 

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 16

I wake up at 2 am and celebrate. On one hand I'm officially at the half way mark, on the other every time I wake up is reason for celebration. Rejoice! I'm at 89%. Having 216 spare calories left and the night being apparently lit enough to read I spend one hour researching how to skillfully destroy animals. It's -3 FL in the cabin as I start reading, and it just turns -5 once I finish. It's time for a fire. My torch from the Halfway Cave prevents me from losing two matches as it takes me three times to light the fire. I will pull some more this time. But for now it's water boiling time.

Meanwhile I take inventory. I have 24 matches left for 15 days. That's actually doable. I sometimes can get by a night, at least at the moment, without lighting a fire, so even considering I will waste some matches to blizzards I should be in the clear. The missing guts for the panties are at 97%. They should be done once the day gets warm enough inside the hut without a fire. I plan, at least for now, to make finishing half of it my day's primary objective. I harvest the gut from the bunny on the floor while cooking. That's now two again curing on the crafting bench. I even harvest the pelt, but mostly to pass time and for skills. But hey, maybe I even get to use it to repair the mittens one fine day in the far future. They are still at 92%.

I keep checking the guts every time I return from passing time at the water can in 18 minute increments. Once they cure I start my first 30 minutes of work on them - the fire still burning. After finishing another 30 minutes I keep the fire alive against pure necessity. But the weather outside is just shy of a blizzard, and I don't want to chance running into one with a cold fire and all my sticks gone. So I take out with the fire still lit and play fetch yet again - but while I do weather calms down so much I retire my initial plan and head home with 3 sticks I keep. I pull two torches and let the fire die.

Still not particularly inviting I head back in and work two hours on my pants. I check my sewing kit. 3 hours used up 15% of it. That's 2.5% per 30 minutes. The total requirement being 62.5% - and I started with 61%. I might - might - just do it by the skin of my teeth. I'm so glad I didn't repair those boots yet. I peek outside. -12 FL. The Lake wolf is back - alright, guard your cattails you don't have anymore all you want. I use the favorable weather to take towards the Landing Gear on the route @Drifter Manproposed, still keeping a paranoid eye towards the Death Bowl.

This time I sprain my ankle making the climb. That's a huge annoyance, but at least I remain armed. I plan to purchase some of those boots that girl from Portal has if I ever get out of here. I wrap around, but make no sticks - instead I lose 5% condition to the cold. I realize than my firewood situation could become detrimental. I eat a cattail and sleep two hours to at least regain heat. I hobblewobble towards the Wing, aware of the target on my back. But it's no use. It's 2:30 pm already, and even if I stave off sleeping until 7, that's very little time to meet my 25 sticks minimum.

Heading out I shortly consider heading for the Woods of the Nord, but quickly spot the wolf on the prowl. Towards the wing I circumvent Harvey, who is heading for the lake. The moose blocks my entrance to the Wing Woods. I accept that I will lose considerable condition and head towards Echo Peak East. I eat a cattail to at least stave off starvation. On the way there and at the top I at least find something, along with 2 rose hip bushes. Desperate and banking on Harvey not being there I approach his den. 63%. I find 2 more sticks, 3 more rose hips and 4 reishi. Disappointed I take back to the hills, further up. On the way there I finally make some loot. 54%, and one more cat stalk goes.

Harvey cuts off my retreat and I will need to stick dangerously close to the Death Bowl to make it home. While picking up two more sticks on the way down he shouts his usual insults at me, but let's me leave one more time. This was a costly run, I think. But I am almost home free. I make it - at 46% - with 39 sticks. Enough. It has to be. It's just past 5 pm, and I decide to work 2 more hours on the panties. I drink a cold herbal tea and eat another cattail and get to work. After that I repair and enter the snow shelter. I eat 4 cat stalk, drink up, and sleep 8 hours.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 17

I awake at around 4:30, 72% condition. Yay, another day! It's as dark as it gets. I head into the hut knowing the way blind. I have to - I wouldn't have seen it. Not able to do anything useful I pad around in the dark until I find a bed. No idea which one, but what do I care. (I see it now on the screen shot, but my game is tuned darker.)

I end up passing three hours in the dark until a blizzard develops. Time for fire! I set up some water, and spend 30 minutes crafting. The blizzards dissipates again - seriously? Anyways! I juggle crafting, boiling water and maintaining the fire until temperatures rise to -2 FL without taking the fire into consideration. Really: Vigilant Flame is the best thing that happened to the game since the initial 1.0 release. I let the fire die while I craft 3 more hours. It's around 12:30.

