Breaching the Core

With great trepidation I returned to the Shadowheart, visions of the mob army still fresh in my memory.   What did I know about spawners... well, they don't spawn mobs on lit blocks.  So my best defense would be the sun - lighting up the dark heart of this tree to tame the beasts within.

Carefully removing one block at a time, glass replaced wood, to light the spawner pit when the sun would rise. That'd take care of the skeletons, but not the creepers... hopefully my shelf pine base was far enough away that they'd despawn.

Could my plan have worked?  The core was empty of mobs, nothing but fallen wood blocks from yesterday's roof making.  Slowly inching my way down, I poked at the shiny silver blocks.  Iron!  Well that's a welcome addition to my supplies.  Hastily grabbing the fallen logs, I spot two large holes at the bottom of the trunk.

That won't do, but it explains how the mobs were getting out of the spawner area earlier.  A few wooden planks quickly block off any potential visitors.  With one final look inside a spawner, I hightail it back up a ladder and block off the core.  This place gives me the creeps, literally.

Spawners or Farming?

No two thoughts about it.  Farming > spawners.  I decided to make a tactical retreat from the Shadowheart and work on setting up a full mushroom farm from the stock I had picked in the Skyvine.  Okay, maybe it was less of a tactical retreat and more of a "Holy crap I am NOT GOING DOWN THERE."

Nothing fancy, but it works.  Might not be big enough though.  I think a bigger farm would indeed be better.  So that's what I did.

Hm... better.  Maybe still bigger yet?  I had spare mushrooms to make a supply of stew with now, which was excellent.  It seemed pretty certain I was going to need them.

ACK.  Okay, maybe this is the perfect size after all. My poor mushrooms... all flooded and soggy!

After plugging the hole and mopping up the basement, it was time to go back to the Shadowheart.  I'd put it off long enough.  The flock of creepers (flock? gaggle? mess? pride? What do you call a group of exploding green things...) was not a good omen, but I couldn't put it off any longer.  Behold my wondrous ability to fall off anything - missed the top of the ladder heading up.  Maybe some stew before I go....

Taming Shadowheart

There was only one way to defeat this obstacle of course.
Chop down everything.

I've tackled bigger trees than this already, though not quite so dense.  In addition to being almost all bark and no leaf, Shadowheart boasted some lovely iron ore. Of course there is no reward without risk on this map, and the heights I was about to start at, rather daunting.

Not falling to my death was going to be the overall goal.  On the plus side, there was a pretty good chance I'd land on the lower platform rather than the ground.  On the downside, I'd still be just as dead.

I could hear skeletons rattling inside the core of the tree.  It was most disconcerting, and I felt a lot safer working from the top down.  Lots of time to contemplate how to deal with those spawners while I chop wood.

The dock or road looked even more appealing in daylight, I wonder what I'd find, if anything, if I followed it?  That would have to wait.  After many days of chopping, there was little left of the branches.  I was going to have to breach the core again and deal with the spawners.

On second thought, maybe now is NOT a good time to deal with the spawners.