In the Dam, no one can hear your screams… Except the wife!!!


Toronagga Darklake

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This one was from my first run; I’d left the game downloading while I had dinner and put our daughter to bed. By this time it was dark outside and I left the desk lamp turned off to increase the immersion… Headset on (so as not to wake Little Miss or disturb the wife downstairs).

So I start in a small cave and instantly start running around with no frame of reference. But it is 10:00 game time, a clear blue sky and I have no respect for what’s really happening. However, I do have some level of RL training and experience and decide the first thing to try and find is some shelter. I head down the slope, through the trees and find myself in the Clearcut.

Great! I’ve seen this place in some of the youtube movies I’ve watched (which are deliberately limited, but the guy who made them has clearly spent minimal time outside of his own home,which is a story for him to tell), so I quickly head across the Clearcut and up the hill to the Lookout Post where I hope to find not only some shelter but some useful stuff. I climb up the hill, which I don’t remember being so long and finally reach the Lookout. As I climb the stairs I annoyingly find the door is wide open. “Hmmm?” Seems either someone is already there (does this game have NPCs?) or the last guy didn’t know how to close a door. I wander in and pick up everything I can, hording a pile of bandages, painkillers, the trusty hatchet, a piece of wood, a tin of peaches and some beef jerky. Awesome! Not only do I have enough food to last me at least 2 days, but I can make myself a nice fire for the evening before curling up in one of those lovely beds and sleeping away the night, ready for another day…

Okay, so the peaches (which I had to smash) and jerky don’t really fill me up as much as I thought they would and the fire didn’t last all that long, so I go to bed a little bit cold and a little bit hungry, but optimistic. Despite spending the night snuggled up in a lovely bed with blankets (they are there, right on the bed!) I awake very cold and very hungry… Perhaps taking it easy for 8 hours and rising at 05:00 wasn’t the best way to start my adventure.

Anyway, with the sun coming up behind the mist, I decide that staying here isn’t an option and there is a lot of game to explore yet. I head out the door and whoa! It’s -25 and the FREEZING notification pops up on the screen. Not great, but the Lookout isn’t much warmer so I decide to venture on. I skip down the stairs with a slip, slide, crack! Earning a sprained ankle! Opening up the menu I find that painkillers sort that out and luckily I found some last night, so I pop a couple of pills and carefully, very carefully, walk down the rest of the stairs and down the hill back to the Clearcut.

Next I decide to head along what I assume is a road, based on the thick fog and no directional frame of reference. I assume right and pass a road sign before stumbling onto a discarded backpack under a rock. I don’t know why someone has left it, but lucky for me, there are some candy bars and a even more bandages in it. So I take them and keep walking.

As I trundle on in the fog I hear the first of many howls. I instantly start spinning around trying to discern which direction its coming from, but it seems to be in at least two directions. Having seen these vicious beasts in action (youtube again) I know I stand no chance and start running. I’m not even sure whether I am going the direction I mean to or back where I came from but I run. As I run the fog starts to life, it lifts fast, and I see some structures off to the right. I run over to them and find myself in a logging camp. With my health ticking down due to the freezing cold and being hungry I run into the first of the trailers. It’s instantly warmer and I breathe a sigh of relief whilst stuffing the candy bars into my mouth. I start looking about and looting what I can, gaining some more food stuffs which I scoff with delight and a couple of soda’s which seem to help a little with my increasing thirst. I also manage to find some newspaper (which I decide to look at later on when I rest) and a nice thick woollen jersey on a corpse who seems to have not woken up after catching a 40 winks on one of the beds. Staying in a room with a corpse isn’t really going to help my mood though, so I head back outside, damn it’s still cold, and run over to the next trailer. I loot that with some more bits of food, a can opener (handy) and a handy storm lantern. The third trailer has some new (but not actually as good as my own) jeans and a hat. The hat is a slight improvement so I switch it with the one I already have on before spying a lovely looking ski jacket on the table. Perfect, I can now wander around in the cold with my jacket and the dark with my lantern. Picking up the other sundries within the trailer I head out into what is now late afternoon/early evening. As this is a logging camp I figure it’s a good place to forage for wood. Not currently having any at all, I decide three hours will be needed to find some wood to burn and keep me going for another night. So with my trusty hatchet ready I click go. The three hours whiz past in a matter of seconds and when the screen comes back into focus I have a tinder plug and a nice cedar log to burn, though I had hoped for more. Unfortunately my health has now also dropped to the low 50% mark and I am again freezing…

