Interloper 35's Wolves


Riotintheair

Recommended Posts

Day 9 - I'd been to the summit of Timberwolf Mountain on day 4 and just completed forging my tools on the Riken and there was one task left to me in Desperation Point - loot Scruffy's Lair.  I entered the cave from the ice and proceeded to the T-junction with my new shiny lantern, and then I hesitated - it's more efficient to light a torch I had from Hibernia then light a fire since I'm still new to this firestarting business. So I put the lantern down, clumsily rustle around in my bag for a torch, and finally strike the match to light it when I hear a growl and Scruffy comes bounding out of the night. I drop the torch and in my panic frantically swing my improvised knife... And the fight ends before it begins properly. Scruffy is running off, whimpering in pain and I'm unscathed (98% condition, no discernable clothing damage). To the victors go the spoils and I stripped all the deer carcasses and Scruffy to the bone, on the first completely safe day of this bleak existence. Overall this is the most fortuitous Interloper wolf struggle I've had on any run.

Day 31 - It was time to leave Desperation Point and my grimy base in the derelict Riken. I ate my last deer steak packed up my gear and set out in the morning hours. It was cold but I was full, well rested, and completely healthy and I planned to stop at the Lighthouse where I had hides curing and some medical supplies stored before proceeding to Crumbling Highway. As I rounded the point the Lighthouse was on at a creeping pace a wolf bounded into me, I got an arrow off but missed by a mile. He tore open my right hand and stomach, destroyed my hat, and left me a pretty bloody mess before I whacked him with my hatchet and he fled (he left me bleeding from 2 places at 8% condition).  I through down my pack bandaged my hand and torso as quickly as I could - I believe far more quickly than any human ever has before! I was in a bad way now though as I was cold and blurry eyed, and still down on the ice 50 yards from the point I could climb up there the first island (where one can shimmy up the side facing Katie's Corner) and with at least one more wolf on the ice in high fog conditions. 

I took out my stim and decided this was the time I needed it so I hit the stim pulled my Distress Pistol and set off.  Arming the pistol was one of the best decisions I made as halfway to the climb point another wolf* came charging out of the fog and I drove it off by firing the pistol. Naturally I missed, but the flare exploded in light and drove the hellion away long enough for me to struggle up to the island and retreat to the Lighthouse to lick my wounds.  I stumbled through the Lighthouse door and unlocked my medical supplies and thpuroughy cleansed my wounds with antiseptic. It was definitely time to get the hell out of Desperation Point. As I was sorting through my inventory I figured out I'd accidentally stored a little bit of my last deer meal in my pocket - the deer nearly did get the last laugh (essentially the character stopped eating because he was full - I'm not using the condition yo-yo on this run, or at least not allowing starvation to use up any of my daily condition budget unless I genuinely run out of food).

TO BE CONTINUED... Currently I'm at day 275 and I've had 4 more wolf struggles and I've been meaning to write about them, but then I didn't have any for more than 100 days. However, I had a very close call at Skeeter's Ridge on my journey out to TWM and so I was prompted to write about them again. What's been fun in part is that in the post mortem of almost all of them I can see where I made a mistake that played a big role in how things unfolded. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Riotintheair said:

TO BE CONTINUED...

This is great, Riotintheair! Congratulations on your adventure. I love stories like this. Let us know how it goes.

 

4 hours ago, Riotintheair said:

Day 31 - It was time to leave

I'm actually on day 31 of an Interloper run myself. At 275, you're killing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 64 - I was crossing Mystery Lake from the Lonely Cabin I'd been staying the last 4 days, heading out to the fishing hut near the island as Bear-Friend was hanging out at the nearest one - I spotted three wolves on the ice, one pretty close to where I was heading, but I felt confident I could enter the safety of the fishing hut and get a fire started before the wolf noticed me if I snuck along with the hut between us. I successfully entered the hut and stood  up and started making the fire, focusing the sun's rays through the quantum tunnel of the fishing hut door cutout using the Lens of Infinite Fire when I heard a growl. Apparently the wolf had noticed me. The fire failed and as reached to try again I suddenly found myself fighting a quantum wolf. I only had the Improvised knife but it was enough. As struggles went this one was kind of boring - I was only bruised and scratched, no blood loss and fairly minimal damage to my clothing so I made my fire and fished exactly as I'd planned for that day (he took about 45% of my condition) since I was unlikely to injure myself further while fishing. I tracked down his carcass the next day to collect my dues - only the hide as I don't think the chance of worms is worth it at all and I'm not rushing Cooking 5 (For reference I hit Cooking 5 on day 77 at the Old Spence Farm.)

