New v298-302 run

[Hotzn]

There are some 7 hours of darkness left. Steam has downloaded something... an update! Can it be? Hinterland, what are you doing? It is the middle of the night, I have a professional life out there! I must deliver work and results to our firm's clients tomorrow, I must concentrate the whole day. To that end, I must sleep. I certainly must not play video games in the middle of the night! I mustn't!! Won't! Not even a little bit!! Not one minute even!!!!

Day 1:

Stalker of course, I spawn with 9 daylight hours remaining in Coastal Highway on the little frozen river. It's a felt -15°C, I'm starting to get cold. Better get moving.

Going upstream, I see a bear skulking around to my right. Am a moving towards Bear Creek Campground? The terrain looks unfamiliar, but then I heven't been here in a while. Just as I am starting to get doubts, the campground appears. There is a ravaged deer carcass here which looks mighty cool. I leave it untouched for now, grab some crow feathers and sticks, find nothing in a metal container and a backpack and then make my way up to Rabbit Grove. There are a can of pork & beans here, a can of soda and some wood matches. I pause the game and discover the stats section. Nice.

Breaking down a chair and a curtain provides some wood and cloth, 2 hours of rest make me feel warm again. With 5 hours of daylight remaining and a sharp wind blowing outside, I scramble up the mountainside further in search of the train tracks and realize the grass is now moving in the wind. This adds a lot to immersion. A corpse on the way yields a toque, the first minor improvement of my clothing. Up at the tracks I check my equipment... hmmm... no flare, nothing to keep wolves at bay. Better be careful.

I walk over to the trailer, the corpse on the way has nothing on him. In the trailer I find a box of simple tools, some herbal tea and another can of soda. So far, so good. Now I don't want to go back down on this side of the tracks because of the many wolves roaming here. So it's either downhill over at the other end of the tracks where the frozen river runs or through the tunnel and over to Mystery Lake. Hm. Mystery Lake is considered to be the easy map, so I'll stay here. Back down at Rabbit Grove, I want to cut across to the single cabin on this side of the road. I miss it, stumble upon a bear, run around it and am spotted by a wolf. A blood-curdling stare-down walk backwards to the cabins ensues. Luckily, I don't walk backwards into another wolf and manage to slip into the first cabin. My heart is pounding.

2 hours of daylight left. The cabin yields a wool hat and cotton underwear. I have these already. And there's another can of pork & beans. I have enough food for now, but I need to make a fire soon to make water. I step outside, feeling a bit uneasy about wolves, and light a fire using my only accelerant. I put 5 litres of snow to melt on it, but halfway through the melting process a wind picks up and blows out the fire. Dang. I only have unsafe water from this, and do not want to run the risk of poisoning myself. So a single can of soda has to suffice, and it's off to bed.

[Hotzn]

Day 2:

I wake up with less than one hour of darkness left, dehydrated and down to 93% condition. Make a fire here? No, better head out to Jackrabbit Island. I find a hunting knife sticking in the workbench behind the cabin, together with some fishing hooks. Good. Heading out onto the ice, the fishing hut furthest to the right contains a scarf, and the next fishing hut towards Jackrabbit has... a door! I also see a majestic deer here, which runs away from me and promptly triggers a wolf to come after it. The deer does not run but jumps now. It looks a bit weird, maybe that movement still needs some smoothing out. The wolf takes down the deer, but I don't interefere, since I am by now freezing, starving and dying from thirst. I reach the cabin on Jackrabbit Island without incidents and immediately start a fire next to the veranda, preparing 4 liters of drinking water. Having eaten and drunk to my satisfaction, I then enter the cabin at 54% condition.

Wool socks and an insulated vest enhance my wardrobe, my clothing bonus goes up from +6 to +8°C. There is a sewing kit in the bathroom, which is most welcome. And some food in the various kitchen cupboards. I shall make this place my base again. And go to bed now in RL. Thanks for the update, Hinterland! And good night.

