Spawner Revealed

Planting my precious pair of mushrooms to avoid losing them to any more falling deaths seemed like a good idea, and it just so happened I had some nice empty real estate from sand mining.  Now if I can just find some brown mushrooms, I'll have everything required for an infinite supply of delicious mushroom stew.

As you might recall, I have something of a spider infestation.  If you don't, here's a visual reminder.

The location of the spawner has eluded me thus far, and to get a better idea of where the spiders are coming from, I needed to build a lower viewing platform.  Easier said than done.  For one, building anything outside was completely out of the question.  That left building from inside the tree, carefully working my way out one block at a time.

This was going to be a very risky build.

There were so many spiders that they began swarming up around the sides of the trunk, skittering across the bark and ambushing me by the corner.  Only the one block wide ledge was saving me from complete spider assault.

For self-preservation, I decided a simple ledge was not enough - a fully encased walkway was needed, rooftop protection included.  Getting it built was no simple task with half a dozen spiders out for blood.   While I didn't manage to finish without suffering some bites, I did avoid falling to my probable death.    Finally encased in precious glass, I thinned the population by luring them into a cactus patch and rushed upstairs to watch for the spawn.

The spiders were appearing at the back of my tree, away from the water.  Maybe the spawner was hiding under one of those small trees?  Heading back to the basement, I tunnelled around like a mole, chewing up every tree and other possible hiding place I could think of.  The "dark cave" music played intermittently, which did nothing to assuage my worries.  There had to be a spawner!  I was certain of it, no other possibility accounted for so many arachnids.

Days pass, I'm no closer to my goal.

Sometimes you find what you're looking for when you least expect it.

I'd been standing literally two blocks away from it for weeks.  Here at last, the spawner was revealed in all its sinister glory.  My first instinct was to destroy it immediately... but then I'd be without a ready supply of string.  Going outside to hunt spiders was likely suicide, and string was my source of wool for beds, bows and fishing poles.  Carefully blocking off the spawner with torches and a door, I sat down to think.

Torches alone wouldn't stop the spawner from producing spiders, as I quickly found out.

Somehow I was going to have to light up the entire area in range, and build a spider slaying trap.  That was going to be difficult without any lava nor a bucket to move water with.  I think for now it might be best to leave things as they stand - an uneasy truce.

More Deadly Heights

I tend to fall off things, often.  It's not a particularly good trait with this type of map, where any fall is almost always deadly.  While building a bridge between two Shelf Pines, I had to knock out some Titan Willow - unfortunately there was still a stubborn piece defying gravity and shading the ground below.

Getting rid of it was going to be a challenge, even with an uncommonly sunny day.  Unlike normal Minecraft trees, most of the flora in Carnage was made up of broken bits of trunk interspersed in the foliage.  Working from the top down was doubly dangerous since you have to knock out the support for the very thing you're standing on.

Judicious use of wood blocks for safe platforms was working great until I nudged just a *little* too far off my platform and...  bang, I was dead.  Worse, my stuff was scattered across the ground.

Hastening my way back to the sight of the fall, I survey the odds. Creepers to the right, near the beach.  Probably far enough away not to notice me, I hope.

Skeletons.  Looots of Skeletons.  Still, I had to try it.  Not going down would just mean a total loss of my irreplaceable supplies; compass, clock, and more mundane resources.  A quick sprint down to the ground netted me some of my stuff, but I was quickly assaulted by a Zombie.

Survival instincts got a block elevator under my feet in record time, and I waited for the undead to burn in the light.  I was still missing a lot of my stuff.  Back down I go, for try #2.  This time I built an Emergency Ascent System onto the top of a dead tree stump before making my ground foray.  Cautiously descending the ladder beneath the hatch,  I picked off a Creeper and made a mad dash for the rest of my gear.

A brief glance into the forest gloom convinced me staying down here was sheer folly.  The skeleton horde was approaching, and I was not going to stick around!

Next time, the damn tree can just very well stay where it is.  

Deadly Heights

My first death in Canopy Carnage was something of an anti-climax.  I was not blown up by Creeper hugs, chewed by Zombies, or sucked dry by a Spider.  Skeletons did not make me into a blocky pincushion, nor did Slimes dissolve my bones.  No, I quite simply fell out of a tree.

In attempting to cull a Skyvine that was blocking my view from the latest Shelfpine tree I had colonized, I nudged over to the edge of my dirt column to place a torch.  Torches were not in my hotbar.  No problem, open up the Inventory ... and fall to my death.  Despite holding the Shift key, crouching doesn't work if you open the Inventory, something I knew and forgot at a most inopportune moment.