Weather outside is not great - 17 FL, windy. I decide to wait another hour crafting. Winds die down, -10 FL. I would really like to finish my panties, but discipline drives me out of the hut, towards the Landing Gear again, direct route. No sprains today. I spot a rabbit in the grove, but decide to leave it for later. I'm not very successful and have to return soon as winds brush up again. I still annihilate the rabbit on the way. I turn in, and warm up a bit while I harvest guts and meat from the rabbit before it freezes.

27 sticks give me reason to look around the house for anything, really. I find nothing. I warm up finishing my panties as I got just 1.5 hours left - but the sewing kit breaks with 0.5 hours on the clock. Damn you. I expected it, but I didn't want to believe it. Sad times! My next gut will be ready in 2.5 days. I'm heavily disappointed. But no use dwelling on failure. I take the gut that I have left over from the panties, store the last hide and the unfinished work in the drawer, and craft a line, a hook and then two fishing tackles. I drink a cold herbal tea again, go to the shelter, repair, eat, drink, sleep: 8 hours. I chance an hour of losing heat - but that's fine.

[Drifter Man]

1 hour ago, jeffpeng said:

This time I sprain my ankle making the climb. That's a huge annoyance, but at least I remain armed. I plan to purchase some of those boots that girl from Portal has if I ever get out of here. I wrap around, but make no sticks - instead I lose 5% condition to the cold. I realize than my firewood situation could become detrimental.

Sorry if I gave bad advice - I've just checked on Pilgrim to be sure and found no sticks up there this time, only cedar limbs. Maybe the spawn locations were changed. The place in the picture below was always covered with sticks as far as I can remember.

There still are sticks farther out (where the OMB lichen can be seen - that's the place where the corpse can spawn as well). It's towards PV, not towards the Wing.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 18

One more yay in the life of the Hermit. 80% condition, I've been losing heat only for maybe half an hour. It's dark, but not "dark dark". I eat a bit of cat stalk to use the surplus 37 calories I have left and sleep another hour in the hut. I wake up and blizzard strikes hard. I immediately drop all the sticks I have left and keep my torch burning until I can equalize temperatures. 3:25h on the fire, all I have left are 2 cedars. I put on water and warm up beverages.

Since I lost some warmth in the bed sleeping off time I don't have full warmth. I decide to finally fix my boots, and since I have more leather than I can ever spend, I even over-repair them slightly for a second fix. So far - miraculously - all repairs have succeeded. I'm due for a fail. I take inventory of my clothing options.

The vest is just for show at this point. The shirt actually has a slightly better base warmth-to-repair ratio than the hoodie (35% to 30% for the same amount) but right now it's worse. Either of them can actually go, and if I had to decide right now - the shirt would be it. The sport socks are cloth in spe, and same goes for one of the jeans. That's a total of 4, including the 1 cloth I have.

I try to analyse the viability temperature gained per cloth-to-repair. The ski jacket has 0.3 per cloth repair, the underwear 0.4, the socks give me 0.275. The jeans for 0.3 as well, the sweater and the ear wraps are in way too good shape to even consider spending cloth on them. But for the wool toques things look more interesting. I cloth (I looked it up) would repair 75% of them - for a total gain of 1.5 °C. But even repairing them now would outperform any other option - gaining 0.7 °C on the 65% one, and 0.54 on the 73% version. It's actually a no-brainer - after investing a lot of brains, that is. I will wait a bit longer on the toques, spend 1 cloth on the underwear and actually finally craft some new bandages. Surviving another wolf is unlikely - but if I did and bled out.... I'd be so mad.

But my immediate concerns are more blizzard focused. I have one hour left on the fire, and snow is still going down - quite literally. I take a desperation stroll outside, and actually buy breaking a branch for 1% condition. I warm up using the bed, and head back out - playing fetch yet again. I've gotten quite good at this game, I admit. The next branch costs me 4%, and I decide to throw in a cedar in 30 minutes if I have to. I do have to. I plan to wait another 40 minutes cooking tea until the clock shows 1 hour again but finally, after one tea - the blizzard subsides and ....

