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[mathwiz617]

Spoiler: Preface

I've been hankering for a few things for a while now: a clear goal, classic combat, and the chance to role-play a bit. As such, I've loaded up Infinity Evolved, created an amplified world, set it to expert mode, and began to play. This thread will be a museum of sorts... a testament to my (lacking) creativity, (minimal) ability to concentrate on one task, and (untested) ability to pretend I'm someone else (a female dwarf, in this case). As always, my pictures will be in spoilers.

So... where do I begin? My name is Chert Goldstone. Rather, it was Chert Goldstone, but now it's just Chert. I'm a dwarf without a family, kicked out for public sobriety. Shameful, they said.

Bah! I'll show them! Me and my healthy liver will create an even greater kingdom, the likes of which no dwarf has seen before.

First steps first, though... Shout a hearty "Hi-ho" and dig a hole. I found a nice mountain, now I just need to make it my home.

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Yes, this will do nicely. Despite the strange purple grass, or perhaps because of it, monsters don't appear nearby at night. That'll be good.

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I found some pumpkins in a nearby field and stuck torches in them. I'll swap them out later for some of that glowing rock the deep miners found back home. Maybe lava, actually. Lava is fun.

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Now that's unexpected. I heard tell of magic-imbued stone, but I had never seen it myself. Unfortunately, dwarves are incorrigibly magic-proof. It's in my way, so I'll mine it, but I don't think I'll be doing anything with it anytime soon.

 

[mathwiz617]

Spoiler

Progress! Dredging the nearby river for clay, and cannibalizing the desert on the other side, got me this coke oven. I used the design from Grandpa's railroad days. After some wait, I produced enough creosote to make my first forge hammer, which then helped me make a bucket.

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A lucky glance showed me a slime island embedded in a mountain nearby. I "harvested" the "trees" there to build this safe-fall platform, allowing me to jump from the surface down to sea level. Finally, no more tripping and falling down the stairway because I'm lightheaded due to the thin air!

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I realized quickly that I would need food and other organic materials eventually. I'll need to expand this over time, but it's a start.

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And, of course, what's a dwarf without her workshop? Lava on the left, emergency stew on the right, just like Mama taught me. Don't want to starve while working.

 

[mathwiz617]

Hello there, readers! As you may notice, this is a different colored text, indicating a different narrator. Black text is from Chert, who is unaware of the reality of her world. This blue text is me, Agenos, this land's "guardian angel". I am one of few know the true nature of this place. I used to be all-powerful, but that power has faded over the years, drained by my rival, Dianek. These days, the best I can muster is conjuring torches and stone, or flying. I can also move stuff from chest to chest.

Anyhow, Chert getting banished was a big boon for me. She, and others that will join her, will restore my power, slowly but surely. I'll support her when and where I can. For example...

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I found this place earlier. While Chert got a basic smeltery running, I picked a piece of dark steel out of here to make her a new pickaxe and delivered it to her workshop.

Huh, that was strange, I found a random ingot of highly malleable metal lying around. Well, I was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, as humans say. My stone pickaxe just wasn't cutting it any more, so I cooked up a slime crystal, combined some water and lava, and bent the ingot into shape. Presto, a brand new pickaxe! I used the leftovers for a sword, and scraped some cave moss off the walls to put onto my pick. Apparently, that'll repair it automagically.

I've taken to standing outside at night and staring across the river. I'm trying to piss off some endermen; I need a blast furnace if I want to do any proper metallurgy.

Spoiler: A few hours later

Got it! Eventually I gave up on endermen and used TNT instead. This furnace is still rather crude, I'll have to upgrade it eventually.

 

[mathwiz617]

In my name, I've been busy! I managed to light up a large amount of the nearby caves, nearly getting lost in the process.

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Really, though, can you blame me? While Chert was busy exploring that mess for as long as her food let her, I felt some power return. I guess she found her first diamonds. Using this re-found might, I can materialize decorations, break simple blocks, and dye wool. I quickly put this to the test:

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I also... redistributed... some seeds from a nearby village.

