Land of the Poet

Let’s start where we left off (otherwise it would be a tad weird). I had just finished my task of murdering five generations of chickens, and now I had found some pixies.

It wasn’t long until I tracked down where their village was. Quite frankly, it was pathetic. The entire village, save for two blocks, was on top of water. The village as a whole was maybe twenty blocks in total, which looked even smaller as it was practically floating on the ocean. The hovels, or homes, were really cute though, so I made sure to steal them. As for the pixies, they were flying around and some even went to the nearby forest.

I then saw my screen flash pink for a second, but thanks to my bestiary obsession, I knew it must’ve been a siren. I quickly crafted earplugs, but by the time I put them in, I was already in the water. And… there was a sea serpent. It was just awful placement, really. I had my overpowered bow, so I shot the siren until it dropped dead, and ran away from the serpent. I came back three minutes later to get some pixies, and the sea serpent was nowhere to be seen. There were, however, a couple of shiny scales, no doubt loot from the siren.

I decided to mark down the coordinates of the pixie village for later, since I couldn’t see a single pixie that I could reach. I kept going through the dark oak forest until I heard a faint “hello”. Yet another village! I assumed this one would be small too, but it definitely wasn’t. There were at least ten pixies hovering around, probably more somewhere nearby. I got my jars, let them take paper out of my inventory so that they would come close enough for capturing, and I cut their population in half. It was awesome, despite almost dying when I leapt off a cliff to try to catch one.

Then I headed back to where I left my horse, Thyme, and the villager. I got there at midday, only to discover the villager had become a zombie. Thyme was alive, thankfully, but his companion was not. I would like to say I went to the village or made a small memorial, but I instead went home (just when you thought my apathy was going away).

I got maybe halfway home when I saw a dragon roost (For reference: a roost is above ground, a den is underground). I would usually stay away, but I didn’t see the dragon, so I left Thyme and went to check it out. It was bordering the coast, so I at least had a plan of escape. I saw the acacia village a few hundred blocks away, and I recognized it as the village closest to my home. I looted the roost quickly, then noticed a red blur in the trees. Fuck. I jumped into the ocean and hoped there wasn’t a sea serpent. For once, there actually wasn’t a serpent and things turned out alright.

I thought it would be a fantastic idea to shoot this thing that was three times my size and could breathe fire. It was, since the dragon didn’t notice me, but it could’ve ended badly, very badly. I mounted Thyme and kept shooting arrows at the fire dragon, and found that it was male, by its coloring (males have spots on their wings according to the bestiary). Then it started heading towards the village, straight for my base. I rode to catch up, but it flew a lot faster than Thyme could run. The dragon flew past my base. Let me rephrase: a fucking fire-breathing dragon that destroys shit and chars the rest flew not even a hundred blocks past my base.

It ended up in a forest and, inevitably, wiped out a bunch of trees. I left Thyme in a pool of water so he wouldn’t get burned, and I ran to the tree-tops. I kept shooting my arrows as the dragon sort of just set half the forest ablaze. Miraculously, I was only set on fire once. I kept firing my arrows at the creature and then I got an achievement: Dragonslayer. It was kind of sad because the dragon was very pretty, but hey, now I have cool loot.

I looked at it for a while, and then decided I should loot it. I punched it a couple times because I didn’t know where to click, but eventually I figured it out. I got some scales (that looked epic), a few dragon bones (also epic), and a heart (very epic). I set off to make tools, and found a use for wither bones. I made most of a set of red dragon armour, but I was short JUST ONE scale. I also made a pickaxe and decided to keep the rest of the dragon bones in case I needed them for something urgent.

All of that happened rather quickly (within maybe two hours of pure gameplay), but I’m really happy with where I ended up. Things keep dying around or because of me, and that’s absolutely fine.

Oh, and also, I’m going to be taking a brief hiatus for about a month or so. That means no posts until August at least.

To start off with, I got a helluva lot of new pike. By a helluva lot, I mean five, increasing my total amount of pike from a measly three to eight. In order of capture: Abyss, Astro, Nebula, Atlas, Stella, Warp, Alien, and Singularity. I hate to say it, but I don’t think I should get more since the pike lake is pretty much full. But, since I really like pike and don’t give a shit about their living conditions, I’m going to ignore that bit.

