Bleakbane... Farms...? [Wet Stellar Bodies in a Depressed Geological Feature]

[Aotrs Commander]

Bad news, everyone! As Ponythread is so terribly quiet these days that, rather be start by double posting or waiting days, the fresh horror of a Bleakbane Plays (slash Watches slash Listens) is spilling out again into a thread of it's own (for only the second time after I did the TIE Fighter one).

You may commense rueing!



So, after watching Lanipator plays Stardew Valley for a few episodes, I finally cracked. I am REALLY BAD at finding some "casual time killing" when I have an hour or two to kill and little brain power spare (largely because I can't cope with casual games), but I figured I'd give it a shot, especially since between the current sale and Steam point discount it cost slightly under four quid. (So it only has to entertain for a few hours and it's paid for itself).

Because I am me, I did go mod searching first and have installed Stardew Valley Expanded (with improved farms) for More Stuff (and the Save Anywhere, because I REALLY HATE not being able to save anywhere, even if it'll only work on vanilla areas).

So, this will be likely an infrequent thing after the first gasp and thus the Plays Farms likely irregular, but it's a laugh innit.

(On the other hand, anyone familar with Bleakbane Plays/Farms/Watches/Listens will know that sheer bloody-mindedness means once I have the bit between my teeth, it will get methodically carried on to the bitter end, regardless of whether anyone actually listens or not... See also Bleakbane Catches Up With Naruto in that thread...)

I have only got up to about episode 20-odd of Lani's playthrough (so far), so I have a few ideas and intend to be a little more efficient, but most of it will be new (especially since mods), and I'm mostly going in blind-ish, without doing tons of min-max research like I usually do, because it is supposed to be a marginally relaxing game, innit?



So without further ado:



Part 1:

Spoiler

Show

So, first disappointment! No Bald option; apparently, Concerned Ape says, this is actually a technical limitation. (Yes, I know there's a mod, but sod that, I've got a big mod thing already.)

So, no Bleakbane (maybe a second pass. I mean, I gather there's like, a quasi-Evil playthrough if you side with Joja corp or something? Always do the Evil playthrough second, right?)

Instead, then, it will be the farm of Illyphase the Erinyes.

Illy is what you get if you take Basically Pinkie Pie, get her killed young and horrifically turned into an erinyes in the typically horrible way devils get made, spend the batter part of two hundred years in bitter conflict and rivalry with Aluria the Succubus, but form a strange relationship that eventually translates beyond that to a relationship that kind of doesn't get easily defined by the usual terms, but that directly results in both of them becoming redeemed at the climax of a really big adventure and them going off to Magical Paladins of the Love Goddess School in the United Concorde of Divine Realms. (She's, like, the Bow-slash-fire one, Luri is like, the sword-and-shield one.)

Only in this case, Illy decides to go to a farm for a bit first.

(Illy and Aluria make quite a pair, actually. Aluria is calm and controlled and serene but has some deep-seated impulse control issues and a wicked sense of humour (and a little bit of, well, let's just say, she IS a succubus), Illy is a cheerful bouncy girl-child that nevertheless can be extremely organised (like Pinkie Cave organised) and is actually way smarter than you think she is and also has a deep aversion for rule-breaking of almost Twilight-levels). To say they are... complicated might be understating it.)

Illy also really likes starships. (She has considerable taste, it must be admitted.) And kitties.

(And BattleMechs, as she and some of the other girls apparently did some moonlighting for the Arano Restoration, where she and Glitch got on like a house on fire and you'd think they sounded nearly identical or something.)



Illy, needing some time to decompress after serving a great Lawful Evil power for so long... WOW this is way kind of appropriate right? So, anyway, she gets a big farm from SantaGranpa and heads off to do Farm Things, woohoo!

Arriving at Stardew Valley, she is met by Robin, who has done huge amounts of work on the farm making it all neat and stuff - well, she fixed the stone bridge and tidied the back garden and repaired the fences and made a table and some chairs and a doghouse, which Illy thinks is cool even though she doesn't, like, have a dog yet and she's going to totally get a kitten, because kittens remind her of someone she knew or something.

Illy also meets Mayor Lewis (who I choose to believe is an older version of Linkara doing his old man voice because shut up).

Illy is provided with some tools (a watering can and a hoe and a pickaxe and an axe and a scythe and wow, Bleakbane is right, gardeners really DO get all the cool sharp things, yay! She then settles in and goes to bed, all ready to Do Farm Stuff in the morning!

Ooh, she gets presents! It's parsnip seeds. Well, parsnips are kind of okay, but it's a start, right!

Illy does a quick survey around the area...





So, first job! Clear a bit of path and find the water she can fill her watering can from (it's to the left) and clear a bit of space so she can hoe out some ground to plant her seeds!



Tiring work, but she has just enough energy left to gather enough wood to make a chest to store stuff in. Which she carefully places not too near the selling bin, to minimise any actual possible bog-ups. And to dump some of the stuff in.



Oooh! Oooh! She can paint it! Blue, then!

Wow, is it half-past five already? Well, time for a quick rush into town and see who's about!

Too late for shopping, but Illy meets Pierre and Caroline (in the shop) and in the bar Clint and Emily and Pam and Gus and Shane (he's not very nice and icky, screw that guy. (No, not literally, Shoulder!Aluria, hush!)). And Olivia outside.

Ooh, time for bed. Well, maybe after some TV! Ooooh, oracle channel!

Bedtime!



Letter! Some guy named Willy wants to meet Illy at the beach! (Shut UP, Shoulder!Aluria! That's not funny! ... Okay, it is a little funny.)

After watering the plants, Illy heads off to find the beach - clearing some grass and stuff with her doody scythe as she goes!

Illy pauses briefly to chase a butterfly and then meets Maru outside the store. Illy then elects to buy some seeds and spends nearly all the money she had left from paying Robin the 104k pennies to sort the farm; she'll have some beans and some tulips are pretty flowers and some cauliflowers which are not really flowers and best of all the only proper vegetable, tatties!

Illy chats with Pierre and Caroline and then spies Abigail, who has purple hair, like Illy! And wears blue, Like Illy! But isn't actually blue, like Illy, but you can't have everything, can you? Illy likes her immediately! (Shut up, Shoulder!Aluria that... Actually, no, continue... Oooh, yeah... Wait, what was Illy doing?)

Then Illy spies a piece of paper, and surreptitiously totally grabs in a reads it!

*gaaaaaaaasp*

That meanine Mr Morris is bringing Joja corp to Pelican Town and threatening nice Mr... Whatever Pierre's second name with going out of business and mocking him by offering him a post as Assistant Grocer for 5g an hour, which Illy now knows means a ten-hour day just to buy potato seeds!

Something must be done! And as this is Illyphase, not Pinkie pie, who would throw a "please don't run people out of business" party or something, it will probably involve violence, because Illy both likes and is good at violence, especially for a good cause and in aid of people who both do not like and are bad at violence. Illy will have his balls for a necktie or perhaps use that nice scythe on his internal organs.

Later, though, beach first!

Oh, hello, Granny Evelyn! Actually, Illy is older than you probably, but you look good for your age!

Oh, hello there, Alex.

...

Illy doesn't think he looks like an Alex. Maybe a mundane Alex-short-for-Alexander, but he doesn't look nearly awesome enough to be an Alex-not-short-for-anything and probably doesn't like starships nearly enough. (Illy believes starships are very important, because Illy is, frankly, a young lady of great taste and discrimination and probably entirely correct about this "Alex-short-for-Alexander".)

Ooh, doggy!

Not as good as a kitty, obviously.

Hi, Mayor Linkara!

Victor is staring a grave, so much so he doesn't even notice Illy. (This further proves Alex-short-for-Alexander is clearly lame, since he's not even in the graveyard! He'll clearly never be a necromancer!)

*gasp*

A museum! Museums are cool, especially if they are starship museums!

*gaaaaasp!*

Gunther tells Illy that the last curator ran off with all the mineral exhibits! Illy determines to a) supply the museum with more pretty rocks and b) find the old curator and bury them in a shallow grave. In several pieces. Looks like Illy is going need more sharp objects.

Hi Vincent! You should read that book, says Illy, books are cool and if you read them, you grow up to be super-smart like Illy and do complicated thaumatelogical calculations in your head to adjust your fire-bow attack spells on the fly for maximising their potential penetrating, thaumic efficiency, valences and what pretty colour the screaming enemies of righteous should burn!

Hi, Teacher Penny! Yes, Illy IS a good influence of children! She's going to be aq paladin!

Hi, Jas, you remind Illy of someone she's not technically met at Paladin School yet!

At the beach, Willy, who is a salty seaman, wants to give Illy his rod.

Illy and Shoulder!Aluria are overcome with giggles.

Darn. Illy has to drop that one piece of wood (there is more giggling) so she can take the salty seaman's rod. Because she forgot she hasn't got a proper backpack yet and probably should have put those seeds away!

Whelp, sounds like it's time to head back to the farm, then! Time to plant all the seeds and then back to the beach because there's stuff to pick up!

Hi Jodi, hi Marnie!

Silly Illy, should have brought the hoe she just put away to dig up those wriggling things! Oh well, clams will do!

Ah, a bridge that needs 300 wood to repair. Illy is planning on doing this soon, since she remembers when watching that nice Mr Pator on the Youtubes and someone saying that lots of coral that makes lots of money is on the other side and Illy likes coral that makes lots of money!

Illy will just try a quick bit of fishing first, though, while she's here...!

Bollocks. Illy is REALLY BAD at fishing, it's exactly the sort of quick-timey event Illy just can't cope with, especially when it's the mouse button.

Illy is now going to be late for bed. Darn.



It's raining, though in the morning, so Illy doesn't need to water the garden. Maybe a few quick attempts at fishing in her pond, and then wood-gathering today!

Illy very quickly gets tired, and finds fishing is also tiring, and for her efforts, only catches a broken Cd and some broken glasses. Well, that sucks.

Illy also manages to make herself exhausted accidently using her fishing rod when trying to put the broken parts in the selling bin. Better eat one of those berries she found yesterday.

Huh, well that IS the first thing she's eaten in, like four days or something.

Come to that, Illy's house doesn't have a loo. Nor does anyone else's.

Illy has a short period of existential terror.

Then she goes to the beach, to pick clams. And dares risk using her hoe to dig up worms. She finds some GOLD ORE and a lost book. Illy wonders why the library wants a sandy, manky book. Perhaps it's an ancient grimoire of power or something, or someone's old spellbook. Illy curses that she can't sell it for lots of old, by Azurella's... Actually, Illy suspects that she ought to swear by the Love Goddess' anatomy, since she's also a goddess of sex and relationships and thus any part of her anatomy sworn by is probably a double or even single entendre.

Then Illy suffers a bit of a mod-related time-loop and wakes back up at 6 o'clock, but all her yard-work is done - as she tries to work out why stuff isn't reading text string properly. She'll have to wait until tonight and save normally and try again...

Illy guesses she'll just explore for the rest of NuToday, then, since she's still knackered. Maybe she'll see the doctor about the time-travel thing. Doctors know all about that, right?

Ooh, Gus wants a potato! Illy is growing a potato, she can get him one! Hopefully! Except that it probably won't grow in two days!

The doctor is not in, and the shop is closed.

Illy is not having a good day...

Illy goes to see Robin and looks at all the house and building upgrades she can't afford, because Illy has, like 40g right now. Hi, Robin's husband Demetrius!

Illy wanders the town like a very damp wraith. At least she's finding lots of flowers...? She finds Linus, a strange old hermit living in a tent on his own, so she gives him a Salmon berry, because seriously, that's just sad.

Ahh, Illy has found the Joja mart! Time for some justifiable homicide! Illy is glad she brought her scythe!



Fragdammit. Morris appears to be immune to having his head scythed off. This really isn't Illy's day.

To further prove Illy's point, the blacksmith locks up literally the second Illy arrives.



Illy idly contemplates turning Evil again and going on a rampage, though with Illy's luck today, a) everyone will be immune to scythes, b) it's too wet for fire spells and c) she left her awesome magic bow-thingy with Aluria.

Double darn it.

Illy goes to see Jodi, who berates her for having muddy feet.

Illy gives her a daffodil, to try and make up for it.

Jodi hates daffodils.

Illy has had enough, and tromps off to bed, feeling utterly wet, miserable and defeated.

Well, at least Illy levelled up foraging; she has lots and lots of daffodils now...

Thursdays is off to a good start, Illy is taunted by the promise of a better backpack, which she can't afford, since she has literally made no money at all yet.

Illy waters the plants and vents her frustrations by murdering some plants and trees. Illy starts to realise that farming is just like gardening - it's not really about growing stuff, it's mostly about killing stuff and chopping stuff up. Illy feels better.



Ah, overnight, the world has magically fixed itself so that stuff is now showing proper text strings (edit: actually, it hadn't, it took a manual installation later), and all without actually causing more terrible time travel shenanigans that meant Illy spent more time sopping wet from rain yesterday that there were literally hours in the day.

Illy's eye twitches.

She goes to the doctor, maybe seeing if she can find some tranquilises. and then remembers that neither that nor booze will help, since she's immune to poisons.

Darn it.

Apparently, Maru works as the... pharmacist/dispenser at the clinic.

Illy finds the doctor, Doctor Harvey. Hi, Doctor Harvey! Illy also finds the Doctor's bucket of used needles. She considers sticking her hand in, but then remembers a) damage reduction and b) immune to disease as well.

Double darn it.

Illy is fairly sure life is just extracting the urine at this point.



Oh, good, now medical racism.



Oh, a new face! Hello, Haley! Yes, Illy is the new farm girl. Would Haley like to be friends with Illy?




WHY IS EVERYONE SCYTHE PROOF!!!!!!

Illy takes a calming breath and remembers she wants to be a paladin. Perhaps she should try and redeem Haley, like a proper paladin. Plastering her best rictus grin on her face, she offers Haley a daffodil.

Well, at least SOMEONE appreciates Illy's flowers, even if she is a total b... lich.

(Somewhere, Bleakbane is suddenly deeply offended.)

Wow, Illy is having to repress a lot of issues. Illy wonders why the literal Hells was this supposed to be relaxing again?

Illy heads to the store, to see if maybe she can find Abigail. Outside, Mayor Linkara chuckles about how sometimes, it gets so rowdy at the bar, they put a coin in the juke box. Illy wonders if this is the start of the decline that happened to Fat Grandma.

She instead finds Elliot, who looks like Pegasus from Yu Gi Oh Abridged if he fell on hard times and now lives in a shack by the beach. He now permanently sounds like that now.

Illy says hi to some villagers as she goes on her way to maybe do some fishing.

Oh, hello Sam!

Illy spends until ten o'clock fishing and catches a) a broken CD, b) green algae, c) trash, d) a soggy newspaper and e) no fish whatsoever.

Illy does not understand fishing. Mr Pator in the Intertubes made it looks so easy. But it is clearly beyond Illy, being too twitch-heavy and there are not enough hours in the day, nor any kind of training exercise to help Illy practise. Illy is very frustrated and stomps off to bed.

To the intertubes!

...

Illy is pretty sure the only way she's going to catch fish is by very slowly catching trash in her pond until she can make crab pots.



In the morning, Illy goes out to find the Joja Corp Evilly caused aa landslide on the lake, which is now cleared. Illy has an idea where she's going today, after watering the plants...

Hooray! Illy now has parsnips!

Nevermind that, though off to the lake.

Mayor Linkara intercepts Illy though, to talk about the old community centre, which is very clearly haunted by little green... animate pots...? Mayor Linkara is too senile to notice. Illy will look into this later...

On the way, Illy sees Linus, who asks her not to destroy his tent, because it's happened before.

Illy is lost for words. Something is going to get murdered today.

Illy finds an old mine, in which Marlon (hi, Marlon!) says is full of ore and monsters. Illy gets a rusty sword! Well. this is going to be fun! Illy thinks it is stabbering time or something.

Illy wanders down into the mine, sword and pickaxe in hand, except she can't dual-wield, which is a shame. She finds some ore, and some quartz (maybe Abigail would like this...) and a geode that the blacksmith can open and a little cure blue slime, which Illy kills the crap out of, while laughing. Hello, misplaced aggression, thinks Illy.

Illy gets down to level five in the mines, but she really needs a backpack before she does too much of this, as her inventory is full!

Perhaps ought to go home now and sell some of her parsnips!

Illy sells her parsnips (except for the silver star one) and the bug meat and slime she found for a fair bit of pennies. She could do with buying some more seeds now!

But good news, Illy has levelled up to level one in farming and mining now! Huzzah!

Right out the door, Clint is there to give Illy plans for a furnace! Then she can smelt ores for better tools! Illy likes this, because Illy likes fire, free stuff, fire, better tools and fire.

Marlon left a note to say of Illy kills ten slimes, she can become an adventurer! Illy reflects that she's pretty sure two hundred years of brutal conflict with demons probably qualifies her, but whatever, she's killed three or four already, so hoorah!

While Illy waits for the store to open, Alex-short-for-Alexander tells her his arms are sore, which is good for a guy like him. Illy thinks he's an idiot and probably doesn't need to know that.

Illy heads in and runs into Abigail. Illy gives her some quartz, which Abigail eats because Abigail is special and cool like ‎Illy.

Illy buys twenty more parsnip seeds, then does a bit of toing and froing between the museum and the blacksmith's and ends up donating a quartz, a limestone and a slate. (She has an amethyst, but she's saving that...)

On her way back to the farm, Illy has a quick look around the community centre, but only finds a thing with writing on she can't read. Illy diverts to give Haley another daffodil because then she might be able to bribe her into... Not being a bittle lich. So to speak.

Back the farm. Illy makes a scarecrow to put in the middle of her little crop field, plants her seeds and starts clearing some more stuff before heading to bed.





And there we shall leave her, twitching slightly in her sleep...

[Aotrs Commander]

Part 2: Miner Frustration

Spoiler

Show

Sunday, Day 7, Year One

Today, Illy is met with a note from a Wizard, Mr Rasmodius to come and talk to him about the "rat" problem in the community centre. Illy hopes this will involve some sort of fire magic...

Illy waters her plants and heads off to the store to see if she can find Abigail.

On the way, Illy meets Leah in the Pelican Town Community Garden.



Oh, thinks Illy, she didn't know this was a thing.

Leah gives Illy one of her fresh Green Beans to eat.

Wow, thinks Illy, someone is giving me presents for a change! Maybe she won't have to go on a rampage after all!

Wait, hang on, Illy is now just outside the museum!

How'd she get all the way over here?



She didn't think she could teleport or fly here! Keeping her wings under her shirt is really uncomfortable and she doesn't have her teleport license approved yet, and it is really annoying.

Back at the store, Illy checks the notice board. Demetrius wants some seaweed. Well, maybe Illy can fish for that later, since it doesn't involve actually catching fish...

Illy waits - definitely waits, not lurks - outside Abigail's door so she can give her the amethyst right away!



Illy is indeed the best!

Illy now heads off to see the wizard!

She sees George, an old man in a wheelchair, coming to visit presumably Caroline, since Pierre is at the store front. Hi George!

Illy also meets Andy, who is a servant of the Evil Joja, probably an unwilling one since he seems nice and tells her George likes leeks! Illy will remember this...

Illy pauses to give Haley another daffodil. Illy WILL redeem her!

Illy finds another daffodil, and spots Mayor Linkara as she passes. It's his birthday today, and since Illy doesn't have any idea of what he likes, she gives him the flower. He likes it, which just goes to show Jodi has no taste.

Illy sees Sam. Sam wonders why Illy is looking through his bin. Illy wonders why he threw away a perfectly good catfish. Perhaps fishing in bins is more Illy's style.

As she slowly makes her way west to see the wizard, Illy sees a lady in a wagon, who sells things for very high prices Illy really can't afford at the moment. Maybe later, thinks Illy.

That's the second biggest cauliflower Illy has ever seen.



Rasmodius has purple hair!



...

Like Abigail.

And not like Pierre (brown-ish) and Caroline (green).

Hmmmmmm, thinks Illy.

Rasmodius is the master of the seven elementals. Illy politely doesn't mention there are at least nine elements if you don't count the hybrids, plus there are a lot more than seven elementals.

She wants to show Illy something. Shoulder!Alluria wonders if it is his Rod of Lordly Might. Illy ignores Shoulder!Alluria.



It's a Juminos, apparently.

Illy explains about the funny scroll thing she found in the community centre. Rasmodius teleports off to see it. Illy wonders how he managed to grease the wheels to get his teleport license and whether he knows a man that can help her get hers...

Rasmodius tells her the scroll says the Junimo want to help Illy, in exchange for random stuff she finds lying around or something. Illy can do that! They want her to become one with the forest. Illy hopes she doesn't have to multiclass into Druid, primary casters don't make for good multiclass combos at Illy's level. (Besides, she's all about the the Int and Cha, even with her big racial Wis bonus...)

No, actually, Rasmodius suggests she drinks from his cauldron of green fuming stuff. Illy thinks that as she is immune to poison, this is okay. Illy is very surprised, then, to have a bad trip - silly Illy, it was a potion, not a poison - where she is haunted by the spirits of all the trees she's cut down.

Illy now has forest magic. Illy thinks this sounds awesome if she can crib druidic magic with having to multiclass, they have loads fire spells! But no, Illy only is able to understand the Junimos language. Illy is a bit disappointed...

Illy comes to outside Rasmodius' tower.

Illy pops back in to talk shop with Rasmodius for a bit, caster to caster. Rasmodius says he's looking for an apprentice, so he observes the villagers in secret. (Shoulder!Alluria wonder how much he's been "observing" Caroline, if you know what she means.) Illy politely makes her excuses and backs slowly out of the tower.

She abruptly appears next to a big field where Andy is doing some work.



Illy REALLY wants her teleport license. Everyone can teleport, and apparently even teleport HER, darn it!

No, Andy, don't use Joja fertiliser on your plants! It's made of actual babies! Illy knows, she did logistics at Joja while she was waiting for the her paladin school application to come through. (Alluria didn't tell Illy what she did to make ends meet, but Illy suspects porn.)

Andy wants to give her some Strawberry seeds, but he's left them in his house. Illy looks at Andy's house, about thirty feet away. Andy tells her to come by his house later so he can give her his seeds. Shoulder!Alluria gives Illy the thumbs up. Illy ignores her.

Andy teleports Illy back to Rasmodius' Tower.

Illy's eye twitches.

Uh...



Abigail is just hanging out next to Rasmodius tower. Illy looks between the tower and Abigail. Yeah, thinks Illy, Rassy totally banged Caroline, didn't he?

Illy meets Andy at his house and he gives her the strawberry seeds. He couldn't have done that earlier WHY, Illy thinks, but she thanks him without anything showing in her face.

Illy thinks there might just be time to pop into the community centre and look at the scrolls before bedtime.

On the way there, Illy roots through everyone's bins, and finds some broken glasses and an acorn. Illy wonders if she is developing kleptomania.

Illy gets to the community centre and reads the scroll, which gives her a big list of things to bring. Illy makes a thorough list, because she is Highly Organised, which she can tick off.

The she heads home, and has an early night!



Day 8

In the morning, Illy plants her strawberries and harvest her potatoes and tulips. Illy is not sure what she's going to do with them just yet...

First job is to go to the community centre and complete the spring foraging bundle with all the stuff Illy has found, and add morel to the exotic foraging bundle. For completing the former, Illy gets a packet of 30 seeds! Neat!

This opens up two more scrolls and the Juminos take the bundle to put it in the tree... Thingy.



Illy makes more lists...

Then she heads to the beach.

On the way, she sees Gus (hi!) and Alex-short-for-Alexander. The latter tells he was a star quarterback. Illy really doesn't care.

There is nothing but Elliot on the beach. Illy goes fishing. She's lucky right away, catching seaweed, which she needs for her quest. She then catches more seaweed, another broken CD and wonder of wonders, the world's most passive four-inch sardine!

Illy goes off to find Demetrius. On the way, she stops to talk to Maru and Penny, and gives Penny a daffodil. Penny likes it, but is not quite so excited as Haley.

Illy find Robin and Demetrius standing on the cliff, looking out at the view. Demetrius gets his seaweed and Illy gains some much-needed cash!

Finally, Illy spots Sebastian, the last person she hasn’t met yet. He looks like a depressing sort of goth person and not a necromancer.

Back to the farm. Uh oh, Illy's chest is full! Well, tomorrow she will have to take some more stuff to the community centre! But for now, there's just enough time to try and get all those seeds planted.

Just barely!

Illy levels up foraging to level 2! Huzzah!



Day 9

Robin has left a note for Illy saying that she could expand Illy's cottage with a kitchen. That sounds nice, but Illy really needs some money first...!

After watering the plants, Illy loads up with stuff for the community centre. On the way, she sees a notice that Leah wants a green bean. Well, hopefully Illy's should be growing soon...

That done, Illy gives Haley one of her golden daffodils. She will win her over to Good...

Haley compliments Illy's make-up and then asks if Illy is even wearing any. Illy, who is an erinyes and therefore very high in the attractiveness field by default elects to take this as a compliment.

Illy thinks she should try and get some more yard work done, she needs a ton more wood...

Illy makes good inroads! She also makes some sap into fertiliser. But you can't put that on top of seeds, unfortunately, so Illy will have to wait for next time.

She spends some of her wood to make a second chest, and then moves all of the resources (junk, wood, stone etc.) into that chest.) Then she moves it around, which requires empting it again, but nevermind.



Bedtime!



Day 10

It's time to harvest the parsnips! 19 regular (which go for sale) and one golden! Illy elects to go and buy a load more parsnip seeds next and plant them and keep the pennies rolling in. But the store is closed on Wednesday. Bugger, thinks Illy. Well, to the museum then, with the topaz she has...

On the way, Illy sees Alex-short-for-Alexander.



Oh no, you freaking didn't!

Alex-short-for-Alexander is a massive jerk who needs a good punch to the balls. Illy remembers she is going to be a paladin and refrains, but she has to try quite hard. She has to restrain Shoulder!Alluria though...

Haley is civil to Illy this morning, saying if Illy wants to make her system dislike Illy, to give her fish tacos. Illy wonders why she would do that.

Haley does not approve of Illy rummaging through her bin, though.

Illy wants to do some yard-work, but she quickly gets too tired. So Illy will go for a walk, maybe to the beach and look for more stuff to forage.

After a stroll around the village (in which she found a few bits), Illy does a tiny bit of fishing (and catches more broken glasses). She considers going to the bat for a bit, But as she goes, she sees Linus rummaging in George's bins. (Darn it, thinks Illy, someone else had the same idea!) George thinks it's racoons, and asks Illy to scare them off.

