cPho City, established on the outreaches of the Mustuvarr quadrant, has been connected to the Core Warp Conduit and is now open to general colonisation. Come and take advantage of the vast untouched wealth and open unspoilt spaces, and help us battle back the hostile mobs that infest the region.
cPho City official blog gives updates, outlines the server settings and rules, and is where players can post server-specific comments, requests or just keep an eye on what's happening. Particularly interesting events and builds will also be featured here.
Server is hosted by a 24/7 professional host, located in Melbourne, Australia to give the best latency to Australian players. The latency is pretty good for other countries as well. Down-time is virtually nil.
Great, fun, casual community.
Current Plugins:
Essentials (a range of basic administration tools)
CoreProtect (logs and gives strong admin control to track and rectify griefing, and a few other useful features)
WorldGuard (allows players to claim regions to prevent other people from mining or building in their areas)
Planned Plugins:
Shop / Economy plugin (once a good one is found - recommendations welcome!)
Mod Request plugin (one that allows players to ask moderators to fix/inspect areas, once a good one is found - recommendations welcome!)
Role playing will be encouraged but is not required.
Specialisation in fields will also be encouraged. Explorers, builders, miners, farmers, logistics, shop-owners, terraformers, region planners, town planners, road builders, forestry workers, these are all roles that are encouraged to be filled for the greater good of the colony.
Currently there are a great deal of resources in a warehouse ready to be used for building, as well as a sand and sandstone mine, a quarry (still fairly shallow), several wheat, melon, pumpkin and sugar farms, and two basic tree farms. There is also a nether gate located fairly centrally, and several guest houses.
Drop by and have a look... make cPho City your new home!
@ Glcarr7:
Thx, glad yer enjoying it!
I role play most games that I play, and journal some of them cuz it adds a great edge to the game and really makes it more fun!
STORY CONTINUES:
The enclosure I made for Krigaar was dug straight into the side of the mountain, more or less opposite my quarters, on the other side of the cobble bridge at the base of the falls.
I made it two meters tall around the perimeter, and sank a pit into the middle of it another meter deep to give her a little more space to nest and play... she stood over two meters tall at the top of her tail, so it would have been cruel to make a pen where she was always cramped up.
The entrance to the ravine I made two meters wide to fit her, and on the southern edge of her enclosure I dug a three meter by two meter ascending passage towards the surface. The walls were far too wet and slippery and steep for Krigaar to scale, and the tiny winding stair case that the Fa'shnet'ans used was far too small for her enormous body to scale. She'd need her own way to the surface, and I was happy to create one!
Both entrances I blocked off with a small vertical post and hinged gate that could be lifted and moved out of the way easily by a person, and walked right past by anyone. But the gap it created was simply too small for Krigaar, so it formed a convenient barrier to hold her in her enclosure without forming an obstacle for me as her handler. The young Fa'shnet'ans quickly learned not to enter the pen when Bra'ktis'lha punished one of the younger boys for throwing rocks at her by forcing him to spend the night tethered just outside her pen. I listened to her hiss and snap at him all night long and smiled in my bed. Served the little sod right. Lucky I didn't feed him to her!
At the top of the ascending passageway I would need a door or a gate of some sort to stop wildlife stumbling into her pen, or worse - creatures of the Darkness! She would hold her own for sure, and would actually form a very effective guard against stray night creatures, but I feared for her safety none-the-less and it was the responsible thing to do. A small gate clearly was useless, and even double doors would be awkward to open and close while mounted... I would need something else. And preferably something stronger!
I recalled the experimental switch-activated sliding door I had built at Home Pool last year. It had worked well except where it damaged the tracks by griding the stone doors across them, but this entrance had no such tracks and I could make a similar system at the surface-side of the tunnel, surely.
I formed a plan.
It would need 6 pistons and a bunch of time. I set about building the pistons, and coated their surface with some dried slime that I had collected from snails and jellyfish and Giant Slimes in my adventures in the fields and forest around Fa'shnet'ii since arriving... and before long I had 8 fully functioning red-stone activated pistons. I had built 2 spares just in case... might as well while I was tooled up for it... they'd come in handy in the future for sure.
I carefully dug out the sides of the surface-side of the passage way and inlaid my pistons, ensuring they were aligned neatly and had good freedom of movement. I had learned through a lot of tears and frustration last time that accuracy and patience was critical in getting this type of door to work properly.
I tested them all together (manually, without any charge) to ensure they all did what they were supposed to do. They functioned perfectly! Excellent. Now to activate them with some red-stone circuitry... this was the tricky bit.
After a full day of digging and carefully laying and testing my wiring circuits, I found the winning combination that allowed all three pistons to fire simultaneously. This was critical. If one fired then the other, they had enough force behind them to actually destroy my door, and that could be a disaster...
I mirrored the circuitry on the opposite door, but ran out of red-stone. This simply wouldn't work without it... I needed both the left and the right doors to activate together from a switch inside the passage, otherwise the whole thing was a waste of time. I would need more red-stone.
Time to go caving!
Deep, this time. Red-stone only existed at great depth in the earth...
My mount was eager for some action, and knew exactly where we were going as soon as I let her out of her enclosure and into the base of Fa'shnet'ii ravine. We made our way rapidly to the eastern end of the ravine and dove into the cavern entrance. She was keen and so was I.
I put on my helmet and the world became the humming blue monotone of shadowless sight that I had come to depend on... Krigaar too saw the world in this way, for no shadow ever gave her pause.
I went straight this time, rather than heading left and down into the mines where I had originally killed Lars'wal the first ever Bauerwolf I had encountered. Generally the mines were quite tight and made for slow going on Krigaar's back. The larger caverns had more space and I found that the scorpion could move at surprising speed when given the space to!
I took a branch to the right which I hadn't explored yet, and was pleased to find we were plunging deeper into the earth...
Before long we came across rich untapped veins in places that no human had ever set foot.
Technically they still hadn't... it was Krigaar doing all the walking. I was just along for the ride!
I dug the valuables out of the stone that held them, and when possibly Krigaar would assist by prizing gems free with her pincers or tail. Such an intelligent creature.
And we went along this cavern in this way for several hours, exploring smaller side-branches to their terminations, back tracking, continuing on. I had no fear of being lost because the dark presented no challenge, and Krigaar moved sure-footedly and mostly guided me without any direction at all from me. She knew what we were looking for and her sense of direction was much better than mine underground.
Before long the cavern terminated in the entrance to another abandoned mine-network. Rather than turning back and starting on a fresh cavern, I decided that we should enter and see whether we could find more red-stone or other valuables in here... we were still very deep and it was possible the ancient miners had left veins behind as they had in many other shafts I'd spelunked in the past...
It turned out to be a fateful mistake.
We were not fifteen minutes into the mine network when I heard the same sound I had heard before the Bauerwolf Lars'wal had attacked me. Immediately from a side shaft another Bauerwolf sprang... this one did not hesitate as the first did... it was, afterall, in pitch blackness and was probably as boldened as I was by this. It came straight for my mount and I, and took huge swipes and snaps at us. We fought it off with a glistening diamond blade, a huge arched venomous tail and two tremendous pincers but still the Bauerwolf attacked with a ferocity that astounded me. It was so determined and almost invulnerable to our attacks!
It was beginning to really injure Krigaar, and many of it's blows caused serious damage to my armour and knocked the wind from me as well.
Finally it managed to dismount me and I was thrown against a side shaft's wooden brace, completely winding me.
Krigaar scuttled between me and the Bauerwolf and continued to battle the creature while I recovered, and I could see thick yellow liquid oozing from many breaks in her carapace. I staggered to my feet and charged around her at the Bauerwold and together we cornered and killed it... it must have succumbed eventually to her venom, as it had become weak and disoriented.
Another golden apple was my reward for killing the monstrosity... what connection did these apples have with Bauerwolves??
I turned my attention to Krigaar and was immediately very concerned... she had collapsed onto her belly, her tail was limp, her legs twitched, and she looked at me blankly while body-fluid oozed alarmingly into pools around her. She was dying... fast. I had allowed my beautiful scorpion to be killed by a Bauerwolf. She was dead within minutes and I felt real sorry at losing her. What a magnificent creature... what a waste.
After recovering from the moment I removed the harness from her and bowed my head briefly before leaving her broken body in the tunnels, looking for my way out.
Not far from where she had fallen I came across a huge vein of red-stone, and reminded myself that I still needed to find a way to close that door. Now more than ever, since the base of the passageway was no longer guarded by a huge scorpion... Another pang of sorrow at the thought.
