Ark, Land of the Lost

[rpicardi1]

Ark, Land of the Lost.

 

This adventure will be based upon single player game play of Ark as of January 2017. XP, Gather, Taming, are scaled up 4X on this game for the story. The player, with the name of Joe Six Pack, is started in East Zone One. That is, his location was on the beach near the box canyon of the Lava Cave.

Joe spawned in a very good location near a cluster of boulders just North of the box canyon. As his luck would have it, the area was free of any threats. That is not always the case as previous players have ran into a Carno hiding among those boulders further North on that same beach.

A lot has changed in Ark since the original adventure Trapped in the Bermuda Triangle. Well over 100 creatures are now in the game, many of them extremely dangerous predators, even some equally dangerous herbivores. Some are small, even tiny, as they gang up and start chewing away at your health. Another will run up and steal something from you. Still another will poison you, then eat you alive.

Other things have become better for the new player. Clothes and shelter will provide some protection from the ever changing weather. The raft is now available at level 15 so one can escape to a safer location.

Many locations have become far more dangerous then they were in 2015. Much of the predator infested North is so cold as to be impossible to survive in without fur armor and fire. The swamps are death traps of diseased leaches, insects, and ambush predators. The redwood forest are loaded with packs of Terror Birds and Allasaurs. There is the rare threat of an Alpha Raptor or worse. Caves are even worse with abundant double, even triple, level threats.

New are the Explorer Notes which, when collected, will double your XP while you continue crafting or doing other things to survive.

Ark continues to evolve as it is added to, refined, polished, and prepared for its official release in hard copy.

When Joe spawned in, he was soon able to obtain his pick, hatchet, spears, torch, camp fire, and establish a thatch shelter between several boulders before nightfall. His worst threats were two compy gangs which he was easily able to dispatch with his spear. Basic clothes were obtained as Joe carefully expanded his hunting range to take out more Dodos. With the Bola, Joe was able to kill a Parasaur and pteradon for the hide needed to make a raft. He left the cave side camp that afternoon for Herbivore Island to establish a safe camp on the point before nightfall.

The next day, Joe tamed a Parasaur to aid him in obtaining narcoberries and transport. He had leveled up to obtain the refining forge, then the Smithy. He had enough metal from the rocks to craft a metal pick, then went off with the Parasaur to get metal ore from the metal bearing rocks on the ridge.

That night got bitter cold, but thanks to the shelter and fire pit cooking up raw meat from the day before, Joe was able to keep from freezing to death.

Now armed with better weapons, Joe went sailing to some more dangerous shores where he took down a raptor with a bola, then ran into a pair of very tough troodons. It was a good thing Joe had stimms in the hot bar as one bit him during the fight. He did take them both out and avoided being rendered unconscious, probably because he was already at Level 38 and had 20 fortitude on his side.

Currently, Joe has reached Level 45 after 5 hours of 4X game play. He how has a pteradon for flying recon and an anklyo that can quickly harvest rocks and other resources. A do tame Moschop came back on a rafting hunting trip that gathers fiber and other resources for him on Herbivore Island. It was found stuck in driftwood North of his original camp.

I have seen Jellyfish in the deep entrances to Drayo's Cove, a Carno, Pegomax, and Patcheorhinos on the ridge. Except for all of the Stegos and Pteradons on Herbivore Island, creature population seems lower then usual.

This story, starting during early WW2 in the Pacific, will have no connection to the other adventures.

 

Chapter One, Joe Six Pack.

 

It is December 8th 1941 as Joe's young life has been totally disrupted by the attack on Pearl Harbor. Like many Americans at the time, Joe volunteered to serve in the military that Monday.

Joe was given his basic training in California. Like many first recruits at the time, he trained with wooden rifles and broomsticks until production of M-1 could catch up with the need. Having tested high in his class, he volunteered for flight training and was soon in the fighter school program.

During leave at the base, he would hit the bars with his friends for a wild weekend of drinking and chasing the barmaids. He would occasionally end up in the brig, but was lucky he didn't stay in for more then the weekend, due to his budding flying skills and the need for good fighter pilots for the upcoming conformation with Japan in the pacific where carrier battles would soon become the norm for sea combat. Thus, he earned the nickname Joe Six Pack.

In April, he was assigned to the Lexington which set sail with the carrier group to confront the Japanese expansion in the Pacific that threatened to cut off Australia from the rest of the ally forces.

In May of 1943, Joe is involved in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Flying fighter escort, his group was soon involved in battling Japanese Zero Fighters, the most advanced fighter aircraft at its time. Joe's fighter, a new Grumman F4F Wildcat, was our most advanced fighter back then, replacing the inferior Buffalo that Joe had trained in. The Wildcat was slower then the Zero, but had better endurance, making the two aircraft an even match in combat. As a result, this was a plane he had little flight time on in order to get familiar with how it would handle in combat.

As his air group was escorting torpedo bombers to their target coordinates, a squadron of Jap Zeros hit them from above. Twisting and turning, climbing and diving for an advantage, the two fighter groups engaged each other in combat.

Joe gets on the tail of a Jap Zero as it lined up to shoot down a Devastator forcing it to break off its attack. “Joe, there's a zero on your tail,” warns his wing man as he maneuvered to get a kill shot on it.

“Get him,” Joe shouts back as the Zero he is chasing slams into the sea.

Joe climbs for some altitude as he attempts to shake off the Zero on his tail. His wing man is close behind trying to line up a shot, but soon finds himself having to deal with another Zero trying to get behind him.

A burst of gunfire from the chasing Zero catches his plane across the engine partially disabling it. Smoking badly and losing power, Joe makes a desperate move. He applies the speed brakes causing his plane to slow down abruptly. The chasing Zero suddenly finds itself in front of Joe in perfect alignment as Joe pulls the trigger and watching the much lighter constructed Zero disintegrate in front of him. Hit by the flying debris from the now destroyed Zero, Joe is forced to ditch his crippled plane into the sea.

It is a rough landing in the choppy sea as Joe attempts to glide his burning plane to a smooth landing. Suffering from some burns, he bails out of the sinking plane with his life raft, survival kit, and life vest.

From the sea, he can see the battle continue to rage as a huge explosion erupts from a Japanese aircraft carrier that is barely visible on the horizon. There are several other explosions as bombs and torpedoes find their mark. More aircraft go down in flames or crash out of control into the sea. Most are so far away that Joe is unable to tell which side is winning the battle in the air. Eventually, the battle dies down as evening approaches and enemy escorts search the seas for survivors.

Not wanting to end up in a Japanese POW camp, Joe does not inflate his raft. Instead, he stays in the water using the uninflated raft as a cover in case a searching Japanese naval vessel comes looking for their air crews.

He sees another airman in the water on a small raft just on the horizon. Fearing it might be one of the Japanese pilots that was shot down, he stays hidden as much as possible.

As darkness falls, the sky is lit up with the fires from the damages ships. Unknown to Joe, the remaining battle fleet has moved on abandoning the two sinking ships to their fate, their admiral not wanting to risk the remaining fleet to an attack at night by the American Navy. Darkness soon overtakes the horizon as the two ship sink putting out the fires.

Under cover of darkness, Joe inflates the raft so he can get out of the water. He has seen sharks in the area and does not want to become shark bait.

Lightning is lighting up the sky as a tropical storm starts moving in. Joe scans the horizon for the other raft as the sea starts getting rougher. He spots it, still far away, but not heading towards him as the wind picks up and the rain comes down.

"Great, fresh water," as Joe catches the pouring rain drinking his fill and trying to find some means of storing the extra from seawater contamination. The rain, although cold, feels good as he gets rid of the salt in his flight suit and his body re hydrates from it's long stay in the salt water.

Suddenly, there is a blinding flash of lightning that strikes the water around him. The electrical shock knocks Joe unconscious.

[rpicardi1]

Chapter 2. Marooned on a strange tropical island.

 

Joe wakes up naked on a beautiful tropical beach staring into the sunlit sky. He hears the sound of waves gently washing up on the beach. A creature flies overhead, it looks so prehistoric. “Strange,” he thinks as he gets up to look around. “Where are my clothes, my life vest, the raft, my survival supplies? Is that enemy fighter pilot with me somewhere on the beach? Did he take my stuff? Are their enemy soldiers on this island? What is this thing embedded in my left wrist?”

As a strange crustacean crawls up along the beach, Joe goes to look at it closely. He is suddenly shocked as he sees a holographic message flash in front of his eyes. “Trilobite, level 8.”

“What is that?” he thinks.

Picking up a stone from the beach to throw at it, he is astonished to find that it disappears from his hand. Another holographic message flashes in front of his eyes saying, “Added one stone.”

“What's going on here?” he thinks. “I picked up a stone to throw at this thing and it just vanishes from my hand.”

Staring at the gem implanted in his wrist, Joe gets a holographic image of information about himself. The screen center has a 3-D picture of him with his name and lvl 1 on the top. To the right is information about him and his health. He sees something called XP slowly climbing along with a clock registering the time. There is a day one and the temperature. On the left, he sees information about inventory items in which it contains his implant and a stone. He also sees the quick slot bar which is empty. Selecting Craftables, he finds that he can craft a pick and a torch, but, he needs a wood and ten thatch for the pick. He also needs a wood and a flint if he wants a torch. But, before he is able to examine the images further, his thoughts are interrupted by a small reptile creature that has come over to check him out. A holographic message flashes “Compy, Female, Level 2.”

