Sealed in

[Pansy]

Burgingham is correct. I thought about spamming alts until one of them was outside of the fence, but what could a brand new alt do at that point? Nope, without dark skills it looks like it is game over.

[flaw]

Spawn an alt, break down the fence

When I get it right the area is claimed, so an alt would need black skills. Which brings us once again to one of the most important things to do in this game: Claim your stuff as fast as possible, otherwise shit like this happens!!!

His hearth is on someone else's claim? Yeah, that's a problem.

ETA: re-read the OP, yep, on someone else's claim.

[UnrealJake]

My friend quit this game, he wasn't aware of this one, small, simple fact.

Cupboards decay in one hit. You may have to wait two days, you may have to wait five minutes. Log on tomorrow where you left off and it will probably be gone, you may have to start all over again if you can't destroy the claim, but it isn't as bad as a palisade.

If you want to destroy the claim, you will have to build a village claim right next to it though...

[Pansy]

Not worth the effort to build a village I would say. I'd have to line up four friends, grind to yeomanry... all just to get my little farm back. Meanwhile I have a smart and malicious griefer on my case... I'd say emigration is my best bet, whether or not I can salvage the character. I'd be surprised if the farm was salvageable. More to the point, it appears my game strategy with this particular character has proven too much risk for the effort. I am kind of perplexed figuring out any interesting way to develop. I haven't yet been able to solve that one since the reset.

The main question in my op was "is this legitimate or not?" And I think it probably is, since as Burgingham pointed out if I had gotten yeomanry and built a claim I would have been alright.

[Josan]

Well, the only option now is to get Jorb to bust you out with his freaky deaky god like powers. Hopefully, you have not griefed him a lot, like me =P. So go get Jorb or Loftar.

[Peter]

This is not "legitimate". It's an exploit. I don't suppose you could wait until your hearth decays and respawn in the wild?

[Onionfighter]

You could try to get a bear to bust you out, though that would take some luck.

[Pansy]

You could try to get a bear to bust you out, though that would take some luck.

Given the number of bears that had been hanging around my settlement, this might just work....

But it wouldn't remove the claim, as I can't figure out a way to convince a bear to do that. I could try cowering between my kiln, my hearth fire and the claim stake but those disagreeable bears would probably rush around the obstacles to get me. And darn it, I don't have a stone in my inventory to attack the uncooperative creatures with. They have so far shown themselves almost impervious to me jeering and hopping up and down waving when I'm not in their immediate line of sight.

[UnrealJake]

Well, maybe you could dig for soil, for LP, grind your way up to criminal acts, and break through!

Or maybe not...

[Onionfighter]

Well, maybe you could dig for soil, for LP, grind your way up to criminal acts, and break through!

Or maybe not...

Yeah, death from starvation would come first.

I would offer to help you, but I cannot play right now. If you have any friends nearby, they could try to get a bear to break through that fence. I suggest you memorize the person who laid down the claim for future retribution. (In the default client Ctrl + rightclick on the claim area.)