After lolling about the base, I headed for the nether to do some cleaning up. It took twenty minutes, three hoes, an axe, and half my sanity, but I cleared out the area surrounding my portal. I then went to the nether fortress and lit up one of the blaze spawners and destroyed the other one. The lighting up didn’t work at first, so I made sure to cover every single block with torches and that worked, somewhat. Eventually I gave up and went mining to the east in hopes of entering a new biome. It devastated my diamond pickaxe and I got nothing out of it except a fuck ton of netherrack. I also decided to call my cockatrice that I left protecting my portal Henderson, named after someone I have yet to determine.

I went back to the overworld to collect chicken eggs, and ended up with two rotten eggs. I had an extra two in the chest, so I threw them all and got two cockatrices; one male, one female. I was in the mood to mine, so I went to my the mine and allowed my thoughts to slip into oblivion. This lasted approximately one hour before I got painstakingly bored and wanted to do something that didn’t include ores, stone, or caves. I was heading back to my base when I read a message in chat: “Cockatrice was slain by zombie”. I hurried to the surface with my two baby cockatrices to find a swarm of zombies hovering around a bunch of feathers and wither bones; no doubt my deceased cockatrice. I quickly killed them and found my wonderful Moorhen’s remains on the ground. I made a small grave and set to work on a safer area for my cockatrices.

I made a den of sorts for my lovely cockatrices and went on to name my two new cockatrice. The female one was to be named Moorhen Jr., and the male was now Hennibal. The den I made was tiny, but I’m planning on expanding it. I also decided I had way too many chickens in the Big House, so I slaughtered them all in rage. I have to say, committing genocide turned out to be fun, despite raising slight concerns for my mental state. I also took a bunch of screenshots around the base for comparison to day one.

I wanted to be away from all the murder, so I went north-ish, then realized my inventory was full of ore, rotten flesh, and a bunch of garbage. I went back to put it away and went to the lake for some fresh pike. I saw one had an enchanted bow, so naturally I killed it to procure the weapon. It turned out to have practically no durability left, but it did have mending as an enchantment, along with flame. I immediately got my power III enchanted book and applied it to the bow. I went back to the village with the ultimate arsenal: a half-broken diamond pickaxe, a stymphalian bird dagger (while it sounds awesome, it’s pretty much an iron sword but ever so *slightly* faster), and an overpowered bow that is in desperate need of XP.

I’m not sure whether I mentioned it before or not, so I’ll just say it now: I got a new horse. I’m not planning to replace Sir Ginger, but I felt that I needed a horse that can actually jump a decent height. This horse, dubbed Mister Thyme, is a black horse with white splotches. I had decided he’s dating Sir Ginger, so I’m feeling rather bad about separating the two of them. Actually, nah. I live to cause pain and I do not feel the least bit guilty about anything except that one time in fifth grade that a teacher shouted at me. But hey, I’d call that resentment, not guilt (Fuck you teach, I’m glad I didn’t have your class).

Moving on from my hatred of that specific teacher, I rode Thyme to the acacia village where I then saw some cockatrices. They noticed me and started to charge. The thing about cockatrices is that you can’t look at them, lest they begin to burn your soul (I assume this is what happens, I can’t think of anything else that could make a cockatrice hurt you by literally just staring). I ran to a nearby hill that I was quite sure a cockatrice couldn’t climb and tied Thyme to a fence. I proceeded to kill said cockatrices with my bow, which was slowly repaired as the XP dropped from the beasts. I was about to keep going past the village, but three more cockatrices appeared out of nowhere, almost killing me.

I did eventually make it out alive, but only after dying to one of the buggers. I continued my journey until I reached a very large desert with a village. Naturally, I destroyed their farms, took their belongings, and kidnapped a farmer. For some reason, they had nothing against this. I left the farmer in a boat with my horse so that I might explore further without them slowing me down. I also found a cool hippogryph, that was pretty much all black and looked like a vulture.

Eventually, I got to a dark oak forest, and I heard creepy giggling coming form above the canopy. A pixie! I set up base so that I might make jars to catch them and also to keep my items safe. The bestiary turned out to be a help, since I had learned pixies grab anything you’re not keeping in your hotbar. This was also when I decided I should take a break.