This is mostly the wolf battle I don't particularly feel I didn't deserve, since I more or less thought I was in a safe space (as per the rules of the game) but I still probably could have avoided it by not standing up here until after the fire lit. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Riotintheair said:

This is mostly the wolf battle I don't particularly feel I didn't deserve, since I more or less thought I was in a safe space (as per the rules of the game)

Hinterland have stated that being attacked inside a fishing hut is a bug. So hopefully it will be fixed in the Dec update.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 79 - I crested the last hill on the road to Hunter's Lodge at the edge of the world out in Broken Railroad just as the snow started falling. The lodge was laid out below me, and I could see two wolves on the grounds off to the right as I approached the lodge, so I scooted left to give them a wide berth, as the wind began whipping the snow into a frenzy that heralded a blizzard to come. I lost track of the wolves as I pass behind a fallen tree, when suddenly a rabbit darted out from behind the tree, crying in panic as a wolf followed in hot pursuit. I went still, bow in hand, and the wolf caught the rabbit only 10 or 12 meters from where I stood. He never seemed to notice me and I hadn't moved, so as not to change this fortuitous turn of events. I got set, stood, drew and fired in one (relatively) swift action, my arrow took the wolf in the throat, killing it more or less instantly. I was cold and the storm was worsening, so I headed inside the lodge. 

The blizzard had blown itself out by late afternoon, so I went out to find my other wolf-friend. He was to the left when coming out of the lodge's front door and I stalked him until I had a good shot - just behind the 180 degree arc in front of him. He leaped away wounded and I tracked him for a bit, but it was soon apparent he was going to run around in circles near the lodge. So, as the sun had come out just before dusk, I raced to start a fire with the "Lens of Big Sky Magic" in the relative protection of the lean-to shed out back of the lodge for the cooking session to come.

It took awhile to cook the meat, and I still had to harvest meat from the second wolf so I worked well into the night. That night the sky was afire with the Aurora Borealis - truly a spectacular sight, and the long dead electric lights came alive one more time. While harvesting the hide from the second wolf, away from the fire but with a mushroom tea to keep me warm, I caught sight of a ghostly wolf bounding my way, like some spectral incarnation of the Wild Hunt, but then he hit the electric light that was illuminating the spot between us he fled in fear. He yo-yoed out and back toward me many times while I watched him as we played out our dance, but I was cold so I retreated to my fire and started boiling my water. Apparently he eventually circumvented the street lamp and I heard him growling at me from outside the lean-to so I grabbed my bow and stepped out to see if I could get a shot, thinking I was still close enough to the fire that I was expecting he'd run off when he got close to the fire. I drew my bow and he charged (typical), my shot missed but then I found my self holding a lovable (not) ball of glowing fury and hate. I was exhausted and this was bad, but I struggled as best I could, but I was still carrying my forged hatchet from the journey into Broken Railroad. Fortunately he was mostly interested in devouring my ear muffs and I drove him away before he killed me. My ear muffs were in sad shape (an actual 1% save for my fashion accessory). I heard the wolf collapse on the other side of the lodge as I mended my ear muffs before they were destroyed and after the immediate repairs were complete I limped inside, the fortunate victor and took a long two days convalescing (I had food, water, and had spent a ton of time outdoors recently so no need to waste one of my precious herbal teas).

This was overall a pretty stupid fight I should have avoided. I should have just killed him on sight when we were playing games with the light, and while I didn't end up in critical condition this could very easily have ended my run, if the struggle die rolls had been worse, as it was a fight at the end of the day, when my condition was already fairly low, having spent my daily allowance already. All around a screw up on my part that I was extremely fortunate to escape at the cost of a little cloth and fishing line.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.