Snowballs: Hushed River Valley

[FunkyFuggerson]

 

6 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

 I take the prybar and pry and pry and pry, and the locker opens, and inside I find...

Absolutely nothing! 

[Drifter Man]

@Ruruwawa's answer is more creative, but @FunkyFuggerson's more right

Snowball 56 / Day 21 (continued)

...nothing. I was amazed how empty a locker can be.

I put the prybar, which I hauled all the way from HRV just for this occasion, into a drawer. It can still be used for scrap metal if needed later.

Back to hard work at the crafting table. After midnight I'm done with the deerskin boots. A blizzard starts and I'm exhausted, which is very fortunate. I wait a few minutes for the air temperature to drop from the blizzard, then go to sleep for 10 hours. The blizzard may stop but its temperature effect persists, giving my fire the full 2x duration bonus. When I wake up, it has only spent 5 hours of fuel.

Snowball 56 / Day 22

The next item is the survival bow, and then arrows. I craft and craft and craft until I run out of crow feathers. I take a brief break to collect a few sticks - deer are around the base so it looks safe, but I see wolves nearby as well, so I need to be careful.

Snowball 56 / Day 23

With seven arrows finished, I'm exhausted again, but it is late morning now. If I go to sleep now and craft into the next night, I won't be rested next morning. So instead I push on exhausted and finish rabbitskin mittens as well. Then it's a good night's sleep.

Snowball 56 / Day 24

I'm done. The fire has a few hours of life left. I pull torches, drink hot reishi tea and set out to explore the Forlorn Muskeg, sporting my shiny new deerskin boots and rabbitskin mittens.

My first stop is at the Bunkhouses, wolves aren't around this time. I search the place and find a storm lantern. Bingo! With over 3 liters of kerosene found at Spences, this is going to make navigating caves easier for some time.

Then I follow the edge of the Muskeg to the east. In the area of the High Blind, I search places that look like a rock overhang but don't find anything. The first cave is empty. The second one is guarded by a wolf but I slip in, finding some coal and firewood. I notice moose marks in the area.

I briefly consider staying in the cave as I don't know how far I will have to go to find the next shelter, but it is still afternoon and I'm not even tired. So I decide to push on. If things go south, I can return.

I safely pass another wolf and enter Muskeg Overlook. I haven't been here in a long time, maybe never. Lots of sticks, bunnies hopping around, plus a ravaged deer carcass. A corpse with a sports vest - I can always use more cloth, I'll even wear it for now. A large hollow tree that looks like it could house a campfire and a bedroll. Let's stay here for tonight.

I love this! Outerloping at its finest.

Snowball 56 / Day 25

Aware of the vulnerability of the fire, I only sleep in 1-hour intervals, but the weather remains favorable. My condition is good, so I don't miss the healing powers of long sleep much. Strong winds blow in the morning, coming from the covered direction, but soon they stop and the sun appears. Another glorious sunrise in the Forlorn Muskeg.

I mountain-goat down from the cliff and head towards the railway tracks. A wolf can be seen patrolling in front of me, so I go further to the west. Wind picks up and blows my torch out - the fire I started at Poacher's Camp 4 days ago is gone. I meet another wolf and start a new fire, sheltered by a tree, and wait by it for a few hours until the wind dies away. I get to test @Hotzn's theory again, RMB-ing the torch under the feet of an approaching wolf. The wolf is unfazed and only runs away when it comes close to the fire.

I move north towards the tracks and meet another wolf. I'm starting to think that TLD is a massive multiplayer game - you and hordes of wolves. Finally I cross the tracks to the northern part of Forlorn Muskeg and end up sleeping in a cave for the night.

Snowball 56 / Day 26

Back to Hat Creek and home via the cave system at the Waterfall. I still use the fire I brought with me to boil some water. I'm itching to test my new powers but the deer is not at the Ridge today.

I haven't found much in the rest of Forlorn Muskeg. No magnifying lens, no firestriker, no more matches. No second wool toque. I go to bed, I'll assess my situation thoroughly tomorrow.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 56 / Day 27

Situation isn't great. Tools are ok - three hacksaws, improvised knife, 7 pieces of scrap metal, three whetstones. Matches are probably the most pressing problem: only 36 are left, and I don't have much hope of finding more. And then there is cloth - or rather isn't. Only 3 pieces left, plus around 6 that I can harvest from the clothes I currently wear. I will only keep the wool toque, but I'm existentially dependent on my bedroll, and I won't be able to keep it in working order for long.