I make Cooking III! I was close to it - that's why I didn't cook the rabbit yet - but I celebrate none the less. What an achievement for a Timberwolf Hermit. I cook the rabbit, make one more tea, and pull torches. Weather outside is -15°C Not great, not terrible. Contemplating my options, possible solutions to my firewood dilemma and my dwindling food resources I formulate the plan to visit the engine again. But how? I take out my flare gun, strengthen myself with a hot reishi tea and head out - I have a plan. Maybe even a good plan. 

My plan was to drive the deer into the wolf of the nord - but I fail and get the wolf on my toes instead. The deer escapes, and I make the rope regardless. Alright. I can live with that I guess. But from there things go south. I sprain my ankle on flat even ground because [insert nonsense] and weather turns 6 degrees colder all of a sudden to -21°C FL. I freeze so fast despite having hot tea radiating away inside me and I walk so slow! I find a good amount of sticks. Well... snow, that's just great, but how do I survive this again? I make it to the cave and think. That ankle will kill me. I eat a cat stalk to stave off starvation. I have 6 torches. I decide to search the cave despite fatigue setting in. 

I chain-torch my way back and forth through the cave, finding 3 coal - which is amazing! - and make a fire when I realize I came ill prepared. I left my can at home. Dammit. Never. Leave. THE CAN. I bite my tongue and eat two of my 4 remaining painkillers, and warm up tea to somehow survive this by collecting the cattails and goating down over Andre's peak. Hail Mary? Close to it. I drink one tea, take the other, pull a torch and go. Outside weather is foggy. I see the wolf and kill the torch. I take a deep breath. I risk it, flare gun primed and ready.

We end up playing hide and seek around the small hill. He comes, I retreat, he goes, I push, he comes back, see's me, I lose him around the hill and wrap around. The amount of sticks I find is sheer overwhelming for my current standards, and I think I collect everything the small creek has to offer me - 25 cattails and even some reishi. I'm seriously freezing, down to 53% condition, fully exhausted. I get back into the cave.

I'm seriously encumbered. But especially considering I'm fully fatigued. It's 6 pm. I have at least one potential wolf between me and home if I make the goat flawlessly - which isn't a given. I think about making another fire .... and decide against it. I can recover condition, I cannot recover matches. I wonder if this is hubris or grit. Maybe it's just stupid.

I pick up even more sticks as I climb to Andre's Peak. A rabbit taunts me, daring me to kill him, but I'm smarter than that. Not by much - but that tiny little bit of wisdom I can muster. Crows announce the location of Andre's corpse. I can't resist three lumps of cedar and even more sticks. Who knows how long I will even find any firewood? And I won't be back here again, not a chance, so I just need to take it. I find a cotton toque at the corpse but have no time to look at how good or bad and it actually doesn't matter. It's already cloth, it just hasn't caught up yet. Nani?

43%. This spells doom. No more delays. I make the goat brutally quick, but without mistakes. I think I hear the creek wolf in safe distance towards the waterfall and make a beeline for the Lake. 32%

Against better judgement I greed the cattails. When will I ever be able to traverse the creek this "safe", I think. Reaching the lake night falls. The wolf is AWOL. 26%. I make it to the hut, 23%. Aware I accumulated so much negative Interloper Karma today I eat a cattail and go to bed for an hour immediately. When I wake up it's blizzard time yet again. Worst. Timing. Ever. I make a fire and put on water, the usual. I sleep an hour while the blizzard is raging. It subsides as fast as it came. I have to pull torches for 2 hours of remaining fire. I eat the remaining rabbit and head out to the shelter.

I repair it, but it is so cold and late already that I decide to sleep in the hut. After all, is has 1°C more combined warmth bonus between itself and the bed compared to the shelter and it's integrated bedroll, and cabin fever shouldn't be a concern  right now - I've been out a lot today. I eat some cat stalk to fill up - but realize too late that I cannot sleep away 700 calories tonight. Well. Whatever. Less starvation in the morning then. I drink up .... and sleep a short night. I can't afford more than 5 hours.

[Guest jeffpeng]

1 hour ago, Drifter Man said:

There still are sticks farther out (where the OMB lichen can be seen - that's the place where the corpse can spawn as well). It's towards PV, not towards the Wing.

That's where I wrapped around and was disappointed as well. I was there not sooo long ago and actually found sticks, so the will probably respawn eventually. But nevermind. I'm still alive and kicking - and learning. With all the the good advice a little blooper ain't matter much :-)

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 19

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Stayin' alive! That's all the BeeGee's I can stomach.

