Season 4 Man vs River: Episode 1

Season 4 Man vs River

Episode One : The other side

Ok, I'm out of the caves and into the light. This river has got to be done, its my one project in this Minecraft world that I have to get done.

You've seen what I did before on one side of the opening of the river. This is a before and after showing the side right after I blasted the river through, and now how it looks now with my tower.



What I haven't been showing is the other side, what I see outside my doorstep.



Not very nice looking, right? Well I'm gonna fix that. I start very simply by following the contour of the land around it to make a nice gradient.



But I get impatient and realize I've been killing a lot of creepers lately, and all my gunpowder(now called sulphur) is piling up near my tower. So I grab it and set about my scheme.



I dig into the mountain.



I expertly set my explosives near sources of fire... ok that looks bad but its not bad in minecraft.



The explosives blow large holes into the hill, making it much easier to just clear the land. I fully intended to continue re-planting dirt along the edge to make a nice hill, but then I liked the look of the exposed rocks. Remember in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring where the 2 Argos are? The big statues they pass near the end? Right beside the statues is a quarry where the artisans obviously got their material for the statues.

So I thought it would be cool to have an old exposed quarry near my tower to be sort of "the source" of the building material for it.



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S3 Mincraft: Styxx Ep: 7 "River of Gold"

Season 3 Styxx

Episode 7 "River of Gold"

I came back down from the Cistern because the pathway continued near the steps I had created. It wasn't long before I heard the sounds of zombies and water came from below. I waited and waited for the zombies to come, but they didn't, so I edged my way and found that the water was blocking them.



Afterward I explored and found the source of the water, but it went way back and WAAAY up. I tried to find the top, but soon it became flush and strait, and I didn't want to ruin such a perfect waterfall. So it was time to head back up and make some ladders.



Upon reaching the top, I found out why steel armor is so useful. I had the false assumption that sun = safe, and as soon as I got on the surface I heard a hissssss. Over the top of the wall I could see this hopping up to get a look at me.



What was even more stupid was to think that was the only one around. I soon got a stereo chorus of dynamite to both ears... I have no idea how I survived.



I made my ladders and I went up the waterfall. I found an open cavern quite a bit above the source, and while I was there I heard a cow doing his cow thing and going "mooo". I decided to look around and near the ceiling was some dirt, I opened up the dirt and found myself looking at my tower.



Another exit, but far too inconvenient to ever actually use. I went back down the waterfall to find many skeletons down there, but also a lavafall coming down from the ceiling.



On one side was some water, so I decided to take a ride down it. It deposited me into a room with yet another waterfall, and I was feeling adventurous so I hopped in and rode that one far far down into the earth.

At the bottom I found a room, and all around the room the floors sparkled. This water must go strait through a gold vein or something. I went home a richer man.

S3 Minecraft Styxx Ep: 4

Season 3: Styxx
Episode 4 "Lake of the Damned"

The time has come.

I put up my fishing pole and my other gadgets, and I prepared to go back down into the darkness. I killed some pigs and cooked up some food. I shined up and put on my armor.



I've started trying to organize the cave a bit, I have an insanely good sense of direction, but I also have an insanely strong need to organize. So the first thing I'm doing is adding signs, and each sign will have torches arranged like this so I know it in the dark.



I went all the way down to the blocked in wall I made, and I opened it. So far I was able to edge my way in, and I saw no monsters. I also did not hear any, so I started looking around.



The area I called Lake of the Damned looked a lot less damned than before. Last time, if you haven't read the post, I killed almost 10 creatures before building a wall to block them from coming. Now, I see nothing... well not nothing actually, a beautiful room full of waterfalls.



Some redstone, that's exciting. Some lava at the end there, meeting the lake. I hear that's how Obsidian can occur. I do not have any diamond though, so its not very important.



I crossed the water towards the waterfall on the far left of the screen shot before this one. This screen shot is me behind it. Some iron here, so I started digging and found a cave that lead a bit farther back.



Its hard to tell from the pics, but I'm now behind the lava that was in the other pictures. I get back here and there's some really nice ore, and on top of that I figure I can get a really nice picture of the room from back here. I get in position and see this:



Yep, that's a creeper! But its not getting into the water. It doesn't actually see me, so I pull my bow out. Now, you non-players don't know this, but a creeper takes 5 arrows.. this one died after 2. Weird, he must have fallen from somewhere and injured itself.

So I decided I should get something for this non-climax of a situation. I left a room full of undead, and I return to find a half dead creeper. So I start mining the red stone behind the waterfall. I then came to some mud, I figured what the heck, I'll see how close I am to the adamantite(unbreakable bedrock).



I find some! and I'm just about to turn back and return home, when I see a new sort of sparkle in the dark.



DIAMOND! The rare of rare, diamond is the best material for items. It can even break obsidian. Obsidian is so hard that creepers can't scratch it. I am able to get just a handful of diamonds. Now with the most valuable substance in my bags, I decide I need to return home and put them in a safe place.

Here are my rewards.



That's a ton of redstone.

S3 Minecraft: Styxx Ep 2

We left off last time in desperate retreat. I had seen one skeleton, but as I ran I realized there were two skeletons doing a tag team on me. I ran out and started my way up the mine when I realized that I had done something stupid... I could easily be knocked off. I turned to look for a safer ledge, and saw just how many arrows were coming for me.



