Alas, without further ado, let's begin.
CHAPTER 1:
WULF'S RETREAT
I had this idea a little before the end of world 8 was announced. The premise is simple: Is it possible to settle - and live - on the snow biome? On top of a mountain? Far away from wood and water sources, with no fertile ground for farming and tree planting, with basically no forageables or almost anything useful? The prospect seemed dire enough for anyone willing to go for a competitive, end-game run of this world, but I wanted to try it out. I've never been one for competitive/hardcore gameplay/end-game pvp so this felt like a nice survival challenge for a change after a safe and stable run that World 8 was for me.
Things started out a bit... complicated. World too small, OP resources, etc, etc...
The results are that I took too long to finally find a suitable mountain and - when I did - my "future neighbors" assumed I was after their Ice Spire (why else would anyone make a claim up there, after all?)
That first contact didn't end well for Wulfkin.
I've managed to estabilish some dialogue with them after that, however. They've brought me Wulfkin's body so Wulfkin II could bury his father, and they also understood that I had no interest on any natural resources. I only wanted to survive.
They did move not long afterwards, though - so I guess that's ok.
I've started my basic camp and begun collecting materials for a palisade and village claim.
Life up there is cold and harsh. But also beautiful...
The scenery is priceless - if you endure the frostbites.
Of course my happiness didn't last long. The next day when I logged, someone had dropped a little troll claim, preventing me to expand further. There was no choice - I had to move. There was this place a couple screens to the West that actually seemed better - the only problem about it is that it was EVEN MORE DISTANT from any water or wood sources. Well, whatever. It's meant to be a challenge anyway, so... There we go.
Needed a couple days to estabilish a new camp and prepare the pavement for my desired wall.
Now I only needed to finish tanning some leather for the initial cornerpost.
The first lesson I've learned is that nothing is useless anymore. One thing we get used to doing when living on more fertile lands is to treat some things as granted. Sometimes you split a block and 1 branch remains, you throw it away. Food? You stockpile it. Stuff can be easily thrown away because there are tons everywhere. Not here.
Every branch counts, every block counts. I try to save everything, I don't throw anything away. A bit of wasted water or a wasted campfire means a long (and dangerous) hike to get a single log or barrel of water. Can't really build a road because of the uneven terrain, so I must count on my knowledge of the surrounding area. It seems to be improving, by the way - every time I need to go down the mountain I manage to optimize my way and cut the time a bit. So there is actually a feeling of becoming one with the land around you, you start to feel like a mountain man or something like that.
Other issue I've been facing is the terrain. You can't alter the snow ground, so you have to plan carefully to not be surprised by the evil "Terrain is not flat enough". I had to spend precious time, resources and tons of water destroying a bit of my own palisade because of careless planning. Won't happen again.
By the way, building the palisade was a crazy thing. I made a relatively big plot because of future plans (I'll explain more later). So I needed a lot of wood. At first, I was going down the mountain and teleporting back with one log at a time - but that was incredibly inefficient. I decided to spend some of the LP I was saving to get a cart, then. Things were much easier once I discovered the cliff-free route between the top and the bottom of the mountain, though it is slow as hell with the cart, I managed to get the wood I needed in a few hours.
(if you look closely, I'm there hauling wood
)
After starting the first sector of the palisade, I've realized that there was a way I could optimize my efficiency even further. Regardless of quality, a metal axe and saw would increase my block and board output for menial things like the palisade, the upcoming houses and cupboards. Felt like a good plan, so I rushed a bit of iron that I could scavenge from the Heavy Earth boulders everyone neglected
and made myself a basic set of metal works.
With those in hand, I could finally finish my wall. Also, with the LP I have been saving with both my character and an alt I brought to help with some tasks, I was finally able to ensure the whole land to be mine by founding a village.
And so Wulf's Retreat was born.
It is mostly empty for now, yes.
But I have the land, the claim and the walls. So the journey has begun. Greater hardships will come from now on - it has been hard to do it all by myself or having to decide if I should eat or get water or work. All my LP so far has pretty much been spent on claim or things I needed to ensure the land, so my skills are quite bad as of now... I've been living from berries, squirrels and pretty much whatever I can find that's edible
So, yeah... it's a different, more harsh experience than the usual. But it's also quite rewarding, too
So this is the start of the way.
I have plans for Wulf's Retreat to be an open/public area - with room for trading, an arena, an Inn for mountain travelers and wanderers, etc...
It might take some while - especially because I'd like to use Straw for the houses' tatching materials and I can't farm, so... Yeah, might be a while.
But that's it.
I hope I live through the end of this project
And, if anyone feels kind today, know that I'm gladly accepting donations of pretty much anything, from curios and straw to, I dunno... branches. Everything matters and makes a difference up here
Also, feel free to say hi if you pass about