A new day in RL, the same day in TLD. What to do next? At 54% condition, I might be easy prey for the wolves. On the other hand, I do not want to waste the remaining 7 daylight hours with what little resources I have. I decide to carefully collect some firewood around the island. Apart from many sticks I also find another hunting knife, a box of rifle rounds and an energy bar on the corpse behind the island as well as another energy bar in the fishing hut between Jackrabbit and Misantrope's. When I return I am dead tired and call it a day with 4 daylight hours remaining.

[Hotzn]

Day 3:

I wake up with 13 daylight hours remaining and back at 100%. Today I want to prepare some drinking water and cook a fish I found in the fridge yesterday. Outside it's -28°C, brrrr... back to bed for another hour. Grrrr... strong wind now and -30°C. Back to bed for another hour. Blizzard, -32°C. Back to bed. Blizzard. Bed. Blizzard, bed. Bed, bed, bed. Wow, this blizzard is lasting some time! Actually, this seems the longest blizzard ever, in earlier versions it would always subside quite quickly when I slept hour-wise. I like it a lot better the way it is now, this blizzard is actually forcing me to stay inside and eat away at my resources. Exciting!

With nightfall the wind finally seems to die down, but now it is dark. Lighting a torch I made with my first fire, I step out onto the veranda and light a fire, using the torch. I manage to cook the fish and make 5 liters of water, although once the wind blows the fire out and I have to re-ignite it. I didn't look at the fish earlier, now I see it only has 134 cal on it. Hmpf. I eat it anyway. Then it's off to bed.

[Hotzn]

Day 4:

I wake up starving, already down to 93%. A can of tomato soup stops this, but I am down to one last can of pork & beans now. Must procure food. Outside a chilling wind is blowing, -35°C. Back to bed for another hour. Aaand... the wind has developed into a fully fledged blizzard. When it's over, I have only 5 daylight hours left and the last food is in my belly. I can't rely on hunting like this (also no antiseptic, better not fight any wolves), so I decide I want to raid the Coastal Townsite.

Heading there, I have to move against a strong wind, but it calms down a bit. I plunder three fishing huts and a car on the way, finding another box of rifle rounds and some Granola bars among smaller goodies. Then I sneak into town from the back and right into the back door of the Quonset Gas Station. Ah, the loot... 3 hacksaws, wow... a prybar... antiseptic... quality tools... and... ha! A whetstone! This is new and of course very interesting. Let's see, how do we use that... ah, ok, the knife can be sharpened now instead of repaired. Good move, Hinterland! It would be cool if sharpening with the whetstone would also consume a tiny amount of water. Apparently, one sharpening procedure wears 5% off the whetstone and gives the knife +3% condition. Hmmm... seems the whetstone wears off a bit quickly, but we shall see how this balances out with other mechanisms in the game.

One hour of daylight remains, so I eat some Granola bars, drink soda cans and water and go to sleep.

[Hotzn]

Day 5:

In the early morning, a blizzard is blowing. It subsides with 11 daylight hours remaining. Let's see... a storm lantern, a hatchet and a rifle are on the top of my list. A flare or two would come in handy as well to repel any wolves that get too close for comfort. And beef jerkies... as decoys. I should loot some of the surrounding homes for flares, food and beef jerkies first. Dropping some stuff in the Gas Station, I discover that if I transfer water purification tablets into a medical cabinet, they unstack. Each single tablet takes up one slot. This should be changed.

Leaving Quonset Gas Station through the back door, I am somehow jumped by a wolf. Since I am standing close to the wall, the fight does not "lock" onto the wolf. I clickfest while staring on the floor, not seeing any fight that takes place. When the wolf runs off, I slip into the nearest building and check my status - no afflictions, condition at 82%. My clothes took some damage, temperature bonus is down to +7°C. Looting the house, I find a heavy wool sweater and... cargo pants! Woohoo! Now my temp bonus is at +9°C. What could go wrong from here on?

