Hotzn

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  1. Time to think. I could turtle up in any place with a rabbit grove and a workbench nearby now. Trapper's, for example. And hibernate to eternity, living off snared rabbits and making water with the occasional fire ignited with the lens. My memory says that at least that possibility existed in the olden days. It wouldn't be much fun, probably. And if I am not mistaken, some update has brought about scurvy as a new affliction, which might prevent turtling. Or it might not. Does anybody have experience with turtling on Interloper, and potentially scurvy?

    Anyway, this is an achievement run, so I won't turtle around too much. However, I feel Interloper is not really difficult anymore, so I guess I won't report on every day from now on. Do some fast-forwards instead...

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  2. Day 15:

    Well, well. It appears I pop out right above Trapper's:

    Trappers.jpg

    And there's a moose here:

    moose.jpg

    Strangely, my memory claims that the door to the cabin was on the other side in the olden days. Or was it? Anyway, the loot: I find another hammer - which was unnecessary, since I brought the hammer from Milton with me. But a can opener, a whetstone and an insulated flask (never saw that before) complement my equipment. Crafting a second snare, I set up both snares above Trapper's and make my way to the Camp Office. I sprain an ankle, but find infinite fire inside:

    lens.jpg

    Despite the sprained ankle, I cross the lake, inspecting one fishing cabin on the way and passing the night in one of the three little huts on the other side.

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  3. Day 14: Although the last deerskin is just about to finish curing, I will not wait for it, as there is not much else to do. The question now is: where to turn? I think my best bet is the climb down from the climbing/picnic area above the gas station. I can't remember how the transition is done exactly, meaning unknown terrain, meaning potential danger. But I know that this transition has been around for a long time, and will therefore likely lead me to a map I know somewhat. So it's decided:

    way down.jpg

    Having reached the bottom, I follow some signs, then see this:

    way up.jpg

    Not sure whether this is the way to go, but I try it and - up there - turn left to cross a fallen tree and further up come upon a waterfall and then into a ravine:

     

    waterfall and ravine.jpg

    Pressing on, I find a number of cattails and then a second waterfall. And to the left of it a cave entrance which says "Leave Milton Area". Traversing the cave chain-torching, I reach the exit, which leads to... Mystery Lake. Bingo. Since I am greeted by y blizzard, my fatigue is way up, and night is falling, I return to the cave, use the torch to light a campfire (just for reading a book on revolvers I found in the cave), lay out my bedroll and spend the night here...

    cave exit.jpg

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  4. Day 13:

    Getting up early in the morning, I walk over to the workbench, light a fire (in the fire barrel this time) and craft a snare. Instead of a second snare (one more gut left), I further make some fishing hooks and lines (and ultimately 2 fishing lines) as well as a simple lure (a new addition to the game since my last stint). I want to have some flexibility in case I should run into opportunities for fishing.

    Then it's back to Grey Mother's. I take the route through the orchard and then the hay stacks, which yields plenty of sticks and three more burdock roots. Then I circle around the left in the riverbed. Interestingly, the cattails here and up to the waterfall have not regrown. Strange.

    Back at Grey Mother's, I do some water and tea cooking, torch pulling, tidying up the house and inventory management. Then it's off to bed.

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  5. Day 12, continued:

    Leaving the gas station around noon, I see no wolves outside and set off in the direction of the outlying farm. Circling around the left, I reach it without incident. Although I lose temperature at such a rate that I'm forced to make a fire underway. Chain-torching the flame to the workbench outside the farmhouse, I make a campfire next to it - only to realize later that this was unnecessary, as there is a fire barrel right there (which I overlooked).

    workbench.jpg

    I then craft the rabbitskin hat. Nice. My clothing now provides +10°C. I will likely gain another +1°C when the Canadian toque is repaired.

    Clothing II.jpg

    Collecting some sticks behind the farmhouse, I briefly consider returning to Grey Mother's, because I was foolish enough to forget my cooking pot on the stove there. However, my condition is down and fatigue is setting in (as it should at this late time of the day). Better not run the risk. So I enter the farmhouse, repair the toque and call it a day. Experimenting with the clothing slots, I am at first confused that both head slots claim to be "inner layer". But then I realize that the "inner/outer" layer is defined by a combination of the slot and the clothing item placed in it. The rabbitskin hat seems to be restricted to the outer layer, since I cannot place it in the right-hand head slot. And if I place it in the left-hand slot, that slot suddenly says "outer layer". Not very intuitive, but well...

