Drifter Man

As you can see, I make sure to pass through PV as quickly as possible. I want to be out before you could say "blizzard".

Deadman 13 / Day 9 I read a book again in the morning - "Survive the Outdoors" this time. It's really cold out there. Even in the afternoon, when I finally leave, it is windy and felt -15C. Before I get to the road, I am already forced to stop and do a warming break. I approach the car at Road's End, which usually has a small treat for me - beef jerky or chocolate bar or the like - but this time it's just empty. In much better weather now, but an empty stomach, I make my way to Derelict Cabins - this gets me painkillers and relatively safe passage up to the bear cave, but I forfeit the cattails on the river. Further up, the bear is on patrol. I avoid it easily but no stopping for the deer carcass this time. The bear would come sniffing and I'm not interested in a bear hug. Misty Falls... two bunnies are hopping around... soon they stop hopping and begin cooking on my campfire. Once I'm done cook-eating, I let water boil on the fire while I explore the cave. I find a can of dog's best friend, which immediately becomes my best friend, a storm lantern and some fuel. I can't carry much, so the lantern stays behind - it's a cool item but too heavy, I can't just afford hauling it around. I finish the day by moving over to the prep bunker, which is "not even full of crap", as the legends say. I check my condition - 75% - and realize that most of the loss yesterday was due to the expiration of the well-fed buff. I wonder if you can suddenly die that way. I end the day with stomach half-full and the same tomato soup and cattail as the only food left.

Deadman 13 / Day 8 I spend the morning reading and sleeping - it's too cold outside. Whenever I check the weather, I can hear wolves howling in the direction I'll be headed this afternoon. I'm worried about wolves on the road from Train Unloading to Log Sort, so I leave the road to the left as soon as I can. After a bit of goating, I find a shortcut to the lonely cabin above the road. The cabin is empty, so I just grab all the sticks I can see and some reishi mushrooms. No rabbits or deer are in sight. I try to locate the trailers by the road but can't find them, and decide not to waste time and calories. I don't know this place well. Instead I continue down towards Log Sort. My calories run out on the way and I begin starving. I choose not to eat my remaining food supplies - a can of tomato soup and a few cattails - and keep them as reserve for the night. I harvest two carcasses at Log Sort for a total 2.1 kg of meat. I don't need a fire - it is warm enough, although winds begin to blow harder when I'm working on the second one. Now I need a place to cook the meat safely. I take a break in the trailer on the way to the Cinder Hills mine. Inside the trailer I find a thin wool sweater. Eventually I reach the mine at sunset, cook the meat and arrest my condition at 76% - that went down fast. Apart from the usual coal, the mine offers a box of simple tools and beef jerky, both welcome. I limit myself to 20 coals as I cannot carry more anyway, especially without the well-fed buff, and fall asleep at the PV exit. My only remaining food is a can of tomato soup and one - yes, one - cattail.

Deadman 13 / Day 7 Nice weather in the morning. I use the bedroll to get just enough warmth and avoid having to start a fire. Once the temperature in the back of the cave climbs above zero, I go outside to catch the remaining two rabbits. They're highly uncooperative, using terrain for cover, stopping or changing direction the moment I throw the stone, etc. I only manage to catch one, the other just vanishes somewhere. Then it's time for a little fire, a few sticks and one coal. I cook the rabbit, some water and prepare a can of hot pork and beans. Once it's all done, I leave the cave towards CH. At first it all looks good, snow is falling but the winds are still, felt +1C with the torch. When I emerge on the other side of the tunnel though, a blizzard breaks out. This is going to hurt. I run, yes, run along the trestle, covering the critical point with broken rails in three quick jumps. I've crossed it many times when I lived in the Dam. Once I reach CH, I still have over 1/2 of the temperature bar. At this moment CH is still warm - the blizzard is only beginning there. I choose to run down the Bear Creek towards Rabbit Grove... but when the blizzard breaks out in full, winds turn in my face. I decide I have better chances getting to the trailer at Train Unloading. I reach the trailer with the loss of only about 1% condition and head straight to bed to warm up. Then I search the trailer: a can opener, that's all. I use the rest of the day and read Wilderness Kitchen from cover to cover. Cattails for dinner. Now I'm not only out of firewood but nearly out of food as well. The blizzard does not end until late into the night.