I mined all that I could carry, and continued my way out, following the cavern back the way we had come... there were only a few side-shafts in this cavern so it wasn't long until I had back-tracked to where we'd started our fateful journey.
As I returned home I unloaded everything I had brought up from the cavern with me, including the golden apple, some valuable ores, and Krigaar's saddle, and prepared the red-stone to be used to finish the automatic doors. To get to it I had to pass through Krigaar's enclosure. It really brought home what a terrible loss this was. I had raised Krigaar from a tiny (rabbit-sized) scorpion, trained her, fed her, defended her and bonded with her. We had known each other for over quarter of a year and had formed a good understanding of each other.
The armour was lightweight, well-fitting, and comfortable.
I tested it against arrows and studied it carefully to identify where it's weak points were. There were few of them, but more than the Diamond melded armour that I had forged back at Home Pool. Under the arms and chin were especially vulnerable - I would have to adopt my combat style to protect these zones.
During tests I discovered something both fascinating and exciting.
The helmet had been crafted to include in the visor the eyes of the Cave Scorpion that the chitin had been taken from.
These eyes had a unique property - they enhanced the light so that shadows were removed completely. I could see in the dark!
It was an amazing gift! Instead of having to mark my way through caverns and mines with millions of torches, I could prowl the dark in my black armour and be both silent and invisible, for the most part. Even the night mob had trouble finding me. I was a killer in the dark.
It gave me great courage and allowed me to map out the mines beneath Fa'shnet'ii very effectively over the next few weeks.
At night I could see almost as clearly as I could during the day. I caught glimpse of strange creatures that I'd never seen in all the time I'd been in Grifwald. Were they local to the area, had I never seen them before because they had avoided me when I was less stealthy, or were these creatures a new part of the growing tide of the Darkness as the Pra'ktans called them?
I had discovered that during the night and in the caverns and mines the Giant Scorpions were highly aggressive and would attack not only me but any creature they found mercilessly... stinger them and crunching them up with their enormous mandibles. During the day, however, they were reasonably placid... and would only attack if attacked.
While on a hunting sortie for the Fa'shnet'iins one day I came across a Giant Scorpion that had something on it's back. It drew my attention, were they parasites? On closer inspection I discovered they were tiny scorpions! I use the word "tiny" very loosely of course. They were the size a rabbits!
Suddenly an idea occurred to me, perhaps I could raise one of these infant scorpions as a pet, and train it as I had done at Home Pool with wild wolves and cats?
The Giant Scorpion became very agitated when I approached it to try to snatch one, and it resulted in a quick battle that cost the scorpion it's life, but I managed to grab one of the baby scorpions before it scattered into the undergrowth with it's siblings, and carried it carefully back to Fa'shnet'ii. I was amused at it's vain attempts to sting me through my armour.
I quickly discovered that the creature had a ferocious appetite for meat, and in particular rats, rabbits, and all kinds of rodents. It would stalk them and make quick work of them, and it wasn't long until it would take them directly from my hand. It grew very trusting of me, and even protective of me. Perfect.
I named my new pet Krigaar, after the Praf'ktan word for "stalking prey". It suited the arachnid well.
Krigaar grew to the size of it's parent in a very short space of time... about 6 weeks. The bottom of the Fa'shnet'ii ravine was the perfect home for her.
But we encountered a problem. Krigaar had stung and killed one of the Fa'shnet'iians. She was probably having stones thrown at her or something, as the younger ones tended to do from time to time, but there was no way to be sure. And regardless, a human had been killed in what was supposed to be a retreat from these and other creatures of the Darkness.
A meeting was called where many angry faces had many angry things to say, and it was decided that Krigaar would need to be housed away from the people in her own enclosure.
In addition she would need to be restrained and trained, and if I was not able to do as I swore I could, she would be "destroyed". Yeah, well you guys can talk about destroying her all you like, but I'd grown quite fond of my pet scorpion, and if push came to shove you'd find I was not one to cross. I bit my tongue and promised that I could train her, and set about finding a way to harness Krigaar.
After many failed attempts I finally managed to be able to craft a good sturdy saddle and harness which fit well around her carapace without her chitinous legs cutting the straps as she moved.
We learned together. We became mount and rider, and she was both stealthy and fast. The perfect companion for hunting the caverns beneath Fa'shnet'ii at night... although the smaller caverns required me to dismount, and also Krigaar had an aversion to water which made some of the explorations difficult and I'd have to leave her behind for awhile.
When I attacked she also attacked, using her strong pincers and sometimes arching her tail over my shoulders to stab at opponents.
I was chuffed with my mount!
Together we explored and dominated the extensive caverns and mines beneath Fa'shnet'ii.
I don't think it's over-rated at all... I think it's UNDER-rated.
I have plenty of friends who haven't even HEARD of it until I told them about it.
The same can't be said for games like Crysis or Battlefield or Skyrim or Civilisations or Age Of Empires for example.
They become so highly rated due to huge amounts of money being sunk into their publication.
As another poster in this thread said, when the Minecraft killer comes out, it's going to be amazing.
The key thing that I think needs to be improved on MC is the removal of the blockiness - I think this can be achieved by increasing their resolution and instead of 1 "pixel" editing as currently, instead there is larger "brush sizes" so that players can destroy and build many blocks at once... but the blocks are much smaller. In this way you can make "piles of sand" and break up large chunks of rocks, etc.
Another key thing that would improve it is "dependancy gravity". For example you cut a branch and the entire branch, leaves and all fall. You break a stick holding a few rocks with a switch on top and the entire switch and everything falls. And rotates past the grid too... like in Crysis and Far-Cry. This would need an entirely new engine of course, since this one is based around layers of pixels in images and the grid is hard-wired into everything about it... but ya, that Minecraft killer which can achieve these things and even rag-doll physics would be a true virtual world...
@ Cheeseguy 93:
All sorts of goodies, but that's the only one I've seen so far... the rest are just mob noises that I'm not familiar with. Some of them are really creepy, too.
STORY CONTINUES:
The following day a Fa'Shnet'an that I had learned was named Hsra'nye came to my room and I immediately saw that he was on edge and was holding back a lot of anger.
He barked "You need to come see this".
Puzzled and a little annoyed, I geared up and followed Hsra'nye. He lead me across the small cobble bridge at the base of the falls and towards the mines where I had slain the Bauerwolf.
As we passed, a few other men came with us, all solemn and silent. Many displaying clear signs of hostility towards me.
I was a baffled and a little concerned. These men had been pleasant, welcoming, and generous to me so far in my stay in Fa'shnet'ii, and this was a strange turn.
Whispering in corners stopped as I passed, and people looked up and watched me pass... I began to sense that I should be very careful what I said and did.
I ventured to Hsra'nye in front of me "What's going on?" He looked back at me with open hostility and said nothing.
A man I didn't know behind me replied "Bra'ktis'lha wants to see you."
That didn't sound good. He made it sound like I'd done something very, very wrong. Why then was I being lead back down into the mines I had come from, and not back up to the Main Hall. Why was Bra'ktis'lha down in the mines?
My questions would have to wait... nobody wanted to talk to me. We trudged on across the base of the ravine of Fa'shnet'ii and reached the mine's lower-levels entrance.
There were others in the mines, some alone, others talking quietly in groups, all watching me pass.
One called out something to me that I didn't quite catch, and one of the men behind me called back "Enough! Bra'ktis'lha will come to the end of this." Again, not good.
I noticed for the first time that the three men behind me were all dressed like Bra'ktis'lha's personal guard, with their strange studded weapons and black or red glossy armour beneath their tunics. Had I done something wrong? Had I betrayed some law? We continued to march through the tunnels to where I had been attacked by the Bauerwolf two nights ago.
As we rounded the corner to where the battle with the creature had taken place I found Bra'ktis'lha talking with three other men. Ra'meere squared off with me and said "Why did you do it?" I saw behind him a man on the floor, his body broken.
Bra'ktis'lha looked around at me, stepped past the body and put his hand on Ra'meere's shoulder. He looked at me with his blank expression and said "Jem'kladt, is this the man you killed last night and returned to our home to tell others of?" He indicated the body on the floor.
"I killed no man," I replied. "It was a terrible beast that attacked me, and I slew it."
Bra'ktis'lha studied my face for a moment, then responded "It is a man I see before me on the floor of this mine, where you say you slew this creature."
I could plainly see that he was correct, and I reached into my pack to retrieve the ear I had removed from the creature. I heard men stiffening behind me with the movement, but paid no attention and nor did Bra'ktis'lha. His expression tightened as I presented the ear. "I took this from the creature when I killed it."
