Resistance is futile

[Miniwizard]

Inspired by the bravery of @Drifter Man, I decided I would throw caution and reason into the wind and face the harsh environment of Timberwolf Mountain - probably the area I am least familiar with.

 

As I regained consciousness and stood up, I gazed up at the night sky and the stars peeking through the horizontal snow blown by high winds about me. Scouting as best as I could in the darkness, rocks and distant peaks yielded little clue to my location. After a few steps in various directions, the sight of a nearby cave drew my attention, if for nothing more than to escape this night time gale. Down a slope, and avoiding some felled trees, I entered the pitch black confines of the cave's shelter. Still chilled to the bone and shivering, I checked my few pockets and took stock of my belongings. Nothing. 

I managed to determine that I must be somewhere just north of the fallen tree bridge. I knew I couldn't stay here and would have to make a run for shelter at the lake. I emerged, snatching a few mushrooms from the nearest tree trunks and scouring the ground for sticks as I ran. Large branches lay scattered around the occasional rosehip bush, but nary a stick to be seen in this darkness. A short while later, I came upon the daunting crossing over the crevasse deep below me. Cautiously, and perhaps stupidly, looking down, fear set in. An icy tree trunk in high winds was hardly the safest way to go, yet I had no choice. Mustering all my courage I inched forward, balancing myself as best I could. 

Relieved to step onto the solid ground of the other side, I forced my aching legs to run. Fingers numb, my nose feeling like a lump of ice I ran onwards as fast as I could. As my legs began to give out and while I tried to regain my breath I could see the shape of an aircraft wing sticking up from the ground ahead. Near its base, a frozen corpse lay. Perhaps a Snowball, perhaps an unlucky passenger. He had no belongings, no identification. Whoever it might have been shall have to remain a mystery. I pressed on, passing a few locked containers and collecting a few sticks as the ground ahead began to rise, obscuring what might lie ahead. Atop the slow incline I could see the frozen lake in the distance. Shelter was in my grasp. I pressed on at the fastest pace I could manage. Sometimes a brisk walk, occasionaly more of a desperate jog. 

A few cattails greeted me as I approached the icy sheet, and quickly found their way into my pockets as I snatched at them whilst continuing to skirt the edge of the lake. The silhouette of a lone fishing hut ahead to the right, and beyond that, a large beast slowly lumbered along the opposite shore. A few more cattails later and I could see a wooden pier and then the dilapidated stone hut came into view. With renewed fervour I ran toward it. 

The door swung open as the broken shutters rattled in the wind. It was hard to see much but a couple of beds, a workbench and a fireplace. I rushed toward it, hoping that some previous occupant might have been kind enough to leave some matches behind for the next visitor. Indeed they had. I whispered words of thanks to whoever it might have been as my frozen fingers fumbled with some tinder and a piece of the firewood from a small pile to the side of me. The first match broke as I attempted to strike it. The second flickering quickly before a gust of wind from the barely covered windows or the large hole in the roof ended it's moment of glory. A third, shielded carefully this time made almost no impression on the tinder I had carefully deployed. A fourth, though burning my fingers in the process finally managed to create a small temporary flame within the fireplace, yet neither the sticks or log failed to catch light as the tinder exhausted itself. My condition was dropping fast. With my hands shaking, body shivering, teeth chattering I ripped up the piece of newsprint from a small shelf against the wall in an desperate attempt to start this fire. The fifth match was solidly struck and the newsprint caught light. Shortly thereafter, a couple of the sticks sizzled and also caught. Their warmth was instantly apparent as blood surged through my numb fingers. Palms outstretched to the small flames absorbing the heat.

Several minutes later, and with some light and heat, I could examine the hut more closely. A couple of unused crates in the corners would provide me with some extra firewood and would also reveal a rather mouldy candy bar, that someone had, at one point, misplaced. I also noticed a hatch in the floor, but beneath it was simply a small storage area and not the more wind-resistant basement I had been hoping to find. Still, there was a dusty packet of beef jerky stashed away there and it was a welcome find. A cookbook sat atop the shelf unit and a hacksaw also lay on the workbench but little else could be seen. Now that I could feel my hands and feet again, I realised how thirsty I had become. Melting some snow from just outside the front door and boiling it up took it's toll on the limited firewood supplies, but it would suffice for now and it would not long until sunrise. I was in such poor shape I climbed into the bed nearest the fire and fell into a short and restless slumber.

The call of the birds awoke me and daylight streamed onto my face from the gaping hole dripping with icycles in the roof. As I reached down for my shoes, I noticed a rather worn out ski jacket under my bed. How I wish I had noticed that last night, but better late than never. It had most certainly seen better days, and I had to be careful donning it, lest I accidentally increase the size of the various holes in it's sleeves. Yet as damaged as it might have been, I felt it's additional warmth immediately. I took several deep swigs from the bottle of water I had prepared last night and glanced through the hole in the front door. It looked calm outside. Small drifts of snow shimmered in the light breeze as I decided to investigate the small fishing hut a couple of hundred yards away.