I leave the house towards the back of the village when I am suddenly barked up by a wolf. It comes running over from the road. Dang! I should not have taken that raw venison from the fridge with me... ok... no problem... I'll just stare that wolf down while I walk backwards up the slope to the house above the village. A carefree place is that one, I know... been there many times. So I walk backwards up the slope when strangely, strangely the wolf stops in its tracks, ducking and growling. I wonder why? And then I understand... because there is a bear behind me...

The ensuing mauling is intense and leaves me at 7%, or 6% after I have patched up the worst wound. I stumble to the nearest house (the blue one), praying that the wolf has run off in fear of the bear. Which it apparently has, since I reach the house without being attacked. I'm safe. Phew. Applying desinfectant, I fall into bed for four hours, waking up at 20%. Looks like I made it. Checking my clothes, I feel like crying. This house has a fireplace, and I console myself by lighting a cozy fire, cooking a fish I found in the fridge and preparing some more water. The kitchen holds plenty of canned food. Also a can opener and a tin of coffee to complement my equipment. I eat and drink to my heart's desire and then do a lot of cloth harvesting and patching up my clothing. At some point I am back at a temp bonus of +9°C and quite content.

[Hotzn]

Day 6:

The next morning I wake up with 47% condition. Not exactly enough to run around wolf city, but then I want to explore and risk it. So I make my way back up the slope, this time looking into the direction I am going. Returning to the site of yesterday's mauling, I encounter some equipment I seem to have lost in the process - some lichen and mushrooms. Cool. The venison I dropped in a vain attempt to stop the stampeding bear lies around as well. Hmmm... it would actually be cool if the bear ate all the food lying around after a mauling.

Anyway, Mr. bear is nowhere to be seen, and I reach the house above the village. A tea maniac must have been living here, since I find 4 packets of herbal tea in the kitchen. I leave the house again and collect some sticks here and there, then move further up to the clearing and collect some lichen and mushrooms there. Gotta love how the lichen sways in the wind now...

Then a cold wind picks up and forces me back inside the house above the village. After a little nap the wind has calmed, 4 hours of daylight remain. It's a bit risky this late in the day, but I leave the house and make my way up the slope to check the lookout tower. In the trailer on the way up I find some food and a down ski jacket. Further up the walkway, I meet Mr. Bear again. That one seems to have a large patrol route. I like this, the less predictable the better. Walking around him, I have the impression that there is something wrong with the sound - although the bear must be far below me and a lot of rock, snow and trees between us, I still can hear him breathing distinctively. It seems the terrain isn't blocking sound.

Anyway, I manage to miss the tower and find myself back down below it when a nasty wind picks up again. So I move over to the trailer I already looted and - with 2 daylight hours remaining - call it a day. The food I found and the water I brought will sustain me until tomorrow, but then I mujst find more food...

[Hotzn]

Day 7:

The morning is foggy, but I'm back at 100%. I decide to wait it out and leave with 10 daylight hours remaining. At -10°C I should make haste to get to the Abandoned Lookout asap, but turning to my right I first have to inspect some cave-like structure where a bear has just walked out. There are some bones here, probably from a deer. Maybe this is where Mr. Bear sleeps? From here I turn upwards again and soon reach the lookout without wolf incidents (always a little thrill to go there). So let's see... aha! The rifle! Hmmm... only 21% condition. Check, check... can`t repair it anymore, now it has to be... cleaned. Click... tool required. Aha. Apparently I need some cleaning tool. Is it here in the lookout? No, but I find another whetstone and - below the overturned armchair - a rifle round.

Now what? Proceed through the mine to Pleasant Valley? Why not? Okay... because two wolves are patrolling between me and the mine. Luckily they haven't seen me, so I turn around and make my way back down to the house above the village. Spend the rest of the day there preparing water over a fire on the veranda (hope nobody needs this veranda anymore), eating my first venison (found it in the fridge) and repairing the down ski jacket. Then it's off to bed.