Bra'ktis'lha took the ear and studied it, handing it back to me. He gestured at the men standing over the crumpled body on the mine's floor, and one of them obliged by rolling the body over, showing the man was missing his ear. I was confused for a moment for at this time I had never encountered a Bauerwolf and I knew nothing about them. I had thought it was a huge man-like animal that I had slain.
Bra'ktis'lha spoke loudly for the others' benefit "It is settled then. Lars'wal was a Bauerwolf, and has attacked our guest, who triumphed."
Hsra'nye let out a tremendous howl of pain or rage I'm not sure and sank to his knees next to the corpse and sobbed like a small child. My heart went out to the man, but it was me who was attacked and if I had not killed this creature it would surely have killed me.
"Suit this man," Bra'ktis'lha said to the men behind me. "He has slain a significant creature of the darkness, and he is worthy to be among our Guard." He turned to Hrsa'nye and placed his hand on his shoulder and the Guards behind me led me back up to Fa'shnet'ii and to an armory filled with chests of armour and weapons.
The armour I was offered was light, but as hard as steel. It made a hollow sound like wood when I tapped on it, and it wasn't until I discovered a huge claw that I recognised what it must be. It was made from the shell of some enormous insect of some kind. It was very similar to the shells of the Giant Spiders that I had killed so many of over the decades, except that they didn't have claws like this. No... this was something else.
It was nowhere near as pretty as my diamond armour, but it was much lighter, far less brittle, and also allowed for a lot more freedom of movement. I accepted a well-fitting suit of this armour and stowed my battle-scarred diamond armour in the chest in my quarters.
The men who had previously looked at me with hostility now looked at me with respect and even a small amount of fear. The first time I had sensed a slight awe towards me from these people.
A Bauerwolf, it turned out, was a man with a terrible secret that often he didn't even know about himself. A man during the day and a huge beast with an unquenchable appetite for flesh at night. They were impossible to identify during the day, although sometimes clues could be used to determine one... tattered clothing in the mornings being one of the clearer indicators.
Nobody had suspected that Lars'wal was a Bauerwolf, least of all his brother Hrsa'nye. It was not my fault that I had slain the man. It wasn't even his own fault.
It was the evil behind the Darkness to blame.
It was part of the coming Breaking of the World.
It was all the more reason for Praf'kta to succeed.
@ Cheeseguy93, DarthViper3k, & Gorbag:
Ya, I freaked. First one of these I've faced. It's frikkin huge man, like it's ears scrape the top of the tunnels and it runs at you both on all fours (REALLY fast!) and up on hind legs, and makes the most awful noise the whole time!
@ Shilka:
That's a werewolf in the Mo' Creatures mod. One of the many really awesome new night mob creatures, and not even close to being the nastiest! Highly recommend this mod!
STORY CONTINUES:
The creature stood glaring at me unflinching with glowing red eyes, a single line of frothy saliva drooling out of it's mouth and splatting on the floor.
It breathed heavily, it's massive chest heaving and the thick hair on it's shoulders flexing with the movement.
It stood staring at me, and I froze with an unpleasant mix of adrenaline and weariness.
I clenched my sword and the movement triggered the Bauerworld into action!
It crouched forwards on all fours and lunged at me with a speed and power that astonished me!
I staggered backwards down the flight of stairs I had just come up from where the Night Crawler had exploded in my face, and the Bauerwolf crashed into the wall where I had been, shaking it's head in confusion for a second. Just long enough for me to regain my balance at the base of the stairs.
It crawled down the stairs at me on all fours, and something about it's form and movement added a new dimension of creepiness to the thing. It was a disturbing blend of man and beast.
It reached the base of the stairs and squared off with me again, raising itself up onto it's hind legs and again shocking me with it's sheer size.
This time I didn't wait for it to lunge. I brought my axe up in a feint and as it turned to fend the blow I brought my sword downwards and inwards at it's throat. It connected! But it didn't penetrate the creatures thick hair and hide, and the action left my sword arm's side exposed.
The Bauerwolf swiped at me and the blow's force spun me off balance. I worked with the blow and continued the spin, bringing my axe back and around in a full 360 rotation with the full weight of the spin behind it and down onto the creature's skull.
Again, it connected and this time it stunned the creature, who dropped to the ground with a mighty howl.
I pressed my advantage and plunged my sword down behind it's head towards where I figured it's heart would be. The point of my diamond blade penetrated with little resistance, and I buried nearly 20 inches of diamond into the creature's rib cage. It screamed in agony and yanked up and away but dropped limp to the floor before it's own momentum had finished.
I had beaten it! It lay limp on the stone floor, and from a tattered pack of some kind around it's waste a gleaming object rolled out across the floor and tinked against the wall.
I couldn't believe my fortune! A golden apple! It was heavy and stunningly beautiful. What a treasure!
I rummaged the rest of the creature, and found nothing of value. I cut off an ear as a trophy and put it and the golden treasure into my loot bag, which I slung on my shoulder and made my way warily out of the mine and back up towards Fa'Shnet'ii. The battle with the Bauerwolf had made a lot of noise, and I was conscious of night creature sounds in dark shafts all around me that remained unexplored.
It was an immense relief to step out of the tunnels and into a heavy rain pouring into the ravine of Fa'Shnet'ii.
Bra'ktis'lha and the others were not here but two others were, and I asked for water and a place to rest, and told them of the 8 hours in the mines beneath Fa'Shnet'ii. By the time I had finished the tale the two men had become a group of 20 or more, and questions were many.
I kept the apple hidden, but the Bauerwolf ear widened many eyes.
Agreed.
You have multi-accounted yer own server and altered the terrain in your map for the express purpose of preventing yourself from suffering the consequences of your own actions.
Yes, clever and quick as hell.
Yes, cheating.
Yes, you can cheat if it's your own server.
Yes, your friend is just jealous.
Yes, your friend should throw pie at your face.
Yes, I like pie.
REPLIES: @ Cheeseguy93:
As with any journal I make, I create it pretty much as I write it... all impulsive, and based around the pics I take.
Recently in this one I've decided to have a little bit of a general fore-thought about what might come up, and then see where it takes it.
@ DarthViper3k:
Haha sorry about yer crappy burger Darth!
You just know it's got more camel, cat and rat in it than beef, right?
Meh it's all protein.
STORY CONTINUES:
"How's your head?"
Brak'Tis'Lha stood at the entrance to my bed-cavern with the tiniest hint of humour dancing behind his otherwise solemn eyes.
I blinked the wool from away from behind my own eyes and forced a smile at my host.
"I'm sure I'll survive," I croaked, half annoyed and half amused by the sound of my own hangover.
"Don't be so sure," smiled Bra'Ktis'Lha. "Today we're going into the mines."
My annoyance moved away from my hang-over and onto Bra'ktis'lha briefly. A bit presumptuous, wasn't it? What if I didn't want to go into the mines today? I reminded myself I was a guest and that I had just consumed a king's ransom of food and ale, and that I enjoyed mining anyway, so what was the problem? I decided that it was actually my hangover that was annoyed with Brak, not me, and reminded it who was in control. It rewarded me with an extra painful spike up the back of my neck as I leaned forward to get out of bed, and suddenly I wasn't so sure it was me in control after-all.
"Excellent!" I croaked, trying very hard not to sound sarcastic. "When do we leave?"
Brak just stood there looking at me.
"What... now?"
Bra'ktis'lha smiled slightly, and my annoyance danced about his head like little angry thunderclouds jabbing spears at him. I hoped like hell they were invisible to everyone but me.
"Ok let me just wash my face and I'll be right with you..." I grabbed my gear and stowed my sword, stepped past Brak and reached into the falls. Splashing some of the cold water on my face really helped, and I shook the last of the wool out of my head and said "Lead on".
With us this time was a troop of four men, plus Brak. I recognised one as Ra'meere, and another as being the guard that had follwed Bra'ktis'lha around all day yesterday too. A personal guard, surely... His suspicious stink-eye was back, but I combat it with a smile and a courteous nod. It didn't help. Whatever.
A yell came from the bottom of the ravine, quickly echoed by one and then two of the men with us, pointing down into the gully. I leaned out on the rail to see what the commotion was about and saw to my mild surprise a walking dead stumbling it's way over the cobble bridge we had crossed last night.
It had spotted the men with me and was idiotically trying to find a way to us. The men with me had drawn bows and were beginning to fire at the creature, but I knew from past experience that arrows had little effect on these things. Often an arrow would simply pass through their rotting flesh and they didn't even notice.