True, I've almost forgotten the legend. Crows had his body but his spirit still hovers above the Ravine.

Deadman 13 / Day 6 I sleep by the fire long into the morning, then kill the basin's local rabbit, cook-eat it and pack up. A while later I'm climbing up the rope, the weather is good. However, I really spent a lot of fuel last night and decide that I want to see myself sleeping at Rabbit Grove tonight - another blizzard could wipe me out. Once I'm back up, I pick up the supplies I dropped before going to the Basin and bag another rabbit. This one is tough, gets knocked out under a branch, becoming un-pickable. I have to stone it a second time. Then I cross the tree bridge and safely reach the second cave, bagging yet another rabbit and a few sticks on the way. It's afternoon now, wind has picked up and although it's still warm enough, I decide to sleep for an hour to warm up and rest a bit before I continue to CH. When I wake up, winds are at full strength and eventually transition to a blizzard. I'm in trouble - blizzards in the Ravine tend to last. I build a fire, cook the rabbits, make water and watch the weather outside with a worried look of a deadman who knows that things aren't going well. I stand next to the fire and feed it one lump of coal after another. When the blizzard ends, it's already night. I take a torch from what's left of the fire and make a quick run for sticks - I go as far as to the tunnel to replenish my supply exhausted by two consecutive blizzards. Fortunately it is warm enough to sleep in the back of the cave, at least for now. I'm left with 2 cedar, 2 coals and 14 sticks. Enough for one campfire, no more than that.

Given the subsequent developments, I'd very much prefer climbing with a bag full of sticks and coal

Yeah, cook-eating, deer-driving and defensive fires are essential skills of any experienced practitioner of extreme interloping...

Deadman 13 / Day 5 Morning means repairs. I'm quite successful and fix my jeans, underwear and windbreaker jacket. A little more sleep and then off to the Ravine, straight away. No stop at the Dam, no checking of the other trailer or the car. In the Ravine I stop at the deer in the first cave and harvest it completely, leaving the hide and guts in the cave to cure along with three birch saplings. Then I sweep the near part of the map - no great finds apart from a few cattails, even the loot in the derailed car is not worth mentioning. Winds strike again the second I start a fire at the second carcass. I limit myself to the meat this time as I cannot burn fire safely. Instead I drop a few items to have lighter load, deploy the rope I brought from the ML overlook, and descend into the abyss. I take the usual flare gun, my last but quite reliable line of defense, which saved the day so many times. Then I completely harvest the deer at the cave in the basin. I'm nearly exhausted and the three deer carcasses were barely enough to fill my stomach, for I started the day out hungry and spent lots of calories harvesting. Blizzard hits at midnight and forces me to start a fire early. My fuel reserves are sufficient but this is going to make a big dent in them.

Deadman 13 / Day 4 I leave Trapper's late in the morning when the weather is good. I am leaving two deer hides and seven guts behind, curing on the floor. I cook-eat two pieces of rabbit meat on the way and drive a deer in front of me as a decoy for the wolf that turned me back yesterday. It works - the wolf gets the deer and I have free passage, at least so I think. But there is a second wolf and I have to build two defensive fires to get rid of that one. I also forfeit the search of the corpse and containers at the Rail Tunnel. A third wolf patrols the railroad at the Camp Office, I manage to slip by. The Camp Office offers very little food, of note are a box of matches a magnifying lens, although neither of these address my most urgent problems. I search the building quickly, warm up and move out to the lake. Two wolves are blocking access to the lake and I consider taking a detour via Lake Trail to access the far end. Then I decide that my best call is to forget the lake entirely and get on with my journey. I start climbing the hill towards the overlook. I quickly process the deer carcass up there, collect some sticks and grab the mountaineering rope - I already have the well-fed buff, so it's easy. I warm up at a fire in the cave, then leave fast because weather is getting worse and the night is coming. Winds begin to blow harder again and I sprain an ankle. That's inevitable in this kind of terrain, although I was hoping for a wrist. Once I reach the river, I decide quickly to visit the Hunting Blind. Yes, I have a sprained ankle I cannot "cure", I'm tired, it's late and I could meet a wolf, but there could be a bedroll too and I really need it now. Winds blow very hard now and my torch goes out, but I see no wolf and press on. I am rewarded for my persistence... There is also a prybar at the blind but I leave it in place as I already have one. I only pick rosehips for next time (or even this time?) when I sprain something - now I finally have enough for a tea. I return to the river and continue to the trailers. My temperature bar is running out and I'm exhausted and encumbered. I decide to take my chances with the wolf and go straight for the trailer. There is no wolf to greet me but take a small condition hit during the final meters to the door. I suppose that's a fair price to pay - I covered a lot of ground today. I remain at 84% condition, including the well-fed bonus.