[Hotzn]

Day 8:

Food is running low, and I also want to start crafting the better clothes. Peeking out, I see a deer walking around out on the ice. I go over there and watch it for a while. It has really been improved a lot. I especially like how it occasionally stops and looks around or sniffs at the ground. Makes it so much more lively and credible. I just wish it would sometimes look over curiously, as it has to see me out in the open like that. Well, I can't see any wolf to chase it into, they all seem off-duty this morning. So I strut over to Log Sort, where I finally find the hatchet sticking out from a tree stump, and inside the trailer a storm lantern with about a liter of kerosene left in it (yay!) and a jerry can with over 2 more liters. Dark times are over.

I return to the ravaged deer carcass on the headland sticking out into the bay from here, light a fire (it's -7°C) and harvest 1.7 kg of venison, a hide and two guts, learning that the hacksaw can also be used for harvesting from a carcass. Seems logical, and takes more time than knife or hatchet. The venison I cook on the spot and eat it, the rest goes with me back to Jackrabbit Island. I make it there without problems and drop the loot, spreading the hide and entrails on the floor in the living room to make it more homely. Checking the axe, I see that it is now to be sharpened like the knife, using the whetstone. And it also wears 5% off the whetstone per use, gaining 3% condition in the process.

[bethany]

Great to see you're continuing these journals! Just out of curiosity, are you using the in-game log at all?

[Hotzn]

Thanks for the thumbsup, Bethany. I have not yet used the in-game log. I've looked at it, but I'm not writing anything there. Why? Could I publish the log later if I wanted to?

[Hotzn]

Day 41:

A little fast-forward, as I did not want to bore people with how I collected the stuff for my crafted clothes. Now I've got a full set (bearskin bedroll excluded) and am packing my things to move to PV. I am leaving a lot of food on Jackrabbit in the fridge to waste, but I want to move forward towards TWM. Erm... i CAN reach it from PV, can't I? Well, I'll see...

So with 7 hours of daylight remaining, I set off from my homely cabin onto the ice. Reaching the mine without incidents, I cross through it and decide to spend the night inside, at the exit to PV. Found my first rifle cleaning kit in the mine!

[Hotzn]

Day 42:

It's a clear, crisp morning in the valley as I leave the mine and make my way down to the road. Turning left, I pass Rural Crossroads, only checking the store for a potential rifle (left my 21% rifle at Jackrabbit in hopes of finding a better one in PV). Nothing. Further down the road, after Heartbreak Bridge, my next base comes into sight: the Farmstead. It's been a while...

Approaching, I see it has been overdone a little since my last stay. Some glass windows of the closed porch are broken, nice. Inside the porch I notice some lamps on the wall. Have they been there before? Hmmm... not sure. There is a jerry can an a newspaper roll inside the porch. That seems totally adequate somehow, as if the last newspaper was not collected anymore. Atmospheric.

Let's check inside... aha. A rifle under the bed upstairs in the (parents'?) bedroom. 36% condition, dang. But better than no rifle at all. There is some ammunition as well, but little food. The other stuff I don't really need. So with 6 hours of daylight remaining, I venture out into the orchard, chase a deer into a wolf, take off my crafted clothes and approach the wolf until it comes for me. I start clicking my mouse frantically as it approaches, and will you look at that: It runs off bleeding immediately and doesn't even touch me. Haven't seen that before... :shock:

I put my things back on, but before I can harvest the deer a blizzard comes up, forcing me to run back to the Farmstead. This seems like a good opportunity to try out the new rifle cleaning mechanic. OK, let's take a look... it says I have a cleaning skill of 30, but a 100% chance of success. Hmmm... what is the skill for, I wonder? One cleaning procedure takes 12 minutes, consumes 5% of the cleaning kit and gives the rifle +3% condition. Erm... do I have to clean this dirty, dirty rifle 20 times now to improve its condition by 60%? That seems incredibly tedious. It would be better if we had an option to use up the whole cleaning kit or clean the rifle to 100%, whichever comes first, in one go. Well, I click and clean like a madman until the rifle is at 100% and the cleaning kit down to 15%. Ah, as my cleaning skill rises I use the kit more efficiently. Now every use gives +4% on rifle condition and takes 11 instead of 12 minutes. I get it. Does my skill with the whetstone increase in the same manner? Shall have to check that...