I drew my sword and jumped the rail, landing in waste deep water a few meters below and faced the creature directly. Its gaze shifted from the men on the stairs behind me and it gurgled with desire at seeing warm flesh so close to it. It's shriveled, dry, white eyes fixed on me and it showed no emotion at all as I cut it's limbs from it's body and broke it's rotting body so thoroughly that even whatever evil animated it could not maintain it's spell. It collapsed into a quivering mess of flesh and bones, and that was that.
I looked up. It was night!
What was this...? I was confused... I thought this was the morning after the night of feast. The lighting in this ravine really was good for me to be so completely fooled into thinking it was day time.
I looked around to find the four men followed by Bra'ktis'lha coming towards me from the base of the stairs and across the small cobble bridge. The first of them, Ra'meere, called out "Nice work Jem'kladt! Why take out an enemy safely from behind a rail when you can leap over it, off a cliff, and into water flowing over slippery rocks while unsheathing a sword?" His face had humour, it was a joke not an insult. I laughed and so did his companions.
"What time is it?" I asked, still disoriented. Ra'meer responded "It's the following night, Fru'ir!" I had no idea what Fru'ir meant, but the others laughed so I guessed it was at my expense. He said "You've looked like this fellow all day," he gestured at the remains of the walking dead I had slain. Well no wonder I felt so ordinary. I would have to be more cautious with that ale syrup these people drank... clearly very potent stuff!
"Come on," they laughed. "To the mines!"
And we made our way back down to the other end of the ravine, to where I had heard picks smacking at stone when Brak gave me a tour of Fa'shnet'ii... longer ago than I thought!
At the entrance to the cavern network, Bra'ktis'lha stopped us and split us into three groups.
Him and his bodyguard would head into the east cavern (straight ahead) to meet up with the group that I could again hear digging away at rock, while the other three men would head south, into a ravine to explore it as it was still reasonably uncharted, and I was asked to head north, downwards, into what they called "The Mine of Our Ancestors", which they said riddled the earth. Same people that made the abandoned mines I had stripped clean in so many parts near Home Pool, I guess... well, except for Wurm Cavern of course. I shuddered. Why did I have to think of that now, when I was about to head into a new mine?
I was told to explore and torch out the mine, and bring back any valuables and a map of the network so that we could get a better understanding of what caves and mines lay at the feet of Fa'shnet'ii. This, they said, is where the evil bred and grew, and needed to be purified for the Breaking to come to an end. I still had not found a way to ask what the Breaking was without risking them asking some uncomfortable questions about who I was or where I'd come from.
As I descended into the mines I began to hear the familiar sound of night things. In particular I could hear an unusually large number of Giant Spiders. I could hear their chitinous bodies scraping against itself and the stone of the mine, and the screaming squeal they hissed at each other. Sometimes I could discern discussion between two or more of them, cruel evil sentences and words that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Giant Spiders, I had come to learn, were reasonably smart creatures, and could even communicate with each other in a language that was similar to the tongue of the people in the world, and could sometimes even be understood if you listened closely.
As I drew close to the shaft these arachnids lived in, I found a seam of coal, and broke it out of the stone to take back to the surface with me, as I had been asked to by Brak (and which I would have done regardless).
The seam gave way to a shaft beyond and the sickly smell of the Giant Spiders poured through the hole. I had found a lair of these creatures for sure. I had come across two or three Giant Spider lairs in the past, and I had become accustomed to their smell. This meant that within this hole there would be many Spiders, and chances were good that most of them were watching me right now.
I held the hilt of my sword, ready to draw at the first sign of attack. I knew where they were now, there was no need to raid or break the lair... I had been given a job to do, and this wasn't it. I would pile some of the cobble left over from breaking open the coal seam into the hole, which would stop the Spiders from following me as I retreated back down the hall and began charting another tunnel.
As I began piling the cobble up an arrow whistled out of the darkness and deflected off my helmet, knocking me backwards.
An animated skeleton came leering out of the hole, slipping down my pile of cobble and drawing another arrow at me as I lay vulnerable on the mine's floor. I rolled backwards over my own shoulders, both exposing the thick armour of my back to the second arrow and giving me time and distance to draw my sword.
The second arrow sheared off my armour as planned, and I came to my feet, blade ready, as the animated skeleton bent a third arrow and grinned lifelessly at me. My blade smashed upwards at it's neck-line and connected under the jaw, the head of the skeleton being cleanly removed before it could even flinch. The rest of it's fleshless body collapsed to the ground, joints coming loose even before it hit the floor, turning into a pile of bones and tattered remnants of some ancient armour. A quick battle, but one which had taken me completely off-guard. I kicked at the pile of bones to see if anything useful could be found in it, and cursed my foolishness as a Giant Spider forced it's huge body through the tiny hole I had left and lunged at me!
It's mandibles gripped around my left arm and I cried out in pain as it's fangs pierced through the joint of my armour and deep into the flesh of my elbow... the pain!! It was like two hot branding irons had been plunged into my flesh, sending my whole arm numb and limp instantly.
I spun towards the arachnid and drove my sword hard and fast between it's eyes, killing it instantly without so much as a hissing scream.
I staggered back away from the twitching corpse of it and from the hole to the Giant Spiders' lair... I had twice in quick succession been surprised by enemy coming from the hole I had broken through into the far shaft and I didn't want there to be a third time... As I stumbled backwards I noticed that the numbness from my arm was spreading rapidly and already the entire left side of my body was cold and tingling, and my leg buckled under me when I tried to put weight on it.
I collapsed to the ground and a pounding, ringing sound filled my head, and my vision tunneled as the coldness swept up the back of my head and around to cover my face. I lay stunned on the floor of the cavern, and felt real fear for the first time in many years.
I fought it. I didn't let myself succumb to the poison coursing through my veins.
I reached cold unresponsive fingers to my belt and removed the strongest of my two healing potions that I'd brewed just before heading east on this trip, and tried vainly to get my left arm to remove the stopper. The arm would not respond at all, so I raised the bottle up to my mouth and removed the stopper with my teeth and downed the liquid within. It was like warm honey and spread quickly from my throat and stomach, fighting back the cold that was taking over my body.
The tunnel vision began to recede and the thrumming in my ears became a distant murmur.
I struggled to my feet before any more spiders could ambush me, and breathlessly moved some of the larger cobbles to cover the hole. As the noise in my head diminished I could begin to hear them discussing me on the other side of the wall in their hissing tongue. Spiders are poor diggers, so I knew I was safe behind my barrier. I put my back to the wall where I could watch the hole and waited for many hours before I felt sober and clear headed enough to stand and continue.
I briefly considered going back up to Fa'shnet'ii, but I was almost as well now as when I entered the mines so there was little point. I continued spelunking the mine network as I marked it out with torches and mapped it on the parchment I had brought with me.
I came across many veins of ore, even gold! I hadn't see gold for a long time now, as most of my recent few years had been spent building my own empire and shallow caving ventures... gold only ever seemed to be found in much deeper depths, along with red stone, blue stone and diamond...
As I dove deeper into the mines, pushing back the night creatures and the darkness with my blade and my torches, I came across ever more intelligent ambushes. A night crawler hid behind a wooden brace around a corner, and I didn't see it until I was right upon it!
It promptly blew up in my face.
I really didn't like those guys.
My armour and the stone of the corner that I had quickly staggered back away from the night crawler to hide behind saved my life, but the ringing in my ears, combined with the remnants of the spider venom and last night's ale in my veins was beginning to take it's toll on me.
I decided it was time to head back up to the surface to rest, offload the treasures I had found, pass in my maps, and repair my armour. I sealed off the last dead-end cavern, and turned to head back up the last flight of stairs and up and out of the mines towards home...
I was exhausted, but I had learned that this cavern in particular was taking me by surprise more often than most. It seemed to be filled with evil.
So I was not surprised when I heard a noise I had never heard before, echoing down the cavern towards me from the path I needed to take to get home. It was a deep throaty rumble... a growl like that of a bear, but long, and drawn out. It sounded very threatening... very big. I stopped and listened to it, and my heart sank as I heard it become louder, and draw nearer, and then could make out the click clack of claws contacting the stone. Big, long, drawn out footsteps. Something very big was coming this way...
I put down my sack of loot and drew my sword and put my axe in my left hand. It wasn't often that I entered a battle with two weapons at once, but this thing sounded very menacing, and I had a moment to prepare.
As I braced myself a darkness fluttered in the shaft junction up ahead... a shadow grew out of the tunnel, and it was followed by something terrifying! It was almost twice as tall as me. A Bauerwolf!