Today I went to the Milton Basin, drove a deer into a wolf and killed the wolf. The wolf ran away with the arrow, but I could hear it die nearby. I harvested and cooked the deer on the spot, the wolf will wait for the next day. I visited the cave in the Milton Basin: firewood, coal. The backpack was empty. No luck here, either.

Snowball 56 / Day 28

I returned in the morning for the wolf pelt and the arrow. Using the cave to warm up, I got the pelt without having to start a fire - for the cost of some of my condition. But I didn't get my arrow back, it's gone. First shot, first kill, first arrow lost.

[FunkyFuggerson]

Huh, I've noticed my fire not using much of its time even though I would of slept past it's time duration. I never understood it, explain? 

[Drifter Man]

16 minutes ago, FunkyFuggerson said:

Huh, I've noticed my fire not using much of its time even though I would of slept past it's time duration. I never understood it, explain? 

If the air temperature is lower than -10°C, the fire can last longer than the declared hours and minutes the game is telling you (i.e. it consumes fuel at a slower rate). There is a duration bonus that can reach up to 2x when the air temperature is low enough. That's why outdoor fires last longer than indoor ones, and they last longest if it is very cold outside, such as during a blizzard (or post-day 50 Interloper world).

In addition to that, I made use of another mechanic: when a blizzard sets in (or ends) during a time-accelerated action, including sleep, the 10-degree drop in air temperature still occurs over about 30 seconds of real-life time - before it really starts to be felt, you wake up. So if you sleep outside for 10 hours and a blizzard starts during your sleep, you will not die because of it (unless you already were almost freezing etc.). Conversely, if you go to sleep with a blizzard already going on, the temperature drop will persist throughout all of your sleep, and, in this case, your fire gets the full duration bonus.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 56 / Day 29

I wanted a quiet day to recover condition before doing some more exploration. I peeked into the Milton Basin again and found out that the wolf I killed two days ago has already respawned. Ok, here comes another pelt! I repeated the procedure (with a rabbit this time), and although my first shot was too long, the second one was a hit and the wolf ran away. Again, I located it in the afternoon on one of the highest rocks around. Again, I took the pelt without fire. And again, I could not find the arrow that killed it.

I might need reassess my situation about arrows - if each kill costs me one!

[MrBlack]

Damn,that's even better than Netflix!  I can hear it already " previously, on Snowball ".. 

 

[Ruruwawa]

1 hour ago, Drifter Man said:

And again, I could not find the arrow that killed it.

I haven't lost one since the fix for disappearing arrows shortly after Vigilant Flame released.  But I often have to search for them when I don't get a one-shot kill.  @dead frozen dude mentioned earlier in this thread they seem to drop out as the animal is running around when the arrow hits its flank or leg, and that matches my experience.  He also provided a nice illustration of the kind of place the arrow is likely to end up when it stops rolling downhill.

I think it's an appropriate time for a Galaxy Quest quote:  "Never give up, never surrender!" (that arrow).  It's definitely still in the world.  And in my experience finding the arrow is far less effort -- and risk -- than making a new arrowhead.

[MrWolf]

15 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Damn,that's even better than Netflix!  I can hear it already " previously, on Snowball ".. 

I hope we don't get a season finale and have to wait months for the next episode.

I'm hooked on @Drifter Man's stories, it's one of the first things I check when I visit the forums.  In addition to feeling like we're right there with him, the tips for game play are great!

Regarding the lost arrows, I've been experiencing that, too.  But later I've found most of the arrows, sometimes in places I didn't think the wolf (or bear) went after I shot him.  Maybe it's some of the wind, gravity, or other things that seem to affect loose arrows.

[Guest jeffpeng]

I noticed that arrows "pop" out of animals. They do that when re-entering a zone (e.g. from an interior, ) and sometimes even when you time warp. The arrow basically just gets lost wherever it was dropped, and, since arrows are mobile objects, roll away, get blown by the wind, stuck in impossible-to-find places and eventually stolen by souvenir hunters, god knows what... yeah, it's gone.

I tested that at the hunting lodge shooting a wolf in the behind, going inside, coming back out and literally find the arrow right there were the wolf was when I exited the house. While I can reliably re-create this with re-entering a zone, time warping I had less luck. It happens, and then again it doesn't. But I do believe it has something to do with an animal being too far away to display, which might be the reason it happens during time warps - and then again doesn't.