“Ouch, you bit me you little ba$tard,” as two more compys show up to attack. Outraged, Joe grabs the attacking compy by the tail and slams it against a boulder killing it, it's two buddies run over to eat it, then come back to start nibbling on Joe's legs.

Joe punches the closest one in the face knocking it out, it's buddy then runs off. “Compy, Male, Level 4, Unconscious.” Another message appears, “Wild Male Compy – Lvl 4. Tamable by Joe Six Pack. Gender Male.” A picture appears with its health and other info along with a taming bar that is empty, and a unconscious bar that is heading towards zero.

“Tameable?” questions Joe. How strange. Those things attacked me, yet, if I knock one out, I can tame it.” At that moment the unconscious bar hits zero as the compy wakes up, lets out a screech in alarm, and runs away.

“Damn,” Thinks Joe. “I better get that pick made so I have something to defend myself from these creatures.”

Just then, another holographic message appears as Joe is left wondering about how quickly the compy bites are healing up. “Level Up. Access Inventory to apply.”

“What is this?” Joe asks himself as he looks back in his inventory list. “Oh, I can apply a boost to my stats. Maybe, I better add more health.” The health meter total jumps to 110% as another message appears “Engram Points to Apply 8.”

Joe checks out the list of available items to craft. “Good,” he thinks. “A hatchet, spear, fire pit, clothes. Oh, wait. They cost engram points and I only have eight. Given the nasty experience with the compys, I had better get the hatchet and spear for now.”

Checking out Crafting, Joe finds out what he needs to craft the items. “Damn, I need flint for the spear, torch, and hatchet. I need wood and thatch before I can make the pick. How can I get that?”

Walking over to a driftwood log on the beach, another message appears, “Hit this to harvest resources.”

“Ouch!” He shouts as he hits the log with his fist. Messages of adding wood and thatch appears. Checking the crafting he finds out that he has enough materials and crafts the pick.

Getting the same message from the rock, he uses the pick to gather stone and flint. Back to the driftwood log, he gets more thatch and some wood, then the log shatters and vanish. “That's weird.” he thinks as he goes back into crafting and makes the hatchet.

“Oh, I need a lot of wood for a spear.” Using the hatchet on the tree gives him a lot of wood and some thatch.

“Now, I need fiber.” Joe finds that the bushes can be picked for fiber as he gets berries of several variety. A spear and torch are soon in his Quick Item Slot. He gets information about the berries finding all but the black and white ones safe to eat.

Another Level up appears allowing Joe to add a fire pit, shirt and a pants.

About then, the compys show up with two more of their buddies. “You want some?” Joe shouts at them in anger as he goes backwards spearing the attacking compys dropping three of them before his spear breaks. “Damn crappy spear,” he shouts as he grabs the hatchet killing the fourth attacker. “Oh, that's interesting,” as the dead compy gives up raw meat and hide. Chopping up the other three yields more raw meat and hide. “I better make up several more spears if they are going to break without warning.”

With materials for a fire pit, Joe finds a sheltered spot in the boulders. Placing it down, he gets a message to add wood and raw meat to the fire. How am I going to light this?” he thinks, then sees the message to Light Fire. It roars to life providing light and warmth.

Soon there is cooked meat with quickly satisfy his hunger. However, Joe is faced with another issue, where to find fresh water.

Curious if there is fish in the nearby sea, Joe wades into it stepping off a small shelf which causes him to become submerged. “Great! The water is fresh! This can't be the South Pacific, that water would be too salty to drink. Oh oh, sharks. I better get out of here.” One of them chases him to shore, then backs off swimming back out to the sea.

Another level up and Joe has the skills to build a thatch shelter. “Good thing, he thinks. I'm starting to get cold,” as he gathers the materials for clothes, then the thatch structure that he builds in the shelter of the builders by the campfire.

With a chance to relax a bit as the afternoon sun is heading down, Joe start seeing some of the other strange things on this unusual island. “A pteradon,” he says as he walks up close to a flying reptile that lands to rest. “A parasaur, such an unusual creature, big enough to ride on.”

Then, he sees them as the clouds clear away inland. “This is definitely not the South Pacific,” he comments as he sees one of the three floating obelisk of Ark. “The technology to build that is certainly way beyond what I have seen. Did the Nazis create this place? The Japanese? The Soviets? The British? Even us? Or is it some aliens we have never been aware of? Strange, most strange. Maybe, they are responsible for this place, the gem implanted in my left wrist, and the unusual behavior of these creatures I have seen so far.”

“What's this?” as a large dog size bipedal creature screeches at him. “You're definitely not friendly!” says Joe in alarm as he grabs his spear while ducking sideways as green spit flies his way. The charging Dilophosaur bites the dust as Joe throws a spear into it, then stabs it with his second spear.

With more hide and another level up, Joe makes a slingshot and simple bed. “Interesting,” he thinks. “If killed, I can be reborned in it.”

“Storage boxes, those would be most useful for storing those extra berries and other items. Mortar and pestle for making narcs and spark powder.”

“A Phiomia Saddle? Looks like there are creatures here that can be ridden on once tamed. Most interesting.”

“Blood extraction Kit? Doesn't one need sterile conditions for collecting blood?”

“Paint brush, flags, a standing torch, more construction parts. Well, certainly, the torch and wood construction parts could be most useful.”

As darkness approaches while it is getting colder, Joe wonders if he should risk having a fire and torches going to keep warm. With spears and a slingshot, he decides to risk lighting the fires in order to avoid freezing to death.

Suddenly, the noises coming from the jungle nearby are silenced as something screams in terror, followed by a load roar. There is a second scream in pain, then dead silence.

Grabbing his spear tightly, Joe had confirmed that he has made the right decision in lighting the fires as he spots a pair of glowing eyes near by. They soon move away as the tropical noises of the night slowly resume. "I'm going to need to move to a safer area," thinks Joe as he prepares for a sleepless night as a storm moves in with pouring rain. Fortunately, the fires stay lit allowing for light and warmth as Joe seeks shelter in his thatch hut.

[rpicardi1]

Chapter 3, Joe's second day on Ark.

 

It is a glorious morning on Ark as the sun burns off the morning mist from the sea. Joe checks out the view noting a small island to the southwest. Then, he becomes aware of a strange shaft of light that has landed close by in the box canyon behind the boulders. Grabbing his spear, Joe goes to investigate it.

Some Dodo Birds are feeding on the berries in the bushes as Joe carefully approaches what looks like a spinning capsule at the base of the light shaft. Going closer, he gets a message that he can access the capsule and that it has 30% health left. “I better access it before the health goes to zero,” he thinks. The capsule, known to Ark game players as a Loot Crate, gives Joe some spark powder, berries, a slingshot, and two spears.

As he takes all the items, the capsule shatters into a shower of sparks and vanishes along with the light shaft. “Weird,” he thinks. “Whoever brought me here has given me gifts of useful items. Someone has to be watching over me. Joe heads back to his camp placing the extra items into one of the storage boxes.

Exploring further, Joe finds the cave in the Box Canyon. “Should I go into and explore it?” he asks himself. Curious, he light the torch and steps inside. The entrances opens up into a long passageway that splits off into interconnecting paths. With light and warmth up ahead, Joe outs away the torch.

As he explores further into the cave, he finds unusual rocks including what looks like crystal. Hitting one with his pick, he gets mostly rock but one yields three crystal. “Could be useful for something,” he thinks as he tosses out the heavy stone.

“Damn, it's starting to get extremely hot in here,” as he goes further into the cave, then see lava up ahead. Up ahead, he sees them, the giant bats of Ark. “Time to leave.”

Heading back to his base, he gets a Level 10 level up. “Spyglass, great, I can use it to observe what's up in the distance. Compass, Bola, more saddles. Oh good, the Parasaur can be ridden. Gunpowder, I can make explosives or at least a primitive gun. Flare Gun. That could prove useful for a rescue. A cooking pot. Crop Plots? Stone irrigation pipe? Wood spike wall, could be useful for keeping the predators away at night. More wood construction materials. I'll get a spyglass and some bolas made up for now.”

Getting the spyglass, Joe goes to check the crafting requirements. “Two crystal, good thing I found them in the cave.” After crafting the spyglass, Joe decides to do some exploring from above the cliff and heads up the hill towards the edge of the jungle.

Using the spyglass, he finds that it gives him a good closeup view of what may be ahead. “Trike, Female, Level 11,” the message reads as he places it on one of the creatures in the distance. “Excellent,” he thinks. “I can ID a creature from a safe distance.”

“Finding a crumbling stone structure, Joe enters it. He sees an old ammo can inside and opens it. “A Survivor's notebook and a map of The Island. Someone else was here before me. But who? When? How?”

Leaving the structure, Joe finds himself confronted by several flying and crawling ants the size of domestic cats. “Trouble,” he thinks wisely as he readies his spear, taking them all out like the Compys in order.

“Why am I getting so sleepy? Oh, that bite was poisonous! Stemberries, must eat some.” Just in time, Joe eats several stimberries which have the effect of counteracting the poisonous effect that is putting him to sleep. Thankfully, he has a water skin with water with him as the berries then make him extremely thirsty with their dehydrating effect.”

Hacking up the dead insects, known as Titanomyrmas, he is rewarded with chitin and more raw meat. He gets another level up for killing them.

Up on the plateau, Joe uses the spotting scope to look out to the sea. Other then seeing some Pteradons and Pelagormis flying and fishing out at sea, the horizon remains barren with the exception of a small island his map Ids as Herbivore Island. “If that name is an indication of what lives there, it should provide a safer place to stay then this main island,” Joe thinks.

