Erica's Monument-al Adventure: Day 2

I started the adventure spawning down in ‘The Crib.’ I made sure to run up to the surface and pick up Ryan McGinley at the village base. Shout out to Ryan for joining the adventure tonight! Yea, Yea, Yea! I showed Ryan around the main cavern and ravine, made sure he had his bearings, and then I immediately went back to the surface to search for food. The lack of steak and pork chops in my inventory was very depressing. And no one wants to starve to death tonight. While searching for said animals, I harvested about 2 stacks of sugar cane to make paper for all the maps that were blown up and lost in lava on Day 1.

As I ran back down the cave, I was immediately flanked by 2 creepers and blown to bits. Ryan was in plain view, laughed at me, but saved all my stuff. Once I received my stuff back, about 4 skeleton archers came at us from all sides. I somehow managed to annihilate three of them and survive while Ryan took care of one. I swear Erica had to be laughing at us at that point for getting ganged rushed by so many enemies within 15 minutes of spawning in the world. I made a few maps to store in the chest then headed on out to dig out more of the ravine. Ryan ventured off to explore more of the tunnels.

An old gaming buddy Kyle, who I haven’t played with in a few years, randomly joined the game. And Tim Smith came back for Day 2! Tim collected his stuff from the chest and immediately hit the ground hard and lost it all. Kyle was able to find his way to ‘The Crib,’ but fell straight into lava at the bottom of the ravine and died. I almost fell to the floor laughing at the double death, but I was too busy hunting down and destroying cave spiders so I could finally make a bow.

After about an hour of playing, a young, determined, curly-headed dwarf spawned in the world! Just kidding! My wonderful friend and Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity Brother Tommy Bruner joined in on the fun. He was the final member to join for the day, bringing the total adventurers up to five. As Tommy headed to the ‘The Crib,’ I see Kyle being chased by and kiting two Creepers to the village house that was storing the few gold blocks I had made thus far. I almost forgot I had my newly crafted bow in my inventory. I was able to snipe both Creepers and collect the gunpowder (which would be useful much later) before any damage was done. While I was picking up the gunpowder, a Creeper snuck up behind me. Luckily he prematurely exploded, and I survived with about a half a heart of health and no armor. Tommy witnessed this explosion and screamed like a girl.

Quick Intermission: Erica Memory

The first time I met Erica; she was extremely shy and did not really like talking to anyone. A nurse mentioned she was really into video games. I decided to bring in my Nintendo 64, 2 controllers, and a copy of Goldeneye 64. I asked Erica if she wanted to play, and her eyes just lit up and a quick smirk appeared on her face. For the next two hours or so we proceeded to play both the single player campaign and some one-on-one multiplayer. The first few games of multiplayer, I took it easy on Erica. But soon enough she started holding her own and winning some matches. I was really impressed. This was the first time I had seen a genuine smile on Erica’s face, and it will always be burned into my memory.

Now Back to The Adventure!

Ryan decided he needed some time apart from ‘The Crib’ and the huge ravine. He ventured out heading north. At this point, the rest of the group split up to explore the rest of the map. Someone had the smart idea to sleep at this point to set spawn points. Everyone except for Tommy had a bed. So he had to sprint all the way back to my location to sleep in a bed. He was followed by multiple enemies, which I took care of. And then the fun began. We tried sleeping, and Tommy was attacked right away and perished. He spawned all the way across the map and had to run back once again. This happened multiple times until we realized one of the windows was busted open, which is why he was relentlessly attacked every time we tried to sleep. Needless to say we were never able to get to sleep and morning came before anything was accomplished.

For the next little bit everyone was on their own and some shenanigans ensued. During these shenanigans, we did find some more gold ore and a lot of lapis lazuli, but still no diamond. The lapis might be used as a backup plan if diamond is not plentiful in this specific seed. Ryan and Tim ventured out together, searching a few caverns. Tommy and I found a wonderful new village, much bigger than the old one, and decided to do a dig down in a cave that was located just east of it. Kyle was wandering about, and I wasn’t really sure what he was trying to accomplish. After the dig down with Tommy, I decided that we needed to make this new village the main base. I traveled back to the small two-house village that was still serving as the main spawn. As I was running back to that village, I saw something interesting. Both of the houses at the spawn were set on fire. I had no clue how this happened. No source of lava or fire was anywhere near the village. I rushed back to save all the items, and moved everything back to the new village. I later learned it was Ryan who set the houses on fire and also flooded our main cave.

After everything was moved to the new village, everyone came back to join me. Ryan and Tim started fighting over who gets what house. Kyle started destroying some of the smaller houses for materials. Tommy and I just quietly moved in and tried to get things settled. There were more shenanigans at this point then I had hoped for. When night came, we were bombarded by Skeleton Archers and Creepers. It was exactly like a bad horror movie. A few of the members died multiple times. Once we were able to make it to morning, since not everyone had a bed, I finally settled everyone down and laid out a general plan for the rest of the night.

A few minutes later, I was walking around the back of the village next to the ocean area when a Creeper snuck up behind me and blew up. I fell down deep into a huge underground chasm. This might be the biggest stroke of luck on the night, since we have yet to find a single piece of diamond ore. I ended up searching about the tunnels, but ended up dying and losing the gold I had in my inventory. Luckily the world autosaved right before the Creeper blew me into the cavern.

I reloaded the world and invited everyone back in. This time, I decided not to wait for a Creeper. I made a few blocks of TNT. Ryan dug a little opening around where the Creeper blew me up last time. Ryan placed the TNT down in the hole and set the explosion off, being the kamikaze he is. We blew a nice skylight to the chasm. And this is where the night ended. Day 2 wasn’t as productive as I was hoping it would be. We were able to find some gold ore to smelt down into ingots, but still no diamond. My plan for Day 3 is to rebuild what was destroyed in the village, make some sort of way to get up and down the new chasm, and plan out a base for the monument. Here’s hoping for a little more luck!