Over all my cleaning, the blizzard has passed and I can go back to the deer and harvest it. After bringing all the meat back to the farm, I return to look for the wolf. No carcass to be seen. Travelling over to the road and beyond, I collect 55 sticks and some mushrooms, but no wolf. At long last it's back to base for preparing water and cooking all the meat. Then it's off to bed.

[Hotzn]

Day 44:

Taking a little walk over to the barn. Aha - it's not that red anymore, more like brownish now. Less cartoonish, I like it. Also the outbuildings have been rearranged a little, looks more farm-business-like. Good move. What's that behind the barn? Ah, some target for practice with a bow and... ha, let's go check immediately... bingo! A functional arrow and two more broken ones which will give me two more arrowheads. No bow yet, but at least some arrows on the way. I would actually like it even better if the broken arrows would be found far BEHIND the target, as if they missed and weren't recovered. One would also have to do a bit of thinking to go and look there.

I don't loot the barn completely as I really don't need anything at the moment. On the way back to the farmhouse I collect some sticks, and that's it for today.

[Hotzn]

Day 51:

In the meantime, I have stacked up supplies at the Farmhouse and undertaken a two-day expedition in search for the transition to TWM (and found it). Had completely forgotten how big PV is. Didn't go to TWM however, since I first want to get the bearskin bedroll done.

There are some observations I made: The farmhouse has been "debuffed" a bit - rabbits are less in number and a bit further away, the walking calorie bomb bear does not hang around the orchard anymore. Good. However, the bear still seems to pay the occasional visit. I can live with that a lot better than it being there all the time. I somehow wish the bear was more difficult to hunt. As it is, it just follows you at a slow pace until you have it where you want it. Then it's firing the gun and slipping back inside.

Also, there is a "bear bug": Once I have killed the bear in front of the porch, it makes a new dying sound every time I exit the house, even if it's been lying there dead for days.

And: The visors in the cars now stay down

Lastly, I have the impression that a fair lot of electrical installations have been added to the farmhouse. So I am wondering whether that is just for decoration or whether electricity is coming (maybe in form of generators?).

[Hotzn]

Day 59:

Still hanging out at the Farmhouse, waiting for my second bearskin to cure. Where the farm's driveway meets the road, there is a bear living in a cave on the other side (some 100m into the forest). I lured that one to the farm by walking ahead and shot it from the porch again. Interestingly, it almost caught me when I slipped back inside, bringing my condition down to 79%, but not doing any damage to my clothing apparently. No mauling animation, but still it somehow did get me. Cool.

The fridge is full to the brim now, and I eat meat like a madman so as not to let anything go to waste. Maybe it would be nice if we could preserve meat in some kind of way, by salting or smoking it.

While I am waiting for the bearskin to cure, I realize the house is haunted - items appear out of nowhere when I am not looking. At first I thought I was getting old and overlooked things on my first search of the house. To make sure, I relocated the newly found items. Yes - new items reappeared were they were before. This seems to be a bug that other people have reported for other locations, and the Farmhouse apparently is one location affected by this.

[EDIT]

[Hotzn]

Day 67:

Finally, I am in the bunker right at the transition from PV to TWM. All crafted clothes are at 100%, the rifle and the bow are with me as well as all the basic equipment. With the exception of arrows, which I forgot on the floor in the living room at the Farmhouse, grrr. Well, I can do without arrows. Tomorrow, it's over to the dreaded Timberwolf Mountain... 8-)

[Hotzn]

Day 68:

This is it. A crisp morning with gentle snowfall and a felt temperature of -8°C, despite all my crafted clothes at full condition. The mountain calls...