    Clothin III.jpg

    Oh, and another observation: I'm pretty sure by now that the cattails in the riverbed regrow. The first time I stumbled across cattails in an area in which I had already harvested them, I thought I had somehow overlooked them on my previous tour. But now I found them again in the same place. So they regrow now. My memory says they didn't in earlier versions of the game, but I might be wrong. I find them regrowing in the winter a little immersion-breaking, also it seems to me that it makes Interloper a little too easy. Just like the torch-pulling. Maybe the regrowing cattails can be switched off in the custom settings.

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  6. Still day 11:

    I thought the day was over. But it wasn't. Dinner comprised a tin of sardines ar 25% which I had found on a corpse. Food poisoning. It was fortunate I had prepared two cups of reishi tea at some point. Drinking one and ten hours of sleep healed the food poisoning off.

    Day 12:

    So, due to the food poisoning I did not heal. I still plan to approach the workbench today.

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  7. Day 11:

    I had already finished all my books before, now I have even done all available crafting last night (rosehip, reishi etc.). With nothing useful to do, I set out early in the morning to collect my guts from the cave. The three wolves are about, so I need to be careful. Some condition is lost to the cold, but I make it back to base with three cured guts, a cured rabbitskin aaand - a cured deerskin! Three more rabbitskins have cured in Grey Mother's, so now I have 4 rabbitskins and 3 guts ready for processing. To craft the rabbitskin hat, I need a workbench. I pack most of my things, since I'm not sure I will be coming back this way. In order to avoid the three wolves, I strike a wide arch along the riverbed to the gas station. Last time i was there I was in a hurry, and a more thorough search yields a well-preserved thin wool sweater, a very nice find:

    Wool sweater.jpg

    I also search the car in front of the station, finding wooden matches and a Canadian toque in the glovebox! This is most welcome. Further down the road is the crashed bus, but it seems it cannot be entered or otherwise interacted with. Grabbing some sticks, I return to the gas station.

    What is less welcome: There is no workbench here. I thought there was one, but my memory apparently deceived me. I suppose the only workbench in MIlton is the one in the wrecked workshop by the outlying farm. I'm not familiar with that workshop. Can wolves enter it and bite my ass while I'm crafting? Now that I have the Canadian toque, I reconsider whether I need the rabbitskin hat at all at this point in time. They both provide +2°C warmth at full condition. The rabbitskin hat brings more windchill protection on top - +1.5°C, while the Canadian toque has +1°C. The hat further has a bit more protection against wolves, but also weighs more. Hm. My current clothing looks like this:

    Clothing.jpg

    Maybe I should make the rabbitskin hat and wear it together with the Canadian toque for now. Mainly because that would give me +4°C warmth altogether, and at this stage I need every degree I can get.

    It has gotten dark outside, and I will stay the night here in the gas station...

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  8. Day 10:

    The "most advanced" gut on the floor in my base is torturing me: 71% this morning. I am getting impatient and want to check on the guts curing in the cave. A bad idea, as it is still very cold and quite windy outside. Arriving at the cave, I start freezing. I want to preserve matches (only 8 left now) and therefore decide against a fire. Trying to return to base though, I see three wolves hanging around the street running by Grey Mother's. I hesitate, three is a bit much to get into a struggle with. Then I gather my courage and sneak around the back. I am barked up, but run to the door and make it inside.

    Spending some hours reading a book on gunsmithing, I hear a blizzard starting outside. Wolves and blizzard, no thank you. I spend the rest of the day inside, nibbling away on cattails and reading. As the sun sets, I have finished all my books. My carcass harvesting skill is at level 2 now, the other skills at level 1.

    Skills 2.jpg

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  9. Day 9:

    Sticks have respawned in the area between my base and the bridge, so I spend some time collecting those in the morning. I return to Grey Mother's to warm up while reading some more about field dressing. The guts are curing painfully slowly, now at 52%.