Joe continues West along the open plateau spotting another strange creature, a Pachyrhinosaur. Figuring that it may be safe to approach it, Joe gets a message that he can feed it bug repellent to tame it. “Well, at least I don't have to knock it out if I want it as a tame,” he thinks. “But, what will it take to make bug repellent to feed it?”

“Hey, you little thief!” Joe yells as a pegomax runs off with his empty waterskin. A second one sits close by just staring at him. A holographic message indicates that she is his tame.

“How is that possible?” thinks Joe. “Oh, you stole my mejoberries.” he says as he checks the pegomax inventory. “I guess we can be friends if all you wanted was something to eat,” he says as he picks up the pegomax placing her on his shoulders.

“Reaching Drayo's Cove from the cliff, Joe places the spotting scope on a large bipedal creature across the cove. “Oh oh,” he comments as he looks at the creature that is id as a Rex. “Very bad news,” as he observes it ripping up a Parasaur for a meal. “There is no way I can defend against something as big as that. I definitely need to find some place safer to stay and soon.”

Back at his camp, Joe goes to work crafting up and placing spike fences in an effort to fortify his camp from this new threat. On Level 15, he makes a most important discovery.

“Excellent, I can craft a bow and arrows, a ranged weapon. A raft, Great! I now have a way to sail to that small island, or at least, stay offshore away from that Rex. Lets see what's the crafting requirement are. Ouch, that's an awful lot of wood. Good, I can store the materials for the raft in a box on the beach, then go hunting for the hide I will need for a sail.

Joe gathers and stores the wood for the raft. The fiber is easily gathered and stored, but he needs a lot more hide. “Peggy, you stay here while I go hunting,” he says to his new tame as he goes hunting with his bola and bow and arrows. Several Dodos, a trapped parasaur, some compys, and a dilo later, he has the hide to finish the project with plenty to spare.

It is mid afternoon as the raft is crafted and placed in the water. Some storage crates are placed on board along with a sleeping bag. All the supplies are moved to the raft along with a spare camp fire, torches, extra wood, meat, and everything else not in storage. With Peggy on his shoulder, Joe sets sail to the small island. “I hope that it is worth the effort as he sails towards the island called Herbivore Island on the map he has discovered.

“Look at the size of those sharks! There is no way I could have swam across that.” he comments as he sails across the open sea.

Reaching Herbivore Island by late afternoon, Joe sails around it looking for anything dangerous. He finds mostly Stegosaurs, Ankylosaurs, Trikes, Parasaurs, some Brontos, some of those Phimonas, and some Pteradons.

“Good, I found a safe haven,” as Joe beaches the raft in the cove away from where the Brontos are living. He then proceeds to establish a thatch camp by the boulders at the end of a palm studded sandbar, placing down another Spawn Bed in it.

Peggy sits there munching mejoberries as she watches him build the thatch shelter. “Such a strange creature,” Joe thinks as he finds that she can be leveled up just like him and really enjoys it.

Placing down a mortise and pestle, Joe places the spoiled meat and all of the narcoberries he has gathered in it. It gives him about seven Narcs. “Well, the good thing about Narcs is that they won't spoil like the berries,” he thinks. His Survivor's Handbook has given him that information.

With a cold sunset, Joe stocks up the fire and torches in preparation for the night. With nothing dangerous living on this little island, Joe looks forward to a good night sleep. Peggy should be able to alert him if something unusual should happen while he is sleeping. She lays by his side just like his family dog would do before he joined the military.

“In the morning, I will craft up a saddle, gather mejoberries, and go tame a Parasaur.” Then, I will have me a faster mode of transportation to fully explore this island.

Exhausted from the rigors of the past two days, Joe falls asleep assured that he is in a much safer position then he was on the main island.

 

[rpicardi1]

Any thoughts if I should have Joe run into the Japanese fighter pilot that shot up his aircraft, that he shot down in return? (There is a Black Sheep series story of such a scenario.)

Joe reached Level 60 last night as he dodge being ambushed by a Carno on the mainland beach while resource harvesting. Chapter 4 coming soon as time permits.

[rpicardi1]

Chapter 4, The third and fourth day on the Ark.

 

It is early morning as Peggy wakes Joe up pestering him for attention. “That was sure a good night's sleep,” Joe thinks to himself as he prepares to craft the saddle and go after a Parasaur.

Gathering from the nearby bushes, Joe gets the needed mejoberries and narco berries, then, heads up the sandbar towards where he has observed some wild Parasaurs.

Finding an egg on the beach, he picks it up to examine it. “Opps, Big mistake as an angry female Parasaur comes charging after him. “Sorry about this,” he says as he grabs his club and knocks her out with it. The egg, it seems, is not fertile when he examines it.

Placing Mejoberries and some narco berries in her inventory, Joe gets the taming process under way. “Quite interesting,” he thinks. “You knock them out, then nurse them back to health. Not like it was with the Pegomax where she just took the berries from me, then decided to be friends on her own.”

It is about 20 minutes when the Parasaur wakes up tamed and no longer angry at Joe for taking her egg. “She is actually quite sweet for a reptile,” he thinks as he saddles her up and takes her riding for the first time. “I'll know now not to pick up stray eggs on the beach when the mother is nearby. I don't want to have an angry Bronto chasing me.”

Joe fully explores Herbivore Island finding it is horseshoe shaped with the two sandbars with rocks on the ends. It also has lots of boulders up on the ridge with several gold colored rocks. The Survivor's Handbook says he should wait until he can get a metal pick before seriously mining those rocks for metal as the yield will be much better. Once he is able to craft a saddle for one, the handbook suggest that he should tame an Anklosaur and use it to mine stone and flint for sparkpowder and the metal rocks to get a high yield of metal.

While riding his new Parasaur he has named Patty, he finds that he can use her to gather berries, some thatch and a little wood. “She will give me lots of berries including the Narco and Stimm berries I can convert to Narcs and Stimms,” He thinks.

Joe continues on his improvements at his camp adding some compost bins and starting some garden plots for more Narcoberries. Some large storage boxes give him lots more places to store excess items in.

With Level 20 reached, Joe is able to get tranc arrows, a refining forge and a preserving bin. The preserving bin is quickly built so Joe can store his cooked meat and other perishables to extend their shelf life. He finds that he can convert the cooked meat into jerky even though the process is quite slow.

A Trike saddle is available which sounds interesting for his needs. “With those horns and armored head shield, this could be a good combat mount for roaming the main island in relative safety,” he thinks.

“Damn, not enough hide for the saddle. I'll have to head back to the main island to hunt. I don't want to risk alienating the herbivores here by killing any of them. I better leave Patty and Peggy here where it it safe.”

Armed with his spears, bow, and bola, Joe sets sail for a quick hunting expedition and heads over to the old base side of Drayo's Cove. Quick work is made of a Dilo, several Dodos, and two Compy gangs. An injured Moschop gets rescued from the driftwood which comes back with him on the raft.

“Such a strange mammal,” he thinks. “It wanted these strange things to eat I have never heard of. I may be able to find out what he is useful for when I have a chance to study him later in the day. He's not big enough to ride or capable of defending himself. He'd rather run away when facing danger then fight.”

Back on Herbivore Island, Joe turns the Moschop loose on wander. He is amazed to see it start gathering stuff from the trees and bushes on the sandbar.

Joe then crafts up the Trike saddle and goes looking for one to tame. Finding one, he uses the bola to ensnare its legs. “Big Mistake,” says Joe as the bola is ripped to shreds while the angry trike charges him. Tranc arrow to the head as Joe dodges its horns. Another tranc arrow to the head as a palm tree is shattered by the charge of the big male. A third tranc arrow in the head as Joe runs behind a boulder for cover. Another tranc arrow to the head. “What's it going to take to knock this big guy out!” Then a big crash as the trike hits the ground knocked out cold.

Joe places the Mejoberries in the Trike's inventory to start the taming process, but soon finds that he has no Narcoberries. He is about to head back to get Patty when he sees the Moschop coming through the area. Checking his inventory, he gets a big surprise.

“Wow, this guy got me a stock of Mejoberries, a bunch of Narcoberries, lots of seeds, other berries, wood, thatch, and even a bunch of fiber. You are a harvesting machine. Thank you buddy,” as Joe takes the needed items to transfer to the unconscious Trike inventory.

It is starting to get cold as evening approaches. “Looks like this is going to take all night,” as Joe monitors the progress of the taming. “It appears that the higher the level, the longer it will take to tame them, and this guy is a level 38.”

A couple of torches are placed next to the unconscious Trike for heat and light as he brings Peggy and Patty over to be with him, then builds a 1x1 thatch shelter to keep him out of the rain.

Mike, the Moschop, provides him with more Narco and Mejoberries as well as with the materials Joe needs for the shelter. At dawn, the Trike wakes up tamed.

Joe takes all of the tames back to the main camp and fires up the forge with the 16 metal ore he has collected the past couple of days. With level 25, he now has access to the metal pick, hatchet, pike, and crossbow, as well as the Smithy he needs to craft them. While the metal ore is smelting down so he can get the Smithy built, Joe takes out Terry, his new Trike, to see if he was worth all of the effort it took to tame him.

In the actual game, a higher level creature will give higher initial stats as well as gain a bonus that can equal half of the original level that the creature started out with. Terry turns out to be typical of such a tame with having a high value of health, stamina, weight, and melee attack.