Worse, some of my precious resources had fallen to the forest floor.  Two stacks of coal, most of my wood, glass and cobblestone now lay in the danger zone.  Nothing to do but pick up what I had left and keep going.  This Skyvine was proving to be taller than expected, as evidenced by my deadly fall.

While I was brooding on the Pine, waiting for the furnace to kick out some replacement coal, I spotted a glimmer of light from below.  Could it be another treasure chest?  The sought after Monument Shrine?  I finally realized it was something far more mundane - the skywalk lighting below.  Drat.  Victim of my own love for lighting.

I believe I've mentioned that I like to torch spam.  Canopy Carnage is no exception to my pyromanic placement.  I don't care if it's wasteful and silly to light up areas that mobs can't spawn on anyways, it's comforting, and rather pretty at night.

I continued my upwards tree mining into the Skyvine.  I was beginning to realize it was living up to it's name.  Soon I had passed the cloud layer, and it was very dark.  Then, something red popped out into my face.  ... mushrooms? in the sky?  o.O;

Not one to question my good fortune, I pocked the pair of mushrooms and continued up... and up, and up, and finally, broke back out into the sunlight.

It was beautiful.  Rolling hills of leaves, instead of grass.  Sunlight!  I had forgotten how bright it could be in the gloom of perpetual canopy.  This Skyvine was not a single tree but a massive expanse of greenery that went on farther than the eye could see. My emergence seemed to have triggered a mass spawning of saplings, so I spent a happy day running across the treetops and gathering them up.

Alas, there were no treasure chests or resources up here beyond the saplings, and I will have to go back down to continue my explorations.

Slimed

With a voracious need for glass, sand mining is a pretty regular activity.  What was not regular today was the green, gooey stuff dripping from the ceiling.

Ew.

Climbing back upstairs to investigate, I carefully pulled a block of wood out from where the sound was loudest.

That definitely explains the goo.  It also brings to light a potential breach in my perimeter defences.  When I redesigned the greenhouse to take advantage of an overhead water pool, it made a one-way gate right into my underground base.  Granted only something one block wide could fit through the gap, but some rather nasty mobs fit the bill, like this guy, who was not going to make it easy to repair the breach.

As if to confirm my worst fears, a couple of mini slimes dropped in while I was attempting to repair the breach from below.  This wouldn't do - I had to get that hole capped, and fast.

Between the Creepers and the Slimes wandering around on top of my oh-so-thin layer of glass protection, I was feeling mighty nervous about a potential stealth invasion.  Trying to place a block above the water stream from below as proving impractical, so I would have to make an overland trip to secure the roof.

Which was going to be more challenging than you might expect.  Besides the green menace to the left, I had at least four spiders jockeying for position above my head.  Never had the dozen or so blocks from ground floor base to roof seemed so far.  Carefully inching my way out, temporary dirt walls held off the arachnids until I could drop a glass cap on the water hole.

Getting back inside was almost as harrowing as making it out there, juggling between sword flailing and hasty block destruction.

It was definitely worth it though.  Now if I could just find that elusive Spider spawner...

Unexpected Treasure

Things are looking up in the Canopy.  Still no resolution to the spider spawner, despite my best efforts to dig and uncover every possible area it might be hiding in.  I have the sneaking suspicion it might be under the bedrock itself.  I did finally remember that string makes wool!  A cozy bed makes the basement look a little more friendly.

The greenhouse got an expansion and I re-plumbed the water delivery system to take advantage of a natural pool overhead.

The skywalk got a couple of expansions as well - off towards a grove of Queen Spire trees.  Simply walking across these branches is a nail biting experience, as there's rarely more than a slim ledge to sneak across.

At 90 degree angle to this walkway is a much longer one, which has allowed me to colonize a couple of Flatshelf Pines and mine out some Titan Willows.  (Annoying trees, little bits of broken log everywhere inside.)

I'd have to say that the Flatshelfs are my favorite tree so far - lots of open spaces for good visibility and a nice thick trunk for making hidey holes.  The closest one is rather small, but you can see a much larger specimen faintly in the background.  That's where I started a second base-camp.  If my "home" tree is spider-central, well this new locale is Slimeville.  Never have I seen so many bouncing green jelly cubes.

While taking down part of the Willow in my way, I spotted a very odd sight.

Either that's one giant of a chest ... or it's floating in mid-air?

Snaking a temporary bridge over to the levitating box, I found some welcome treasure - four cookies and a Diamond Axe!  I wonder if there could be more treasure boxes around?  A better question would be, am I daring enough to go looking for them.