Linus seems ashamed, but says he finds a lot of food that would otherwise go to waste in the bins. He asks Illy if she thinks there's something wrong with him.

There is an awkward pause.

After consideration, Illy carefully says no, but that Linus may want to look at getting a job, maybe. (Sure, Illy also rummages in bins, but she also does farming and stuff and is really busy, so it’s... okay for her to do that? She's pretty sure it counts as looting stuff, and adventurers do that all the time, right?)

Linus is not hugely happy, but says he won't loot George's bin anymore. As Illy walks off, he IMEDIATELY goes to the saloon bin. And Gus catches him. Gus, however, is a good man and tells Linus if he's hungry he should just ask, and gives him some fritters. Illy will remember this...

Illy chats to people in the bar. Shane is kind of rude, and Illy is beginning to cement her opinions that all the boys in this town are really icky and lame.

Illy tries the prairie king arcade game, but it uses WASD and the cursors. Illy can't even get started, she's terrible. Why don't things use joysticks anymore, Illy grumbles.

Time for bed!



Day 11

Illy makes a cool 600-odd g from her parsnips. She must get some more seeds today!

Robin has lost her favourite axe and has left notes everywhere asking people to find it (or maybe just for Illy specifically, but that would be weird). Illy will keep her eyes open!

George wants a bream to rub on his head. Seems unlikely Illy will get one for him in time, but she'll keep her eyes open for that too!

First stop, community centre to drop something off, then the store (twenty parsnip seeds, plus kale seeds and jazz seeds) and then down south to look for Robin's axe!

On the way, Illy sees Vincent and Jas by the locked sewer. Vincent wants to explore, but apparently, Gunthur locked the sewer. But there's something down there.

Illy, with a sense of weary resignation, realises that she's going to be doing The Sewer Level at some point...

It takes Illy most of the day, but she finally finds the axe and takes it to Robin!

As Illyphase head back to the farm, Andy comes to warn her about crows.

Time for some late-night planting. Illy uses a load of her sap to make some basic fertiliser for all the things she's planting.



Day 12

In the morning Illy comes out of house to find Marnie waiting with a cat.



Marnie says it's a stray and Illy might like to adopt it.

Illy shrugs. Cat, stray cat, cats are all the same anyway (but better than dogs, obviously). She decides to call the cat Kittymancer.

It's the Egg Festival tomorrow!

Being a responsible pet owner, Illy goes to fill up Kittymancer's dog bowl. Illy doesn't know if Kittymancer will like the dogbowl or the dog house, but whatever, she's a cat, she'll do whatever she wants anyway.

Illy waters her plants.

There has got, Illy thinks, to be a better way to do this, the day's not started and she's already knackered.



Finally, some green beans, though!

Illy spends most of the day strategically clearing undergrowth, stones and fallen branches to get ore stone and wood - leaving the trees gives her more energy.



She figures she'll head off to the beach, maybe do some fishing.

She catches very little, and exhausted, walks home to bed. It takes her far too long, and she's very tired in the morning.



Day 13

Still it's the Egg Festival today, so after she's watered her plants - hopefully - she won't have to do much else.

Even this is too much; Illy is exhausted before finishing (but she has, at least, one cauliflower). She grabs a couple of horse radishes from her stash to keep her going.



Egg festival time!



Illy wanders around socialising. Marlon says he never misses a festival even with his bad leg. Illy wonders if he took an arrow to the knee.

Then it's time for the Egg Hunt. Illy reckons she ought to be good at this...

Not damn good enough, apparently since Abigail wins. Illy doesn't mind that much, though because Abigail is awesome. But Illy wonders how the heck Abigail does so well, since Illy was grabbing eggs without much wandering around... Next year, maybe...

Illy heads back to bed to sleep.

But the good news is she has now levelled farming up to 2! Watering can proficiency has gone up (maybe using less energy?) And there is a new crafting recipe for sprinkler... That might help. But she will have to look upon the morrow!



Day 14

Today, it is raining, which means Illy has plenty of energy, not having to water her plants!



First, though, Illy has another four things to drop off at the community centre, which allows her to complete the Spring Crops bundle (for 20 Speed-Gro , which increases growth rate by 10%... Which Illy suspects is only useful particularly on crops that take at least ten days to grow, but whatever).



And this opens up another scroll, for more list making!

Illy goes back to the farm and spends the rest of the day well into the night clearing the ground, which gives her quite bit more wood and stone!



Day 15

Wow. pretty much all of Illy's crops have grown! Not much watering to be done today, it seems!



On the noticeboard, Sebastian needs a Wild Horseradish. Well, THAT Illy can do today!

But first, Illy needs to buy some more parsnip seeds and process a geode she found yesterday - it's an orpiment, whatever that is!

DANGIT, Illy totally missed Haley's birthday yesterday! Whoops! she must find Haley later and give her a good flower... Illy is decidedly miffed, and it's too late to involve some time travel. (Shoulder!Alluria gives her a bit of a clip around the ear, since Shoulder!Alluria has all sorts of thoughts about Haley and Abigail...)

Double dangit, Illy misses getting the orpiment to the museum by minutes, because Sebastian spent all day in his frickin' bedroom...

Illy spends the rest of the evening chopping down some more trees! By the time, all tuckered out, she goes to bed, she's now got 350 wood - enough to repair that bridge! She also levels up foraging to level 3 and gets more axe proficiency. Illy is well pleased.

Apparently, silver parsnips are worth only 23% more than regular ones, but dandelions are worth 10 more than daffodils. Huh.



Day 16

Excellent, it's raining again today, that saves Illy some effort. So, jobs today: give Haley a gold daffodil as a sorry for missing her birthday, drop the orpiment at the museum and repair that bridge.

Apparently in the reverse order...

Illy finds an ornamental fan buried on the beach, for some reason...

Illy fixes the bridge!




There's a funny old man on the other side. Illy wonders if he's been suck here all this time, strange fellow...



Apparently, he has an amulet, but he says Illy isn't ready for it yet. Illy hopes it isn't another of those "Destiny" things, she's had rather enough of other things deciding her own destiny, what with being murdered and tortured into being a demon for two hundred years, thank you.

Illy grabs what she can - naturally, of COURSE there's one more thing on the beach than she has inventory space for, so she'll have to come back - and then goes to the museum. Gunther rewards her fifth donation with some cauliflower seeds. Illy will just have enough time to plant them this season, especially if she uses that Speed-gro...

Illy stops by the shop to buy that backpack. Just as Morris to comes in, giving away 50% off vouchers for JojaMart, the Evil Fiend.



(Illy knows a fiend when she sees one - she IS one, after all, if not Evil anymore.) And darn it, Illy didn't bring her sword. Nevermind, Illy will at least give Pierre some custom today.

Huzzah, 24 slots in the backpack! Back to the beach then...!

Illy gives Haley her belated birthday flower and then heads home. She cuts down some more trees until she's tired, and then calls it an early night.



Day 17

In the morning Illy steps out to find two things: blossoms in the air and Mayor Linkara, who has been checking all the shipping bins and they have a quick chat.



Illy has cleared a lot of space now!



Apparently, the ornamental fan can be donated to the museum, so that's one today's list of things to do, after watering the plants.

On the way, Illy spots notice from Clint that he wants to look at twenty copper ores. That is convenient: Illy, now armed with her large backpack, plans to go down into the mine again today, so she’s loaded up her sword and some horseradish and leeks for extra energy!

Illy will give a leek to Linus as she passes, though, given she remembers being told he really likes those.

Illy goes down in the mine.

She is not good with her sword and it is lucky she brought all those items with her.



Illy is doing alright, until a rock crab thing appears right where's she’s walking and won't let Illy walk away from it or turn around to attack so she dies and travels back in time to the dawn the day.


(Because Bleakbane is not losing items and having to redo nine levels of the mine, frack you game.

And a second time, because the game decided to mob slimes.)

And a THIRD time, because the game decided to be mardy, and make Illy smash every single rock in one level to find the exit, and then she couldn't find the bloody exit to level nine because it was hidden behind ALL of the monsters and it did the usual job of "no, no, you're not allow to hit the monster, it's on top of you.”

And then I re-installed the save anywhere mod, because i wasn't doing the chores every time and then MANY more attempts later (often which took me past midnight... Either because I saved on level 9 or the RNG finally decided not to be an little crap-stain...)

REALLY didn't think I be having a "game is being an RNG-excrement:reloading" session on fracking Stardew Valley, I really didn't. I thought this was supposed to be, y'know, relaxing. The idiocy of the game not letting you move during the attack animation and having that take ages and then having enemies that jump around behind you astounds me.


Illy FINALLY hacked through all the monsters and got to level nine and then down to level ten, where there was a chest full of nice leather boots and the lift. And amazingly, though it felt like she'd done this several times today, it wasn't even so late that she was able to get home and go to bed.



Illy quite rightfully levelled up her combat level to level 1.

Day 18

In the morning Illy had that little chat with Mayor Linkara for about the third time, because of all those timewarps...

Today was going to be spent giving out gifts - amethyst for Abigail, a silver daffodil for Haley, Leek for Linus, joining the adventurer's guild, sorting out Clint's copper and opening the Geode Illy found (which turned out to be an Earth Crystal). Oh, and a stop at the community centre to drop off more things, including the now five gold parsnips Illy had grown.

It took Illy most of the day to do all this - a fair part because the Adventurer’s Guild was NOT where Illy thought it was - unlike that nice Mr Pator in the Intertubes, it was not by the mine, but to the south of the village.



Illy was afraid it would be closed, but fortunately, the Adventurer’s Guild had sensible hours.

Illy was sworn in as an adventurer - which was, she reflected, a bit like what she was going to be doing as a Paladin in a bit, and anyway, she was used to regulations and oaths and such, being an ex-devil.



Marlon was going to explain all about the Adventure's Guild.



Illy ignored Shoulder!Alluria.

Marlon tells Illy he formed the Guild 25 years ago, after being recognised by the Order of the Knights of Pythagoras.

Illy was sure their symbol ought to be a triangle...

Marlon explains that no-one knows why monster appeared, ancient dark magic (Illy nods knowingly, this is always the case) and that the guild was part of a global network. Rasmodius worked with the guild, providing magical support. Marlon also explained that they used swords and not guns because all the monsters had Regeneration and only took lethal damage from slashing attacks. Illy nodded, while admiring Marlon's lovely lampshade in the corner. (She wondered in Mayor Linkara had reviewed the lamp it was covering.)

Illy was used to dealing with things you could only kill with certain damage types. Alluria always said back when they were fighting, when Alluria had to fight some of many devils (though sadly, not erinyes, Illy had always thought grossly unfair) that had Regeneration, it was a right bugger getting hold of something that was Good aligned she could wield safely.

But darn it, though, this meant no bows! Illy was miffed.

But wait...!



Huz-



-DARN IT!

Marlon points out that they had lost people over the years, and Illy might be killed.

Illy points out that a) she was a two-hundred year old ex-devil and b) was going to be a paladin, so this was all really sort of her wheelhouse.

Marlon says that Joja Corp owns the mine, which is why it couldn't just be sealed off. Illy scowls - this was typical of Joja Corp, there, they were probably trying to use it to make some sort of zombie virus or something.

Plus side, though, more ore for Illy!

Marlon says no-one has gotten past level 93. Illy is sure that - eventually! - she'll get there and kill all the things. She is good at violence. Though, to be honest, she admits she is rather less good at it when waving a rusty sword in clothes, as opposed to with her magical-girl magical armour and magic bow-thingy.

Marlon tells Illy that there the thing in the sewer is called Krobus and he's not a bad monster. Illy completely understands - after all, even demons and devils can be redeemed and go to Magic Paladin School!

This is the longest conversation Illy has had with anyone in Pelican Town.

Illy sells her rusty sword and buys a wooden blade. Illy regards the wooden blade for a moment, and realises how truly awful the rusty sword must have been is wood is an upgrade. No wonder she had such trouble!

Illy looks at all the weapons on display that apparently she can't buy yet, especially that nice holy sword. Darn it.

Illy checks the Adventurer's Guild quest board.

Wow. 23/1000 slimes. That is a lot of slimes to kill.

Illy heads home. Now she has plenty of copper ore, she clears a tree and erects a furnace, so she can start smelting!



She just has time to smelt a copper bar before bedtime!

[Aotrs Commander]

Part 3: Flower Dunce

Wow, tough crowd. Started, though, so I will finish, (unless explictly told not too...)

Another installement approaches...

Yes, I am rather hammering it, aren't I? I'll give Stardew Valley credit, it's holding my attention damn well; I have to admit, it is pretty addictive. I think the sheer variety of stuff to do is ideal for me, since it essentially a bit goal -orientated and I gorck that so hard.

Spoiler

Show

Friday, Day 19, Year One

As Illy heads out, she finds a note from Jodi, who wants a cauliflower for making something. So that's one job to do today, after watering and trying to smelt some more metal.

Illy's parsnips have grown, so she puts them all in the selling bin. There should be just enough time for another round or two before summer - though perhaps, now she has more money, she might try potatoes...?

Clint wants more ores. OF COURSE Illy is now nearly out of ores, so perhaps another mine trip will be required...

Illy elects to burn her money on potatoes, since there won't be time for two parsnip crops. Seems likely she won't make it down the mine quite today.

Quartz for Abigail...



And, to snub her nose at Morris, Illy finds Jodi at the Evil Joja Mart and gives her the cauliflower for her yellow curry.

Illy wonders if Morris is sword proof...



Darn it!

He must require some sort of special weapon, damn him. Maybe that holy sword...?

Illy spends the rest of the day wandering around the beach and south forest, and gets plenty of forage.

Illy decides to have an early night. Telly first, on the oracle channel?



Well, good job she didn't go down the mine, then...

Excellent, Illy has levelled farming to 3, and now has more hoeing and watering can proficiency.

And maybe she can make a deadly bee weapon...?



Hmm, apparently gold parsnips are about +50% of the base. Illy assumes this hold true for selling other things, maybe so she's got a good guideline. She made a nice lot of cash today, between parsnips and foraging.



Day 20

Illy comes out to find her Dad has sent her 500g. Illy is slightly worried now, since her father is very long-dead and buried, and she's not sure what happened to the one that sired her as an erinyes, or even if that was a male.

Still, gold is gold, yes...?

Actually, no this is almost certainly Alluria, Illy decides, having a good old laugh. It would be just like Alluria. Yes, that is definitely her handwriting, even though she's tried to disguise it, Illy recognises the way she dots her 'i's. Silly Alluria. Illy smiles.

Illy heads down to the mine.

Oh Illy's goddess, it is so much easier with the new sword!

Pause for a snack with all the food she brought...



Illy does her best, and tries to get out quickly, as she hits level 15 - maybe she can catch Clint before the quest runs out...?

Umm... Illy got 13 ores, then grabbed her stash to make 15 that Clint wanted, but apparently, this isn't enough and somehow this becomes a gift for Clint that depresses him. So, um, Illy has to do the quest with fresh ores? That's... Annoying. Really annoying.

Illy talks to everyone in the bar since she's there. Emily apparently like making clothes - so perhaps she might like gifts of cloth. Illy thinks she ought to try and remember this.

Just time to smelt another copper ore, and then bed.

Oh, Illy finally levelled up mining to level 2, and she can now make a staircase. Which she thinks she recalls is useful in the mine...?



Day 21

Museum and blacksmith today, to open geodes and donate the dwarven scroll Illy found in the mine.

Illy gives Abigail an amethyst and Haley a gold daffodil on her way.

Clint finds some clay and a dwarven helm in the geodes, which is sadly only good for the museum.

Illy seriously considers upgrading her tools, now she can just about afford to, but elects not to until she's got more of a buffer. After all, she'll require money for summer seeds soon! Oh, she can't anyway, she'd need more copper bars.

Illy drops her stuff at the museum, and then spends the rest of the day clearing the farm. She finds five more geodes, so perhaps she should go back to the blacksmiths tomorrow...



Day 22

Well, off to a bad start, Illy receives a notification that weeds have damaged the farm - but she has no idea where. It's raining, though, so there's that.

Illy can't see any damage on anything she has cleared so far so, whatever.

Illy is off to find Abigail and Haley to shower them with more gifts!



Illy was not sneaking into Abigail's room! She was just... Er... No, no, it's a fair cop. Illy was sneaking.

Abigail has been trying to beat Prairie King. Illy agrees, it is ridiculously hard and Illy deeply sucks at it.



Illy knows that feel, Abigail. Illy knows.

Abigail thinks she will do better with Illy's help.

She is extremely wrong.

Illy is utterly, impossibly terrible at this sort of game at the best of times, and with only keyboard controls where she actually has to think about it, rather than dubiously marginally abysmal with a controller...

You'd think, with Illy's Dex, she'd be ace at this sort of thing, wouldn't you, really. Illy likes to think that her flaws make her more charming.

Hopefully Abigail thinks so too...?



Score for Illy!

Illy also has a consolation prize for Abigail - some yummy, yummy quartz. Illy loves watching Abigail eat her quartz, it's just so fascinating. Illy wonders if Abigail has some dragon in her ancestry.

Illy goes to Haley’s house to...



Oh dear. Bad time?

(Why does Illy feel she's going to end up doing Haley's housework...?)

And yes, Illy is in the middle of the sister's housework argument.

Illy will try and lightly suggest maybe Haley does under the cushions...?

Haley acquiesces to Illy's suggestion that once a week, she cleans under the cushions as her housework job.

Illy manages to keep her eye from twitching, and plastering on her best smile, gives Haley her flower.

Illy can at least have a quick look around Haley's room now...!

Illy's geodes give her stone, coal, a celestine, a jamborite and some granite. To the museum!

Gunthur gives Illy some melon seeds for her contributions!

Right, thinks Illy, maybe she'll head up towards Robin's to have a proper look at making some buildings (and perhaps give Linus a leek). Hmm. Illy is nowhere near ready for that sort of thing.

She really needs to find a source of copper ore, else it's going to be a lot of trips to the mine...

Back home, and more resource gathering yard work.



Day 23

The flower dance is tomorrow! Will Illy get a dance?

(Not if what she remembers from Mr Pator's Interwebs, she won't...)

Illy thinks today might be a good day for another trip down the mine...

Again, Illy is astonished how much easier it is since that first time.

At level 19. she finds loads of stuff, including a club, sneakers (not as good as her leather boots) a ring which increases her collection radius...



...and +2 speed sword in the chest on level 20, which is better than her wooden one. Neat!

Illy heads home and sorts her gear out. Looks like she needs to sell the sword and sneakers at the adventurer's guild, since she can't put them in the selling bin.

And she levels foraging up to 4, for more axe proficiency, berry harvesting and she could make a charcoal kiln at some point...



Day 24

The Adventurer’s Guild is closed today, presumably because of the Flower Festival, so off Illy goes!



Illy talks to everyone, except Rasmodius, who is hiding down the side of a cliff for some reason.



Right! Enough talk! Time for Illy to get herself a dance!



Darn!



Double darn!






Okay, that leaves the boys, who are kind of icky, so let's start with the least icky...



Elliott looks like he's busy with Leah...





...

Yeah, no, Illy is never going to be that desperate.

Oh well...



IS THAT ALEX-SHORT-FOR-ALEXANDER DANCING WITH HALEY! Illy will kill him! (Illy will only moderately hurt Sebastian for dancing with Abigail. While Illy likes Abigail more than Haley, Alex-short-for-Alexander is not going after her second choice under any circumstances, the bittle lich!)

Illy stomps off home to bed in an uncharacteristically bad mood.



Day 25

Illy's potato crop has come in - that will go straight into the selling chest. As Illy thinks summer is going to be here very soon, she's not going to re-plant anything just yet.

Illy wants to go to the Adventurer’s Guild, but finds it's not open until two o'clock. So she wanders around the village, and walks to the beach. Luck is with Illy today - there are loads of things for her to find!



Best beach haul ever!

Illy thinks she ought to find out what the other villagers like at some point, and increase her chances...

Well, Penny likes the gold dandelion, so that's a start.

Illy heads home and spends the rest of the day chopping a few trees down.

Woah! Potatoes are worth a LOT more than parsnips!



Illy had made more money today than ever before, increasing her funds by +140%! ♫ She is in the money! ♫



Day 26

Illy needs to start expanding her farm with some of the nice things she can make, but her bottleneck is still copper.

After harvesting her cauliflowers - most of them go into the selling bin - Illy decides another trip down the mines might be wise.

But, as she leaves, Evil Morris shows up.





Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

Illy has a counter-offer. She'll give Morris a ten-second head start or else he will be the first creature to test the edge of her new sword!



Yeah, that's what Illy thought.

One, two...



...three...



...four...



...five...



...sixseveneightnineten!



Yeah, you better run!

And you thought Illy was joking about Joja being Evil didn't you?

Off to the mine...

Have a leek, Linus, on the way!

Okay, that is a lot of bad flying things!




This is not Illy's day!



Still, Illy makes it down to level 25 and makes it home just before midnight. She could really use a larger pack, though - but the next one is 10000g...

Ooh, farming is up to level four!



And combat up to 2!



Illy should darn think so after all that today!

Cauliflowers are also worth loads!



Day 27

Blacksmith, museum and community centre today, Illy will have a lot of things to drop off!

Her two geodes are coal and a nekotite.

Illy gives the nekotite and her dwarven scroll IV (the last one was I) to the museum and is rewarded with a packet of starfruit seeds. Neat!

Oh, it's Emily's birthday! But darn, she's in her room... No, wait, here she comes! Have a gold daffodil Emily!

She loves it. Nice, says, Shoulder!Alluria, we're in there! Illy smacks her upside the head and then pretends she was flicking fluff off her shoulder.



Illy doesn't think there's anything wrong with that! Contrast is lovely!

At the community centre, Illy facepalms, as she forgot to bring a quartz AGAIN. She fills in a few more bits, but thanks to the crab she got from one of those shelled thingies down in the mines, she completes the crabpot bundle...



Which gets her three crabpots! Makes sense...

But she needs some bait before she can use them... She'll probably have to buy that, given that making it probably means levelling her fishing...

Also, something appears on the notice board... More stuff for lists!

Off to Robin's...

Apparently Demetrius really hates stone. That's okay, Illy was never going to be daft enough to give him any...

Still no... Before Illy builds a coop (and after dropping off a load of wood and the community centre, she needs to stock up on some more...) she wants a silo for feed, but looks like she needs clay and Illy isn't sure she's got enough... Back home for yard work, then.

Would Penny like a tulip?

Yes, she would, great!

Back home, Illy thinks she needs a new chest to move all her Spring crop stuff into. Illy doesn't sell it off, because, as mentioned, kleptomania; and also Illy likes to keep a stock of stuff. Illy might get rid of some of it in the summer season as she gets new stuff in, but for the moment, she's trying to keep a little bit of everything handy, because you never know.



Better start cutting down those trees, she'll need the wood again!

Illy is getting muuuuch better at this now, the trees are coming down in no time!



Day 28

Last day of spring! Illy is going to the community centre and then back down the mine!



Dang it, Haley, Illy had one yesterday, she'd have given it to you instead of the community centre! Well, maybe she'll find one down there...

(And first time for a while, Illy died, because there was another swarm of flies and there wasn't time to eat any health items. Reload!

THERE A LOT OF FLIES AROUND TODAY!!!!




(Two damn levels!)

Illy makes it out, this time, however.



Illy approves of the way Abigail thinks.



Well, that's a complex question, but Illy does have first-hand experience with it...

Back home to bed!



Well, at least Illy's combat skills are coming up...



Day 1 Summer, Year 1

Illy wants to try and get down the mine again for a red mushroom...

But she might have to delay a bit...

Summer!



The heck did that massive lump of stone come from?



Well, that's a pain...

Unfortunately, as Illy checks the seeds in the shop, quite a few are on a 14-day timer. So Illy will have to planet them today, dang it. Illy does not think she's going to get Haley's Red Mushroom, frag dammit.



Twenty tomatoes, two blueberries, two peppers, two sunflowers, four wheat, two radish, two hops, two spangle, two corn... Illy thinks that was everything she planted...

Well, that's done. Illy really would like some iron ore so she can make some sprinklers, but that's more mine time...

These two day quest timers are a massive pain, especially since Illy has to do it before the end of the second day - this is why she's trying to keep a stock of stuff on hand, but of course it never asks for something she has. People are so dang impatient!

Sod it, then, Illy thinks - she'll just find people and give them presents instead, maybe get to the beach.

Tulip for Leah...

Gold daffodil for Haley...

Amethyst for Abigail.

And a quick trip to the beach is all Illy has time for today.




Day 2

Another town day, Illy thinks - more gifts, and blacksmith and museum... Also, she has just enough clay to get Robin to make a silo...



Well, Illy is a cute girl, and she did keep some strawberries - HAH, she is prepared today. And Sam is the least icky of the boys, so okay.

Maru informs Illy that Sebastian is Maru's half-brother. (Now Illy thinks about it, Maru is a mid-tone between white robin and black Demetrius and Sebastian is white. Illy honestly hadn't really noticed; when you're blue, you tend to notice the skin colour of humans rather less, after all.) Not that it makes any difference, in any case...

Illy goes into Haley's house, but Emily is asleep...






Oops. Illy has accidently telepathy'd! She is so sorry, she hasn't done that in years!



Umm......





Uhhh... Okay?



Shoulder!Alluria is pumping her arms in excitement.

Have a tulip, Emily?

Silver daffodil for Haley...

Illy will just have a snoop, er, she means look around Emily's room while she's here...

A quick detour to the beach and Illy finds another lost book. Why the museum wants it now, she has no idea...



Ahahahahahaha, Alex-short-for-Alexander, you keep telling yourself that! No, Illy does not want any of your icecream, it's icky. Like you. You're icky, Alex-short-for-Alexander.

Illy's geodes are three iron ore (wow, she can make an iron bar in the forge now!), one copper ore, some slate and a thunder egg. That is donated to the museum, and Illy gets a standing geode to put in her house. Neat.

Oh, Illy can READ the lost books she's found. Duh. Nothing much other than just basic information, but useful to know...!

Apparently, ancient spirits would throw thunder eggs at each other, the museum tells Illy. Well Illy never.

Illy donates the ancient seed she found on her last mine trip, too, and that gives her an ancient seed and a recipe for ancient seeds. Super neat!

Robin isn't home, darn it, so Illy nips back home herself to plant that seed and grab a strawberry for Sam (though he might have to wait until tomorrow...)

Nope, Illy is not getting her silo today.

OWL!



Yard work, then bed...

Illy places her geode next to the chimney rest, then turns in.

There is a disturbing rumble in the night. That can't be good...



Day 3

No, it wasn't. Earthquake. Beans.

Illy takes a quick look at her shiny geode, and then heads out.