So I head back into the trailers and try to figure out how long I can really stay in hear before I die. It is warmer in here so freezing probably won’t kill me, but my hunger and thirst is a real concern. I am certain another 8 hours power nap is not a good idea. I decide that I’m going to have to take some calculated risks…

I step outside and light myself a fire with my newly found log and try to boil some water. I don’t want to boil too much and waste the fire so just go in 0.5 litre amounts until I have 1 litre of potable water and half a litre of bad water. I head back inside, drink what I can and am glad that puts my thirst back into the green. But I am still hungry so I eat the rest of my food, which is pretty unsatisfying but puts the bar back into the green. Whilst I am not filling my belly, time ticks on and I decide that a couple of hours rest might be prudent. Jumping into one of the beds for three hours seems a pretty safe duration (though I’m sure that won’t give me REM sleep) so I set my alarm for 01:00 and close my eyes.

I wake up feeling a little groggy and a little bit hungry, but my thirst isn’t a problem yet, I’m warm and I have enough energy to give me a decent enough range to have a scout around the local area. It’s dark, but I decide not to use my lamp as it annoys me RL and the stars are out, giving a reasonable amount of light to walk in the snow. Continuing along the road I was following before, I find myself at the loading point next to the rail tracks. Great! I’ve seen these before too (youtube) and I know they lead to the dam. But I don’t know which way leads to the dam or for certain that this is the only rail line on the map. I chose left and carry on walking, following the tracks in the dark. As I walk I find the carcass of a deer just of the tracks, so I race over to see if there is anything I can use on it. My hatchet lets me take a kilo of raw venison, but I don’t think tearing apart the guts and hide will really help my right now, so I leave the rest and continue on. I’ve adopted a sort of walk a bit, run a bit pattern (like they do in the Sharp series) in an attempt to conserve energy but make decent time over the ground and soon find myself on a railway bridge. From the videos I have watched I am sure I went the right way for the dam and so I pick up my pace as the cold is starting to creep back into my bones and the howls seem to have started up again. I cross the bridge and hang a left until the dam comes into view. I am overjoyed. I run in through the door ignoring the deer carcass just outside as I already have some meat for now and I don’t think the deer will be going anywhere. Standing in the dim light of the dam entry hall I breath yet another sigh of relief. I made it, I know there is lots of loot in here, I can make a base here and settle in for a few days at least… I walk forward into the main room and look about. Spying the lockers just to my right I head to them. I can’t open the first one as it’s locked, bugger! But the next one isn’t. I loot some lantern fuel, accelerant…

Grrrrr, howl, woof, woof, snarl, “Arrrrgggghhhhh!”

I am dead!

I didn’t know about “Fluffy”.

I sit staring at my screen!

I have survived 1 day 17 hours and 23 minutes.

Something touches my shoulder. “Arrrrggghhh!”

My wife has come upstairs to see what I screamed at and promptly made me scream again. While she laughs as me, I turn on the desk lamp and realise just how immersed I was. I’d been playing less than hour real time.

Awesome!

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Great story! The Long Dark is sometimes even to immersive. In my case apart from the unusual passing of time, I also experience some problems with properly feeling temperature. Before game session with TLD 20C feels normal, however after 1 hour of playing it feels like the surface of sun compared. Also there comes the bitter disappointment: when you die or when you have to stop playing it because of school/work. But you aren't angry at the game, most of the time you are angry at yourself. Well narrated (I could almost feel what you experienced) and good luck in future attempts.

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Great story!

Just when you think you are safe...all goes wrong fast. Those are the most intense moments indeed. I know all about Fluffy, I still have a score to settle with him. Last time I've met him I was prepared and all ready for him, rifle pointed at the door. But he didn't come, so I thought he wasn't there. Just when I let my guard down...he came around the corner. I was so shocked I jumped from my chair IRL, misfired and the rest is history, lol :-)

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That was fun reading. I had no idea you were a Briton until I read the "40 winks" bit lol. :lol:

We are kindred souls because I was playing early this morning just before 3AM local before turning in for the night. I had just entered the dam, cautiously prowling the first couple of spaces and finding them clean. I was cracking the safe and heard something behind me. I turned to see our nemesis and before I could bring my rifle up BAM! he was on me. Scared the piss right out of me, I must say! :roll:

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Glad another gamer play every night in my same family situation..

And also in common we have our long dark death..as you can see from my sroty too.

Next time in the carteer i was always with flare in my hand..waiting for Fluffy...

Finally he wasn't inside and can explore this fantastic place.

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