I climb up the rope and see that the exhaustion bar appears. Climbing seems to work a bit like running, hmmm... better not try out what happens when the bar runs out. I come out on top and let go of the rope somehow. Then it's further up, through a rocky overhang and... I'm leaving PV... and entering TWM.

Soon the passageway opens up into a valley of sorts, and I see a wheel sticking out of the snow ahead of me. "Landing Gear" this place is called, aha. Further ahead, there is something else sticking in the ground, and further on another thing. I follow this path and walk over a ridge ahead and see a little hut. Ha.

There are some interesting things inside the hut - a flare, clothing, food, a sewing kit, a hacksaw, one arrow (yay!) and a fair lot of firewood. But it's cold inside, a -17°C if I hadn't got any clothes. Probably because there is a hole in the roof. Also there's a climber's note with a crude map on the back. Hey! A map!

Only due to my advanced clothing can I warm up a little inside, otherwise I would have had to make a fire. On entering I saw there is a frozen lake next to the hut, and I saw rabbits, a deer and a wolf not too far off. So there's food to be had here. Also a fishing hut, which means more food. By the way - the area of the lake next to the fishing hut - where it seems to be a bit swampy in a potential Summer - looks extremely natural, with the rotting tree and the grasses there. Just saying.

After a brief thought, I set out to collect the deer-wolf-combo. Using the torch, I fumble (thought right-click would drop it, instead put it out, wolf wasn't impressed of course) and get into a knife-fight. Unfortunately, my crafted clothes get damaged a little in the process. Should have avoided that, but what the hey - they're still good enough. The wolf escapes up some creek and out of sight, and I spend the rest of the day harvesting the deer and bringing everything and some cat tails into the hut. Looks like I'll stay here for the night. At nightfall, a blizzard starts... let's see how cold this gets... -19°C is the worst during this blizzard, and since my clothes still give a +20°C bonus, I am ok. Then the blizzard stops and temperature inside the hut rises to -10°C. Outside it's -20°C, so apparently the hut gives a +10°C bonus. With +20°C from my clothes and another +5°C from the bed, I would be able to withstand an outside temperature of -35°C without having to light a fire. I might actually be ok here despite the hole in the roof. Which nags me a little, by the way. I feel a strong urge to repair the roof. Just like I always have a strong urge to tidy up the Farmhouse in PV. I get a little crazy over the fact that we have ripped newspaper lying around there which we can't put away. Well, I can tidy up my place in RL and just have to put up with my home in TLD being untidy.

[Hotzn]

Day 69:

Early in the morning it's up the creek where yesterday's wolf ran to - probably - die. After a bit of walking, I come upon the "arch" that showed up in the mountaineer's map. However, instead of a dead wolf I am greeted by one that's alive. I drop a beef jerky, but it seems to disappear into the frozen creek, and the wolf still comes after me. OK, I'll shoot it with my single arrow then. It does its little dodge thing of course, and I am out of practice. So it's the knife again. Stabstabstab, and off it goes. I am down into the 70ies of my condition, but no clothing damage. The wolf runs further up the hill, to the left of the arch. I patch myself up and follow the blood trail, only to be confronted by two more wolves. And while I retreat back to the creek, a third turns up from somewhere! Hrrrch... is this some pack mechanic or just coincidence? Pretty exciting, anyway. I shake off two wolves by breaking the line of sight, taking the third one with me down to the lake. There I want to light the torch, but the wolf suddenly runs up to me before I can do it, and another knife-fight ensues. The wolf runs off, but back up into wolf country. And I am down to 37% and literally in no condition to give pursuit. Must go back to the hut to heal. Dang.

