bkrownd

Oh wow, the nasty factor in the Muskeg really ramps up once you've got the spear and return there on the next quest.  ☠️  It's probably best that I died in my first couple bear fights, since the last one I didn't get any injuries or clothing damage.  🧙‍♂️

My favorite place is the forestry tower in Mystery Lake for the simple reason that it's the one place where you can be inside and see outside, and it has a cool "secret treehouse" kind of thing going for it. 

OK, now I got a stupid death.  I was on the broken trestle bridge, looking over the edges to see the terrain.  I thought I was OK, but I changed the viewing angle while walking and fell right down the gap.  Splat!

I switched from friendly animal mode to voyageur for my next game, and had to re-learn fire-brandishing and fighting.  I spawned in Desolation Point for the first time so I could explore a new area, and I was losing ground daily.  Finally, starving from lack of food, I was forced to attempt to ward off a bear in my path with a flaming twig and the flame went out the very moment I started brandishing it.  Died.  I don't even know if flaming twigs can ward off bears, but I was probably going to die before i could find food anyhow.  The weather became worse the lower my resources got.

I nearly had a dumb death today.  I started up my saved game for the first time since April.  I had left her sitting warm and cozy in the farmhouse, but hungry and thirsty.  I wanted to head outside, but first I quickly looked in my inventory and saw some tasty rabbit.  Munch, munch, step out the door.  Sometime later while walking across the field I noticed the little health meter in the corner, and I had forgotten what to do to check why that was happening.  I headed back to the house for warmth, sooo slowly, but even inside my health kept dropping.  I eventually found the first aid page where it told me to take antibiotics.  By now my health was under 50% and no sign of feeling better.  The idea of sleeping was worrying, since I had several previous game deaths in my sleep when things turned grim.  And for 10 hours?!  I dithered for a bit, but the health meter was ticking against me.  Finally I set the sleep time for 10 hours, and was horrified to see the health meter plummet fast while the screen started fading to black...   ...then I woke up, good as new.    I had forgot to notice whether that rabbit was cooked - it just looked like another snack I was toting around in my pack.

The next day I went in search of the coastal highway.  I use The Long Dark to make up for missing out on seasons and normal winter weather here in the tropics.  It really works - I feel a chill sitting in front of the wintery screen, and so many memories of crisp winter days come up.