    After warming up, I set out again onto the river, this time in the other direction (away from the waterfall and the big bridge). There are a lot of cattails to be had here. I am careful, as I don't know the wolf patrol routes here. I see the three wolves by the outlying farm, but they are far from the river, and there seem to be no other wolves about. Finally, I reach a little valley with a climbing rope leading down to a vast frozen lake area:

    Lake area.jpg

    I wonder what that is, whether it belongs to the Milton map or another one. The way down is long, and since I have not planned for that far an excursion, I do not venture down. Instead, ma attention is focused on a deer carcass close by:

    Deer.jpg

    The weather seems stable, I have just enough firewood on me, and my fatigue-meter also seems OK. So I start a fire next to the carcass, harvest the meat and hide, cook & eat the meat on the spot, and make off with the hide just as the fire runs out. I make it back to Grey Mother's unscathed and even manage to chain-torch the flame back there. I use it to light the stove and make water while reading deep into the night.

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  10. Day 8:

    After reading a bit about field dressing kills, I decide I need more firewood, and in search of it venture over the bridge and up the hill to my right. Unfortunately, I am barked up by a wolf which I cannot shake off (I try again to break line of sight - old habits die hard - and am of course unsuccessful), and a struggle ensues. I use the crowbar, since the hammer is at Grey Mother's, and manage to chase the wolf off. My clothing takes surprisingly little damage, but my condition is almost halved. I stumble back to base (Grey Mother's). The day becomes sunny and beautiful, a felt -7°C, and for the first time my temperature does not go down while outside...

    Sunny.jpg

    But with my low condition, I do not want to risk running into another wolf. So I spend the rest of the day inside, crafting little things here and there, and reading.

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  11. Day 7:

    Today, I need to procure firewood. I set out from Grey Mother's towards the bridge - an area full of sticks, and apparently free from wolves. Crossing the street, I continue my stick-search around the burnt-down school building. There are two rabbits roaming about here, and after much ado I manage to stone them and bring them home to Grey Mother's. Finally, I clear the river below the bridge and up to the waterfall of cattails. I now have 40 in the fridge at Grey Mother's, which can carry me quite a long way. For the first time in this run, I do the fruitful evening work: Lighting the stove, utilising both the water pots of 2L each as well as some coooking spots, all deep into the night. I process the two rabbits completely, making 8L of water as well. I sleep for 9 hours from the middle of the night until almost noon. Given the temperature curve and my lackluster clothing at this point, that's how it should be.

    Oh, by the way, I found this in the riverbed:

    Root.jpg

    This seems to be new. Whatever "new" means when Hotzn plays.

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  12. So, Hotzn, time to make a plan. I've looted most of Milton, it seems. There is some leftover food and water, so I might try to craft something here before moving on. The rabbitskin hat comes to mind. Something else I'd like to have is snares. For either, I would need cured guts. I've got some guts curing in the cave (up to the signal tower behind Grey Mother's and a little further). Since I can neither remember how many I have there, nor how long they need to cure, I decide to pay the cave a visit, assess the guts situation, and maybe move up to the second lake and snipe another rabbit. If the wolf left any.

    Guts.jpg

    So here are the guts. Three of them, each at 11%. There is a rabbit here which I did not yet harvest, but it's frozen solid. I would need to warm it up in order to get more guts. Which highlights another issue I have, which is a shortage of matches - only 11 left. But that will allow for a number of fires, hopefully enough to wait out the guts. I pick up the frozem rabbit - does it give off the same amount of smell as a fresh one? Yes, it does. Hm. A short trip to the upper lake reveals that no more rabbits abound - the wolf ate them all. I peek above the next crest, but there is that same wolf, barking me up. I weasel away, breaking line of sight. However, it seems that this does not do the trick anymore. The wolf pursues me around every rock and tree. I manage to shake it off with a climb downwards. Wind is now picking up, and I return to the cave empty-handed, pick up the rabbit and bring it back to Grey Mother's without attracting another wolf. Inside, it quickly un-freezes. A blizzard breaks loose outside, and I realize I have no firewood left - just 3 sticks. Harvesting the guts and skin from the rabbit by hand, I lay them out to cure, then eat and drink and have nine hours of heal-sleep.

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  13. Why, a warm hello to these old faces! Feels good to be back.