Oh dear, Mayor Linkara has lost his lucky purple shorts. Illy supposes she better find them... And he has no idea where, great.

Well, Illy's farmed land is fine, so that's good...

Alex-short-for-Alexander doesn't know where the purple trousers are, and ask Illy is she thinks he'll ever be a pro.

Hahahaha, no, Illy thinks he'll fail horribly and be an icecream man for the rest of his sad life.





Ooh, did Illy touch a nerve? Ahahahahahaha!

Quick visit to Haley and Emily (just to chat) and then Sam's strawberry is delivered with due ceremony...

NOW Illy finds a fracking red mushroom, just outside the community centre...

Iron bar put into the bundle (yes, it was Illy's only one, but nevermind...)

Illy gets Robin to start on her silo!

Illy has found all the summer foraging on her travels today, so it's back to the community centre to complete the summer foraging bundle!

Thirty wild seeds (wow, Illy is going to be SO DAMN BUSY watering...) And a new scroll for More Lists...!



Huh, okay, now the Juminos want 2500, 5000, 10000 and 25000g as a bundle. Would they perhaps like the moon on a stick as well. Oh well, Illy will fork over the smallest amount, just to see what will happen...

She gets three chocolate cakes!

Well, that was an expensive treat...

Illy has so many seeds, she has to start a new field - and add a new scarecrow...



Time for bed!

Illy still doesn't know where that earthquake was...



Day 4



Illy loves work, she can watch it for hours...



Oookay... Illy didn't even know there was a train station nearby!

After A lot of watering, Illy decides that today, she can upgrade at least her axe. Also, she recalls it is Jas' birthday, so she takes her last tulip.

Dang it, Illy has to wait some time for her axe to be upgraded. DOUBLE DANGIT, it means Illy doesn't have her axe! Well, good job she didn't want to do anything important...

Well, foraging for the rest of the day, then, Illy supposes...



We have a national enemy?!

Illy wanders east.



Hello, she's never been to this bit before.

Mayor Linkara explains this field used to be the community garden. And of course, he wants Illy to look after it and stuff. Fine, fine, Illy will do it at some point, but probably not before she's work out how to get around more quickly and has some self-watering stuff, she means, really...



Abigail is so darn cool. Don't worry, Illy can teach you!

Illy still hasn't found where the earthquake was (or the mayor's pants - good job it doesn't seem to be a timed mission). Oh well, time for bed!

[Keltest]

Silly space-lich, every martial character knows you don't actually fight with the default weapon. That's just for holding to make you look slightly more like a warrior than just a peasant with rags.

[Aotrs Commander]

Silly space-lich, every martial character knows you don't actually fight with the default weapon. That's just for holding to make you look slightly more like a warrior than just a peasant with rags.

Clearly. The stats don't make it clear how MUCH worse it is than the next one up, though. Or I was just very unlucky that first run.



Another big one, since I have been playing basically every night and will be for all of today, like as not. Fair cop to it, it IS as addictive and relaxing as folk have said. (And would functionally work as a "I only have an hour to kill" game...)

Finishing Deadfire is going to have to wait for a bit. (Being as I am at the stage I'm max level and most of the way through, there is jst not as much goal-orientating to go for. Stardew Valley is a bit like the Grand Stratagy Games - there's always some continuous planning, which seems to just work for me. That said, I usually start to lose steam (pun unintended) after about a hundred hours or so of a game, and I've passed that point with PoE 2 now.)


Part 4: Water lot of effort farming is...

Spoiler

Show

Sunday, Summer Day 5, Year One

Illy watched a bit more of Mr Pator today and has Learned Some Things...

For a kick off, Illy is fracking knackered after watering all her crops. So some messing around in town seems like it will be today's option. She's first going to visit Marnie.

Well, Robin has finished Illy's silo, but Illy has no idea how to use it...



Ohhhhh, Illy automatically gets hay from chopping plants down! Neat!



Hi Marine.



Oh ho, this is where Mayor Linkara's purple shorts are!

Well, Illy is in no position to judge, she's over two hundred and trying to get in the pants of someone a tenth of her age, so she can only nod her head and remember to give Mayor Linkara a high-five when she sees him next.

(Illy is not as surprised as she might be, because of Mr Pator...!)

But, this means she will have to become friends with Marnie. Illy hopes Marnie likes silver dandelions...

Oh dear, poor George! Illy can help!



No, Penny has this covered!





Why is half this town a load of grumpy old meanies?

Don't you listen to him, Penny, you keep doing good stuff!

Well, George is sorry he got snippy, so everything is forgiven. Illy nods sagely. Young people do get so impatient these days.

George and Penny both get a bit of a thousand yard stare as they contemplate that.

George wheels himself back inside.

Penny reflects is must be difficult to grow old.

Illy say it isn't actually very hard, she managed it with no problems! Penny will be fine!

Penny doesn't really have a response for that. Her mouth opens several times, but she doesn't say anything, so Illy assumes she must be practising goldfish impressions for the children. Bye, Penny!

Haley wonders what Alex-short-for-Alexander is doing today. Illy hopes he is being buried in a shallow grave. Actually, she would happily help him, given half a chance.

Illy thinks she might be able to get some bait for her crabpots from Willy. Willy, however, is apparently the worst fishing shop ever and only has trout soup and a bamboo pole for sale. What kind of fishing shop is he running where he doesn't have bait? *sigh*



Illy has a cat!

Wow, thinks Illy, this is kind of ridiculous how well matched they are, isn't it?

Ahaha! This is where the earthquake uncovered something!





Huh. Well, this is where the train is. Illy wonders why no-one in the village actually bothered trying to clear the landslide that blocked it or something. Actually, things look like they are in pretty good nick, considering. Illy wonders if anyone is around...

In the bathhouse, Illy is almost tempted to see what happens...



But she is a good, lawful girl and will only go on the ladies side. (Also, in Illy experience, the majority of boys are rather icky, and Pelican Town has done little to change her mind...)



Well, it is ever likely to if this place has been shut off for heavens know how long.

...

Illy takes a deep sniff anyway, which is not creepy at all. Really. She's checking for atmospheric poisons. Shoulder!Alluria does not believe her.



Where... did... Illy get that bikini from?



Really, who the heck has been maintaining this place?



Illy has a nice swim.

Shoulder!Alluria suggests there may be many advantages to no-one else using the bathhouse if Illy brings Abigail here. Or Haley. Or Penny. Or Leah. Or all of them at once. Illy dunks Shoulder!Alluria in the water.

...

She also needs a cold shower now. Dammit, Shoulder!Alluria!

The farm is locked (whoever lives here cannot get out much), but at the summit, there is a telescope.



Maru would probably like this? Illy has recalled her mentioning about stargazing sometimes.

Oops, it is late, Illy has better head home to bed sharpish!



Summer Day 6

Illy's hot peppers have produced their first crop. Today Illy will go to see if Clint has done with her damn axe yet.

Haley thinks farming sounds boring. She wonders what Illy does all day. Illy, wanting to sound cool - and judging Haley being a bit shallow, says she digs for treasure. This is not an untruth...

Hooray, Illy's axe is done! Illy hurries home to try it out. (Maybe if she's lucky, she also might find some ores or something in the stone around the farm. All the plant watering is leaving her with little energy to go down the mines...)

To Illy's enormous annoyance, the first thing her new axe does is destroy on of her plants by accident. That's incredibly tedious.

(But not quite worth a reload...)

Illy can chop up all those big tree stumps now with her new copper axe.

Illy wonders what the hell material her tools are made of, if copper is an upgrade. Did they give Illy plastic tools or something...?



But not those logs, apparently. Darn it.

After a bit of yard work - which at least nets her a reasonable load of hard wood, Illy is tired and turns in for an early night, after some telly.



Well, that's good news!

Oh, wait, Illy has to pick one. Well, double foraging items sounds a lot better than increased wood price, since Illy does a lot of gathering and hasn't ever sold any wood.



Summer Day 7

That's nice! Emily has given Illy a recipe for salad in the post.

Illy thinks Emily may be dropping hints...

Actually, Illy can't make any food yet, so it is a bit pointless...

Illy's radishes have sprouted. She harvests them and plants some wheat. Illy thought she'd planted wheat, but if so, it's been more than four days and waving her scythe around has had no effect, so..



Abigail is so cool!



Hmm. Forest sounds cool!



Score another one for Illy!

Illy has never looked in Abigail's room before and...



Holy crap, Abigail is sooo. Awesome...!



Oh, sorry, Alex-short-for-Alexander, excuse Illy for making you look like a chump. Actually, Illy doesn't care if she is excused or not. Because you suck.

Illy drop by the community centre. Her new axe has allowed her to get all the hardwood she needs to complete the construction bundle... Which nets her a charcoal kiln! Now, that is handy!



After running around and seeing everyone she's currently trying to butter up and gifted flowers, Illy heads back home.

she puts the kiln next to the furnace.



Little more housework, then bed!

Radishes are worth quite a bit (90g), peppers less so (40g)...



Summer Day 8

Illy's two poppies have grown. Well, that is two less things to water?

It's Gus' birthday, so maybe Illy will give him a flower (as she has no idea what he likes...)

Ooh, Rasmodius wants a melon. Well Illy will take the quest and MAYBE tomorrow, she can actually complete it, if her melons have grown...

Foraging, then...



Apparently, a large mouse lives in the ruined farmhouse and sells hats.

Illy learns something new every day.

Illy has a very poor day's foraging; except for some coral, she finds a solitary spice berry.

She spends the rest of the day on more yard work, but forgets time a bit and is slightly late to bed. Darn.



Summer Day 9

Illy finds a note from hat-mouse (which she doesn’t need, since she saw yesterday...) And some more money from Alluria, who is really committed to that "dad" joke...

Well, Rassy won't be getting his melons, Illy's are still growing. Though some of her flowers have grown, and her second round of hot peppers has come in.



Illy is so in there!

Illy goes to process the geodes she found yesterday in the rocks around the farm... Coal (woo) and calcite - for the museum...

By the time Illy has done all her rounds, she has got a few more flowers, at least. Back to the farm for more clearing of stones.

Illy REALLY needs ores, so she can spend less energy farming and get some sprinklers down (she's not going to make it to the mines at all, at this rate!)

By nine, she's running out of energy, so Illy decides to call it an early night.



Summer Day 10

It's raining!



Right, Illy is going STRAIGHT to the mine!



DARN IT DARN IT DARN IT!!!!

Of all the days, it... GRAAAGH!

*sigh*

Well, at least all those wild seeds have finally sprouted, that will drop Illy's workload a FAIR bit!



To the beach, then... Illy is a little early, so she forages for a bit. Huh, the weird old man is back.

Hang on, the Luau is tomorrow. She didn't read that first word, did she? Silly Illy!

MINE!



Golems and bats are new...

Still, Illy makes fair time, and gets to level 35 before nine. She mines all the stone there, and then calls it a day and goes home, picking up some more foraging as she goes.

She has plenty of energy left, so she hacks a few more trees down, before it gets too late.

Her mining has gone up (finally!)





Summer Day 11

Ill thinks that she ought to make a nice preserves jar and start turning some of those excess fruits clogging up her chests into jam!

Illy's melons are finally ready... She'll keep three handy, and sell the other six. Before she goes to the Luau, she'd better drop by the store for some more seeds...

Or not. It is closed.

Well, guess that's all Illy's doing today.

Luau, then...





Who the frack broke Illy's bridge?!

If Illy has to fix it again...!

Apparently, Marnine says, Illy can add some ingredients to the soup. She'll come back, socialising first.



Emily is enjoying herself, at least; everyone else is concerned about the soup and the governor’s presence...

After Illy does her rounds, she goes back to the soup. Okay, Illy guesses, since the only she has on her is some silver grapes, they can go in the soup. To add some... interesting flavour...?



Time for the luau to start...







Uh-oh...



Phew!

The luau was a success! Time for bed!

Wow, melons are worth 250g each! Illy will try and get another load down tomorrow!



Summer Day 12

Big harvest! The tomatoes are in - oh neat, they keep growing - as well as the hops, more peppers and the starfruit.

Clint wants some ore, so Illy will take a quick trip down the mine. She's not going to go down, just whip about and try and grab some copper.

Nice. With a bit of to-ing and froing (since she has to go down a bit, because you can only exit from the stair up apparently), Illy manages to get 20 copper ore - it might be too late to take it to Clint today, unless she can catch him in the bar - but tomorrow should be fine! But it is sufficently late, Illy goes straight home.

Illy plants the seeds she bought earlier (wheat, for definite this time), cuts another tree down and goes to bed.

Tomorrow, it sounds like a storm, which means it will be ideal for another trip down to the mines - after seeing Clint!



Ooh, Illy's farming is now level 5...!

Illy will go with tilling, since she hasn't got any animals yet. (It's on her list of things to do soon, now her money is creeping back up!)

Tomatoes are worth 66g, not bad...



Summer Day 13

The storm waters the plants, so Illy delivers Clint his ores and heads off down the mine!

After a bit of effort, she reaches level 40!



Yay...?

Illy pops down another level, which is mostly rock and ice, and finally just noses down one more and grabs a little bit or iron ore before legging it topside, since it's ten o'clock. Still, Illy has had a good day! Tomorrow, she will be doing her flower rounds again, and it seems like it would be a good time to upgrade her pickaxe.

Illy spends the last time re-organising her inventory. Oh, finally her jam has finished! That took a while...!

Then she can't get passed Kittymancer to get to bed! Eventually, with a combination of screaming and sword-waving, Illy get Kittymancer out of the way and she can go to sleep!

Huh, hops are only worth 25g....



Summer Day 14

Pam has left a note asking for Pale Ale. Illy has no idea how to get that, but okay... It's probably not a timed quest, so if Pam is not in a hurry...!

Well, hops at least seem to come very regularly, so that's actually not as bad. Oh, great, Illy's blueberries have started! Community centre is another job today!

Hahaha, Yesterday was Alex-short-for-Alexander's birthday! Oh no, Illy missed it, shame!

Hmm, a quest to kill slime frost slimes in the mines. Maybe Illy might manage that, either today or tomorrow, depending on how she gets on...



Oh, Illy hopes they will be much more than neighbours, if Abigail knows what she means...

Illy gives Haley her don't-be-mean flower, and then one to Emily.

Emily heads outside...




Pretty birds...


Illy shouldn't laugh, she did that one time when she was flying and it chuffing hurt. Mind you, she got her own back, as she lured Alluria (when they were still evil) into the same thing a bit later on and beat the crap out of her... Fun times. Sorta...

Emily sees the bird has broken its wing, and takes it in to nurse it back to health. Illy isn't sure this is a great idea with a wild bird (Emily's room is going to be covered in bird poop...), but the thought is very kind.

The geodes Illy has don't bring anything new, so the non-ore stones will be sold later. Illy gives Clint her pickaxe to upgrade and gores to the communuty centre.



Summer crops bundle done! And the reward is... a quality sprinkler! Niiiiice! That waters the eight tiles around it automatically. That might warrant a new crop field...

Illy's quick trip into the mine nets her five of the six slimes, so that's good.



It nearly didn't end well, though... Ouchouchouchouchouch!

Illy just barely makes it to the adventurer’s guild, since the other day, she completed one of their bounties (killing 125 insects) and gets... an Insect Head. Well, despite sounding unimpressive, it is a level 6 weapon, and like her steel sword, has a +2 speed. 10-20 damage instead of 4-8! Excellent! (Buying one from Gunthur is like, 10k!)

Back home!

It's going to rain tomorrow - a good day for a mine trip, then!

Oh, hey, there's a new channel, the "queen of sauce..." Illy learned how to cook pancakes! At some point, she should probably get a kitchen...

Time for bed!




Summer Day 15

Illy checks her plants and her corn and peppers are sprouting! Illy dumps them in the chest and rushes off to give Abigail her quartz - now she is at five hearts! (Out of ten. Illy is so in there!)

Illy nips into see Haley and Emily.



Oh dear, Haley can't get a jar open...



Yeah! No jar can withstand Illy!



Yes, Illy is! That's because she's a devil, Haley.

Illy's pickaxe isn't ready, oh well. To the mines anyway, but she won't be getting much other than that slime killed...



Ooh, Abigail is out in the rain, playing a lovely tune!



Illy likes rain, because it means she doesn't have to water plants. Also, Illy lived in a hell for a while, so anywhere that is not always on fire is also good.



Oh, this isn't sombre, Illy could tell you about sombre ambience...!

Abigail came to spend some alone time - but she doesn't mind Illy's company. (Shoulder!Alluria punches the air.)



Yeah, Illy agrees.



Yes! (Abigail doesn't want to know where Illy keeps it.) Illy decided she ought to take up harp lessons, as that might make her seem a bit more angel-like.



Shoulder!Alluria is doing a little victory dance.

Illy and Abby make beautiful music together.



(Not quite like Shoulder!Alluria would like, but it is a start!)

To the mine!

It takes Illy a couple of tries - sadly the lack of pickaxe is as hamstringing and she feared - but she finds and kills that last slime. Wow, her insect head is so much better than her sword!

She had better find Mayor Linkara, then...

He is at Robin's house. Illy discovers she needs 10k gold before she can get a kitchen.

Typical.

Maybe she should get a coop next... Actually, if she's really fast, she might be able to get Robin on that today, it's not like she's got much else to do!

No, no, dammit, not fast enough.

Tomorrow, then. Community centre, then...

Oh, Jodi wants a melon! Illy can provide that! Tomorrow, it's too late to find Jodi now.

Illy decides, against her better judgement, to finish up trying to do some fishing...

She catches, a broken CD, two broken pairs of glasses, trash and a soggy newspaper. And doesn't even see any fish.

Well, at least her fishing is slightly improving...

Time for bed.



And there we shall leave her for today...

[Keltest]

Did you hear the Legend of Zelda item get jingle in your head when you opened the chest for the slingshot?

[Aotrs Commander]

Did you hear the Legend of Zelda item get jingle in your head when you opened the chest for the slingshot?

No, but, I am the sort of dirty heretic that has never played a Legend of Zelda, game, I only have a culturally-osmosed dim idea of what that sounds like anyway; even if it was an actual thing in game, 50/50 I wouldn't have noticed...!



Part 5: This is Illy's Jam

Spoiler

Show

Sunday, Summer Day 16, Year One

It's raining again today. Well, if Illy can get her pickaxe back... It'd be another good go at the mines! So, Illy will leave Robin about the coop for another day.

Illy will have to find Jodi first, though...

Illy checks her crops - the wheat is done, as are more tomatoes and hops.

Illy runs into Penny on the way to the blacksmith's. Apparently Pam really doesn't like squid.



Now Illy is cooking with plasma!

Illy whips past the store to get some more wheat seeds (to be planted later, hopefully) and then swings by Jodi's house to give her the melon, for a cool 750g.

Back past the house to drop stuff off, then to the mines!

Bat swarm incoming!



No problem, with Illy's insect head!

Illy gets down to level 47, but it's getting late. (She lost a lot of time searching for the stairs on level 42.) Still, she's got a fair haul and she does what to plant those wheat seeds today.

Just done in time for bed!



Summer Day 17

After the farm chores, Illy's main job is the community centre today.

Oh double-dash-darn-it! The quality food bundle needs five gold MELONS, not tomatoes. *sigh* Well, Illy will just have to grow extra corn and pumpkins next season... It might be just a bit too late to plant a load of melon seeds...

Nothing completed, but a little bit more done.

Illy heads over tor Robin's to order her new coop.



That looks like a good spot. (And if not, she can always have it moved later, she supposes...)

Well, the store’s closed, so that means Illy can't plant a load of melons in time. Darn it.

There's so much on the beach, Illy can't even carry it all!



Well, Abby, Illy thinks you might be in luck...!

The jade Illy found in the mines is something she can donate to the museum while she's here stalking, uh, seeing Abby . Oh, a new reward, a nice painting to hang up.

Illy idly wondered about trying some fishing - Demetrius wants a pufferfish - but it's going to be too late - it's already twenty to seven and she hasn't got any space for her rod, let alone any fish! So she heads off home to unload all her fair-gotten gains.



Painting up...

Illy tries some of the larger stones with her pickaxe, but it still isn't strong enough. Another time, then; bedtime now.

All the tomatoes made Illy quite a tidy profit, and between that and the excellent foraging, Illy has made back over three-quarters of the 4k gold she spent on the coop. Neat!



Summer Day 18

Oh, that's sweet of Jodi!



Illy makes a forth chest - she's starting to run out of room, because she does like to keep a store of stuff. She then spends a bit of time looking for a suitable tree to put a tapper onto.



She... Thinks that's a maple?

Illy thinks maybe she should actually plant a tree or two for the purposes properly for later.

Illy has used up a lot of the day, so she decides to be foolish and try and go fishing. But first, she will buy the better rod and some trout soup from Willy and see if it at all helps...

Illy catches a broken CD, five seaweed, three cans of Joja Cola (well, that's new...) and four escaped fish she barely even got started on.

WAIT. Illy had a bamboo pole already, so she just wasted 500g? Thanks for that Willy!

(Fantastic. Looks like there is nowhere to sell the rods, and the only option is to trash them. Annoying. In the bin with it, then, not wasting a slot on something useless...)

Illy storms off to bed.



Well, that's SOMETHING. Maybe Illy can buy some better stuff - or at least trout soup (which gives you a +1 to fishing) will get her slightly higher while she's mostly catching junk. Hopefully, as soon as she can get some bait, she can start using the crabpots, which might be easier...)




Summer Day 19

It's raining-



-um, hello, Demetrius. Sorry Illy really sucks at fishing and couldn't get you that pufferfish you wanted.




Illy doesn't, but she will investigate shortly...





Hmm...

Difficult choice.

(Even looking on the interwebs.)

Illy decides that, on balance, she will go with the mushrooms and she'll grow her fruit later on.

(I could NOT find the cave for the life of me, I eventually had to go and look it up - it's way to the south-east. I wasn't going to waste a rain day in fruitless searching, so I reloaded, as Illy hadn't done anything of note until then.)

Straight to the mines! Illy will find the cave tomorrow.

Uh-oh...



Big slime turns into little slimes...



But, Illy's stupidly good insect head grants her success with relative ease!

Down to level 50! and Illy has some tundra boots! +2 defence and +1 immunity, which is +1 defence over her leather boots. Neat!



Oh, ghosts. They take quite a bit of killing!



Illy makes it all the way down to level 55! She had found quite a bit of stuff, including a glow ring, which provides constant light! That is really neat!

Time for bed!

Huzzah! Combat level four!





Summer Day 20

It's raining again today! Illy is thinking mine again, while she can!



Can do Demetrius!

Replant the harvested wheat first, with freshly bought seeds...

Hi Abby!



Illy heads to the mine.



She gets down to level 60 - barely, and she is sure she's going to be very late tonight. Actually, no, she just makes it home and ten-past midnight.

Hoorah! Level four mining!





Summer Day 21



Oooh, neat!



Seems unlikely, Haley, but Illy might try?

Blacksmith first - Illy might pop back later if she has time to upgrade her pickaxe to steel (she's not planning to go down the mines for a day or two whatever). Illy gets coal, a soapstone and kyanite.

To the museum!

Illy's donations net her another nice picture.

Alex-short-for-Alexander threw away his shoes yesterday because they had a smudge on them.



Wow, Alex-short-for-Alexander is a massive douche.

Community centre, and Illy completes the adventurer’s bundle!



For which she gets a small magnet ring, for increasing collection radius. She has one already, so as the next stop is the adventurer’s guild, it can be sold.

Wait, no, first pickaxe to be upgraded to steel while Clint is still open - the adventurer’s guild opens late and closes late compared to everyone else, fortunately.

Illy gives Haley her flower in passing...

Illy sells all her excess gear. she debates on the crystal dagger, which is a level nine weapons, but... She has seen that daggers only attack right in front instead of an arc, and Illy would much rather stick with her sword.

Well, as Illy passes Marnie on the way to Marnie's house, Illy is not getting any chickens today...

So, back to the farm, she'll see if she can reach that cave...

No, she cannot, and it's such a torturous route she's very late to bed. Oops!



Well, that's excellent news!

Wait... Warp totem? Is that what Illy thinks it might be...?



Summer Day 22

No, not quite. It is a consumable item (boo!) that requires hardwood, two coral and ten fibre (Illy has TONS of fibre...) that warp you to the beach. Okay, but not massively useful. Maybe once Illy has the backpack upgrade and some spare slots...

The lightning rod looks interesting - it creates battery packs into batteries. Well, Illy does have one refined quartz she got from the caves, so maybe she'll make one today!

Illy has to have a quick re-arrange of her paintings...



Lightning rod in place!



Illy has to work to get to Abby today, since she's all the way up to the train station.

Emerald farm, despite being well-tended, has no-one in sight. How strange.



Okay, note to Illy's self, Haley REALLY likes gold sunflowers.

DARN IT! Marnie's ranch closes at four (what?) and Illy is twenty minutes late.

Illy goes back to the farm (after giving a sunflower to Emily) and plants some peppers, just so that the space the melons occupied doesn’t weed over too much.

She starts making some in-roads to a sensible route to the cave before bedtime, but it's quite a long jaunt!



Oh heavens, yes! She can now make her own quality sprinklers! Come fall, Illy is definitely setting up a new crop field, one that will self water!



Summer Day 23

Darn. The quality sprinkler requires both gold bars and refined quartz, so Illy is not making any of those yet...

Illy will take the melon to Demetrius today, see if she can buy chickens from Marnie, and have another go at getting to that cave - oh, actually, and pick up her pickaxe! Come to that, maybe she ought to drop her axe off of upgrade, it'll make cutting through the other logs much easier, though she might not get to the cave...



Good for Haley!

No really, having to find Illy when she's all over the place whenever Haley wants a jar opened would be a pain. Even Illy doesn't know where Illy will be day-to-day...!

Marnie, Illy is beginning to see why Mr Pator doesn't like you. Are you EVER at your ranch?



Huzzah, steel axe!



...

Clint, Illy wonders if you know gold is softer than iron and steel, right?

*sigh*

Just... Just take Illy's axe.

Illy find Demetrius on the way home to give him his melon. Then, back to the farm to hack away that route...

Another train passes through as Illy works.

Illy still doesn't get down there - she clearly needs her axe - and upgraded at that. Still, she got a fair bit of forage.



With the big rocks cleared, Illy might be able to use this now...

Time for bed...



Summer Day 24

Alluria has sent Illy a letter about how she read in the paper about Illy's amazing farm. Neat.

Dangit. Illy was going to but some more wheat to fill the gaps in the last four days of summer, but, of course, it's Wednesday, so the store is closed.

Okay then, Marnie...!

