what in the longdark spitting-pit is that

[inourhead]

This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.

Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.

And the demon's gaining on her.

She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.

And Holly's not fast enough.

The mouth catches her.





But it doesn't hurt.

Where are we?

----


with Minus (kappa)

with Mark (kappa)

with Max (Benedict)

in Terraria (kappa)

with Emma (Marri)

with Erin (Rockeye)

Comments

[aestrix]

That might not have been the best idea. Because there is a cycle of day and night going on here.

She hears the sound of dead things before she sees them.

[inourhead]

What? The sun is gone again? Is this fucking place on some kind of sun rationing?

Holly hefts the metal sword and fights her way back to their house.

[aestrix]

It's not fun, there are a lot of them, and they have flying eyeball creature friends, too. But she has a sharp metal sword, and none of them are very fast, so she makes it safely back to the house.

[inourhead]

Ugh. Ugh, ugh.

They wait. They pace and do sword practice, now with added information about FLYING EYEBALLS. They snack. They consider making a bunny door so that when ALL OF THE SUNS ARE GONE AT THE SAME TIME, they can still attempt to grab bunnies from the pen.

[aestrix]

The dead things outside and their eyeball friends would like to offer this line of argument to augment the situation: moan bang bang, groan slobber, bang, growl growl. Bang.

[inourhead]

Yes, well, to the pit with them all. They stay in the house.

[aestrix]

Well, several hours later, the attempts at debate cease. Holly and Crystal are now free to explore. Again.

[inourhead]

Holly checks for a sun, finds one - are they all the same color? And size? Peculiar coincidence - and goes back out. Crystal digs.

[aestrix]

They find a good amount of ore! Of varying types. This is possibly enough to make an anvil now, though they'd need to test it to be sure.

There's still only one sun in the sky.

[inourhead]

Well, is some of it iron? If some of it is iron, she's going to turn lots of dirt into iron instead of digging more.

[aestrix]

Some of it is iron!

[inourhead]

Great. Holly makes lots of dirt into iron and Crystal hauls it all to the forge.

[aestrix]

Yep, that's enough to make an anvil.

[inourhead]

Great. Now she makes an anvil.

[aestrix]

And now she can make a lot of things! A suit of armor, a bathtub, a toilet....

[inourhead]

Oh, that last will be more convenient than inflicting her discomforts on the bunnies. She expands her house to have room for those things and then installs them.

[aestrix]

They require surprisingly little plumbing. That being, they require none. Yet everything works just fine without it.

Other things can be made with the metals, too. Armor and weaponry are prominent, but some items also look like upgrades of the pickaxe and axe.

[inourhead]

Are any of these metals upgrades that Holly can just do by herself? Is there any reason not to, such as conservation of materials?

[aestrix]

Yep! The pickaxe and axe are just fine with being magically upgraded.

[inourhead]

Great. That, then. And they make a suit of armor out of whatever they've got the most of and then Holly upgrades it.

[aestrix]

And now they have armor that fits them perfectly and is made out of the strongest material available at the moment. That's convenient!

[inourhead]

Not that this is tremendously comfortable, but yes.

They go visit Jeff again to see if he has anything to say now they've got armor.

[aestrix]

"You should focus on gathering more heart crystals to increase your maximum life," is what he has to say.

[inourhead]

"Where are those?"

[aestrix]

"Underground are crystal hearts that can be used to increase your max life. You can smash them with a pickaxe."