    So, where's this run at? I managed to stabilize somewhat in Milton. Looted the bank, petrol station & other houses. Took a tour to the outlying farm (can't remember the name now) and reached it running with 3 wolves on my heels. Only to find the doors locked. Panic ensued, as I was struggling with the controls (really lacking practice). To my surprise, the wolves took off, whining. Mo idea why, until I realized that my wild clicking around had apparently made my girl cock the signal gun which I had found somewhere (in the bank, I think). I had no ammo, but what do the wolves know? That's the only reason I can imagine. Or maybe I threw a wild stone here or there.

    Anyway, after some searching around I found the key to the farmhouse in a nearby tractor and entered. Looted the farmhouse, which mainly gave me some much-needed food.

    Circling back to Grey Mother's, I dropped all excess stuff there. So it seems this will be my temporary base.

    The next little excursion took me up to the signal station and beyond. The terrain was different from what I remembered, but well - I guess a lot has been done and redone over the years. Or my memory is geeting cloudy. Anyway, I passed by a cave and reached a frozen lake with many cattails, two rabbits and a doe running around. I like it very much that we now have does as well as deer. I stoned the rabbits, but left them lying around for fear of attracting wolves from afar with the smell.

    Climbing up a little ledge (really climbing along some kind of vines), I found a passage to another lake with even more rabbits and - tempting, tempting - a deer carcass. All right, I thought, time to start collecting some skins and guts - made a fire by the carcass and de-froze it, to harvest by hand. I also went back down to the first lake to get the rabbits and harvest them by the fire as well. All this attracted a wolf from somewhere, but it went after all the rabbits ba the second lake, one after the other. Meanwhile. I eat some rabbit and deer meat and harvest all the guts and some skins undisturbed. It is now in the middle of the night, and fatigue sets in. I remember this is dangerous, but I have the bedroll with me and enough firewood to sleep a little bit, albeit only in small increments due to fear of having a blizzard start on me.

    Finally, I set off with all those guts and skins and a torch in hand. I make it back to the cave unhindered and drop everything there to cure, then proceed back to Grey Mother's and take 9 hours of heal-sleep.

    The next morning, I check everything and realize I took frostbite at some point and suffered a permanent hit to condition. Not sure when this happened exactly. Surely in Hushed River Valley when I was struggling with everything, and not recently in Milton. Well, tough luck.

    So, what have I got? The bedroll, which is fortunate, as I can now sleep everywhere. The signal gun (or distress pistol, don't remember the exact name now), although without ammo. A sewing kit, thank god, which has allowed me to do some repairs on my clothes. A cooking pot, a sledge hammer. What are the things I still lack? Mainly a knife and hatchet. Further a bow and arrows, which probably require me to have either the hatchet or a saw first, to harvest saplings. I can't quite remember now whether it's possible to find a hatchet and/or knife in Interloper, or whether I have to forge those. I think I have to forge them. Also, I need better clothes.

    Aaand - I need to remember how to make and integrate screenshots into this thread. Let's see...

    Table.jpg

    Ah, here we go. I think in the past I had to convert the screenshot from PNG into JPG, so that's what I did here. Seems to work still. So here you see the kitchen table in Grey Mother's, with my hammer and signal gun on display. Also water purification tablets (which probably are just as useless as they used to be) and two packets of stump remover (I'm unsure whether these have any application in Interloper - IIRC I can't acquire guns). And here's my skills overview:

    Skills.jpg

    Not sure whether I can get all skills to level 5 on Interloper, in order to attain the corresponding achievement. We'll see. If I survive long enough, that is.

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  14. Old Hotzn, here you are. Doing another run, chasing those achievements which are still missing. After all those years...

    So yeah, my old unfinished achievement run has disappeared. I presume there was an update with a save wipe at some point. Whatever. New run, new luck.

    I expected to die a lot to begin with, since a number of maps have been added since my last visit to the game, and I don't know them at all. But what do you know - I spawned in a place called Hushed River Valley (Interloper of course, play Astrid, no badges), unbeknownst to me, and did not die right away. A beautiful place, which at first glance seemed to contain plenty of natural resources. But what I needed was a means of starting a fire, because as we all know - the cold is the first thing to kill you. Collecting mainly sticks and the occasional mushrooms and berries, I was frantically loooking for a way out, hopefully to a place I know better. No such luck at first. Frozen down to 50% health, I was however lucky to find wooden matches on a corpse in a small cave. This allowed me to warm up by fires. I needed a lot of sticks, as it was freezing cold, and each fire needed plenty of fuel to be able to warm me up. I also made some water and Reishi/Rosehip tea while at it. Pulled torches, of course, which still feels bad. But there you go.