Illy buys some brown chickens. She names them: Jubilee, Pixie and Mercury. Illy doesn't know how many she can get in a coop, but that's all she can afford at the moment.

Illy looks in the forest near Marnie's for some forage, but finds a grape (which she gives to Leah as she passes), and the heads to the beach.

Uh-oh, Haley is looking upset.



Was it Alex-short-for-Alexander? Did he do something? Illy doesn't have a shovel, but perhaps her hoe will do. Or Illy could take him down to the mines or something, if it would help?



Oh! Okay, Illy will help search, she has excellent Perception and Search skills!



Illy suspects Haley may not be quite that shallow...?



Seriously, Illy is great at finding stuff on the beach, Haley!



Yeah, Illy thought it sounded like something really important that couldn't be simply replaced.



Hah, Illy is the best at this!



Yeah, Illy is just that good. She told you, didn't she?




It is no problem, Haley. This is what Illy does!

(Shoulder!Alluria is very pleased...)

Illy grab some more beach salvage, before heading off. Clint can't open geodes while he's working on Illy's tools, so that's a nuisance.

Though perhaps as it is the end of the season, tomorrow, Illy ought to get him to work on her hoe as well, actually...



Anytime, Haley!

Illy makes a warp totem for the beach anyway, to keep one on hand in case she needs it.

Chickens!



Time for a bit of construction work - put up a fence and build a mayonnaise machine, since eggs will hopefully be coming long soon.



Little bit of fishing to use the last time before bed (more junk!)




Summer Day 25

George has asked for some hot pepper. Lucky Illy kept one by for exactly this sort of thing!

Illy sorts her chests out a bit better, and makes them more organised.

As she heads out on her rounds, she runs across Maru. Maru is talking about building a robot someday.

You go, Maru, make that robot! Have a flower!

Pepper is delivered - George is grumpy as usual.

Steel axe! Illy leaves her hoe for upgrade. She can now upgrade her watering can too, but a) she'll need more copper bars and b) it would be better to wait until winter or autumn when the rain should be more regular.

Illy gives Penny and Leah flowers, and then heads back towards the farm, via the beach and then Marnie (to give her a flower, Illy needs those shorts. Actually, you'd have thought Marnie would have picked them up by now, really, wouldn't you?)

Hooray, Marnie is now close enough friends with Illy to let her into her bedroom to take shorts and read all her secret love letters!



It's fine, Illy is going to be a paladin of the goddess of love (and sex), so this is totally her territory.



See, clearly Mayor Linkara is helping Marnie over her bereavement of her presumable husband. Nothing at all wrong with that, at all. Good for them, Illy thinks.

Back to the farm, more route-making and...



OHH! Is that the cave! Darn it, Illy missed it in the dark all those times, she thought it was down that ladder - that, having cleared the big dead log, she can also look down.

Plenty of mushrooms...



And even more down the ladder in this clearing, wherever it is...



With a full load, Illy goes back to bed.




Summer Day 26

It's raining again.

Illy checks on the chickens. They look a little thin? Whoops. She thought the hay was self-dispensing, but apparently, she has to take it out of the dispenser and put it on the side.

It might have helped, Illy though, it at any point, it had ever said that...

Okay, so maybe after Illy delivers the purple shorts, she might take a quick trip down the mine, then...

Hi, Mayor Linkara, here's your pants that were in Marnie's bedroom!



Illy gives the mayor a look and then a high-five.

Illy heads out to the mine.



She had another good day - with plenty of luck on the stairs, she makes it all the way down to level 70!



And gets a master slingshot. Wooo.

Illy gets back just after midnight.



Summer Day 27



Oh, Illy wouldn't miss it for the world...!

Illy goes to Clint and gets her hoe, plus opens the three frozen geodes she found yesterday. They are stone, a fairy stone and an ocean stone. Neat.

Huh. Illy finds her collection screen not only tells the information about the stones (saving her the time of having to go to the exhibits), but it also tells her the value of all the stuff like crops she's been selling. Duh. Useful. (Illy already knows she can access the community centre screen from her inventory, but the lists she can tick off are more useful to her...!)

Hi Victor.



Who is this Susan? Illy has not met her - presumably she's the one on the big farm north...?

Illy sees Penny and Jas and Vincent heading to the playground. Penny seems miffed by all the undergrowth, so Illy goes and clears a load of it off the park. Little bit of community service for everyone.



Yah, funny how being fed works wonders, right?

Illy goes to the adventurer’s guild, as she has some gear to get rid of. She found two pairs of combat boots yesterday (+3 defence) and elects, after some research, to sell one and replace her tundra boots with the other.

Back at the farm, Illy prepares for tomorrow - being Sunday, it's gift giving time again.

Oh, hey, wow, the tapper has finally made some maple syrup!

Illy uses it to finally make a beehive, as she's been wanting to make a Deadly Bee Weapon for absolutely ages...



Illy considers making another one, but she's awfully short of copper bars. She's going to have to take a trip to the upper levels of the mine for some more, since the ice caves (level 40 and down) only tend to have iron ore.

She does plant a pine cone and an acorn, though, so she will have one of each tree in a sensible location to put tappers on later - by the entrance walk, so she will see whenever she walks past.

Illy grabs three various gold fruit, just in case she needs them for tomorrow, and then goes to bed.



Summer Day 28

Mayor Linkara has sent a letter to Illy with his recipe for spaghetti. When Illy gets a kitchen...

Jellies floating past the beach at ten o'clock tonight. Well, that's more time than Illy thought she had...



Wow, they grew fast! Eggs, at last...

Illy puts one right in the mayonnaise machine.

She takes her last harvest - dang it, those last hot peppers haven't quite come in. Illy hopes the ancient seed won't die when the weather change to fall, that would be very disappointing, it's been growing steadily.

Illy completely fails to while away the day fishing, because fishing is stupidly hard.

(Seriously, if you are not a twitcher (and am I EMPHATICALLY not, I don't touch platformers or stuff like that with a barge pole and I hate QTEs with a burning passion), and playing on a mouse and keyboard, it's basically impossible. I have a REALLY good mind to go and find a damned mod. It doesn't EVEN give you time to practise, the bar vanishes so fast, you can't even make any kind of attempt to practise, because if you make a slight mistake (which you will) you lose before you can even work out how to correct it. The game BADLY needs this supposed "beginner's rod" in the next patch. Especially since, of course, fishing gets EASIER the higher level you are and the more stuff you have. Talk about backwards difficultly curves. Easily the worst part of the game.)

Grumpily, Illy heads to the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies at the beach.



Again, Illy is a devil, Her perception is EXCELLENT.



Ooh, Illy knows, but enough about Abby, how 'bout them jellies, is Illy right?




Maybe, but Illy kinda likes eerie.

After talking to everyone, Illy settles back. Soon they will launch the candle-boat and the jellies, presumably seeing the light, will come to investigate.

Illy knows that large migrations frequently attract predators, and this is sort of the exact instance where a surprise boss monster would attack if she was playing Final Fantasy or something, so she keeps a steady grip on the hilt of her sword.

Off goes the boat...



Oh, well, there's a jelly, Illy doesn't see what...



Ohhhh.Oooooooooh.



That is a lot of glowing jellies.



Look, there's even a special one like a boss monster one right in front of Illy!



Yep, Illy thinks, nature is awesome.

Illy is a little late to bed that night.



Autumn Day 1



Illy checks the chickens, collects the eggs and goes to assess the damage.



Good, good, corn and ancient seeds are still growing.

Illy puts a new chest in-between the beehive and mayonnaise machine - this one will be used for animal stuff (and honey.)

Illy goes to the store and mostly empties her funds buying seeds. She buys a bit of everything. She notes she ought to try and get some of the fruit trees in this month, so they will have time to grow before spring. Sadly, she won't getting any apples or pomegranates this year (unless she can buy some...), since they fruit in autumn, and it takes a full month for them to grow. Darn.

Illy quickly does her gift rounds to Abby, Haley, Emily, Penny and Leah and then heads back to the farm for a lot of planting...

Oh, Andy wants some Joja cola. Well, Illy has fished some of that, at least. It can't be any worse for being in water, right?

Back to t'farm.

It takes Illy the rest of the day and night to set up. She puts a load of corn around the quality sprinkler, and a scarecrow at the requisite 6-radius. (Scarecrows have a radius of eight squares, but that means that a radius of six should be enough to tessellate without any gaps.) The rest of the seeds go in the older field.






Autumn Day 2

Great, it's raining! That saves Illy a lot of extra work!

Illy spends the morning instead going to down the mushroom cave and clearing the autumn debris. Luckily, she remembers to check the calendar today - it's Penny's birthday, and Abby's on the 13th. Illy whips back to the farm - maybe Penny would like some of Illy's nice spice berry jam?



She does! Neat!

Illy catches Andy with his evil sea-waste cola, but whatever, he's happy, the poor schulb.

Illy spends the rest of the day foraging and takes a quick trip to level 35 and down of the mine, just to gather some copper ore. She also finds a bomb, which... Is a thing? (Illy has half-a-dozen cherry bombs she keeps forgetting to take down the mine to blow up rocks with too...)

She has found just enough stuff - three wild plums, a hazel nut and a black berry, she can complete another bundle tomorrow.

Time for sleep!



Autumn Day 3

Marnie has left a note for Illy to please bring her some amaranth? Illy will do so, but her plants will have to grow first.

Illy takes a moment to appreciate her sprinkler.



Holy crap! Illy's ancient seed has born ancient fruit! And it looks like it will keep fruiting! Fantastic!

Sebastian wants a common mushroom. Well, that won't be hard, Illy is really not short of mushrooms..!

Abby wants to know if Illy is growing pumpkins on her farm, and to save one for her. Illy absolutely will do that!

Illy even finds a mushroom as she goes to get a couple of geodes broken, and Sebastian is happy.

Illy goes to the community centre and completes the Fall foraging bundle!



And gets a packet of thirty wild seeds! Yay, even more things to water!

Victor's mum has notes on illegal wine fermenting, apparently. The mind boggles.

Illy plants the seeds, cuts down a couple of trees in her way, and then calls it a night.

She watches the telly for a bit and learns how to make a radish salad. One day, Illy will have a kitchen...



Autumn Day 4

Dear old Gus has sent Illy some pancakes!

After the chores, Illy is at a bit of something of a loss, so she does a wander around town; maybe she'll get to the beach today for some more foraging, or perhaps to the mines to try and get some more copper.



Illy has no idea.

Beach, the mine. Maybe Illy will go down to new levels...

SKELLINGTON!



(Why does that remind Illy of someone she knows...?)

And now the mine is a haunted dungeon. Illy is slightly concerned where this might end up...

She gets down to level 76 before calling it a day.

On the way home, Sebastian informs her that his room would be less depressing if it had a window.

He literally lives in his mother's basement. You'd have though, Robin-the-architect, would have made a house with more upper stories...?

Illy also got a ghost fish! Neat. Huh, that's in the speciality bundle with pufferfish... Maybe pufferfish live in the mines, not the sea...? (Not that with ILLY'S fishing skill it matters...)



Oh, nice!

Yeah, scout requires luck, Illy is gonna stick with fighter, which is, after all properly paladin-y anyway.



Autumn Day 5

It's raining again. And without any pressing urges, Illy is thinking mine again!

Hmm, Clint is after more copper. Maybe Illy will have a dive at that later, after she's got down further.

Illy makes her way down and reaches level 80!



Firewalker boots! +3 defence +3 immunity!

Illy is going to enter hell here, isn't she?

Yeah.



The heavens is that?

Illy gets to level 85, which is not bad. She'll have to get Clint's ore tomorrow.

Good news, though, she finally has enough gold ore to start making gold bars!



Oh, decision time again...

After a lot of thought, Illy decides on geologist, because the higher-up skill choices are better. Though is seems there is not a lot in it...



Autumn Day 6

Demetrius has sent Illy a bream! Excellent! Illy is definitely making a community centre trip today...

Illy will need to make a quick trip to the mines for Clint's ores, but that should not take very long. In fact, that's Illy's first job after watering.

It doesn't take long at all and Illy turns them in for inspection.

Right, back to the farm, Illy needs a gold bar!

Gold bars take a long time...! Illy also forgot to get Clint to break her geodes. She does manage to drop off the spare gear she found at the adventurer's guild; but by the time the gold bar has finally done, it is too late, the community centre will have to wait until tomorrow.



Next time!

[Keltest]

Im sorry, did I read that right? does Maple Syrup somehow lead to beehives? How? What?

[Kantaki]

Well, the narration is certainly hillarious.
Also, it took me way to long too get the thread's title.

[Aotrs Commander]

Im sorry, did I read that right? does Maple Syrup somehow lead to beehives? How? What?

Yes, that is a requirement component for making a beehive.

No, I don't know why.

Well, the narration is certainly hillarious.

*tips helmet*

Also, it took me way to long too get the thread's title.

Sometimes, I think I get a bit too clever for myself; I'd probably have done better saving that for a subtitle in hindsight...!



On w' show!

Part 6: Getting Dirty

Spoiler

Show

Sunday, Autumn Day 7, Year One



Wow, Illy's day is off to a grand start!

After plants and chickens - and putting another gold bar in - Illy heads out. Today is Sunday, so Illy will be handing out more gifts, as well as tackling the community centre drop-offs.

Wow, Haley is really liking Illy's sunflowers. She's up to eight hearts...!

Abby is thinking of dying her hair...

(What, Illy thinks, it's not naturally purple?!)

She wonders what Illy thinks.

Illy considers, bubblegum pink is certainly one option, but Illy honestly prefers the purple.



Yeah, but that doesn't not make it the truth! Illy really likes the purple!

Illy geodes contain clay and bixite (which is going to the museum!) For this and the ruby she donated, Illy gets... A Singing Stone to put up, which apparently rings when you strike it. Neat.

At the community centre, Illy completes the blacksmith's bundle!



And the reward is... another furnace? Well, that... seems a little redundant, but Illy supposes it will allow her to make bars faster?

She is now just finding a fire quartz away from completing this whole section, and apparently repairing the mine carts. Illy wonder if she'll be able to use them to travel around if she does...

Illy loops back home and clears a bit more of the area around the mushroom cave, but it quickly gets late so she heads to bed - after putting the new furnace next to the old one.



Autumn Day 8, Year One

Jodi left a note with her first place-cooking prize fried calamari recipe! How nice!



Oho...! (Though Illy suspects this may be principally for Haley, as Abby's hearts are not quite there yet. Haley just REALLY loves sunflowers...!)

And finally, Linus has lost his blackberry basket! Illy will help find it for him!

Illy puts her singing stone in place...It *tings*. Illy giggles.



Chore time!

Before heading out on her gift routine, Illy has a bit of a clear-out. She has finally realised that there is no point in keeping star quality crops and fruit, since aside from the specific quality crops goal, higher star items don't make better results. She needs to SELL the star items and keep a stock of regular items for processing or requests. Except for anything like flowers she intends to sell as gifts. As a bonus, this will not only make Illy quite a few pennies today, but also clears her stock out.

Also, she now has more honey and some more maple syrup.

Her amaranth has also grown, so she can take that to Marnie.

Clint wants ores again, so after chores, Illy will have to dip into the mine again for a bit... Or not, since now Willy wants some fish, which there is no way Illy is going to catch... Darnit.

So... bouquets or not to bouquets...

Hmm, this requires a lot of careful thought. Illy goes into a meditative trance to contact Azurella, her goddess of love (and sex).

(And some research. I'm trying not to use the wiki more than I have to (unlike most games I play...!), but here, so as not to screw anything up... *reads* Okay, so with potential spouses, once you hit 8 hearts, they are essentially maxed out and won't decay unless you give them a bouquet, when you can unlock the next two. (Non-romance interests max out at full ten hearts.))

Azurella agrees with Shoulder!Alluria that Illy is on the right track, but she hints Illy will want a rabbit's foot as some point. And maybe hold off on the bouquets for a little bit, before Illy goes mad and gives them to everyone...

Illy blushes and shuffles a bit uncomfortably, but hey, literally blessing from her goddess, so okay.

Also, Azurella says, why has Illy not been petting her chickens? That makes them happy and they lay better eggs!

What the what! Illy thinks.

Illy blinks and realises she's been staring vacantly into space for a while. Pierre is looking a little nervous...

Emily tells Illy Haley really hates wild horseradish. Illy will remember that for sure.



Well, great, you can have one for each arm, Haley! You can, like, dual-wield bracelets!

Illy delivers more gifts, and then drops the amaranth for Marnie's cows.

Illy does some more work and foraging, and because she has a full inventory and has to make a couple of trips, manages not to get to bed before one-thirty. Oops!

Plus side, selling off all her silver and gold crops makes Illy kind of stupid amounts of money: 9301g!

Wow! Illy can afford a kitchen, or a backpack or some fruit trees now!



Autumn Day 9, Year One



Hello, Marnie... Ya, Illy did not know she was supposed to per her chickens. She... Really did not think that was a thing you did to farms animals... She is sorry?



Oh! Right! Um, Marnie can forget everything Illy just said?



Um... Okay, that is... Certainly a thing Marnie is doing? Illy can certainly try and find some cave carrots when she's in the mine next time; she might even have one spare somewhere.

Marine also left Illy a note on how to make rhubarb pie. Nice.

Hmm... Kitchen?



Illy picked exactly the wrong day to sell most of her silver and gold items, didn't she?

(Actually, Illy does have a few gold and silver flowers and stuff she hasn't had ordinary items of, so actually, she's not too bad.)

Chores... Remembering to PET the chickens. Illy also needs to try and sow some grass seeds and let the chickens outside, as that will make the happier. Hmm... Illy might have to expand the little fence area...

Illy does some research. Illy needs to expand that area A LOT!

Illy heads to the store and buys a load of grass starters. As this takes her below the 10k mark, she elects to buy a cherry and apricot starter as well.

Illy munches on some of her mushrooms for energy, and then gets started. Good news - gates can be recycled. Fences cannot, but never mind. Illy accidently makes too many gates, but actually having several is probably not that bad an idea...



There. Better.

Still have to plant the fruit trees now, though...



There. Illy will make a field of vertical lines of trees for tapper and fruit, and that way, when they are all ready for harvesting, she will see them as she passes.

Done just in time for bed!



Excellent!



Autumn Day 10, Year One

Marnie left a recipe for pale broth. When Illy gets that kitchen, she'll have plenty of things to make!

The warp totem is for the mountains, not far from Robin's and the mine... And now Illy realises what those statues are, they are the exit points, ahaha!

The ancient fruit has again grown, and all of the wild seeds can be harvested.

Illy sells the silver crops, but will keep at least one gold handy for the festival next week.

Illy goes to take her cave carrot to Marnie next.

Oh, Haley is out taking pictures! Cool!





It certainly is pretty, Illy agrees.





Shoulder!Alluria is doing the victory dance again. Well, Illy reckons, she has done a good job of redeeming, clearly...



Uhhhh... Maybe too well...?




Sure? Illy is entirely sure that cows are safe to approach for devils.




This seems entirely like a good idea.



Ah. Illy suspects she has realised the flaw in this plan.



Um... Whoops?




Oh, well, that's a relief!



Illy think she ought to do the same - a cold shower, but them remembers she doesn't have a bathroom. This would be more of a concern, given the lack of toilet, but no-one else seems to have one either.



Ah, Er, hi, Marnie. About what just happened with your cows...? Illy coughs into her hand and hands Marnie the cave carrot. You saw nothing, yes?



It is not the dirtiest Illy has been. If Haley knows what Illy means, is Illy right?

Shoulder!Alluria devolves into cackles.

Illy slides past the beach and then heads to up give Maru a flower, since she didn't get one earlier.



Oooh, this sounds interesting!



Sure! Illy means, she is more used to making things explode a lot with chemicals, but why not!



As stated on previous occasions, Illy's perception skills are beyond compare. The beaker is so watched.

Should Illy do anything if it moves? Maru? Maru? Oh, she's gone.

Demetrius thanks Illy for helping.



Uh... Should Illy be concerned where this is going...? No, actually, should Demetrius be concerned where this is going. Shoulder!Alluria certainly thinks so...




Hahaha! Illy is an ex-devil who has killed more people than Demetrius has ever met!

Just for food for thought...



Illy and Demetrius shared talk of their foods, didn't they? That is why Demetrius looks a bit green, isn't it? Hahaha! We're all friends, here, right Demetrius? Not fiends. Even though Illy is one by species!



Yes. We better had!

No, Shoulder!Alluria, ti-trate; that does not mean what you think it means, so making those motions with your hands.



Oh, honey, Shoulder!Alluria notes, Illy already knows how to "use the equipment," if Maru knows what Shoulder!Alluria means. (Maru cannot hear Shoulder!Alluria, which is probably just as well.)



No problem, Maru! Have a flower!

Illy has a chat with Robin, and then decides to head to the mines for a bit, since she's here. (Actually, maybe she ought to look for Linus' basket, too... But it's not near the mines. downwards, then!)



What the heavens is that!?

It knocks out Illy in seconds which some sort of green area-effect attack.

(And of COURSE I did not save before entering, even though I thought about it. Well, have to take that one, sadly, since there's no way I’m doing all that again... Seriously, though, it shot me about three times with ranged attacks and Illy died. The FRACK.)



Yeah, that went badly.



FRAG DAMMIT.

Illy heads back in, and makes it back down to level 80, at least.

Well, Illy thinks, that was a sucky end to an otherwise great day.

Home and bed...



Autumn Day 11, Year One



Haley really enjoyed herself yesterday! Well, that makes Illy's bad evening less bad. Thanks, Haley!

Illy will let the chickens out today!



Illy harvests her yams and eggplants. She will sell most of them later, but she does think she ought to go back down the mine again later, perhaps...

Illy wanders into to town and buys some more yam seeds. She wastes time trying to get her frozen geodes opened, only to realise they were frozen tears instead.

There is a quest to slay four fire slimes, though, which Illy hopes she can manage, if she doesn't run into anymore... Whatever that was.

(Yah, and that's why I saved this time. Dead on the second floor VERY quickly. The difficulty spike here is sudden ludicrous... Oh, those damn things can heal themselves, too. NATURALLY this happened after I got a fire quartz and didn't instantly save...)

Not this fricking time!



The heavens are THOSE?!



Because the mines are really being annoying today, Illy doesn't get to bed until 1:50.



Well, Illy's getting good at farming...



Autumn Day 12, Year One

Illy does her chores, then heads down to grab some mushrooms from the cave, before heading off to get a geode opened.

Illy almost forgot to turn in her slime quest to Mayor Linkara!

Wow, Illy is having a good run - the geode was just stone.

Well, Illy guesses she'll bring Demetrius the gold bar he wants... By the time Illy gets it, Demetrius has at least made his way into the saloon... Huh...



There is a lot of folk in the saloon today, what gives...?

(Haha, look at Mayor Linkara and Marnie in the corner there! Subtle, not at all...!)

Emily and Gus give Illy a free drink on the house.



Oooh, hard choice!

Illy is tempted to the Big Bang, because explosions, but the Shooting Comet frankly sounds awesome.



Illy choose well, then!

Illy really needed that, thanks!

Demetrius gets his gold bar - if nothing else, Illy's made some money today!

Wow, everyone is here? What's the occasion? It's not Abby's birthday until tomorrow!



Illy heads back home and has a slightly earlier night.

Tomorrow is Abby's birthday!




Autumn Day 13, Year One

Illy is going to give Abby a diamond she found and has been saving. Hopefully Abby will love that!

Demetrius has left Illy a recipe for fried mushroom as an additional thanks for his gold! And Jodi bought too much fertiliser again and has sent five basic fertilisers to Illy as well. And Illy though Abby would be the one getting presents today...!

Illy's Fairy roses have come in.

Yes, Abby loves the diamond! I would put her to nine hearts (Illy is confused for a second...!) but until Illy gets the bouquets, it's still eight...



Abby loves Illy's hair! Illy is so pleased!

Haley thinks it is too cold to go to the beach. She asks Illy what she should do. Illy considers... Haley like pictures, so maybe she could do some watercolour painting? Or go and hang out with Abby, as it's her birthday...?

(Shoulder!Alluria indicates that Haley better get used to spending time with Abby, if Illy knows what Shoulder!Alluria means.)

Illy decides she will waste her day entirely, and go to the beach and fail at fishing for a bit.

Naturally, Willy is not there. Because of course he isn't.

Abby seems to have spent the day at the... bus stop? Well, whatever turns her on, hush Shoulder!Alluria.

After running a full loop of the village, Illy spots Willy fishing and gives up on getting anything useful done. She thinks maybe some fishing, and then perhaps another look south-east for Linus' missing basket.

No luck on either account, so Illy goes home and knocks a couple of tree down before bed.



Autumn Day 14, Year One



OH HEAVENS YES! Illy and Shoulder!Alluria are in tandem. That diamond WAS the right choice, oh yeah! Illy knows what SHE'S doing tonight!

Illy's pumpkins have come in. Nice! She has six gold ones - one for Abby (she did promise!) and five for the community centre. Illy just needs one more darned gold corn and that bundle is done...

Harvey wants some seaweed, so that's a very easy 60g. Illy buys more pumpkin seeds to re-plant, hopefully she should get another crop in before winter, just!

Abby really loved the pumpkin - but of course! Illy's best!

It's three o'clock, so perhaps Illy will go fishing, as Willy is actually in today...

Well, aside from some junk, that was a total waste of Illy's time. She never gets close.

(Again, I cannot work out how you are supposed to do it. The bar is phenomenally touchy, and once you get above the fish, you've basically lost, because the gauge empties almost instantly.)

Illy grumpily stomps towards home. Wait, wasn't there something she was supposed to be do...ing...



Oh, Illy likes where this is going!



Illy is all ears, Abby. (So is Shoulder!Alluria.)



Illy thinks this is getting better and better!



Illy is beaming like the brightest dawn sun now. Shoulder!Alluria is also happy Abby is all sweaty.



How... how is Abby getting that from Illy's complete inability to speak through her drool...?



No, no, Illy, REALLY thinks this is extra super-duper cool! And also hot! Very hot! And very cool! Abby is all the temperatures!



Illy winces a bit and points out that it's not always safe to go there armed. On the other hand, adventurers always travel in parties, sooooo... (Shoulder!Alluria has a different party in mind right now.)



Yes! So very much yes! Illy's eyes are hearts now.



Totally! Illy high-fives Shoulder!Alluria when Abby looks away for a moment.



Dammit, WHY does Illy not have a bouquet right now!



No.



NO.



MOTHERF-



It is lucky Illy is already blue, because whatever the lady equivalent of blue-balls is, it is not as noticeable.





YES! YES, LET'S!!!!