I definitely feel about 10% hungrier and 2C colder. As for well-fed buff, haven't got it yet... maybe tomorrow Good to know I'm not crazy!

Deadman 13 / Day 3 As soon as I get up, I repair the two toques I found along the way and succeed both times - this increases my temperature by about nearly 3C, now at +8C. Then I harvest a gut from that yesterday's rabbit and because the weather is perfect before noon, I head out for the second deer carcass in the direction of Unnamed Pond. The wolf is not around today and the winds let me have the entire carcass this time. They only start to blow when I'm done, so I return to the cabin. I catch one bunny and just as it happens, the winds stop. I reckon I still have about two hours of daylight. I could make it to Camp Office. But first things first, I need to harvest this rabbit. I'm done in less than an hour and immediately set out towards the Rail Tunnel, the meat from the rabbit still on me - I plan to cook it on the way. When I'm passing between the cave and Max's, the winds suddenly break out again in full strength and blow out my torch. I spend a match building a campfire in a protected place, cook the rabbit and wait. The winds don't stop and keep blowing from the direction where I want to go. I can't wait for too long, the night is coming. I need to make the call: continue or give up. I choose to continue, drink a tomato soup and run - there's no other way to advance against these winds. After a while it looks like they would stop but they are only adjust direction to continue blowing in my face. The snow is blinding me but I can see a black spot moving in the distance... just as that black spot can see me. I run back and almost think it's over because I can't quickly find a place for a fire, but in the end I build one sheltered by a tree. This is enough to save me from the wolf, but it's clear I have to return to Trapper's. I have no chance of breaking through. Three matches and a heap of calories I wasted tonight. I return, kill a second rabbit, and go to bed. My food reserves are thinning fast, I have to move tomorrow.

Thanks! I'm afraid I snapped the necks of quite a few bunnies this Easter...

Deadman 13 / Day 2 I wake up early, before dawn, aurora lighting up the Orca store. I collect an useless memory stored in a computer and read equally useless pages of "Advanced Guns Guns Guns" to kill time. I peek out as soon as the sun comes up - felt minus 40C. So I make another sweep of the store, finding beef jerky and - gosh, a hacksaw. I was standing right above it yesterday. So that's one key item ticked off. Around noon, at felt -16C, I make my move to the Park Office and start my first fire, in the stove. Winds pick up, so I sleep and then wait for them to stop. A dead guy and a burbling tomato soup are my companions. After a while, winds die down and make way to light fog. I take the rope down at felt -3C, very comfortable. I get a heart attack from the "wolf board", a wooden board that looks a bit like a wolf on the snow and scares the hell out of me every time I pass through this climbing area. I make a stop in the cave, warm up (just the cave bonus is enough) and drop useless items because I'm overweight now. Rifle books, some clothing. Also four pieces of scrap metal, which I should have left at the Park Office - I will pick them up on my forge run. Then I snap a rabbit, collect a few sticks and climb up. Waterfall, cattails, cave, coal... and here I am again: I move to the barn right away to work on the deer carcass. I get everything of course - meat, hide, guts - and also harvest meat from the rabbit. I leave the gut from the rabbit for tomorrow, I'm exhausted and it's night already. The wolf from direction of Unnamed Pond is attracted by the scent but apparently cannot break out of its assigned area, so I get a free pass to the cabin. The cabin looks very spartan this time - even the usual containers are not there. The locker is empty. A chocolate bar is found in one of the shelves. The safe can wait for tomorrow. I go to bed.