Strange, but helpful. I came back from a caving trip to see a glowing figure clearing a room in my mountain. Eh, I'll let it do what it wants, as long as it's being helpful. More worrying right now is the stranger that arrived today: an elf named Aspen. I gave him this new room with the understanding that he put it to good use. I'll let him write in this journal as well.

I don't like it here. I miss the forest, with its towering trees and lush undergrowth. I pine for the sound of birdsong instead of bubbling lava. Well, such is the life of an adventurer. I heard tell of a growing city with great ambition... I found a solitary dwarf instead. However, it looks like she's in over her head, and I'm not one to dismiss a damsel in distress. Especially not one who has food to spare. I'm sure that, together, we will find a way to overcome our differences and become a dominant force in the world around us.

Also, I'm a lone elf in dwarf country. I have to present a good face.

 

[mathwiz617]

Aspen took that room and made it into a farm. He was in there for hours, just watching his crops grow. I told him that we needed rubber from tree resin, and he got pretty upset. I take it to be because there weren't any rubber trees within our biome. After a shouting match, he stormed off in a huff, saying that he'll just go find some. Fine by me, I was just planning ahead.

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While he was gone, I tinkered with some machines. The steam engines were acquired... Well, I stole them from a nearby village. They won't mind, they never do. Everything else I built by hand, using most of my gold on that thermionic whatchamachiger. I also used a handful of diamonds to make a pair of world interaction upgrades. One for water...

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One for cobblestone. I don't want to rely on that shiny flying thing to supply me forever, nor do I want to excavate the entire mountain by hand.

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Once the elf got back, with rubber saplings in hand, I managed to get some more advanced machines running. This'll greatly help keep my ever-dwindling iron supply from running out too quickly. Power quickly became an issue, so I had to expand.

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That's better. A trio of waterwheels keeps the juice flowing, and the out-of-picture rock crusher processed some obsidian for me. I now have the basic suite of dwarven machines. I removed the steam engines, they were wasting coal at this point.

I feel bad. Not only does this world not compare to Alfhiem, to which I have little hope of returning, but Chert basically kicked me out. She told me not to come back without something useful. Well, she seemed to accept those saplings as useful, but she's still fuming. While I was exploring, I found some shiny pebbles in a rather ominous structure. Maybe those will smooth the mood.

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Yep, they most certainly did. She even hugged me. Apparently, this is iridium, one of the rarest materials around. So rare, in fact, that whole dwarven civilizations rise and fall over just a few pieces. Huh. Well, I have permission to stay as long as I like now.

Rare!? Diamonds are rare, iridium is darn near impossible to find! What's more, he found enough shards for two pieces of ore. I'll have to find Aspen a suitable gift in return. A wandering merchant arrived earlier, and I bought a strange book from him for a few gold nuggets. I wonder if that'll do.

 

[mathwiz617]

Spoiler: A note

Sorry about the upcoming text color, especially for the colorblind. There's only so many colors to chose from.

I've been to hell and back today.

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Literally. I managed to connect to an old, abandoned deep miner's outpost. I collected a vein of quartz, a bit of glowstone, and a handful of hell-rock, then quickly returned home. The majority of that is going into storage, but the rock got turned into brick. Next up on my to-do list is more efficient ore processing, so first came...

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The magma crucible! I melted some redstone, mixed that with copper and silver, and got the signalum I'm holding. Using that, I made a few capacitors, then an advanced circuit, then a laser.

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Out of that laser, I made this thermal centrifuge. I also took a bunch of iron and made an ore washer. As you can see above, I processed some uranium already. Had to ask Aspen for some orange dye for my hazmat suit, but it'll be worth it later. I guess those flowers he's growing are useful.

