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

[Keltest]

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?

Not if you live in Pennsylvania like I do.

[Aotrs Commander]

Goona be a little delayed on the next one, since both yesterday and today, I ran out of time between work and a thread at Paizo on how they appear to have completely borked Starfinder's Stealth following last night's RPG session...

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?

Ah, yeah, you don't get mods on the Switch, do you? Part of Stardew Expanded is a map indicator of where people are, which I sometimes even remember to check... (SVE has a map which is a modest bit bigger, of course, so it goes a little way to counter-balance the wasted time of trying to find everyone...!)

[Aotrs Commander]

We is back!

Part 14: Illy's Quarry

Spoiler

Show

Thursday, Spring Day 25, Year Two

Off to a nice start - Robin has sent Illy some wood.

The cauliflowers have all come in. Illy harvests and sells most of them. She won't re-seed, since nothing will have time to grow.

Looking at the community centre bundles, Illy could really use getting the vault done (which requires 10k + 25k gold) so she can repair the bus.

First, though, today she'll see if she can get that machine off Marnie.

Wow, shock of shocks, who is actually in! She also tells Illy Jas really doesn't like wild horseradish, for what it’s worth.

Illy wonders why people are more keen to tell her what people hate that what they like. Illy isn't a mean prankster or anything, she doesn't like giving people things they hate.

Illy goes back and drops the autograbber off. She is intending to try and find that secret note #16 with the railway today; but first, a trip down to the mushroom cave (and thence to the mines from the minecart). There is a lot of forage today!



HUZZAH! Illy finds a treasure chest buried in the location.

(FINALLY got one of these without having to look it up!)

Well, as that went well... Maybe Illy will venture in the bus tunnel in search of the "secret" mention by this mysterious "Qi" fellow in note #22. Since he knows Illy by name...

Nope, nothing but road in that tunnel... Where else might there be a tunnel...?

East of the farm,. over the bridge near the crab-pots?



No, that's not a cave, but Illy is able to at least get to it now with her gold pickaxe.

(She really must get around to upgrading the rest of her tools...)



Uh... That's ominous!

Illy didn't realise she was on that much of a time limit!

Illy chops a few more trees down in that areas and then heads to bed.



Profitable day, though!




Spring Day 26, Year Two



Yep, that autograbber is handy!

Now the chores are done, Illy looks at the secret note #18 she found yesterday.



Hmm... down by the cliffs maybe...?

Illy is thinking duggy hunting in the mines next.

Illy finds a lot of rocks, several secret notes but no duggies...

Maybe here?



No, those two slimes were literally the only monsters in the "infested" area...

She finds but ONE duggy on the next level... And then it is time come to home.

Still, five secret notes!

#1



How did a page of Abby's diary get in the mine... Oh well, it tells Illy a lot!

#11



Ooooookay...?

#15



That's... Huh. Well, looks like Illy will be going to see that again in Winter...

#20



That's even less helpful...

#22



Secret woods and bring maple syrup. Okay.




Spring Day 27, Year Two

Emily's birthday today!

Last strawberries, potatoes and kale...



Okay, so for Emily's birthday, the note said she likes gemstones, so Illy will try a topaz.

Clint's first, to crack some geodes... Nothing special! Then the museum to donate a Chewing Stick Illy found yesterday. This gets her - OHHH! A skeleton! Abby is going to LOVE that!



Emily likes that topaz, ace!

Where next... Map time!



Okay, that is probably where the Secret Forest is, but Illy has no idea how to get there.



That must be where the bus goes (Illy has heard someone mention this Sandy in conversation, Caroline or someone...?)

Not sure what to do with either of these...




Illy hasn't hacked her way down there yet...?



Okay, maybe a trip up past the beach and loop around that bottom area.

Whelp, can't get to the lonely stone...



Illy ends up having to go home, having ran out of inventory space.



There, a nice skeleton!

So, Illy will explore that far bit of the farm, then. some hacking later...



Hmm....

Can she use the boat...?

YES! Yes, she can!

Where is she?



Ohhh...



It's a QUARRY, full of copper!

Not that Illy could have gotten it before upgrading her pickaxe, mind.

Illy is a little late to bed, but she's barely started on the quarry and what a haul! She's found loads of geodes, some iridium ore (she actually has enough to make an iridium bar now!) and two prismatic shards...!



Spring Day 28, Year Two

Now, Illy must be sharpish today, she needs to check the bush in the playground at exactly noon...

She will pick the tulips and jazz flowers today though, since they'd die tomorrow at the start of summer.



Illy may well not bother with the jazz plot again, since the tulips were enough.



Well, this must be the bush... Just a case of waiting now...



Okay, got it!

Right, community centre on the way to Clint's...

Illy will do the 10k bundle, but she'll save the 25k until after she's bought all the summer plants! The 10k gives her another lightning rod.





Oh, that's where Emily and Haley's parents are. Illy wondered, but dared not ask...



Oh, one of THOSE world tours, right...



Plushy by the fire.

Illy doesn't have a lot of time left, so she heads back to that quarry and mines.

She comes away with tons of copper ore, a fair few iridium and a staggering over twenty different geodes!

Illy watches telly long enough to learn how to make luck lunch.

She heads back to bed, all ready for the start of summer tomorrow!



Summer Day 1, Year Two

Okay, Illy's first thought it, now she is starting to get some iridium is how she can use an iridium sprinklers. (She might have thought about it yesterday, but to be fair, she didn't have any iridium bars at all anyway).

A quality sprinkler is basically a nine-square block; after doing some research, an iridium is a 25-square (which is less than Illy was thinking, but easier to manage than a 24-tile radius). A little planning indicate that Illy could use two vertical strips either side of the scarecrow of three blocks, which would give her 144 tiles instead of 128.

The block now is getting both iridium bars (Illy might get three out of the ores she has), but she only has probably two of the requisite battery packs.

Hmm... Illy thinks she might need to heavily invest in rain totems and try and get some more storms, since battery packs only come from lightning rods in storms.

...

Nope, Rain Totems require truffle oil, which requires truffles, which requires pigs. And they will only extend storms if used on a stormy day.

Well then, Illy will not be rushing to move over to iridium sprinklers yet, then. Darn!

To Pierre's for seeds, then.



'Ello, what's going on here?



Hi, Demetrius!



Taxes...? Uhhhh...



Seriously, what taxes, Demetrius? Illy doesn't want to get into trouble!




Then... How is Demetrius getting his data...?



Illy has done a lot of stuff since... Wow, was it the middle of last summer?



Yes. (But Illy might move that silo that the tree is poking out of because it bugs her at some point, though.)




Uhhh, wait, does Illy know this one? Is it something something star only visible in the sky from the valley or something?




HAH! Illy is great at this!



Well, that explains all the iridium, Illy supposes.





History is fascinating.



Illy just assumed that she was just ace at farming, honestly.





So, what Demetrius is saying is that Illy is basically farming SPACE PLANTS! WOOHOO! space plants are only second to starships, Illy thinks.







Bye Demetrius!

Illy checks the calendar - Jas's birthday on the 4th, Marnie's on the 10th... No-one especially important after save maybe Demetrius on the 19th...

Sam wants a red mushroom, well that shouldn't be hard to do...

It takes Illy far into the night to get her seeds planted (so late she has to quit at 2 am).

(I was ready to save if she collapsed - you get charged - but it immediately saved before I could quit out. It takes too damn LONG to get stuff planted, there just isn't enough TIME to plant everything, which is REALLY annoying.)



Summer Day 2, Year Two



*sigh*

Back to what Illy was doing before she was so rudely interrupted.

(On TOP of that, the little [expletive] wiped out immediately two squares of land I'd cleared and fracking fertilised!)

Eight sunflowers and sixteen wheat (this was the bit that caused problems)...



Sixteen red cabbage, ten wheat six hop, eight tomato, blueberry, radish and pepper, thirty-two melon and corn.



The flower bed by the hives has three poppies, three spangles and two sunflowers - Illy will see what makes the best honey.

As Illy had taken some pickles and jam for gifts, she actually runs out of inventory space before she opens all the geodes. Well, Clint might as well have some pickled potatoes, then...

NATURALLY, the last two items were things Illy has already found...

But anyway, to Gunther at the museum!

Darn, neither Vincent nor Jas like jam. Whoops... Haley does though!

All those geodes, and the only thing that is new is a dwarven gadget that looks like a computer or typewriter or something...

Sam gets his red mushroom, but he does not like pickled corn. Illy is not doing well today...

By the time Illy has headed back and unloaded, and generally messed around (finding that tree growth is a bit weird, some of the ones she planted for tapping have grown, other haven't, and collecting her first oranges and peaches), there's only just time for a quick trip to the new quarry before Illy is too tired and it is too late. Still, she has tons of copper ore now, and a fair bit of iron, plus another load of geodes.

Illy is thinking at the moment, she's going to leave the greenhouse, maybe look at it come autumn or even winter, since it is another thing she will have to check every day otherwise! She half-considered buying some of the spring seeds for the repeating crops, but didn't (still, maybe she can make some...?) as those will make good crops for sowing in the greenhouse, presumably allowing them to produce all round.



Summer Day 3, Year Two

Chores, and then Illy grabs some jam and heads out. She has started some orange and peach jam, and when she has finished that, she is going to have a clear-out of her jams all at once and see which ones are actually worth making to sell, and which ones are best used making for giving out.

She heads over to Robin's to try and move that silo, but it looks like she'll have to clear more grass first.

She gives Robin and Demetrius some jam and then wanders - more by accident than design - downstairs.



Uh, okay.



It's fine. (Illy supposed she will have to get to know Sebastian somewhat at some point...)




Illy isn't herself that much into black unless it is space (Abby's choices notwithstanding), so she's more interested in what he's doing.



Ah, that does seem rather in keeping with the family, doesn't it?




But it's a lovely day, the sun is shining, the birds are singing... In fact Illy feels like singing - ♫The hil-



-oh, hi, Robin!



"Sebby!" Illy tries to smother her smirk with a cough. Nobody is fooled.

Wait, why does Abby want to see "Sebby?" Maybe she wants something programmed...?




Abby must really need some programming done.



(I hear you, dude...)



Illy sometimes bothers Maru at the clinic!

(Shoulder!Alluria would like to bother Maru in a lot of places.)



Hmm... Maybe Abby is just his friend, so maybe Illy ought to try and help; paladin relationship counselling is more than just romantic stuff, after all.





...

Is Sebby entirely sure he's a programmer? "Straightforward and unselfish" is probably the last words Illy would use to describe a computer.

She gets that Sebastian needs space, not everyone is as outgoing as Illy or Alluria, but even so, Sebby ought not to get too stuck inside.

(Bleakbane does not strictly agree... )



Illy will leave him to it.

Well, have a gift of Illy's jam to make everything a bit better and Sebastian hates it, oh well, never mind!

(What does everyone have against jam, Illy ponders?)

To the community centre. Illy has enough cash left to finish the 25k vault bundle and complete the vault!

Oh, the 25k bundle gives Illy a crystalarium! NICE!!!







Hooray! Only the fish tank (oh Illy is so behind there...) and the notice board to go!

Hah, Evelyn appreciates Illy's jam!



Oh, right, bus is not working yet!

Oh, a train is passing though again. One day, Illy might work out what that means... Wait, she wonders if she goes to the railway now whether she'll see anything...



YES!




That was a long train!

Illy has no idea if they ever stop or anything, but she's seen it, right?

Back home, Illy puts her crystalarium down and wonders what she can duplicate... Well, diamonds are really good, right? That seems like a good start!



Ace! Illy can make bazillions of diamonds!

Illy goes back to the farm quarry - it refills much faster than the other one!



She clears a load of the trees out of the way so she can see what's there better now. A bit more mining, and then home for bed!



(apparently, no-one ever though to call a mechanic...?)



Summer Day 4, Year Two



Aw, Rassy is so generous. Illy must go by his house with some more essences soon.

Right, chores are done! Illy decides to try one of her precious ancient fruit as wine. She will maybe try seeing is she can turn one into ancient seeds as well, at some point, and maybe plant one indoors.

But, the quickest way to Robin's is via the minecart so...





Wait, Pam has been drinking her life away unemployed as the bus driver because no-one thought to get a mechanic in until Illy paid a small fortune to get magic woodland fey blobs to come and fix it?!

Oh well, Illy guesses, never mind... To Robin's...



There, that looks better!

Right, darn, it's Jas' birthday, so before Illy goes to the bus, she'd better find her and grab a present, since Illy forgot to bring one from the farm...

Wait, Jas is at home, so maybe Illy can hot-foot it back and catch her there.

Penny's note suggests the best would be a fairy rose or plum pudding, neither of which Illy has to hand... Okay, maybe a gold crocus, then?



It may have taken Illy running all the way to the beach, but Jas gets her flower!

It's four o'clock before Illy gets back to the bus, but Pam is still there!



Illy grumbles about the lack of free transportation, especially since SHE was the one that got is started up. She at least ought to get a half-fare bus pass or something. (And she's well over sixty-five too!)




That was a long ride... for saying it took no time at all...!

Right, let Illy see what is here!

Oh, new forage! Cactus fruit!



Uhhh... Well, maybe just a quick peak in, Illy's not exactly ready for a hard dungeon crawl!



So, that's one mystery solved!





That did not go like Illy expected at all! She didn't even get past the bottom of the ladder!

(Oh, EXPLETIVE YOU, game! You give me a "there are tons of monsters," thing mist, take it away, and then kill me the second I try to fracking leave the dungeon! Just after I took that last screen shot, I took one step forward and something else appeared, and I couldn't even get back to the ladder to escape! (AND it didn't let me save.)

Oh, and you took Illy's sword from her backpack? Which is irreplaceable?

NO.

FRACK OFF, GAME.

FRACK. RIIIIIIIIGHT. OFF.

I was prepared to take that one on the chin, but now, no.

Choice between the save now (after making a back-up) and item-spawning the sword back and redoing the day. And THEN I realised "six items" magically included 11 geodes. By the time I'd sorted all the screenshots from that session (since I had to close to futz with the saves), frack it, re-do the day again.

FRACK THAT, though, that was ridiculously cheesy.)

So, go through the day exactly the same, except remember to take stuff for Jas earlier, give a few more gifts out and generally do it faster, but only by 50 minutes... (Oh, except Illy has brought food this time...)

(Oh, and I saved in the entrance way successfully this time.)



Mummy!



Uh, okay, mummies stand back up again after you kill them. Crap. (Still, better than the hordes of what-even-the-hell last time...)



And you can't kill them when they're down.

(And dead on the next level because hordes of things again. But, frack you, game I saved this time, so no making me do the day over.

And AGAIN, because it does so much damage it doesn't give me time to heal...

But frack you game, you're going to give me one level here.

Cheap shot, mummy at the bottom of the ladder, meaning Illy takes instant and unavoidable damage...



These things are invulnerable...?



Oh, sod it, let's try...



Yeah, Illy thinks she has had enough now for the moment. Back out!

Oh, coconuts! Neat! Illy wonders if she can grow them or make seeds out of them...?

Not much out here, but...



The actual frag?!



OI!

Illy objects to that! 200 is DEFINITELY not sodding ancient!

(Wow, things really have it in for Illy today.)



Oh, there's a store!



YES!



Illy is amazed you're open at this hour, actually.



EMILY! Illy knew someone had mentioned Sandy!




So is Illy!



Oh, new seeds!

Yeah, Illy will take some of those!

...

Of COURSE Illy's inventory is practically full...

Okay, read secret note # 3



File that away for later...

Ditch the 6 stone and 3 sap, not like those are hard to come by... And Illy will take eight of each of those seeds, ta!

Looks like maybe Illy WILL be starting on the greenhouse sooner rather than later...

To the bus (which is just north, actually) and then Illy has just time to sort her stuff out before bed.

Tomorrow, she will look at planting her seeds in the greenhouse!



And on that note, we will leave Illy for today!

[Keltest]

I identify with Sebastian on a lot of levels. Socializing is hard work. Computers are bloody morons, but at least theyre honest about it. And I cant turn my friends off and back on to fix their problems.

Also, am I misunderstanding this, or do you need to come up with a grand's worth of materials and resources to justify a trip to the desert? Since it costs 500 for a one way trip?

[Kantaki]

A chewing stick? Is this a Star Power crossover?

[Aotrs Commander]

A chewing stick? Is this a Star Power crossover?

I... don't know...?

I identify with Sebastian on a lot of levels. Socializing is hard work. Computers are bloody morons, but at least theyre honest about it. And I cant turn my friends off and back on to fix their problems.

Also, am I misunderstanding this, or do you need to come up with a grand's worth of materials and resources to justify a trip to the desert? Since it costs 500 for a one way trip?

Pretty much, though buying a load of seeds is not a total loss as she fill the pipeline (i.e. sell silver/gold crops and keep regular for crafting) and Illy isn't that short of cash that a bit of loss here and there isn't too bad.



Onwards through summer of year two, which now seems awfully close to grandpa's return...



Part 15: Summer Daze

Spoiler

Show

Friday, Summer Day 5, Year Two



Challenge accepted, Mr Qi, whoever the frack you are. You know, in a good while, Illy probably needs better weapons.