So, without further ado, farewell y’all (at least until I make another post).

Also, I was thinking to start a new series of sorts for 1.17, since none of the mods I’m using are compatible for that version. So, there’s probably going to be some new stuff soon (I know I said without further ado, but I needed a transition).

Somehow over a week has gone by and a lot has happened, true, but it doesn’t feel like it (I should probably make these shorter, but when have I ever listened to reason?).  So, starting off, I went to go get the hippocampus, this time with a saddle.

Right off the bat, I found my cockatrice wandering on the outskirts of the forest. I led him back home and named him Henry (Hen-ry, get it? Ah, I’m going insane). Despite having backtracked not five minutes into my journey, I pressed forward and got to the hippocampus. Admittedly, I did get lost in the jungle (multiple times), but I got there in the end.

I arrived to see that the hippocampus had not moved, and I put the saddle on it. It was ridiculously fast. As soon as its little leg-flipper-things hit the water, my frames sharply decreased. Thankfully, turning down my render distance helped. I got to a bay with some strange rock formations and left the hippocampus as I went to go see why there was a perfectly spherical mountain.

That was a mistake, but it didn’t kill me for once. It was a cyclops den, so I did what I did with the first one; burrowed under it and hit the cyclops from below. After a few minutes of wasting my diamond pickaxe’s durability, I got into a good spot and killed the beast. It dropped wool, mutton, and – drumroll please – a cyclops eye! It’s listed as a legendary weapon, but all it seems to do it weaken nearby mobs; neither legendary nor a weapon. I have to thank the ocean for this, seeing as it’s the only thing that stopped the cyclops from walking over and snapping my neck. For creatures that hate water so much they won’t go into it (even if it means killing me), their dens always seem to be right next to the ocean.

I then decided to head back to my hippocampus (who was laying down on the ground because I ordered it to sit), but I got distracted by some pretty ladies on a rock. Sirens. I was wearing earplugs on the off chance that I might run into them, so I didn’t get pulled in by their song. After much hesitation, I swam towards them to kill them but for some reason, they swam away after I returned to land. I then went after one of them and tried to kill it, unaware there was a huge sea serpent right next to it.

Somehow, I didn’t die, but I was permanently scarred. I struggled to get the hippocampus and myself out since the bugger wouldn’t leave. I ended up spending 30 minutes underground waiting for the serpent to leave. Eventually it did, but that half hour was boring as all heck. The trek back home was just as slow, probably because I was riding an aquatic creature on dry land. I feel like the hippocampus should’ve died from lack of water, but I’m not one to complain about the survival of my pets.

I did make it back home in one piece, and in that one piece, I decided to flatten a hill and use the dirt to expand my backyard. It took a while, but I planted some grass and flowers and it now looks somewhat natural. Using this extra space behind the house I was building (which will now be addressed as Big House), I made some animal pens. One pen for breeding animals, one for pets, and one pen embedded into the ground for pigs, my new food supply. In case you haven’t noticed the picture, Big House has become infested with chickens (sort of my fault but I just really like throwing eggs). 

I eventually got bored of feeding the pigs by hand because they eat A LOT, so I devised a plan. Due to the amazing Genetic Animals mod, most farm animals eat grass to satiate their hunger, so I put some grass blocks under the pen with a gap between the grass layer and dirt layer (where the pigs are). That way, the pigs can’t eat all of the grass, and the grass can still spread even if they eat all the grass available to them. After a lot of waiting for the grass to grow (yes, I watched it grow), I moved on to getting some chickens. I went to the nearby mountains and found three. One black, one fuzzy white, and one black chicken with a white head.

At this point, I’d had enough of farm work, so I set off to the nether. I gathered some warped fungus and placed it around my portal to repel the big boar things (hoglins? I think?). Anyways, I cleared the area around my nether portal, and through sheer determination, I got rid of a bunch of of those weird nether stem mushroom tree things. I went back for some cobblestone for a wall, and picked up a rotten egg. I threw it and a cockatrice chick hatched. I was really happy, and I decided to name her Moorhen (again with the puns).