I carefully approached, peering around the sides to check on my unintroduced neighbour. He was still there in the distance shuffling along amidst distant reeds. I scanned the perimeter of the frozen lake for any other local residents and detected a both a deer and a wolf in opposite far corners. The deer made my stomach rumble, and the wolf reminded me of my current purpose. I stepped into the doorless shack. An old rag lay infront of a small slightly rusty pot-bellied stove and a couple of expectedly empty cupboards. Somewhat disappointed, I looked up and noticed a shelf on the wall bearing a travel sized sewing kit. Sadly the previously found rag wasn't big enough on it's own to patch the holes in this jacket, but if I were to find another, I would be able to do my best to fix it up a bit. The ice hole had obviously frozen over in the corner and I had nothing to break it open with, let alone anything I could use to fish with, so I quickly left and headed back across the lake toward the cabin. I needed firewood but I was fast becoming unbearably chilled out here. My health was already so poor from the previous night and I would need to warm up slightly first. I knew I would also have to find some more matches from somewhere, having already used up nearly half of them on starting the fire last night. 

The stone hut provided some temporary shelter as I lay in the warmth of the bed for an hour considering my options. First priority would be to gather sticks and anything that could be burned. After that, and now armed with a hacksaw, I could take a look around for any frozen carcasses or perhaps startle the deer towards to wolf in order to create a new one. Still, my priority was fuel. I would need something to burn for additional warmth as soon as the sun set. Feeling weak, hungry, cold and broken I stumbled out and scavanged the area around my new sanctuary, but with just an armful of decent twigs and small broken branches, my head began to swim and vision became blurred. I stumbled back to the weather beaten hut. Even here I couldn't escape the cold which was constantly gnawing at me. I had barely enough fuel to last a couple of hours, yet I was already struggling to move. I would have to light it now and keep dashing out for any more I might find.

Three matches later, dropping my count to four remaining, the bundle of sticks burst into flame. I quickly cooked up some mushrooms with a cupful of water in an old mug and downed the warm contents. Some brief internal warmth gave me the courage to venture outside once more to find more wood. Two sticks later and heavy snow began to fall as the wind picked up. Whistling a morbid tune between the nearby mountains as it headed my direction. A distant howl tingled my spine as I once again proceeded back to safety. A safety which was fast becoming almost as perilous as the outdoors. My pitiful collection of sticks would barely cover a brief moment of recouperation let alone another forlorn search of burnable material. Despite barely clinging to life, I was not even tired enough to sleep. I knew I would make it barely twenty paces outside before I would fall, never to get back up. I threw all the sticks into the fire and even the unread cookbook. After munching on both the candy bar and beef jerky, I guzzled down some more water and climbed into bed. The fire should last for a couple of hours, and perhaps I could at least get a short nap and wait for the storm to pass.

The stubborness of the skies became apparent. The final flames of the fire flickered and would soon die. I chewed on a cattail as I sat hunched up under the quilt of the bed for warmth. It wasn't working. As I waited for the storm to pass, and as the sun set everything would fade to black. A profound and eternal blackness. A darkness where even ambition and dreams meet their end. Although four matches remain, all hope is lost within less than a day.

[Hotzn]

Good one. Not exactly easy to make a long run on TWM. What mode did you play on?

[Miniwizard]

23 minutes ago, Hotzn said:

Good one. Not exactly easy to make a long run on TWM. What mode did you play on?

Interloper 

[Drifter Man]

That one was really hard: start at night, a blizzard straight on the next day, plus bad luck in firestarting. Too bad you lost so much condition that you couldn't gather enough sticks on the next day!

[Miniwizard]

@Drifter Man Yes, it was a very painful start destined for quick failure. Must have been around midnight and a nasty storm picked up pretty soon after I started moving to see where I was. Ended up at the mountaineers hut down to about 40% condition. No gloves, no hat, only the worn ski jacket as an additional clothing item. In retrospect I made a few mistakes though. I should have noticed the jacket under the bed earlier, I should have scrapped my socks for a second cloth to repair it after finding the sewing kit, and I should have taken a torch from the first fire to aid my second - rather than wasting even more matches. However, these things wouldn't have mattered all that much in the short term he served in TWM. The problems (despite failing the first fire 5 times in a row at 60%) were mostly that I wasn't even tired enough to regain any condition while I had calories inside me and the outside weather was too bad to venture back out. Only 2 hours saw me fully rested. At one point, I was trying to run around continuously inside the hut to tire myself, but I didn't even have enough items to carry to over exert myself. The brief respite in the weather was so short lived I barely had the chance to collect a few sticks and certainly couldn't dare break up branches. Firewood quickly ran out, and still not tired, my condition dropped very quickly into the red. I still had food to cover sleep, but no warmth and not enough firewood to pass much time and no tiredness to sleep. A few logs by the fireplace, a handful more recycled wood from the crates and stool and a couple of hours worth of sticks just wasn't enough to tide me through the starting blizzards.