(Also, Illy did some research - silly Illy, you need to explode mummies when you down them to kill them!)



Really must go see Rassy soon!



Illy plants the cactus, beet and rhubarb in the greenhouse, with a single iridium sprinkler.

(I did a quick look yesterday, and the area is conveniently 15x15, so nine iridium sprinklers will cover all of it.)

Illy realises that, duh, those bits on the edges will be for fruit trees, which will be much better than growing them outside! That's another thing to get!

The starfruit seed Illy plants outside, having harvested the first batch of wheat.

Illy tries to go and get her geodes opened, but Clint is busy. Darn.

Illy goes to see Rassy, On the way she sees the caravan lady has a packet of rare seeds and a cut-rate cherry sapling, so she buys both.



Wow. Illy means, like, quite often the ex-wife gets described as being be a witch, but not usually literally...



It is not!



Cherry can go there. There are thirteen of these slots, so Illy can plant two each of all the trees and have one spare for... Anything else that comes along, or if she find one type is better than any others.

It's a bit late to do anything useful now, so Illy thinks she might have an experiment and put one of ancient fruits into the seedmaker.

Sweet! It works! Illy can grow more ancient fruit now. So, she thinks, the best thing to do would be to put the other ancient fruit in there as well - she thinks she'll put her last one in as well. She gets lucky - this produces three seeds, for four in total! Illy thinks she will plant them on day 8 (Monday) in the greenhouse (at the start of the week), so she can easily synchronise them. She'll only bother with a quality sprinkler to start with.

Illy goes to try and clear a bit more space for the next silo she's planning to get tomorrow, but it gets a bit late!



Summer Day 6, Year Two



Well, the caravan lady was selling pufferfish, so maybe...?

Of COURSE she's not there again today, that would be convenient, wouldn't it?

Illy orders the silo - she can't really put it in what she thinks is an ideal lcoation yet, but given it's not hard to move, she'll worry about that later.

Linus says rainbow trout are swimming in the streams - Illy ought to try some more fishing - and Robin notes that Maru hates pickles. Useful to know...




You can thank Illy, actually.

Wait... How old is Pam?! She must be nearly Illy's age if she's been waiting for decades to drive the bus again! Illy is impressed, for someone who isn't a devil, she wears it well!

Illy's geodes yield a florupatitie for the museum, at least...

Illy stops by the adventurer’s guild, mostly to sell a glowing ring she found. She looks at the better weapons, but she'll need a spare 25k before she can upgrade. Darn!

Fishing for the rest of the day, Illy thinks!

She doesn't do too badly, for once - she gets a couple of sunfish, and aforementioned rainbow trout and several bream as time slips into evening.

By the time she's back and has sorted out it's time for bed!



Summer Day 7, Year Two

Illy will need some more seeds - her other wheat is ready for harvest, and the radishes are in. Illy experiments with using three radishes to make seeds and gets five out of them, so that's nice.

Illy heads to the store. Apparently Kent wants a... super cucumber. Illy doesn't even know where to look for one of those...

Actually, no Illy, will plants those ancient seeds today - growth rates, she learns, do NOT include the day the seeds were planted!

Illy half plans to go get one of her tools upgraded, but by the time she's finished faffing about, it's too late.

So she heads into the mine to try some fishing in the cave pool instead. She gets mostly algae - but she does get a stonefish and a ghost fish! She is starting to get adequate at fishing...!

By the time she's come home, it's bedtime. Illy watches telly long enough to learn how to make carp surprise, then goes to bed.



Summer Day 8, Year Two



Finally, livin' off the land has some useful information...

Pam has sent Illy a recipe for cheese cauli, that's nice. (Illy must maybe try cooking some of these things at some point...)

After chores, Illy sells a load of her various jams to see which ones are most worth making.

Then she heads to Clint's to get her watering can upgraded.



Illy wonders if this boulder that she's been passing all this time to and from the mines is the one that the fish tank in the community centre unblocks...





Oh, Hi Linus, Illy hasn't seen Linus for... several minutes after she just gave Linus some jam!



See, Linus, Robin is great!





Huh, oh yes, ah...



Uhhhhh... That last one might be going a bit far. Where would he sleep? Illy likes Linus, but, like, not LIKE likes Linus!

(Though I'm hugely curious as to see what would happen if she did...)

So no, Linus does Linus.



Hahahahaha! No, Illy knows Linus is best where Linus wants to be!

(Good job I didn't then...)




Awwwwww!



Linus must go. Somewhere, there is a forage that is being committed.



Isn't he, though, Robin?

Illy heads to the beach and spends the rest of the day fishing. She doesn't surprisingly, even SEE a fish until about eight, but she manages at the last to catch a few halibut before it's time to head home.





Okay, some clear winners here: ancient fruit jelly by a mile (Illy is not surprised), then crystal fruit, then peach. Salmonberry jam is definitely good for gifts, as it's worth the least.

Poppy honey is worth tons, too - more than tulip honey, even!

(This also suggests that only the flower closest to the hives count. Illy can probably make use of this - she might even only need one flower there, which would save a lot of effort.)

(And reloading because I accidently harvested the flower instead of a) opening the gate (before I moved the plot) or b) using the storage/mayo machines. So I will probably harvest the other flowers. I checked the wiki, and yeah. Shame, as the blue jazz I planted was out of range, since it actually makes better honey than the tulips.)




Summer Day 9, Year Two



There, that will ensure a flow of poppy honey AND Illy won't have to worry about accidently picking the last one!



She also decides she needs to have some more mayo machines and cheese presses - especially if she's going to get more cows and goats at some point. (Illy is a bit miffed that despite the upgraded barn, Homura and the cows haven't had babies.)

But, she has a fair bit of money today, so she's going to go get some more pets... But instead, she finds that the trees have produced more sap and ends up spending most of the day re-organising her crafting area and making a couple more kegs. She's not going to start using them until the first one is done, then she'll start them off at the same time. (She's probably going to do the same with the preserves jar, it's annoying to have them running asynchronously.



As the store is closed tomorrow, Illy rushes up and gets in before closing time, buying a peach, pomegranate and apple starter (all for the greenhouse) and some wheat seeds for the next crop.

She hands out her flowers to the ladies as they're meeting up, but Jodi apparently doesn't like star spangles - she might be allergic or something. Ooops!



Hrrm. On the one hand, that's a net loss for Illy, but if it makes Sandy happy...?



Illy has some time to kill and those trees are in a nice position, so Illy puts tappers on all of them. That will also make them all nice and synchronous!



Mmm, no that chest is better there, where it's not blocking Illy's path to the main ore/wood/stone box.

Bedtime!



Summer Day 10, Year Two

Luau again tomorrow - Illy must remember to bring something for the pot luck (gold cheese, maybe?)

*sigh* Of COURSE Illy didn't buy red cabbage seeds yesterday, because the crop has come in. DARN IT. Well, sod it. Illy will leave them in for a day or two (keeps the soil from degrading) until she can replace them.

The sunflowers by the crab pots have come in as well, but Illy is lucky enough they give her enough seeds to replant them there are then! (Naturally, the wheat has NOT fully grown yet...)

Illy goes to pick up her watering can and drops off her hoe. (More animals will have to wait again...)



Yes! (She very nearly didn't, though...!)

Illy heads over to the desert to give Sandy her copper bar - and a gold sunflower, because.



Illy didn't really notice this before... Well, whatever it is, Illy clearly can't go and see whatever this bouncer is bouncing?

Well, while she's here, Illy will just have a quick trip into Skull Cavern and-ahahahahahahahahahahaha! Illy can't even think that with a straight face. Heavens, no.

Instead, she gathers a few cactus fruit and a coconut, and decides to try some fishing by the oasis. She manages to catch three stonefish! That's another one for the community centre, at least!

Illy returns home.



ACE! This might even mean there's new rod available...?



Summer Day 11, Year Two



Hmmm... Illy might have to extend the fencing a good way and make the grass enclosure bigger...

By the time Illy has done the chores, though, it's time for the Luau. She stops by the community centre first to drop off the sandfish and then heads down, armed with some of her best gold cheese!



Hi, Mister Governor-Guy!



Shoulder!Alluria would like to - Illy smacks Shoulder!Alluria before she can even finished the thought. Seriously, lack of sensitivity much?



Illy will watch it with you for a while, Abby.



Er... Illy doesn't think so, Evelyn...




George is in a good mood as usual, then. Illy refrains from pointing out George is explicitly sat right next to the dancing area. Illy is fairly sure George parked himself there specifically so he would have something to complain about.



Emily does love her dancing...



Illy is, thanks, Pam! Illy thinks Pam seems vastly more cheerful now she is Gainfully Employed again, even if it mostly just means shipping Illy out once in a while...



Illy hopes Kent is enjoying what must be Kent's first Luau in a while.



llly's cheese ensures it will, Jodi!



Well, they do say cheese and wine is a thing, right?

Time for the soup-tastin'!




Yes! Illy nailed it!



The governor goes into speed-soup-drinking mode...




Well, if Mayor Linkara twists Illy's arm...



Huzzah! Illy Cheese is Best Cheese!

Illy has a little more do once she gets home - harvesting her wheat and getting all of her machines emptied. She makes one more keg and moves the last one - and her ancient fruit wine has finished - though she'll start them off tomorrow.

A bit of telly before bed...



Ah, that's where you get super cucumber.

Ancient fruit wine is worth 2310g! Niiiiiice!



Summer Day 12, Year Two



Ace, that's one job for today!

Oh, wow, Linus sent Illy a largemouth bass! Neat!

Illy starts off grape, cherry, peach and orange wine (again, for a price comparison...)

Illy starts work on the expanded fence, but realises time is moving on and she wants to get to Willy before he closes up shop (since he doesn't open at all tomorrow). She gets there and buys an iridium rod and a trap bobber (and some more trout soup).

She decides to leave the rest of the fence for later, and do some evening fishing with her new rod and trapper!

Yeah, the trap bobber makes it a LOT easier, since it dramatically reduces the rate at which the capture bar falls when it's not on the fish - more margin for error! Illy manages to finally catch a tuna!

CRUD! Illy forgot to get more red cabbage seeds! Well, never mind she still should have just enough time for another crop before the end of the year.

She finishes the fence (though doesn't have time to demolish the old one yet) but it's twenty to one before she get to bed.




Summer Day 13, Year Two

It's finally raining today! Illy might get some more battery packs!

Illy does her chores and breaks down the old fence across where she's expanded the animal's pen. Then it's off to Clint for her hoe.

To the store!



Uh-oh.



(Uh, how old is Abby again...? She must be of marriageable age, since she is an option, but...?)



There's more to this than... Late teenage strop, Illy thinks.



And there we go. That's kind of uncalled for Caroline. (Especially when Abby's fashion sense is so glorious...)



Oh ho, Illy can very definitely attest to that! If Caroline knows what Illy means.




Uh, maybe Illy should slink back out of sight...? For some reason?





Yeah, haunted, sure.



Illy is pretty sure it's just you, Caroline.

Illy has just enough cash left after buying her replacement seeds, if she hurries, she can get her axe into Clint.

Hmm, more slimes need killing... That will be another job to do...

Typical of Illy's luck, she realises she needs to get some more radish seeds to replant and is about ten minute too later after dropping her axe into get some from Pierre. Nevermind...

Illy drops by the community centre and the red cabbage finally allows her to complete the dye bumble - which nets her a new seed-maker.



Illy is suddenly realises that, maybe if she hurries, she can lay down some more lightning rods, since she has plenty of the refined quartz, iron bars and batwings. She makes another four and lays them down around the crab pot area.



Just time for a quick bit of mining in the farm quarry before bed!



Huzzah! Illy can make more crystalariums now (though the one she has is still steadily spitting out diamonds!)



Summer Day 14, Year Two

Illy starts out the day by watching telly and learns how to make maple bars!

It looks like Illy is in luck - finally! Nanoha has produced a rabbit's foot! How, given Nanoha is still running around on all four, Illy is not going to question...

It also looks like Illy going to get five battery packs out of yesterday's storm, so that was a good call!

Illy dashes to the store, grabs her radish seeds and plants them. She also takes a quick rush trip to Calico desert because the beets have sprouted. She buys a chock-load, more than she intends to immediately plant, since it makes the trip worthwhile as they are only very cheap (20g).

Back then to the mines ASAP!

The mines were a bit tedious again...

(Couple of reloads - bat-related, obviously...)

... But Illy kills the slimes and gets out. She even finds a cave carrot, which is good, because Marnie wants one. To Mayor Linkara's!

That done, Illy heads out to find Marn-



-ie...





Illy doesn't...?



And Mayor Linkara seems to be under the impression that, like, everyone doesn't already know...




Umm, it's kind of blindingly obvious, it really is.



Yes. Illy thinks Mayor Linkara and Marine are being really very silly, Mayor Linkara especially. Very silly indeed. Azurella would give you a good smack upside the head for hiding things for such a ludicrous reason.

BUT.

Illy is not in your relationship. It is not up to Illy to decide, it is up to Mayor Linkara and Marine. Illy can offer advice, but no more. It would be mean of Illy to tell everyone just for the sake of telling everyone.

So. Illy is not going to advertise the fact, but neither is she going to deny it if flatly asked; she will simply have no comment as she isn't going to lie for Mayor Linkara and Marine.

((Seriously, neither "keep the secret" nor "blab to everyone" are great choices.)




Illy wasn’t hiding, she was literally just heading out to find you after seeing Mayor Linkara! You want this cave carrot or not? Marine, stop... Stop running so Illy can give you your damn carrot! How are you faster than... How did she get back to her house so darn fast. Marnie! Marnie! Open the door Marnie and take your cave carrot! Come out! Hey, don't ignore Illy, you've locked Jas out as well! Stop being silly Marnie!

Illy hangs about, but Marnie doesn't come out. Illy reluctantly leaves. She hopes Jas isn't locked out all night. Illy plants her new seeds and makes a new chest to hold the rest of the beet seeds and then heads to bed, just before midnight.

(Well, looked like Jas might have been out all night from where her indicator was on the map. Marnie, you frack!)



Ooooooh...!



Summer Day 15, Year Two



Illy can manage that, Kent, she's got some growing right now!

Marnie proves as elusive as usual, but finally Illy catches her on the way from the store.

(There is a notice to kill eight slimes, but Illy is not really too bothered about that at the moment - maybe she'll take it up tomorrow...?)

Ill gets her axe back from Clint and opens the geodes she found at the mine the other day. One of the reveals marble, which goes to the museum. This gives Illy a nice crystal chair for the house!



Hmm... Maybe Illy should give that tunnel another once over...



Aaaaah. Battery. Illy can do! Back to base!

Chair in the kitchen!






Okay, well, Illy does have one of those...

Have a mushroom, Linus, as Illy passes...




Huh, who would have thought Linus would be the one Illy would have hit ten hearts with first...?





That's... A really weird task...?

Back home, Illy clears some more tree around the silo area, so she can move them before bedtime.




Summer Day 16, Year Two

First pass at this day was so wasted chasing around I quit out and did it again, the final straw coming when I realised I'd not bought the replacement wheat seeds for the second day running, especially since it was Wednesday tomorrow...)

Illy does her chores and takes a load of flowers (and jam) to the aerobics class.

She buys a double load of wheat seeds - to make sure she's got plenty! (Illy ponders that she might try and remember to start buying double load of crop seeds next time so she always has some spare!)

Ah, that's why the upgrade to gold tool does...



Illy decides to slip up to Rassy's, as she hasn't seen him for a bit.

After that, she thinks about heading to the quarry, but ends up thoroughly clearing the silo area of trees and grass first. Tomorrow she will see Robin - and maybe even get the barn upgraded!



Summer Day 17, Year Two

Breakfast telly teaches Illy how to cook glazed yams.

After all the chores, Illy goes to find Robin... But she decides to just check in with Maru first.





Okay, cool!



Illy does so...




Shoulder!Alluria would like to flip Maru's swi-



ZZZZZAAAAAAP!!!

-Yeah, okay, Shoulder!Alluria had that coming.

It is okay, Erinyes are immune to electricity. No, wait, that's fire, Erinyes are immune to fire, Illy would like the lightning to stop now please!

(Of COURSE I caught the screen cap on the frame in which there was no electricity...)



That could have gone better.





Illy has had worse. is mostly just electrified, it's fine.




Illy can shrug this off, Erinyes have regeneration, right?

...

Erinyes have do not have regeneration.



Eh, maybe next time, Maru...?

Illy gives Robin a flower...



... which puts her on ten hearts! Neat!



There, that's better, nothing occluded now!

Next, deluxe barn!



Shoulder!Alluria thinks that it is both.

Illy is still crackling slightly. She prods Shoulder!Alluria with a finger and discharges the remaining static.

Illy heads back after picking up a nice bit of forage outside the mine. She checks in the greenhouse and finds the cactus has borne its first fruit. Then she decides to head out to the lake and spend the rest of the day fishing. She even manages (just barely) to get her first treasure chest... Which contains bait and a geode...