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cPho City official blog gives updates, outlines the server settings and rules, and is where players can post server-specific comments, requests or just keep an eye on what's happening. Particularly interesting events and builds will also be featured here.
Server is hosted by a 24/7 professional host, located in Melbourne, Australia to give the best latency to Australian players. The latency is pretty good for other countries as well. Down-time is virtually nil.
Great, fun, casual community.
Current Plugins:
Server Settings
Role playing will be encouraged but is not required.
Specialisation in fields will also be encouraged. Explorers, builders, miners, farmers, logistics, shop-owners, terraformers, region planners, town planners, road builders, forestry workers, these are all roles that are encouraged to be filled for the greater good of the colony.
Currently there are a great deal of resources in a warehouse ready to be used for building, as well as a sand and sandstone mine, a quarry (still fairly shallow), several wheat, melon, pumpkin and sugar farms, and two basic tree farms. There is also a nether gate located fairly centrally, and several guest houses.
Drop by and have a look... make cPho City your new home!
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@ Glcarr7:
Thx, glad yer enjoying it!
I role play most games that I play, and journal some of them cuz it adds a great edge to the game and really makes it more fun!
STORY CONTINUES:
The enclosure I made for Krigaar was dug straight into the side of the mountain, more or less opposite my quarters, on the other side of the cobble bridge at the base of the falls.
I made it two meters tall around the perimeter, and sank a pit into the middle of it another meter deep to give her a little more space to nest and play... she stood over two meters tall at the top of her tail, so it would have been cruel to make a pen where she was always cramped up.
The entrance to the ravine I made two meters wide to fit her, and on the southern edge of her enclosure I dug a three meter by two meter ascending passage towards the surface. The walls were far too wet and slippery and steep for Krigaar to scale, and the tiny winding stair case that the Fa'shnet'ans used was far too small for her enormous body to scale. She'd need her own way to the surface, and I was happy to create one!
Both entrances I blocked off with a small vertical post and hinged gate that could be lifted and moved out of the way easily by a person, and walked right past by anyone. But the gap it created was simply too small for Krigaar, so it formed a convenient barrier to hold her in her enclosure without forming an obstacle for me as her handler. The young Fa'shnet'ans quickly learned not to enter the pen when Bra'ktis'lha punished one of the younger boys for throwing rocks at her by forcing him to spend the night tethered just outside her pen. I listened to her hiss and snap at him all night long and smiled in my bed. Served the little sod right. Lucky I didn't feed him to her!
At the top of the ascending passageway I would need a door or a gate of some sort to stop wildlife stumbling into her pen, or worse - creatures of the Darkness! She would hold her own for sure, and would actually form a very effective guard against stray night creatures, but I feared for her safety none-the-less and it was the responsible thing to do. A small gate clearly was useless, and even double doors would be awkward to open and close while mounted... I would need something else. And preferably something stronger!
I recalled the experimental switch-activated sliding door I had built at Home Pool last year. It had worked well except where it damaged the tracks by griding the stone doors across them, but this entrance had no such tracks and I could make a similar system at the surface-side of the tunnel, surely.
I formed a plan.
It would need 6 pistons and a bunch of time. I set about building the pistons, and coated their surface with some dried slime that I had collected from snails and jellyfish and Giant Slimes in my adventures in the fields and forest around Fa'shnet'ii since arriving... and before long I had 8 fully functioning red-stone activated pistons. I had built 2 spares just in case... might as well while I was tooled up for it... they'd come in handy in the future for sure.
I carefully dug out the sides of the surface-side of the passage way and inlaid my pistons, ensuring they were aligned neatly and had good freedom of movement. I had learned through a lot of tears and frustration last time that accuracy and patience was critical in getting this type of door to work properly.
I tested them all together (manually, without any charge) to ensure they all did what they were supposed to do. They functioned perfectly! Excellent. Now to activate them with some red-stone circuitry... this was the tricky bit.
After a full day of digging and carefully laying and testing my wiring circuits, I found the winning combination that allowed all three pistons to fire simultaneously. This was critical. If one fired then the other, they had enough force behind them to actually destroy my door, and that could be a disaster...
I mirrored the circuitry on the opposite door, but ran out of red-stone. This simply wouldn't work without it... I needed both the left and the right doors to activate together from a switch inside the passage, otherwise the whole thing was a waste of time. I would need more red-stone.
Time to go caving!
Deep, this time. Red-stone only existed at great depth in the earth...
My mount was eager for some action, and knew exactly where we were going as soon as I let her out of her enclosure and into the base of Fa'shnet'ii ravine. We made our way rapidly to the eastern end of the ravine and dove into the cavern entrance. She was keen and so was I.
I put on my helmet and the world became the humming blue monotone of shadowless sight that I had come to depend on... Krigaar too saw the world in this way, for no shadow ever gave her pause.
I went straight this time, rather than heading left and down into the mines where I had originally killed Lars'wal the first ever Bauerwolf I had encountered. Generally the mines were quite tight and made for slow going on Krigaar's back. The larger caverns had more space and I found that the scorpion could move at surprising speed when given the space to!
I took a branch to the right which I hadn't explored yet, and was pleased to find we were plunging deeper into the earth...
Before long we came across rich untapped veins in places that no human had ever set foot.
Technically they still hadn't... it was Krigaar doing all the walking. I was just along for the ride!
I dug the valuables out of the stone that held them, and when possibly Krigaar would assist by prizing gems free with her pincers or tail. Such an intelligent creature.
And we went along this cavern in this way for several hours, exploring smaller side-branches to their terminations, back tracking, continuing on. I had no fear of being lost because the dark presented no challenge, and Krigaar moved sure-footedly and mostly guided me without any direction at all from me. She knew what we were looking for and her sense of direction was much better than mine underground.
Before long the cavern terminated in the entrance to another abandoned mine-network. Rather than turning back and starting on a fresh cavern, I decided that we should enter and see whether we could find more red-stone or other valuables in here... we were still very deep and it was possible the ancient miners had left veins behind as they had in many other shafts I'd spelunked in the past...
It turned out to be a fateful mistake.
We were not fifteen minutes into the mine network when I heard the same sound I had heard before the Bauerwolf Lars'wal had attacked me. Immediately from a side shaft another Bauerwolf sprang... this one did not hesitate as the first did... it was, afterall, in pitch blackness and was probably as boldened as I was by this. It came straight for my mount and I, and took huge swipes and snaps at us. We fought it off with a glistening diamond blade, a huge arched venomous tail and two tremendous pincers but still the Bauerwolf attacked with a ferocity that astounded me. It was so determined and almost invulnerable to our attacks!
It was beginning to really injure Krigaar, and many of it's blows caused serious damage to my armour and knocked the wind from me as well.
Finally it managed to dismount me and I was thrown against a side shaft's wooden brace, completely winding me.
Krigaar scuttled between me and the Bauerwolf and continued to battle the creature while I recovered, and I could see thick yellow liquid oozing from many breaks in her carapace. I staggered to my feet and charged around her at the Bauerwold and together we cornered and killed it... it must have succumbed eventually to her venom, as it had become weak and disoriented.
Another golden apple was my reward for killing the monstrosity... what connection did these apples have with Bauerwolves??
I turned my attention to Krigaar and was immediately very concerned... she had collapsed onto her belly, her tail was limp, her legs twitched, and she looked at me blankly while body-fluid oozed alarmingly into pools around her. She was dying... fast. I had allowed my beautiful scorpion to be killed by a Bauerwolf. She was dead within minutes and I felt real sorry at losing her. What a magnificent creature... what a waste.
After recovering from the moment I removed the harness from her and bowed my head briefly before leaving her broken body in the tunnels, looking for my way out.
Not far from where she had fallen I came across a huge vein of red-stone, and reminded myself that I still needed to find a way to close that door. Now more than ever, since the base of the passageway was no longer guarded by a huge scorpion... Another pang of sorrow at the thought.
I mined all that I could carry, and continued my way out, following the cavern back the way we had come... there were only a few side-shafts in this cavern so it wasn't long until I had back-tracked to where we'd started our fateful journey.
As I returned home I unloaded everything I had brought up from the cavern with me, including the golden apple, some valuable ores, and Krigaar's saddle, and prepared the red-stone to be used to finish the automatic doors. To get to it I had to pass through Krigaar's enclosure. It really brought home what a terrible loss this was. I had raised Krigaar from a tiny (rabbit-sized) scorpion, trained her, fed her, defended her and bonded with her. We had known each other for over quarter of a year and had formed a good understanding of each other.
And now she was gone.
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The armour was lightweight, well-fitting, and comfortable.
