The Hunted: The Railroad Adventure

[Drifter Man]

10 hours ago, Timber Wolf said:

He sure is.  I take a moment to get inside O.B.’s head.

The eyes  You should have taken a panoramatic!

[The_Materialist]

over 50 days while hunted by the O.B. thats impressive bro!

[Timber Wolf]

9 hours ago, Riotintheair said:

That panorama is gorgeous!

Sorry to hear you're out of hats, it sounds like things maybe starting to slide downhill a bit.

Thanks!  I've still got a wool scarf and found a cotton toque in my pile of crappy clothes, so I'm not quite there yet. 

[Timber Wolf]

24 minutes ago, The_Materialist said:

over 50 days while hunted by the O.B. thats impressive bro!

Thanks!  I'm shooting for 100 days on this run. 

[Timber Wolf]

Day 53 – I wake up around midday, well recovered and head up to the lodge.  I stop by the upper cave and kill a rabbit, harvest it and leave all the parts in the back of the cave next to my other stuff.  Then I spin over to the lodge, where I take a 2 hour nap.

I leave the lodge and go down the cliff to separate from O.B.  I cruise over by the lower cave and spend some time collecting sticks.  Then kill another rabbit, leaving its parts in the back of that cave.  Then I walk past the lake and spook a deer toward a wolf on the other end.  Seems like a good opportunity, so I run after the deer to ensure the 2 animals will connect.  Sure enough, the wolf kills the deer and I pull out a stone.

I throw several stones that miss and also bounce off the wolf, then throw one that seems to pass just under the wolf’s head and that finally spooks it.

This stone throwing thing really works to get wolves away from their kills.  I decide to roll the dice and harvest the entire deer in one go and make a run for my base.  I don’t see any wolves along the way and make it safely inside.

It is at this point that I fully realize how easy it is to survive here with O.B.  I can safely make loops around the map and keep myself fed.  It won’t be until I start running out of key items that I will face much of a challenge.  I spend some more time thinking about how to proceed and decide to get setup for the end game.  I’ll try to survive until 100 days and if I’m still alive, I will leave the Broken Railroad and follow the rail back to the dam.  I only have 1 flare gun shell left, so it’s unlikely I’ll be able to make it that far, but it should be fun to try!
 

Days 54 – 66 – I get busy consolidating most of my stuff, including firewood, to my base in the maintenance building.  I get another deer and a few more rabbits.  I also get into a fight with a wolf in the front of the maintenance yard, after throwing stones at it to see if I could scare it off.

I also craft new deerskin boots, deerskin pants, rabbitskin mittens and a wolfskin coat.  Before completing the first of these, it occurs to me that if I leave .5 hours of crafting time then the item won’t start to degrade.  I do this with them all and sure enough, they don’t degrade.  I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of that before.  I will complete these clothes just before I leave BR, so I will be as protected as I can be from the inevitable attacks from O.B. along the way.

Day 67 – I wake up in my base and head out into a beautiful, warm day.  I’m just about done getting everything moved to my base and just have one more load in the upper cave.  After I collect everything I want, I walk out of the cave and turn toward the lodge and sprain an ankle.  I’m not bothered by this and will just sleep it off in the lodge.  I spend some time picking up sticks just outside the cave.

Then a most unexpected thing happens – I faintly hear the sounds of O.B. grumbling.  What the heck?!  How can he be up here?  I was sure he wouldn’t walk through the gate below, because I’ve always seen him turn around and walk away from it.  Maybe it isn’t him….

Shit!  It most certainly is O.B.!  I hear him go from a walk to a run as he gets closer.  I hobble over and on to a fallen tree hoping it will be a safe spot.  I turn and see O.B. has slowed to a walk and is coming my way. 

Then it hits me – I hadn’t reloaded the game!  He’s just still up here from when I ditched him the day before.  I had minimized the game window, stopped playing for a while, and then came back and started playing again.  This is not good.

When he gets close to the tree, he starts running again but goes right past the end of the tree.  I watch him run all around the area.  I figure I’m safe on this tree, so when I see O.B. has calmed down and is walking toward the other side of the tree I just stand my ground.

When he gets close to the tree, he starts running and has no problem coming up on the tree and at me.

While I pick myself up after we finish our dance, I begin to realize I am in a very precarious position.  I quickly patch up my wounds and check on my condition, which is at 31%.  I might be trapped on this tree.  I need him to get spooked again and run around, so that I can make a break for it.

A few seconds later, O.B. roars and takes off running around to the other side, and again slows to a walk.

When he gets close to the end of the tree, he spins around and starts running around panicked.  I think this is my chance.  When I see him run back into the corner, I make a run for it off the tree and down the path.