Illy doesn't do badly, catching quite a few fish, but she does not catch the sturgeon she needs to complete the lake fish bundle. Maybe next try will be for river fish...?

Home when her tackle (trap bobber) wears out, with time for a quick trip down to the mushroom cave. Illy has a least got a load of foraging done today.



Summer Day 18, Year Two

It's stormy again today, so hopefully Illy will get plenty more battery packs!

Illy sorts out her chores and spends the day on the farm, sorting minor things and then going down to the farm quarry to try and find iridium so that she can try upgrading another tool.

Illy works her way through the quarry, clearing everything but geode nodules (to keep the inventory space down) even so, she has to east a wild grape to have enough space!

She finds tons and tons of copper, iron and gold ore, but only enough iridium to make one more bar. That IS enough to upgrade a tool, but she won't have any left for anything else (e.g. iridium sprinklers).

Tired out, Illy heads to bed at ten.



Summer Day 19, Year Two

The starfruit and corn are ready to be harvested, along with the rhubarb in the greenhouse. Illy thinks she might want a quick trip to the desert again for more seeds.

Illy delivers a starfruit to Kent. On the way, she finds a prehistoric tool in the ground, so it seems a trip to Clint's and the museum is in order...



No problem, Penny!

Nothing special from the geodes, so the tool goes to the museum. Illy elects to have another go at duggy hunting - for one, she's starting to get a touch low of bug meat for bait.

She does quite well, finding about another five duggies (only a couple more for the goal!) But she forgets the time (and that she wanted to go to the desert and Demetrius' birthday, whoops!)

She gets back and heads to bed.

Apparently, Illy was having a bad day, she apparently shipped four battery packs instead of storing them. DARN IT!



Summer Day 20, Year Two



The new barn... Actually looks not too different from before, but it at least has the autofeeder now!

Right, chores done. First job, before Illy forgets, is to go get more seeds as the radishes have sprouted. It's going to be too late to plant more starfruit (except in the greenhouse), but Illy will fill the space with other plants.

Elliot wants some topaz - that should be easy to do, but later...

Quick trip to the desert shop - no foraging this time, as Illy wants to get to Robin to get her to make a mill.



By the time Illy has gotten back and planted the seeds - which means Illy has to sacrifice and iridium bar to make a sprinkler, so no tool upgrades for a bit - it's past midnight.



Summer Day 21, Year Two



Illy doesn't think she wants to know. Shoulder!Alluria is deeply curious. Well, Illy WAS planning to try and catch Marnie today so she could get some new animals, so...



Some people might find it a bit weird to build a mill in their garden, but it's close to where Illy works, which is the logic...

Okay, against all odds, Marnie is actually there! Illy will get a new rabbit (Fate) and a new goat (Madoka). Illy was thinking about two sheep and two pigs but wow, pigs are EXPENSIVE (16g!) So Illy will get one sheep (Adora) and one pig (Ino).

Illy goes home to say hi to all her new pets.



What to do now... Wait, Elliot wanted a topaz. To the beach!

That done, Illy thinks maybe some ocean fishing might not go amiss.

The first thing she sees is a fish with... a sort of hat or something, presumably a special one. It mov3es so fast, though Illy has no hope of catching it.

Her next try, though, nets her a red snapper, one of the ones she needs to the community centre!





(Wasn't until editing this for posting I realised that that "hat" is a crown, whuch makes sense,)

There is that fish again!

This is going to get in Illy's way, isn't it...?

Illy doesn’t do too badly, actually catching several red snapper and red mullet. She actually gets moderately close to catching the hatted fish, but screws it up, predictably. So close! she does not, however, find a tilapia to complete the ocean bundle either.

Illy goes back and kills some time chopping down more trees. She kills so much time, she's late to bed. But fortunately, she manages to catch how to make a pink cake from the telly.



Nice!

Botanist, Illy thinks, on account of her never much trouble finding things.




Summer Day 22, Year Two



Illy's mill is done!

The next crop of red cabbages is, too. Illy - if she doesn't frack it up again! - might just have time for another crop of wheat before autumn.

Sam wants a bream.. Well, Illy can manage that.

Oh poor Sam.



Drone of the Evil Joha Corp...

Oh, with botanist, everything is IRIDIUM quality! Nice! Illy can save space, then, by getting show of everything that's not that quality she goes.

Illy tries some river fishing today. She catches a couple of pike, but otherwise it is mostly shad or bream.

She calls it an early night.




Summer Day 23, Year Two

First thing after chores, Illy will need to see Robin, on account of the mill needs to be moved back a spot, since nothing told Illy where she built it was blocking the door... She'll also order a forth silo, for good measure.

*sigh*

It is, of course, Tuesday, so Robin is not there. Aerobics class, then?

Olivia doesn’t like wild flowers, and she doesn't like grapes, either. Illy thinks she might be a bit snobby with food.

Illy heads to the east quarry, where she finds a single vein of iridium and a lot of rock. Her own farm quarry is better, she scoots on over there. But not before a detour to the adventurer's guild - Illy wants that better sword, the Lava Katana! 55-64 damage and +3 defence, +3 weight (to knock things further?) and +25 crit power instead of 30+45 -1 speed and +10 crit power! Quite an upgrade!

It takes Illy until about ten, but she completely clears the quarry! She now has about sixty geodes, so that'll take some time for Clint to clear/ Most importantly, though, she has found enough iridium ore to make three bars - so one of her next jobs when she can will be up upgrade probably her watering can.

She also found secret note #9:



Which she will NOT be making use of...



After all the mining, this isn't surprising...!

Hmm... Illy will go with gemologist. She has got a LOT of geodes now, so gemologist (she could set up a whole load of them making diamonds or something at some point) might be better in the long run.




Summer Day 24, Year Two

After chores, Illy clears her inventory and makes sure she takes just enough for Ronin to start a silo - she's going geode smashing and she's got a lot to get through!

After seeing Robin and starting silo #4, Illy starts Clint on the long process of breaking many geodes!



That is a lot of stuff, and Illy still has thirteen geodes left to go! So, of that Illy has found new Star Shards, alamite, gemenite, opal, aerinite and, hematite... wow, she only has four minerals to go and she'll have found them all!



Well, that is a helpful book Illy found, Illy is sure...

The next round of geode-breaking JUST fills the space. Illy pops back, not thinking she has found anything new, but discovered she never gave them an earth crystal (she's been hoarding them for crafting!)

Home and Illy sets out to visit Rassy. On the way back, she fishes in the lake for a bit - catching pike, mostly - and then carves her way to the mushroom cave and the glade below do some good forage, though she is a little late back.



But that fishing is paying off slowly!




Speaking of paying, that was a very successful day! Iridium purple mushrooms are clearly worth tons...! She will be able to upgrade her tools tomorrow! (And also get Robin to move her mill...)



And on that note, we will leave Illy to sleep contentedly for today!

[Keltest]

So, im toying around with getting this game on my Switch, since ive never played it before and this makes it seem kind of interesting. However, since you have mods on, I would appreciate it if you had some kind of postscript calling out what is modded content versus vanilla. Some of it I can tell, just because it all has a certain style, but im not always clear.

[Aotrs Commander]

So, im toying around with getting this game on my Switch, since ive never played it before and this makes it seem kind of interesting. However, since you have mods on, I would appreciate it if you had some kind of postscript calling out what is modded content versus vanilla. Some of it I can tell, just because it all has a certain style, but im not always clear.

Trouble is, I have no idea! I have well passed the point Lanipator on youtube had gotten up to, and that's as close to vanilla as I've come for comparison. (And Stardew expanded is a big mod.) Mostly, I think, its maps and events (and shedules, I think) and the NPC locations on the map... Checking SVE, Andy, Olivia and Victor appear to be new. Besides that, I can only suggest what I do - look ver stardew valley expanded, since that and the save anywhere are the only mods I'm using.



Part 16: HORSE!

Spoiler

Show

Thursday, Summer Day 25, Year Two

Illy is dumb. She saw Robin yesterday and forgot to get her to move the mill then (thanks Maru's electricity...) So that can't be used for another couple of days...



Oh, hey, Gunther! Illy doesn't Gunther outside of the Museum, like... Ever...



No, no, it is just right!



It is no problem!




Woohoo!



Aw, Gunther will make Illy blush.

Please continue.






Oooh, Illy has a feeling she knows where that even goes!



Well, that's nice of Clint. He's trying to learn some social graces, good for him.

Great, Adora the sheep had grown enough to start producing wool!

The melons are all harvested!

With all the chores out of the way, Illy heads out. She has three goals today. One, see if Gunther's rusty key opens the sewers and see what it in there. Two go to Rassy and three, try and find the entrance to that darn secret wood. Oh, crud, she better go fetch some maple syrup!




Huzzah!



Interesting...



What the heaven? Force field?



Wait, is that the thing that Illy saw in winter that drop the magnifying glass that let her find secret notes?



Well, not "human," exactly?

(Guess not.)



Hi, Krobus!



But... You're a merchant, don't you want customers...?



That's silly! All the people in Pelican Town are lovely. Well, okay, except for Alex-short-for-Alexander and... Morris... And if Morris found out about Krobus, no, okay, Illy sees Krobus' point.



WOW that is expensive! Stupendously useful but whoa!



Well, Illy's gotta have a void egg to experiment with...

Stardrop she could afford, but should she...?

(I wasn't sure if it was a rare item or what, but an investigation said that he only sells the one, so Illy doesn't have to buy it right this second.)

Not right now, Illy says.

Have an iridium sweet pea, though, Krobus!



(Is that Jake...?)

Illy is happy as she is, but that's a useful thing to know about.



Up at the top of the sewer is a ladder. The ladder leads up right behind the adventurer’s guild? Can she go back down...?

Yes, she can! Good, that makes it much quicker to get the Krobus! She'll go back out through the sewers, though, since it's closer to Rassy's.

Illy goes back to that odd gravestone with the arrow pointing down and to the left. She wanders a bit more thoroughly than she did last time and...



Aha! Perhaps this is the secret forest!



Illy doesn't seem to get anywhere and time is moving on, so about half-nine, she leaves. Rassy is still up, so Illy gives him a void essence and then heads back home to bed.

The forest will be looked at another day...




Summer Day 26, Year Two

Illy must upgrade her watering can today if she's going to do it, Clint should have just enough time to do it before the start of next season.

Chores - including putting the void egg in the incubator - and then Illy hands her watering can to Clint, and then goes to Robin's.



Better!

Illy heads over to the store. Rassy, she sees, wants a pike. Illy can do that! She also buys eight of each type of seed - sans sunflower and corn, which will keep growing (sixteen radish and sixteen wheat), which are going to be stored in the greenhouse as back-ups and in case Illy wants an early start or she find she really needs some type of plant.

She passes the caravan lady as she foes. Excellent - she has a woodskip (which Illy needs for the community centre) and another rare seed (Illy now has three, which she's going to plant soon).

After giving Rassy the pike, Illy heads out south, following the west edge of the woods to see if perhaps that place she was at wasn't the secret forest.



Has she been this far west before...?



She doesn't think she has!



Well, it's not in a good state, now...




Apparently, it just went out of business.

Illy is kind of surprised something hasn't moved in here...

Illy finds a lonely ancient doll on the floor. Illy thinks she will keep this one... Perhaps she ought to make a nice chest inside to keep presents and special things in tomorrow.



Now, THAT'S interesting, isn't it?

But it's a long and very damp haul back, so Illy will have to cut more exploration short. She perhaps ought to make a farm totem or two for these long hauls, so she can get back quickly; it is very nearly midnight when she gets back.




Summer Day 27, Year Two

Hoorah! Illy can use the mill now! She starts out with six wheat.

One of the fruit trees Illy planted outside does not appear to have grown at all. Given that they were both planted at the same time and one is now much taller, this is disappointing. Illy tries to see if she can move or dig it up, but only manages to wipe it out. Darn. Fortunately, she did buy those ones for the greenhouse, so she will get some pomegranates or apples this year, even if they are inside...!

Right, to Robin's - Illy is going to try and see if she can get Robin to build her a stable. She will go via the community centre - and Mayor Linkara's fridge, seeing as she now has ten beets...




The frack does that mean?!

The other instructions were really clear but... What? Does Illy, like, have to go and find a dragon in the desert at some time of year or something or what?

With the woodskip, Illy completes the specialty fishing bundle! Which gets her five dish 'o the seas, which increasing fishing by three points. Neat!



To Robin's! Illy will put the stable there, for now...



Illy's research has found that sturgeon only appear in summer and winter, so she is going to make one last try for one in the lake. Might as well use that dish 'o the sea, right?



That bar is noticeably bigger!

No surgeon, though Illy gets a fair number of fish.



A pretty pink chest for Illy to store her keepsakes, like the festival emerald and the ancient doll.

Time for bed!



Summer Day 28, Year Two

Woo! Illy learn how to make roasted hazelnuts from the telly and vegetable stew from Caroline!

After chores - gathering that last of the hops and tomatoes for this season - Illy realises that as the Dance of the Jellies is not until tonight, she has time to go get her watering can! Woohoo!

Illy drops back home. She half plans to go river fishing before the day is out, but her first batch of flour is complete! So she decides to finally knuckle down and do a load of cooking. She cooks pretty much everything she has ingredients for. Some will have to wait for sugar form beets when the next crop comes on and she hasn't worked out how to make vinegar yet. (Wine in the preserves jar maybe...?)

She makes a special food chest for the kitchen to put it all in.

Then at twenty to seven she heads out towards the beach to do a bit of last minute fishing in the river before the festival starts.

She doesn't do great, but catches a couple of pike and three bream before it is time to witness the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies.



Yeah, Illy is not going to randomly forget, Pierre...



Sure. Illy wonders if Abby thinks so too, though. Illy suspects Abby would prefer, like, candles in skulls.



George is a lot younger than Illy...



Oh, Linus... You are lucky Illy doesn't drag you by the hand into the crowd, you silly.



Tomorrow, in fact...



And that they are not, y'know, viciously hostile murder-slimes, that as well.



Trust Illy, Kent, farming IS relaxing comparted to what Illy is used to...



Hey, Illy's green jelly is back! Illy wonder if it thinks she's the leader?

And that's it for summer this year!



Autumn Day 1, Year Two



Well, Illy was planning to start those today if she has time - in the greenhouse!

Marnie has sent Illy some hay. That's nice. Robin, meanwhile, is hard at work on Illy's stable.

Illy does some basic chores and starts to prepare her ground. She doesn't have enough iridium for more than two sprinklers yet, so she'll stick with her current set-up for this season. Next spring, maybe...

She checks the calendar. Penny's birthday tomorrow, Elliot's on the 5th, Jodi on 11th, Abby on the 13th (Illy double underlines this one), Sandy's on the 15th, Marnie's on the 18th and Robin's on the 21st... A lot of important one this time!

D'oh, silly Illy, she could have grown more wheat, that can be grown in fall too! Never mind!

32 pumpkin, six grape twenty bok choy (ten for now, ten for later), eight egg plant, sixteen artichoke (the new crop), eight cranberry, sixteen yam, 32 wheat (tomorrow's job, probably), a cherry, apricot and orange sapling for the greenhouse...)



At least the watering is painless now!

Illy gets all her seeds in bar some of the flowers - she just doesn't quite have time, as its twenty past one as it is before she gets to bed. (Having the corn still growing made it a lot easier.)

She has put quality fertiliser down for the pumpkins, yam and artichoke, but regular for the rest. Illy is beginning to think that for a number of crops, fertiliser isn’t that useful, since she wants a reasonable supply of regular items for processing.

She has replaced the sprinkler with the ancient fruit with an iridium one, leaving her with a quality one for those amaranth flowers tomorrow.



Autumn Day 2, Year Two

Oh darn, she forgot to plant the orange! Never mind, today's job!

First apples from the outside apple tree (apparently, it was the pomegranate that failed). Illy's wine has finished, so she starts out coconut, crystal fruit, apricot and apple wine next.

Amaranth there...



Silly Illy, she had three pumpkin seeds stored away! Maybe she'll remember for the next crop!



There's Illy's stable!

After finishing her chores, Illy goes to have a proper look. Her horse will be called Celestia!

Hi ho, Celestia away!



To Pierre's store, to get a load more grass starters for the pen, while it's wet! Then to the museum, to deliver Penny's birthday sweet pea!

After trekking back, Illy make a run to the mushroom cave, but doesn't find a great deal. Then she heads to bed.



Autumn Day 3, Year Two

Excellent! Ino has found the first truffle (iridium too!), and Illy finds a second rabbit's foot! Looks like a trip to the community centre is on the cards today. But Illy might go see Krobus first...

More beets, most to sell. Darn, Illy, probably should have kept another one to process and work out whether she's better processing them than selling them - never mind, she's planted more (but she might need another trip out to the desert soon!)

Krobus doesn't have anything useful to sell (though he does apparently carry some fish sometimes), but Illy buys a maki roll from Gus, having checked on the off-chance. This means she now can finish the chef's bundle with the truffle! Which gets her three pink cakes!



And just a pomegranate and one apple short of completing the enchanter's and fodder bundles too!

Illy elects to spend the rest of the day at the farm quarry, in the hopes of getting more iridium.