Abby is nearly flattened by Illy's rush.



Illy likes where this is going!

*time passes*




Illy is not sure she understands. Monsters have been a thing for ages (Illy would know, she technically IS one), so what strange spore of madness are Abby's parents?



Abby, Illy will listen to you ANYTIME.



Illy is sorry about that, she probably ought to shave if this is going to be more regular. It's been a while and it's not like she has a bathroom! (Shoulder1Alluria is lying on her back, glassy-eyed.)

Yeah. Yeah, Illy is good now. Illy needed that oh so much. Illy just floats back home to bed.

(Pumpkins are worth A LOT of money...! Ten silver ones made Illy 4400g!)



And there we shall leave Illy, who will tomorrow be trying to work out how she can take a shower without a shower to stop being all sticky...



(Yes, I went there. If the game is going to make it that easy...!)

[Kantaki]

Sometimes, I think I get a bit too clever for myself; I'd probably have done better saving that for a subtitle in hindsight...!

Eh, I think a good part of that's on me. Never claimed I was good at puzzling stuff like this out.

On w' show!

Part 6: Getting Dirty

Getting dirty indeed.
And that's why riding cows is a bad idea, Haley.

[Keltest]

Fun fact. Cows can kick sideways and don't like people standing behind them.

[Aotrs Commander]

Fun fact. Cows can kick sideways and don't like people standing behind them.

People forget that a cow is quite capable of doing soem damage if it has a mind, just based on the size...!

Onwards...!

(Oh, I should note that this breakneck update pace will abate at least briefly, in about another week, since I'll be away!)


Part 7: Heavy Things

Spoiler

Show

Monday, Autumn Day 15, Year One

Mayor Linkara has left Illy a note to bring nine items to display for the fair tomorrow.

Illy's new corn around the sprinkler has come in, and she finally has enough gold corn to complete the bundle!

But Illy will leave that for today. Illy thinks she should have another go at the mine.

Illy finally finds a fire quartz!

(And this time I saved... I actually took about five reloads to get past level 89, since the game kept spawning hundreds of slimes down there - at one point, when I was doing well, it took past midnight and I was still not done; until finally it spawned a sensible number I was able to kill... Just! Slimes are really fracking tedious. Their jump attack is INCREDIBLY annoying, considering they are the most common enemy, and it won't let you turn while attacking. Especially combined with your attacks all having the knockback (I don't want knockback, it harms more than it helps, since it shoves the slimes away where they jump).



JUST DIE, ILLY WANTS TO GO TO BED!

Illy has decided she hates slimes.

She does at least get to level 90 and gets an obsidian blade, which does a lot of damage, but impedes her speed... Illy is not sure that is great?

Illy is late to bed, but at least she has a load of stuff now...

Still, she was still full of beans, so at least it wouldn't do her any harm.



Autumn Day 16, Year One

Illy does her chores and digs out a lot of stuff for the festival.



There, that should be enough! Illy figures her artisan goods ought to be good as well as her gold crops; those seem most likely to impress people!

Festival time!



Apparently, you can earn star tokens to spend at the shop; Sam says there is a slingshot game. Illy has the horribly feeling she's going to suck at all the game, isn't she?

OH, a new face!



Hi, Rebecca!

She seems nice.

Apparently, people actually come in from all around for the festival - there are tourists here!



Illy will have some of those free burgers! Yum!



Wow, this festival is HUUUGE!



Illy, like the two tourist gentlemen, suspects Rasmodius may have been cheating on growing his pumpkin, somehow.





A meteor- Illy is fairly sure that is not how farming works. Where are Demetrius and Maru when she needs back-up?

Ah, Illy finds the area to display her goods.



Not too shabby. Poppy, melon, eggplant, cauliflower, strawberry jam, wild honey, fairy rose, egg and amaranth! Illy has quality! (And apparently, quantity doesn't matter, since Illy can only put one of any item in anyway!)



Help Illy beat them? Illy is sure she will suck.



Oh, what a shame, Alex-short-for-Alexander. (Illy thinks if she is lucky, his arms will drop off.)



Oh, minimum wage clowns. Actually, even juggling two balls in both hands isn't that hard, it three or more than makes it difficult..!



But, buuuut... Relationship counselling is part of a Paladin of Azurella's job (as she is the goddess of love (and sex))... Phooey.



Well, the mines are pretty dangerous, tourist. Illy had a dream about being killed five times in the mine yesterday...

Rassy says he knows her, so Illy will have her fortune read...



SURELY Mayor Linkara and her family wouldn't forget...?



Yes, Illy likes this.



Illy is not sure she likes this...



Illy would tell him off, but his litter prevents her from reaching him.

(Oh sure, THAT guy gets to be bald...)



Oh, darnit, can Illy have some of that luck?



Niiiiice, Clint, very nice. Hey, Illy will bear you in mind if the paladins need some work done, seriously!

*sigh*

Well, Illy supposes, she's put this off long enough, she will have to try the games now.

First, the strength game.



Yeah, Illy is bad at this, but at least it doesn't cost anything...

On the other hand...!



Anything Alex-short-for-Alexander can do, Illy can do so much better! Illy gets a star point! Woohoo! Illy does a victory dance.



Mr Tourist, Illy is pretty sure only Bleakbane is allowed to break the forth wall. And Pinkie Pie. And Deadpool, obviously.



Darn. This one costs money...



Yeah, it WOULD help if, Illy doesn't know, that the slingshot started in some direction other than facing diametrically away from the targets.

Before Illy does anything else, she'll go and see what she can actually GET with these star tokens...



ARE THEY SERIOUS?!

Illy got ONE token from the strength game, that's ridiculous!



Oh, NOW Illy gets it, it's a freaking microtransaction scam.

100000G for the stardrop or whatever. Yeah. No, Illy is not a freaking whale.



Uhuh...

Illy tries at the spinning wheel which doubles your bet. She wins the first couple of times, but then loses. She tries the fishing game. To Illy's ASTONISHMENT, the fish they use must be mostly dead, since she CATCHES TWO and one was so lazy, she even got a perfect catch and gets 30 tokens.

Hmm, some strategic investment at the spinning wheel maybe...?

(Okay, that was a disaster, since the save game kicked me out of the festival and took all the stuff away I'd loaded into the display. That sucks majorly. Okay, then, I am NOT actually playing a gambling mini-game - I refuse to do that even in Pokémon (and that shop stuff is not worth the amount of cash), so if I can't save-scam it, I'm just not doing it. Nor am I going to spend hours arsing about on minigames that are probably impractical without an actual controller. So, I found a mod which enabled me to re-stock the items I lost (so good job I made that list, right?), talked to everyone again and got to where I effectively was before...)

No, Illy loses all her coins and decides that nothing is worth this kind of faff and she's not going to bother with any of the games again, they're pointless.

Time to get Mayor Linkara to judge the grange displays or whatever!



Illy waits nervously as the judging goes on...



Booyah! Illy rocks!



...

Are you kidding Illy?

*sigh*

Fine, fine whatever.

Illy will take the rarecrow (ahaha, it's a rare scarecrow, you see) and the dried sunflowers, then. (Luckily, since you can only get an item once, so if she'd gone for the hat, she'd have wasted a lot of time.)

Illy would have maybe gambled the rest of her star points as she couldn't use them on anything, but after getting her stuff back from the grange, she is out of inventory space anyway.

Hometime, and the festival ends.

Illy sells all her winning items.



Sunflowers there, before bed!



Autumn Day 17, Year One

Speaking of sunflowers, Illy's new crop is in! She sows the new seeds they left as well. Today's main job is the community centre, and then Illy will spend the money to get Robin to make her a kitchen (since the shop is closed, she can't buy a backpack!)



Uh oh, Haley looks sad. This takes priority!



What is wrong?





Always.



It's okay. You don't need to hide anything from Illy.





You can tell Illy anything, especially if it will help you.



Of course he wouldn't, Alex-short-for-Alexander is an icky, slimy, self-obsessed narcissist with the brains of a doorknob who does not deserve to associate with Haley's really nice shoes, let alone Haley. Do Haley realise he threw away perfectly good shoes because he would rather no-one else have them? Illy will punch him out, if it would make Haley feel better. (Even if he had nothing to do with this.)



Illy's sword is already in her hand.



Illy will kill them. No joking, no hilariously over-exaggerated violence, Illy is dead serious.



















Of course, absolutely.




Illy's other hand reaches for her communicator.

Hey, Alluria. It's me. ... ... Yeah, something is, actually. One of my friends, Haley, was sexually assaulted yesterday at the festival. Some old guy groped her. Thank Azurella it wasn't as serious as it could have been, but... ... .... Yeah, she's really shaken up. She needs some space now, but she asked me to check in on her later. ... ... No, her family don't know yet, but I persuaded her to tell them. ... ... I can give you a solid description of the guy who did it, some old man, drunk and obnoxious. Piled himself behind a wall of litter, else I'd have had a few words, and then if he'd tried anything... ... ... Yeah, better me than her, nothing he could have done to me that hasn't been done already, right? And I can take it. Wish I'd made more effort now. Something just felt a bit off, y'know? Not enough to notice at the time, but when I look back? ... ... No, the place is so small we don't have any police stationed here. ... ... If you would contact the paladins for me? I'm too mad to think straight right now. ... ... Yes, I think I can persuade her to do that; please, your telepathy is better than mine, you can do it without making her re-live it and her memories plus mine can help us get this guy. ... ... I WANT this guy, Luri. Nobody does that to my friend and gets away with it. ... ... Yeah, the paladins better get this, guy because if they don't and I do... ... ... Thanks. We'll talk later tonight, when I've calmed down a bit. ... ... Love you too. Bye.

Illy proceeds to her other jobs on automatic.

(Stardew Valley, relaxing farm simulator, everyone!)





Emily, I'm not sure now is the... Haley hasn’t talked to you yet, has she?



Illy's smile is a bit strained.



Illy stares for a moment, then thinks maybe it WILL help get her brain back in order.

Why is Emily turning on the steri-



-ohhhhhhhh.







Woah. That was... Something else...!





Shoulder!Alluria is notable silent for once, her expression sombre.



Sure. And... You should talk to Haley as soon as you can. Really.

Oh, here she is now; Illy will give you two a little bit.

Illy goes outside for a while.




That's what Illy is here for. You need anything, ANYTHING at all, you ask Illy, okay?



Illy smiles more genuinely this time.

Oh, and Emily? Illy didn't want to say anything in front of Haley yet, but Illy is calling in some favours from her paladin contacts, and we are going to get this guy. Count on it.

Illy goes to get the five magma geodes she found processed. She gets copper ore, iridium ore (NICE!), helvite, obsidian and a lemon stone.

Illy's various donations to the museum get her a large futan bear. Huh, Illy thinks she might need this tonight...



Huh. Maybe Victor isn't quite as icky as Illy thought.



It's the thought that counts, Victor. That was a kind offer.

At the community centre, Illy's reward for completing the quality crops bundle is another preserves jar.

The geologist's bundle gets her five omnigeodes - and finishes off the section.



Woah! That is a lot of Jominos!






Awwww, it's following Illy around now!

Illy needed this boost today. She wishes she could have let Haley see it.

Illy goes back to the farm. She cuts a couple of trees down, which burns off some of her restless energy, but her heart isn't in it, so she calls it a night. She spends a hour or two talking with Alluria on the communicator before she goes to bed.



But while Illy sleeps, the Juminos are at work!





Wow, that got a bit heavy there didn't it? Mood whiplash much?

(But correct use of mood whiplash is a good thing!)

(That is a Stardew Expanded mod event, as opposed to vanilla, by the by; it did say there was some mature content, though nothing worse than apparently some of the base game stuff!)

[Kantaki]

Illy should've gone for the Fedora.
It's made of win.

Also makes fishing easier.
Cause it's For Tuna's
I apologize for nothing!

More seriously, wow. That got kinda dark for a moment.
Let's hope Illyphase gets the guy.

And some of those answers...
You'd have to be seriously bad at people to think those are a good choice.
Like I know that bad.
The last time I facepalmed so hard was when playing FFVIII. (Squall!!!)

[Keltest]

I was really unprepared for how heavy that got. The fact that it was a mod is less surprising.

[Aotrs Commander]

Illy should've gone for the Fedora.
It's made of win.

Also makes fishing easier.
Cause it's For Tuna's
I apologize for nothing!

More seriously, wow. That got kinda dark for a moment.
Let's hope Illyphase gets the guy.

It would be nice... But rest assured, even if the game doesn't, the paladins of Azurella will...!

We'll see what happens when the festival rolls around next year, which is the most likely time I'd expect to see something,

And some of those answers...
You'd have to be seriously bad at people to think those are a good choice.
Like I know that bad.
The last time I facepalmed so hard was when playing FFVIII. (Squall!!!)

Yes, Squall was terrible. Kind of amazing, I think, looking back on it, that I finished FFVIII, considering. I started it a second time at one point few years ago (and getting it even to run even only a few years after on PC was somewhat trying), at gave up at about that first island because I was like "y'know what, I'm not doing all the Draw-ing again."

Really liked the combat music, though, to be fair.

I was really unprepared for how heavy that got. The fact that it was a mod is less surprising.

So was I. Granted, the mod did mention it had some such content (and I believe there is a version that excludes it), I had just totally forgotten.



Part 8: Getting the Cart Before the House

Spoiler

Show

Thursday, Autumn Day 18, Year One

Today, after her chores, Illy has three things planned. Get a kitchen, finally and turn in some geodes. But first...

Check the mine carts!



WOOHOOOOO!



Fast travel!!!!

Illy decides to check the town first.

SWEET! Right next to Clint's! Nice!



Stone, mudstone, obsidian and... Dolomite?

Wait, what? What is a 1970s blaxsploitation gentleman doing inside that rock? Will the next one have Shaft, too? Ah well, Illy will hand him into the museum anyway.

(This joke brought to you curtesy of the Cinema Snob.)

Illy seriously considers upgrading her hoe to steel, but she wants to get that backpack, so maybe next. Watering can will have to wait until next month, Illy fears. As soon as she can work out how to make refined quartz, the sooner she can expand her self-watering field; at the moment, she can't sacrifice it for a day or two.



Oh, Illy loves the mine carts already! She doesn't even want to go down the mine, but this is a way quicker way to get to Robin!



Go, Robin! Illy has plenty of wood and cash!



Works for Illy!

Illy goes home, and walks to the mushroom cave - she's looking for chantelle mushrooms, as those are currently her bottleneck for elixir of life (the really good healing item). There is a mine cart in the cave... Which is one-way, but takes her to the mines! Well, it's probably quicker to walk back from the bus stop than from the cave...?

Illy dumps her stuff, and with such a short walk, decides to pop down the mine for a bit, she has a few hours, since it's only twenty past four.

Illy's trip down the mine is fairly uneventful (she forgot to bring her new sword to test, though), and she makes it down to level 95 and then home just before midnight!



Worth it!



Autumn Day 19, Year One



Can do, Caroline! Anything for Abby!

Chores first! More corn, excellent! Illy also dumps all the silver and gold star forage she picked up yesterday.



It is totally worth it for Abby!

Speaking of people for whom things are worth, Illy will give Haley a sunflower, just because.



Illy spends the rest of the day chopping down tree, working down to clear the route to the mushroom cave, and getting lots of forage. The cave=>mine=>bus stop mine cart is so useful! (It'd be better both ways, but Illy will take it!)

The forage pushes Illy up to the 10k mark again, so backpack expansion is tomorrow's job!



Autumn Day 20, Year One

Caroline has given Illy a recipe for parsnip soup, Emily for red plate! Lovely.

Chores first - then backpack!



Huzzah! Illy can carry all the things!

Next, Leah wants a common mushroom. Really, Leah, these are so common Illy found one on the way to the store, but okay!



Hi, Leah!



Oh, she does sculpture? Neat!




(Okay, that last one is especially crazy in context of this playthrough!)

It is. Illy herself might seem like a cheerful, happy-go-lucky ray of sunshine, but she has history. Heck, her levity comes FROM the fact she is now free...

It takes a moment for Leah to absorb that.




Haley thinks so too!



Illy is not an artist, but she has heard this. She has heard it also applies to CAD modellers, especially people who make starship models. Illy thinks it is ridiculous that people get paid ridiculous money to kick a ball about, but not people who make starships, who clearly should be paid that sort of money instead.



Hmm. Tough call. On the one hand, Illy thinks a town art show would be cool, but the latter option is probably most financially viable? Actually, Illy thinks both would be best. She bets Leah could ask Haley to help take good pictures as well.



Ah. Yes, that IS a technical hitch, of sorts...



Illy winces a bit. She's not used to everyone around her not being on the internet, because she spent some time in Space England or something.

Well, at least Leah can have her common mushroom!

Illy decides to head down to the mine again for the rest of the day. She is really hoping with all the mining and such she's going to find or work out how to make refined quartz soon...



Oh, that does not look very f-IT SHOOTS FIRE THAT IS DEFINITELY NOT FRIENDLY!!!!

Illy doesn't do well; she only makes three levels before it is midnight. On the plus side, the mine carts mean she is in bed before one!

(And only one reload, too...)



Hoorah!

Darnit, though Illy still doesn't know how to make refined quartz.




Autumn Day 21, Year One



Wait, what? How did Robin... Illy must have been pretty soundly asleep!

Ooooh, double bed! Now Illy can get into all kinds of mischief! Shoulder!Alluria approves!

Down side, it's slightly further from the door, meaning those last-minute rushes to bed might take a few more precious seconds!



KITCHEN!

Now Illy can actually make food with all the recipes people have been giving her!

Okay, looking through, some good one Illy can make now are Roots Platter (which only needs a cave carrot and winter root) for +125 energy, +50 health and +3 to attack), Pale Broth (two white algae, which Illy has, of course, carefully been saving) for +125 energy and +50 health and fried egg (an egg, duh) for +50 energy and +20 health.

Illy might do some cooking later!

Also, the fridge is a storage device! Great. Illy can sensibly use that to store prepared food, since her storage is always a bit up and down...!



It's bigger on the inside!

Is... Is.. Robin a Timelord?

Illy's new backpack means she will permanently put her fishing rod and watering can into her inventory. She also picks up that other sword, and maybe next time down the mine, she will try it out.

YES! Illy now has some large eggs! That's two items for the community centre!

Illy's yams have grown. Excellent.

Illy goes to cook in her kitchen and accidently uses both of her large eggs to fry instead of the five small ones. Illy must apparently remember that cooking uses the best ingredients first.

Darn it.

Never mind, she has still got a fair bit of stuff to drop off at the community centre anyway, and it wouldn't have helped her finish the animal bundle anyway.



Oh, NOW Illy understands why Abby and Caroline hide in Caroline's room every Sunday!

Illy is obvious religious, but this is not difficult when you are from an actual hell and going to be a paladin of a goddess who is both very pro-active and sits on the council of the United Concorde of Divine Realms. It is difficult to be an atheist when Goddess might meet you in the flower-shop or something. (Azurella is very big into flower language, apparently, but it is not an art Illy has studied.)

Illy buys some bok choy seeds, which will just have time to grow before the end of the season.

Illy finishes the fall crops bundle and receives another bee house!



The exotic foraging bundle gives Illy five autumn's bounties (+220 energy, +88 health, +2 foraging and +2 defence).

Just some winter foraging to go and the crafts room will be finished!



Oh, great, Illy's fried egg is also used in the community centre. That's handy she brought the with her sort of by accident!

Illy's one geode yields an iridium ore. Stellar!

Illy goes back to the farm, puts the bee house down and plants her seeds. She grabs some flowers to gift and her last silver sweet pea to give to Robin, as it is her birthday today.

Just time to head home to cut a few more trees before it's midnight.



Autumn Day 22, Year One

Chores, then two large eggs (one white, one brown) to the community centre. Illy plans today to be gift-giving, followed by another fruitless attempt at fishing. This time, she's going to try maybe a lake or a stream - or maybe even one of the lakes in the mines; there's one on level 20...

Abby says she could see herself being a farmer one day, but can't see how that could happen, wink wink nudge nudge. Shoulder!Alluria has to have a bit of a sit down.

Illy goes and buys some trout soup from Willy and then heads down to try cave-fishing.

Here goes...



Nope. Illy ALMOST catches one -



- but otherwise gets nothing but junk and algae.

Bedtime.



Autumn Day 24, Year One

Chores, and then Illy is going to try the mine again... New sword.

Well, it doesn't seem THAT much slower, and it DOES deal a lot of damage...

Wow, good job Illy sprung for the deluxe backpack!



Level 100!




Oh, THAT'S why a stardrop was worth 2000 star points! Holy crap!

Also, how very appropriate that it is make Illy think of starships!

...

Is that lava over there?

...

Can Illy fish in the lava...?



YES!

She finds soggy newspaper.

HOW EVEN-

No. No, Illy doesn't EVEN care anymore.

Now just time to sort stuff before bedtime.



Autumn Day 24, Year One

It is raining, for about the first time in autumn.

Illy STILL does not know how to make or find refined quartz.

It better not be locked behind fishing.

Illy does some research on the internet.

YOU USE IT IN THE FURNACE LIKE ORE?!

You mean that... ALL THIS TIME, Illy could have been making sprinklers and...

AAAAAAAARGH!



Demetrius sent Illy another bream.

Okay.

More ancient fruit has grown!

Illy is first going to head to Clint's and get all the geodes she found opened. Then, her furnaces might have finished and she can, maybe, MAKE SOME REFINED QUARTZ.

(Also, she wonders is Abby likes refined quartz more than regular quartz?)

The geodes only yield a tigereye that is new, and Illy takes that to Gunther along with some jade.

Illy heads back to the farm. She fishes until midday (her usual luck...) until the gold ore has processed, and then begins to work on the quartz, cutting a few trees down as she waits.

FINALLY, she can make quality sprinklers!

Illy sighs, SO MUCH TIME WASTED!

By bed time, Illy has greatly expanded her sprinkler crop field. She now has 64 spots where she can grow crops, and within scarecrow range, can double that!





Autumn Day 25, Year One

Illy harvests her bok choy. She won't planet anything now, so it looks like a real good time to have her hoe upgraded! Plus, she can probably afford to have her watering can upgraded soon as well, now she can make all her plants self-watering.

Abby doesn't like refined quartz. Huh.

Illy spends the day mostly wandering around. She catches Leah and gives her a gold sunflower, fishes and catches two Joja cola, and then calls it a day.



Huzzah! Illy is excellent at farming!




Autumn Day 26, Year One



Ooooh! Sounds spooky! Abby will probably love this!

Illy meanders about, going to the beach (via mine cart to Clint's) and then, on a whim, walks west of the bus stop.




Can YOU spot the basket in these screenshots? I didn't until after actually looking up where the damn thing was and not finding it here, I came back and chopped all the grass down after the end of the day before I quit so I would know where it was...)

Huh.

From there, Illy loops around all the way to the summit, keeping an eye open for Linus' basket, which she still hasn't found.

Illy wanders down past Rasmodius' tower, still searching for that damn basket. At least she gets lots or forage, but by the time she makes it back how, to bed, it's nearly one am!



Well, at least it was a fruitful day!

Oh, FARM warp totem! Now Illy is talking! THAT could be very useful!

Almost four thousand gold from today's foraging! Excellent, Illy might be able to buy another fruit tree or two to start on over winter tomorrow!

[Keltest]

Maybe it was cold lava. You don't know.

[Kantaki]

Yes, Squall was terrible. Kind of amazing, I think, looking back on it, that I finished FFVIII, considering. I started it a second time at one point few years ago (and getting it even to run even only a few years after on PC was somewhat trying), at gave up at about that first island because I was like "y'know what, I'm not doing all the Draw-ing again."

Squall certainly had his moments. I still remember shouting at the screen for some of them.
Trying to shoo off a girl that clings to you with a total breakdown... Seriously
There's being bad at people and then there's this

And yeah, the leveling/stat mechanics were... odd to say the least
Still tempted to get the Switch version if it actually comes.

Part 8: Getting the Cart Before the House

The three days for the house upgrade remind me of Harvest Moon (well, duh. I guess)
Where every upgrade took three days.
No matter wether it was a vastly bigger house or a new letterbox.
And of course materials aren't included. typical.

Though at least in HM I never woke up in a new bed.
Creepy...

Maybe it was cold lava. You don't know.

You mean rock?

Well maybe it was cherry lemonade...

[Aotrs Commander]

Part 9: Winter is Coming

It's getting chilly in the chilling-out game...

Spoiler

Show

Saturday, Autumn Day 27, Year One

Hardwood, honey, fibre. Well, that's not too unreasonable for a farm warp totem. Illy has a fair bit of honey now...

After chores, which include harvesting all the pumpkins, Illy's first job is go find that basket!



(Did you spot it, everyone? It was here!)

Linus' basket was well hidden, since Illy went through this place several times looking for it yesterday...

Illy takes it to Linus. Next, store to look at more fruit trees.



Or, Illy cannot do that. Um, okay.

Fine, then. Illy will complete her big self-watering crop field instead!



Right, off to the Spirits Eve festival!




Illy is totally doing that in a bit!



Illy has some... Mixed feelings about this, to be honest...

(Undead yes, unpeople no!!! Livist discrimination!)



Well, so would Illy's sword, if we want to get pedantic about it...



Illy looks at the cages and is thankful she has her sword on her...

Um, okay, Olivia says she heard screaming from inside the maze, and Demetrius hasn't seen Maru in hours apparently.

Should... Illy be worried...?



Okay. Haley is here. But Penny, Maru and very worryingly, Abby are unaccounted for. Better get in that maze, Illyphase!



Maru is safe, if lost, so that's good.



Uhhh... Wriggling disembodied hands emerging from the ground... This seems safe...?



Phew, Abby is safe too! Never fear, Illy is here! No spiders will threaten Abby!



Yeah, Illy is not over-fond of spiders after encountering a few bebiliths too many over her years...



Should... Should Illy punch you out and drag you out of the maze...? No? Okay then. Just scream in terror if you change your mind, Penny!



BOOM! Golden pumpkin! Illy is great at this!



Illy checks her sword...



Well, Rassy wasn't kidding about monsters, was he? Now, has Alex-short-for-Alexander scared away all the other monsters, or is Illy just unlucky they haven’t eaten him yet?



Pahahahahahahaha! What a moron! Wow, Illy is feeling better than she has for a couple of days!

That... is a little bit of a bad sign...





Well, those two don't seem to be in any immediate danger...



This is going to be an enforced stealth section, isn't it?



No problem! Those were pretty tame monsters, actually. But what to choose, what to choose...

Illy is not sure she trusts the treasure chest... But she doesn't really need any more scarecrows, so she will leave the rarecrow for next year, maybe, and take a calculated risk on the treasure.