    So I was able to manage the cold for a bit. The next problem became fatigue - there was no place to sleep in Hushed River Yalley. Or at least I did not find it. Met some wolves, but torched them away. This seems to have become pretty easy. Finally, I found a cave which led me to... Milton. Was held up by wolves at nighttime by the old church, but luckily had a torch with me and made it inside. Inside the church: a bed, finally! It's +3°C, but altogether only a felt -2°C. My clothes are just too bad at this point. But I have enough firewood on me for roughly 8 hours of fire, and the church seems to be one of those places where you can have a fire indoors. So I can sleep-heal for 8 hours, which was really necessary.

    The next morning, I enter Milton, and the first houses provide me with a sewing kit and a Mackinaw jacket! So now I think I might not die right away on this run. This could be my new achievement run...

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  15. On 11/30/2023 at 6:55 PM, conanjaguar said:

    Ash 3 / Day 3 / Into the Unknown

    [...]

    Of course, FLT rises to a steamy -7C as soon as I start freezing again. I see a few does and debate hunting them the Hotzn Way, but decide against it: I’m tired, cold, and hungry, and I need to nurse myself back to health. 5AB084CA-79E9-46E1-8CD5-3F92CD881AE7.thumb.jpeg.d84b8bd870af0969fd653154130e9d80.jpegI head

     

    Somewhere in the distance, unbeknownst to the intrepid @conanjaguar, there is a movement under the snow. What is it? There... again! Then something lifts from under the white blanket. A head emerges. Unbelievably, it's Old Hotzn.

    "Surely it cannot be that I heard my name uttered?", he mutters into his beard. "No... nothing... nobody alive here. All long gone. They should have stuck to the Hotzn Way, then maybe... who knows..."

    His gaze travels off into the distance. How long had he been hibernating under the snow? Weeks? Months? Maybe even years? He had been having weird dreams. Dreams of changing the diapers of a child, three years old. Discussing with such child whether it would not be time to start using the toilet and saying goodbye to diapers. Such request being refused by the child with great eloquence. Weird...

    But then Hotzn's thoughts returned to the reality he was living in. Surviving in. He knew he wasn't finished with the snowy wilderness. Not yet. If there were other survivors left... he would show them...

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  16. On 7/2/2022 at 10:03 AM, Drifter Man said:

    At the time of writing, the survivor is just 4 days old and not yet out of the woods, but he is ready to start reporting :) I should alert Professor @Hotzn of the Royal Academy of TLD Sciences, in case he finds the time to log in here in between his conferences and invited speeches.

    +1 for the alert.

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  17. 2 hours ago, conanjaguar said:

    A moment of silence, please, for the great @Hotzn has returned!

    Old Hotzn is currently on approx. day 600 of what he calls the Real Life Interloper Little Daughter Run. Condition is down to 23%, cabin fever risk high. Little Daughter is messing around with Hotzn's gear all the time, carrying everything around the base (or outside). Survival at its finest. Hence the bouts of absence from these forums. But today I dropped by, happy to see old faces around. I am not gone (yet)...

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  18. On 8/31/2022 at 4:09 PM, conanjaguar said:

    Interloper / Native 1
    All righty, it’s time to start this challenge, the Return of The Ancients, as I call it. First of all, we need a plan. A good, solid plan. A bit of luck wouldn’t hurt, either.

    So, here’s the plan. It will disintegrate upon first contact with the enemy, but it never hurts. A good plan now will save a lot of improvisation later.
                                                                 ***
    Forlorn Muskeg spawn, grab matches, hit Trapper’s for Hammer ASAP. Loot entire region for scrap metal whilst hopping bunnies and living the Hotzn Way.

    [...]

    +1 for going to live the Hotzn way for sure.

  19. On 11/13/2021 at 9:53 AM, Drifter Man said:

    Thanks for reading and commenting. As great as the game used to be, I has been disappointing me lately. Wolves spawning out of thin air because there needs to be a "story" was the last straw and I stopped playing TLD afterwards.

    Lately I have seen a shift in the game towards this kind of heavy-handed design putting the player's character at the center of the universe (in survival mode I mean). It didn't use to be like that and it made TLD special. It made me feel small in the world, insignificant, and it felt real. But I see that this TLD is gone.