[Hotzn]

Day 70:

Failed to heal fully overnight, forgetting to eat enough. So starving kept me from healing, I'm still down to 56% in the morning. Grrr. Anyway, I don't want to lose more time. Stepping out of the hut, I see a wolf carcass right next to the jetty. Hrgn? Which wolf is that now? The one that was roaming around the lake first should have bled out somewhere up the creek while I was harvesting the deer, and another one from up there (wolf country) shouldn't have "come" down here overnight. Well, I harvest it and bring the spoils of war back to the hut. Then I venture up the wolfy creek again, soon to be spotted by another wolf. Over quite the distance, I have to say. Didn't have raw meat on me, so I am asking myself whether the TWM wolves have greater detection range. Hm.

Whatever. I use a flare this time to make sure and kill this one on the spot with my arrow (which goes down to 17% and its last use, I suppose). More meat and another wolfskin to repair my coat. After dropping the remains of this second wolf in the hut and with 5 daylight hours left, I take another stroll up to wolf country. Cheeky, with only 57% condition... but it pays off, as I find two more wolf carcasses up there and harvest them fully and nicely. The rest of the evening is spent hauling everything back to base and doing some meat cooking.

[Hotzn]

Day 71:

Back to 84% condition, and the hut is full of meat. Two things on the list for today: Explore wolf country a bit more as long as the wolves haven't respawned (hopefully). And come back with wood to cook more water (which is running low). So let's go...

Just as I want to cross under the arch, there is a strange a-huffing and a-puffing going on right around the corner. I stand back cautiously, and look who is coming down the creek to cross under the arch from the other side: Mr. Bear! I really don't need any more meat at the moment, so I back off and make my way to the left. Gathering some sticks, I all of a sudden twist my ankle as fog is coming up. I circle back to the hut where I feel it should be and manage to find it again. Sleep 4 hours to get rid of the ankle and then cook & boil water into the night.

[Hotzn]

Day 72:

Some more exploration behind the hut - find the occasional plants and plenty of sticks, almost run into Mr. Bear and then sprain my ankle again. Sleep it off in the hut and go back exploring behind the hut. Find a ravaged deer carcass and harvest it. Then it's cooking & boiling into the night again... hmmm... not much going on behind the hut. Maybe I should try and find the "wing" shown on the mountaineer's map tomorrow...

[Hotzn]

Day 73:

It's a clear morning, and I venture out onto the lake and off to the right in search of the "wing". Passing by a forked tree (nice one ), I think I see it to my right (also see a bear wandering around). But as soon as I want to go there, I twist my ankle - again. I am not encumbered, not exhausted - what is it with all those ankle twists here in TWM? Not wanting to return to the hut right away, I see the wolf hanging around the jetty by the hut and decide to go looking for the "rope" from the mountaineer's map. And while I am looking, I am barked up by a wolf. With my sprained ankle I can't shake it off, so it's another short knife fight. I need a little patching up after that and decide it is time to return to the hut after all - now both my ankles and a wrist are sprained. I sleep it off and the day is over. However, I did see where the "rope" is. Something, at least.

[Hotzn]

Day 74:

The morning is nasty, so I do a little cooking. When the weather is calmer, I check my two snares behind the hut and over the ridge to the right. One snare is broken, the other has a rabbit. I harvest it and make two more snares, using the reclaimed wood from the stool in front of the workbench. It's very handy that I brought 10 cured guts over from PV.

Then the decision: rope or wing? I decide for the rope and climb up. There is a wolf roaming about here, I hide behind the rock to which the rope is fastened. I see that I can remove it, but I don't for now. Then I realize I am exhausted. Hmmm... that must be from the climb. But that much? Well, this basically ends my day, and I climb back down again. On the way, I rest a little on the ledge that can be seen from above (and which the devs nicely marked with two sticks to show you can go there.

Then it's back to the hut and calling it a day. By the way: I collected the beef jerky I dropped yesterday to distract the wolf. But it didn't work. I am starting to wonder whether beef jerky does not work as decoy anymore. Hmmm...