I’m not sure which way to go and opt for down the hill, instead of to the lodge.  I get through the gate safely and see a lone wolf out on the lake.  I take a deep breath knowing I’m safe from O.B. now.  All I have to do is avoid the wolves and get back to base.

I take the long way around the woods to stay as far away from the lake as I can.  As I get near to the maintenance yard I don’t see any wolves.  I do see a deer close by and start driving it in the direction I’m going, to give myself some cover.

I walk through the hole in the fence and instead of going in the door, I decide to walk around the side to my base.  With no warning, a wolf barks and comes running.

I have no sprint left and can only try to get to the back door.  But there’s no time.

The wolf quickly sends me into The Long Dark.

And this story comes to a very abrupt and unexpected end. 

Thank you to everyone for following our story!  O.B. thanks you as well.

[Riotintheair]

Oh wow. I didn't see that coming! 

Rest in Peace Intrepid Explorer of the Unknown.

[Timber Wolf]

11 minutes ago, Riotintheair said:

Oh wow. I didn't see that coming! 

I didn't either!  I was stunned by it.  Still am.

How suddenly it ended reminds me a little of the very first time I had an adventure with O.B.  I went straight to TWM and lasted until Day 105.  That's when I did a complete clothing change just before bed, but forgot to actually put on the clothes!    So, I froze to death while sleeping and it was all over, just like that.

[Drifter Man]

Yes, that's how it happens in TLD. One mistake and suddenly things go downhill. 100% in the morning, 0% in the afternoon. It was a good read!

Edit: You still had one distress pistol flare left - why didn't you use it? If not against the bear, then against the wolf?

[Timber Wolf]

17 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

Edit: You still had one distress pistol flare left - why didn't you use it? If not against the bear, then against the wolf?

I didn’t use it on O.B. because I really didn’t think he would be able to come on to the tree.  And I had let my guard down when I was just steps away from my base, and didn’t even think of it.  

I only had maybe 5 seconds from when I saw the wolf and it reached me.  Not sure I could have even gotten a shot off due to the slow animation for raising it and pulling the trigger.  Still, you make a good point and I should have had it drawn before left the fallen tree. 

[Drifter Man]

Yeah, I also died a couple of times just because I didn't do the right thing in the few seconds I had left. Later I got used to having a loaded flare pistol in my hand almost at all times. It wasn't meant to be a criticism.

[JAFO]

And so endeth a fine tale.. bugger. Still, a lot was learned from it. Not least of which is;

5 hours ago, Timber Wolf said:

I really didn’t think he would be able to come on to the tree.

Before this, none of us would have.

In retrospect, it makes sense. Essentially, you were simply on what amounts to a bridge, which just happened to be formed by a tree-trunk. As such, like any other bridge, it's to be expected that there's creature pathing over it. So it's completely unlike a regular arched, fallen-over tree.

Well, that's certainly something to keep in mind from now on.. thanks for your costly discovery!

That one can be chalked up to simply not knowing.. this one, however...

10 hours ago, Timber Wolf said:

I walk through the hole in the fence and instead of going in the door, I decide to walk around the side to my base.

was simply a bad decision. Had you gone straight for the close-by door, you'd probably have made it. Do you recall why you decided to take the long way 'round?

[Timber Wolf]

7 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

It wasn't meant to be a criticism.

I didn't take it that way.   It was a very good question and I was just trying to think through why I didn't have the flare gun ready. 

[Timber Wolf]

3 hours ago, JAFO said:

In retrospect, it makes sense. Essentially, you were simply on what amounts to a bridge, which just happened to be formed by a tree-trunk. As such, like any other bridge, it's to be expected that there's creature pathing over it. So it's completely unlike a regular arched, fallen-over tree.

Especially since he didn't come on to the tree from the end closest to the cave.  That immediately convinced me I was in a safe zone.

 

3 hours ago, JAFO said:

Had you gone straight for the close-by door, you'd probably have made it. Do you recall why you decided to take the long way 'round?

When I approached the maintenance yard, I scanned for wolves as I normally do and didn't see any.  I also had gotten very used to going around the building to my exterior base, because that kept O.B. up by the lodge and separated from me.  Ultimately, it boiled down to bad decision making. 

I'm pretty sure the internal thinking went something like, "Alright, I made it!  I can go into the door of the building.  Well, I'd rather just go around the side to my base and keep O.B. away from me for now and it's only a little farther, so I should be okay."

I'm a gambler at heart and sometimes press my luck too much. 

[JAFO]

20 minutes ago, Timber Wolf said:

I also had gotten very used to going around the building to my exterior base, because that kept O.B. up by the lodge and separated from me.

Ahh.. of course! I'd forgotten about O.B. being reset when you enter a loading-screen building.. that changes it from a 'bad' decision to a tactical decision that simply failed to pay off.