I pulled out my pick and I created a quick hiding hole in the wall where there was already a short clearing. I then realized the skeletons are in just as much danger as I was... I pulled out my sword, and I knocked them down into the abyss where I never saw them again.



Now it was time for me to go into that abyss. It was not but a few meters down that I saw some more light.



I cautiously headed toward the light. The bottom of the mine was finally reached, and it branched into several areas. I wanted to explore the light I had seen. Lava coursed through the area, and then while looking at the lava I came across another sight



Red stone has a number of uses in Minecraft. The most complicated technlogies required it, and I knew that it was only found in the deepest of mines. This is the kind of stuff I was after, I slowly mined a walkway so I could possibly reach the stuff, I was worried it was too close to the lava.



Lava spits what looks like solid pieces of lava out and onto the ledges sometimes, and I do not know if it can harm me. Further more, it has a hiss similar to Creepers, so I am fully paranoid while walking near it. Eventually though, I have claimed my prizes.



I mined around, and it was very dangerous here. Lava destroys anything that falls in it, and I lost a few chunks of coal and one or two pieces of redstone dust to the firey liquid. While digging I thought I had uncovered some more iron... but at second look and I realized I had another first



GOLD! I have no clue what Gold is currently useful for, but I know its one of the most rare ores on the map. In the future I am sure it will have a great use, so I mined what I could. I got about 4 blocks of it before there was too much lava in the area to explore for more.

Next I walked down a pathway that was on the opposite side of the lava. It extended into a little hallway. As I approached, I heard the trickle of water. I cleared a few stone to make it easier to walk, and then was met with:



A room full of waterfalls! There were at least 3 waterfalls draining from the ceiling into a lake in the room. I could barely see the lake because the room was so very dark.



Almost immediatly I was hit with an unknown amount of arrows. I know with full iron armor, I was almost dead in a few seconds. I retreated, ate some food to fill my health, and hid... waiting for my attackers. In the following 5 minutes I killed no less than 3 zombies and 3 skeletons, and the arrows did not stop. It was crazy... I was worried about losing my new ores. So I did the only thing I could think of.



I blocked the room and resolved to return one day to the Lake of the Damned, more prepared and with less fear.

For now, I had some new goodies to take home.

Season 2 Ep: 4 "Minecraft: The River"

This one gets interesting at the end.

The next big cut was a rather large one, the first where I really cut into a mountain side. It was during this cut that I realized how drastic a change to the scenery this would be. This would not just require cutting work, but eventually sculpting landscapes as well. For now, the grunt work.

I surround the land areas I want to cut with torches because they are plentiful, renewable, and easily seen at night. I decided my route and I placed them down in what I thought would be a manageable cut.



Next I went to "water level" and I traced and cut out the shape so that I knew when to stop digging down while I was clearing the land to the bedrock.



I continued like this for several blocks of land. Each night I would return home with my tools, unload a ton of dirt and rock, and prepare for the next morning. The time in my treehouse was rather nail-biting. There was not a lot of room up there, and every morning I was greeted to this:



That was a light morning. I also learned the flaw to a treehouse... it shaded the undead from the sun, so every morning I had to jump out of my tree house, turn around and kill whatever it was keeping me awake at night.

So this particular morning I woke up and waited for the dead to turn to ash and I jumped out of my treehouse, only to see this in front of me:



If you remember, these things are full of gunpowder, they hiss, blow up and destroy things. I didn't want my tree house to be blown away, so I ran as well as I could. I must've stubbed my toe cause it blew up...



my oven! :(

This was a declaration.



This was war.

Season 1 Ep: 2 "Minecraft: The Bay"

Today started out well.

I made my way down the side of the bay and found a few pieces of coal beyond a waterfall near my beach shelter. On my way back I cleaned up the coastline a little bit in anticipation of needing to mine there later. I made a few torches and felt much better about my situation. With my new confidence I began giving myself some more room in my shelter. I needed a few more blocks so I began chopping at the rocks in the cave beside the shelter and soon broke through to an underground cave. Using torches to light my way I was surprised to find...



I was excited, this was my first big discovery in game. The water moves fast, but is not so deep. I did not want to waste my rare torches, so after this shot I gathered back up my flares and left. I took the blocks I had and I squared away my shelter. I created a crafting bench and set it on the beach, I then fashioned me a door to put on my shelter to make it easier getting in and out.

I began feeling adventurous, so I resolved the climb the mountain and get a look at the cave up top where I planned on making a Lookout platform as my previous post illustrates. I get near the top, with barely any place to find a footing, when suddenly I hear a loud hiss. I look around and see nothing and then suddenly BOOM!



Something blew up the side of the mountain, I was blown toward the edge, but luckily did not fall off to my death. Only a few rocks had hit me. I took a moment to collect myself, I had no idea what had caused such an explosion. I looked and found the cave about 10 feet above me, luckily its structure did not seem damaged by the explosion, though I did not explore it further. Night was setting in. I went back to the shelter.



I was not sure what had happened up there. I did decide I need to make some windows for my shelter so I could see the things that may come around at night. Unfortunately I left my crafting bench outside on the beach... and my fear was too much for me to run out and retrieve it. Windows would have to wait for sunrise.

Episode 3 continues my exploration, as well as small improvements to my shelter.