Trail Of Tears

October 21, 2010 at 2:13 am | Posted in mmorpg | 6 Comments
Tags: minecraft, MMO, mmorpg

A lone guardian stands silent in the distance.

One of the greatest joys of Minecraft, at least in Multiplayer, is checking out other peoples junk. Everything from the greatest monument to the lowliest dungeon can be interesting. Seeing what people have accomplished over night, imaginatively designed, or created with passion drives me to log in to Eternia, BlueKae‘s server, far more than my own local survival mode.

With that in mind I set out to find a project Scary had been talking about for a couple days. A tower that stretched from the highest heights to the lowest lows. A gigantic monument/strip mine located in the far reaches of the server. His directions were, “follow your compass South East from the spawn and you should come across it.

Horrible awful directions. I got lost.

I traveled further than I have ever traveled in Minecraft, eventually coming to one of BlueKae’s outer landmarks, small cabins and homes he uses to mark the outskirts of the server. Never once did I catch a glimpse of Scary’s Strip Mine To The Stars.

“I’ll show you!” he says. “Follow me!” he says. “It’ll be easy!” he says. We got lost.

I followed Scary for around 10 minutes and as night fell upon day, we reached the coast. The coast, we both knew, is nowhere near his project.

I gave up. I have projects of my own. Scary seemed disappointed but we had been separated by the black of night anyway, and we gave in.

The next day I set out to find it again. I used Scary’s previous direction but utilized a more stringent search pattern. Scanning the horizon like an adventurer looking for smoke, I sought out any sign of civilization or sign of life. Countless times I came across stone trails, tunnels, torches, even a zombie pit all without discovering the location of my prey. Night came and went, I conquered mountains, swam lakes, leaped over rivers of lava, and still nothing.

Then just as I began to give up hope, a pillar of dirt. Many times in Minecraft you will encounter these. They are used to spot distant landmarks or familiar landscape. I Miner jumps at grown level placing a block beneath him and repeats, dozens of times, suddenly finding himself as high as his blocks will take him.

I engaged in a circle like search pattern always keeping the pillar to my left, ascending the mountains and valleys around it. Nothing, except another pillar. I proceeded to it and engaged in another circle pattern again finding absolutely nothing.

I gave up hope soon after and used my compass to gain my bearings towards the spawn, I came around the corner of a large mountain and there, nestled between two peaks, before me was a rising tower that extended to the clouds. Success.

Like the Iris in the Eye of Sauron

I looked around. It was quickly becoming night and I could see no stairs, nor an entrance. Quickly I decided that if I were to memorize the path I would have to start back soon. I left quickly discovering a short stone path, leading in the general direction of civilization. I kept as straight a line as I could trying to remember the terrain. I came out close to something called Grimnir’s Flaming Zombie Pit. I had never encountered it before. It would be some time before I discovered it again.

Getting lost, obviously, I ended up near PASmith’s tower in the black of night. Yet it was all right, I had discovered the zombie pit, it would be easy to find again, or so I thought.

The next day Mogsy logged in and wondered what I thought was noteworthy in Eternia. I made brief mention of a few things along with Scary’s tower. While she dabbled in the art of photography, I went in search of the zombie pit and that Godforsaken Hellhole.

I got lost over and over again.

At one point I discovered a dirt pillar, and thinking it was the same pillar it gave me a sense of direction which I promptly followed. It was not the same pillar.

Giving up completely I made for the town limits only to come across a wonderful sight. Zombies from hell! The pit! From the zombie pit, I set out on the path to where I thought the tower was. I got lost.

Eventually I found the zombie pit again. Starting out in a new direction I eventually found the blasted tower. I took a more thorough look around, and then headed back to the zombie pit leaving small 2 block high dirt pillars as markers. I did not think to light them.

I met Mogsy not far from Grimnir’s zombie pit, which I had discovered is not a distant length from Grimnir’s home. Night fell.

I can’t see anything in the dark, and I think Mogsy quickly understood that. She found more of my dirt markers than I did but we still stumbled around. As we went I lit each dirt pillar, not to mention the ground, trees, and cliff faces whenever I couldn’t find a pillar, giving us a fine trail to return with but no solid direction to go in. Fortunately all was not lost. By the time morning came around I could see the short stone walkway that leads over the ridge to the tower.

Scary, build a god damn road already.

The Trail of Tears ends in a bottomless pit