[Drifter Man]

I might recommend taking another route from that spawn point to Mountaineer's Hut, which would give you matches and a safe place to warm up, but I don't want to spoil things for you  I also like to balance running while I'm outside to make sure that I'm tired enough before going to bed.

12 minutes ago, Miniwizard said:

I should have scrapped my socks for a second cloth to repair it after finding the sewing kit

This one wasn't really a mistake, in my opinion. Even if the repair succeeded, it would give you only 0.6°C additional temperature bonus. Not a game changer, the ski jacket, although warm per se, is one of the less efficient pieces of clothing in this game in terms of cloth utilization.

As you say, none of that would have mattered. There are lots of sticks along the route you've taken, but they are difficult to see at night. An early blizzard plus lack of firewood spells doom.

[Miniwizard]

5 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

I might recommend taking another route from that spawn point to Mountaineer's Hut, which would give you matches and a safe place to warm up, but I don't want to spoil things for you  I also like to balance running while I'm outside to make sure that I'm tired enough before going to bed.

Please do! To be honest it's not a map I spend much time in. I've spent much more time in Forlorn Muskeg than TWM and quite like the challenges of that region.

I'm guessing it would be to head toward cave by the engine section. However, one part of the problem was that I wasn't convinced I knew where I was and I was looking at the map to try and figure it out. All I really knew was that I could see a lower ravine walking one direction from the spawn point, and I could see a cave in the other direction with some mushrooms near it. It wasn't much to go by - being less familiar with the various spawns. I'd also say that the spawn point marked on that map seems to be rather inaccurate in its position for that spawn. After studying the 'possible' locations I might be, I figured going left out the cave and finding either saplings (didn't see any), rabbits (again, none) or the fallen tree bridge would at least confirm or confound my guess. At that point, it made sense to simply carry on that way.

I was running as much as I could all the way from the cave to the hut. Walking only while recovering stamina. However, that was about the only hard exercise I could do, and it really isn't all that far when completely unburdened, allowing for little more than 2 hours of sleep and no activities available to exhaust me further.

The indoor cave would have probably been a good place to warm up and break the journey, but I didn't fancy my chances of finding matches there, especially in the dark.

[Drifter Man]

2 hours ago, Miniwizard said:

Please do!

You are basically right.

 

If you turn around by 180 degrees from the spawn point and scale down some rocks you'll end up on a footpath. Turning right gets you to that cave with some reishi mushrooms you mentioned. Turn left instead: this gets you to an outdoor cave with three exits (the "Three-way" cave, as I call it). There always are matches, a torch and some firewood. Then head left (to the exit that slopes downwards) until you find the entrance to the "Cave of Engines" on your right. The cave may or may not be warm enough to keep you above zero with your torch burning. In either case, proceed through the cave and collect coals on the way. At the other end you will have enough to produce a decent fire and warm up.

I like to use the fire and loot the surroundings, especially firewood, reishi mushrooms and cattails on the river (the latter is not recommended at night because there is a wolf on patrol).

From that point there are more ways to get to base, I currently prefer going left past the rope attachment point (with no rope) and down to the plateau overlooking the lake, then down the rope and across the lake to reach home. This allows you to collect sticks and other stuff from places you have little reason to visit at a later time.

[Miniwizard]

@Drifter Man Oh slightly different from the route I was expecting, but starting off pretty much the same. I'll have to give that a go (I did keep a copy of the initial save) It's also a much longer journey than the one I took (thus allowing me to tire more) while good portions of it are inside caves for protection. Hopefully the matches you mention are pretty easy to spot at night within the cave, but knowing that they are there makes a big difference and they can be searched for.

[JoE Smash]

I wish they had one more experience level: Interloper Lite

The scarcity of Interloper but you start with a bedroll and you can still find tools and the best clothes/food everything is just super rare like regular interloper.

I want to explore a world where everything is hard to find and rare, but my first mission isn't gathering coal, scrap metal/hacksaw and having to head to Forlorn Muskeg/Desolation Point as soon as I'm able, so I can craft the basic tools of survival.

[Miniwizard]

Yeah, at the moment, interloper is very much driven by the need to go to specific spawn point locations to look for key items - most notably, matches and preferably an early hacksaw, Without the matches in the first few hours, you're pretty much gone.

You have specific milestones to reach, within specific deadlines, achieved by always hitting the same key locations of a starting zone. It's a much less fluid start and the challenge is far more linear up until you have got all the gear you need. You also rely much more on the RNG. The hunt for a sleeping roll isn't as bad as you have options to make do without. However, I feel if you started with a book of cardboard matches on an interloper run, the first day or two would be much more diverse in every run.

[Drifter Man]

On 06/07/2017 at 0:35 AM, Miniwizard said:

Hopefully the matches you mention are pretty easy to spot at night within the cave, but knowing that they are there makes a big difference and they can be searched for.

It's an exterior cave - it is as easy to see in there as anywhere else during daylight.