Or, or, Illy can take any or all of them (which includes three pumpkin pies). Okay! Works for Illy!

Back out the maze the same way she came in, stealth and all...



Nah, they were fine.

Whelp, that looks like it was it. No-one is even impressed Illy cleared the maze! Oh well, home to bed with her stuff!

Wow, pumpkins are really worth some money!



Autumn Day 28, Year One

Illy watches the telly and learns how to make artichoke dip. Yay?

Illy harvests the last few pumpkins and mine carts up to Clint's to get her hoe back.

Illy doesn’t see what the difference is, particularly.

(To wiki...)



Oh, you can CHARGE some tools and they do THAT. Huh. Again, perhaps at any point this might have been mentioned?

Illy goes and buys an orange and a peach sapling. If she puts them in now, they will have all spring to grow read for summer.

Clint wants more copper ore, so Illy will be taking a mine trip today - but only to the top levels. (See could do with killing some more duggies - things that live in the sane - in the top levels of the mine anyway!)

Illy gets loads of copper ore, but only finds one duggy. Nevermind...

Well, that treasure chest was worth 5000g! That'll do nicely!



Winter Day 1, Year One



It is winter!

It's going to be snowy all winter, isn't it?



Well, it was too much to hope for the ancient seed would have survived the winter.

To the store first for winter seeds, then to Clint's for the quest. Illy may well not be able to upgrade her watering can just yet, though, she might well need the money for seeds...



The heck was that? It took one look at Illy and fled. Curious...

Oh. There are no crops to be grown.

Well. Poopy. Illy can't be too easy with spending cash on new animals, either, since she only has the one silo. Well, watering can upgrade it will be then!

Illy goes to Clint and has a geode broken - jagite, which gets her an obsidian vase from the museum. She starts Clint on her watering can. She remembers (but only later and has to go back!) to deliver her copper ore.

She spends the rest of the day foraging, especially looking out for snow yams - there are plenty of crocuses - which will at least allow her to finish the crafting room. But she find no snow yams, nor of the strange creature. She heads back home to bed.



Winter Day 2, Year One

Linus has sent Illy his recipe for fish taco. Illy probably needs some fish first...



Ahaha, Willy is freaking joking, right? Fishing, at night, and only in winter...!

Yeah, well, Illy guesses, she's not going to be doing much else other than mining and foraging, is she?

Illy starts her gift rounds. Emily is now at eight hearts, so that means Illy doesn't have to worry about her for a bit now.

Marnie is - OF COURSE - sodding off somewhere again, so there will be no new animals for Illy. (Illy reckons she can manage eight animals on the feed she has.) Nor a heater, for her poor chickens. So Marnie will NOT be getting a flower today.



Oh dear, Leah is Having An Argument!

(Okay, game, why is it whenever I just am ready to quit for the day, you slap me with a heart event...?)



Oh dear, is Illy going to have to add another arsekicking to her list?



Yes, Illy gathered. Would Leah like to talk about it? Relationships are a thing paladins of Azurella are supposed to be offering help and advice of, after all.



Yes! Illy is Being A Professional Councillor now!





Huh, Illy, thinks, she had sort of assumed this "Kel" was a boy, because of the name and clearly icky behaviour...




You should always pursue your dreams. Sometimes, reaching for your dreams will carry you out of hell on soft wings. Illy is not speaking metaphorically.





That happens, but it is not a good excuse for harassing Leah.



Yay, Illy helped!



It really is!

Have a crocus!



Oh, Shoulder!Alluria knows EXACTLY how Illy can help with that!

Illy has lots of spare wood Leah can use for her fire!

...

What, Shoulder!Alluria is not completely one-track-minded!

(Besides, sex is nowhere near as fun if both parties are shivering.)



Illy could help with that, too! Um... Yes, Leah can just... Think about that one, while Illy makes a hasty exit now.

Illy goes foraging.

Huh?



Down and to the left...?

Illy can't seem to find anything now... Something to come back to later...?

Yes, and OF COURSE Willy has decided to knock off early, preventing Illy from getting any trout soup for fishing.

Illy has her usual luck with fishing. The only bright spot is she finds a nautilus shell on the beach as she leaves.

It is going to be a long winter...



Winter Day 3, Year One

Linus has given Illy another fish recipe. Illy is not sure whether he is being kind or extracting the urine.



Umm... Sure...?

Illy sorts out her chickens and then tries to do a bit of foraging around Marine's until Marnie opens up. She finds no snow yams, but digs up another book and an Ancient Sword (to be donated to the museum).

Illy buys a heater and forth chicken (Armor). Maybe she will see Robin about upgrading her coop later?

She drops a flower in to Leah, and heads back up to the farm to pet Armor and install the new heater. Then she heads to the mine cart to go to see Clint.

Ooh, by the time she has her watering can upgraded again, Illy will be out of iron ore. Well, she does need to kill skeletons for another adventurer's guild goal, so that can be tomorrow's job.

The sword nets Illy Rarecrow 8 (she now has 1, 2 and 8) from Gunther.



Honestly, Illy is kind of missing them, actually.



Well, Illy is not missing them all that much, obviously.

Illy has a look. Robin can make her house bigger and a nursery. Illy is pretty sure that would both be premature and... Could be somewhat irrelevant, save by non-conventional methods...

Pretty much everything else requires a fair bit of money. Illy thinks she might well have to get a barn soon, so she can start making cloth so she can upgrade her coop... But she'll need plenty of cash, and with no crops, Illy's not going to get a great deal of income, especially since she is struggling to find much forage at the moment.

Back home, Illy goes and chops a load more tree down. Well, at least by the end of the day, she's got over a thousand wood, so she'll have plenty for buildings.




Winter Day 4, Year One

Oops! Illy forgot to see Emily yesterday. Oh dear...

Illy goes to the mayor's house right after chores in the hopes she did not miss it, else Illy screwed up totally.

As I didn't do a back-up save before I started and only remembered AFTER it saved...!

She pops down to the beach for some forage and finds that winter roots and snow yams might have to be DUG UP to be found. But at last she has a snow yam, so she will slip to the community centre once she's been to Mayor Linkara's...



PHEW!



Illy guesses it means buying clothes to make oneself feel better. Shoulder!Alluria is hoping it involves cosplay, especially the naughty-sort.

(But not shape-shifting. Alluria - and by extension Shoulder!Alluria - is very uncomfortable using her shape-shifting powers, especially for sex, because of all the bad things she did with it while being, well, a regular succubus. She will now only use it for someone she really trusts, like 12-13-hearts trusts.)



Please do...



This is so very true. (See above.)



Emily has Illy and Shoulder!Alluria's undivided attention.



Illy often expresses herself with violence directed at bad people and things.



Shoulder!Alluria whoops. Cosplay it is!



Illy can do that! There must be a paladin or angel costume in there somewhere right?



What would a starship costume even look like, Illy wonders...?



Apparently, Shane has issues. Maybe Illy ought to pay some attention to him in future...



Good for Shane? Illy is not really into leathers, having spent so much time as a devil.



Well, off he goes...



Woohoo!



Why is Clint concerned with what Robin will wear? Or is he just nervous for his turn?




Illy suspect Demetrius will rather like that.

Ah, Mayor Linkara has found a new trademark fedora. Neat.





Oh, this is gonna be GOOD...!



Oh heavens, YES! Abby is so darn cool.

...

Illy is so taking her to paladin school with her when she goes.



That's okay, Illy likes it when Abby gets all sweaty. So does Shoulder!Alluria.




Nothing to fear, Clint!





Illy is not sure what he was going for, but good for him!



Is it Illy’s turn now? Is it is it is it?



Oh! Or maybe this is-



Oh dear.



*sigh*

No, no, it's fine.



Uhhhh... Now this is awkward.

(Clint is interested in Emily? But... He doesn't give Illy even the remotest glance in that way. That stings Illy a little bit.)

(He's not one of the singles options, so...)

And the moment is gone, and Illy doesn't get a turn, either.

Illy is feeling very disappointed now.

Fine. Fine, whatever! Illy will go to the community centre and then go and express herself all over the mines!

Illy completes the winter foraging bundle and... Gets... Winter seeds? Winter seeds!!! Oh heavens yes, Illy is gonna go plant them right away!

Crafting room complete!






Woo!

On the way back to the farm, Illy see that there is a rewards for killing fire slimes. Well, she'll have to make a quick stop down there before going to the dungeon levels, then...

Winter seeds planted. Unfortunately, Illy's watering can is still being worked on, so they won't get watered until the morning, but never mind.

To the mines!

Illy is a bit late, but she just about manages to get to level 105, even though it is ten to one before she gets to bed. But she got the slime kill goal, at any rate.



During the night, the Juminos repair the bridge by the mines...



Winter Day 5, Year One

After chores today, Illy is going to collect her reward and then go see where that leads!

Dear Gus has sent Illy some spaghetti. Nice!

Oh snap! The mine carts are giving Illy an option to go to "the quarry!" Oh, but she'll go on foot first...

She goes to Clint's to get her watering can (yep, that also waters five squares in a line now!) and get her geodes opened (nothing new this time...) and to get her bounty from Mayor Linkara.



Let's see where this goes now!



NEAT!

Mining time!

As she works, Illy sings a song about how she is working on the railroad. She munches on some snow fruit she found, because this is hard work!



And the quarry is all mined out! Illy wonders if it will respawn.

Still, she has got a lot of stuff now! She has about 200 stone, just from today's mining, and plenty more copper and iron ore. She heads back home to start smelting it before bed.



Winter Day 6, Year One



Illy isn't too sure, but okay. Has she got an amethyst left...? Yes, two, actually!

Well, that's easy money, then.

Amethysts are Emily's favourite stone. Well, THAT is worth knowing. All the ladies love amethyst, apparently...




Well, Illy thinks you are SoL, Clint. Illy is just irresistible to all the ladies, apparently. Still, you can't say Illy didn't at least try for you...

Illy sees that the quarry DOES refill, but very slowly. She is going to go down to the mines today then, but only to try and kill skeletons!

Illy easily manages to get to the requisite 50.

At some point, she'll have to have another go at hunting for duggies.



Hardly surprising, really...!




Winter Day 7, Year One

Oh, hello, Pierre!




That is the idea!




Oh, now this sounds very interesting! Illy was wondering where she would get the red cabbage required by the community centre.



Illy was never planning to. Joja corp can go die in the frost.



Works for Illy!

Righto!

Has Illy checked the calendar at all his month? Illy hopes she hasn't missed any important birthdays...

Illy's geode yield a ghost crystal, which goes to the museum.

Flower rounds! Robin, Maru, Jodi - note to Illy, Jodi does not like daffodils - then over to Leah's...




Oorrrr, Illy can have a picnic with Penny, that works too...




Illy does...

Peeny would like Illy to tell the childen all about it. Illy can do that, Penny!







And the unnatural resources and the supernatural resources!



Ooh, ooh, pick Illy, pick Illy! Illy sticks her hand up as far as it can go.



Phooey.



Wow, Illy was just going to go with "rocks and trees."



Penny! Illy cannot believe you are encouraging the children to gamble and- Oh, not the same as at the fair, right?



Penny can give her full attention to Illy anytime, Shoulder!Alluria observes. Illy hushes her.



Ooh, tough call. Illy will go with the latter, since she IS pretty good and foraging and it is the middle of winter now.



Especially now there is a quarry and you don't have to kill tons and tons of monsters to get it!



Don't be ridiculous, Vincent. Goblins prefer surface caves and they are not fussy about who they eat, male, female, adult or child.

For some reason, Penny glares at Illy.



What? Illy was just telling it like it is...




Seriously. Illy was taken far too early, and it was only because she was such an innocent and had a good upbringing that she was able to shake off the worst darkness you can suffer - and it took her most of two centuries.



Oof. That's that a big question, isn't it?

Illy would not say never, but nor is she in a rush. She is immortal, and planning to become a paladin. Illy also has a lot of ground to cover before she feels she has earned that kind of right, much to try and make up for all the things she did. Plus, Alluria really isn't a child kind of person - she's actually rather nervous around children. So Illy has not given it any thought for the near future, honestly.



Illy DOES have rather a lot of baggage.



Exactly.



Illy spends the rest of the day working on clearing around the mushroom cave, before head to bed.

And then remembers she never DID check the calendar...



And there we shall leave it for today!

[Keltest]

I swear, that Kel is not this Kel! There are lots of Kels in the world, and only some of them are me.

[Kantaki]

I mean what did Penny expect, inviting an adventurer- an (ex)devil at that -to teach the kids something?
Gobs are probably the least scary beasties Illy could tell them about.
Also, the little brat asked.
Besides, who got high during not-Halloween again?

[Aotrs Commander]

I swear, that Kel is not this Kel! There are lots of Kels in the world, and only some of them are me.

You know, that had not remotely occurred to me - I think my brain went more towards Kel as in "Kenan and..."

But we all have to deal with people who unforunately cannot live up to our names, don't we?

I mean what did Penny expect, inviting an adventurer- an (ex)devil at that -to teach the kids a lesson?
Gobs are probably the least scary beasties Illy could tell them about.
Also, the little brat asked.
Besides, who got high during not-Halloween again?

I know, right? I mean, there is literally a cave full of monsters within easy walking distance on unsupervised children, glossing over monsters is crazy!



Reckon we'll get a couple more in (Mon/Tues. Wed/Thurs maybe) before I'll be away for a week.



Part 10: Winter Blues

Spoiler

Show

Monday, Winter Day 8, Year One

After seeing to the chickens, Illy attempts to go see Leah to give her a flower, but the festival is being prepared, so she can't get there. Alright, Illy will remember to check the calendar now (or the first time this winter...), then and maybe do some yard work while she waits.



Oh darn, it was Caroline's birthday yesterday. Typical! Nevermind. Missed Linus' birthday too.

Something called the "night market" on the 15th through 17th, hmm... And Leah's birthday on the 23rd.

Actually, nevermind, the festival starts at nine o'clock, so Illy may as well go straight there now.

The Festival of Ice!



Wow, it's ice to see Leah has been busy!




So long as art is not a bang, Illy is chill with impermanent art.



Cool?




Then snow way will Illy interrupt!

Shoulder!Alluria groans, Illy is going to be like this all day, isn't she?



Ah, the good cold days...



George seems as frosty as ever!



...

Illy is going to get her ice kicked, isn't she?



Be creative! Self-expression is really freezy-peasy when to try!

(Illy makes snow-starships.)



Oh, don't be boring Penny! What example are you setting for Jas! Oh, whatever, Illy will just let that slide. Slide? Get it? Ahaha!




Yes, Clint, it means you are so bad at it that she's taking pity on you; otherwise she's giving you the cold shoulder.



Pahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Well, at least Willy has a sense of humour about it.

Illy should probably just let it go. (Fishing never bothered her anyway...)



This is a very igloo-minating conversation.

(Shoulder!Alluria pelts Illy with tiny snowballs.)




Illy is getting cold feet about this whole affair.



Illy gives Alex-short-for-Alexander a glacial stare.



It certainly can, Hail-y! (Did Haley see what Illy did there? Did she? ... Yeah, Illy will just go now.)



Abby wins! It's blizz-ardly worth anyone else trying!

Shoulder!Alluria thinks Illy is reaching.



Icy you hiding over there, Rassy! None shall escape Illy's puns! She is an e-sleet punster!

*sigh*

Pun's over, time to fish.



Oh goody, everyone is here to see Illy suck. This is the polar opposite of what Illy wants.

Did everyone think Illy was done? Then everyone is silly!

Illy only gets the rod in the actual HOLE twice in the first minute. She catches three seaweed, and utterly fails to catch either of the actual fish, because once again, though she comes close, the stupid, stupid, stupid bar just doesn't react in any way Illy can understand. She looks like a total buffoon in front of the entire town and most especially Abby and her other friends.

Mayor Linkara comes to judge, and notes what a great deal of fish there are. Haha.

...

Illy glowers. And sniffs.



Yes, yes, Illy is really bad at fishing, we have established that. You can stop rubbing it in any time now.

And the winner is...



No surprise at all!



Yes, thank you for literally everyone in the village for watching Illy make a complete fool of herself.



Illy is sure the fish are all taunting her.

She doesn't even get to keep the seaweed, does she?

Illy, feeling utterly humiliated and miserable, fighting tears, goes home and throws herself into bed.



Winter Day 9, Year One

After chores, Illy goes to see Leah.

But her door is still locked after nine o'clock.

Fine. Illy gets it. No-one wants to see the loser. *sniff* *sniff* Fine then. She'll go to the mines, see if anyone cares.

Illy reaches down to level 110...



Well, Space boots certainly sound like Illy's cup of tea!

+4 Defence, +4 immunity! that's better than her current boots, at any rate!

Illy gets one level down, but it's too late to go any further, so she heads home to bed.

Illy wonders miserably why none of her friends ever come to see her?



At least Illy is getting better at the sword-ing...




Winter Day 10, Year One

Illy, feeling thoroughly unappreciated, does her chores and stomps off to the mine again.

She has a better day - at least it terms of not having to mine every rock to find the ladder down and...




Reaches level 120, which is the bottom of the mine!

What is her grand reward?



Hoorah, it's a... Key. For... The other machine in the saloon which has a skull-shaped keyhole.

Of course it is. OF COURSE IT IS.

For a long moment, Illy considers just curling up in a little ball at the bottom of the mine. Even that victory is now stale.

Illy heads towards the adventure’s guild via the mine cart. For a moment, she thinks it is closed, but apparently not.

Her reward for killing all the skeletons is... A skeleton mask.



That was worth it.

At the saloon, the unlocked game is... Junimo Kart.



Oh, this is going to be another thing for Illy to be terrible at, isn't it?

Yes, it is a thing that requires precise click-timing that is horribly unresponsive about when it does things, and helpfully also often respawns you right next to the end of a piece of track so Illy immediate fall off and dies.



Excellent, that totally worth risking life and limb for, wasn't it?



Marnie won't even speak to Illy.

(Seriously, the speech bubble didn't bring anything up. I've had this... bug? A few times before, but it really is just adding to Illy’s misery today, isn't it?)

Illy doesn't have any flowers, but maybe Leah would like an emerald...?



...

Illy rushes out of the saloon in tears.

She can barely see through her water-filled eyes to put her stuff away before she collapses, utterly desolate, in her bed.



Winter Day 11, Year One

Illy spots that a solitary snow yam has sprouted from her wild seeds.

She decides today she will try and find that mysterious creature. It is not like she has anything better to do.

Buried in the snow by the mines, Illy finds an ancient doll. She probably ought to give it the museum, but Illy feels it is a kindred spirit, lost and abandoned and forgotten in the uncaring snow. She hugs it close.

At least Linus likes his crystal fruit.

Maybe Illy should become a hermit too.

Or is she already?



...

No. No, Illy is just... Leaving Linus. She doesn't want to bother you.

Illy takes a quick dip in the baths, hoping to clear her head.

It doesn't help.



Yes, it is.

Illy traipses back to the mine's mine cart and then heads out south. Maybe she'll visit Rasmodius. He must have some tips on becoming a hermit.

Home and bed by midnight. Illy found a lot of crocuses and crystal fruit, but it no closer to finding that... Whatever it was.



Winter Day 12, Year One

Mayor Linkara has sent Illy a present of 500g for being a good neighbour.

Illy feels a bit better this morning, now.

Perhaps today, she'll see if she can't search through everyone's houses to try and find the thing... Maybe sweep the beach as well.



Oh, worth going to see Rassy yesterday!

Illy has loads of void essences! That's another job she can do!

And her winter seed crops have come in!

Aha! Illy uses some of her winter crops to make a new round of seeds. One of each crop produces ten seeds! Illy makes 40 seeds and then goes to replant them again!



...

Al...right, then.

Rassy thinks the townfolk are afraid of him. That's sad. Probably untrue, but sad...

At least Leah will let Illy in the house to talk to her today.

Hmm. The skull key quest is still in Illy's inventory, but the games machine definitely unlocked with the mine... So maybe that's NOT all it does...

Willy, it is rather mean of you to tell Illy she needs bait on her fishing rod when YOU WON'T SELL HER ANY.

It's into night, and Illy is at the beach, so sod it, she might as well fail to catch squid for a bit.

AAAAAARGH. Damn this stupid fishing rod!

HOLY CRAP!



Illy catches a FISH! This is because it is so placid, Illy doesn't actually have to touch the controls!

And then a SECOND one, right after!

Wow. That's like, three fish (since the two she caught at the aborted fair don't count).

She tries again and catches a soggy newspaper. Time to go home. Illy is so excited, though, she doesn't want to go to bed yet, and is up until twenty to one sorting her stuff out.

Illy's foraging and crops net her a tons of money as well!



Winter Day 13, Year One

George has sent Illy some stone. How... thoughtful...?

Armed with some enthusiasm once more, Illy is going to go to Robin's and see if she can upgrade her coop. And try fishing in the mine lake pond.

*sigh*

And Maru really hates holly. Fantastic.

Illy is getting her coop upgraded, starting tomorrow!

Illy gets her geodes opened and finds new lunarite and a fire opal. These she donates to the museum, along with - very reluctantly, the ancient doll.

She pops home to grab her last gold leek for Linus, because she has rather neglected him.

Willy is naturally not in the shop again today, but nevermind, Illy will spend the rest of the day fishing anyway, see if she can't catch some more...

No, nothing again.

(DAMMIT Why did ConcernedApe make the bottom level difficulty so HARD? The fact that before you buy bait to put in the crab-pots which DON'T require the minigame you first have to get to level two when it's hardest. It's so stupid.)




Winter Day 14, Year One



Aha.

After seeing the chickens, Illy goes and idly prods through the bushes in the playground.

(Because I had no idea how to progress the winter mystery quest after looking basically everywhere...)




Okay.

Wait, come back shadow-thing there's no need to... Run... Darn it.

Illy will go see Abby today.



Um, DUH.



Illy and Abby so are!



Illy will tell him you're busy EVERYDAY as far as he's concerned...

Illy spends most of the day delivering gifts and talking to her friends. (Maru likes the gold crocus much better than the gold holly...)

Then she heads into the upper reaches of the mines to hunt for duggies for a bit.

She actually runs into four or five before she's done, and is back to bed just after midnight.




Winter Day 15, Year One



Neat! Though Illy will probably not want more chickens yet.

Illy thinks she ought to look at a barn next, though. But after the night market, she might find stuff she wants there.

Illy notices a bit of her fence has broken. Hmm. The hardwood fence says it lasts longer than the wood fence. Illy assumed it was just flavour, but perhaps her fences do wear out...



Big coop!

And the fences do wear out, one piece collapsed while Illy was instead, then the next one fell over while she watches it. She will replace them for now, but it looks like she will have to be very wary about that. Great.

In the meantime, Marnie's.

No, Marnie, as usual is never freaking there when you want her. Of course.

Illy decides to go out and cut some more hardwood down. As she chops down a tree, she finds Secret Note #14 - she reads it and it says someone hid something behind the community centre.

Before she goes to look that up, she clears a bit more - and low and behold, she finds #19!



Okay, this is exciting!

Right time to go look for stuff! Illy needs to find a blue house...

Leah wants a frozen tear. Illy ought to be able to provide that.

Nothing obvious behind the community centre yet, and by the time Illy has done an initial search, the night market is open. She decides to check that out next.

Jodi's house might be the one...? Illy will look later.



To the night market!



Illy likes the sound of this show already!



Where first? Left to right? Sounds good to Illy.



This is quite impressive, to say the least!



Ah, why not?



Oh, they mean... Actually fish in the deep sea.

Well, pants.

Okay, Illy catches a sea cucumber! Because it is passive it doesn't actually require Illy to touch anything! Illy is so bad at fishing that the only time she catches anything is if she literally does not have to touch the controls!

Outside, the gentleman in the turban is handing out free coffee! Cool!

The slightly shifty-looking man sells decorations. Illy is not too bothered about those at the moment.



The cloaked man will teleport Illy home for 250g using a farm totem. Useful, but Illy isn't that bothered, ta.



Then... Don't ogle, Clint?

Man selling paintings? Pass, thank you.

The caravan lady is selling her usual assortment of things Illy isn't really interested in. Since she can't use the fishing hooks.

The mysterious fellow is selling some gravestones, which are sort of cool but not really Illy's... Wait, no Abby would love them, Illy will actually take a couple at 200g each, actually. He also sells seeds, but Illy will pass for the moment, she can always buy them from Pierre.

Mermaid show time!








Well, that was pretty spectacular. But oops, it is rather later! Nevermind, Illy had better hurry home!

Maybe she should have taken the teleport, she gets in at ten to two, just before she collapses!




Winter Day 16, Year One



There, Abby ought to like that one day...!

Oh haha, Alluria, she has sent Illy some stone. Hilarious, Luri, hilarious.

Oh, that's lovely, Emily has sent Illy some cloth! That is totally going to the community centre! Ace!



Yes, that fence is coming apart. Oh, look, a woodpecker on Illy's maple tree!

Right, Illy's job today will be to knock down and replace that fence with hardwood.



There. Illy will leave the top, since she might want to put the barn there.

Right! Next, frozen tear for Leah, see if Marnie is about, then see if Illy is right about Jodi's house and the secret note...



WOAH ducks are expensive!

*sigh*

Okay, Illy will buy one. (She can use the incubator Robin fitted and slowly grow some more!)

The duck will be called Catherine, after Catherine Foundling, who is awesome. (Even though, Illy admits, she is a little bit Evil.)

Illy's first attempt to follow the secret note finds nothing by just stepping. Then she has a long think -

(I looked up just enough for it to say "walk until you are stopped by an obstacle," which to be fair, I'd never have thought about.)

- and tries a different approach.

Which still gets her nowhere and then the night market is open again.

Illy still doesn't see anything she particularly wants.

She watches the mermaid show again - she's interested to know if it is different every night (it isn't). But now the painting is a nice one of the mermaid... Well, go on, Illy spends all her money on random stuff, so maybe she will this once.

Illy stays until eleven, doing a tiny spot of fishing (just trash) and getting loads of free coffee.

Huh, coffee is worth 150g. Nice to know, Illy likely gonna sell the rest of it tomorrow!



Winter Day 17, Year One



There, the mermaid picture looks nice above Illy's head.



Well, if you like snow, Illy guesses?



Oh, how sweet!




How lovely!



There. Illy is not sure what this actually represents of Leah's feelings, but she assumes it is good...?

Clint wants an iron bar. Okay, FINE.

Rassy's birthday? Maybe he'd like some solar essence? If not, Illy will take him some of her copious amounts of jam.



He does! Great!

Illy steps out, then forgot she wanted to talk to him for a moment.