I'm at 37%. It will have to be a very quiet day. With not so much starving and much more staying warm. Looking at the temperature .... -6°C allow for another hour of just slightly cold sleep. I take it. When I wake up it's time to revive the fireplace. I lost a lot of sticks yesterday to equalize the blizzard, but I am still at 35, and I have 15 torches plus 4 cedar and 3 coal. Not much by normal standards, but by mine this is amazing, and almost back to my initial emergency stack. I also have a total of 31 cattails. Some of them will go today, but it's still a massive improvement.

Having 5.3 liters I cook tea and prepare rose hips and reishi. I keep the fire alive until 9:30 am, then I let it die with the temperatures approaching 0 when I'm in bed. I eat a cattail and sleep 2 hours.

I get up at 40% and the hut still slightly below freezing. I consider how useful sleeping is now, and I decide against it since I want to have a good nights sleep today. Instead I want to peek out and look for firewood. I drink a cup of cold herbal tea before I go. I will need the rest bonus later anyways, and I can use the calories now. It's 45 minutes less that I starve. I find a surprising 9 sticks scattered around the house before I gotta go back in. -27°C FL are all but inviting me to stay. I craft those bandages I promised to make yesterday already, and prepare some reishi. Since temperatures don't really want to break on their own I spend an hour in bed to warm up.

It's still stupid cold for 1 pm. I decide to tear up the cotton toque - that actually was of decent 71% - and repair my underwear like I promised as well. Successful - again? Okay. That's some superhuman luck right there. It's 4 pm when temperatures actually reach tolerable levels. I head out, knowing I'm on a clock to score some firewood. I put some spring in my step and make a run for the Landing Gear.

I return to the hut at 32% condition, but it was worth it! I score unbelievable 46 sticks and 2 rose hip bushes making it all the way to the landing gear and wrapping around behind the slope, leaving me at a total of 66 - which is, playing it conservative, enough for 2 days. With 12 days left we can start to express this in percentages of remaining firewood to acquire - assuming we'll get no blizzards which we will. But then again I still have a mighty stash of cedar and coal.

The gut on my workbench is 87% cured. I will finish my panties tomorrow morning. I spend another hour spending time, then I head out onto the lake, destroy another rabbit and turn back in. I harvest the gut immediately, but leave the rest for later. I head to the shelter and do the chores: repair, eat, drink, and sleep for 8 hours. It indeed was a quiet day. And good day at that. No alarms and no surprises.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 20

Another day in paradise. Or whatever you call this. 

56% are on the gaining side of the sine, but still too little to make big, risky moves. Having an unusually warm morning I go into the hut, eat a cattail and sleep three more hours. I won't need a fire today if things stay peachy. I basically watch the gut cure as I prepare some rose hips and reishi in the relative dark. Heavy snow outside. -2 °C FL in the hut. Things I can work with! It is only now I realize that I can actually break the shelf with the hammer. That's 6 reclaimed wood. I decide to leave it there as I actually enjoy having some furniture, but if my stash plummets again it will go.

I peek outside if I can see any sticks from the porch - but as I can't I go back in and spend half an hour in bed - then another. Then the gut is ready. Eager I pull out the unfinished panties and the hide, pick up the gut and achieve hermittian greatness. 

This design. The features. The stitches. The fitting. It's the best piece of leg wear a Timberwolf Hermit could ask for - literally. Lush +12°C plus amazing +6°C wind proofing make me dizzy. If nobody told me I could believe this was an actual Interloper game! I jump outside in my new shiny clothes and ..... go back in. -20°C FL despite all my efforts just suck. I tear up the surplus jeans in joyful rage, and the socks befall the same fate.

I actually take the time to get my encumberment issue in order. I stuff away all but 25 sticks and drop 1 kg of prepared reishi. I stash away some leather I have on me I don't know why. The shirt goes onto the shelf. Everything else I deem essential. 22 kg sound so much better than almost 31. I take inventory about the really important things in life.

