Chapter VIII: The Underworld of Faradesia

Chapter VIII: The Underworld of Faradesia

While The Maker rests from sprucing up the surface, Tacky makes his way underground as part of his exploration mission. Near Eastern Station in Faradesia Forest, he digs down to discover a ravine (Underbrush Ravine), in which armed Skeletons, vicious Spiders, and usually-peaceful but deadly Creepers have made their home. Luckily, Tacky is armed with The Maker’s Enchanted Bow! In a cavern branching off from the main cavern, he discovers an abandoned mine. Deep inside The Abandoned Mine, he has a terrifying encounter with a horde of Cave Spiders in their web-nest, which makes up the entirety of one room of the mine. He manages to defeat them all (with some help from his Fire Charge) and destroy their Source of Life before proceeding deeper into the mine with his life still intact. Eventually, he finds himself emerging into another ravine, the Landside Ravine, located under the Great Ocean off the shore of the Faradesia Hills. He swims up through a waterfall, emerges into the ocean, and swims to the surface.

Tacky then travels across the ocean using The Maker’s new Cross-Ocean Rail. While in Kra’an Desert, he digs down near the desert border and discovers another ravine. This one is unusual, however, in that is completely and utterly dry: not a drop of water or lava is present anywhere within it. The explorer dubs the ravine Dry Ravine after this rare phenomenon. Much to his surprise, he discovers another abandoned mine, Desert Edge Mine. This mine, like The Abandoned Mine under Faradesia Forest, is crawling with creatures; however, Creepers have an especially strong presence here. Adventuring into the mine with heightened caution, Tacky eventually discovers another ravine, across the width of which a bridge connects at a great height two sides of the mine. Far deeper underground than any ravine that Tacky has previously discovered, the “Mine Gorge” is home to multiple nests of Creepers, a sight that prompts him to turn back and re-enter the mine, which is dangerous enough. Before he can head back in, however, a Creeper lands on the bridge and starts walking towards Tacky. He backs up into the mine cavern that he had come from and shoots the Creeper. He is loading another Arrow when the Creeper explodes in a violent shock wave of energy. Unharmed but shaken, Tacky looks up to see a relieving sight: the bridge has suffered minimal damage. He turns around and heads down another path in the mine. He comes to a room flooded with water and into which more water flows from the ceiling. Tacky swims up through this waterfall and finds himself under the ocean, just off the desert shore. Terrified of returning to the Creepers’ den, he swims out of the water and heads off to spend the night in the nearby village of Oasis instead.

The next day, Tacky heads off into The Nether to build his own Nether Portal using the instructions that The Maker had told him during their last meeting. He succeeds in building a stable Portal, which he is pleased to discover connects with another one located at the base of the southernmost mountain in the Crescent Mountains, south of Faradesia Forest. He creates a book and makes note of the coordinates of each Portal in the new pair like The Maker had done for his own Portals.

END OF ARC 3

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Played out in-game from 11/30/2012 through 12/1/2012. Written 12/2/2012.

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