I can only explain it this way: The arrow stuck in the animal remains an object with a physics simulation. When the game decides an animated object (animals, but also arrows) is to far away or in another zone, it doesn't display it any more and hence also stops the physics simulation for it, but just "silently" simulates the object without the high resolution physics. Then, when it decides to again display the animal and the arrow stuck in it (instead of just silently simulating it) the arrow "tries" to reattach to the animal in the exact same position it was supposed to be, but maybe due to some delay (possibly a race condition, fellow devs @Hinterland ?) the arrow fails to latch on the animal "again" and just falls down.

I wouldn't be surprised if this problem was created by whatever fixed the other arrow issue. While I do believe that it is awesome to literally pull your arrows out of dead zombies wolves like Daryl Dixon, just imagine Daryl's frustration running around a corpse trying to look for his arrow like he lost his car keys for the third time today. And yeah, it's that level of frustration. Since the update I recover what feels like 1 out of 3 of all arrows that didn't immediately kill the target. So... just maybe .... unless there is a good fix for that already waiting on the shelf, making the arrow stick no matter what and add some sort of UI to recover the arrow from a carcass (basically adding the arrow to the target's loot "inventory") would save us some of that awkward frustration.

[Drifter Man]

Thanks for support and lost arrow advice. I originally didn't want to look for the arrows again, thinking that they can be anywhere in the Milton Basin. But I changed my mind and decided to look for them on Day 30. Did I find them? Next time, on Snowball!

[Guest jeffpeng]

Go Daryl Snowball!  

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 56 / Day 30

I was planning to rest all day to recover all my condition before a big move. But let's check out those lost arrows... if the weather is good. I forbid myself to lose too much condition in the search. Once I hit 75%, I'm going back.

Heavy fog at the Marsh Ridge and in Milton Basin. There shouldn't be any wolves now but I try to be as "visible" as possible so that I can get a warning bark rather than getting jumped. And the first wolf kill is off limits - I saw a moose in that area in the past few days and I don't want to taste those Big Moose Kicks for real.

I start at the basin level (gravity) and find nothing, just pick a few rosehip bushes clean. Soon I start freezing. I run up the hill, looking into corners and valleys, until I'm back at the carcass.

I could swear it wasn't there yesterday, but the fact is, it probably was. I was so focused on the carcass and my condition bar that I must have missed the obvious. I'll return another day to look for the other one.

Now, about the big move. I figured my priority is to get good crafted clothes so that I can use the warm parts of caves without fire - to sleep safely at night and to warm up during the day. This should limit my use of matches to activities like carcass harvesting and cooking. In addition, it should enable me to live in other places than just at Marsh Ridge (or ice caves in HRV, which aren't well positioned for long-term survival).

I don't know how much temperature bonus I need but I estimate around 17°C should do. But that's not easy with crafted clothes alone:

• Deerskin boots ... 2.5°C
• Deerskin pants (2x) ... 4.0°C
• Rabbitskin mitts (2x) ... 2.0°C
• Wolfskin coat (2x) ... 8.0°C

Total 16.5°C. Add to it a little bit from the toque (I won't be able to keep it repaired at all times) and I'm just around there, provided all my crafted clothes are at 100% condition - and you bet they won't be. Here the bear coat might be really useful.

So the big move is to return to HRV and collect the wolf skins (from carcasses) I left behind, bring in more coal and get to work on the first deerskin pants and wolfskin coat. The first day I want to make it to the cave in the middle of the climb from Milton Basin (if things go well, I might rest there and get to the cave to HRV on the same day). From the MT-HRV cave, I'll go to Offset Falls and to my base in Ice Cave B through the waterfall entry. Next, through Ice Cave B to Monolith Lake (first wolf skin is at the ice cave exit), Lake Cave (second wolf skin), Pensive Vista (third). Then down to the valley and search it, back up to Many Falls Vista and return to the cave to Milton.

Sounds easy, doesn't it?

I'm taking my precious lantern with me, but I'm leaving the hacksaws, bow and arrows behind along with everything else I don't need. Free carrying capacity required

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 56 / Day 31

I wake up fully rested and in 100% condition. Outside I add two venison steaks and a raw rabbit to my load and head to the Milton Basin again. Wind strength is moderate, light snow soon ends and the sun appears in the sky. I cautiously approach the bottleneck where the moose usually resides. Today it seems it decided to sleep in.

I don't stop for cattails and only pick up a few sticks - I'm well equipped with food and firewood. The first climb is easy. The cave shows felt 0°C but it's still in the red, so I roll out the bedroll and pass time for an hour. Then I realize I should have slept to reduce fatigue.

