Technic VeeTech: Hillfall & turtle boss castle

 7/6/2020 Technic VeeTech

Well, you never know where your next little adventure might be.  I did a lunch-break visit, checked the map for bases I had not visited in a while, and picked Two Pits on the rail line from Cathedral to Cayuga Lake.  It's just two battle tower pits, a rail stop, and a shack made out of maloberry bushes (talk about self-sufficient...).  I never developed anything there.  But I figured I had a few minutes, let's see how many levels deep they go and maybe setup some barracks here.  6 levels deep.  I know I can fit 3 small bedrooms per level or 4 beds if I skip the walls.  But the bottom level opened up above a chasm, so I figured why not, maybe the people who bunk here in the future can be miners.

At the bottom of the chasm was a vanilla dungeon.  Easy enough.  Then there was an odd cobblestone corner sticking out with mob sounds inside.  One of those BetterDungeons features with the 8-10 rooms full of mobs.  This time it was specters.  Easy enough to clear these with a legia bow, just put a fence post in front of each door, open door, clear mobs.  On normal difficulty, zombie can crack a door but can't break it.  Specters can open them though.  Oops.  Back to my plan with the fence posts.

This time, I left all chests and decorations as-is.  So, poof, I have my miner's barracks without having to build anything.  There are about 10 beds, 6 furnaces, 8 crafting tables, 10 chests, some pumpkins & melons, and a bunch of paintings.  More stuff than I would have thought to build into my quick little rooms.  I will just redo the walls so there is one main hallway with rooms on each side, no more annoying maze of which doors go where.

quick visit: the new base is called Gabbro, and I ran a ladder directly up to the surface.  Easier to just walk to that new shack and go down than to do 7 flights of stairs and run to the end of the chasm looking for it.  Knocked out a main pathway 3 wide and two cross paths, tiled those with marble cobble.  At one point that exposed a lave block spreading out, so there's a glass floor there now for free geo lighting.

10pm: I did some exploring.  Moved the Mystcraft book to get to Rainbow Colony in between the Fossils mod machine blocks that find the DNA.  Then I scanned the map for something new to do, and recalled one of those massive castles with the turtle boss at the edge of the explored world.  I guess I've done this a few times too many ... I cut into the side and took out the redstone connecting all those arrow dispensers, then took out the turtle while still in its pool from a small hole in the wall.  I scaled the walls a bit and just happened to pick through into the throne room.  Seal entrances, pick off foes with legia bow, clear the rooms, move on.  I cleared the main hall, dining room, and put a waypoint in the kitchen.  Will continue that siege later.  I saw a nearby village and hike over.  Turned out it was called Hillfall and pretty much spilled over the side of a hill.  Big village.  Linked it back to my village hub, went back to Cathedral for some emeralds, came back and traded for some plum saplings and ebony wood.


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7/7/2020 Technic VeeTech

I did a quick census of Hillfall, then went to finish sacking the turtle boss castle about 150 blocks away.

Loot at the top of the tower: gold sword, chain helmet (resp II), chain helm, chain leggings (fire prot III), 2 chain boots, iron boots (prot III), block of gold, 10 Fe, 5 Cu, 5 Sn, 18 D, 16 RS, disc "mellohi", cactus cloth helm, fur cloth leggings (prot I, thorns III), fur cloth leggings (blast prot III), magic mirror, 5 Al, 5 electirc grenade, water staff, 3 phoenix feathers, 10 ender eyes, disc "chirp", disc "mall", 5 golden apples.  Other loot of note: chain chestplate (prot IV, blast prot III), iron leggings (fire prot IV, blast prot I, proj prot IV), chain boots (blast prot IV), reinforced bow, iron boots (prot III, fire prot II), diamond plated scale helmet, iron plated scale boots (prot IV, feather falling II), iron bow, chain chestplate (prot III), chain leggings (prot III), diamond plated scale chestplate, gold helmet (proj prot III, aqua affinity), chain helmet (fire prot IV).

Aside from those chests, and cutting out windows to let some fresh air in, I left all other chests, beds, crafting tables and furnaces in place.  The big work area in the middle is pretty impressive with its huge redstone lamp ceiling.


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7/8/2020 Technic VeeTech

Still exploring Hillfall ...

Town of Hillfall, seen from Downtown

It turns out that there's a Thaumcraft node over the obsidian altar, with moderate flux.  So this is a good spot for a wisp hunter to set up shop.

And when I went to dig a simple mine from Downtown, I first hit a really confused, broken-up abandoned mine, then a wall of cobble hiding a BetterDungeons box dungeon.  Cleared the dungeon and dug up to the surface with ladders, which came out a few blocks from the wheat farm.  I walled off some more territory and put a torch trail down to that old Autumn Woods base (which was totally empty and never used, I guess).