She clears the quarry and gets seven iridium ore (that's one more bar, probably two with what she has left) and secret note #4...



Okay, okay... Illy can try bringing those to Maru, she has all of them.

She heads back. It's twenty past nine, so there's not much Illy can usefully do, so she calls it an early night.



And so shall we!

[Kantaki]

Putting something called „Void Egg” into an incubator sounds potentially unwise.
Who knows what will happen when it hatches.
Tiny Great Old Ones soun like the least bad potential outcome, really.

Also, does the Mayor keep the golden statue of himself next to his bed?
Is his name Narciss?

[Aotrs Commander]

Putting something called „Void Egg” into an incubator sounds potentially unwise.
Who knows what will happen when it hatches.
Tiny Great Old Ones soun like the least bad potential outcome, really.

Also, does the Mayor keep the golden statue of himself next to his bed?
Is his name Narciss?

That was the statue Illy found at the back of his house and put in the square that time.

As to where and why? I have no idea...!



As a note, as this is sort of an open-ended game without an especially definitive end, I suspect I'll wind this Bleakbane Plays down at the end of this year or maybe the end of year three, depending on how i go. I seem to have done MOST things at this point (but as today shows, nowhere near all!), so putting some sort of hard cap on it might not be unwise! (I reckon by the time I hit the end of year two, I'll have sunk as much or more time into this than I did on Pillars 2 Deadfire on my current playthrough that this interrupted!) I think there's a reasonable chance I'll have seem more or less everything by that point.



Part 17: Spring in Autumn

Spoiler

Show

Thursday, Autumn Day 4, Year Two



She will be called Scootaloo!



(♫She wears a disguise
to hide from pony eyes
But she's not a mare,
she's a Scootaloo!♫[)

Illy feels inexplicably sorry for some reason...

Interesting... Illy got three sugar out of the beet she put in. Another crop has come in into the greenhouse, so she puts seven into the mill. She ships a sugar as well, so she can see what is most profitable.

Illy heads over to the community centre to complete the fodder bundle with her three apples...



... for which she gets a heater, which is less than useful.

Clint wants to look at ores again, so Illy will just do that. She can dump her geodes as well; these give her a malachite to give to the museum!

Illy is planning to search for the secret forest again, armed with Celestia and a farm totem, so she can stay out longer.

It occurs to her to try actually NORTH of Rassy's tower, where she finds a large dead tree...



...and beyond...



Ohsnap.



Lucky she brought the maple syrup...?




Yes?






Oh, well that's great, Mr Bear! Illy loves making new friends!





Oh, okay, that is pretty special!

Secret forest at last, now all Illy has to do is-



-ohcrap monsters live here!



Maybe that was Mr Bear...?

Well, that's seems to be it! A pond - in which Illy has one go and catches a woodskip, plus some hardwood logs and a bit of forage. Not earth-shattering, but Illy could have found ages and ages ago if she'd known where to look...

Never mind, then, Illy will continue exploring that huge area she found the abandoned vineyard in.

She doesn't do very much, because of the late hour, but the totem at least allows her to go until midnight and get home only twenty minutes late. (Celestia isn't that big a help, actually, as she struggles to get through the foliage, which Illy supposes is kind of logical...)

Hmm. Sugar is worth only 50g, so even at three sugar per beet, it's not worth as much as the beet (a gold beet is worth 165g).




Autumn Day 5, Year Two

Illy bok choy and wheat is grown (she has seeds for those) as is the rhubarb and starfruit in the greenhouse - definitely a trip to the desert required today!

She does get her first out-of-season fruit from the greenhouse from her cherries.

It's dry in the desert, so Illy elects to do some exploring. Partly, she wants to see is she can get coconut and turn them into seeds in the seed maker.





Ahaaaaa... Mr Qi's sand dragon? But what sort of last meal might it have?



Yaba wut?

Illy returns home. She can't make seeds out of coconuts (shame) so they go into the preserves jar. Illy at this point has a fair stock of resins, so she decides to make a load of kegs (eight) and place them down by the greenhouse - eventually, this is where her wine-making will go (for the ancient fruit). She considers making more preserve jars, but she doesn't have that much coal.



Besides, it might be better to see whether, when the last round of wine is done, whether it is more worth making wine than jam!

For the moment, Illy puts a load of blueberries into the kegs, since she has TONS of them. (She sees if mushrooms work, but they do not.)

Illy heads to bed, but before that, she takes some time to look up what to do with all the duck feathers she's accrued - turns out, none what so ever! She'll be selling all them off, then!

There is a thunderous noise as she goes to sleep - the frack was that?

Oh BEANS, Illy forgot Elliot's birthday then!



Autumn Day 6, Year Two

There was a large explosion last night. No idea what or where, though...



Neat!

Gus would like a lobster... Illy might have one left over from the sea crab pots.

Illy delivers the lobster, but isn’t really sure what to do. She has a half-hearted look for a secret note, checks the east edge to see if she can see any explosions, then heads into the mine for a bit to gather bug meat - and finally kills enough duggies to earn her goal!



So she heads over to the adventurer’s guild next to get her reward for killing 32 duggies!



Was that really worth the effort...?



No.

Illy prefers her hair loose and free as nature intended...

Back home and time for bed. She hasn't achieved a great deal today, but never mind.




Autumn Day 7, Year Two

Illy learns to cook fruit salad at breakfast... And salmon dinner from Gus via the post.

Scootaloo has grown large enough to lay her own void eggs. Illy puts it in the mayo machine to see what happens...




It makes void mayonnaise. Logical... But it is worth anything? To the selling bin!

The first ancient fruit has come in in the green house! That's going right to the seed-maker! Illy does well; ten seeds from the four fruit to go right back to be re-planted!

Illy then makes a new farm totem and heads out to Rassy's and (leaving Celestia there - she always makes her own way home!) to the west woods.



Can Illy get to that campfire...

Doesn't appear so...?

Illy heads south and spots what looks like a trail. She follows it south and then back east and...



...Finds a sparkling lake?




Illy wishes everyone would stop mis-species-ing her. Illy means, she's like, blue and everything!



They sound like Juminos...



Yes, Illy can understand the disembodied voices that are possibly Juminos.




Illy is often told she is very special. Often in a very particular tone of voice.



Anti-muggle wards!



Rassy had students? Interesting!



Well, now, that is a looong story! It begins over two hundred years ago, when-



... Maybe later.

Illy is Illy!



Illy loves to make new friends too!



Aw, that's sweet of Disembodied Voice to say!



*GAAAAAAAASP*

Are... Are you... SANTA?



Mrs Santa?




Illy is an explorer!

Actually, no, Illy mostly found it by bumbling into it by accident.



Illy is starting to wonder if, when people tell her that, they are perhaps telling a lie of sorts.



Ooooooh! Neat!




It does MORE?




Oooooooooooh!





Illy doesn't mind if she does!



So is Illy!




Bye, Santa and Mrs Santa!

Wow, that was quite a find for Illy!

She takes a swim!



It is a big pool!

She finds a sunflower and some fairy roses (which are all of iridium quality because Illy is just that good!)

She has a nice swim back, and then it is time to teleport home!

Void mayo appears to fall between regular and duck mayo in value.



Autumn Day 8, Year Two

The next round of wine is done. Illy is going to sell all her wine now and see what is the best to be working on; she's not going to set anymore going until tomorrow when she knows that. Actually, scratch that - she can try wheat in those kegs and see what happens (beer, maybe?)

Ino has found another truffle, so that goes in the oil-maker for Mayor Linkara. While she's waiting, Illy makes use of her sugar to do a load more cooking! She definitely needs to work out how to make vinegar soon - and to reserve some milk for cooking!

Illy elects to spend the rest of the day giving out gifts, as she has all those nice flowers.



Illy REALLY doesn't need to know what Mayor Linkara is using that for, but she hopes he and Marine enjoy themselves...

Illy hands out iridium fairy roses to lots of people (she is going to save one especially for Jas). As she goes to give Jodi one, she hears noise coming from Sam's room.




But Illy doesn’t SEE any preserves jars...?



Maybe you might want more than two of you for a band...?



Well, that's easy!

(Especially when it is suitable for doing ridiculous over-the-top magical attacks to! Illy hasn't learned how to access the mystical Heart Song of the Universe so she can have her own arse-kicking backing track yet, but she's hoping she might be able to learn at Magical Paladin School.)



Hmm... Illy is not sure Sebby and Sam would be a very transportable backing track, but she might give it a try...?






Maybe some sort of magical talking pink girl who might be a pony or might not?

Sam has to go away and think about that for a bit.





Oops!






Um... Sam... Dropped an egg...? This is really not exactly a world-shaking catastrophe that will cause people to forge the bonds of friendship over space and time or something, Jodi...



It's really not a big deal!



That's what Illy has been saying!




Seriously, accidents happen! Why is this being treated with such gravitas?! Illy means, it is not like Sam electrocuted Illy or something.

(Somewhere else, Maru sneezes...)



OH ILLY'S GODDESS! It was a dropped egg!

Illy spends the evening wandering around the north of town back home by Robin's picking blackberries! She gathers quite a crop before bed.




Well! Starfruit wine is the clear winner - worth considerably more than ancient fruit wine! Followed by melon wine.

Blueberry wine is cheap and so will probably make good possible vinegar fodder?

(Illy probably needs to plant some blueberries in the greenhouse, since they produce ridiculous amounts of crops she can use as a default.)

Illy also learns with some research that for wine, quality DOES matter.

Right then! As Illy really wants that darn teleporting staff, she is going to have to start earning some real pennies!

She is going to have to start something closer to mass production for starfruit and ancient fruit wines and, she extrapolates, jam (given that the values of jam and wine are in proportion to the fruit).



Autumn Day 9, Year Two

Mayor Linkara has sent Illy a recipe for "eggplant parm." Nice.

Emily has sent Illy some cloth (aside from the mill, is there something Illy can do with cloth...?)

Oh, the fair is in a week, Illy must save some quality items...!

It's going to be a seeding day today anyway! The wheat, bok choy and artichokes are done. Illy makes two new iridium sprinklers for the greenhouse (starfruit for the planting of...) and four more kegs. She will have to go get some coal at some point as well, to make more preserve jars (which have a faster turn-over than the wine).

Hoorah, her greenhouse pomegranate has bourn its first fruit, so that's a community centre trip as well today!

Wheat does produce beer, and rather quickly too. Illy has heard honey makes mead, so she will try that in her first four kegs next.

Desert next. Illy buys two loads of starfruit for her sprinklers (96, which is nearly 40000g, ouch!) Ancient fruit, Illy suspects, are likely to actually be better in the long run, on account of them being continuous and not replaced. (Also, they drop fruit every seven days, which is about as long as it takes to make wine...)

Illy completes the enchanter’s bundle and thus finishes the noticeboard! Just the darned fish tank left to go!





Neat! Right, now home to plant like crazy!

Illy is almost to bed on time, but then she sees that the mead has finished. She doesn’t load the kegs again yet, though.



Autumn Day 10, Year Two



Juminos post!

Illy spies a bit of forage near the silos, so she goes to collect it and...



Okay, the frack is that?

A huge thing filled with stone iridium ore and geodes!

Illy will take a quick trip to the farm quarry (quick because she wants to go see Krobus again today.)

She grabs the iridium nodes and a load of geodes and then heads into town.



Hello, what's going on here...?




Uh oh, there are those taxes again! Illy would really like someone to explain this to her, since she's a good girl that really doesn't want to get into trouble through tax evasion...




Oh dear, Andy might give himself an apoplexy...



Well, Andy, Illy thinks that you might get some more sympathy if you weren't a lackey of the evil corporation that wants to exploit everyone.




Andy, Mayor Linkara has a starship and a magic gun. Illy would tone it down a notch, if Illy was Andy.




Andy, does Illy have to Smite you? Because Illy is going to Smite you in a minute. You are making a scene, being unreasonable and now you're being childish, like a toddler throwing a tantrum because you can't do it all by yourself. Don't be male genitalia, Andy, lest Illy kick you in yours.




Yes, you are.





Illy is pretty sure Divine Azurella heard that, as her Divine Realm is several star systems away.



Aha, ah, yes, Mayor Linkara, about those taxes...?






Illy is sure whatever solution Mayor Linkara and Kendra can come up with will be accepted.

(If not, Illy totally doesn't see Comicron I, if Mayor Linkara knows what Illy means, nudge, nudge wink, wink.)



Yeah, Illy can do.




You too, Mayor Linkara!

Darn, chub again; Illy was hoping Krobus might have something new! Ah well, Illy will take that stardrop while she's here this time...



Ta-ta-tat-ta-tata! Illy power!

(What, Scrappy was always the best and awesome, yes even in the movie when he was the bad one. So sue Illy.)



Sewer also provides a nice short-cut to Andy's...!



Andy isn't home, but WOW, his place is a mess!

He's off by the ruined house where Hat Mouse has his shop...



Maybe you could have listened to him then...?



Drinking yourself stupid is not work, Andy.



*sigh*

Illy wonders is maybe making win her cash crop is going to be feeding all these alcoholics or those like them elsewhere... (Probably not, at those prices...!)

(Wow, that bundle REALLY boosted Illy's popularity, with only Shane and Alex-short-for-Alexander not liking Illy a little bit now...)



Illy heads home via the forest and gathers an absolutely obscene amount of iridium blackberries from bushes(92!)

She spends the rest of the evening cooking and then heads to bed!



And that will do for this session!

Next time, Jodi and Abby's birthday. And perhaps it is time for Illy to get some bouquets and give out some diamonds...!

[Keltest]

Respect for the Chicken Boo reference.

Also, did he want to hand you a raw egg as a snack?

[Kantaki]

That was the statue Illy found at the back of his house and put in the square that time.

I know, I was just amused he put it next to his bed.

And of course Rassy had apprentices.
Every wizard woth their salt has guinea pigs.

[Aotrs Commander]

Respect for the Chicken Boo reference.

Also, did he want to hand you a raw egg as a snack?

I assume he was going to make it into something. Or Sam is just daft...



I may have had a little bit too much fun with this part...



Part 18: Now it's Definitely An Anime

Spoiler

Show

Thursday, Autumn Day 11, Year Two



Aw, that's nice!



Aw, that's... sort of nice?



Aw... That's...



...um...



...er...



...ah...



...wow, Illy has gotten a lot of recipes this morning!



Oh, Illy is almost relieved!

The yams are in! Well, it looks like today will be a good day for what Illy plans, yam seeds plus bouquets plus Jodi's birthday...

Hmm, Harvey wants an earth crystal. Easy to do, if Illy can remember (she might not have time today...!)

However, before buying the seeds, Illy decides to sneak into Pierre and Caroline's bedroom (after all, know the people who daughter you have plans on...)



Oooh.



Ohhh.



Ahahaha? Has Illy mentioned her exceptional perception and search skills...?



Uh... Pierre isn't quite the family member Illy wanted to hear that from...

Pierre would lke Illy not to mention this to anyone. Um, so, if Pierre doesn't ask too many questions as to why Illy was sneaking in his bedroom, Illy won't go blabbing, it's Pierre's business after all.

Illy means, she understands, but maybe Pierre ought to share it with Caroline, maybe? This is the good stuff (Illy knows for experience!); unless Caroline is not into this sort of thing? Which would a shame, since it's so much better shared! (Illy makes a note to get some to share with Abby at a later date...)



Saw what? Illy saw nothing, if Pierre knows what she means!



See, Pierre and Illy have reached a mutual accord! Eehehehehe?




Illy will just go out to the store now...

(Oh, and for the record? The game did not specify more than "secret stash.")

Actually, while Illy is going to buy the bouquets today, maybe she'll hand them out on Abby's birthday (as Abby will be first, obviously!) as it would be a bit more special!

Jodi gets her birthday sunflower!

Jas loves her iridium fairy rose!



After looping back to get an earth crystal, doing a bit of cooking and planting her seeds, Harvey has locked himself in the clinic for night, to Illy's annoyance. She spends the rest of the day milling about the farm, finding some more blackberries (she has a 170 iridium blackberries now!) before heading to bed.

Mine trip tomorrow, Illy is running low on insect meat for bait...



Autumn Day 12, Year Two

Clint has sent another recipe, for algae soup!

Illy remembered to look up what she can do with cloth last night, and, aside from making a sort of fishing gear, there's not a lot, so she can start selling it.

The blueberry wine is done. Well, it can't be put in the kegs...? Maybe wine can be turned into vinegar in the preserves jar? Something to try when the jars are next done!

Illy takes the load of geodes she's been carrying to Clint - this gives her an esperite, which in return gives her a second crystalarium! Illy heads back home to sell the chaff and puts the new one down, to start making more diamonds!

Illy has a largely unsuccessful time in the mines, at the very last moment only finding a moderate number of insects to kill.

Time for home and bed... Big day tomorrow!



Autumn Day 13, Year Two



That's a good start!



Yes, indeed!

Chores are done...!

Now for the big event...!

Shoulder!Alluria is hoping from foot to foot with excitement.

(Oops, better bring those diamonds...!)



Well, it is funny Haley should say that...!