I tested it against arrows and studied it carefully to identify where it's weak points were. There were few of them, but more than the Diamond melded armour that I had forged back at Home Pool. Under the arms and chin were especially vulnerable - I would have to adopt my combat style to protect these zones.
During tests I discovered something both fascinating and exciting.
The helmet had been crafted to include in the visor the eyes of the Cave Scorpion that the chitin had been taken from.
These eyes had a unique property - they enhanced the light so that shadows were removed completely. I could see in the dark!
It was an amazing gift! Instead of having to mark my way through caverns and mines with millions of torches, I could prowl the dark in my black armour and be both silent and invisible, for the most part. Even the night mob had trouble finding me. I was a killer in the dark.
It gave me great courage and allowed me to map out the mines beneath Fa'shnet'ii very effectively over the next few weeks.
At night I could see almost as clearly as I could during the day. I caught glimpse of strange creatures that I'd never seen in all the time I'd been in Grifwald. Were they local to the area, had I never seen them before because they had avoided me when I was less stealthy, or were these creatures a new part of the growing tide of the Darkness as the Pra'ktans called them?
I had discovered that during the night and in the caverns and mines the Giant Scorpions were highly aggressive and would attack not only me but any creature they found mercilessly... stinger them and crunching them up with their enormous mandibles. During the day, however, they were reasonably placid... and would only attack if attacked.
While on a hunting sortie for the Fa'shnet'iins one day I came across a Giant Scorpion that had something on it's back. It drew my attention, were they parasites? On closer inspection I discovered they were tiny scorpions! I use the word "tiny" very loosely of course. They were the size a rabbits!
Suddenly an idea occurred to me, perhaps I could raise one of these infant scorpions as a pet, and train it as I had done at Home Pool with wild wolves and cats?
The Giant Scorpion became very agitated when I approached it to try to snatch one, and it resulted in a quick battle that cost the scorpion it's life, but I managed to grab one of the baby scorpions before it scattered into the undergrowth with it's siblings, and carried it carefully back to Fa'shnet'ii. I was amused at it's vain attempts to sting me through my armour.
I quickly discovered that the creature had a ferocious appetite for meat, and in particular rats, rabbits, and all kinds of rodents. It would stalk them and make quick work of them, and it wasn't long until it would take them directly from my hand. It grew very trusting of me, and even protective of me. Perfect.
I named my new pet Krigaar, after the Praf'ktan word for "stalking prey". It suited the arachnid well.
Krigaar grew to the size of it's parent in a very short space of time... about 6 weeks. The bottom of the Fa'shnet'ii ravine was the perfect home for her.
But we encountered a problem. Krigaar had stung and killed one of the Fa'shnet'iians. She was probably having stones thrown at her or something, as the younger ones tended to do from time to time, but there was no way to be sure. And regardless, a human had been killed in what was supposed to be a retreat from these and other creatures of the Darkness.
A meeting was called where many angry faces had many angry things to say, and it was decided that Krigaar would need to be housed away from the people in her own enclosure.
In addition she would need to be restrained and trained, and if I was not able to do as I swore I could, she would be "destroyed". Yeah, well you guys can talk about destroying her all you like, but I'd grown quite fond of my pet scorpion, and if push came to shove you'd find I was not one to cross. I bit my tongue and promised that I could train her, and set about finding a way to harness Krigaar.
After many failed attempts I finally managed to be able to craft a good sturdy saddle and harness which fit well around her carapace without her chitinous legs cutting the straps as she moved.
We learned together. We became mount and rider, and she was both stealthy and fast. The perfect companion for hunting the caverns beneath Fa'shnet'ii at night... although the smaller caverns required me to dismount, and also Krigaar had an aversion to water which made some of the explorations difficult and I'd have to leave her behind for awhile.
When I attacked she also attacked, using her strong pincers and sometimes arching her tail over my shoulders to stab at opponents.
I was chuffed with my mount!
Together we explored and dominated the extensive caverns and mines beneath Fa'shnet'ii.
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omfg won't somebody answer me?
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I believe a scorpion can climb vertical walls... correct? If so, is there a maximum height, or straight up?
So the real question - can you ride a scorpion up a wall?
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I like the space in yer house, but it needs more ... uh... pizazz! Like windows, for example.
Keep it rolling! I like it!
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I have plenty of friends who haven't even HEARD of it until I told them about it.
The same can't be said for games like Crysis or Battlefield or Skyrim or Civilisations or Age Of Empires for example.
They become so highly rated due to huge amounts of money being sunk into their publication.
As another poster in this thread said, when the Minecraft killer comes out, it's going to be amazing.
The key thing that I think needs to be improved on MC is the removal of the blockiness - I think this can be achieved by increasing their resolution and instead of 1 "pixel" editing as currently, instead there is larger "brush sizes" so that players can destroy and build many blocks at once... but the blocks are much smaller. In this way you can make "piles of sand" and break up large chunks of rocks, etc.
Another key thing that would improve it is "dependancy gravity". For example you cut a branch and the entire branch, leaves and all fall. You break a stick holding a few rocks with a switch on top and the entire switch and everything falls. And rotates past the grid too... like in Crysis and Far-Cry. This would need an entirely new engine of course, since this one is based around layers of pixels in images and the grid is hard-wired into everything about it... but ya, that Minecraft killer which can achieve these things and even rag-doll physics would be a true virtual world...
[/endrant]
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I have been creating my own personal Minecraft Resource Centre for awhile now, and I'd like to share it here.
It is being updated constantly, so if it interests you please bookmark it.
It gives cross-linked (and readily searchable) reference to key things that I feel are important assets to all-things-Minecraft.
Suggestions on improvements and things to add are very welcome.
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@ Cheeseguy 93:
All sorts of goodies, but that's the only one I've seen so far... the rest are just mob noises that I'm not familiar with. Some of them are really creepy, too.
STORY CONTINUES:
The following day a Fa'Shnet'an that I had learned was named Hsra'nye came to my room and I immediately saw that he was on edge and was holding back a lot of anger.
He barked "You need to come see this".
Puzzled and a little annoyed, I geared up and followed Hsra'nye. He lead me across the small cobble bridge at the base of the falls and towards the mines where I had slain the Bauerwolf.
As we passed, a few other men came with us, all solemn and silent. Many displaying clear signs of hostility towards me.
I was a baffled and a little concerned. These men had been pleasant, welcoming, and generous to me so far in my stay in Fa'shnet'ii, and this was a strange turn.
Whispering in corners stopped as I passed, and people looked up and watched me pass... I began to sense that I should be very careful what I said and did.
I ventured to Hsra'nye in front of me "What's going on?" He looked back at me with open hostility and said nothing.
A man I didn't know behind me replied "Bra'ktis'lha wants to see you."
That didn't sound good. He made it sound like I'd done something very, very wrong. Why then was I being lead back down into the mines I had come from, and not back up to the Main Hall. Why was Bra'ktis'lha down in the mines?
My questions would have to wait... nobody wanted to talk to me. We trudged on across the base of the ravine of Fa'shnet'ii and reached the mine's lower-levels entrance.
There were others in the mines, some alone, others talking quietly in groups, all watching me pass.
One called out something to me that I didn't quite catch, and one of the men behind me called back "Enough! Bra'ktis'lha will come to the end of this." Again, not good.
I noticed for the first time that the three men behind me were all dressed like Bra'ktis'lha's personal guard, with their strange studded weapons and black or red glossy armour beneath their tunics. Had I done something wrong? Had I betrayed some law? We continued to march through the tunnels to where I had been attacked by the Bauerwolf two nights ago.
As we rounded the corner to where the battle with the creature had taken place I found Bra'ktis'lha talking with three other men. Ra'meere squared off with me and said "Why did you do it?" I saw behind him a man on the floor, his body broken.
Bra'ktis'lha looked around at me, stepped past the body and put his hand on Ra'meere's shoulder. He looked at me with his blank expression and said "Jem'kladt, is this the man you killed last night and returned to our home to tell others of?" He indicated the body on the floor.
"I killed no man," I replied. "It was a terrible beast that attacked me, and I slew it."
Bra'ktis'lha studied my face for a moment, then responded "It is a man I see before me on the floor of this mine, where you say you slew this creature."
I could plainly see that he was correct, and I reached into my pack to retrieve the ear I had removed from the creature. I heard men stiffening behind me with the movement, but paid no attention and nor did Bra'ktis'lha. His expression tightened as I presented the ear. "I took this from the creature when I killed it."