Joe takes him out and finds his ability to harvest berries, wood, and thatch are exceptional compared to Patty Parasaur. Even though Patty is faster, Terry the Trike is so much stronger, maybe too strong given that he gets such large amounts of thatch from the palm trees. He turns out to be very efficient in gathering from the driftwood, tree stumps and dead palms, something that Joe has normally ignored due to how hard it was to get anything from them with his stone tools.

Back at camp, Joe gets the Smithy built, the crafts the metal pick. He gets a bunch more Narcs made up with the Narcoberries the Trike has gathered for him. Riding on Patty with Terry following, Joe heads for the metal bearing rock up on the ridge.

“A good haul,” he thinks as he has packed about 400 pounds of metal ore on the Trike, another 100 on Patty, and carries another 100 on himself. The forge is fired up filled with metal ore and wood as Joe heads back to mine the boulders for more flint to craft up some more arrows, then a stop to check on Mike to get narcoberries so he can use up the rest of the spoiled meat for Narcs for the arrows.

Joe continues to craft up the metal tools he has unlocked in the Smithy as the refined metal is ready. He gets his hatchet, pike, and crossbow. “So amazing how much wood this metal hatchet gathers,” he thinks.

Joe heads back further into the ridge getting another load of metal and wood. That ends up in the Refining Forge to run all night. He unloads all of the Thatch and fiber Mike has gathered and places it on the raft, then takes all of the Narcoberries to put in the preserving bin.

Remembering the encounter with the ants, he places stimms where he can access them quickly and places the extras on Terry in case he should need them. His Survivor's Handbook has warned him about the poisonous bite of the glowing eye creatures he had seen on his first night and how Stimms can counteract their effect.

“Time to get a good night sleep,” he says to himself after such a rewarding day. “I'll take Terry over to the main island to craft wood building materials and test out his defensive ability if need be.”

[rpicardi1]

Chapter 5. The fifth day on Ark.

 

During the night, Joe starts to wonder what had happened to the other person he had seen in a raft in the distance prior to the storm knocking him out and ending in this alien setting. “Was he one of ours? One of the enemy? The first enemy pilot from the plane he shot down? The enemy pilot of the plane that shot him up before he shot it out of the sky?” He had been so busy during these first four days surviving on Ark that he hadn't had time to think about such things.

Something else Joe now realizes. When his plane was shot up, he had suffered burns to his legs from the burning engine. He was able to get the fire out using his fire extinguisher, but the burns had been quite painful in the salt water. Waking up on Ark, he failed to realize that his burns were fully healed.

“If that other pilot is on Ark, was he also injured before his arrival? Did he arrive with his injuries fully healed? Has he been able to survive as well?”

“What will happen should we both run into each other if the other pilot is Japanese? Will he attack me on sight? Should I attack him on sight? Will he have tames like I do or ones that are dangerous predators? Could we possibly agree to a truce so long as we are on Ark and work together for our survival and eventual escape from here?”

The Petromax snuggles up next to Joe as he drifts off into sleep. His other three tames are outside resting in safety on this peaceful little island Joe has made home. The fire in the Refining Forge process the rest of the metal ore in it and eventually goes out leaving a large amount of charcoal ready to be converted into gunpowder or other use.

That morning, before heading off to the mainland to test out his new Trike, Joe prepares a Go Box at his camp. With the extra metal, he crafts a spare set of metal tools placing them in storage next to his bed along with an extra set of clothes. “I will upgrade this with better armor once I have the skill and resources to do so,” he thinks.

With the Go Box set, Joe loads Terry the Trike on board the raft and sets sail to the mainland to explore West of Drayo's Cove into a more dangerous area. Armed with metal weapons, Joe feels better equipped to defend himself and his new tame from the increased dangers that may be present there.

Landing on the beach in a safe looking area with a cliff close by, Joe gets on Terry and rides him to go exploring. He spots some ruins noting another ammo box from up on Terry. Dismounting, he access the ammo box which he finds has an explorer's note describing one of the creatures of Ark. “Another clue from a survivor of long ago,” Joe thinks as he puts the note away.

A screech alerts Joe to danger as he turns around coming face to face with a pair of Dilos. Too late to get on Terry, he grabs the pike and attacks the nearest threat. Terry goes after the second threat killing it with his horns before Joe has finished dispatching the first. “Good Job Terry,” Joe tells him as he harvests both dilos for raw meat and hide, packing the meat in the Trike's inventory. Joe has learned some time ago that tames act like a mini fridge in that raw meat and berries will last four times longer on them then on him. “Such strange rules of Nature in Ark,” he thinks as he finishes transferring the raw meat to Terry.

As Joe gets on Mike, a raptor shows up from behind a boulder and charges at them. “Definitely not friendly,” Joe says as he uses Terry to charge directly into the raptor which gets flung back to the boulder. A tranc arrow fired from the crossbow ends the threat. “Love that new crossbow,” Joe thinks. “It sure hits a lot harder then the primitive bow. “The raptor, although unconscious and tame able, is so badly injured that Joe decides to finishes it off with his hatchet. (Game note, using ranged weapons while riding on most tames was added to the game last fall.)

Getting back on Terry after harvesting the raptor, Joe rides back to the raft to unload the raw meat into storage. He then crafts himself up a set of leather armor. “Much better then fiber clothes,” he thinks. “It will give me some better protection should I be caught without Terry nearby.”

Finding some tribolites along the beach, Joe gets more chitin, some pearls, and oil. He reaches Level 30. “Oh, even better armor,” he says to himself as he selects the three pieces. “But, I have to craft it in the Smithy.”

“All right, a gunpowder weapon. And Grenades. I have to craft them in the Smithy as well, but at least, I will have something to fight with should I run into Japanese soldiers here.”

Joe continues exploring along the beach heading West. Keeping in the open, he uses the spotting scope to look ahead for trouble. He spots three Troodons for the first time out hunting and watches them take on a raptor. “That should be a slaughter of the Troogen,” he thinks. But, then he notices there are tactics being deployed by the Troodon pack as they stalk the raptor attacking them.

Two of the Troodons taunt the raptor as a third sneaks up from behind to take a bite out of its leg. After about a minute, the raptor drops to the ground registering unconscious in his spotting scope. “Now, I know why I need to keep the stimms handy on both me and my tame,” he thinks as the Troodons move in to eat the raptor alive. “Lets go back the other way,” he tells Terry.

Back by the raft, Joe is harvesting wood to craft more building material. He loads the finished items on Terry who is following close behind.

Joe is about ready to head for the raft when he hears a roar close by coming from Drayo's cove. A Carno is running towards them.

In a panic, Joe gets on Terry but finds him quite burdened. He quickly dumps all of the inventory on Terry, then grabs his crossbow as he has Terry charge the carno. Three tranc arrows find their target as Terry collides head first into the charging carno doing a great deal of damage to it. Joe jumps off using his pike as Terry slams into the now drugged Carno a second time. The battle is soon over.

“That was close, almost too close,” Joe thinks as he leather armor has been badly damaged in fighting the Carno. Terry has been bitten as well but has come out of the attack in good shape thanks to his high level and strength.

“Raw Prime,” Joe says as he harvest the carno. “What, it spoils in less then two minute and doesn't stack? How am I suppose to keep that? Can I even get it cooked before it spoils?”

Joe takes Terry back to where he had dumped the inventory and places it all back on him. “Lets go home,” he says as they both get back on the raft to sail back to Herbivore Island and safety. By the time they have reached their home island, the both of them have fully recovered from the fight.

Back at Herbivore Island, Joe unpacks the building materials to a storage crate on the raft. The extra meat goes in the preserving bin as two stacks go in the fire pit to be cooked up. With oil in the preserving bin, cooked meat jerky is starting to show up. It has a most ideal shelf life even when taken from the preserving bin. “A good backup food I can place on the raft” thinks Joe.

Taking the chitin from storage, Joe places it in the Smithy and checks on the crafting requirements. In short order, Joe has the armored vest, pants and helmet.

Next on the crafting is a metal sickle. “Great,” he thinks when he tries it out. “Lots of fiber in a hurry but no berries. It will be a good backup when Mike the Moschop is not available.”

A primitive revolver with 40 rounds is soon crafted.

Another surprise as Joe reaches Level 35. “Chitin gloves and boots to complete the better armor. A rifle and shotgun. One can fly on those pteradons? Great, a way to conduct a recon from the air.”

“A beer barrel. Fantastic, I can brew my own beer.”

“Oh wow, the crafting requirements is pretty steep especially for the gunpowder for the bullets. Guess I better see if I can tame one of the pteradons for areal survey.”

Armed with trancs in the crossbow, raw meat, trancs, and packing the saddle, Joe goes hunting for a suitable pteradon to tame.

Joe finds one that has landed on the beach and shoots it in the head. It falls down dead. “Damn,” mutters Joe to himself. “They are a lot more fragile then I thought.” Joe proceeds to harvest the dead pteradon for its meat and hide.

He has to head much further down the beach where he finds another pteradon that has just landed. This time, Joe targets its body. Twack, the pteradon takes off in alarm flying out to sea. Then, it falls into the water and drowns. “Well, at least, I didn't kill it.” he says.

With the other pteradons becoming skittish, Joe heads back to camp to grab a bola. A pteradon comes out of the cove to rest. Using the Bola, Joe throws it at the pteradon's feet immobilizing it. One tranc arrow to the body. Nothing. He shoots another. Nothing. As Joe readies for a third shot, the pteradon falls to the ground unconscious.

“Level 36 female. No wonder you took two hits to drop,” says Joe as he recovers the arrows to place raw meat and narcs into the pteradon's inventory.