And change my profile name Exactly. I still treat them as collectibles though!

Exciting.

Deadman 12 Broken Railroad spawn at midnight... made it to Poacher's Camp and searched in the darkness for the flare but couldn't find anything but pitch-black screen. Quit and deleted the save. Deadman 13 / Day 1 Will's crash site, just like Deadman 11, except now it is morning. Similar story on the way to Grey Mother's - outrunning the wolf, grabbing a few cattails and ending up at Grey Mother's in 79% condition. Matches, water from the toilet, some food and clothes in the house, but no combat pants. One hour of sleep to warm up and rest, then hopping from house to house. Prybar found in the bank - this will allow me to spend the night at Orca. Starting in MT is good - you get food and clothes from the town there are warm houses and warm beds, so the absence of Cold Fusion feat is not so painful. Eventually I reach Orca, fairly well supplied with food and with around 5 liters of water from toilets. Next day I'll continue to Trapper's.

The unexpected early re-appearance of the bear aside, I concluded that there are a few aspects of the Deadman challenge I don't like, and decided to make a few tweaks: Set wildlife spawns generally to Interloper levels, except keeping wolves at "Very High", and including "Reduce wildlife population over time" to "High". This should eliminate 6-day respawn cycles of bears No feats (I've been using Cold Fusion and Efficient Machine, both very helpful but taking away a lot of the challenge from the challenge) No stims allowed Enabled survivor monologue (I guess that would count as optional anyway) Code: 8sHI-/z8P-Dx+q-gQam-bAAA I'll continue to call this setting "Deadman" as the spirit of Deadman has nod been altered by these modifications. Let deadmen roll.

That's good to know. I thought than once a bear gets shot, it will just keep running until it bleeds out, maybe except if you get directly in his way. Thanks for reading!

Bad, bad bear, attacking elderly survivors It's part of the game, as @Mroz4k said. I like how quickly your fortunes can change. This could happen on Day 44 , 144 or 544, all the same.

Deadman 11 / Day 40 The first guts have finished curing and I craft rabbitskin mitts. In the afternoon I locate the bear carcass. It is windy and I'm quite far from base, considering my poor clothing, so I choose caution. I wait for my fire to be ready for coal and only begin working on the carcass when I'm warmed up. I collect the hide and a small amount of sticks in the area of the Rail Tunnel. Deadman 11 / Day 41 Today I'm working on the deerskin pants. While cooking more moose meat and making water, I use a short period of good weather to lure in a wolf and kill it with a clean headshot. Deadman 11 / Day 42 More wolves on the way. This time I manage to lure in the two wolves from Max's and make them attack the deer at the homestead. I score one "combo", the other is a miss, unfortunately. In the evening I collect the hide and a good amount of meat from the non-combo deer. Deadman 11 / Day 43 Bad weather most of the day... I finish the pants and begin working on the boots. It's going quickly and I want to be done before cabin fever kicks in. Deadman 11 / Day 44 Today it's foggy. I collect some branches that respawned behind the cabin. In the afternoon it is nice and warm and I decide to take the other deer hide without fire. While I'm working I hear sounds I don't want to hear. I have the presence of mind to fire the flare gun as soon as the harvesting sequence is finished. I miss but I'm saved from an immediate bear attack. I cautiously return to the cabin, which is now plastered with hides of animals of all kinds. When the fog starts lifting, conditions should be good for me to kill the bear. I work for a short time on the boots and when the fog starts lifting, I head out. It's a nice weather at felt -3C, I should last a while. I load up smellies and wait for the bear on one of the rocks that mark the path to the cabin. When the bear attacks, I intend to jump down and make it lose tracking. My shot is a nice hit. The bear charges. I mix up keys and hit crouch instead of sprint - funny, just walking off the rock would have been enough. Maybe I could have had a chance, with five emergency stims in the cabin. But as soon as I'm on my feet, the bear returns and gives me another round. I make it back to the cabin... two blood loss wounds, only one bandage. Deadmen don't stock up on bandages. I die, killed by blessing in disguise.