• 66 sticks
• 4 cedar
• 3 coal
• 20 matches
• 22 cattail
• 2 + 1 potential cloth
• 6 flare shells
• 6 herbal teas, either cooked or cookable
• 5 cookable coffee
• 2 pain killers
• 2 rose hip teas
• 3 + 20 reishi, plus 3 leftover reishi sips
• 26% hacksaw
• 2 pork and beans
• 1 tomato soup
• 3 ruined peaches
• 12 antibiotics
• 0.4l antiseptic
• 2 bandages

Everything else I either have more than I can use (leather, rabbit pelts, sprains) or I don't have it at all (no stims, no can openers, no rifles, no expedition parkas, no oats)

I think about that I haven't done any fishing. Maybe that would be a way to spend the early hours in the morning, but it would require me to use definitively more firewood. I keep the option in mind, maybe it's something I'll have to resort to on the last days, but I find it rather unlikely.

It's still -18°C FL. I don't have anything useful to do with the day except make a quick sweep for firewood around the house. I find 2 sticks and spend an hour in bed. Funny enough: by that I dodge the vast majority of short blizzard by sheer luck. After than the weather is actually passable. -10 °C FL is as good as I can hope for on day 20 TWM. 4 pm already I decide to make a quick stroll towards the Wing. I actually reconsider. How likely is it that I will have such good conditions to drive the deer into the wolf again in the next 10 days? Increasingly unlikely. I pull out the flare gun and get behind the wheel.

Again the deer decides to take a completely unreasonable turn towards the Woods of the Nord, but the wolf of the Lake is already on its track. This time the story ends rather abruptly.

As the wolf of the nord will most likely attack me even harvesting just the hide I decide to expend a match and some firewood and harvest all the deer's meat on the spot. I take some time, and the wolf wants his piece, but keeps fleeing from the fire. I cook most of the meat right there, and upon leaving I throw the wolf his proverbial pound of flesh to negotiate a truce. The wolf from the Death Bowl comes down late to the party. I outrun him before I can track me accurately enough. I score 15 pounds of high quality venison. I'm a happy camper. I will have to compensate on firewood tomorrow, but needing 1.5 pound of venison to sleep 9 hours we theoretically are in the clear when it comes to food. I eat said 1.5 pounds, go to the shelter, repair, drink a cold herbal tea, drink up and sleep 7 hours. It's gotten late, but it's been an unexpectedly successful day. Plus maybe I'll even get the hide tomorrow - who knows.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 21

I've got two thirds of the way. We're far from through it yet, but I'm hopeful. Let's just hope that it doesn't come to be that the soothing light at the end of my tunnel is just a freight train coming my way. It's again surprisingly warm, so I sleep another hour right there in the shelter. Only then I realize that the extra 2°C from my pants allow me much wider margins in terms of sleeping hours.

I awake at 73%, fully rested. Water is an issue - we haven't made anything yesterday and cooked a lot of tea the day before that. I go into the hut and still pass two hours of time in the bed. Temperatures drop below 0 but I drink a cold reishi, I leave a sip, mostly out of habit, and sleep another hour. I could pass on making a fire today again as temperatures rise. But I need water, and I need to harvest that rabbit, plus cook 6 more pounds of deer. I light the torch and get to work. After 2.5 liters of water and remaining flesh cooked I let the fire die again. It's an act of balance between expending matches and expending firewood. But right now firewood seems more scarce. With the weather outside being hardly passable -25°C FL I sleep two hours. My days move more and more into the evening.

Around noon weather outside is as clear as it is cold with cutting winds.

Sprinting across the lake I come up empty. I head back and warm up in bed. From a far distance I see the Death Bowl wolf cross the eastern Lake. I'm alert. Still I will need to acquire firewood, and with the Landing Gear recently raided the area towards the Wing seems to be most promising.

[Day 21 will continue!]

[Dan_]

Kermit is living the life right now! Congrats on the new pants, we're almost there!

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 21 - continuation

With the wolf of the Lake gone I allow myself to get far onto the lake to have a better angle. I manage to evade both wolves, but cold weathers mean I lose condition by the time I leave the Lake.  I make a measly 6 sticks for 9% condition. Worth it? Questionable. I sprain my ankle upon reaching the hut. Splendid. I sleep an hour when I get home - mostly to warm up. This day won't hold any more marvels, I'm afraid.

I hobblewobble around the house and make 4 sticks and two brances until 8 pm. With darkness covering the Lands like a blanket I have little else to do but to go to the shelter and call it a day for 8 hours.

 

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 22

I wake up minutes after midnight, 67%, fully rested, starry skies. -16°C. In fact this isn't any worse than running around at daytime - so I head towards the Landing Gear. I pass a little rabbit that knows much too well I don't have the time to mess with him. I find nothing, absolutely nothing, until I have to head back. At least I don't lose much condition - I return just barely freezing. Having sprinted away some rest I sleep two more hours.