Huzzah! Shoulder!Alluria starts a squee that doesn't seem to end. It is so loud, it almost drowns out Abby saying she feels the same way!

Not that Illy has any crippling doubt, no, none at all!



And here's Abby birthday present! Illy always figures say it with minerals! Especially for Abby!

(Abby's second birthday present will be coming shortly...!)



Little bit...



Aw, Abby's hair always looks cool!

Illy is definitely on her lucky streak today (must the rabbit’s foot she's carrying!) there's a blackberry in the playground...



There's more!



Does Haley want to be more happy?



Woohoo! Diamonds are Haley's best friend (with benefits?)

Hey, Emily...!





That's okay, Illy always has plans! Illy has been saving you a little something... Diamond!

To Leah's...!



Hi Leah! Watchya doooin'?




Ace! Illy is so glad she helped!



Woohoo! Score!




Well, Illy has heard it said that sometimes, your audience is small, but very dedicated.

(Illy has some suspicions...)




Well, Illy is hoping there will be a lot more electricity in the air shortly, but she'll get to that in a minute!



This is what Illy is here for!

(Good for Leah!

...

Leah has probably made more money today than I have in the last couple of years, not that depresses me or anything...)



Well, before Illy goes, just come over here a moment, would Leah?



Zap! There's that electricity Illy was talking about! Electricity and diamonds!



Oh ho, Illy likes the way Leah is thinking!

Shoulder!Alluria is still squeeing.

Illy heads towards the museum, where Penny is, but it's raining, so time for a trip to the beach...




She will. Not right away though, Illy doesn't want to quite rush yet...

Hey, Penny!



She invites Illy in. (Illy likes where this is going!)







Sure, Illy will give that a go!



Wow. That... Illy is immune to poison and she felt that!

Penny askes what Illy thought; darn paladin honesty!



Sorry! Illy is sure Penny's next one will be brilliant!



Illy feels sad Penny is sad now.



Ooh, ooh! Great! But, Penny should have a little something to make her feel better!



That's more like it!



Better Illy than Penny, seriously, Illy can take it!

Oh, Illy isn't sure she's going to get to Maru today, darn, to the mine carts and thence the mine, ASAP...!

Illy stops in the cave entrance, spotting something.



Abby is going to do it! To the mines! Illy must have given her extra confidence!



A bat made her jump!



Haha, silly Abby!



Ha-



-ohIlly'sfrackinggoddess!




ABBY!




Illy is incredibly relived! Azurella, Abby frightened several centuries off Illy's life then, and Illy's immortal!





No, Abby, if Illy had seen that many bats, she'd have wet herself! These bats aren't the nice harmless ones, those were the fricking killer hell bats! There is definitely no shame in being frightened of that! Abby mustn’t be too hard on herself.

(Seriously! The amount of times Illy has died to a fraking murder-bat swarm makes Abby's fear ENITELY justified!)



Courage is not the absence of fear, it is standing up despite it.



Mmhmm. Like Abby for instance.



Illy very much does, Abby.



Illy too!




Shoulder!Alluria's squeeing actually rises even higher.

Abby blinks and tilts her head as if she can hear something...

One stop left - Maru!



WHY does Illy keeping walking in at the exact wrong moments...!




Hoooooo boy. This is going to get ugly, isn't it?

(For the record, the game classified tomatoes as vegetables mechanically.)




Yeah, Illy is with Robin on this one, Demetrius. You done screwed up.



Did you just not hear what Illy said?




Illy DOES, but Demetrius' answer is not correct. Yes, it is correct scientifically, but not in terms of the fracking weekly groceries, which is the topic under discussion and that Demetrius is trying to wheedle out of on a technically! Illy spent two hundred years dealing with devil contracts, she knows EXACTLY what you're doing, Demetrius, you're gonna have to better than that!

(Again, the GAME labels them vegetables - I was going to store them in my fruit box until I noticed that.)




Oh, come off it, Demetrius, you knew exactly what she meant! Are you trying to tell Illy and Robin if she's told you to get "cereal" you'd have come home with corn and maize instead of Shreddies? No, you wouldn't. You are not Professor Branestawm, nor are you crippling lacking in social skills as evidenced by all previous interactions! And don't you DARE try and hide behind some sort of medical condition, don't you DARE, Demetrius.



Yeah, you will, or Robin will kick your arse!




Right, crisis solved! Demetrius is lucky Robin is soft!

Now, Maru, Illy is going to hit you with lightning!



Illy double fingerguns and make lightning noises.



Speaking of things being worked on...



(Kept hitting the screenshot a little early, today as you might have noticed, but I was trying to catch the heart emote, which tends to vanish before the text finishes coming up...))

Now to the bar for some celebrations!






Aw, thanks Elliot!




Uh, Gus, is everything alright?



To friendship!

(Which is as far as Elliott is getting...)

(That last one, though, ahahahahahahaha!)





Ha, Illy is immune to poison!

Elliot cannot hold his booze. He's away already - and is struck by the need to go and dance and sing in the rain. Everyone else goes outside to watch the display (with cameras...) Illy is about to follow, when Gus beckons her over.





Awkward...



Illy will see what she can do!



Right now, she guesses. Pam must be bored of the dancing already...





Uh, well, Gus is having a bit of difficulty money-wise, Pam, if you catch Illy's drift?





Uh oh, here we go..




Oh!

Er, oh, would you! Oh, that's such really good, timing, Pam! Illy is glad you thought of it!




This is what Illy does!

(Wow, she's going to be so high level from doing all these side quests when she get to magical paladin school!)



Everyone trots back in, except Elliott, who staggers off home...

Hi Abby! You can have the other part of your present now! It is a harem!

Abby is lost for words. For a half-second, Illy is worried she fracked it up, but then Abby's squee joins Shoulder!Alluria's and Illy is tackle-glomped.

The remainder of the evening passes very pleasantly!



Autumn Day 14, Year Two

Okay, so Illy has found that she has to buy vinegar, she can't make her own, Darn. Ditto with rice...

Illy learns how to cook blackberry cobbler... Well, she's not short of blackberries!



Illy is way ahead of you, Mayor Linkara!

Illy does her chores... She decides to have and experiment. She loads the north four kegs with ordinary blackberries and her twelve greenhouse ones with iridium blackberries.

The ancient fruit has sprouted again, so they go into the seed-maker, giving Illy eight more!

The pumpkins are also done, so that is another job for today - get seeds!

Diamond for Haley!



Oooh, back to the farm for a ruby, then...!

Illy then visits all her girlfriends, giving them a diamond (or ruby, in Emily's case!) and, having bought the seeds, heads back to get planting!

She does that and then uses her purchased rice and vinegar to make a little more food.

For tomorrow, Illy arms herself with some other things, using what she knows, plus the secret notes. Wine for Leah, ruby for Emily, chocolate cake for Abby, pink cake for Haley - Illy will start working down Maru's list (iridium bar first). The notes say nothing about Penny (maybe the last one Illy hasn't found yet?), so a diamond will do for her for the moment!



Autumn Day 15, Year Two

Illy never did find the source of that explosion... Oh, WAIT! Maybe it was that large rock she found near the silos! That was a meteor!

(I remembered to look it up, not having found anything that registered...!)

Illy does her chores and gives her girlfriends their presents.

At Maru's she looks at getting her house upgraded... But she needs about a hundred more hardwood. Darn it!

Oh well, next job is to go to the desert, as it's Sandy's birthday. Then Illy might have a trip to the secret woods and see if she can find any hardwood - or the other bits of her farm.

She finds a little bit in the secret forest, and then walks down (armed with a farm totem) to the spirit spring and gets some more iridium sunflowers and fairy roses.

Then it is time for bed!

The fair is tomorrow...



Autumn Day 16, Year Two



Neat!

Illy's various chores take her until midday before she gets to the fair, but she's at least armed with loads choice for her display!

Illy wanders, speaking to her friends...





Robin is ace! Demetrius is lucky he found her first...! Robin laughs. Leah laughs. Demetrius laughs, but slightly uncomfortably...



George is HAPPY!

This is incredible!



Illy will take your one star token, cheapskate strength man.



Illy doesn't even know where to find one! (Darn, she really must have a good look to see where and when she needs to catch the fish she needs for the community centre and such at some point...)




There, that is not a bad display for Illy for this year!



Well, that is true, Linus...



Nice to see you outside for a change, Gil!

Illy has her fortune read...



That's nice - though the rest is the same as the previous year, happy Illy and Abby in grass and Illy being menaced by a Bad Thing (likely in skull caverns...)



Why, thank you, Mr Tourist!



Illy is not sure about that Emily, she wouldn't want you to hide your pretty face under all that make-up...



You'll have a long wait, Kent...



Wait...

WHAT.

WHAT!

GODDESS-COPULATING ILLEGITIMATE SPAWN OF A FEMALE CANINE!

It better not be...



It IS, it FREAKING IS!

Oh no, you're not hiding behind a wall of litter this time, you little excrement stain!

The bald man, seeing Illy, this time DOES make the mistake of making a suggestive comment, saying that Illy is even cuter than the girl last year, and making grasping motions with his hands, making no mistake he was the one that assaulted Haley last year.

The festival is abruptly interrupted, because the creepy bald man has gone a step too far.

First off, the wings come out and Illy shoots upwards like a blazing star.

Her crystal gem device, kept and unused until now, is in her hand for the first time since she came to Stardew Valley, and she triggers it now with a wordless cry of righteous anger. The brilliant-cut sapphire blazes with light, which surrounds her in a bright blue glow. With surging bursts of blazing blue-white fire, her outfit transforms into her magical battle-armour - first boots, then legs, then arms, then torso. The spread feathers of her wings are encased by a membrane of shimmering silver magical polymer. Her hair unbinds from its usual pigtails and plaits itself into a single neat braid. White pulses of light sweeps out either side from her forehead and leave behind a circlet of silver, with a small sapphire glowing in the centre.

Illy voice rings out, audible across the valley.

"That girl you sexually assaulted last year? I wouldn't have let stand, whoever you did that too! But you made an even bigger mistake, because she? Is my friend. My girlfriend! And you? Are not getting away this time."

The man gibbers and staggers to his feet, but is blocked by his own piles of rubbish.

In Illy's left hand, blood-red fire explodes upwards and forms into a longbow of magical fire. But there is neither string nor arrow, just the surging orb of power that coalesces into the grasping fingers of Illy's right hand. Twin rays of golden light shine out from the white orb and play onto the now-rightly-terrified old man, locking on - and he is highlighted with a golden glow.

Illy's voice thunders across the valley, with an echoing cadence.

"Sacred Smiting Shot: Seeking Blaze!"

A blast of glow-flecked crimson flames explodes downwards to the hapless fool, too frozen with fear to run now - not that it would have helped. The blast streaks down, weaving as its course adjusts to hit its target dead-on. The blast sheers through the rubbish walls and hurls the pervert head over heels over the back of the bench, flipping it over. He rolls for several feet before finally coming to rest on his back, singed and blackened and terrifyingly sober.

But otherwise unharmed, since Illy used one of her lower level attack spells and fired to subdue, not to kill. But the old man will be feeling the lingering effects of the Smite Evil for quite some time; every time he has a wicked thought, he will feel the sting of chastisement for a good long while.

The people of Pelican Town gawp up in astonishment. Illy's girlfriends are stunned; surrounded by an aura of soft blue-white light, wing spread out and fire in her eyes, it is never clearer that Erinyes came originally from fallen angels. Haley and Abby are both especially staring with huge eyes, for the first time starting to see what Illy truly is, when not hidden away behind her - still genuine - bubbly, outgoing cheer. The warrior - the paladin - that waits beneath, for when help is earnestly needed.

For a moment, there is silence. Then Linus starts to applaud. Soon, the crowd follows suit, scattered at first, but quickly rising. Abby whoops and Penny - surprisingly - whistles appreciatively. Robin gives her double thumbs up, smiling.

Vincent is clearly deciding HE wants to be a magical girl when he grows up...

(Alex-short-for-Alexander swallows very hard and breaks out into a cold sweat.)

Illy lands back down, her boot on the old man's chest. With a shower of white sparks, dismisses her armour and bow. She looks him dead in the eye.

"Stay where you are."

He nods, frantically, having clearly used his trousers as a temporary latrine.

Then, without ever her eyes leaving the old man's Illy flicks her communicator open, and calls in the law enforcement calmly and professionally, without the slight trace of anger.

Mayor Linkara steps forward, and disperses the crowd, telling them to go back to the festival, the situation is under control. He walks over, and for a moment, the old man seems to think he might be rescued, but Mayor Linkara just twitches his jacket aside to reveal his magic gun. The old man blanches. Mayor Linkara, without giving the old man another glance, thanks Illy for handling the situation - if a little... Dramatically.

Kent catches her eye and gives her a small smirk.

Illy and Mayor Linkara remain there, Illy's foot on his chest, until the law enforcement arrive - paladins of Azurella, who happened to be closest and on alert after the previous year - to cart him away. Illy explains the situation and the paladin thanks her, giving a hard stare at the old man, who withers even further under her gaze...

Illy gives him one last glance and then turns back to Major Linkara, all smiles again as if nothing had happened and apologises for the mess!

She helps him put the bench back up-right. On the plus side, all the litter is mostly burned away!

Mayor Linkara awards her some extra star points as they head back to the festival.

Illy is delayed for a bit by her girlfriends glomping her - especially Haley - but after a bit, she goes to do a bit of fishing, which she is much adept at this year.

Then it is time for Mayor Linkara to judge the displays!




Better than last year! Great!

Illy is having a very good day today!

Illy decides she's close enough she might as well get those last points and does some more fishing.

She gets enough to make the 2000 points and...



Stardrop!

Illy spends the rest of the day and evening hanging out with her girlfriends. (Leah and Emily practically have to pry Haley off her when it is time to head home!

Alluria calls to check in and Illy tells her all of the good news! Alluria is delighted.

Illy goes to bed feeling very satisfied indeed!



And there we shall leave her for today.

[Starwulf]

Just wanted to say I'm enjoying reading this, currently on part 6 :). Quick question, are you playing with any mods that change geographical locations? Because I've noticed there are a few things that are in different places, or just flat out aren't there on the console version of the game, and was just wondering if that was due to a mod, or just the game being different on the PC due to less constraints.

[Aotrs Commander]

Just wanted to say I'm enjoying reading this, currently on part 6 :). Quick question, are you playing with any mods that change geographical locations? Because I've noticed there are a few things that are in different places, or just flat out aren't there on the console version of the game, and was just wondering if that was due to a mod, or just the game being different on the PC due to less constraints.

It's a major mod, Stardew Valley Extended, which adds a whole lot of stuff as well as changing/expanding the maps (about three characters, so far with a couple more planned, a load of events and such).



Part 19: Three in Twenty-Four

Spoiler

Show

Wednesday, Autumn Day 17, Year Two

Illy does her chores. To her annoyance, her artichokes are done, but she hasn't any more seeds - and, of course, the store is closed today. Still, there should be time for one more crop before the end of the season.

Illy reckons a visit to Krobus, and then some river fishing.



HUZZAH! Krobus has a sturgeon! One more off Illy's community centre list!



Illy catches a couple of salmon and a tiger trout! Okay, to the ocean, since now the only fish on the community centre list left to catch when it isn't raining (Illy did research!) is in the sea.

Illy fishes until her trout soup wears off and it is evening (at which point there are only night fish to catch). The she heads over to the community centre, because she can at least complete a couple of bundles!

The river fish bundle gives her bait, the lake bundle a dressed spinner.



She heads home to sort out all the forage she found on the beach (there was a lot!) and then does a little bit of cooking. She finds she has run out of space in the food chest, so she makes another one before bedtime.



Autumn Day 18, Year Two

It's raining! Looks like Illy will try some fishing again today!



Oh Emily, that's so random!

Illy whips through her chores. Tilapia only appear in the early afternoon, so she makes a beach totem and a farm totem to cut some of her travelling time down.

Illy also decides she ought to make a rain totem and see if she can keep the rain going so she can fish tomorrow as well.

She doesn't catch a tilapia in the allotted time, so she heads up to George to deliver the bream he posted on the board yesterday, since there's some time to kill before the eels come out.

Ooh, something smells!



Smells good!



Ooh, Illy like!



Sure! (Illy hopes this goes better than her last taste test...)



No, it's grand!





Sweeeeeet!



Ah, that's where George is...




Uh oh...

(Bad time to bring him his fish, too!)




... Your doctor?

Look, George, curmudgeoning is not scientifically proved to increase your longevity, there's been studies.






Maybe shut the door then...?




Dammit, George, Illy is a paladin, not a doctor!




Illy is really not qualified for medical advice. She hasn't even learned lay on hands yet! Okay, okay, she worked out Smite Evil, by herself, by retroengineering what she knew from smite good, but healing is way harder!






Right, he's gone. Have your fish, George, and don't tell Harvey this once!

Illy whips back just on time to start catching eels.



She grabs a couple and then teleports back to the farm.



She pops a rain totem down. Then she heads to the forest pond.

The totem proves unnecessary, as she's lucky enough to catch a walleye right away! She fishes a little more, catching another one, before heading to bed.