Joe gets prepared for another long tame. A pair of torches and a thatch 1x1 hut are set up. Like before with the Trike, Joe brings the other tames to stay with him. As there is time before it gets dark. Joe takes Patty and Terry up to the ridge to gather more metal for the refining forge, takes another 200 wood, lights and stocks it up to run all night. He stops in each direction to check that the unconscious pteradon is remaining that way. Surprisingly, she has fully healed from the injuries caused by the tranc arrows.

During the night, Joe wonders what he will find when he takes his new tame for her first recon flight. Will there be other survivors out there? Will there be Japanese occupying part of the Ark? Will there be way back to the Lexington off this Ark?

It is midnight when the pteradon tame has been completed. He names her Trixie. As it is too dark to do any flying, he decides to rest in the hut for the night with his new tame next to him with the others. Peggy lays down beside him being her usual pesky self, looking for attention.

[rpicardi1]

Will be back on track soon with the adventure. The past two weeks have been a nightmare.

Chapter 6. The recon flights.

 

At daybreak, Joe saddles up his new tame and flies her back to his camp landing her on the roof of the hut. The other tames follow him back to camp.

Like the night before, the fire in the smelter has gone out after processing the load of metal ore placed in it. There is more charcoal for gun powder.

For now, Joe settles on packing the pistol with it's 40 rounds. He will make up the rifle later once he can craft a scope for it. But, that needs 20 crystal of which he has only one. So a trip will be needed back to the cave to see if the metal pick will give him what he needs.

A beer barrel is placed with a water source and filled with berries and thatch as required. “A cold one would sure be great in the evening,” thinks Joe. “I certainly miss those Saturday nights with the boys.”

Preparing to travel light, Joe saddles up Trixie and takes off towards his old base. It is quite a view from the air as Joe can see a long ways during the flight. Both the Green and Red Obelisk show up clearly as floating objects in the distance. Keeping an eye on her stamina, Joe figures he can easily make it to the cave but lands Trixie up on a boulder for a rest and to look around.

Through his spotting scope, Joe spots the wild Rex back up in the delta of Drayo's Cove. It is a Level 6 female just patrolling the area. A strange bird like creature, somewhat smaller then the Rex, but bigger then the Carno, is feeding on the bushes using his huge claws to gather the berries. “What a strange creature,” He thinks as he places his spotting scope on it. “Therizinosaur, Male, Level 38.” “I'll need to research him in The Survivor's Handbook to see if he would make a good tame or not.”

Joe continues to fly on Trixie to the cave site. He is glad that he can bring her inside where she is safe from any threats outside.

With the pistol handy, Joe heads into the cave finding the crystal to harvest while watching out for the bats and other hazards. “What a difference a metal pick makes,” he thinks as he gets the needed crystal from one outcropping and dumps the excess stones. Joe leaves the cave flying to his old outpost where he leaves the crystal in a storage box for the time being.

Joe continues to explore further up the beach with Trixie. With the spotting scope, he can scout for any signs of other survivors as well look for danger. He lands by the edge of the swamp to rest Trixie and observe ahead. But soon, there is a swarm of flying insects headed their way. “Not good,” Joe thinks as he urges Trixie to leave quickly before finding a rocky outcropping to land on. “Lots of unknown dangers to worry about in that swamp.”

As Joe later learns from his Survivor's Handbook, without bug repellent and a very strong mount, the swamps are a death trap of Titanboas, Sarcos, Beelzebufos, Dimetrodons, the ambush predators Kaprosuchus, giant leaches that could be diseased, Piranha, flying Titanomyrma, and others unknown. He does see Paracers roaming freely in the swamp. “Apparently, these creatures are immune to the dangers present there due to their size,” he thinks.

Flying and gaining altitude to get above the jungle, Joe heads to a rocky outcropping by the Green Obelisk landing there to rest Trixie before flying to it. “Wow, it is huge,” he thinks as he flies up high alongside of it. From that vantage, as he flies through the clouds, Joe can see the Blue Obelisk over in the distant mountains.

Flying back down, he sees the alter at the base of the badly fractured terrain underneath the Green Obelisk. Water fills most of the fracture below. Some parts of the platform where the green shaft of light hits the alter, look like they have been damaged. Sections of alien structure glow as they are seen embedded in the jagged rock spires surrounding the fracture landscape.

Joe lands Trixie next to the alter to examine it. “So interesting,” he thinks. “While that light shaft can be seen anywhere the Obelisk is visible, it only appears to be the size of a pencil at the alter.

Joe's train of thought gets interrupted when he hears, then sees a raptor come running towards him and Trixie. Instinctively, he empties the pistol into it as it drops with the last shot. Before he can reload, he sees two more raptors start running up the ramp towards them. Quickly getting on Trixie, he gets airborne as the two raptors try to attack by jumping after him.

“That was close,” he thinks as he flies back towards the old campsite. “It took an entire clip to drop a low level raptor. This primitive black powder pistol is about as weak as those early six shooters of the Old West. I hope that the Long Neck Rifle has much better hitting power then this pea shooter.”

Picking up the crystal, Joe flies back to his Herbivore Island camp. A Longneck rifle is soon fabricated along with a primitive scope and 50 rounds of ammo. “A bit heavy and only single shot,” Joe thinks. “Definitely will be useful if I should run into any enemy soldiers on this Ark.”

Peggy comes over looking for attention as Joe prepares the raft for a quick recon to test out the new rifle. “Sorry,” he says to her. “This trip is for hunting. I don't want you to get hurt or frightened while I am over snooping in Drayo's Cove with the raft.”

While on the raft, Joe test out the capability of the new rifle. “This scope is great,” he thinks. He spots some raptors and aims for the head of the lead one. BLAM! The raptor goes down with one shot but it's buddy has spotted him and is heading for the water. “Damn, slow reload.” He gets a bead on the second raptor as it starts swimming to him and drops it with one shot. “We'll, that hits a lot harder then emptying the pea shooter on one. Still, I best use the rifle for long range shooting, use the crossbow with trancs for quick nonfatal take down, and keep the pea shooter for close in combat with the pike as backup. Both raptors are harvested for meat and hide before Joe sails back to his camp.

Joe has reached Level 40 during his exploration of the day. As he beaches the raft for the night, he finds a Ankykosaur that has got itself stuck in the palms by his camp. “I can now craft a saddle for one,” he thinks as he checks out the Survivor Handbook. “This guy would be most useful in crafting large amounts of spark power quickly instead of wearing out my pick chopping up rocks all day. Would you like to be my rock miner?”

A quick trip on Terry Trike gathers him the needed berries and narcs for the tame attempt. “Low level so the tame won't take that long.” he thinks after a close up examination with the spotting scope.”

Making sure no other Ankylos are nearby, Joe drops the trapped one with three tranc arrows on the crossbow and gets the taming process underway. Peggy makes the usual pest of herself as Joe prepares for another overnight tame. There is sufficient resources to craft the saddle.

Close to midnight, Andy is tamed but still stuck in the palms and boulder. The saddle is put on and Joe gets on board. “OK Andy,” he says. “Lets get you unstuck.”

It is three quick swings of the spiked tail and Andy has collected wood, thatch, an assortment of berries, and has shattered the boulder which yields 30 stone and 110 flint. “A most worthwhile tame.” Joe thinks. “I will soon have plenty of spark powder with the bonus of extra berries thatch and wood. And, you will easily fit on the raft so I can take you to where the boulders are. I'm most interested to see what you will do with the metal ore in the morning.”

“Come join the rest of my tames for the night and we will go for a raft ride in the morning.”

[rpicardi1]

Chapter 7. The Zero Pilot

 

Yamaharo joined the military as a hot shot teen in 1940. He was extremely interested in flying and liked flying fast in high performance aircraft soon becoming a top pilot in his air group.

Being the fastest, most maneuverable fighter of its time, the Zero became Yamaharo's favorite aircraft as he trained in the art of fighter combat.

In late November, 1941, his air group set sail on a secret mission to Pearl Harbor. The top brass were taking full advantage of the stormy weather of the North Pacific to hide the movement of the task force as they sailed towards their target.

Reaching their objective undetected, the aircraft were armed and fueled on deck ready for takeoff just before dawn. The weather had cleared making it important that they launch their attack before they were discovered. With the last minute orders, the air groups headed for their targets with Yamaharo flying fighter escort for the bombing group.

As history shows, the attack caught the Americans by surprise. However, the US Carrier group, the main target of the bombers, had put out to sea and were nowhere in sight. The group switched their targets to Battleship Row and proceeded to attack those targets.

With no American fighters in the air to engage, Yamaharo's fighter group proceed to attack the airfield shooting down Buffalo and other fighters that were attempting to get airborne. They also strafed aircraft that were parked in neat rows along the airfield sending them up in flames.

Low on ammo, Yamaharo starts flying back to escort the bombers back to the carriers. His Zero is damaged when it is hit by shrapnel as the nearby Arizona's forward magazine erupts into a huge fireball. Still in control of his aircraft, he manages to limp back to his carrier and lands safely.

With the location of the American carriers unknown and not wanting to risk losing ships that they cannot replace, the Japanese Admirals make the decision to declare victory and head for home.

It is quite a shock to Yamaharo the day he is visiting his parents when he hears the air raid sirens go off followed by the sound of several heavy bombers flying low overhead with US Army markings. Sounds of bombs going off interrupt his thought as he wonders how it was possible for US bombers to fly to reach Japan. He is soon called up to join his fighter group to set sail for the Coral Sea.

