Caves and More Caves

Spawn was closer than I thought it would be. Yet again, the compass plays its magical tricks and the old house that’s far to the north of me is further away from north than I am. This makes no sense but there you have it. There are mapping programs for Minecraft and I keep looking at them but they seem intimidating: either way too complex for me to use or as if they will take weeks to work. One review of a map says, well, it took it four hours to generate my 20 MB world but then, that’s a big world. Oh. My worlds are around 90 MB each.

Still, I’m pleased that it’s not as far as I thought and I head back in good spirits, planning to build wayhouses along the route. I build one – my houses are getting as standardized as any cookie cutter development, which worries me a bit – and the next day I find myself in the zone of weird trees. I kind of want to build a house here but instead I go into a cave for the next three days or so.

It’s a good cave – it has the requisite waterfalls and lava pools and a couple of fabulous lavafalls as well. I get out 9 diamonds, which is wonderful and will yield me not only a diamond pick, which is invaluable, but a diamond hat as well. Bling out! I get a diamond hat! Yay me! Unfortunately, though, there is no lapis in this cave or at least no lapis that I find. The shortage of lapis is beginning to get on my nerves. Yellow flowers for yellow dye are everywhere. Red flowers are only slightly less available; bones to make pink are as a plague upon the earth and green cactus is easy enough in any sandy area. But blue? Blue is impossible. This is not only annoying; it’s historically inaccurate. Plant me some indigo, Notch! I need blue dye that’s not ridiculously difficult to obtain!

After the cave, I run on for a day or so and decide to build another wayhouse. I’m in a sort of grassy desert, what I call the prairie biome. That is to say, lots o’ grass, few trees, some yellow flowers and – that’s it. Lots of creepers. Oh yeah, lots of creepers. Creepers love the prairie even more than they love the thick forest. I build a tiny little square house out of what’s in my pockets, which is to say, some stone, some wool, some dirt and some glass. It’s not too terrible, although a bit cramped, but as the night wears on I realize that it’s going to have to have a second story.

Creepers can and will blow you up through a window. You have to see each other, though, so if you stand in a corner staring obdurately at the wall, they’ll just hiss and spit from outside. Woe betide the one who turns her head because the minute your gaze meets that steely green grin? You’re toast. Skeletons will shoot you right through your own front door given half a chance and we’ve already explored the tendency of spiders to climb onto your roof and down, down the stairs. Really, zombies are the only monsters with the proper respect for personal boundaries.

This wayhouse is located in the heart of monster territory. It’s funny how that works – some places just have more monsters than others. I stay and work on the wayhouse for three days and nearly die each morning. Finally I’m fed up and flee. I’ve abandoned nicer houses than this due to monster infestation and screw it. Just because I can get back from spawn now doesn’t mean I want to.