I perused the book that Chert gave me. It's the Lexica Botania, an ancient manual of elven magic. I've forgotten most of this practice in my time here, so it's a good refresher. It even mentions a way to contact home! I've been growing the seeds that keep appearing in my room, among which are the sixteen colors of magical flowers. I've been ranking the resulting seeds based on growth time, produce amount, and weed resistance. I think the beets and wheat are as good as they can get, and the yellow flowers are getting close.

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I brought a few things outside today. It wasn't long before a wandering human noticed my activity.

I noticed a few things missing from my mom's house yesterday. I thought this elf took them, judging by the magical flowers he was tending to; I knew something was weird about those seeds! Turns out, a big glowing... thing had taken them and given them to the elf, Aspen. He said that these were the diving-in point to ancient magics.

Aspen brought another stranger down to meet me. This human woman, Verdant, wants to learn magic. I said she could stay, as long as she doesn't break any machines. Aspen told her that the magic he was dabbling in was primal, attuned to nature itself. Humans apparently can't use that easily, so she'd have to come up with her own brand.

Well, I can do that! I heard that the forces of nature could reveal the secrets of the arcane. Maybe if I look through a magic lens, I can see what everything really is. Hmm, I should send a letter home. I hope my family isn't worried. I'll be staying here for a while, I think.

 

[mathwiz617]

Spoiler: Umm... problem

I have a bit of an issue with the assembly table now. Here's what I have in it...

There's no recipe registering. Here's the same thing in NEI...

And to prove I'm still in expert mode, here's a log in a crafting bench.

I've tried reloading the scripts, relaunching the game, remaking the ingredients, and breaking/replacing the table. Any ideas?

EDIT: Cheating in the circuit board is what broke it. That was the one ingredient I didn't remake. A fresh one out of the carpenter works fine.

 

[mathwiz617]

The three of us been busy since Verdant arrived. I least of all... I spent most of this time tending to my crops. I borrowed some steel from Chert to make a watering can, which I imbued with a mixture of kiwi, corn, and beet seeds. I know it doesn't sound too magical, but it really does help stuff grow faster.

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I'm on a roll! I got lucky with the pulverizer and got some platinum dust. I made a glacial precipitator to get some snow, and the pulverizer is now resonant, with maximum chance for extra stuff. I'll have to go mining again soon, as I'm completely out of redstone, but that's a small price to pay for progress. Oh, I also upgraded the power storage to a hardened energy cell and an MFE, and made a few more lasers. One diamond left in storage, so I'll have to keep an eye out for those too. Made myself a fancy hammer, so mining won't be too bad.

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I might be going a bit nuts. I made that magical lens, and started giving everything a good look with it. First the basic stuff, then Aspen's watering can, then the mushrooms outside. Eventually, Chert found me going through storage, looking at each and every item. She gave me a look, then told me a package had arrived from my village. It contained a cutting of the Guardian Tree, a blank diary, and some money. At least, I thought the diary was blank. When I turned my lens towards it, some writing appeared, clearly not written by anyone I know.

Oh, yeah, the Guardian Tree is a sacred tree in the middle of my village. It's supposed to ward off evil spirits, so my mom sent that cutting hoping that it could do the same for me. The book identified it as a greatwood tree; magical, but only slightly. Eh, I planted it anyway. Aspen's flowers wilted, so I told him about that, then started studying my book.

Huh. Busy, busy, busy. I can feel my power growing as they progress. With a little practice, I think I could heal any illness, even that caused by holding enriched uranium with bare hands. CHERT. I spent a good chunk of energy materializing a pair of pure cereus quartz crystals. That took me sixteen hours, but only a small part of my attention. The rest was spent "inspiring" Verdant. While she sat reading the Thaumonomicon, I took her thaumometer and flew around the world gathering knowledge that even I had forgotten. I also picked up some tribute from various villages I found (Read: broke into houses, took their stuff). Might have attracted a few followers, too (Read: kidnapped some villagers). I have grand plans for them (Read: breed a bunch, spawn golems. Melt down golems and any excess villagers.)