On that fateful day in May, Yamaharo is flying cap over his carrier that has just launched an attack against an American task force spotted nearby. He spots a squadron of Devastator Torpedo Bombers heading towards his carrier and leads in the attack against them. He is soon mixing it up with with US fighter pilots flying F4F Wildcats. “These planes are good,” he thinks as he has to use all of his skills taking advantage of the Zero's ability to maneuver in behind them. “Very tough,” as he shoots up one of the fighters before it finally goes down.

Lining up on Joe Six Pack plane, Yamaharo has a very difficult time getting in position. Getting off a burst from his machine gun, he is able to disable the Wildcat's engine. Suddenly, he finds himself in front of the Wildcat having his Zero shot to pieces before he can react to get out of its kill zone.

It is a rough impact from what is left of his fighter as it hits the water. He bails out of the sinking craft with his raft and survival gear as he watches Joe's plane ditch in front of him.

All Yamaharo can do now is watch the battle develop before him as aircraft go down in flames as a huge explosions fill the horizon with flame and smoke. The battle dies down as darkness approaches, the sky lit up from the fires of burning ships that eventually sink putting them out.

“Where are the escorts to rescue us,” he thinks as the sky turns black with the sea getting rough.

He sees another survivor in the water, but decides against swimming towards him. “That could be my enemy,” he thinks. “It might be a bad idea to have a confrontation under such bad conditions.”

Lightning is soon lighting up the horizon as a tropical storm rolls in. There are no escorts ships visible anywhere, only the outline of some small tropical islands as his small raft bobs up on the wave peaks. “At least, there is land nearby if I can reach it,” he thinks as he starts paddling towards it.

The storm gets worse as the wind and waves pick up blowing him away from the island on the horizon. Yamaharo is dumped into the sea as a wave breaks over him. He loses track of the raft as he struggles to swim back to it. Then, with a blinding flash, he is rendered unconscious.

 

Chapter Eight, The Sandbar of Southpaw.

 

Gameplay note, The sandbar at Southpaw is located in South Zone One. It is one of the safest areas in the game to start. Still, there are Pegomax and some Dilos to present danger to the unarmed survivor. Metal is obtainable from the round rocks in the river. Crystal, however, will involve a dangerous trip to the small mountain peak in the East across the bay. Chitin is hard to obtain. There is plenty of wood, berries, and fiber available for early crafting.

 

Yamaharo wakes face up lying on a beautiful tropical beach staring into the cloud studded sky. He finds himself naked, his combat injuries completely healed, his clothes, raft, and all of his survival gear gone. There is this strange gem shaped item implanted in his left wrist. “What's going on here?” he thinks as he gets up and looks around.

“Such strange birds on this beach,” as some Dodo birds walk by. “They don't seem to have a care in the world.”

A loud chirp alerts him to a large lizard creature near him. Turning to face it, he sees its hood flare and instinctively ducks to one side as green spit flies by him. “Not friendly, not friendly,” he yells as he runs past the Dodos on the beach. One of them squawks as it is attacked by the spitter, then killed and eaten.

Now behind some nearby boulders and catching his breath, Yamaharo decides he had better get some weapons and fast.

Picking up a stone off the beach, he is surprised to see it vanish along with a holographic message, “Added One Stone.” Checking out the implant in his wrist, he learns how to access for messages and information where he finds out about crafting a stone pick. “Need wood and thatch,” it says as he goes over to a driftwood log to hit it with a stone that also vanishes. Using his fist, he is able to get the required materials and crafts the pick.

“A level up,” another holographic message displays. Picking health, he finds the engrams to spend and selects the hatchet and spear.

“Need Flint and fiber,” as he finds out that the boulder gets the flint he needs for the hatchet which is soon crafted. In short order, Yamaharo has a hatchet and spear.

With spear in hand, Yamaharo heads back up the beach to find and kill the spitter that had attacked him. “There you are you little ba$tard,” he says to himself as he sneaks up from behind as it is eating the Dodo. There is the Shrek of surprise as Yamaharo spears the dilo which breaks as he kills it. “Damn,” he says. “Better make up three more if they can break without warning.” With the hatchet, he gets raw meat and hide and another levelup.

“Time for a fire pit to cook the meat, also some clothes since I'm starting to get cold.” Those items are obtained with a fire pit placed in the shelter of the boulders. The raw meat is soon cooking up as Yamaharo crafts a shirt and pants from the thatch and fiber.

“Where am I going to find fresh water?” he thinks given that the berries he has picked that can be safely eaten don't provide much liquid.” Heading to the sea in the cove, he is surprised to find that the water is fresh. “One problem solved,” he thinks.

“Hey, you little thief,” he yells as a pegomax runs off with his spears. He then finds a second one just staring at him. “How can you be my tame?” he ask as he looks back at it. Finding out that it has an inventory, he finds that his mejoberries are on it. “So, you stole my berries and like them,” he says. “I guess that we can be friends,” he says as he proceeds to make replacement spears. A levelup soon gives him engrams for building a shelter.

As he is building a thatch hut next to the fire for the night, he sees something really strange. A giant theropod is spotted grazing on the palms across the bay.”

“Just what is this strange place where the water in the bay is fresh? How did these strange creatures get here? What strange behavior with these little harry lizards that take things from you, yet, would like to become your buddy. That giant creature across the bay. This place can't be real. These creatures are all extinct.”

Looking to the West, he spots it. One of the three floating obelisk floating in the sky, parts of it obscured by the clouds. “This place is definitely not real,” he thinks as it starts getting dark.

A bright light drops down on the sand bar point near his camp. It lights up the entire sandbar as a couple of Dodos go scurrying about. Yamaharo has seen them in the distance as it started to get dark. Now, there is one coming down close by. “Stay at the camp,” he tells the pegomax that following him.

A shreak alerts him to a dilo caught in the driftwood. It is quickly dispatched with a spear as the spinning capsule descends to the ground. Yamaharo reaches level 5 with harvesting the dilo.

He walks up to the loot crate finding that he can access it with his Specimen Implant. It contains a slingshot, a couple of storage crates, some food, a hat, gloves, and boots. It shatters as he takes all the items and darkness returns.“A good find,” he thinks as he lights his torch and heads back to camp. Placing down the storage crates, he transfers the extra items into it and puts on the hat, gloves and boots.

The rain rolls in with fog making it pitch black out and very cold. Yamaharo lights the camp fire cooking up the raw meat from the dispatched dilo. The extra hide is in storage. “Interesting, I can refill my hide canteen with the rain,” he thinks after crafting one from the hide.

Later that night, he is awakened by the sound of something screaming in extreme pain and terror in the distance followed by a loud roar that echos off the cliff side across the bay. “Definitely very dangerous around here” he thinks. “I will need to find myself a more secure location in the morning.

[rpicardi1]

Chapter 9. Securing a base.

 

With Peggy, the Pegomax keeping him company all night, Yamaharo spends a sleepless night dreading an attack by something large unseen. “I will need to find some place sheltered up on the cliff among the boulders and build it from stronger materials,” he thinks. There is now access to wood foundations and walls. That will certainly help in building a stronger structure.

“A Bola and Parasaur saddle. Most interesting. I can tame a creature for riding.” Yamaharo has seen a wild Parasaur grazing nearby. They are a curious looking creature that don't represent any threat to him. He will try to tame one once he has secured a stronger location, then do some exploring to look for any other survivors.

A suitable location for the stronger camp is located on a nearby cliff by the bay. Yamaharo starts clearing the spot placing down a 2x2 foundation of wood, then adding the walls, ceiling, porch, a spawn bed, storage crates and firepit. Several Dodo birds bite the dust as he hunts them for their much needed hide. Experimenting with the slingshot shows that they can be knocked out and tamed. He does so with some of the hens and brings them back to his new camp where they provide him with eggs for food.

Armed with a bola and stones for the slingshot, Yamaharo goes looking for the Parasaur he has seen nearby on the sand point. He has crafted a saddle for one and is quite curious to see what it is going to be like using one as a mount. He finds her on the point and uses the bola to snare her legs. With several stones to the head, she is knocked out. Placing the berries in her inventory he finds that she prefers the Mejoberries as the taming bar progresses and the unconscious one goes down.

“I got a problem,” he thinks. “She is going to wake up before she is tamed. Oh, the narcoberries. Lets see if they will keep her out. Yes, there is a remote use item to force her to eat them. Good, that is working. She is remaining unconscious. With the game settings at 4X, the female Parasaur is soon tamed and awake.

“You're quite a baby doll,” he tells her as he places the saddle on the now tamed parasaur.

Riding her, he quickly learns how to control her to harvest berries, wood, and thatch. Like the Pegomax and the Dodos, he can level her up for stamina, weight, health, etc... She is such a dream to ride that he ends up naming her Baby Doll.

Taking her around the bay to the West, Yamaharo decides to do some exploration with Baby Doll. There is a game trail heading up a hill that he takes with her. He promptly runs into a pair of dilos that ambush him. “Damn you little bastards,” as he jumps off spearing both of them to death. Baby Doll is blinded for several minutes by the spit but soon recovers. He leads her back to his camp.

“I'd better build a pen to protect you,” he thinks. “But you won't fit through a door. Oh well, I can use wood walls until I can get a gate built.”

Next on the crafting list Yamaharo gets the bow and arrows. “Excellent, a ranged weapon to take out those spitters and little thieves at range before they can threaten me and Baby Doll. Perhaps even something bigger. Good, I can now make that big wood gate. There is a raft too. That would allow me to explore the shoreline in safety. So much stuff to make. I need a lot more hide if I want to use a raft. A lot of wood. Too much to carry in one trip. I can pack the wood on Baby Doll and take it to the bay, then build the raft there.”

