My best run yet!

serahlicious

By serahlicious
in Survival Stories

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serahlicious Survivor

serahlicious

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Posted

Still stubbornly determined to conquer Stalker mode.

I spawned near the Lake Trail. I'd spawned here once before, grabbed a bit of jerky off of a frozen corpse nearby, and set off towards the T intersection a few yards away. Last time I spawned here, I chose to head to the right since the wind would have been at my back. This time there is almost no wind, so I went to the left, and was glad to find the Camp Office. Inside, I found some water purification tablets (yay!) and some line and a hook for fishing tackle, as well as tomato soup, soda, a storm lantern, an extra bedroll, and some reclaimed wood. I started a fire in the wood stove upstairs and warmed up, melted and purified some snow using my handy tablets, and I was excited to go out and start the day. I had a feeling this would be a good run.

I went out towards Mystery Lake, and saw a deer a little ways away on the ice. I didn't have a gun, but I also saw some wolves nearby. I thought maybe if I could scare the deer towards the wolves, they would attack and kill it, and I could run up and throw a flare to scare them off, start a fire to keep them away, and harvest all the goodies from the deer. But, there was a small island of rock between the deer and the wolves, and the deer veered off and away before the wolves could see it. Oh well.

I looted two fishing cabins between the Camp Office and a few cabins across the lake. I found a bit more reclaimed wood and peaches and tinder, a sweater, long underwear, some firewood, an extra flare, and a hatchet! I was excited; now I could go ice fishing! It was getting pretty cold, though, and it would be dark soon, and I was getting hungry. I decided to go back and spend the night at the Camp Office. There was a wolf not too far from the cabin when I emerged, and I tried to go around it, but it snarled and started sprinting toward me. I whipped out a flare and tossed it, and the wolf yelped and sprinted away. Running to pick it up, I decided to try and make it back to the Camp Office before it burned out.

On my way there, another wolf killed the deer I had seen wandering around the lake earlier, but now it was really getting dark, and I was freezing, and hungry, and the winds had picked up. No way to start a fire in the middle of the lake. I ran back to the Camp Office through the Lake Trail, came across another wolf, pfft. No problem. Tossed my burning flare, it turned tail, and ran.

I made it back to the Camp Office for some much needed R&R, promptly went upstairs, and started a fire. I was successful after a couple of tries. I ate, repaired some of my clothing items, crafted fishing tackle, foraged for firewood, and went to sleep for the night. When I woke up, the winds were howling outside, and I was sure I'd emerge to find a blizzard. I couldn't manage to start a fire, and I was running low on tinder. I ate the last of my food, some cold dog food and tomato soup (yum) and drank most of my water. This fishing thing had to work.

I set out to find that thankfully, there was no blizzard. It was just really windy. I saw the frozen deer carcass near a fishing cabin, and a wolf nearby. I skirted around the wolf to check the carcass, but as I expected, the wolves had eaten every last bit of the meat. The hide would be useful, but the wolf was coming back towards me, and it was too windy to start a fire. I ducked into the fishing cabin right when it saw me, lit my last flare, and tossed it outside to stave off the wolf. Inside, I was freezing and needed to start a fire, but the best wood I had only gave me a 53% chance of success, and I only had 3 tinder plugs left. The first two tries failed, and I was pretty sure if I failed the last, it would mean my death. I crossed my fingers, and it worked! I was filled with new hope.

I melted some more snow, fed my fire with reclaimed wood, and foraged for some more, being sure not to let the fire burn out. I cleared the fishing hole and caught a whitefish on my first try! I was really hungry, so I cooked and ate it, and glanced up at the shelf above me to find a roll of newspaper I hadn't seen in the dusk of the morning. I fished some more, two more attempts, and was unsuccessful. Even worse, somehow I had just barely missed my chance to feed my fire before it burned out. Now I was cold and hungry, again, and I decided to go back to the Camp Office, feeling like I hadn't really progressed at all.

On my way out, that same goddamn wolf was prowling between me and the Office. I hugged the rock wall beside the lake, keeping a close eye on it, crouching, praying it wouldn't see me. I made it halfway to the office before it did. I had no flares left, and I tried to quickly light my lantern, but it tackled me right before I could finish lighting it. I tried valiantly to fend it off with my hatchet, but I was dying, and we both knew it.

Well played, Wolf.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Hotzn Pathfinder

Hotzn

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Posted

Only saw this today. Cool story, let's have more!

You wrote that you failed making a fire several times. Have you experimented a bit with different kinds of matches and wood? In case you haven't: Cedar firewood gives you the best chance of lighting a fire, and wood matches give you a higher chance than cardboard matches. So to maximise your chances, use a wooden match and Cedar firewood to start a fire. If you have accelerant on top of this, it will raise your chances to 100%. In this case, you may even revert to a cardboard match.

If you run low on tinder plugs around Mystery Lake: You can pick up Cat's Tail plants all around the edge of the lake, there must be some 25-30 or so altogether in Stalker mode. You can eat the stem and use the head as tinder plug for each one.

To save your flares for emergency situations, you can craft some torches in Camp Office. If you find kerosene, you have everything else you need right there: Harvest the additional bedroll for 10 cloth, pick up the reclaimed wood near the workbench, and voilá - craft some torches. On the lake, you can use a torch to scare away wolves either from yourself or from a deer carcass. Light the torch, approach the wolf and swing the torch at the wolf.

If you see a wolf take down a deer, you can light a torch, run over there and chase the wolf away before it has time to eat the venison off the deer. If you are quick, there will be some 8-9 kg left. You need not harvest it right away - if the deer is on the ice, it will be there the next day, with all the meat untouched. So if the time for harvesting is bad (blizzard, wolves, nightfall), just return the next day.

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