Mean While, On the Multiplayer Server...

             Alright, among all that has been happening with my wife's game, I did get a chance to log into my multiplayer server while she was hanging out with her mother on Saturday. It was nice getting back in touch with everyone. I found that our Alliance had grown, and now included another whole tribe for trading and gathering. I haven't met the new guys yet, but they seem nice over comms. I might be able to do more meeting and greeting on my day off. When, I first logged in, everything was still in tact. I hadn't been trolled while offline. I can't remember if I mentioned this on the last post, but I did manage to tame an argent, stego and a shark in my occational short plays on this server throughout the week. This time, when I logged in, I had the mission to make cementing paste. I have a dream of converting my boat into metal since it seems like I have to repair the wood every time I log in. I have already lots of metal ingots, but very little cementing paste. Chitin is hard to come by out in the ocean where I live, but I've heard on reddit that there is a cave full of chitin carrying creatures on Carno Island. I have been to Carno Island a couple of times, but I have never actually seen a cave there. I usually end up getting chased away by... well, Carnos.

            That was my first stop. I've been struggling to keep a good supply of chitin in my little boat base, and this was as good of a time as any to get some. I set off on a long trip around the island. About half way up, my ally needed to know if he could borrow a pelt jacket. I had some extra pelt laying around from my time in the arctic last time, so I just made him one. I told him to meet me at the island and as I jumped to my smithy to make it, I realized that I forgot to have my shark follow the boat before setting off. I was about half way to the island from the south sea where I started. So, I couldn't be bothered to go back and get him at the moment. I've been meaning to tame more sharks anyway. That was going to be my secondary goal while I was out. Eventually, I did get to Carno Island, where my buddy was waiting. He had managed to acquire a Quetz off a dormant tribe that had let there timers run out. Two of them, in fact, as well as a couple of Rexs. Great timing. So, he flew in, and I gifted him the jacket and we both went on our way. I, now, was looking for a good place to set anchor. I didn't want to sit too close to the island, for fear my boat would come under attack by the indigenous animal life here while I was away. I also didn't want it to be between the main land and the island, so that it would remain hidden to people flying between the two. I chose to anchor off the west side of the island nearer the edge of the map and fly in on the argent for now (it would have been better if I had remembered to bring my shark. I would have rather taken him in closer, since he would remain hidden under water). Once on the island, I decided that having the argent follow me might be safer than leaving him alone somewhere to possibly come under attack. There are a lot of scorpions on the island, and while he could defend himself fairly well, if he were to get knocked out, it would be over quickly.


                As I wondered around the island in search of the cave, I was looking to find scorpions for their chitin, and otherwise try to avoid drawing too much attention. In my history on Carno Island, fighting something one on one can quickly turn into ten on one, and when you think your over your head and try to run, you find there is a rex behind you. Since I had the argent with me, I wanted to avoid that. I had be stumbling around the island for a while and ended up building up a somewhat small supply of chitin just off the scorpions. I was starting to get hungry, so it was time to go back to the boat and cook up some meat, as well as restore the inventory of my preserving cabinet.


               I made it back to the boat and threw some meat on the fire. As it was cooking, I went up top and took in the ocean view, and saw something in the distance jump out of the water. I swam over to check it out, and it was an Ichy. I put some extra meat in my quick bar and tried to tame it. I ended up getting it about half way tamed before it swam out into the deep blue, out of my reach. I hung around and waited for it to come back. After a while, I noticed two larger shadows coming towards me. I started swimming back to my boat and just before I got there, I turned to see two sharks close behind me. I still had plenty of narcotics and meat. So, I worked at tranqing them both. It took a long time, but I did eventually knock them both out and tossed some meat into them along with a half stack of narcotics each. Nice! now I'd have three sharks to protect my boat while I'm away, once I get back to the other one in the south sea. I just hope he hasn't had to wonder too far from where I left him. I'd really like to tame an Ichy though, because they are a little smaller and faster than the sharks. Basically I'd use him as a shuttle, to and from the land so that I wouldn't have to bring the boat too close. I've pretty much accepted that I am going to basically be Aqua Man on this server. I might as well live the part.

            After a long while, I was fed and the sharks were tamed. I only managed to bring enough chitin back to build a saddle for one of them. So, I did, and it made me feel a lot better now that I wasn't leading my argent to a dangerous island. I was more confident in the sharks ability to stay safe. So, I went back in. This time to the smaller little island on the north side of Carno Island. I saw that there were two scorpions there and I went after them. I was packing plenty of munitions. I had my bow for most encounters, but if I got into real trouble, I had a simple pistol with about 20 rounds ready to fire. The first scorpion was an easy kill. A couple of arrows and he went down. The second one, however, was a level 92, and wasn't having any of it. I put arrow after arrow into him, and he was like the terminator. He just kept coming. Finally, I ran out of arrows. I said "okay, buddy. I bet I know some place you're not so strong." I started leading him out into the ocean, back toward my shark. Once he was close enough, I hopped on the shark and just started chomping. I was a little worried that he might sting my shark to sleep, but that didn't end up happening. He went down after 4-5 chomps and I harvested him and his friend. After that, I went back and started running across to the main part of Carno Island and there it was. I found the cave, staring me right in the face. I'd been in caves before, some of you might remember the adventure my wife and I had in a couple (Cave 1, and Cave 2). So, I knew more or less what to expect to find in them. My biggest fear was snakes. I hated those things more than anything else in the game. They are a big reason I no longer go into swamps.. ever.

                After I had crossed the loading screen, I found that I had to swim through a part of the cave to proceed very far. I was fine with this (living on the boat, I decided it'd be good to level up my oxygen stat quite a bit. It's come in handy) and very comfortably swam to the other side. I was greeted almost instantly with two dung beetles. My pike seemed to be able to handle them just out of their range. They had lots of chitin on them. As I walked through the cave though. It didn't take long before I came to a cavern that was HUUUUGE! I looked down and could literally not see the bottom. I decided that my excursion into this cave had come to an end until I could come back with at least some hide to make sleeping bags with. Otherwise, If I died, it would be a very long trip back to fetch my stuff. About this time, My wife and her mother got home also, so it was time for me to head back to the boat and find a safe place for me to log out. I ran to the exit past a sabertooth that had found its way just inside the cave. I barely escaped getting tagged by him. I ran back to my shark and swam home. Then boated my way to a quite little spot to log off.


                It was a very productive trip, and I now have something to do when I'm able to come back to this world with lots of extra time on Monday. I know exactly were to go for some chitin. Even with the few stacks I was able to collect, it only made a hand full of cementing paste. There must be a better way to go about collecting it. So many people have these huge metal bases, and it requires a lot of paste for that. Maybe some day.