But he's nowhere to be found. But.. he was right her-



Azurella's perfect arse, Illy wishes Rasmodius would stop doing that!



That's why Illy was interested, she grew some ancient fruit this past year - she even made one of them into some lovely jam!



What, right now? In winter? Illy would love to know how to do that. No, she's not being facetious, tell her! Please?



Books are awesome. (Even if some of their purpose has been replaced by the internet for looking stuff up now.)



Illy is moderately surprised at that. She would bet Abby would find a lot of this stuff interesting, actually.



You are never too old to learn, Illy says. And as she is An Old Person, clearly this is great wisdom.



You mean like... Magic or the laws of physics? Illy is pretty grounded in both, actually...



Sure.



SWEET! Don't worry, Rassy, Illy will be careful!



Aw, that's sad. Illy must definitely come to see Rassy more often. He is definitely not icky, unlike some other boys Illy could mention...

It's not that Illy is against males (she's maybe 75/25 on the spectrum?), it is that pretty much all the romanceable boys here are... Kind of smegheads and don't seem very interesting.)

Illy goes back and goes to Clint's to drop off the iron bar and crack a couple of geodes, which yields a nice jasper for the museum.

To the night market!

Okay, caravan lady on water, Illy will take a perch for 165g. (So maybe that was pointless, doesn't seem to have a use in the community centre, darn...)



Well, as the other shops don't have anything Illy wants, she is too!

Sam hates working at Joja mart, but wonders how else he can make money in this town.

Uh, farming, fishing, foraging, mining, getting free coffee to sell... Sam's options are hardly limited, are they?

Illy can have a free coffee every ten minutes. Suits Illy...! She spends the rest of the day, standing around the pier in the snow, getting coffee, before heading home at eleven.



Yeah, Illy knows YOU ogle the mermaids, icky dude.



Winter Day 18, Year One




Hmmm... What might Leah really like...?

(Illy bets Leah gets a lot of combined birthday/feast of winter star presents, poor girl.)

Illy squirrels away one of her gold crocuses.

She pops up to give Linus a nice leek, and then heads back to town.

After a bit of searching around, Illy finds a solid gold statue of Mayor Linkara behind his house.

(Yeah, I ended up looking at the solution, since the instructions made no sense. I guess one rather obvious thing is that the secret notes might not have been updated by the map changes from the mod; certainly, the instructions directions didn't lead Illy anywhere, even when starting from the end point!)

Well, such a beautiful thing ought not to be hidden...



There! For everyone to see! (Well, Illy wasn't going to put it on her farm, that'd be creepy. Now if ABBY made a gold statue...!)

Well, that's just great! all the fish Illy has caught are totally useless for the community centre.

Illy finds a stone juminos statue behind the community centre after a lot of searching.

(Again, I had to wiki, since you had to use the pickaxe, and funnily enough, wandering blind behind a building waving a pickaxe is not something I'd have considered. It was difficult enough knowing what I was supposed to be doing...)



Good a place as any. To Rassy's! Actually, before that, Illy wants to check her kitchen and see if there are any new recipes she hasn't looked at yet. Not really; but Illy dumps her fish in the fridge anyway, aside from the silver herring, which she will sell.

Ha, Illy thought Rassy would really like solar essences!

Illy heads home and cuts some more trees down before bed.

So, there IS some reason for making different types of jam...



Hee. Illy earned 5700g for the coffee....!




Winter Day 19, Year One



Oh dear, Illy may have goofed...

Illy's winter seeds have come in. Illy reckons she could get another round in, actually before winter is over.



There. But Illy's neat fence is collapsing as she watches. Oh well, she'll let it go for the moment. Perhaps in might be better to replace it with stone paving or something.

Okay, Illy will try and get that barn erected today. She demolishes the upper fence ready.

Illy changes her mind about the placement. She's going to expand the fences grass field, actually, and the gate will be put back where it was (since the barn's door is on the left side).

But before that, she'll pop to the quarry for a bit.

Right, that is the animal yard now reconfigured. She also makes a couple of sprinklers and puts a rarecrow down. She is planning to have a little bit of a flower garden near the bee houses, since she's heard that is good for them.



She cuts down more trees below the crop field, and then head to bed.




Winter Day 20, Year One

Illy does her chores, and the feels at a bit of a loose end. Once again she has timed it perfectly to the day in which Willy is not freaking there, so she won't be able to maximise her fishing. So, she'll wander around for a bit, towards the beach and maybe fruitlessly fish there today.

Yeah, Mayor Linkara's statue is gone, and a rotted planet is in its place.

Abby has been daydreaming a lot lately, but she won't tell Illy what about.

Shoulder!Alluria gives Illy a double thumbs up.



EMPHATIC NO from Illy.

(Even Bleakbane agrees with that one.)

Also, pot, kettle, missus green hair...



But purple is so much cooler.

Oh, it's Evelyn's birthday. Have a silver crocus, Evelyn.

Mayor Linkara isn't home, but Illy can see his statue in his bedroom...

Illy has a good day on the beach! But maybe she should start saving some ordinary coral, as that can be used for deluxe speed-gro. But she will need to put some tappers on her trees first...

By the time she jacks it in, she has had the best fishing day she's ever had, catching a sea cucumber, a sardine and two herrings. This is not due to some sudden burst of competence, however, and more to do with the fact that the far left of the pier is where the easy fish appear.

Can this please be enough to get Illy to level 2 fishing now?



YES, FINALLY!

Now Illy can craft BAIT, she can put those crab pots to use at last!




Winter Day 21, Year One

Okay, today's jobs - got to Clint and have a tool upgraded to gold (Illy thinks pickaxe), go to Willy's and see what she can get now (she can craft bait herself, hopefully) and put those crab pots down!



Robin, you're... Literally ten feet behind Illy. You could have just shouted!

Okay, it will have to wait for Robin to finish on the barn first, apparently, Illy can't talk to her at all.



Catherine is full grown! And she has laid a duck egg, which will go right into the incubator!



Better rod, Illy will have that, thanks... And four trout soup, while she's at it.

Illy forgot the crab pots and she needs bug meat for the bait.

Oh, you get 5 bait per bug meat. Well, that dozen bug meat should keep Illy busy for a good while!

You know what Elliott? Have a silver crocus. You are always polite to Illy, and you are the least smeggy of the boys, even if you are a bit Pegasus from Yugioh Abridged.

Crab pots armed! Yes, it's a bit of a walk, but Illy is half-hoping she might get lucky and get a squid. She has no idea what she might catch, but it's a start, right?



Ooh, Illy has not been in Elliott's cabin before. It's neat!





It's very nice. Illy is a bit confused as to why Elliott has a huge grand piano in his shack, and why Elliott is, in fact, in a shack, when he gives off all the impression of being someone who ought to be stupidly rich.



Oh, Elliott is a WRITER. That explains a great deal.



No, most of Illy and Elliott's prior conversations have been about him having sand in his shoes and hair care.



Illy is not sure how that would help that much, to be honest.



Aw, they thought Elliott should play children's card games instead?



Well, if you count fanfiction writers, the signal to noise is about right most of the time, actually. Not that Illy reads a lot of fanfiction, of course, nor would she ever write a big long story about magical technicolour talking space-goats based on that one telly show. Which is, unrelatedly, really good, well animated with great characterisation and is really clever ('cos goats are clever, you see). Elliott should totally watch it, it's ace.

(Shoulder!Alluria also likes that show, because there is a lot sex in it, because goats.)

What... were they talking about again?



Well, sure.



Uh... No, actually, come to that, Illy's life-story would probably make a good story, though Illy would prefer it if it skipped to the part where she went to magical Paladin school honestly. Even if it turned into one of the harem-y-sort of things like those eastern animations...

(Ed: Lots of planets have an east.)



Illy likes the sci-fi because they have starships in them, but honestly, she loves when a bit of all three come together.

(Alluria is not that keen on romance novels, by-the-by; when the story focuses on the romance, rather than being part of it, it underlines how unrealistic they seem to her; there are a few ones that she does like though, but they tend to be fantasy ones that have something else to them.

Shoulder!Alluria, meanwhile, is not fussy what Illy reads, so long as there is plenty of sex.)



It is a bit surprising, isn't it? But the reason for Illy's fascination with starships is a looong and complex story...





A fair bit, yes.



Has Elliott watered it a lot? Does it get enough sunlight in here? Have Elliott tried plant food?

Illy has a good look over said plants and does what she can.



Interesting...



Interesting...

Illy heads to the mine pond. Maru isn't about, so Illy abandons the idea of giving her and Leah flowers today, and instead settles in with her new rod and trout soup to see if things are any better...

They are not, at least not significantly. Whilst Illy might be marginally closer, she still fails to catch anything apart from algae. Back to the pier next time...




Winter Day 22, Year One

Willy, sending the note about new stock was pointless; Illy was there to buy the rod yesterday, and she's not paying you for bait given she can craft her own now. The time for that was BEFORE she could make her own...

Oh, that's nice, Evelyn has sent Illy some bread!

Placement of that sprinkler was not good... Illy will have to move that, she thinks...



Illy first goes to Robin to give her the hardwood, a nice flower and price up the next upgrades. A deluxe coop will set Illy back 20k and an improved barn 12k. That said, the deluxe coop allows rabbits, plus an auto-feed system that will save Illy some work... goal for spring, then?

Marnie is, as per usual, NOT THERE when Illy wants to buy animals.

Illy goes to see Leah - and she's not home either!

Illy heads to the beach.

(And the game locks up, and the controls cease responding, though I did hit the save key as it seemed to work, so here's hoping or... This could be very bad...)

Illy blinks. She is back in bed, and it is 6am. Timeloop again, apparently... Though she still has all her beach salvage and her chores are done, so...

(Well, it could be worse...)

With her new-found time, Illy goes to see Rassy and give him another solar essence, and then back home to pick up some bait for the crab pots - and back to the beach! Actually, the beach via the mushroom caves, Illy hasn't been in a while. She does pick up a load of forage on the way!

The crab pots yield... Crab, mussel, oyster. Huh. Probably not surprising in hindsight. Illy reloads them anyway.

Okay, they don't seem to want to take any more bait, so whatever. Illy will go to the left pier and spend the rest of the day fishing.

The improved level up is noticeable in the bar is slightly larger, but this still doesn't really help. Illy at least catches about another four fish before it is time to go home to bed, so there is that...



Rain totem...?



We shall leave that mystery for next time!

[Kantaki]

I know, right? I mean, there is literally a cave full of monsters within easy walking distance on unsupervised children, glossing over monsters is crazy!

Adults...
Note: Allegedly I'm one. Personally I think I'm way to childish to qualify.

Part 10: Winter Blues

Your puns leave me cold.
Also, the mermaid show is giving me One Piece flashbacks.
Camie was definitely the first mermaid that showed up...

And a Rain Totem?
Weather Control, Weather Control, Weather Control...

[Aotrs Commander]

Your puns leave me cold.

I would make a great detective. The ability to make witty one-liner puns at the crime scene is all that requires, right?

Also, the mermaid show is giving me One Piece flashbacks.
Camie was definitely the first mermaid that showed up...

It's entirely possible it was a reference, but not having seen One Piece, I wouldn't have gotten it.

And a Rain Totem?
Weather Control, Weather Control, Weather Control...

Well, you weren't wrong, actually...



Shortish one today.


Part 11: Hard to Sum Up

Spoiler

Show

Tuesday, Winter Day 23, Year One

Apparently, the rain totem makes it more likely to rain the next day. Stands to reason...

Leah's birthday is today... First job, then, is to give her a gold crocus.



SERIOUSLY, Marnie?

Fine, community centre to drop off the duck egg and Clint's to pick up Illy's pickaxe...

Clint and his damn ores... Now he wants to see forty... Illy will probably have to go into the mines again. Still, she supposes this means more duggies to knobble.

Hah, no, she has enough ores stored to satisfy Clint without going into the mines!

Okay, the crab pots have not caught anything...? Does Illy need to put bait in them while in her inventory (naturally, she has not brought any with her today...)

*sigh* She'll spend the 15g to buy some from Willy.

Wait, did... Illy try to load them bug meat yesterday, instead of bait? She did, didn't she? Silly Illy. That would be why she couldn't load them!

Fishing, then. At least Illy can catch stuff now, and that is much more XP to fishing that catching trash - and the sooner she can make her own crab pots, the sooner she can line somewhere with loads of them and rake in a steady stream of XP.

Still, she manages two sardines, a sea cucumber and two herring, so that's pretty good!

Time for bed!



Winter Day 24, Year One



Illy maybe be uncreative, but she has loads of gold crocuses...!



Well, Andy, if you weren't a hopeless corporate stooge, you might have better luck...

Oh, Marnie deigns to be in today. Illy, then, will take two cows, who shall be Marvel and Wasp, a heater, a milk bucket and some shears, ready.

Leah is now up to 8 hearts, so she doesn't need more presents for the moment (now to concentrate on Maru)... So Jas and Marnie might as well have some flowers, Illy supposes...



COWS!

Illy makes a new chest to put in the barn so she can store the milking pale and shears conveniently. She also, while at it, adds a second blue chest next to her first to store all the minerals and wood and stuff in, since she's onto her second stack of wood and stone. She moves all the minerals and gemstones into the second chest, with other miscellaneous stuff.

She finally remembers to take the dried starfish she dug up a day or two ago to the museum.

Next job: find Maru and maybe do some more fishing...



Illy files "cranberry sauce" away as Things Abby Loves...



Hello, Robin!



Funny you should ask, Robin, Illy literally just made two chests this morning!



Ooooh. Illy likes blueprints. They are blue like she is! Also, starships are made from them.




Huzzah!



SWEET! Illy has no idea what those do, but sweet all the same!



Do they like, play music when you whack them or something?



Oh, no, they play a note when you walk PAST. Neat!

Have a gold crocus, Robin!

Illy was going to go home to get bug meat for her traps, then realises it's probably quicker to just get some fresh from the mine!

She finds plenty, and another couple of duggies, but it's perhaps a bit late to do much fishing - maybe a little bit, but without using the last trout soup - after she's done her crab pots, of course! Crab, driftwood -- ohh, shrimp, that's new!

She catches a herring and some seaweed, but it's time to head for home before she tries for anything more.



Winter Day 25, Year One



Ooh, early Feast of Winter Star present!

(Also, Rassy has the coolest letter-paper.)

Illy apparently won't be going to get her crab pots today, then, as the festival is being set up.

Illy stops to get some jam... Maybe she will give Leah that instead of a flower, since she gave her one yesterday (and all the time)...?





Sure, why not?



Uh, Illy is sure that astrophysically impossible, but go on. (Astrophysics ARE related to starships, after all.)




Huh.



Do NOT talk to Illy about the ice-fishing competition, Pam. Illy, unlike you, cannot drink to forget. Yes, Illy IS touchy about it, thanks.



No, Linus, that's... No. You will join in if Illy has to drag you, and if anyone has a problem, they can take it up with Illy's boot via their arse.



Well, that's really nice of Robin! Illy will see though. (She'd rather be at Abby's table if she can, though she doesn't say this to Robin...)



Ooh, exciting! (Unless, a voice whispers in Illy's head, no-one remembered you...)



Sam... Illy was thinking you were one of the less icky boys. Tut, tut.



Sometimes, Andy, Illy thinks you and Joja corp deserve each other.



Illy feels she should probably feel bad for internally smirking at Alex-short-for-Alexander's evident discomfort. But she doesn't...



Ooh, ooh, Illy doesn't know?

Watering can, maybe? Illy doesn't really mind, though it's the thought that counts.



But watering IS fun!

(Oh dear Illy desperately is hoping now that Emily wasn't her secret gift-giver and she's upset her now, that would be awful.)

Illy will give Leah her gift! She goes with the blackberry jam... Ooh, Illy hopes this is okay?




Darn. That clearly should have been something better. Blast it! Illy wants people to really love her gifts! (Still, she didn't hate it...)



Oooh, oooh, this is so exciting! Illy will love it whatever it is!



Yesyesyesyesyes! Illy bounces up and down with excitement.



An emerald! That's lovely! Illy will put that somewhere nice!



No, it's wonderful, Caroline! Illy will make a special something to put it in her bedroom especially!



Then you are an idiot, Shane. You literally live in a valley with a wizard and an ex-devil.



Maybe actually try being less... Look, just maybe try some online dating?



Too right!

Illy can't find Rassy anywhere this time.

...

Come to think of it, Illy doesn't recall ever seeing Gunther outside the museum...

Ah, well! Illy joins Abby and family for a lovely dinner!



Afterwards, Illy heads home. (For the moment, she'll put her emerald in the fridge, until she can get something better...)



Winter Day 26, Year One



Illy fears you won't be getting it in a hurry, Gus? She can try fishing, but it doesn't seem likely...

Illy gets her winter crops in. She makes another load of seeds, ready for next year, and most of the rest she sells.



Well, that is a stupendously easy quest!



Illy thinks there is another reason people stare at Abby...

Jodi can have a crocus - and a gold crocus as well, just because!

Lobster, shrimp, driftwood from the crab pots... Well, it's something, isn't it?

Couple more trout soup, and a quick run around the beach, and Illy will try to fish again...

Illy has some moderate success...



But the controls remain near-impossible to work with and the fish delight in moving fast a half second before catching where Illy has no chance of keeping up with them, especially since the control is idiotically over-touchy and further insists on taking control away when it bounces.



Well, that wasn't a TOTAL waste...



Winter Day 27, Year One



Huzzah! She will be Indrani!

Catherine has conveniently laid another duck egg, which goes right into the incubator.

Crab pots take three iron bars, ouch. Illy is rather short on those... Quarry/mine trip will have to be done soonish, though Illy wants to keep at the fishing for the next couple of days at least as there is an outside chance she might catch something that she needs before spring.

She makes three crab pots, and while she's at it, a cheese press, as hopefully before long, she'll have some milk! She puts the crab pots in her stream near the lightning rod, just to see what she finds.

Illy stops Linus for a quick chat and the goes to Robin's to say high to Maru...





Hi Maru.



Well, Illy isn't too shabby at maths, actually.



Illy can certainly try!





Shoulder!Alluria would rather go to Maru's lap, but Illy hushes her.







And it’s a good thing I leave my calculator next to my iron idiot, innit?

So circumference is increasing by 0.5m/minute... At 4m radius, the circumference is 2πr, so is 25.13m; and the area is πrº, so 50.26mº...

25.13+0.5 = 25.63.

25.63= 2πr

25.63/2π = r, so r = 4.07m

Area then equal π4.07² = 52.29m²

So the rate of change is 2m² (to one significant figure)...




Boom! Illy is great at maths!

(Boom! Bleakbane still has it!)








(Oh for frack's sake!)





(FRAG DAMMIT, I haven't done chemistry for twenty sodding years!

Hang on, hang on...

Crap, I might even have to this up...!

No, no, I'm over complicating this, this is still simple maths. For a moment, I was thinking back to combustion or photosynthesis-type quadratic equations - it IS pretty late...)

0.8 x 0.6 = 0.48 atm?





DAMMIT! Idiot Illy. that was for wrong gas, CO was 0.3, should be 0.24, stupidstupidstupid!

(Like I said, pretty late at night... *skulldesk*))

Illy smiles wanly, while kicking herself for such a stupid mistake - and after getting the hard one right, too...



(*eyeglow twitch* *eyeglow twitch*)



Illy is slightly relieved.

(And after all that, she has already given Maru two flowers this week...)

Riiight. Collect the crab pots, pick them up (she'll put them in her steam later), more fishing...



Well, that's new...

Illy has a reasonable day, but again she has most trouble because the frelling box is so horrendously unresponsive (it accelerates) and it bounces at either end, and while bouncing (which it does repeatedly), it won't increase the meter. So annoying!



One day of winter left...

[Kantaki]

Go away math.

Last day of winter?
Then I shall wish Illyphase a great- no, a amazing new year.
And lots of time to improve her fishing.

[Aotrs Commander]

Go away math.

Hoesntly, I didn't find half-past midnight or whatever was not the best time to spring that up, myself...! But one feels after one's engineering degree one should be damned for not doing it.

(And doubly embarrased for fracking up the easier, second question, which I can only put down to both the late hour and the unpleasant heat (heat is something I definitely still feel - after all, heat and fire is one of the things that bypasses my rejuvenation...!)

Last day of winter?
Then I shall wish Illyphase a great- no, a amazing new year.
And lots of time to improve her fishing.

The fishing is improving. The first trick is, unless you are a QTE-sort-master, you NEED to fish in that area with the ludicously easy fish (mostly I'd been fishing the other end of the piers...) And secondly, the arse-backwards difficulty curve that means it gets easier, as increased proficiency means the fish move less and the bar gets slightly bigger, decreases the wait time (so you can get more practise in...) AND increases the odds of starred fish (which are, of course, worth more XP).



So this will be the last one for a little bit, since I am out for a week or so, so you can breathe a little!



(Incidently, reason I'm waiting to reply to people until the main post drops is solely to avoid dropping a double-post, in case that wasn't obvious! And I do appreciate the comments, since then I know people are listening, because I have been known to do this sort of thing and be fairly sure that I was shouting into the wind by the end of it! I once started a write-up of a my Rise of the Runelords campaign and had a couple of people post to start with, and I so I did it religiously for a year, after evey session and I never did know if anyone was still reading it by the end...!))



Part 12: This is a lot of work...

Spoiler

Show

Sunday, Winter Day 28, Year One



Wow, Mercury just laid an iridium-quality egg!

Illy considers what she should do with it, and decides maybe she'll keep it for the fair display (she'll sell any others.)

She goes to Robin and Maru, to give them flowers (because). (Robin likes her more than Maru does...!) Illy has a nosey around Maru's room while she's at it...



Yes gods, Maru, Illy cannot believe she's using that old by the standards of the computer age, let alone the pre-FTL age! How does she manage to even save her files?

(Seriously, this seems ludicrous, even in context. The text file I'm using for this play-through is 600k already and a great deal of my word files are well over one 1.44meg. I cannot see how Maru could be storing anything of any kind of complexity usefully. Heck, my spreadsheets for my starships you'd get no more than about three to a floppy. Meaning either Illy is making assumptions from Maru's PC just having a floppy drive, Maru is intro retro-gaming or...)

Maru has a basement, neat!



Huh? What? Does that even... Illy is deeply confused. (One of the side-benefits of being a devil is that Illy doesn't get cycles anymore (and hasn't for most o two centuries), so it takes her a long moment to even wonder if this is something male humans have to go through as well...? If not, the heck is this book on about?)

She heads to Willy's to get some more trout soup, and then heads home to go out to see Rassy.



That is so cool!

Essence delivered, Illy makes it back to the beach for the last failed attempt at either squid or albacore. No-one can say she hasn't tried...

When she gets home, Illy elects to sell all of her gold and silver fish (she's actually got a fair stack now, at least), as the infusion of cash will help her buy more seeds tomorrow.

She also has discovered that large eggs give gold-star mayonaisse, so that is something else to consider!

Illy watches a bit of telly before bed, and the Queen of Sauce teaches her to to make cranberry candy!

Time for bed (Illy doesn't see much point in seeing the new year in all on her own...)

Happy New Year, Illy!



Monday, Spring Day 1, Year Two




Oh, well, hello, there Kent!

(Jodi's husband, maybe?)

Speaking of...




Well, Illy would love t-



... Well, that is going to be a problem.



Great. Well, Time For Illy Can't Fish again!



Yeah, how the frack is Illy going to manage that, and on the first day of Spring too.

She will see what she can do, Jodi...

Robin has left Illy with anice recipe for pumpkin soup. Lovely. Abby might well like that...



Uh, okay? Not that Illy bought any materials from them anyway?

DANG, Illy's grass grew fast!



Jodi looks like she is going to be WELL out of luck, since it takes Illy the ENITRE day to get her seeds planted, and as she heads out and nearly ten of clock to try and catch some damn fish, Linus interrupts her.

(No thanks to the game's own wording, it turns out that, like Emily's fashion event, it is timed only in the sense of you having to turn up at the location on any given day at the right hour, not that the specific day matters. This is as well, since I would have been very annoyed if that wasn't the case.



Linus, Illy doesn't really have time for this right- You know what, nevermind, Linus, carry on.



Illy IS kind of busy, especially on the first day of spring, she will come and visit Linus with leeks soon, don't worry.






Aw, that's nice! Illy thinks Linus is a good friend too.

Linus wants to show Illy simething inside his tent.

Shoulder!Alluria, shut up. Just for that, you can wait outside.

There are a lot of squishy, splatty noises coming from inside the tent. Shouklder1Alluria waggles her eybrows.



Shoulder!Alluria is very disappointed.




Neat!

Wild bait takes a lot more resources than regular bait, but never mind that now, Illy needs a largemough bass STAT.

Illy catches a couple of carp -

(Apparently, large mouth bass don't even appear except in the afternoon and early morning...)

- and then heads back to bed, but with all the faffing about, she's late.

Grand start to the year, then...

Well, large iridium egg is only worth as much as regular mayonaisse. Hrm. Maybe Illy should have been just making mayo this whole time...



Spring Day 2, Year Two

First, sort all of the farm-work. Illy thinks that in future, she should shut the coop and only let the animals out fter she's petted them and collected the eggs, since she can't even find the ducks in the grass.

(Still, she's now getting milk from the two cows, starting from yesterday, but she was in such a hurry, she didn't take much time to note it.)

Illy sprints to Will to get some trout soup, hoping to make it to the mine lake early and get some more work done later.

But, of course, her headlong rush is halted. Penny is looking rather... Pensive.




Penny might as well tell Illy what is wrong, she'll only wheedle it out of her...






Oh, Illy has a feeling she won't like where this is going...



Oh dear...



Illy is always ready to listen. Even when she is in the middle of rushing around.






Bad past tense, bad past tense...



Oh heavens, this is going to be worse than Illy expected, isn't it?




Azurella's mercy.



This town SERIOUSLY needs a law-enforcement officer!




Illy silently prays to Azurella that the boy had discovered secret magic powers and started fighting evil or something secretly, but she somehow knows it is in vain.



Illy makes a mental note to find this guy, if he hasn't been caught already...



Illy would have done far more than scream.



Illy's way would not have done.






Good on Mayor Linkara! (She is somewhat impressed he didn't just use his magic gun or starship on the guy, actually - Illy would have done...)





He'd be a lot worse if Penny hadn't acted immediately like that. Peeny did a damn good job.




Without question.



Anytime.



No, this was more important, Penny.



This is what Illy does.



Penny too.

(Surprise feels attack, everyone!)

Illy heads to fish...

She does well, actually, catching bullheads, carp, chubs (ooh, she needsa couple of those fo the community cente - and a largemouth bass!