Undergound Growing

With my hard-won seeds in hand, it was time to start on one activity I can claim excellence at - farming wheat.  Knocking out the dirt floor of the tree above, and putting cobblestone in its place was a fairly simple task.  I only fell through the floor twice >_>;

Precious dirt!  Now there was the more problematic need for water.  As anyone who's grown wheat before in Minecraft knows, you need tilled, watered soil and light (or bonemeal for instant growth) for success.  Luckily I had already run into the edge of the map while voraciously accumulating sand, so it wasn't too hard to knock out a hole in the wall and build some raised beds.

Certainly not the best or biggest farm I've ever made, but it's a good start, and along with fishing should provide me with a steady food supply.  Now for the risky bit - replacing the ceiling.  This was quite a nostalgic project, recalling memories of doing much the same task but on a much bigger scale when Glass Island was first being shelled.

The trick is to break one block at a time and quickly stuff the replacement in before anything nasty decides to pay you a visit.  This is one time when an overhead spider is actually a blessing, for they can't fit through a 1x1 hole and nothing else can get in either while they're tap-dancing over your head.

Spotting a tempting pumpkin nearby, I took the opportunity to snatch it from below.  Anything that adds lighting is a-okay in my books.

Wading upstream to harvest the back rows of drops is reminding me why I quickly abandoned running water stream farm designs originally, but at least I've managed a successful crop of mature wheat.  Task accomplished, which means now I have to go back outside and explore some more.  Gulp.

First Quest

Given that the spiders weren't giving up, staying up in the air seemed to be an excellent idea for now.  I've managed to make myself a small glassed in area at ground level and a pretty decent sand mine. As I sat out on the upper level girdle pondering the spiders below, I saw something off in the distance.  It was a dim glow, just barely visible in the night.  What could it be?  It certainly wasn't one of my torches, I hadn't made it out that far and certainly not on the forest floor.

With a goal now in sight, I gathered up my stockpile of glass and set out to build my way to victory. It was becoming clear that everything was huge in this map - the sugarcane, the trees, and the spider populations.  I'd killed quite a few now but there didn't seem to be any shortage; there had to be a spider-spawner nearby.

Risking a splattering on the ground below, I used a block elevator to get myself a better view of my treetop home, the fishing platform and new walkway.

Back to business - I had to know what that glowing spot was out in the forest.  By the next night, and several more trips down to the mine for more sand, I had my answer.

Wheat!  Lovely, precious wheat, growing next to glowstone.  Wheat meant seeds and bread, and the potential for a greenhouse.  I had to have it!  Building the bridge right over to the resources, I dropped a column of sand for the descent.

A Creeper decided to challenge me for the farm, but some precious arrows took care of it.  Apparently someone had been here before, trampling part of the crop.  There was still enough to use though, and I nervously took my first steps on the forest floor, eyes sharp for any movement besides the ever-present rain.  A few quick smacks with the bow culled all the wheat and seeds; treasures in hand, I made all haste back to the safety of the treetops.  *shlop slop*  Something was behind me.

QUICK. Blocks, down, jump jump jump.  No time to grab a weapon, I needed to be out of here, right now!  Heart hammering, I risked a glance back down.    The forest has guardians for its treasures, as I was finding out first hand.

Tree Spiders

Apparently my chosen tree home already had local residents.  They don't seem too happy to see me, or else they *are* happy but only because a delicious blocky morsel has appeared for them to suck dry.

I wish I had a Sizzler right about now.  Pondering how to get rid of the eight legged menace, I head back up the tree ladder to outfit my arboreal bolt hole in style - glass windows, and shortly after this photo, a cobblestone roof with overhang to boot.  No lighting bolts were going to get me!

All that netherrack outside might make my precautions moot, though.  Time to head back down and face the arachnids.  Maybe some of them had wandered away by now?

No such luck.  While replacing some of the base of my tree with glass, I'd suffered no few spider bites.  There also seemed to be a shortage of porcine livestock, for I'd yet to see a single pig - even if I had, going out to get it would probably have been a suicide mission.  There was no grass in sight for seeds.  What I did have was a huge stockpile of string.  Fishing!  The sea would provide me with endless health, with a little patience.  The problem of course was getting over to the water.

I don't have any construction shots since it was a bit nerve wracking to say the least.  I did choose a level above what spiders can climb. (To be technically accurate, far enough overhead that they don't try to climb up after me.) After adding a glass ring to be absolutely sure they wouldn't be able to get up, and an extra glass railing for fall prevention, it was time to start the boardwalk out to the ocean.   Finger clamped onto the Shift key for dear life, I headed out, spiders waiting below for any misstep.

Not a good map for anyone with a fear of heights, thankfully not a problem for me.

The fishing platform was finally done, glassed over for lightning protection, and I could get down to the serious business of building up a food cache.  I had a feeling I was going to need it, and soon.  If the spiders didn't get me, falling off things probably would.