My previous save wouldn't load so I started a new one and it was a series of unfortunate events until I finally gave up. I was doing a no-spending-perk-points for the first week type of start so that at the end of the first bloodmoon I could take inventory of whatever weapons I had and use that as a guide for which attribute I would start in.
I began in the snow. My previous map was a nice "Snow in the north and Desert in the south" map with large bands for the biomes. So I started walking south when what I should have done was check out my coordinates on the map. yep, I was already at 750 S when I spawned and I was now going deeper in-- but I didn't know this because I didn't check my map.
I came to a small town with an empty looking military encampment. I knew those tents would be packed full of baddies but one of the watch towers seemed unguarded so I thought I might tiptoe up to the top and look around. I did so and there were no zombies at all but there were two shotgun messiah crates, a small ammo stash, a small medical stash, and a munitions box. I scored big time. I got a hunting rifle, a stun baton, a crossbow, reinforced iron club, leather chest armor, leather boots, lots of ammo, and some mods. It was all poor quality but way better than the wooden club and primitive bow I had been using.
Oh, also two sticks of dynamite.... I threw one down at the largest tent and it exploded with a satisfactory explosion killing some zeds that were sleeping inside.
Why did it I do it? Because......I had two sticks of dynamite.
Well the encampment woke up. Tons of zombies came out of the nearby tents as well as a couple of dogs and started pounding on the supports of my watch tower. I threw my other stick of dynamite and saw a small group of zombies go down but there were plenty more. I shot some with my crossbow but it was futile. I finally jumped to the roof of a nearby tent and then juked around and ran between a few of the outlying mines and got away hearing a couple of nice explosions as my pursuers didn't navigate the mines as well as I did.
I got to the nearby road and continued following it south until I saw a boar standing in the middle of the road. I stopped. I thought to myself, 'I have a hunting rifle and some new armor and a rumbly tumbly'. So I equipped the rifle, sighted the boar's head and hit it. It didn't die. It ran toward me. I shot once more but missed and then it was on me. I switched to my reinforced club and whacked it good three times before it gored me to death. Boars are a lot healthier and nastier in A18, btw.
I respawned way to the North just above where I had started in the snow and was surrounded by green. GAH! Now I realized I had gone the wrong direction and checking my map confirmed that I had been at the northern edge of the snow biome. I did not feel like treking all the back for my stuff at the moment so I started fresh and finished my newb quest which I had been avoiding. I came to the classic scrapyard near the border of the snow biome and since I had recently watched Neeb's I thought...why not?
I broke in and cleared out the yard though I did not enter the building. There was a ton of good useful stuff in the trash bags around the yard. I found the needle and thread book and needle and thread and was able to craft myself a sturdy long sleeve shirt for my eventual return to the snow. I also found two molotov cocktails.....heheh. No way was I going to waste these like I did my dynamite. Night came and I just chilled in the yard on top of one of the commercial dumpsters. There was a washing machine on it and I used it as a container emptying all the odds and ends into it.
Then a small wandering horde came by and decided that they were going to go through the scrapyard instead of around it. I waited until they punched a hole in one of the walls and threw both of my molotovs into the gap. They died and I smiled. But the commotion attracted a wolf who broke the rest of the way in but couldn't reach me before I killed him. I gutted him for meat and built my campfire. I was able to get three charred meat out of it and wolfed them down. Then noticing I had one clump of fat in my inventory I shrugged and popped that in my mouth too.
I threw up. My food and water and max stamina immediately went to 25. What a disaster! It was almost morning so I ran out and went to the snow digging up snow and rushing back to my campfire. I had found a pot and I installed it now and noticed a change I didn't know about. I had to melt the snow into murky water first and then boil it from murky water to something drinkable. With my hydration taken care of I went out again and decided to go to the trader whose icon showed up when I made my campfire. He was in the snow biome but I headed that way starving and with very little stamina to do much of anything but run-walk like was doing interval training or something.
I arrived at the trader and was able to kill a deer just outside the compound. I harvested some meat and got my stamina almost back up to normal. I decided that I would do a buried treasure quest because those usually had food in them so that is what I did. I was able to find the treasure without too much digging though I had to dodge two mountain lions, a dire wolf, and two bears on the way. Lots of dangerous wildlife in the snow biome for a starting character....
The treasure had hobo stew which took me way up past 100% on both food and water so I felt great again and after completing the quest with the trader I decided to go get my backpack. I ran over to it as it was just a km to the south of the trader and OF COURSE there were three lumberjacks standing around it. I managed to kill them all using an iron spear I had found during my day's journey and augmented by a beloved toilet pistol I also found and opened my pack.
It was good to see all that sweet loot I had stolen from the army camp. I put the armor on and was trying to decide which weapon I would equip when I suddenly heard the growls. A pack of dogs had spawned and were on me at once and there I was in my menu making accessory choices. CRAP! Why is it so hard to exit out of the menu when it really matters? I ran but I was fully encumbered and already bleeding. I got my handgun and started shooting. I killed two but the other three kept coming and killed me, again. I guess Kenny Rogers was right. You should never count your money when you're sitting at the table....
I spawned back at the scrapyard and quit for the night. It was a lot of fun and a lot of scary moments. Puking out all my food and water was a major setback but I didn't feel like just quitting and starting over because of it. It was a challenge to get myself back to 100% and felt good once I got there. Those dogs, though.....
so you fall back to the surface.