Autumn Day 19, Year Two

Pam wants a battery pack. Well, that's easy enough, and won't take much effort.

Illy goes through the basic chores; she leaves the crap-pots for later (doesn't matter if she misses a day, even). She could harvest some of the starfruit, the rhubarb and beets in the greenhouse, but that is lower priority; as they aren't on a season count, it doesn't matter if she lets then sit for a day or two.

No, today's big job is going to be fishing for tilapia, and for that, Illy needs to get down to the beach sooner rather than later, as they will stop coming up after two. So, she makes another farm totem and grabs her dishes o' the sea (which are better than trout soup, if shorter) and gets down to fish.

She catches one at half-past one! Illy fishes a little more, and then heads to the community centre to drop of her spoils!

The night fishing bundle gives her a small glow ring. Not terribly useful.



And the very last bundle, the ocean bundle, gives her five beach totems. Typical...

Still, that's the last one and the community centre will be fully repaired!







Bye bye juminos! Come and visit any time you want!

Time to go rub it in!

Hi Morris!



Suck it, asshat!

Joja Crop will never take Stardew Valley!

Illy drops home and spends a couple of hours in the quarry before bedtime.

The juminos remove the boulder - what might lie behind it?





Huzzah!



Autumn Day 20, Year Two

Illy harvests the greenhouse and spends the morning and early afternoon dropping some starfruit into the seedmaker, until she has sixteen seeds again. Four starfruit go into the crafting area kegs, and the rest - along with the one ancient seed that came up - goes into the greenhouse storage. Illy wants to make everything neatly batched up!

Then she heads over to the mines to see what the boulder's removal has done!

Oh, Pam, have your battery pack!



Um... Illy might try if she has time...?



Hi Willy!



That would be Illy's doing, you can thank her later!





That... Was not what Illy expected.




Uh... no, actually?



Oooh, cool!



Oooh, cooler!




Illy goes to try it out.



Copper ore!

...

This is another tool Illy needs to upgrade, isn't it?

Oh, hey, everyone is at the community centre!



Marnie is especially happy, it seems!






Magic!

No, seriously, magical spirit creatures did it when Illy gave them stuff.

Mayor Linkara, don't give Illy that look, she is a magical ex-devil erinyes paladin and you have a magic gun and a starship, this isn't remotely the strangest thing you've heard of.




Oh, gosh! Illy is quite taken aback! She was just, y'know, doing her job, sorta, s'really no big deal... She shuffles her feet in embarrassment.



Huzzah!




It's the voice of an old windbag!





Illy told you, didn't she?




Oh, it is, fact, absolutely good!



Oh, Illy is enjoying this!



Illy considers being reasonable, magnanimous in victory... And then she remembers Joja Corp makes fertiliser from actual babies and she is a frickin' paladin! Screw that!!





Come on, Mayor Linkara, let Illy at 'im! She'll spifflicate him!




Shoulder!Alluria is shouting encouragement and a litany of things that should be done to Morris. Some of them are even not vaguely sexual.



Yes! Go on, Pierre, flatten 'im!





Is he for REAL?!

Kick his sorry arse, Pierre!




Smack him right in the kisser! Pow, straight to the moon!




Ooooooooh, no amount of burn cream is going to salve that!

(Abby, your dad is so cool!)



You said it, George!





Pahahahahahahahahaha! LITERALLY straight to the moon! Ahahahahahahahaha! Where the frack was Pierre hiding that!



A punch so powerful, it completely destroyed the entire company!



Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

Take that, late stage-capitalism!

(Oh my Lichemaster, that was fracking priceless. And totally satisfying!)

Illy heads back home and makes a farm totem, as she has one more thing to do today - head down to that abandoned winery. But nothing has changed yet - perhaps tomorrow.



Pride of place!




Autumn Day 21, Year Two

Illy learns to cook crab cakes off the telly.



Uh, okay? I guess kicking Joja Mart out meant maybe Pierre took on more staff? Or does he work every day now (that seems daft...)

To Robin's first - battery pack for Maru (she's at ten hearts now!) and an iridium fairy rose for Robin (it's her birthday) and, go on, Demetrius as well.

Illy slips to Clint's - no, she can't upgrade her panning dish - and then heads into town for shopping and girlfriend gift-giving.





Er...





Hi Jodi, Caroline and Olivia!



Illy is flattered, she has been working hard...




Well, funny Olivia should say that...






Oh, yes, Illy is hoping she is going to get to that soon! Maybe!



Actually, Illy is already starting to move towards mass wine production...




Illy will make sure to reserve you some of her best!



Illy's still farming as well!




Illy would like to meet this mysterious Susan one day...



Shoulder!Alluria wants to know how big Susan's melons are. Because she is very childish sometimes.




Well, maybe now Andy is out from underneath Joja's evil shadow, he might improve.



Well, if he didn't use all those artificial fertilisers and stuff made from actual babies...





Is... Illy being dismissed...?




Bye ladies...?

Iridium sunflower for Haley!





Oh ho, Illy likes the way Haley thinks!

...

(Heck, Illy practically has her own adventuring band at this point...)

Diamond for Penny!



Goat's cheese for Leah!



A ruby for Emily, and last year's golden pumpkin for Abby, just because!

Illy goes shopping, and buys a load of seeds, including all the fall seeds. She then Does A Silly, and buys a load of yam seeds and gets as far as planting two before realising they isn't enough time for them to grow! Whoops! So all the seeds go into the greenhouse seed-chest.

Sebby wants a copper bar, so Illy kills some time fetching him one; her ancient fruit has sprouted again and the seed-maker gives her another seven to plant!

She has just enough oak resin at this point to make another dozen kegs, and she finishes up by putting a neat row of slabs between them to keep the grass down.



Bed-time!



Autumn Day 22, Year Two



OH, HEAVENS, YES!

This is a good start to the day (and probably a happy ending, if Illy is lucky...!)



Battery for a battery, eh?

The starfruit are in, so Illy fills her kegs with starfruit, a dozen gold and a dozen silver. she sorts out on the farm, making a new chest to store fruit outside the kegs, and then grabs a ruby for Emily.

Illy needs to start knocking some trees down, too, she's actually getting low on wood!

Well, she might do a bit of woodcutting up by the spa, ready to meet Penny!

Oh, hey, it's Rassy! What's he doing up here!



Wow, Rassy is, like, a seer!



Yes, Rassy told Illy his ex was a witch. Like, literally.



Not that strange! Illy would totally hit that if she was allowed!

Rassy coughs and splutters a bit, but carries on.

What? She would!




Um... Illy is pretty sure that even implied infidelity shouldn't cause that sort of overreaction...



Well, sometimes that is the only option. Illy knows that not every Evil creature can be redeemed, even if she and Alluria are proof than even demons and devils could be; but they must want, on some level to be redeemed. And sometimes, even mortals just... Won't.



Someone didn't go to the paladins of Azurella for help with their pre-nup, did they?




Okay!



Illy can do that!



Illy will do-



-Illy feels this might be a problem.

But one for future Illy!

Quick bit of chopping, then it's time to meet Penny!




Ooh, steamy baths! Illy like!



Illy giggles excitedly.

Shoulder!Alluria is doing a victory dance.



It does.



Shoulder!Alluria has a few ideas. Actually, more than a few. She has an entire folder.




Penny can take her time, Illy's not going anywhere.






Illy feels a bit of heat unrelated to the water.






Oooh, a hot steamy bath (in all senses of the word) with her girlfriend is just what Illy needed!

(Alluria will be so proud!)

She is so pumped, she goes home and chops a load more trees and fallen wood until bedtime!




Autumn Day 23, Year Two

After chores, Illy is thinking Krobus, and then the mines for bug meat. She grabs her healing items as well, as she might want to go to the bottom levels to look for iridium.

...

At some point, she's really going to have to go into skull caverns...



Penny was quite loud last night...!



Penny was that, too...

Illy will just pop in to see Jodi and Emily and Haley on the way.




Oh, snap, Kent has PTSD, doesn't he? Beans.





The popcorn sounds remind Kent of the war.

Wait, what war?



Trenches? The heavens kind of war was Kent fighting in?! Did he fight in some sort of... Time war or something?





Uh, sure. Illy means, she's more sort of training for relationship counselling, but she can give it a shot...



(She's a paladin (in training), she's not gonna lie!)






It's okay, Kent. PTSD is a very hard thing to deal with, but you don't - and shouldn’t - go through it alone. You need to sit down and talk to Jodi about it - maybe even get some professional help. There's no shame in that, and anyone that tells you otherwise is a stupid doody-head you shouldn't listen to.

Kent can't help but crack a little smile at that.




Illy pats him on the shoulder and quietly slips out. They need to have a talk.

Illy can't seem to get it to Haley's and Emily's today, so she heads to the sewer.








Pew pew! Unlocking bolts!

Okay, let's do this...



Weird looking place...



OOH! Well, at least she's going to get a load of bug meat!





Ewwwww...

Illy heads home and cuts a load more trees down.



Autumn Day 24, Year Two

First thing, go see Haley and Emily!

Oh, Haley is in her dark room!




Illy is!




It's so cool! Haley must be developing all her photos, yes?




Shoulder!Alluria opens her mouth and Illy smacks her upside the head and tries to disguise it with a cough. Haley looks at her strangely, as Illy is not convincing.

... Dec...orating, Illy will help... decorate the... dark ro- Illy catches Haley's glare and Shoulder!Alluria smack Illy upside the head.

Oh! OHHHHHHH! Sorry, Haley, Illy just really didn't want to, y'know, push Haley until Haley was ready! Illy totally gets you now!

No, actually, Illy can think of many, MANY things to do with Haley in a small dark room. She has an entire folder!



(I actually did this before on the previous day and picked the decorate option - y'know, not trying to do anything untoward to the girl that's been, y'know assaulted before - and Haley was not amused at all! So I reloaded the day, but it wouldn't let me go in the house and I had to exit the game before I could make this attempt...!)




Sorry, Haley, Illy would have done it sooner (like A LOT sooner), but y'know, she's been kind of... Not trying to be pushy or anything and Illy's going to stop talking now, because she needs her mouth for other thing-




Oooh, turning down the lights...!



Wow, Illy thinks, she's going to be sore even WITH her damage reduction...



(Pahahahahahahahahahaha! Intentional or not that's she's in bed, oh my Lichemaster, there's really no other way to interpret that now, is there! I don't even have to make heavy innuendo, that's pretty much a single entendre!)

Illy says hi to Emily (and sorry for all the... Noise). Emily just winks and grins. Shoulder!Alluria gives her the thumbs up. Emily does a double-take and then to Illy’s complete surprise and mild horror, returns it.

Illy wanders out into the forest in a complete daze...

She reaches the secret forest and grabs some more hardwood and then heads out, intending to take the dark talisman to Rassy.



Or... Orrrr... That could wait...




A picnic in the rain? That's... Really kind of novel and neat! Illy is totally down for that!



Ooh, that sounds ace! Wait, does Leah mean like... Special, special, wink, wink nudge, nudge know what Illy means? Illy means, she's a devil, she can totally handle another round without any... ah... help.



Cool!




Leah was already a real artist. Illy just helped her to become a profitable artist!

All the great masters unappreciated in their time probably wouldn't have been if they'd had the internet!



Wow, today is going absolutely-



-GODDESS COPULATING MALE OFFSPRING OF A FEMALE CANINE!



Uh-oh...



This would be the ex. She does not look pleased...



Other than... blue-lady-parts-ing Illy and Leah.

Shoulder!Alluria concedes it seems unlikely it is for a threesome.

Leah links hard and shakes her head, momentarily baffled, but Kel doesn't seem to notice.



Actually, Illy has drawn that conclusion already, Kel.




What, in that Kel is a rich guy?



Don't call her babe!





Does Kel want to see what happened to the last person who laid a hand on one of Illy's girlfriends? Because Illy can show Kel right now.

Yes, Kel, girlfriends, plural.

What? Illy has a lot of love to give!

(It must be noted in passing once again that two hundred years of having her closest association being with a succubus has given Illy a somewhat... Unusual outlook to relationships. But, as it is said by one great Undead sage, what one - or more - sentient/sapient beings get up to on their own time...)



Illy is so VERY tempted to option one, but Kel hasn't done anything actually worth an unprovoked decking. (Yet. Plus, Leah might not 100% approve.)




Option one is still on the table Kel and getting more likely by the second!

WHAM!

Oh, WOW! LEAH goes for option one.



(Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!)

It is wrong Illy thinks that is really kind of hot? Shoulder!Alluria certainly doesn't think so.





YES, MA'AM!!!

Illy stumbles a bit as she heads to Rassy's tower, but at least the fact that it is raining means that is sort of washed at least the smell of dirty forest rain-sex off to a degree.

As Illy walks, she remembers she never checked what the worm bin she can now make does. It actually supplies bait! Well, when she's not saving up hardwood for the house extension, that can be next on the list.

Right, Rassy's!

Rassy raises his eyebrows a bit, but tells Illy that it's all well and good she's got the talisman, so maybe she should go to the cave by railroad...?

Illy giggles a bit sheepishly and then staggers out and heads over to Leah's.. She ought to clean herself off properly...



Well, Illy thought it went great!

Illy heads home, but she is so giddy, she actually falls off the bridge into the water, and it takes her ages to manage to find a way out. In the end, she ends up at the farm quarry, and managed to get in the boat...

(That was a weird bug - I just went up as usual, and instead of being on the bridge, Illy materialised in the water - where's there no way to get out! I managed to get out when I actually walked off the map and down, and found myself at the farm quarry, where I was able to use the boat and appear back on the land again!)

After that mess, it's too late to do much else, so Illy potters on the farm before bed.

She goes a bit far, looking for more hardwood, and so it rather late to bed!



We will leave her there, for the moment!

(I did just check, before I quit out, and went back down to the forest across the bridge and back again, and it worked normally! Must have been that cut-scene, I guess...!)

[Kantaki]

Part 18

Why is there a head nailed to the wall in Pierre's house?

Intelligence is knowing that tomatos are fruit.
Wisdom is knowing they don't belong into a friggin fruit salad.

Also, scary devil-lady is scary.

Part 19

The good name of Joja?
You guys literally work people to death and leave their skeletons lying around.

Also, Kent clearly fought in the great off-screen war.
Against the other-side-of-the.ocean-guys.
Some Empire I think. Or for the Empire? Something like that.
The trenches confuse me though.
Aren't those kinda pointless when you're primarily use swords and stuff?

[Aotrs Commander]

Part 18

Why is there a head nailed to the wall in Pierre's house?

Do you mean the blak-and-white one on the wall of the left room (Abby's room)? I think that is supposed to be a poster of some presumabled male celebrity. But then again, it is Abby, so perhaps it is best not to think too hard...

Intelligence is knowing that tomatos are fruit.
Wisdom is knowing they don't belong into a friggin fruit salad.

Exactly!

The good name of Joja?
You guys literally work people to death and leave their skeletons lying around.

I know, right! Heck, there's every possibility they re-animate them as well!

The trenches confuse me though.
Aren't those kinda pointless when you're primarily use swords and stuff?

I think the problem lies the other way (as discussed on the Fimfiction cross-post) - there is far too much 21st century (and beyond) technology around to be in the very narrow region of technological advancement where trench warfare was a thing. You get trench warfare when you have guns but no mechanisation (or very primitive mechanisation); the presense of late 20th century (generously, if not later) vans and trucks rather put paid to that.

(And as the event with Maru is about to show, any ideas this is low tech by any metric other than "because Pelican Town personally digs it" is kind of nonsense!)



Shorter one today; I had to break up the last installment into two parts on fimfiction, because the number of image apparently made it cry. And as this part clocked up about 50 pictures, there is a chance the next session or two might take it up to that sort of number again, so I figured better to so a shorter one and not risk that again (of course, now I've done this, it won't!)


Part 20: The Future is Now

Spoiler

Show

Thursday, Autumn Day 25, Year Two

It's raining again... Illy discovers she JUST has enough hardwood (101) to get Robin started on the house expansion - and Illy wanted to see Maru anyway today, so that will be the first job. Then hopefully she'll see Emily, gets some more grass starters from the store (and maybe see if she can keep the rain going for another day or so while the grass grows) and then maybe down to the forest and the old vineyard?




Ooh, yes! Is it ready!



Ooooooh, Illy is so excited! This is going to be so cool!



Anywhere!



Demetrius, don't you dare...!



It's a robot! A big robot! This... Is going to be brilliant and it’s not immediately try to murder everyone...?




Yeah! Aside from the obvious romantic attachments, if it Goes Horribly Wrong, you have a magical paladin devil-girl to take the hits!

Look, Illy has complete faith in you, Maru, to the point she fully expects MarILDA to come to life properly and become self-aware and make her own choices. Illy has just seen a lot of scifi and the robots nearly always go crazy.

(Can you blame them, though? I never can...)



Illy starts wishing she brought her gem, while crossing her fingers...






Good start...?



Oh no, Illy is remembering both Queeg and Cassandra from Red Dwarf...



Demetrius knew Maru was making a robot? Illy means, um, duh. she's not exactly been hugely secret about it.