Yamaharo proceeds to complete the pen with a gate as late afternoon approaches. He has managed to craft up a bow and 50 arrows. Interesting, he finds that the round rocks by his camp are giving several metal along with lots of flint and stone. “There must be a use for this metal ore,” he thinks as he places it in storage. He finds that the spoiled meat and narcoberries can be combined to create Narcs and the stimm berries with sparkpowder to make stimms.

Yamaharo has noticed that there are several places where the loot crates descend from the sky. “Where do they come from?” he wonders. “Who is responsible for them? Are they responsible for this strange gem implanted in my wrist? Did they bring me here to this strange world to be part of some grand experiment of survival? Is anyone else on this strange world with me? I will need to get that raft built, take Baby Doll with me, and go exploring the shoreline in spite of the dangers present. Maybe, I should wait until I get a stronger mount, something built like a tank. Can that trike I saw in the trees nearby be tamed for my use? Yes, I can craft a saddle for one”

Taking a Bola, slingshot, narcs, mejoberries, and his bow and arrow for protection, Yamaharo head off to where the Trike is.

“Oh! Big Mistake,” he says when the Bola fails to snare the trike and it charges after him. “He's really pissed off,” as he ducks around the boulder bouncing stones off his hard head staying out of his reach. Committed to the tame attempt, Yamaharo continues bouncing stones off the Trike's head until one finally knocks him out.

The battle has brought him closer to his camp which is a good thing given that evening is approaching. He sets up torches as he places the berries with narcs ready for a long tame. Some wild Pegomaxes show up which quickly fall victim to the stone arrows. “Good, here is the hide I need for the raft and saddle,” he thinks as he takes out a Compy Gang that comes over to investigate.

A quick trip back to camp gets him a torch lit at the gate as well as spare berries and narcs from Baby Doll. “Stay here, I shall have a friend for you soon,” he tells her.

Back at the Trike, the taming process is going well but is taking a lot longer then it did with the Parasaur. “Must have something to do with the level and being a Trike,” he thinks. “If this guy is like a tank, I should be able to use him to defend against the larger carnivores out there.”

Close to midnight, the tame is complete with Mike the Trike joining the team. “You are definitely a tank,” Yamaharo says as he uses Mike to tear out the trees and bushes nearby before riding him back to the pen. “I'll take you out for exploring in the morning before I build that raft.”

Before retiring for the night, some 20 tranc arrows get crafted from the narcoberries Mike has collected and the spoiled meat from the compys. “This should make a difference in knocking out threats at range” he thinks.

A lot of work is done that day with all the construction, taming a Parasaur and Trike, and building a more secure camp for him and his three pets. They all get a good night's rest.

[rpicardi1]

Chapter 10 Day three on Ark. Exploration.

 

Mike is saddled up to continue the exploration to the game path where Yamaharo was forced to turn back due to a dilo ambush. Armed with the bow and arrows, he feels much more prepared to face the dangers beyond.

Another pair of dilos are out hunting the game trail but wisely stay away from Mike as he lumbers up the path to the plateau above atop the Footpaw. “Wow, The Red Obelisk just floats above the terrain it resides over. It is much further away then I though it would be,” thinks Yamaharo. “There's another over that snow capped mountain to the North that is blue. A green one is to the East.” I will have to go check over the red one when I get the raft built.”

Finished with the exploration of the plateau, Yamaharo gathers up the wood needed to craft the raft, storing it on Mike, then crafts up the raft. He places it in the inlet and rides Mike onto it to see if the raft can transport him. Finding that Mike fits just fine in the front, Yamaharo sails it around the sand point back to his camp. With a spare bed and storage boxes of extra items on board, Yamaharo sails across the bay to the East. “I need to get up on that high point of the hill for a better view.” he thinks.

With no game trail from the beach where he lands, Yamaharo has to find a way up past the boulders of the jungle to the clearing above. “Not fun,” he thinks. “Too many places for danger to be hiding here.”

In the clearing, he can see the hill he wants to head to. But, there is a lot of activity in the area. Along with wild Trikes and Parasaurs, he can see raptors and a carno preying on the smaller creatures in the area. There is also a fierce bird like creature with huge claw hands forging on the berries. Some strange looking horse like creatures are grazing nearby. “Better be careful and stay away from them as I head for the peak,” he thinks.

A raptor decides to press his luck and comes charging at Mike. It gets speared and thrown into a nearby boulder. Yamaharo gets off to harvest the raptor but is jumped by a pair of Troogons hiding in the tall grass. He spears one of them but gets bitten by the second. “Oh No, that bite is poisonous. Stimms, Stimms.” he says as he fights off the effect of the bite killing the second Troogon. Thankfully, he has a full waterskin with him to counteract the dehydrating effect of the stimms.

Getting back on Mike, he spots a third Troogon and kills it with his bow and arrow. Feeling better, he continues up the hill reaching the top where there is a stone structure in ruins. “So, someone else has been here in the past,” he thinks as he stays mounted on Mike.

The view from there is excellent. To the North, he can see the Redwood Forest and swamp in detail. Several large creatures can be seen grazing in the area. One is especially huge that he names it Godzilla, it looks so much like that fantasy creature of his childhood. The slope down below is loaded with other creatures several of which looks quite dangerous as he watched them tear up a grazing animal. “I'm not going down there even with Mike,” he thinks.

The boulders on the hill are most interesting in color. With a metal pick he had retrieved from the dead raptor, he finds he can get mostly metal ore from one. Not wanting to be overburdened, he only takes some of the metal ore, then focuses his attention on the crystal rock nearby. “Excellent, I can now craft a spotting scope,” as he harvest the raw crystal formation.

Suddenly, Mike is spearing at the sky with his horns at something unseen. Yamaharo grabs his spear as giant ants appear and kills them. Then, he goes help out Mike who has stabbed some flying ones. “Damn, their bite is poisonous as well as he finds Mike getting sleepy.” A couple of stimm berries soon has Mike fully awake.

Sorting out the weight issue, Yamaharo drops everything except his weapons, the crystal, the chitin from the bugs, hide, and the metal ore. “Better head back to the raft,” he tells Mike as he gets back on for the trip back.

Before they can reach the safety of the beach, a Carno comes charging out of the jungle after them. “Better attack it given that we can't outrun it,” he thinks. He urges Mike into a head on charge as he fires arrows at the oncoming carno. Mike is running with such force that the carno gets impaled onto his horns. The carno, screaming in pain, is pushed into the boulder as Yamaharo uses his spear to finish it off. “Good Job,” he tells Mike. “Baby Doll and I would have never survived that. You are well worth the effort of taming you to use as a tank.”

Back at the beach, Yamaharo spots a crock like creature in the water near the raft fishing in the bay. “Lets get on the raft and out of here before we have to fight that,” he tells Mike. They get back to the camp by late afternoon.

The day's adventure has been quite productive. Yamaharo has gathered crystal, a rare resource, up on a peak where there was some old ruins. He has also gathered Chitin from the bugs, got a metal pick from the raptor Mike killed, lots of hide, has survived an attack by the Troogons, and got several level ups that will allow him to build a refining forge, the Smithy, and metal weapons from the metal ore he has gathered before and brought back on Mike. And, he has learned just how dangerous this Land of the Lost really is when one heads inland.

Before the end of the day, a refining forge is built and stocked with metal ore and wood. The first five refined metal go into constructing the Smithy. He takes both Mike and Baby Doll to the end of the inlet to harvest the round boulders for more metal ore saving the stone and flint for spark powder. He walks back to the base with the two tames following after having packed them with the harvested materials.

“You two deserved a well earned rest,” he tells them as they are unloaded and unsaddled for the night.

 

Ark gameplay of Yamaharo. While I did not take the trike up the hill to the East across from the bay, I did run into the creatures described while on foot on that trip. The small hill top closer to the south end has metal nodes. To the North is the much taller hilltop with part of a stone ruin. It has a good view of the area including down the slope to the swamp and Redwood Forest. Metal and crystal nodes are nearby along with those pesky ants. The slope is inhabited by raptors, carnos, packs of Troodons, scorpions, and an occasional Rex. The big claw bird and horse like creatures are also nearby. Note that this is the only location in the South other then in caves where there is crystal available to harvest. The only other source will be the mountain peak to the North, or along the ice pack in the Northwest. For pets, I do have Baby Doll and a Trike. The Bronto was forced tamed to keep her from stomping everything down in the area. I do have the crock like fish eater as he was threatening the camp when he came across from the bay. They only eat fish. No Spinos so far. There is a Pteradon for flying recon which Yamaharo will obtain soon.

The camp area of Footpaw Point has mostly Dodos, dilos, and Petromax with some parasaurs, Trikes, and other smaller non threatening creatures. The thieving Petromaxes are very tough to kill but are easily dropped with a tranc arrow. Tribolites are proving to be very rare in the area as well as all over the southern beach area. Default mode of the game is actually playing 2X, so I am getting 8 stones from the single ones on the beach at my 4X settings.

[rpicardi1]

Stupid Windows 10 fouled up with a system image restore during an upgrade to the SSD. Cloning was a failure so resorted to the system image. It installed on the hard drive instead of the new SSD wiping out a bunch of files that were not backed up. So, I am back to rewriting Yamaharo getting his flyer and Baranox. I will be adding the new creatures into the story. So far, no Equus have shown up in either camp. Just having to deal with a Hospice situation the past couple of months as well as my sister having to deal with her hubby of 25 years walking out on her to go back with his Ex.