She figures she will fish until about four and then try and reach the store to buy more seeds if she can...

(Harvey wants a purple mushroom - easy to get!)

She can, though Jodi will have to wait for another day.

Illy gets the rest of her crops, hoes, plants and waters, which takes so long, she is only in bed at twenty to two.



This is paying off, slowly. The trick clearly is to fish in the right places...

Finally, though, the recycling machine! All that trash she has can no be made into something useful!




Spring Day 3, Year Two

There is quite a bit of chores to do. Illy starts one recycling machine and gets it going. She is now out of iron bars, so a mine or quarry trip is required soon.



Of course, rain is now rather irrelevant to her work-time, since everything is on sprinkler...!

Illy thinks she rather needs to go visit people, though, today. First, Robin and Maru and Linus, and then find Harvey... Who is in the store, which is closed on Wednesday.

Fantastic.

Communtiy centre, then...

Illy will need another largemouth bass for here...

But she can complete the fieldl research bundle, which gives her another recycler. (Illy finds this damn typical...)



Naturally, Illy is several seconds too late to get into the clinic to give Harvey his damned purple mushroom.

Olivia house's is MASSIVE on the inside.



Also, she dislikes daffodils.

It is not Illy's day.

Illy does at least catch Harvey by the bar. And it's not far off seven, so at least Illy can do to Jodi's dinner today...

She pauses outside Jodi's to have one try at fishing - and actually catches a shad. (Ridiculous inverse difficulty curve...)

Time for dinner...




Yes, it took Illy a day or two get organised, but here she is at last!




Good boy.



Illy probably shouldn't have dumped it on the floor like that, really...



Fair enough.



Well, he is a growing lad, isn't he? (By comparison to illy, anyway...)




This Illy thinks is a little odd, since there is no-one in this family Illy is trying to get in the pants of- she means has a romantic interest in.

Well, says Shoulder!Alluria, it might depend upon what Jodi was into...

(Shoulder!Alluria, it may be noted in passing, is a bit naughty.)

Illy spends the rtest of the day scything through to try and clear a path to the mushroom cave. She is a bit later to bed, but does pick up a recipe for tortillas from the telly.

Okay, it is apparent that egg quality does't really matter, since mayonnaise is worth more by quite a lot. (Gold mayonnaise (which is made by using a large egg) is +50% of an iridium large egg.)



Spring Day 4, Year Two

Chores take a lot of time, even without the watering!

Illy really needs some iron, so today she will go to the quarry and then the mines.

A random bat has secret note #13...



And shortly after, #7 secret note appears!




That is possibly useful information, but Illy sort of agrees on the sentiment..

The mine is not kind to illy today, and she finds little iron.

she does find another secret note on the way though.



She knocks it off at about nine, which gives her plenty of time to get back and fiddle around. Eventually, she will hope to cut the recycling down to managble levels, and re-locate it completely to over by the crab pots, with its own chest, but that will wait for another day!



Spring Day 5, Year Two

A new duckling has hatched! This one will be Vivienne!

Illy's parsnips and garlic (the new crop for this season), have sprouted. She goes to the store and buys more seeds - she doesn't get quite enough (she only bought four of each, not eight!), so she fills the rest of the space with wild seeds.

She elects that, aside from a quick to to Rassy, she will spend most of today crafting, getting through the backlog of eggs into mayonnaise and the recycling.

Caravan lady has a "rare seed," which Illy is to sow in fall and takes all season to grow. For a 1000g, Illy will have a go.

She heads back and spend the time sorting stuff out, including planting some more trees (since apparently she just managed to cut down the ones she previously planted along with the grass...)

Time for bed!



Spring Day 6, Year Two

Emily wants an apricot. Well, that might take a while...

Or, if Illy actually noticed the fruit on her trees, right now! Her apricots and cherries have just grown!

So today will be an around town day!

The fruit allows Illy to complete the Artisan bundle...



For which she gets a keg! Excellent! She can use that with the hops now!

First, though, Sam wants a potato (Illy saved just one from last year, hoorah!) and then she stops by Clints to open some geodes and finds pyriate and an ancient drum - which gives her a drum stone for her farm when donated to the museum.

Back to the farm from more artificing and tree-cutting down!

Duck mayonnaise is worth a lot!



Spring Day 7, Year Two

Today, Illy is going to try and catch Robin and move the silo. She could use the space in her crafting area, and, as she has found, the silo doesn't actually require her to do anything to, so it can be put somewhere well out of the way. (She probably ought to make a second as well, at some point, she thinks...)

But first, Illy watches the telly (she keeps forgetting to do that!) and learns how to cook pizza. Neat!



Now, Illy could pick her tulips, but she wants them to help the bees, so she will leave them in for the moment!

Hi, Robin! Illy would like to move her silo now!

...




She did that instantly!

ROBIN IS TOTALLY A TIME LORD!!!

Illy heads down to the mushoom cave, clearing as she goes, and the heads to bed

OH DARN IT, it was Mayor Linkara's birthday today! Too much going on!

(And too damn hot weather...)



Spring Day 8, Year Two

Chores are taking a lot of time now! Illy harvests potatoes, gets the milk and eggs, makes mayonnaise, stocks the recyclers, empties the crab pots, harvests the kale - she needs more seeds...!

Leah wants an aquamarine.. Illy THINKS she has some of those?

Rats, Illy needs even more seeds, she didn't notice her lower field had sprouted as well!

To the bar! Illy has a pale ale (at long last, it's taken her more or less a year..!) to deliver to Pam and an aquamarine to Leah.

Illy stops by the community centre two - the cows have finally produced large milk, so she only needs wool or gaot's milk to finish the animal bundle and complete another room!



At least Illy's hard work is paying off!

Not only that, but the kale and potatoes make a lot of money!




Spring Day 9, Year Two

Right then! Today's job will be to go to Robin and get that coop upgraded again!

Speaking of Robin, she leaves Illy fifty wood. That's nice.

As usual, though Illy's timing is such that Robin isn't there today... Flower for Maru, then... Oh darn it, she's not home either. Fine, Demetrius, you have one, to stop the trip from being wasted!



Ah. This is Caroline's much vaunted aerobic class. Okay, flowers for everyone! (And mayo for Mayor Linkara, because he seems to at least like it...)

Jodi and Olivia don't like their daffodil and danelion respectively.. Illy needs to start using other things. Well, Illy DOES have a lot of jam...!



Hi, Maru!



You probably ought not to have dropped that glass vail of samples, Maru...




Oops?



Ah, Maru, don't worry, Illy will take the fall for this one. Fall, do you get! Ahahahaokay. Illy will hush now.





Sounds about right. Illy is many things, but quiet has never really been one of them at any point, honestly.



Uh, it is easily done, Harvey.




Uh... HOW? Leaving aside this is the United Concorde of Divine Realms, Harvey, and that medical money should never be an issue given the UCDR's comprehensive public health system (I mean, leaving aside the nonmagic health workers, the UCDR has more divine casters or divine-blooded-with-magic her head than any other major power) - are you just that bad at your job?

Illy goes home, goes back and buys more seed and keeps culling through her excess goods.

Illy discoveres that the bees have made tulip honey - nice - and then goes and adds a couple more recyclers to her crab pot area.



(She'll move the last one soon, they backlog is nearly gone.) She adds a chest for good measure... Actually, it might not be a bad idea for Illy to empty the stuff out of the fridge from the pots into that as well, then she can just dump it all in one place.

There! Four recyclers all in a neat row, next to a chest. Illy can now hopefully easily keep pace with processing her crab pot catches nice and efficiently. She also now has an absolutely surfeit of refined quartz, since that is what all those broken CDs and glasses produced!

She also makes a second mayonnaisse machine - she has a lot of eggs to process!

Illy calls it a night at that.

Tulip honey is worth 60% more than regular honey...

And cheese is defitely more profitable than milk, as once again, gold milk and large milk is worth less than the regular and gold cheese it produces respectively. Good to know!





Spring Day 10, Year Two

Oh yes, it's much easier to dispose of the fishing trash now with four recyclers, Illy can dump it in and only have to empty it once per day! After getting herself sorted, illy goes and orders her new deluxe coop from Robin. This will allow her to have rabbits and also comes with an auto feeder, which will save Illy some work! Illy gives Robin and Maru some gold mayonnaise, since she's kind of swimming in it and has not found so many flowers this year.

Ily heads back home and meaders around the farm. She spends most of the day trying to work out what to do with the torches she got (57 of them...) from all the recycled newspaper. Eventually, they all end up on top of the fence around the animal yard.

There is still some time left, so Illy decides to make a seed maker, and try it out on a pumpkin.

Wow, that was fast! Three seeds! Well, maybe she'll try with a potato next...



Yeah, Illy's crafting area is defintely better without the silo in the way!



And the animals will never be in the dark again! Lucky them...?




Spring Day 11, Year Two

New duckling! That makes four! This one will be Juniper!

Many chores...

After a wander up to give Linus a gold leek and back through town, Illy decides to visit Rassy.




Leah must really want that fruit...



Yes, Illy was right! And it does!



Illy is quite tall, but she probably can't either, at least not without using her wings.




Oh, fine, Illy will be your ladder. Calm down, Leah.




Shoulder!Alluria is enjoying the view, but she thinks it is a shame Leah is not wearing a skirt. Illy would smack her upside the head, but then they would all fall over.



Illy gets that a lot, actually!



Yes, Illy would love to try a piece of Leah's juicy fruit.




Yes, yes you will, Leah!



No problem. Illy likes your art that you're drawing as well.

Rassy's void essense delivered, llly heads home. She decides, purely on a whim, to clear out that bit of forest on the south end of her bridge.

Hello, Illy's never been down this way before...



Woah! Illy has a HOT SPRING in the corner of her farm?!



What's this up here...? Ohhhhh.



Huh. Well, Amy's grave is now neater, since Illy got rid of all the fallen wood.

Better hurry back, though, it's late!



And on that poignant note, we shall leave Illy for a little while!

Soon it is the egg festival, round two - will she be able to beat Abby this time? Will she remember Haley's birthday on the 14th the day after or to look for the location in the secret note (maybe she will if I leave this note here...!)




All these questions and less to be answered next time! (In a little over a week...!)

[Kantaki]

Don't worry, I'll keep reading.
And commenting.

Well, Penny's bit got dark.
If not the way I expected.
But all well that ends well.
But again, the second dialogue option?
Who says stuff like that?

A hot spring, huh.
I would be more exited if if wasn't so warm...

[Keltest]

How do you decide what to name your animals? Do you just have a big list of Names To Use If I Need Them At Some Point somewhere?

[Aotrs Commander]

And we are back!

How do you decide what to name your animals? Do you just have a big list of Names To Use If I Need Them At Some Point somewhere?

The chickens are X-Men, the ducks are from A Practical Guide to Evil, the cows are Avengers and forthcoming rabbits and goats are Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Madoka Magika respectively (sheep and whatever else pending...)




Part 13: Illy Gets Lucky

Spoiler

Show

Friday, Spring Day 12, Year Two

Oh, well, first off, Illy found secret note #12...



Interesting...

It's raining outside, which means it is at least easy to check the animals in the coop... Oooh!



The deluxe coop is done! Illy will have to see if she can track down Marnie today to get some rabbits (and Robin to make a second silo...)

Marnie is actually home, shock of shocks. Ouch - rabbits are expensive at 8000g! Illy buys one, and she shall be Nanoha.

Oh, hey, some pine resin, finally!



It takes Illy some time to get to Robin, since she is a silly Illy

(- and I haven't played for a week -)

and only picked up one of the resources, not a stack and only realised half-way from the mine. Whoops!

Suddenly struck by the realisation the festival is tomorrow, Illy also needs to check her cauliflowers, else she might not get another round in, so she heads to Robin's via the village and buys some more seeds from Pierre's store. Rassy wants a dandelion (and she just gave her last one to Marnie).

Illy also didn't bring clay, fragdammit, after all that. Back home...

Illy astoundingly manages to catch Robin, given the time, so now it's a just a rush to Rassy's, as she found a dandelion near the mine cart...

Caravan lady has a pufferfish for a mere 600G - Illy stops as she passes - so Illy thinks she might as well, for the community centre.

Dandelion delivered, Illy heads back and to the community centre, as there's not much left she can do. Typical for today, she doesn't need to pine tar now, but at least the puffer fish is dropped off...



Sounds about right, doesn't it?

Bedtime!



Spring Day 13, Year Two

As Illy suspected, the cauliflowers sprouted today. (Illy must remember that it seems when a seed says it grows in "x days" is means that, a little counter-intuitively, it means it will be harvested on the NEXT day.) Fortunately, because she messed up at the start of spring, the second field of cauliflowers isn't ready yet, so she has just enough seeds to sow to replace the ones she had just taken. The garlic and parsnips are done too, but Illy didn't think to get any seeds, so she just sows the four potato seeds she has to hand and calls it a day.

It's half-past eleven by the time she's done all that, it's half-past eleven - time for the Egg Festival!

Pierre's stall is selling strawberry seeds. Hmm. Illy buys eight - then thinks sod it, she'll replace that second field of cauliflowers with strawberry seeds and gets another 24.



Fair enough, Kent...



Illy does!

...

Do all the eggs Illy produced count as being "deviled...?"



Illy is sure you do, Alex-short-for-Alexander, and she is equally sure you fail every time. You, after all, are an Alex-short-for-Alexander, not a proper Alex, for example, that nice Mr. Rider Illy has been reading about recently, who actually lives up to the name.

Shane thinks Abby is going to win again. He thinks Abby should be banned, because it is unfair for Vincent and Jas.



Well, excuse Illy, Victor!

Illy is terribly sorry if, after she died a tragic death before she was twenty and has her soul tortured into becoming a manifestation of evil and two hundred odd years of doing horrible things she can never erase, she feels she is entitled to a little bit of a second childhood!

Victor cringes rather a lot after that.



Illy refers the disembodied narrative to her previous statement.



Besides, Illy is barely tall enough and she is a good six-foot tall, how would the kids reach it?

[img]https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/781856840836612656/CB40373A9862ED799D7D7C4FF0EAE81CAE1843F6//img]

Illy has got this! Illy has got this! Abby is going down!

Not like that, Shoulder!Alluria!

(Not in public, anyway...)



Illy is still older than you, Mayor Linkara. She'll calm down when she's good and ready!

GO!



Dangit, that was a dog ball not a second egg!

Time's up... Illy got, like, four.



Hey, Illy picks up lots of rubbish all the time!




DARNIT! How? Illy even FOLLOWED ABBY!

And that is the Egg festival ended for another year.

Illy makes a note to try and make a load of strawberry seeds and/or reserve a lot more cash for next year to stock up for the following year.



Spring Day 14, Year Two

Most important - Haley's birthday!

Illy checks the telly and learns how to make hash browns. She is starting to get into the habit of checking it more often...



Aww, look at baby Nanoha...

Illy is going to be doing a lot of planting today - all the taters and kale is coming in as well as those cauliflowers...



Illy did! As if there was any doubt!



Illy wonders how long Atop the Forth Wall has been going on, given that...

Kent wants an eel, but frankly, Illy isn’t even going to attempt that.

She buys sixteen more each of potato and kale seeds to re-set that crop, and eight garlic and parsnip to fill any other gaps.

Illy makes a trip down to the mushroom cave, gathering a load of forage as she goes. From there, she heads to the town to try and find that place on secret note #17.

No luck!



Spring Day 15, Year Two



Woo! Neat!



Fortunately, Illy always tries to keep a few leeks around!

Illy heads into town after her increasingly extensive chores - a leek for Evelyn, a pale ale for Pam...

To Robin's next, to get her started on the big barn! Illy gives Robin, Maru and Demetrius some gold dandelions, but they are only moderately pleased.

Illy goes and finally finds what was in secret note #17 - a strange green doll, buried in the ground by the river, north of the Joja mart.

(Again, I resorted to the internet - I wasn't actually wrong where I was looking, even, I just didn't think to try all of the tools on that square...)



Hi Abby!



Abby tells Illy that Illy's palm says that... Mmm, you know what, Illy will keep that one to herself, actually. *cough* Shoulder!Alluria wiggles her eyebrows suggestively...

Illy turns in the strange doll to the museum and gets a bear statue. But Gunther still doesn't know anything about the strange doll. But, Illy knows, sometimes this is true; museums don't know everything.

While she's there, Illy reads through some of the various lost books she has occasionally found.




Interesting - so this is the deity that they pray to on a Sunday.



Ohh, that strange guy on the beach is a GHOST, well that explains so m- wait, WHAT?!



Well, isn't that last part kind of ironic, under the circumstances...!




Ooooh, Illy SO wants one of those!

Hi, Leah!




Illy sincerely hopes, Leah's sake, she is not escaping anything quite so... Dramatic as Illy.

Illy drops in on Jodi and remembers NOT to give her a flower. Illy must start remembering to shower people with jam, not flowers...



That is a big bear statue.

Illy does a little crafting, placing down a loom - now she has that pine tar - two more preserve jars and an oil-maker.



Illy does a bit of research on what the oil-maker does aside from make truffle oil (rather than try everything she has) and it turns out corn, sunflowers and sunflower seeds can be used to make oil. Illy uses one set of the latter to start making some. Oil gets a lot of use in cooking, and Illy isn't going to be buying any oil!

That will do for the day!



Spring Day 16, Year Two

Chores...

Illy, noticing that when she looked the other day, could make sashimi (apparently from bait...?) goes and fetches a snail from her fishing cupboard to see if she can make it from that.

She can! Illy will be making a lot of this, shortly! Actually, she realises, she won't, because fish are part of the quality fertiliser ingredients, so she'll hold plenty spare... Maybe just take five each of snail, crayfish and periwinkle for sashimi and see who likes that...

Oh. Illy discovers - one click too many! - that it wasn't the bait (that makes sense) but if ingredients are in the fridge or Illy's inventory, they will be used when cooking.

Nevermind...

Now Illy leads! Sashimi for everyone!

Emily doesn’t like it - oh well, she'll forgive Illy! - but Demetrius, Mayor Linkara, Pierre, Caroline, Marnie, Jodi, Olivia (Illy caught their aerobics class) and Linus all seem to enjoy it. So do Maru, Gus, Pam and Leah!

Illy gives the last one to Jas.

Pretty successful!

Illy makes a trip over to Rassy with a void essence. She discovers (duh!) that she can harvest a load of salmonberries from the bushes - didn't work with them in winter, but does now!

Back and early bed!



Spring Day 17, Year Two



The big barn is done!

Today, Illy thinks she ought to do some mine-exploring soon; she's a bit low on iron. But she's quite low on wood, so some yard-work will be first today. But not until she's gone and bought a new goat from Marnie - who will be Homura!

A lot of tree-cutting later, Illy has got another couple of hundred wood. Once she gets tired, she decides to have an early night.



Spring Day 18, Year Two



Here's Homura!

And in the big coop, Nanoha has left Illy some wool!



Huh, the wool around these parts is rabbit wool?

Right, today's job is the community centre, then, as that means Illy can finish another bundle!

A stop by the store to buy some seeds to replace the parsnip and garlic Illy has just harvested - and, while she remembers, an apple and pomegranate starter for fall.

Illy remembered to check the calendar (whoops, she missed Olivia’s birthday...) and it's Pam's today. Gold dandelion? (Since Illy is a bit of a rush to get down the mines - Clint wants ores again...) Illy stop by the trailer.




Well, Illy's not in so much of a rush she can't help Penny clean up on her mum's birthday.




Illy is on it!



Clean, clean, clean the bizarrely wooden interiored trailer!



Oh, hey, Pam Illy was just helping do the cleaning!



Oh, Pam is one of those "store things on the floor" people. Illy gets it.




Well, in fairness, it IS her birthday Penny. I mean if she's going to drink any day it's her birthday. Illy means, it's not like she spends all day every day drin...Illy is just going to be tidying up the settee now, don't mind Illy.




No, Pam doesn't want that. Illy has seen what happens to souls that died of excess. It is not pretty.




Tone it down, Pam you shouldn't be getting stressed on your birthday!



Illy has seen worse.





They do know Illy can hear every word with her devil-hearing, right?

Pam gets her flower as she heads out.

Animal bundle done! Illy gets another cheese press and...







Pantry is done!

Illy figures while she's at it, she'll finish the 5000g bundle, for which she gets 30 quality fertiliser. Nice!



By the time Illy gets back, plants the seeds and the fruit trees, it's rather too late to go to the mine, so Illy clears a load more trees before bed.



She does find secret note #16, though and Illy is PREEEEETTY sure she can get THAT one easily...





Spring Day 19, Year Two



No worries, Penny.



Oooh, this is what the Juminos were building last night while Illy slept! Neat!



Illy isn't entirely sure what to do with it yet. Looks like she digs it up to put plants in, but... Well, this is a problem for another day. first, secret not #16 - and then the mine!

No, actually, that's a railroad, not a road on the note, so it's probably up past the spa. Illy will look into it another day - she needs to head into the mines!

Oops, she forgot all about Clint's quest yesterday. As she slips back through town (searching the bins as the note suggested, as it's a lucky day today - finding nothing...) she notes Willy wants someone to catch two chub. Well, she might have a try at that...

Illy found no less than three secret notes in the mines (and not a lot of ore), but she'll look at them tomorrow.



Spring Day 20, Year Two

Right! Secret notes!

#5:



Ace, thank you, Penny! (How did THAT get down the mine?)

#22



THE FRACK?!

That's a bit concerning...



Useful - though Illy has figured some of that out herself!



Aw, thanks, Rassy!

Illy elects to go and try to fish after her chores. She does well - relatively speaking - catching ten fish, including the requisite two chub, just as she is about to give up.

Illy stops by the adventurer's guild to sell a weapon she found. She kicks herself for a) forgetting to go and get a geode opened and b) for forgetting to harvest her potatoes and kale and go to the store and get more seeds. Well, if she's quick, she can get just one more day in.

On her way home, Illy wonders suddenly if the skull-shaped key will open the sewer pipe. It does not.



Spring Day 21, Year Two

Illy watches the telly and picks up how to make a complete breakfast.



Well, that's a trivial quest!

Marnie wants an emerald, but Illy apparently doesn't have any (aside from her Winter Feast one, and Marnie's not having that!) Well, nothing at the quarry... Illy takes a short trip into the mines, but she didn't bring any healing items, so she aborts fairly quickly, having not found much.

Back home, Illy replants her fields and decides on some river fishing to end the day. Which is a near-complete waste of a trout soup, since Illy only sees two fish and mostly catches junk. She does, at least catch the two fish, which are smallmouth bass.



Woohoo! Max farming! Illy will take artisan, since that's where most of her steady money is coming from now.



Oh, neat!

Hmm. Illy thinks, perhaps surprisingly, it ought to Fisher, since while cheaper crab-pots would be nice, Illy doesn't feel like dozens more of them are good for her time. (And the options at level 10 for trapper means either losing all the recycling options or automatic baiting, which actually makes them more tedious to use, since they are easily picked up by misclicks if you're not holding bait.)




Spring Day 22, Year Two



Nice, blueberry tarts!

And Marine sent some hay. Whoop.

Illy harvests her garlic and notices a quest to kill six slimes - so that's today's agenda!

(And dead. *sigh* Doing the day again, then, since I didn't save before...

Second try...

Third try (but at least I'd saved first...))

And, of COURSE, since Illy found some emeralds, NOW Marnie isn't in the damn bar.

Illy stomps off to bed at half-twelve, rather bloodied because of those FRACKING BATS. Lucky day Illy's arse...!



Well, at least that's a positive...



Spring Day 23, Year Two



Hi Evelyn!





Illy thanks Evelyn! She has been working quite hard!






Cool! What does it do?



Oh, heck yes, that's actually really useful! Thanks!



Seems logical...



Woohoo!



Bye Evelyn!



Ouch! That's expensive... Buuuut, Illy does nearly have enough, so maybe it ought to be her next purchase.



And here are all the strawberries!

Most of the first crop (gold and silver) goes for sale, but Illy drop one into the seedmaker, as she is thinking that inside strawberries sound lovely!

Next though, she looks at the two secret notes (#22 and 6) she found down the mines...





Mmhm.

Right, to Clint's; there are geodes to crack! Illy finds new, basalt and petrified slime. Neat.

Huh, Jas does not like jam. Okay, Illy must remember that...

Illy does rather well on the beach foraging today, getting tons of clams in particular.

Oliva and Robin do like jam, though!

Illy poddles over to Rassy's, and then heads home.



Indoor strawberries!

Illy intended to put some fertiliser down, and then forgot. That said, it might be better to have them as regular anyway, since they are better for crafting and using for seeds.

A little more tree cutting and then Illy heads to bed early - it's the flower dance tomorrow and THIS TIME Illy will get a dance!




Spring Day 24, Year Two

Not much Illy can do today, so she sorts all her chores and then heads to the Flower Dance!

Rassy is, just like year, down a cliff. Azurella knows why...

Alex-short-for-Alexander is perving on Haley "admiring the scenery" he says. Illy gives him a foul glare.



Clint, stop that.



There is no reason! You CAN be the flower queen one day, Vincent! Go live that dream!




...

Kent has PST from fighting the national enemy, the wotsit empire or something, doesn’t he?

Hooo boy. Illy might have to try and help him through that.



Yes, Jodi, stop smirking, Illy WILL have the dance!




Maybe Abby just needs the right partner!

Like ILLY!




Yes!



YesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesYESYESYESYESYES! HUZZAH!

Illy and Shoulder!Alluria do a victory dance. It is really quite well co-ordinated; it is a pity that only half the dancers are visible.

Sorry, Haley, maybe another time?



Oh ho, it's like that is it! Illy is down for some good-natured competition!

Okay, Abby wants to wear the dress? Because Illy would totally wear the dress if Abby wants. Ah, no, Abby has a good point, she is further away from Alex-short-for-Alexander. Smart!







Illy doesn't know who won, but nevermind!

Victory for Illy!

Feeling extremely pleased (especially since she and Abby managed to sneak off for a while after the dance - it's ten before Illy is home, after all), Illy heads in.

She enjoys a quick watch of the telly and learns to cook her own trout soup!

Haha! She heads to bed, feeling very, very pleased!



And we shall leave her there for today!

[Kantaki]

Well, Illy definitely looks good in a suit.
And a greenhouse! All the best plants forever!

Meanwhile this thread got me to start Stardew Valley on the Switch.
...
I think I might have to look for a guide, to get started at least.
It's been way too long since I played a Story of Seasons (formerly known as Harvest Moon) style game.
And finding anyone is hard.
Took me nearly a week to meet everyone and I barely get to talk to people.
Also, is dynamite fishing a option?