After that I start a fire, cook the rabbit and prepare resihi soup. Then I sleep for 2 hours, pull a few torches, eat all the meat (I don't want to stink in Milton) and continue the ascent. The second rope is much more difficult. At the top I emerge quite tired.

I don't want to be encumbered in case I run into a wolf, so I drop some extra torches and later also a few sticks. The river has been always safe for me, but you never know. I walk through the light fog that has fallen in the afternoon.

I begin freezing when I reach the Wood Lot, but from here I proceed very carefully, often just crawling and listening up for wolves. I can hear howls on all sides, unfortunately I can't tell how far they are. Eventually I appear at the road, although at a slightly different place than I wanted to be, and listen up again. And I hear. And I crouch-walk to the road to be able to start a fire quickly.

It's not headed for me but I can't tell if it passes far enough not to spot me, or maybe it could suddenly change direction. A saved match would be no use to a dead Snowball, I say to myself, and build a fire with accelerant. Then I stand up to attract the wolf - it stops in the middle of a howl and comes at me. When it runs away, I run too, following the road to the cave to HRV.

The wolf wouldn't have spotted me, I'm sure of it now, but at that moment it was the right decision.

There's a small stash of firewood and water I left in the cave previously, but I don't need it now. With the help of my lantern (I'm so proud of it!), I walk through the cave, collecting a few pieces of coal on the way, and fall asleep exhausted at the other end.

Looking back, I should have slept for three hours in the cave without fire and dropped the raw rabbit there. One rabbit and a warm reishi soup (on a warm day, in addition) is not a great trade for a spent match.

[Ruruwawa]

47 minutes ago, Drifter Man said:

Looking back, I should have slept for three hours in the cave without fire and dropped the raw rabbit there. One rabbit and a warm reishi soup (on a warm day, in addition) is not a great trade for a spent match.

Survivalism math, calculated in the currency of fire. 

[MrBlack]

8 hours ago, Drifter Man said:

The wolf wouldn't have spotted me, I'm sure of it now, but at that moment it was the right decision.

Damn right !  Dought is a bad companion... 

[Hotzn]

Ah, what would my life look like without the next chapter of a Snowball. Thanks for conducting the torch-placing wolf (not-)scare theory, which seems confirmed. When that last wolf was blocking your way - might not two stones have saved you a match?

[Drifter Man]

1 hour ago, Hotzn said:

When that last wolf was blocking your way - might not two stones have saved you a match?

They would have. And they were with me. But Snowball is slow to think.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 56 / Day 32

The first part is easy. Left to Offset Falls, then to Reclusive Falls. Wind in my face, always. I slip into Ice Cave B through the waterfall entrance and find my old base. I pick up a deer hide and two guts and search the cave with my flashy storm lantern to find 10 coals. At the upper exit, the wolf pelt and two guts are waiting for me.

I notice something strange. I left my character standing in the cave (without passing time) while starving and went about other things IRL. A few in-game hours later I noticed my condition is still 71%, so I took a screenshot. I only lose 1% until nightfall. Somehow the condition loss due to starving was much slower than I'm used to.

Note the fashionable, cloth-saving outfit.

Snowball 56 / Day 33

I sneak up to the place at the exit where the wolf always blocks the way. Sure enough, it appears soon:

It enters the passage and exits a few minutes later. I'm freezing but I need to be sure the way is secure.

As soon as the wolf gets out of the way behind the rock, I storm in and onto the river. Then I find out I can't get out. There should be a fallen tree leading onto the other bank, but I'm one waterfall too far. As I'm running around in panic, the wolf returns and barks at me. The weather is reasonable and I quickly start a fire. I put in enough sticks to start warming up and make reishi soup, then notice that the wolf cannot track me on the river. It keeps walking around and hitting invisible walls. I'm safe here.

My 40-stick fire doesn't last long, before the soup is done, wind reduces it to 9 minutes. I feed it stick by stick until I'm warmed up and the cooking finished. The wolf has left in the meantime, and I find a safe route up and to Monolith Lake. There I meet another old friend:

I drive the moose out of the way with a stone and slip into Lake Cave. The back of the cave is warm enough to get me above zero, but I don't stay for long. I just pick up the wolf pelt I came for.