I will get the story finished once things settle down.

[rpicardi1]

Am working on two stories at once;

Chapter 11. Day 4 on Ark, A lot of crafting and new tames.

 

It is early morning when Yamaharo wakes up with his Petromax pestering him for attention. “You're not going to let me sleep in,” he tells her as he gets up to check on the refining forge. “Good, all the metal has been processed. I can get those upgrade tools made.”

In short order, Yamaharo has another metal pick, a hatchet, the pike, and a crossbow. A spotting scope is also crafted. “Wow, this spotting scope is amazing!” he thinks after trying it out. “It gives me information on any creature I spot with it.”

“It might be a good idea to reinforce my pen with stone given that there are Carnos around.” he thinks. “Also that Baryonyx is fishing at the end of the bay that could be a threat. I'll take the raft up the coast to where there are more boulders, stone, wood, and thatch that I can get to craft stone walls.”

Leaving his tames back in the wood pen, Yamaharo heads West to harvest the resources along the beach and crafts up stone walls. Armed with the crossbow and narc arrows, it is an easy matter to drop the Dilos and wild pegomaxes that attempt to pester him.

It is nearly noon when Yamaharo is running out of tranc arrows. “I have the spoiled meat he thinks but I need narcoberries. Time to head back to camp, place down the stone walls I have, and take Mike out for more narcoberries. Also, my metal ax is wearing out.”

The crafting from the morning has brought him up past Level 30 so a sickle is crafted to make fiber gathering much easier. Mike is taken out to gather narcoberries that craft up another 50 narc arrows plus a spare 20 narcs for future taming. Then, it is back East to gather more stone and wood for a gate and more wall sections.

Level 35 is soon reached as Yamaharo works gathering materials to finish reinforcing the pen to protect his tames. “Interesting,” he thinks. “I can craft a saddle for a flying creature. It will feel so good to get back in the air again even if it is on a flying creature. It will give me a good chance to explore this strange world in relative safety from the dangerous creatures inland.”

Yamaharo has seen pteradons around his camp. With his spotting scope, he has selected several candidates for taming. It is early evening when he gets back to camp and is ready to tame one.

Armed with a bola and tranc arrows on his crossbow, he finds a suitable prospect that has landed on the beach to rest from fishing. He quickly snares its legs with the bola. One tranc arrow to the head and this mid level pteradon drops after it struggles for three seconds trying to fly away.

Before it gets dark, the rest of the pen is reinforced in stone. A pair of torches are set up around the unconscious pteradon in preparation for an all night event. Dilos have shown up for an easy meal that soon fall victim to a tranc arrow instead. “More then enough meat for taming and hide for the saddle. Hopefully, I will have enough trancs to complete the tame of this girl.”

With Mike nearby for security, Yamaharo sets up the torches in preparation for the all night tame. It is complete just before early morning. She gets the name of Patty.

A landing pad is built on top of the hut in the pen. A storage crate is added so that Yamaharo can unload everything he doesn't absolutely need while flying. That is because pteras have low carry weight and now get tired quickly when close to being encumbered.

At dawn, Yamaharo saddles her up and takes his first flight. “This is a vast place,” he thinks as he does a survey of the Southpaw area. “Lets set a course for the crystal peak. Excellent, I can fly over the dangerous slopes out of reach of the predators below.”

Reaching the peak, Yamaharo needs to land so Patty can recover her stamina. Aware of her limited weight carrying capacity, he only harvest 20 pounds of crystal. “I'll need to level you up for weight and stamina if I want to use you for getting rare resources from the peaks,” he thinks. With two level ups for weight and stamina, he finds the trip back a bit easier for her.

Coming back to the pen, he sees that the Baranox, that was down in the inlet, has found his camp. It is just curious about the pen posing no threat for now. Yamaharo lands in the pen.

Armed with a bola, tranc arrows in the crossbow, and fish and narc, Yamaharo heads out the back door. With the bola ready, he walks around the pen and is face to face with the Baranox. Immobilized by the bola, it takes three tranc arrows to the head to drop this bug crock like lizard. Berry is soon added to the growing army of tames in his stable.

“You make a good recon mount,” Yamaharo tells Berry as he gives him a good workout. He finds the Baranox to be an excellent swimmer, fast on the land, has good carry weight, and has the ability to tear up any threat equal to his size with ease. He only eats fish which is not an issue as there are plenty of them in the cut for him to harvest.

With the pen getting crowded, an addition is soon added to it before dark. “I will plan to further explore this strange island in the morning,” he says to himself. “I will either find that I am alone, or that there are others on this island with me.”

 

Gameplay actually has a wild Baranox come snooping around my wood barn. It was tranced and tamed to join the trike, Parasaur, and Pteradon. A bigger pen was built to protect them.

[rpicardi1]

With the new tech tier, the display, and new creatures, I will be updating the first 11 chapters to reflect those changes.

I am still working on the Thieves Island story as well.

[rpicardi1]

Chapter 12, Day 5 on Ark

 

Today's objective for Yamaharo will be to explore to the West to the Red Obelisk. The raft is prepared with spare supplies and a spawn bed just in case. Barry, the Baranox is going to ride on the raft with him.

With the pistol and ammo on the crafting list, Yamaharo crafts up a primitive pistol and 40 rounds in the Smithy. “Excellent,” he thinks. “a close in weapon in case I have to defend myself from any Americans stationed on this strange island.”

His next levelup gets the Longneck Rifle and ammo. “Drat, not enough metal for this or the ammo,” he says. “I need to find a lot more metal ore in those round rocks.”

Setting sail West, he finds more of the round river rock blocking a stream heading inland. Parking the raft with Berry on guard, another 200 pounds of metal ore is gathered and stored on the raft. With a mortise and pestle on the raft, several stacks of sparkpowder are crafted. “Good thing I packed a spare metal pick,” he thinks. “I've just about wore this one out.”

Meanwhile, Barry has gone fishing in the stream for coe. He has also taken out some spitters that came snooping around and finished off some Pegomaxes that Yamaharo drops with a tranc arrow.

“Come here,” he orders Barry as he spots a Spino fishing just beyond the remaining boulders in the stream. “You don't want to tangle with that.”

Getting back on the raft, they set sail through the cut separating Crag's Island from the mainland. “Such a pretty waterfalls,” he thinks as they sail past it.

As they continue West, they find a cut leading into a pond where the Red Obelisk floats over a stone formation in the middle. There is a stone ramp heading up to it from the water. Yamaharo parks the raft there.

Getting on Berry, he rides up the ramp to the top where he sees a strange sight. There are twisted metal structures encircling what looks like a platform with an alter in the center. A red beam of light, the size of a pencil, seems to originate from it heading vertically through the floating obelisk and way beyond into the sky. Static discharges crackle inside the Obelisk which makes a strange alien humming of some sort of unknown machinery.

Getting off Barry, Yamaharo access the alter at the base. “Place tributes to access,” it says. “What the heck are the tributes? Where do I find them? What do they do?” His thoughts are interrupted by Barry who sounds a warning hiss at something running up the ramp.

“Raptors,” warns Yamaharo as he empties his pistol into one as Berry attacks the other killing it. “Damn, this pea shooter has no hitting power. It took an entire eight round clip to drop that low level raptor. I do hope the Long Neck Rifle is worth the materials to make it.”

Back on the raft, Yamaharo sets sail West, then heads North along the West Shore. At noon, they set sail past a sand point lined with palms and boulders. A Bronto is grazing on the tall palms with Dodos nearby. Continuing on a bluff comes into view with another waterfalls. Some wild Parasaurs are grazing in the area. A Chalicotherium is seen grazing with them. “What a strange looking horse,” he thinks.

“What a strange place this is.” as he continues North and sees a glacier with icebergs that forms a contrast with the jungle shoreline. “This can't be anywhere in the South Pacific.” Then, it suddenly gets brutally cold. Yamaharo turns the raft around as a snowstorm roars in.

Lighting the fire pit on the raft, Yamaharo can get some warmth from the fire as the snow changes over to rain, then blinding fog.

Sailing blind, Yamaharo continues South not realizing that he is continuing to drift West. Wham! The raft bounces off something on his right. He stops to check out what happened as the rain ends with the fog lifting.

To the right against the raft is this strange white shimmering net that stretches on forever. He can see beyond it, but it feels solid. “Some sort of a barrier,” he thinks. The jungle island setting. An Arctic environment next to it. Those strange floating Obelisk. These living prehistoric creatures. This is truly a land of the lost with no escape by sea.” As he has drifted way off course, he turns the raft Southeast towards Crag's Island.

With the sun going down, it is obvious that he is not going to make it back before dark. “I'd better sail around the island instead of through the cut. I don't want to run into that Spino fishing there after dark.” The fire is put out and a standing torch lit as darkness falls. Fortunately, the clouds clear off as the moon comes out. It makes it easier to see Crag's Island as he sails around it.

On its Southern Shore, Yamaharo notices something huge outlined in the moonlit sky. It moves towards them as he turns the raft out to sea. “Godzilla!” he thinks in alarm as the Titanasaur, attracted by the standing torch comes into the water after him. Then, there is a huge splash as the Titanasaur steps off the underwater ledge and sinks to the bottom. “That can't be Godzilla. This thing couldn't swim at all.” With the threat over, Yamaharo continues on course around the island heading back to his base.

It is nearly midnight when Yamaharo arrives back at his base. He places the metal ore into the Refining Forge and light the fire. “A most interesting day,” he thinks as he checks on his other tames and retires for the night.