I wake up with the shelter being 0°C FL. Inside the hut I've got 2°C FL. So the hut really doesn't get colder, while the shelter just works as a supersized bedroll. I read an hour about animal body disassembly, then pass 2 hours. I really have nothing to do - except things I cannot do. I break a branch outside, then have to turn back in to warm up. Then another branch. I consider my options. I need water, so I have to make a fire in any case. I might as well spend the time doing something worthwhile. I plan head out back to the wolf and deer that still lie rotting near the Woods of the Nord, then winds brush up that would kill any fire. And I need firewood in the closer vicinity. The wolf of the nord ... he has to go. Again. I pick up a leftover rabbit and head straight for the lake.

It's turning into a graveyard out here. 

I leave the rabbit and wolf be. I quickly loot the place for firewood, then I return, freezing and being down to 57%. And just in before you state that 14 sticks are hardly worth a flare shell be reminded that the price for firewood has skyrocketed recently. I might even get more out of those woods, later. For now - I need to warm up and make water. I don't dare spend more than 2 hours of firewood to acquire 1.5 liters. With the last can on the fireplace and enough fuel in the tank to boil it I drink a hot herbal tea, take a reishi as well, and head into fuzzy warm -12°C FL.

Up the slope, towards the Landing Gear. I find some sticks at the house, but no more up there until I reach the Landing Gear. There I find some more on the way to Pleasant Valley. I head back to the Gear and keep looking when winds brush up cold, and -20°C force me to turn home. A stiff breeze that blows against me slows me down, but I make it home before suffering any more condition loss. Having sprinted away more than half of my rest already I eat some venison and sleep two hours. 

I wake up with my decorative sport vest finally giving in. It's around 1:30 pm. With the wolf of the Nord rotting away I sprint across the lake and plan to put the saw to the deer. Harvey disagrees heavily and calls me things I don't want to repeat. I leave with 3 sticks for my trouble. Maybe later. I wrap around to the northern shore but don't find anything except the last two cattails of the Lake. I pass some time in bed to warm up. With -8°C I try again. I find Harvey on the retreat and get to work. 

I get the hide and leave the rest. I pay a hefty condition tax for it with the weather turning batsnow crazy on me while I am at it. I return at 39% and wonder if it was worth it. If I will even get enough hides really is a question I cannot answer with confidence. I eat half a cattail and sleep an hour. Weather doesn't recover, and I break a branch outside, go back in, spend an hour in bed to warm up. After that it's more passable with -11°C FL and heavy snow. I head towards the landing gear and look for the rabbit. I cannot find it or any sticks, and with weather going bad again I decide to call it a day. Eat, repair, drink, sleep: 8 hours.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 23

I wake up almost freezing, and pretty thirsty. 64%. Inside the hut it's barely warm enough to sleep another hour, but I take it. After that I have to light a fire, so I do. I will need to make at least 2 liters of water, no matter what. I put on a fire of two and a half hours and celebrate Firestarting III.

This will make my firewood situation a bit better, just from bonuses. I put on water and dump my tinder into the hatch. 39 cattail heads never got used, and I started leaving them when harvesting a good while ago.

I plan to do some light work today, score firewood if I can and make it to the two deer carcasses between broken tree bridge and the Deer Clearing climb tomorrow. At 6 am it's -33°C FL outside. I manage to break a branch, but almost start freezing for it. Dammit. I think about where to acquire firewood, and the plains below the ramp spring to mind, just up the rope. I need to be careful about the waterfall bear, but other than that it should be relatively safe. I might even find a rabbit up there. I decide to keep the fire burning until I can make it outside, so that I can take some liquid heat with me. Also today feels like a pork & bean kind of day. So I heat one of my last two remaining cans up. At 33% it probably has exquisite additional flavor. It's 11 am when I head out into some deep but relatively warm fog. Yes, -16 °C now qualifies as that.

Upon reaching the rope I eat my still warm beans, on the ledge a herbal tea that also provides some heat. Up on the plains fog is still deep, and navigation is difficult and dangerous. But I don't get lost. I even decide to smash one of the crates that are at the place that usually would host a container. In the end I make 32 sticks, 4 reclaimed wood and a rabbit, but I lose way more condition than I planned for. But that's just it these days. The best outcome I can hope for is a zero sum game.