Oh, Demetrius was just trying to... Damn it, why are all the terms male-orientated... Lady-part-block Illy again, wasn't he? Has Demetrius forgotten the Fair Incident already?



Illy swears, if Demetrius overreacts and thus starts a chain reaction that leads to the robot takeover, Illy will give him a right smack upside the head, she will.




Um, yes, it's a robot. Why wouldn't it talk? Come on, Demetrius, you have a flipping laptop computer, even...




One, Illy has no such luck (yet) and two, it would be none of Demetrius' business if she was!




Y'know, when she moves in with Abby's harem and there is much fooling around going on where Demetrius can never stop it. (Yes, it IS Abby's harem.)




Oh snap, here we go...



Illy gives Maru an "I told you I had complete faith in you and now look where it has gotten us" glance.



Oh. Um, would it help MarILDA to know there's like... Ooh... Well, the Qyax Computation is mostly run by robots, but all the other elenthnar powers except the Xygritt Matriarchy have lots of technologicals in the population (and the Xygritts are really bad people so MarILDA wouldn't want to go there anyway), and then there's the other end of the galaxy, where Illy has heard there are several major purely technological powers, okay, granted, the Blastarons, the Cybertanks and the Yrgynela are all very, very evil and bad, but also maybe the Shardan count because they are all cyborgs and you did say synthetic, not mechanical, and they are descended from bio-technological servitors of a long-extinct race, so they probably count too, and that's just off the top of Illy's head. Heck, rumour has it there will be some sort of space robot attending Illy's paladin school, even.

Illy means, it's not exactly hard to find them or anything, so...



Honestly, Illy thinks this is a best-case scenario, really.




Largely because Illy is making the "I'm watching you gesture” behind Maru's back.





Illy can be gracious in victory sometimes, so she just smiles.




Shoulder!Alluria opens her mouth to make a comment about Maru, holes and stuffing and without looking, Illy's hand smacks her in the face.

Maru shakes her head, puzzled for a moment, and then turns back to MarILDA.





Yah. Um... Maru, exactly at what point did Maru think including orbital space jets - and presumably some form of FTL drive - would come in handy helping out around the house? Don't get Illy wrong, that's freaking AMAZING, but it just seems slightly... Excessive?






Illy suggests wild "Maru created frickin' life" celebration sex in the basement?

That works for Maru!



Sometime later, Illy goes to see Robin. DAMMIT, it's 150 pieces of hardwood. Blast!

To Haley and Emily's!



Oh dear...! Perhaps Illy should be cautious about the blacksmith's for a bit...!



And that, Emily, is part of the problem, Clint sort of didn't.

Illy buys twenty grass starters and goes back home and plants them. She makes herself a rain totem (which she uses immediately) and a farm totem and heads out south.

No, Illy can't do anything with the vineyard at the moment. Shame.

(I looked - it's future content planned for Stardew Valley Expanded (the mod), along with the mysterious occupants of the other two farms (one of which is that Susan).)



Huh.



And Illy has one already. Wow, she didn't know they were that rare, though!

Illy half-intends to go to the spirit spring again, but she doesn't make it before it's time to go home for bed!



And that ends today's little installement.

[Kantaki]

Do you mean the blak-and-white one on the wall of the left room (Abby's room)? I think that is supposed to be a poster of some presumabled male celebrity. But then again, it is Abby, so perhaps it is best not to think too hard...

Kinda looks like some NPC got stuck there.
Maybe it's an ex.
Illy should tread very carefully.

I know, right! Heck, there's every possibility they re-animate them as well!

If only. They just leave them lying around in a cubicle.
What a waste...
And terribly unhygienic considering they left the guy long enough to turn into a skeleton in the first place.

I think the problem lies the other way (as discussed on the Fimfiction cross-post) - there is far too much 21st century (and beyond) technology around to be in the very narrow region of technological advancement where trench warfare was a thing. You get trench warfare when you have guns but no mechanisation (or very primitive mechanisation); the presense of late 20th century (generously, if not later) vans and trucks rather put paid to that.

(And as the event with Maru is about to show, any ideas this is low tech by any metric other than "because Pelican Town personally digs it" is kind of nonsense!)

Well, yeah. But the opportunity to comment on the rather traditional adventuring gear was too good.
And frankly, the idea that with all the advanced technology wars are still fought with medieval weapons is just too funny.

Part 20: The Future is Now

Well, that went well.
Finally someone who treats their AI kid right.
If only Dragon had such a great creator.
But no, Richter had to cripple her, chain her* and leave her kill-switch for some idiot who watched to much Terminator to find.

*With such genius rules such as „Follow the orders of any legitimate authority”.

[Starwulf]

Oh, wanted to ask(never saw you mention this during your winter-time phase), did you ever notice while you were walking around town these little patches of what look like 2 or 3 wriggling black worms sticking up out of the ground? You can use your hoe on them and get items(winter forage items, and even winter-specific artifacts) from them.

[Aotrs Commander]

Been a little quiet this week, but this is simply because of various day-trips or otherwise being-out-ness and the short evenings before chewing into my playing time...

Kinda looks like some NPC got stuck there.
Maybe it's an ex.
Illy should tread very carefully.

Good job Abby's the primary, right?

If only. They just leave them lying around in a cubicle.
What a waste...
And terribly unhygienic considering they left the guy long enough to turn into a skeleton in the first place.

You'd never get that in the Aotrs, I tell you...

And frankly, the idea that with all the advanced technology wars are still fought with medieval weapons is just too funny.

Given the UCDR's preponderance of magic and thus non-gun magical weapon-types (as well s magical guns, obviously) that part at least makes some sense in the context of this play-through.

(Come to that, even the Aotrs, which relies primarily on technology still (and we're roughly par with the UCDR in terms of at leadst military advancement) equips everyone with a magic, heat-enchanted short-sword). There's still plenty of reason to carry a weapon for melee range.)

Oh, wanted to ask(never saw you mention this during your winter-time phase), did you ever notice while you were walking around town these little patches of what look like 2 or 3 wriggling black worms sticking up out of the ground? You can use your hoe on them and get items(winter forage items, and even winter-specific artifacts) from them.

Yeah, I've been doing that all along (it's where Illy found most of the books), it's just I generally don't bother to mention it.




Part 21: Miner Incidents

Spoiler

Show

Friday, Autumn Day 27, Year Two

Illy finds that her Rare Seeds have sprouted into Sweet Gem berries. After some debate, she elects to sell one silver berry, save the gold one and place the last into the seed maker - which gives her two to plant again.

Illy seriously considers the mine - getting as far as loading up all her healing items - but decides instead it might be better to go to the witch's cave. she might need the items there, after all!

With all the shilly-shally-ing it's half-past four before she gets there, and holds out her dark talisman to the runestone.




Huh. That... Was not the reaction Illy expected.



Teleportation circle?



Teleportation circle.



Illy is getting tired of that. On the other hand, the goblin probably doesn’t know any better...




Okay, what? Would the goblin like a blackberry...?



Clearly not.

Goblin doesn't want fired eggs or a cherry bomb... Can't hit him with her sword...?

Okay, Illy is kind of stumped.

She heads back home and out to Rassy's picking up five gold bars (maybe she can pay the goblin off...?) to see if he has any ideas.

On the way, she sees the caravan lady - she's selling a coffee bean. Coffee! That's new! Something for the greenhouse, Illy thinks, when next the beets are done (but she only planted some today...!)

Rassy just looks blank. I6t might be a bit late to make another attempt at the cave today, so Illy heads to the secret forest.

She makes it back home just after midnight.




Autumn Day 27, Year Two

The pumpkins are grown! Illy sells the gold ones, keeps the silver and tries putting the ordinary ones in the crafting zone kegs to see what happens.

As the Spirit's Eve festival is being prepared, there's not a lot she can usefully do today, so she heads to clear portions of the farm she knows still have some hardwood in them.



So, what's in this building?



Nothing, apparently... Huh.

Illy spends most of the day just killing time clearing the dense forested bit of her land, before it is finally time for the festival.



Trust Illy, Jas, if it is anything like last year, there will be actual monsters in it...



Reasonably productive in terms of farming, very much so in - Illy glances sidelong at Jas - re-productive terms, if Marnie knows what Illy means!



It's magic, Sebastian. Seriously, Pelican Town has one resident wizard and magical paladin-devil-girl, a nearby witch, magical monsters, an adventurer's guild and lots of spirits, how is magic surprising?!



Illy does, but she has a feeling Abby will LOVE them, if Emily knows what Illy is saying.

Shoulder!Alluria winks suggestively. Emily giggles at her. Illy is now becoming more deeply disturbed...



Shoulder!Alluria would like to fill Leah's mouth with- There is a short, sharp slapping sound. Leah looks confused and squints at Illy's shoulder, then shakes her head. Illy backs away, plastering her brightest (and not at all strained) smile on. She is most definitely not breaking out into a cold sweat.



YES, KENT, YES IT IS! NOTHING IS WRONG AT ALL! Kent gives Illy a slightly mystified and worried glance, and backs away slowly



Illy knows all too well, Linus...



...

Hi, Pumpkin King!

SEBBY! Come here! Illy has something to show you!



Wow, they might have thought to try something a bit different this year, seriously!

Illy deftly gets past the monster to the other chest. This year, it's just three pumpkin pies, a rarecrow and treasure chest.



Alex-short-for-Alexander is just as dumb this year. apparently he didn't learn that one was fake last year. Muppet.

After securing the girlfriends from the maze, Illy and her girlfriends have a slap-up feast and then Illy heads home.



Autumn Day 28, Year Two

The Queen of Sauce on the telly teaches Illy how to make fiddlehead risotto. Uhuh, Illy will have to have another cooking session soon...



Whelp, that's Illy's plan for the day, then!

The starfruit wine is done on the greenhouse kegs, so a full twenty eight bottles go for sale (Olivia, here's Illy's Best!) the ancient fruit have come in, so that is another load of fruit for seeds. That gives her an excellent ten more seeds to plant! She is slowly filling in the plants now!

Illy checks and finds she has... 149 hardwood.

Of COURSE she has. And, by the time she has collected a bit more from deep in the farm... Robin has closed up shop for the day.

Darn it!

Illy heads to the secret forest. She's a couple of hours early. So because she is a thoughtful girlfriend and this is Emily, not Abby, Illy spends the time clearing out all the slimes before Emily arrives.




It is!



Spooky, but harmless. Mostly harmless, at least for today anyway.

There is a very loud rumbling sort of sound. Illy tries to pass it off as an accidently bit of wind.



Emily is humouring her, but she is clearly spooked. Illy is, to be honest, a little worried herself, as that sounded BIG.





Well, Illy reflects, there ARE certain advantages to Emily being a bit unsettled and-



-WHY DOES EVERYTHING HATE ILLY?!



Emily flees into the tent. Illy follows to make sure she is protected. And not at all because SEX INTERRUPTING BEAR scared several centuries of life out of her jumping out like that.




Oh no, what a tragedy, well, it can't be helped. Shoulder!Alluria is wiggling her eyebrows now, and Emily definitely is watching her do it. Illy suspects this may be undermining her performance a little.



No, Emily should definitely stay in here.



Goodness, Emily, what a suggestion, Illy will have to think about it, why aren't you in Illy's sleeping bag yet?

(The tent shakes, once twice... Pause... thrice. Fade to black, money earned today screen...! Pahahahahahahahahaha! Oh yeah, that is again entirely not suggestive at ALL, it is it!)



That is a LOT of money. But quality of fruit doesn't seem to matter?




Winter Day 1, Year Two

Illy does some research.

OHH, you are supposed to be putting wine, and cheese and beer and stuff in casks to AGE to increase their quality! Stupid, stupid Illy! Right, sounds like she needs to make a bucket-load more casks and to start again stuff for more cash!



Boom, Illy scores again!

Illy sees why Abby likes autumn!

Oh. Darn. Illy can't MAKE casks yet, she was thinking of preserves jars.

Right, then... One job today needs to be to see Robin and get on the house upgrade. And plant her winter seeds carefully stored from last year.

Illy plants her seeds nice and fast and does her other chores. To her annoyance, she is four wood short of being able to make a machine...

Off to Robin's!

Pam looks miffed...



Calm down, calm down, calm down!



Illy privately thinks "lately?" but she doesn’t voice it...




Want to share with Illy, Pam? she's a good listener.




Pam has never been Illy's age, but Illy doesn’t interrupt. (Unless Pam is STUPENDOUSLY well-preserved.)



Huh.




Pam trembles, or perhaps shakes with anger at herself, Illy isn't sure.



Look Pam, that, at least, you can change.



Illy thinks this sounds very like Pam is having a mid-life crisis. Illy points out that the UCDR has not age limitation on joining (nor do any of the many paladin or clerical orders). Heck, Pam is younger than General Haelariel, and she's one of the most decorated war-heroes of the entire UCDR. (Okay, Illy privately admits, she does have a lot of angel-blood in her, but who - apart from Illy and Alluria - kind of doesn't in this little bit of the galaxy?) Illy would love to just meet her. Illy bets if Pam applies, with some dedication - and maybe a little help from Illy, Pam can become a space-pilot!





Well, not with that attitude it won't! Pam needs to be positive! Look, Illy was a freaking DEVIL, and look where she's gotten! Yes, Illy had help... But Illy is also willing TO help. Pam doesn't have to do this alone.




Pssh, she's gonna crack eventually! No-one can resist Illy’s ineffable cheer! You'd have to be some sort of super-morose icky necromancer with a mind like a miserable robot or something!



Magic Robin, make Illy's house grow! (Please!)



...

Why... WHY would Illy ever want to do that? Why would Pierre give Abby clay in the first place? Illy can't imagine anyone would particular want clay! Yes, Abby likes eating quartz, but even so!

Clint wants to inspect some ores, and, thanks to Celestia, Illy makes it inside the blacksmith's JUST before he closes! Huzzah!

Illy stops by the adventurer’s guild to see if she can get any information out of Marlon or Gil. Neither have anything to say... Darn, maybe Illy should have asked Gunther in the museum...?

Well, Illy is passing Haley and Emily's -



- fingering the rabbit's foot in her pocket...




Oh! Everyone is here! Woohoo!





Illy has no comment.

Shoulder!Alluria points out that SHE never promised anything to Mayor Linkara and is quite happy to spill the beans. Illy, with a strained smile, tries to surreptitiously muffle her.

Emily tells Illy to stop it, that's not very nice. Shoulder!Alluria sticks her tongue out at Illy and... Flies over to Emily's shoulder. The other girls follow the line of her flight.

Haley turns back to Illy and asks if there is anything Illy wants to tell them.

Illy, trying not to look anyone in the eye, hesitantly explains that Shoulder!Alluria is a metaphysical manifestation of Illy's... Uh... Urges... Which takes the form of her dear, dear it's-so-hard-to-put-into-words-what-the-relationship-is Alluria.

Leah says that would seem to explain a lot. And also that it is nice to put a face to this Alluria Illy's talked about so much.

Penny mutters under her breath - not quite quietly enough - something about how it is nice to put an everything else as well and then blushes fiercely.

Abby opines that she can see how Illy got redeemed now, because day-am.

The other girls look askance at Abby. Abby points out the other girls were all thinking that too.

There is a general muttering of slightly embarrassedly assent. Penny blushes harder.

(In their defence, Alluria IS a succubus.)

Illy has no freaking clue why the girls can see Shoulder!Alluria and she is frankly, mildly terrified about the whole thing.

Maru suggests that as Illy is telepathic, and the girls have such a close bond to Illy, it is likely Illy is subconsciously projecting an image of Alluria to all of them, probably rooted in Illy deeply missing her best-whatever-you-want-to-label-it-person-in-the-world after so long away from her and her subconscious is filling in the gap.

This is because Maru is very smart.

Illy says Alluria is very busy at the moment, but she has said she would very much like to meet the girls properly at some point. They all agree they would love to meet her too.

Maru thinks Shoulder!Alluria will probably fade away once Illy sees Alluria again on a regular basis (such as at magical paladin school), or possibly when Illy has far less repressed urges. So maybe they should work on making sure Illy doesn't have so many repressed urges.



"Short." Sure...

Illy heads home and finds a little more hardwood on the farm as she heads down to the mushroom cave. She gets back just as it hits midnight!




Winter Day 2, Year Two

Illy is feeling stupidly brave today, so she's going to head to Skull Caverns and see if she can find some iridium ore...

Illy kills quite a lot of mummies and other things, but she finds no iridium ore at all, and chomps through a lot of her healing items.

Secret note #2...



She heads back out at half-past eleven, with a full inventory, and does a little bit of last-minute chores, though this takes her to half-past one...




Winter Day 3, Year Two

After chores, Illy goes to get the geodes she found yesterday opened. See gets three iridium ores (yay!) and baryte, which means she only has one more mineral to find!

Illy wants to drop by the adventurer’s guild to sell the club she found. She stops by the beach on the way and finds a huge amount of forage.

She then heads off to spend the rest of the day in the farm quarry. She finds another eight iridium ore, and load more geodes, which will be tomorrow's major job!