After than I climb up to Pensive Vista for the third wolf pelt and two guts. There is also a rabbit pelt and another gut but I leave them there - I have to keep my load weight in check and have enough room for sticks. After a brief sleep in the warm part of the cave, I think about dropping into the valley still today, but a blizzard breaks out, and I start a fire to stay overnight. To use my energy, I turn audacious, throw away clothes and collect sticks in the blizzard for a few minutes.

I have what I came for - three wolf pelts, one deer hide, six guts. The most dangerous part lies ahead: climbing down to the valley, and most importantly, getting back up and to the cave to Milton. I won't be able to avoid dangerous wolf areas between Stairsteps Lake and the Hushed River during the last part of the journey.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 56 / Day 34

I always have a strange feeling when going down to the valley. I have no options there - the rope to Many Falls Vista is the only one I can take. There are scrub brushes in between the two ropes from Pensive Vista. They can be bypassed on the way down but not on the way up. Snowball 53, the first Snowball to walk the Valley, provided this information.

There's a corpse on the platform between the two ropes, but only has a chocolate bar and some firewood around. I throw my torch down and continue down the rope.

Once in the valley, I head straight for the Landslide and then for the Moose Overlook (its namesake is not present in the valley). Wind soon blows my torch out, so no, I can't save matches in HRV. I let my condition drop to search the place properly. And I find... dog food. Leather gloves. And, uh, that's about it. At least I get a bunch of cattails.

The Valley Cave is warm enough for me to survive the day, so I stay in and start a fire at nightfall. The backpack contains... little fish in a can. So yeah, all the danger was really worth it. My condition is around 40-45%. I really hope I can make it back tomorrow.

I fall asleep to the crackling of the fire and the burbling of the reishi soup kept hot for the next morning.

[Doc Gonzo]

Stupid boards being down made us miss @Drifter Man's latest update.  

I'll be pouting the rest of the day ... ;-)

[Drifter Man]

16 hours ago, Doc Gonzo said:

Stupid boards being down made us miss @Drifter Man's latest update.  

I'll be pouting the rest of the day ... ;-)

Yeah the site was down... now I have a backlog to take care of 

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 56 / Day 35

An unusual morning in the Hushed River Valley: still winds. I drink my reishi soup, grab a torch and go. The most dangerous part of my journey lies ahead. First I visit the rabbit run on the river and drive one bunny ahead of me as bait. But today I only find a group of deer near the rope to Many Falls Vista. Of course I'm freezing by the time I reach the rope but my torch is still burning. As I said, an unusual morning.

After reaching the top of the rope I'm already tired, it's a long climb. Now let's get to Stairsteps Lake. Although I'm rapidly losing condition now, I'm very careful once I enter the wolf/bear territory, checking the way from elevated locations and sneaking where necessary. But I find no threats, except the wind that has returned in force. A while later I'm confused as I don't recognize the area, and I'm thinking I must have lost my way. I must be in the middle of the danger zone. It's almost a relief when I find a cave - an unfamiliar one but I have an idea where it is. Inside it is warm enough for me to catch my breath. In addition, I find simple parka. Equals two pieces of cloth. I harvest it immediately because I can't carry the full weight of it.

In early afternoon I feel it's the time to get back on my way. I find rabbits hopping near the cave - that's great, it means safet... Bark! Bark! My heart stops but the wolf ignores me and goes for a rabbit. I run onward before it changes its mind.

A while later I'm down on the Hushed River, near Reclusive Falls. Against a strong headwind, I take an arduous but otherwise unremarkable journey to the safety of the cave to MT. From Reclusive Falls I knew that I would make it, I also knew my condition will look pretty bad once I get there. I was right about both things.

Snowball 56 / Day 36

Healed back to 43% but out of water as of this morning. Now the two bottles I left at the other end will come in handy. I move through the cave and park my character at the MT exit, now with enough water to drink for the day. I leave him standing, starving but not passing time, until the afternoon: condition stays at 43%. Technically it's the same thing as passing time but you don't lose condition - it must be an oversight by the devs. I run a bit in the evening to collect sticks and get tired, my condition reduces to 41%. Then I take another healing sleep.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 56 / Day 37

My condition is still not ideal for exploration of unfamiliar territories but I declared that the area between the MT-HRV cave and the Plane Crash are part of my world, so I'm going to check it out now. Besides, there could be matches or something else of interest.

First I find the deer at the cave exit - I saw it yesterday and it's still there this morning - and drive it in front of me because I know that the road is defended  Bark, bark, goes the wolf after the deer and I slip through. First I check a corpse found at the rocky side of the road - nothing. After a while I arrive at the bridge I remember from Wintermute. I also remember there were wolves - or at least one - and it's hard to see what's going on around the bridge, so I decide to start my warming/protective/water-making fire right here. On the bridge. Very, very smart.