Bra'ktis'lha took the ear and studied it, handing it back to me. He gestured at the men standing over the crumpled body on the mine's floor, and one of them obliged by rolling the body over, showing the man was missing his ear. I was confused for a moment for at this time I had never encountered a Bauerwolf and I knew nothing about them. I had thought it was a huge man-like animal that I had slain.
Bra'ktis'lha spoke loudly for the others' benefit "It is settled then. Lars'wal was a Bauerwolf, and has attacked our guest, who triumphed."
Hsra'nye let out a tremendous howl of pain or rage I'm not sure and sank to his knees next to the corpse and sobbed like a small child. My heart went out to the man, but it was me who was attacked and if I had not killed this creature it would surely have killed me.
"Suit this man," Bra'ktis'lha said to the men behind me. "He has slain a significant creature of the darkness, and he is worthy to be among our Guard." He turned to Hrsa'nye and placed his hand on his shoulder and the Guards behind me led me back up to Fa'shnet'ii and to an armory filled with chests of armour and weapons.
The armour I was offered was light, but as hard as steel. It made a hollow sound like wood when I tapped on it, and it wasn't until I discovered a huge claw that I recognised what it must be. It was made from the shell of some enormous insect of some kind. It was very similar to the shells of the Giant Spiders that I had killed so many of over the decades, except that they didn't have claws like this. No... this was something else.
It was nowhere near as pretty as my diamond armour, but it was much lighter, far less brittle, and also allowed for a lot more freedom of movement. I accepted a well-fitting suit of this armour and stowed my battle-scarred diamond armour in the chest in my quarters.
The men who had previously looked at me with hostility now looked at me with respect and even a small amount of fear. The first time I had sensed a slight awe towards me from these people.
A Bauerwolf, it turned out, was a man with a terrible secret that often he didn't even know about himself. A man during the day and a huge beast with an unquenchable appetite for flesh at night. They were impossible to identify during the day, although sometimes clues could be used to determine one... tattered clothing in the mornings being one of the clearer indicators.
Nobody had suspected that Lars'wal was a Bauerwolf, least of all his brother Hrsa'nye. It was not my fault that I had slain the man. It wasn't even his own fault.
It was the evil behind the Darkness to blame.
It was part of the coming Breaking of the World.
It was all the more reason for Praf'kta to succeed.
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@ Cheeseguy93, DarthViper3k, & Gorbag:
Ya, I freaked. First one of these I've faced. It's frikkin huge man, like it's ears scrape the top of the tunnels and it runs at you both on all fours (REALLY fast!) and up on hind legs, and makes the most awful noise the whole time!
@ Shilka:
That's a werewolf in the Mo' Creatures mod. One of the many really awesome new night mob creatures, and not even close to being the nastiest! Highly recommend this mod!
STORY CONTINUES:
The creature stood glaring at me unflinching with glowing red eyes, a single line of frothy saliva drooling out of it's mouth and splatting on the floor.
It breathed heavily, it's massive chest heaving and the thick hair on it's shoulders flexing with the movement.
It stood staring at me, and I froze with an unpleasant mix of adrenaline and weariness.
I clenched my sword and the movement triggered the Bauerworld into action!
It crouched forwards on all fours and lunged at me with a speed and power that astonished me!
I staggered backwards down the flight of stairs I had just come up from where the Night Crawler had exploded in my face, and the Bauerwolf crashed into the wall where I had been, shaking it's head in confusion for a second. Just long enough for me to regain my balance at the base of the stairs.
It crawled down the stairs at me on all fours, and something about it's form and movement added a new dimension of creepiness to the thing. It was a disturbing blend of man and beast.
It reached the base of the stairs and squared off with me again, raising itself up onto it's hind legs and again shocking me with it's sheer size.
This time I didn't wait for it to lunge. I brought my axe up in a feint and as it turned to fend the blow I brought my sword downwards and inwards at it's throat. It connected! But it didn't penetrate the creatures thick hair and hide, and the action left my sword arm's side exposed.
The Bauerwolf swiped at me and the blow's force spun me off balance. I worked with the blow and continued the spin, bringing my axe back and around in a full 360 rotation with the full weight of the spin behind it and down onto the creature's skull.
Again, it connected and this time it stunned the creature, who dropped to the ground with a mighty howl.
I pressed my advantage and plunged my sword down behind it's head towards where I figured it's heart would be. The point of my diamond blade penetrated with little resistance, and I buried nearly 20 inches of diamond into the creature's rib cage. It screamed in agony and yanked up and away but dropped limp to the floor before it's own momentum had finished.
I had beaten it! It lay limp on the stone floor, and from a tattered pack of some kind around it's waste a gleaming object rolled out across the floor and tinked against the wall.
I couldn't believe my fortune! A golden apple! It was heavy and stunningly beautiful. What a treasure!
I rummaged the rest of the creature, and found nothing of value. I cut off an ear as a trophy and put it and the golden treasure into my loot bag, which I slung on my shoulder and made my way warily out of the mine and back up towards Fa'Shnet'ii. The battle with the Bauerwolf had made a lot of noise, and I was conscious of night creature sounds in dark shafts all around me that remained unexplored.
It was an immense relief to step out of the tunnels and into a heavy rain pouring into the ravine of Fa'Shnet'ii.
Bra'ktis'lha and the others were not here but two others were, and I asked for water and a place to rest, and told them of the 8 hours in the mines beneath Fa'Shnet'ii. By the time I had finished the tale the two men had become a group of 20 or more, and questions were many.
I kept the apple hidden, but the Bauerwolf ear widened many eyes.
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That thing's barely a whale poo! How are you supposed to develop on that!! lol.
You need to get yerself a boat and find some land!
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You have multi-accounted yer own server and altered the terrain in your map for the express purpose of preventing yourself from suffering the consequences of your own actions.
Yes, clever and quick as hell.
Yes, cheating.
Yes, you can cheat if it's your own server.
Yes, your friend is just jealous.
Yes, your friend should throw pie at your face.
Yes, I like pie.
That is all.
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@ Cheeseguy93:
As with any journal I make, I create it pretty much as I write it... all impulsive, and based around the pics I take.
Recently in this one I've decided to have a little bit of a general fore-thought about what might come up, and then see where it takes it.
@ DarthViper3k:
Haha sorry about yer crappy burger Darth!
You just know it's got more camel, cat and rat in it than beef, right?
Meh it's all protein.
STORY CONTINUES:
"How's your head?"
Brak'Tis'Lha stood at the entrance to my bed-cavern with the tiniest hint of humour dancing behind his otherwise solemn eyes.
I blinked the wool from away from behind my own eyes and forced a smile at my host.
"I'm sure I'll survive," I croaked, half annoyed and half amused by the sound of my own hangover.
"Don't be so sure," smiled Bra'Ktis'Lha. "Today we're going into the mines."
My annoyance moved away from my hang-over and onto Bra'ktis'lha briefly. A bit presumptuous, wasn't it? What if I didn't want to go into the mines today? I reminded myself I was a guest and that I had just consumed a king's ransom of food and ale, and that I enjoyed mining anyway, so what was the problem? I decided that it was actually my hangover that was annoyed with Brak, not me, and reminded it who was in control. It rewarded me with an extra painful spike up the back of my neck as I leaned forward to get out of bed, and suddenly I wasn't so sure it was me in control after-all.
"Excellent!" I croaked, trying very hard not to sound sarcastic. "When do we leave?"
Brak just stood there looking at me.
"What... now?"
Bra'ktis'lha smiled slightly, and my annoyance danced about his head like little angry thunderclouds jabbing spears at him. I hoped like hell they were invisible to everyone but me.
"Ok let me just wash my face and I'll be right with you..." I grabbed my gear and stowed my sword, stepped past Brak and reached into the falls. Splashing some of the cold water on my face really helped, and I shook the last of the wool out of my head and said "Lead on".
With us this time was a troop of four men, plus Brak. I recognised one as Ra'meere, and another as being the guard that had follwed Bra'ktis'lha around all day yesterday too. A personal guard, surely... His suspicious stink-eye was back, but I combat it with a smile and a courteous nod. It didn't help. Whatever.
A yell came from the bottom of the ravine, quickly echoed by one and then two of the men with us, pointing down into the gully. I leaned out on the rail to see what the commotion was about and saw to my mild surprise a walking dead stumbling it's way over the cobble bridge we had crossed last night.
It had spotted the men with me and was idiotically trying to find a way to us. The men with me had drawn bows and were beginning to fire at the creature, but I knew from past experience that arrows had little effect on these things. Often an arrow would simply pass through their rotting flesh and they didn't even notice.