I've always known it can be there, but on most of my runs I got lifeless Trapper's Homestead. So when I noticed the bones in the cave, my heart stopped.

Blessing? Hardly... the bear will interfere with everything I do. It doesn't fear fire, you need to be in good position to deal with it... which you generally aren't if you are working on a carcass and the bear comes sniffing. There only are so many times I can use my flare gun. Eight shells are left for Deadman 11. Thanks for lurking!

Thanks! My deadmen don't risk bear meat before level 5. It's mainly that I'm not familiar with parasites and don't know if they make me too weak to carry out the necessary deadman tasks under deadman conditions - not to mention reduce my condition that I cannot recover. But more importantly, my freezer is now full of risk-free moose. By the way, I'm flush with shrooms but I'd prefer using antibiotics if the need should arise. Antibiotics expire and don't warm me up. Quartering can be faster if you want to get everything, but I really want just the hide - guts come risk-free from rabbits. In my view, doing a 2-hour time-accelerated task in the open is too risky in deadman mode. There's a good chance you'll have to interrupt it midway to save your fire, or your bare skin

Deadman 11 / Day 37 Once I'm done with the usual rabbit harvesting / cooking routine, I return to the cabin and take the two spare guts I've been keeping in the locker. I'm getting moose ideas. Wildlife around Trapper's is now too dense and dangerous to allow me roam freely, and a single rabbit run may not be enough to feed me until I'm at cooking level 5. Therefore, getting the moose would kill two birds with one stone. Three in fact - I could make the satchel. I'm nearly done with the bow when night falls and it's too dark to continue. Deadman 11 / Day 38 A blizzard rages from the morning into late afternoon. I finish the bow and harvest two rabbits that got caught overnight. When the blizzard stops, the moose returns, and the hunt begins. I start a campfire at the beginning of the curved path towards the cabin and lure the moose in. As it charges, I shoot and return to the fire, which makes it run away. I miss, I'm really bad at hitting fast moving targets. But the hunt has only started. In the end it takes me all evening and nine shots to get three arrows into the beast and take it down. The moose sinks into the ground head-first and its hind legs hover in the air - there is this new item dropping/placement mechanic apparently that causes this - someone probably thought it was an improvement. I recover one arrow and worry that the other two will remain under the ground forever. I get two 0.5 kg steaks out and cook them for immediate use, leaving the rest for tomorrow. It's late. Deadman 11 / Day 39 The morning is very cold - I still haven't been able to craft any clothes, the guts are still curing - but it's foggy, and this means that my fire will live when I place it next to the moose carcass. I have to invest almost all of my remaining firewood to stay above zero while working, but I'm confident that the fire will last in this weather. The carcass is now fully above ground and my two remaining arrows lie on the snow. After each steak I listen into the fog, which has in the meantime become very thick - I can hardly make out the cabin and the barn. Sure enough, after maybe 30 minutes the bear comes sniffing. It doesn't seem to be too interested, it doesn't head straight for me, but I can't risk time-accelerated work on the carcass with that thing around. This is a key moment for Deadman 11 - dead moose, perfect weather - and I'm not letting the bear ruin it. I stand up, lure the bear in and put a flare shell into it when it charges. Then I can return calmly to the moose carcass while the bear is running around. I end up taking the hide and around 20 kg meat - sounds like a lot but actually it will only last around a week. In the evening, when the fog has already lifted and the moose hide is curing in the cabin, I make a short trip to see if I can find the bear. I think I can make out the carcass lying on the path by the edge of the map, in the direction to the Rail Tunnel. I think I can get to it tomorrow and grab the hide.