I know that experienced dwellers of the Mountain Town are smiling now.

Well, before I'm done with the first batch of boiling/cooking, the prominent local resident shows up and wants to stick its nose in my rosehip tea. I make a hasty retreat into a car but the car is not warm enough - the fire is too far. I try to sneak out and add a coal to the fire but the bear gets on its hind legs right away. I have a choice between freezing to death and getting mauled. Excellent.

Fortunately, a little later I manage to sneak out, add a coal and change the water in the cans. The car is now warm enough inside. I spend some time boiling water in these conditions.

A while later the bear leaves and I get the chance to search the other cars. I cannot open the trunks (the prybar is in the drawer at Spences' Homestead, you remember) and I only find a piece of cloth in one of the vehicles.

I'm fully warmed up when strong winds start blowing. The bear is now at the other side of the bridge, so I grab a torch and make a detour around Spruce Falls. The wind kills my torch after a few minutes.

I safely find my way into the next cave and because I'm tired and in low condition, and the weather is still bad, I decide to stay for the night. There is a wolf carcass in the cave but I let it be. Also "Advanced Guns Guns Guns", which I take as a prize but otherwise are a useless book for an interlopist.

Snowball 56 / Day 38

It's still too windy in the morning. I use the time to repair my bedroll. I've been lucky so far, all three bedroll repairs succeeded, so I didn't waste any precious cloth. I can hear from inside the cave that the wind has died down, and soon afterwards I'm on my way down.

I quickly pick a few cattails at the pond and then drive some rabbits ahead of me - I know that here be wolves. The rabbits don't cooperate, running in all directions but the one I want them to run, but I'm adamant (in addition to being audacious and increasingly astute). Finally, one of the rabbits gives in, runs towards the crashed plane, and crashes into a wolf. The way is open.

The plane offers cloth and scrap metal, I'm grateful for that. Then I climb down to Will's starting point, greedily picking all rosehip bushes clean - I end up with nearly 2 kilos - and start a fire in the cave.

Warmed up, I search the place. Again, I'm left disappointed. A jerry can with 0.89 liters of kerosene. Dog food. Firewood. Hm. So that's all I get for my trouble. I look down from a ledge - the place below looks like Milton Basin. Could a bit of mountain-goating provide a safe shortcut home? I quickly reject the idea, I left the wolf pelts in the cave to HRV. [And no, it's not Milton Basin, it's the undeveloped area behind the blocked tunnel to "Perseverance Mills"].

I use the remaining daylight to take the meat from the deer carcass (0.9 kg) and cook it to enjoy a non-cattail dinner tonight. Then I fall asleep in my cozy moss bed.

[Drifter Man]

Snowball 56 / Day 39

It's snowing outside in the morning. Today I will have to get through two narrow passages with wolves and also across the bridge with the bear. I'm not looking forward to that.

To top it all, a blizzard soon starts. I still have a few coals with me (emergency reserve) so I start adding them one by one as needed. Then the idea strikes me: the wolf will not be there in a blizzard. I could make a dash through it, it's not far, it's impossible to get lost on the way. I drink my rosehip tea for warmth, keep clothes on only to prevent frostbite, and head out into the snowstorm.

As soon as I reach the Crashed Plane area, I get a greeting bark. The wolf must have spawned before the blizzard started after I woke up.

I turn around and return to the cave. I want to be fit to fight in the afternoon when the blizzard is over, so I eat my dog food and sleep for one hour. Then I realize that the sleep should cause the wolf to despawn, right? The blizzard rages on, so I repeat the exercise, and run into the wolf again. This one doesn't care about blizzards. Fortunately, in both cases I left enough in the fire to find it still burning when I returned, so the price is limited to some condition loss and cloth damage.

In the afternoon the blizzard ends. I pull a torch and and go back to the first climb. I attempt to throw it - try it five times - but every time the torch hits an invisible walls and falls back on me. So no, I'm not saving a match today, either. At the top of the climb, I light a torch straight away and walk on to face the blizzardproof wolf.

With the help of two campfires, I clear it out of the way. I pick up a few sticks at the rabbit run and leave the torch at the next climb. Although I'm not tired, I spend the night in the cave and skin the wolf carcass in there. It is too late to push on and I don't want to dance with the bear at night.

At an aurora night.