I harvest the rabbit while I warm up in the hut. I leave the pelt since I won't get to use it, but take 1.5 kg of meat and the guts. I have the guts now for a second set of panties, but I will still need one more for fishing tackle. Let's see if tomorrow I have the guts to get the deer hides. It will be a costly trip, and arguably the last I will be able to make. I still hope, somewhere deep down, that I will be able to use the reclaimed wood to build snares eventually. I have two more guts waiting in the half way cave that should be ready by now. 

It's 4 pm when I head out again, the usual casual checking towards the Landing Gear. Getting that rabbit there would be amazing - but I am disappointed. I, however, make 18 sticks, so calling this run a failure would be decadence. I'm completely exhausted, and since I want to regain as much condition as I can before tomorrow I turn in early at 5 pm. I will even sleep in the hut tonight. I still repair my shelter beforehand, but then I eat hearty, drink up and sleep my maximum 9 hours. 

 

 

[stratvox]

On 11/10/2018 at 11:57 AM, jeffpeng said:

I have no arrows. I won't get any arrows. I'm (as I have learned by now) a Snowball. I can't leave TWM, so I will never get a knife, a hatchet, a bow - let alone arrows. But thanks for the tip! I might be able to use that strategy at another run.

If you pull him there with stones, get him to rage out, and put a flare shell into him, I'm pretty sure he'll drop; IIRC that was demonstrated by Geltaz in one of his videos from a ways back. It's because the flare shell does ongoing damage if you get it to stick, and that can (will? don't wanna make any guarantees there) kill the moose. Worth considering at any rate.

[Guest jeffpeng]

Kermit 7 / Day 24

I wake up at around 2 pm, drink, eat a cattail and turn back to bed immediately. I still have some rest to fill up. When I wake up again it sounds like a blizzard is rolling in. I'm at 85%. That's good. I spend some time in bed without starving, and sleep occasionally. It's 11 am when I get up. 89%. I make a fire, I will need heat for the way.

I warm up my tomato soup and bag the beans. I also pack my coal and cedars. I don't travel light today - the opposite is the case. I will have to make camp at the half way cave - maybe twice. I eat my soup, pick up my teas and coffee, take the can and leave at noon. Harvey makes a point of being in my way, but I think I can circumvent him without more than hearing his laments.

I cross the Broken Tree Bridge scot-free but stiff winds keep blowing in my face no matter which way I turn. It's like they are doing it on purpose. Drinking coffee and tea on the way I even manage to still have some heat in me when I realize one of the carcasses is gone. Did I look at it the last time I was here? That would be a tremendous bummer. But no matter the reason: no carcass. I'm not quite sure what to do with this information, but keep going to the other carcass - it's there. I take the hide, pay 13% condition for it and deliberate what to do. One hide doesn't earn me much, but I making it up to Deer Clearing sounds like a one way trip. I decide to turn back, make rest at the Halfway Cave and then see if the deer at the Wing Woods is there - and the moose isn't. If both conditions check true .... driving it into a wolf and shelling the wolf sounds like a fair price.

Camp at the Halfway Cave has to be brief, it's almost 5 pm when I leave, warmed up, with a torch and hot beans driving me forward. I don't forget the guts. Reaching the Wing I see no deer, but two wolves. I immediately abandon my plan and give the Woods a wide birth. Between the Ravine and the Lake I take to the hills. I hear Harvey snorting along, but I don't see him. My heart is pounding in my throat. I keep the flare gun oh so ready. But somehow we pass each other like ships in the night. I make it home without even freezing. 

Now I cannot call this day a success. It was meticulously planned, and it fails because of a mistake I must have made over a week ago. I'm so mad. There probably go my panties for good. But I also cannot call this day a complete failure. The sheer amount of firewood I made today cannot be frowned upon. At the end of the day I have 109 sticks, and still my 4 cedar, 4 reclaimed wood and 3 coal. Also with all those sticks I picked up there I can expect a lot to have respawned around here. I should be almost in the clear.

I'm also still at 73%. I expended my last cans and some beverages for this trip, but in the end it's another day I survived, in good condition at that. Maybe the deer of the lake will return in time to make the panties matter. But with one gut to spare now I grant myself some success today.

A snare. Finally. Just one. Probably too late to matter a whole lot - but it's about the message, you know? I return home, eat, repair, drink, sleep: 6 hours.