I sat her down and went back to the nether to place the wall and to hopefully find a new biome. Good news, I made the wall. Bad news, I’m surrounded by lava lakes on all sides. I used some cobble to make a flimsy bridge across one of the smaller lakes, and I mined into the side of the cavern from there. I eventually came across an opening, but it was still in the crimson forest biome that I had spawned in. Then I noticed something. A pillar of nether brick. I had found a nether fortress by pure luck! I marked the spot and went back to my base with an inventory full of netherrack and fungi.

After all that happened within this one “day” I decided to log off and continue it later. So, due to my laziness, I have nothing else to say that’s Minecraft-related.

Happy Pride Month, and I hope y’all have been enjoying your summer.

So, a lot has been happening and I didn’t post in over a month, but hey, I’m back and I have actually been playing in the meanwhile. So, previously, I had named a bunch of animals and I got two wonderful cockatrices. I also forgot to mention that I renamed the cows’ collars, so all of them have names now.

Starting off, I organized all of my items. It took a while, but I now have farm stuff next to the farm, stone and ores next to the mine, and an area for miscellaneous items. I also got overly excited about making a bestiary, so I ended up using all of the manuscripts on it. In case you don’t know, a bestiary is a sort of collection of facts about mythical creatures, and in the Ice and Fire mod, you can add more passages to it using manuscripts.

I went for a bit over to the swamp for, well, I actually have no idea, I probably just wanted to see what was in that direction. I ran all the way to the end of the swamp and kept going until I found another even further from home. I then saw some really pretty birds. They looked sort of like golden eagles except darker and sleeker. Being my extremely gullible self, I approached them and

was immediately met by a barrage of feathers in my face. It took me a full five minutes to kill one of them, at which point the flock dispersed, leaving me with seventeen stymphalian bird feathers (Apparently stymphalian birds are in Greek mythology, and are really hard to spell properly). That was not very fun, so I returned home to my bestiary.

After a few minutes of reading, I decided I wanted a pixie. I made a jar and set off towards the dark oak forest in search of the magical fairies (I realize there are some differences between pixies and fairies, but I’m going to use the terms interchangeably). However, I failed to read the part where it said they spawn in fairy villages and those are incredibly rare. Somehow, my brief quest to find a pixie turned into a long journey all the way to the ocean, over a thousand blocks away from home.

At this point, I decided to focus on exploring as much as possible and finding some loot to bring home. I found the village where I was killed by a fire dragon, but the dragon was nowhere to be seen. I waited until nighttime when fire dragons supposedly return to their dens, but it never arrived, so I looted the den. There was a lot of gold and cobwebs, but I did manage to procure two more manuscripts to aid my addiction. I don’t know why the loot was so bad, but I assume the designers wanted the dragon to be the main source so players couldn’t just burrow under the chests and get the loot that way (which is what I did for the cyclops).

I decided this meant the place was safe, so I double checked the village for any goods and stumbled upon a cyclops in a ravine. The guy was just chilling at the bottom, so I didn’t think twice when my cockatrice ran over to the side to stare at him (she wasn’t being weird, that’s one of her attacks). Due to her hyperactivity, she sort of… fell. It was going alright before that, but she got cocky (pun intended but regretted) and ran into the giant, gaping hole in the ground and died.

After that scarring event, I decided I had nothing left to live for and just swam into the open ocean. Miraculously, this was the one time a sea serpent wasn’t around. I continued swimming until I came to a weird palace/temple structure. There was creepy laughter coming from inside it, so I thought that it wouldn’t be the best idea to go inside. I ignored it and went into the ocean to get some kelp since I didn’t have any at home.

I then saw a cool sea horse looking creature. A hippocampus! I fed it as much kelp as I could until it was tamed and I got an achievement. It was quite deep in the water, so it took me a few minutes to lure it into a bay with more kelp. I also learned that when tamed, hippocampi don’t sit down or follow you like other tamed mobs. I ended up hollowing out an area for the hippocampus to stay until I got a saddle from home.

Taming a hippocampus made me feel a lot better about my cockatrice hen’s death, so I went home to get a saddle. I almost got roasted alive by a green fire dragon on the way back, but I managed to avoid it. Rather alarmingly, my male cockatrice, who I also brought along, went missing somewhere between me escaping the green dragon and reaching home. Before, this was just because the cockatrice refused to teleport after you reached a certain distance away from it, so I’m hoping to find him when I go back for the hippocampus.