    I wonder which was the last version that still worked for me. It would definitely have to be before they made animals stop moving when you aren't looking at them... I still have no clue why they did that.

    Anyway, thanks again and to everyone who has been following my exploits and sharing the fun in the past few years. Time to say goodbye!

    Arrrgh... the notorious @Drifter Man quitting? This cannot be real! You are one of the reasons I keep coming back to these forums. It's been a while, I have taken an unintentional break, but it's important to know that people keep returning here from the early days...

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  20. On 9/10/2021 at 2:07 PM, Drifter Man said:

    Did I lose my bet? :)

    Ha. I didn't actually place mine (said I would place it) ... but would still let it count against me as lost. @jeffpeng, you still alright? I also owe a continuation of my AAR, dammit. Since I became a father in late 2020, time has been slipping through my fingers since never before. If I had written a chapter every time I changed da baby's diapers, the story would be longer than 1000 days in the dam by now. Well, almost maybe.

  21. It is dusk, and it would be unwise to pursue the bear now. So I pass a cozy night in the farmstead, doing some mending and whatnot. The next morning, I check my journal. Apparently the bear has not died. I also see that I neither experienced a bear nor a moose attack:

    screen_759487de-4cd8-45da-b229-4a178f9c8702.thumb.png.85069d959eba56b80882e18291e3684a.png

    It seems an "attack" is only counted if the beast actually gets me, not when it is aggroed. Hm. Anyway, I decide to do a small tour to the little barn by the roadside to check my snares and collect some sticks on the way. Today, one snare has caught a rabbit. So it was coincidence, and stoning all visible rabbits from a rabbit grove does not exhaust the rabbit pool for snares. At least not entirely. No visible rabbits respawned, however.

    Checking the journal again, I am now shown 1 killed bear in it. Huh. So that bear survived all through the night and then died in the morning? Or - that seems more likely - my leaving the house triggered the bear to spawn and then die immediately. I venture in the direction of its cave, across the large orchard. Often infested with at least 4 wolves, it is wolfless today. I take a picture of the farmstead from here, a rare sight:

    screen_2d2d5a16-9b6d-40d1-b059-c437f0910c9f.thumb.png.160e3ce6cb2e912357a4a37b5591b130.png

    Crows circle a litlle ahead, behind a boulder. The bear? No, just a corpse (with another Canadian toque and some snacks, thank youuu). More crows circling over the river... ha! There it is!

    screen_2c0fe26e-b519-4b00-a180-7cbf5115645b.thumb.png.d59042acf5e85ae626381b65e3cbb2b7.png

    Interestingly, two of my arrows are suspended in the air above the carcass. I can "pick them up" from there. No trace of the other arrows. Hm.

    screen_89c3b5a7-cc23-40a5-adbe-ab8d1d58852f.thumb.png.c51e0c45894af43fcfe0610e99b2c20a.png

    I briefly check the bear's den further beyond, then return to the carcass, light a fire next to and quarter it. The sun is sinking and I am almost out of firewood, so I do not want to spend the night here (or in the cave). Grabbing only the hide (so as not to attract all wolves from the whole map), I return to the little barn, drop the hide to cure (next to a growing number of rabbit guts and hides), then return to the farmstead for the night.

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  22. On 6/28/2021 at 1:20 PM, Drifter Man said:

    Old Hotzn will find a way. And fresh stories will be told around campfires. I am especially curious to hear the one in which he kills a bear with a revolver. I haven't tried that.

    Mending tends to be the most tedious one. There are no shortcuts - you need to make hundreds of repairs to get there.

    I will definitely search for the bear and expect to find it dead somewhere. However, even if I manage to find it, TLD science may find it difficult to establish with any certainty that it died from the revolver shots. Because there are also a number of arrows sticking in it, and there is room for argument that the arrows were the cause of death. So, if I wanted to promote TLD science here, I would have to go after a different bear, and only with the revolver. That in turn might prove counterproductive concerning my goal to survive 500 days in this run. But then again... no risk, no fun.

    Nut sure what you mean by shortcuts - aren't books a shortcut? And there are books on mending in the game now. Different from the time shortly after the mending skill was introduced, when - indeed - there was no other way to raise the skill but to mend everything to oblivion.