[Hotzn]

Day 75:

Today, I want to go fot the wing. Passing the forked tree, I turn right and stumble upon a wolf carcass. Must be the one I met at the rope. I leave it for later, as I can see the wing from here. There is another part with some red colour on it further to the right, but the wing seems more interesting, as there are some kind of cargo containers lying next to it. But the place is infested by both wolves and a bear. At some point I deem a wolf to the left and the bear to the right to be just far enough for me to take a quick look, but before I know it I am opening and then searching the container, and that takes much more time than expected! I hear Mr. Bear approaching from the right, and I imagine I can also hear the wolf on my left. Aaarghh, come on, back off this container and run for it! At last, I seem to be through it, turn around and make it away just in time.

I return to the wolf carcass, positive that I can harvest it without trouble, but as I am doing it I hear a wolf galloping close by. Grrrch, that must have been chased over from the wing by that bear! And indeed, as I look up from my work, the wolf comes running and detects me. GRRROAAR! Stab, stab, stab, take this, you fiend! Wolf runs off, I am down to 74%. Patch myself up, harvest the rest of the wolf carcass and return to base. Looks like I survived another day...

Only in the hut dare I look at what I salvaged from the cargo container: Lots of lamp oil and some flares. I can use those.

[Hotzn]

Day 76:

A clear morning, with a felt -9°C and 13 hours of daylight left. Last night I just stood in the Mountaineer's Hut for a while, listening to the soundscape. Brilliant. I stepped outside, listening into the wind and the creaking of the trees, looking at the clouds racing over the mountaintops. At some point the wind died down and the sky became clear, revealing a myriad of stars. Beautiful. I lit a storm lantern and placed it on the workbench, admiring the warm light it gives off. Walking around the hut then, I appreciated how the warm light seeped outside through the door, windows, cracks and gaps. If you pause for a moment, the sandbox can have great atmospheric moments...

Now it's morning and I decide to do some more exploring around the wing... and when I arrive there I am lucky - the wolves and the bear leave me some space to loot the remaining containers. The left one has food and sodas, not so interesting... the right one contains (in the unlooted compartment) painkillers and antibiotics. There are also some Birch saplings here, which I take. Soda remains on the floor, I don't need it. On my return the hut is now stuffed with food to the brim. Guts and hides curing on the floor everywhere.

10 daylight hours left, so back towards the forked tree and... ankle sprain. Again. I just walk on with my girl complaining every two steps how much it hurts. The wing is within sigh to my right and up ahead I see the cave where Mr. Bear seems to live. On the right hand side next to the cave some sort of valley leads down and I follow. Further ahead (and down), I come upon a T-section. A little venture to the right reveals a dead end, so I return and take the other way. This leads me to discover some hapless guy who seems to have fallen down a cliff, and then... aha... the "Engine". Two containers here, one with matches and clothes (I take the matches), the other with food (I leave it there) and... ah! Coffee! This goes into my backpack. Further ahead, the valley is leading upwards again, and then there is the opening to an ominous cave. Let's take a look...

The cave is spooky, and I have the feeling I am getting lost quickly. Sticking to the left at all times, the cave widens into a cavern, and there is a dead guy here sitting at a burnt-out fire. Better move on, always with my left shoulder to the rock, and it seems as if it's going upwards now. After what seems like an eternity, I exit to daylight again... and to my left there is another "Engine". But where am I now? Press on into the unknown in hopes of finding back to the hut? Or go back through the cave and play it safe? Ha! Who needs safety? Onwards I go...

Past the engine, there is a cliff going down. Hmmm... looks like I could fasten a climbing rope here to get to the bottom... but I didn't bring one. So I turn around, walk past the engine again and come upon a frozen river. Aha. Something tells me this is going to end up at Crystal Lake, so I turn left and follow it downhill. Then there is a difficult spot, but I find a climbing rope there a little off to the right. At the bottom, I have to avoid a wolf and then a bear, and after that I cross under the "Arch" and know how to get home from here... what a day!