This post was a lot longer than my previous ones, the reason being I was a bit preoccupied with school and tests, so I just waited until I had enough time and willpower to actually write. Also, I have no idea why I didn’t make proper titles to these posts, but I don’t think there’s any use changing the naming convention now.

Also, Happy Pride Month everyone!

After last week’s terrible and deathly encounter with a Cyclops, I decided to take a more leisurely pace with the game. First, I obviously got my stuff back from the Cyclops lair and somehow managed to kill the overgrown goblin. Sadly, it didn’t drop anything, so I raided the village and got some hay bales (among other things).

The village also had a graveyard, which, unbeknownst to me, contained ghosts. See, the thing about ghosts is that they can just pop up anywhere, attack, then retreat back into the ground. After a few more spirit-related deaths, I managed to loot the graveyard and make it away with the items. Among several bones and two skulls, there was ectoplasm and manuscripts. I must be honest, I have absolutely no idea what either of those are for.

So, I was making my way back with hay bales, ghost-y items, and a whole bunch of wool, shears, and mutton (who knew Cyclopes loved sheep so much?), and decided on a name for my noble horse mount. His name was to be Sir Ginger Eddington the First. It’s a tad long, but so is my list of regrets.

When I came home, I immediately decided to take the adventuring down a Notch (see what I did there?). I started by giving my lovely cow a new collar. It was the pink one with a cyan gem that I bought from the villagers down south (or north? or west? I don’t even know anymore). I reached the animal pen and put it on her when I realized something. All the sheep were gone. They were nowhere to be found and the only creatures left were the cows. I was rather sad at first, but I’m really glad the cows didn’t despawn as well.

Aside from the unfortunate circumstances, I was happy to find you could ride cows thanks to the Genetic Animals mod. I obviously put the saddle that Sir Ginger used to wear onto the multicolored cow with the pink collar. I then realized you needed a bridle to ride animals and the only reason Sir Ginger didn’t need one was that horses weren’t yet included in the mod. So, I fashioned some leather into a bridle and took the cow for a ride. I decided to name her Daffodil.

I rode around my base for a while before venturing towards the sea. I found a pretty lagoon that flowed into the ocean, and thought that I could later make a small house there as a vacation home. Of course, when I went to mark it, I saw a purple sea serpent. In fact, this was so close to the spruce biome where I had died previously that I think that was the very same sea serpent as before.

Somewhat saddened, (story of my life) I went back home and checked in on my chickens. There were quite a few and I had racked up an alarming number of eggs. The animal mod made it so that each egg was different depending on the mother hen’s genetics, which meant they couldn’t stack. I also got a couple rotten eggs, which I figured were sterile, so I threw them.

Now, one of those eggs must’ve been life-bearing, as a tiny half-chicken, half-lizard creature popped out. A tiny, adorable, yellow and green hybrid. It was a cockatrice! I eagerly got it to follow me and I spent the next ten to twenty minutes lavishing it with attention. All of a sudden, it grew! A little, yellow chick turned into a large, menacing creature, and I was ecstatic. I rushed over to the hen house for the more eggs and lo and behold, was yet another rotten egg. I quickly threw it and this time a while and greenish-yellow chick came out.

I was so, absolutely, undeniably, happy that I got not one, but two cockatrices. I brought them around with me for the rest of the day and even made a small woolen nest for them. It looked rather pathetic, but at least I tried.

With my new companions, I started my mission to beautify my base. That included finally making a bridge to the hen house and connecting the animal pen to everything else. I really liked the texture and color of the river planks, so I used them, realized the trees were tiny, and planted a bunch of saplings. I ended up spending an outrageous amount of time rushing back and forth to harvest the small trees and place the planks.

It turned out well, and I even made some passages through the hills so I didn’t have to go around. All in all, I think today went rather well. Also, since I just love cockatrices, I though I’d put in their awesome withering stare attack. It definitely makes me feel a lot safe having them around.

I haven’t posted in over a week, but don’t worry! I’m back and have done a lot of work in the world of Vellichor, starting with getting my favorite animals collars. Since I had done a lot of breeding and I didn’t want to kill any of the original animals, I put the collars on them first. Then came my favorite; a female brownish-tan, splotched cow. She’s second generation,  but I still love her.