I drew my sword and jumped the rail, landing in waste deep water a few meters below and faced the creature directly. Its gaze shifted from the men on the stairs behind me and it gurgled with desire at seeing warm flesh so close to it. It's shriveled, dry, white eyes fixed on me and it showed no emotion at all as I cut it's limbs from it's body and broke it's rotting body so thoroughly that even whatever evil animated it could not maintain it's spell. It collapsed into a quivering mess of flesh and bones, and that was that.
I looked up. It was night!
What was this...? I was confused... I thought this was the morning after the night of feast. The lighting in this ravine really was good for me to be so completely fooled into thinking it was day time.
I looked around to find the four men followed by Bra'ktis'lha coming towards me from the base of the stairs and across the small cobble bridge. The first of them, Ra'meere, called out "Nice work Jem'kladt! Why take out an enemy safely from behind a rail when you can leap over it, off a cliff, and into water flowing over slippery rocks while unsheathing a sword?" His face had humour, it was a joke not an insult. I laughed and so did his companions.
"What time is it?" I asked, still disoriented. Ra'meer responded "It's the following night, Fru'ir!" I had no idea what Fru'ir meant, but the others laughed so I guessed it was at my expense. He said "You've looked like this fellow all day," he gestured at the remains of the walking dead I had slain. Well no wonder I felt so ordinary. I would have to be more cautious with that ale syrup these people drank... clearly very potent stuff!
"Come on," they laughed. "To the mines!"
And we made our way back down to the other end of the ravine, to where I had heard picks smacking at stone when Brak gave me a tour of Fa'shnet'ii... longer ago than I thought!
At the entrance to the cavern network, Bra'ktis'lha stopped us and split us into three groups.
Him and his bodyguard would head into the east cavern (straight ahead) to meet up with the group that I could again hear digging away at rock, while the other three men would head south, into a ravine to explore it as it was still reasonably uncharted, and I was asked to head north, downwards, into what they called "The Mine of Our Ancestors", which they said riddled the earth. Same people that made the abandoned mines I had stripped clean in so many parts near Home Pool, I guess... well, except for Wurm Cavern of course. I shuddered. Why did I have to think of that now, when I was about to head into a new mine?
I was told to explore and torch out the mine, and bring back any valuables and a map of the network so that we could get a better understanding of what caves and mines lay at the feet of Fa'shnet'ii. This, they said, is where the evil bred and grew, and needed to be purified for the Breaking to come to an end. I still had not found a way to ask what the Breaking was without risking them asking some uncomfortable questions about who I was or where I'd come from.
As I descended into the mines I began to hear the familiar sound of night things. In particular I could hear an unusually large number of Giant Spiders. I could hear their chitinous bodies scraping against itself and the stone of the mine, and the screaming squeal they hissed at each other. Sometimes I could discern discussion between two or more of them, cruel evil sentences and words that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Giant Spiders, I had come to learn, were reasonably smart creatures, and could even communicate with each other in a language that was similar to the tongue of the people in the world, and could sometimes even be understood if you listened closely.
As I drew close to the shaft these arachnids lived in, I found a seam of coal, and broke it out of the stone to take back to the surface with me, as I had been asked to by Brak (and which I would have done regardless).
The seam gave way to a shaft beyond and the sickly smell of the Giant Spiders poured through the hole. I had found a lair of these creatures for sure. I had come across two or three Giant Spider lairs in the past, and I had become accustomed to their smell. This meant that within this hole there would be many Spiders, and chances were good that most of them were watching me right now.
I held the hilt of my sword, ready to draw at the first sign of attack. I knew where they were now, there was no need to raid or break the lair... I had been given a job to do, and this wasn't it. I would pile some of the cobble left over from breaking open the coal seam into the hole, which would stop the Spiders from following me as I retreated back down the hall and began charting another tunnel.
As I began piling the cobble up an arrow whistled out of the darkness and deflected off my helmet, knocking me backwards.
An animated skeleton came leering out of the hole, slipping down my pile of cobble and drawing another arrow at me as I lay vulnerable on the mine's floor. I rolled backwards over my own shoulders, both exposing the thick armour of my back to the second arrow and giving me time and distance to draw my sword.
The second arrow sheared off my armour as planned, and I came to my feet, blade ready, as the animated skeleton bent a third arrow and grinned lifelessly at me. My blade smashed upwards at it's neck-line and connected under the jaw, the head of the skeleton being cleanly removed before it could even flinch. The rest of it's fleshless body collapsed to the ground, joints coming loose even before it hit the floor, turning into a pile of bones and tattered remnants of some ancient armour. A quick battle, but one which had taken me completely off-guard. I kicked at the pile of bones to see if anything useful could be found in it, and cursed my foolishness as a Giant Spider forced it's huge body through the tiny hole I had left and lunged at me!
It's mandibles gripped around my left arm and I cried out in pain as it's fangs pierced through the joint of my armour and deep into the flesh of my elbow... the pain!! It was like two hot branding irons had been plunged into my flesh, sending my whole arm numb and limp instantly.
I spun towards the arachnid and drove my sword hard and fast between it's eyes, killing it instantly without so much as a hissing scream.
I staggered back away from the twitching corpse of it and from the hole to the Giant Spiders' lair... I had twice in quick succession been surprised by enemy coming from the hole I had broken through into the far shaft and I didn't want there to be a third time... As I stumbled backwards I noticed that the numbness from my arm was spreading rapidly and already the entire left side of my body was cold and tingling, and my leg buckled under me when I tried to put weight on it.
I collapsed to the ground and a pounding, ringing sound filled my head, and my vision tunneled as the coldness swept up the back of my head and around to cover my face. I lay stunned on the floor of the cavern, and felt real fear for the first time in many years.
I fought it. I didn't let myself succumb to the poison coursing through my veins.
I reached cold unresponsive fingers to my belt and removed the strongest of my two healing potions that I'd brewed just before heading east on this trip, and tried vainly to get my left arm to remove the stopper. The arm would not respond at all, so I raised the bottle up to my mouth and removed the stopper with my teeth and downed the liquid within. It was like warm honey and spread quickly from my throat and stomach, fighting back the cold that was taking over my body.
The tunnel vision began to recede and the thrumming in my ears became a distant murmur.
I struggled to my feet before any more spiders could ambush me, and breathlessly moved some of the larger cobbles to cover the hole. As the noise in my head diminished I could begin to hear them discussing me on the other side of the wall in their hissing tongue. Spiders are poor diggers, so I knew I was safe behind my barrier. I put my back to the wall where I could watch the hole and waited for many hours before I felt sober and clear headed enough to stand and continue.
I briefly considered going back up to Fa'shnet'ii, but I was almost as well now as when I entered the mines so there was little point. I continued spelunking the mine network as I marked it out with torches and mapped it on the parchment I had brought with me.
I came across many veins of ore, even gold! I hadn't see gold for a long time now, as most of my recent few years had been spent building my own empire and shallow caving ventures... gold only ever seemed to be found in much deeper depths, along with red stone, blue stone and diamond...
As I dove deeper into the mines, pushing back the night creatures and the darkness with my blade and my torches, I came across ever more intelligent ambushes. A night crawler hid behind a wooden brace around a corner, and I didn't see it until I was right upon it!
It promptly blew up in my face.
I really didn't like those guys.
My armour and the stone of the corner that I had quickly staggered back away from the night crawler to hide behind saved my life, but the ringing in my ears, combined with the remnants of the spider venom and last night's ale in my veins was beginning to take it's toll on me.
I decided it was time to head back up to the surface to rest, offload the treasures I had found, pass in my maps, and repair my armour. I sealed off the last dead-end cavern, and turned to head back up the last flight of stairs and up and out of the mines towards home...
I was exhausted, but I had learned that this cavern in particular was taking me by surprise more often than most. It seemed to be filled with evil.
So I was not surprised when I heard a noise I had never heard before, echoing down the cavern towards me from the path I needed to take to get home. It was a deep throaty rumble... a growl like that of a bear, but long, and drawn out. It sounded very threatening... very big. I stopped and listened to it, and my heart sank as I heard it become louder, and draw nearer, and then could make out the click clack of claws contacting the stone. Big, long, drawn out footsteps. Something very big was coming this way...
I put down my sack of loot and drew my sword and put my axe in my left hand. It wasn't often that I entered a battle with two weapons at once, but this thing sounded very menacing, and I had a moment to prepare.
As I braced myself a darkness fluttered in the shaft junction up ahead... a shadow grew out of the tunnel, and it was followed by something terrifying! It was almost twice as tall as me. A Bauerwolf!