After doing this, I spend a long, long while chopping down trees in my little tree farming area. I only needed some birch for the second floor, but seeing as I had nothing better to do, I harvested the others as well. I got about 2 stacks of birch, spruce, and dark oak, so I don’t think I have to get more logs anytime soon. I also got really annoyed by the lake being too shallow for me to swim in, so I spent a harrowing hour deepening it. I’m quite happy with it, though I still need to make a bridge across to the hen house and also the animal pen on the other side of the mountain.

After being bored (and despite the fact this always ends badly), I went on an adventure. I plowed through the dark oak woods and ended up in a desert. It would have been great if I hadn’t already gotten all the sand I could possibly need. Still, I went further into it and found a pillager tower! Obviously, I ran straight in, destroyed the staircase so the pillagers could get in, looted the place, and jumped off the side. I almost died, but that’s what you do for shiny objects.

I kept going past the spire of doom, went into an acacia biome and found a village! There I procured several emeralds and two collars from villager trades. One was a pretty black with a turquoise sort of gem and the other was a bright pink with a more greenish gem. I headed back home with my findings and decided to drop them off.

I then headed in the opposite direction of the desert and acacia village, finding myself riding (more like stumbling) my horse through the woods. I eventually found the coast and another village. I was excited, then I saw wings and hid underground. Thankfully this dragon didn’t spot me and I waited until it left. It was nighttime and I was feeling adventurous so I set my spawn in a little hole I created and went to get some goodies.

The dragon was sleeping. Despite making tunnels and trying my best to outrun the other one, I never once thought to consider that it would sleep. After feeling incredibly stupid for that other time I went to face a fire dragon, I ran to the village when I noticed something on the side of the mountain. I ran over there after confirming there was no sea serpent or otherwise dangerous creature nearby. I was about to walk into what looked like a custom cave when a cyclops picked me up and took about half my health. I immediately ran to the ocean and jumped.

I was terrified but not persuaded to leave just yet. Like an absolute idiot, I dug a tunnel under the lair and poked holes under the chest so I’d get the loot. This worked for the chests until I got to the last one. I hopped up since it was a bit higher up and got grabbed. Unlike last time, I did not escape and I did not survive. So, yet again, I’m left to spend the next post trying to get my stuff back.

Sorry for the wait, but I have been rather busy with some of my amazing friends, one of whom made a beautiful poem about some Twitch chat lore. This is the link if you’re interested: A Story is Told.

Anyways, all I suggest is that you go check it out if you’re interested, she’s an awesome writer. I also made a post earlier today, explaining our different roles in the poem if you’re a bit confused.

Regarding Minecraft, I have done a bit of work in Vellichor, mostly centered around the house on the hill. I decided to make the base stone brick, since I had a lot left over from making stairs for the mine. Sadly, I ran out, so I had to sit around and wait for more stone to smelt.

During the time it took the stone to smelt, I went ahead and finished the framework of the house, along with the spruce walls. I also went out to look for a beach where I could get some sand for glass, but I couldn’t find one. However, I did find an extreme hills biome (the one with mountains) that had some fluffy llamas! Normally, the llamas would look rather derpy, but the Genetic Animals Mod made them look super fuzzy.

I also found a pretty creature from the Ice and Fire Mod, which after checking online, I confirmed was a hippogryph! The world-wide web also said they were neutral mobs who would only attack if hungry. I figured since the llamas were intact, it would be safe to approach, and I was proven wrong. The hippogryph launched me into the air after I failed to block its attack, almost killing me. I sadly had to cut its life short because trying to outrun a creature with wings would inevitably end in my own death. So, I killed it and it dropped feathers and leather, which I renamed “RIP Alpine Hippogryph” (I really should stop trusting the creatures the Ice and Fire mod adds, huh?).

After that traumatizing trip, I went back to base barely before sundown and went to sleep. I awoke the next morning and immediately took the stone out of the furnace to make stone bricks and went to finish the bottom floor of the house. I decided on river planks for the floor and, after accidentally making the wrong kind of door, I decided I was happy with the first floor. Of course, I still need to add windows and a couple decorations, but I think it looks decent.