Winter Day 4, Year Two

Woo! Bigger house!




Hmm, she needs to do a little bit of internal moving around, though...

It takes two trips to Clint's to clear the geodes. Illy's greatest (and only useful) find is one geode with eleven iridium ore in it.

Illy takes a trip to the east quarry, and with bombs on her mind after yesterday, she decides to try some explosive mining. She quickly clears the quarry. Heading home, she makes some more bombs, with the intention of having a go at the rest of the farm quarry! Bigger bombs mean she does it quicker!




It is a somewhat unsuccessful experiment, unfortunately. On the one hand, she completely clears the farm quarry as well... But apparently bombs destroy the geodes. Oops. Well, Illy has at least learned something, though it was only after her maniacal explosion-mining spate that she realised she hadn't got any.

Bombs also don't seem to work on trees. Oh well.



Is... the Kitchen bigger now too...? Those chests were in the corner before, so...?


Illy calls it a night.



Winter Day 5, Year Two



Aw. that's nice!



Darn it Rassy, you're killing Illy here!

Fine...!

Some of the starfruit and the beets and rhubarb are in, Illy harvests them and planets her coffee bean, but doesn't replant anything else yet.

As she heads out to Rassy's she sees the caravan lady has a pufferfish for sale, which she buys for Demetrius (whose request is still sitting around after goodness knows how long...!)

Well, Rassy did pay five grand for the bar, so there's that...!

Illy sighs and elects she'll sell one of her hard-won iridium bars. She'll have to do so want some point anyway, and once it's done, she can stop whittling about it.

She might go to the mines tomorrow, so she has a look at her supplies. She had tons and tons of mushrooms, so she makes more than a score of life elixirs, which should keep her going through quite a few mine or cavern trips!

Then she figures she might as well take Demetrius his fish.

She stops for a talk with Robin.



Ohhhhhh! That's where you get casks!

Well, Illy does have the cash, and it doesn't require any resources, so oh hells yes, Robin! That was a good call coming her for Illy today!

Demetrius gets his fish, and then Illy heads into the upper levels of the mines, trying to find a load of dusties to kill. She manages to find a load on her first level, then none after that. She heads home and takes an earl night before eleven.



Winter Day 6, Year Two

The starfruit wine is done. Illy holds off selling it for the moment - she'll see how much she can put into her new cellar soon!

She makes a short sprint to town to check the calendar. Oops, she missed Krobus and Linus' birthdays, but Caroline's is tomorrow. Haley wants a crocus, so Illy stops by to drop on off before heading to the deeper reaches of the mine - maybe she'll find some iridium there...?

(First trip, I got nearly to the bottom from level 110 and then suddenly died - I hadn't even thought anything had hit me.)

Illy's mine trip is unsuccessful, aside from killing more monsters. She heads home and does the chores she neglected earlier, before taking a late bed.



And there we shall leave her, at the start of the rather uneventful winter following her so very eventful autumn...

[Aotrs Commander]

The end-point creeps ever closer...

Part 22: Iridium Ore Bust

Spoiler

Show

Sunday, Winter Day 7, Year Two

Illy learns how to cook poppyseed muffins off the telly.

The last large batch of starfruit has grown. Illy harvests it. She won't replace them at the moment because - as Illy has neatly timed, all her ancient seeds have sprouted. All fourteen go into the seed maker, and give her twenty-eight more.




She should get another load and hopefully even more next week (they come every seven days), which should allow her to cover even more space. (How much more she will determine from how many casks she can have.)

Illy drops by the farm quarry - fortunately the quarry refills quite fast, and harvests all the geodes (she's not short of nay ore aside from iridium!)

She considers doing some fishing, and decides to use a beach totem to get there, as it is now ten to seven.

She manages to catch a couple of albacore before she heads home among other things, so she goes back via the bar to give one to Gus, who has been after one for simply AGES.



It's just past midnight before she gets to bed.



Winter Day 8, Year Two

It's the ice festival today, so Illy won't get that much done.

She harvests her winter seeds and...

They are all iridium quality?

Wait, so her iridium forage applies to anything grown from wild seeds?!

WOW, that's fantastic!

OH!



Illy wanders into her own cellar by accident, assuming Robin wasn't there because it was a festival day! Wow, then!

Okay, so she'll start with some of the starfruit wine. DARN, the rows are only eleven long! Nevermind, though, Illy can make casks now!

Casks take twenty wood and one hardwood. Illy make three (to take the rows to an even dozen - she puts one more wine in to make twelve too) and while she remembers, makes a worm bin to place to make bait.



She might make some more later, though she recons on making another dozen casks first, once she has the additional hardwood.

Illy considers, though, the fact that casks take a long time to age wine, after doing some research - two months.

(It occurred to me that, at the point I am, I'm not going to be playing this playthrough for hundreds more hours, so the amount of time invested verses profit is probably not going to come in.)

Illy scraps the idea of having a rolling stream of aging wine in her casks - while it would be plausible to set up, the time it would take... Well, she'll be in magical paladin school before then! So she will either start by using cheese or beer or ale in her casks. She'll load up the casks with starfruit wine as she gets it, but the coming ancient fruit wine will be sold directly.

She puts the last dozen starfruit wine in and then heads to the festival (it's half-past one at this point).

She does try scarfing some dish 'o the seas before heading in - so she should do better on that ice fishing this time!



Good for you Kent. Illy is having flashbacks to last years' disastrous fishing competition...



Illy thinks Maru should probably use more SCIENCE! in her snowmen.



Hmm... try something new this year, Penny!



(Aliens are close to starships, which Penny didn't like the suggestion of last year! Illy wins!)

Illy chats with everyone, and then it is time for the ice-fishing. (Ha! And Illy is still buffed to level 11 on fishing thanks to the dish o' the sea! It's totally not cheating, she just ate some fish before coming, that's how that works.)

It stills takes Illy twenty seconds to get the distance right to actually get her rod in the water. But with her boosted skill, she catches six fish - three of them perfect catches... But will it be enough...?




BOOM! Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Fear Illy's awesome fishing might!

And the prize is...



...Underwhelming. A hat and three different sorts of fishing tackle. Woot.

Ah well.

Celestia can have the hat!



Bedtime!



Winter Day 9, Year Two

Chores, and then to Clint's to break the geodes Illy got the other day. This gives her six more iridium ore and some neptunite! The last of the minerals! Hurrah!

Huh. Illy might have thought she'd have got some reward for that...

Actually, while she's here... Illy has a good go through the library once more to see if she can find out what goblins like...

-And she does! Huzzah!





(Yay, something else I didn't have to look up but I'm really bad at stuff...!)

Void mayo! Easy enough to get for Illy!

Okay, Illy thinks that the lower mine levels and the magma geodes seem to be one of the most reliable sources of iridium ore...

Her research has suggested that Skull caverns can have tons, but only if you can reach deep, deep down (which means taking loads of stone to make staircases).

Her trip is not hugely successful - she only finds four magma geodes...

Nevermind, her research has suggested to some other thing to try tomorrow in the desert.

Stuff that, to be fair, I'd never have gotten...!)

Goblin first, though!



Winter Day 10, Year Two

The Queen of Sauce shows Illy how to make coleslaw.

Illy lingers around until her void mayonnaise is completed.

First she goes to Clint's - the geodes yield nothing.

Then to the train station and thence to the witch's cave.



Goblin wanna void mayo?






Hah!



Well, that doesn't look intimidating AT ALL, does it?




Well, that was easy!



Okay...



Right...



... Why would Illy want monsters on her farm at night?!

Heavens, NO!

The teleportation in the corner takes Illy deeper in...





Wait... Is this RASSY'S basement?! Illy heard him talk about it and say she was allowed in, but she could never work out how to get to it.



Huh.



That's... Interesting. But Illy loves the way she is!

Up the ladder to...



OH! That's where the trap door is! Illy so stupid!

...

Could she have teleported to the witch's hideout without all that fuss?

(Seems unlikely...)




What?



Nope, place was empty.




Do goblin minions count?




Okay!



Oh, pretty!



Summoning... what? Being a devil, Illy is a little leery of possible summoning things...




Summon... BUILDINGS?

That's so badass!



Heavens, yeah!



No problems, Rassy!

Illy looks at the summoning book!



Okay. Hmm, depending what "around" means, that might be useful, come spring.

Illy goes home for the next stage of her day - a trip to the desert!

She gives Sandy an iridium sunflower and then buys 24 starfruit seeds - and since they're there, splashes out on five omni-geodes for a thousand a piece.

Next job - Sand Dragon's last meal - a solar essence!





Huzzah!



Huh, Illy was sure that would work. After several tries from different angles, nothing continues to happen. Okay, home then- She steps onto the little pit in the ground as she starts to leave...




Ooohhhh! There we go!

So 60-80 damage and +4 speed, as opposed to 55-64, +3 defence, +254 crit power and +3 weight.

Well, worth a try, right?

Illy goes back to the farm and slips down to the farm quarry to search for more geodes. She even finds some more iridium ore, enough to make another bar! Finally, she will be able to upgrade something in the morning!



Winter Day 11, Year Two

Illy plants the starfruit and then heads to Clint's to break open all the geodes. It is largely a bust. She gets two iridium ore from one omni-geode, and the single most expensive piece of stone ever from another, and nothing of note from anything else. She hands her pickaxe over (which WILL slow her down on the iridium gathering front, but oh well.)

Fishing, then? Might as well use some of those beach totems...



Illy finally catches a squid! AND a treasure chest... Which contains two weapons and a strange doll!

Having caught a total of eighteen fish and three seaweed - this must be a record! Illy heads home to bed.



Winter Day 12, Year Two

The next two dozen star fruit are done in the kegs. Illy doesn't restock them yet, though - two more days and the next crop of ancient fruit will be in and she wants to start on those. She will add more starfruit then, once they are neatly synchronised.

Illy wanders around town, distributing iridium crocuses. She gives one to Krobus, and sees he has an iridium sprinkler for sale at ten thousand. It's pricy, but Illy has more money than iridium at the moment (but not enough for that sceptre...!)

Sod it, while she's there, she'll buy the recipe for crystal paths and wicked statues because why not?

Come to think of it, Gus has recipes, too. Illy drops back to the bar (she'd given Gus a flower earlier) and buys the recipes for omelette, maki rolls and bread.

She heads to the adventurer's guild (the main reason she's been faffing around in town) and sells the spare weapons.

Illy heads home and spends the rest of the day hacking trees down, and finally makes it to bed at one o'clock.



Winter Day 13, Year Two

Illy remembers to check her wood pile...



Yay...?



Woohoo!



Double woohoo!



The heavens is a lingcod?



Illy has enough oak resin to make another dozen kegs (and have some spare). She also has a dozen gold cheese, which now will go in the casks in the cellar.

Now to Clint's to pick up her new iridium pickaxe!

Illy gives Willy his squid and does a bit of mining at both quarries.

She's clearly going to have to be brave shortly. The chances of iridium ore go up the deeper she goes into Skull Caverns (but you have to start from the top every time), so using staircases is kind of a must. So Illy will spend a load of money buying up enough stacks of stone from Robin (collecting them will take too long). She spends the rest of the day making bombs, cooking sushi (for another nice big stack of food) and making bombs. She makes a lot of bombs.



Winter Day 14, Year Two

Today is ancient fruit and wine day!

Illy learns to cook lobster bisque from the Queen of Sauce.

Illy gets twenty-two ancient fruit. Twelve go into the kegs - along with twenty four starfruit - the rest are turned into more ancient fruit seeds.

As she potters about, she notices she's nearly out of iron ore. So that's another job.

But hmm, the night market is on the next three days, so her chances of getting down to skull caverns are a bit low...

Illy spends the rest of the day cooking, and at half-past nine, having exhausted all she has ingredients for, slips down to the farm mine to mine out all the iron ore, which gives her a good fifty more. She slip back to bed just before midnight!



Winter Day 15, Year Two

Illy elects to make a second worm bin. he one is just not QUITE making enough to be self-sufficient, but she should be fine with two.

First job - see Robin about a frack-ton of stone!

COMMUNITY upgrade? What's that when it's at home?



OH! Oh, wow! That's something Illy can do? Okay, Illy can't do that remotely close now, but she'll file that away for when she's very rich! Illy's friends (and her girlfriend's mothers) deserve to have nice houses!

OUCH. Stone is 100 a go... So a single stack of ten stair's worth (990) is 99K! Gah. That's not going to get Illy very far, is it?

Okay, Illy will have to shelve that one for the moment.

She has a good look through the rest of Robin’s stuff. She facepalms - she could have bought a calendar for herself months ago, and that might have help her remember stuff! She buys one now... And a Dark Throne, while she's at it, because Abby would LOVE it!



Home - calendar by the bed, Dark Throne near the table!

Illy three-quarters considers trying to make a slime hutch - getting as far as betting the material out - which would eventually allow her to maybe get purple slimes which drop iridium... But the emphasis would appear to be on "eventually."

(Also, she needs to kill about 700 more slimes before she can get a ring from the adventurer's guild making her immune to slimes.)

Scratch plan B...

Okay, Clint's with the geodes she's acquired... No, just minerals. Illy did find a rusty spur yesterday while mining, so she hands that over to Gunther in the museum.

Quarry?

Well, the is one mystic stone which yields a couple of iridium ore - but not even much stone there!

Oh well, it's nearly time for the night market.



It is sort of cool, but wait until you see Illy's house...!

Illy buys some jazz seeds, as she can't remember if she bought any before.

Right, secret note #15 - mermaid show 1-5-4-2-3. Let's see what Illy can do with that, after the show.



Aha! The shells!



A pearl! Aha!

Well... That can probably go into the special gift chest, since Illy doesn't think she is going to sell it...

Tomorrow, she ought to try some fishing in the submarine maybe - but tonight she'll just get lots and lots of coffee!

Illy calls it a day at eleven and has the shadow dude teleport her home.

It is as well she did, since when she goes to put away her jazz seeds in the greenhouse (she didn't have any, so that was good), she finds that her coffee bean has sprouted, so she plants the four beans!

So it is nearly one o'clock before she gets to bed.



Winter Day 16, Year Two

Willy has sent Illy the recipe for chowder, which is nice.

Illy whips down to the farm quarry and gets more geodes.

Clint, however, is not in today, darn it!

Illy has a short trip into the cold part of the mines, looking for more dust spirits. She calls it at about five, heads to the night market, teleports home to empty her full inventory and the beach-totems back to make as much time for submarine fishing as she can.

She catches - with a little difficulty, as she forgot to pick up dish o' the sea and only has trout soup on her - spook fish, super cucumber, blobfish, midnight squid and regular seas cucumbers and seaweed before knocking it off at eleven, doing a bit of shopping and going home.

A suit of armour next to the skeleton (Abby again) and a nice picture of the future to go on the other wall.



Definitely time for bed!



Winter Day 17, Year Two

Today, Illy plans to go see Rassy (it's his birthday) and stop by the secret woods to kill slimes and get some more hardwood.

Illy takes another look at Rassy's summoning book;; in addition to the Junimos hut, there is a pair of obelisks which would teleport her to the mountains and beach respectively - but they require a million gold (!) a piece - plus 10 iridium bars for the mountain one. (The ten coral and ten clams wouldn't be hard for Illy to find for the sea one.) Finally, there is a gold clock, which prevents debris from appearing (is that useful, though?) and stops fences decaying (Illy's hardwood fences have stayed up...) and costs... TEN MILLION GOLD?!



Coming as all this stuff does in the middle of winter when Illy is in the middle of filling her pipeline of kegs and casks, it all seems a little ridiculous...

Illy heads home via the witch's cave (mostly just to see if the teleport circle does work that way!)

She decides to have a bit of a clear out of her gems - she's been stockpiling them, but aside from their use as gifts (and now she's so high, it's not worth keeping millions), there's not much crafting use for them, so she sells all but ten of the jade, ruby, emerald, topaz, all but 25 amethyst (Abby likes them) and some of her diamonds, since she has, like fifty and they trickle in every so often from her crystalarum. She also dumps the 109 common mushrooms she has (she has 40 iridium ones, and they aren't used particularly as aside from a bit of cooking). That ought to spike her earnings a bit tomorrow!

Illy then heads to the farm quarry and mines all the gem nodes to further sell. she starts hacking through ore nodes as well, thinking she has sufficient copper and gold ore she can just sell that, too.

She almost forgets the night market and only gets there by eight. She spends the evening drinking coffee with George and Evelyn and then heads home to bed (and sells all her excess coffee!)

Four thousand from the mushrooms, about the same from the coffee and forty-five from the gems! Quite a profitable day...! But still not enough! Still, with the night market done, Illy can try some more mine trips.





We shall leave her there for today!

[Kantaki]

Why exactly is there a teleport thingy connecting Rassy‘s basement and his ex's hut?
More importantly, if it's there why didn't he send Illy that way?

Unless he didn't know.
Great. The witch probably is a crazy stalker.
Or stealing her husband's stuff, but come on, that would be silly.

[Aotrs Commander]

Why exactly is there a teleport thingy connecting Rassy‘s basement and his ex's hut?
More importantly, if it's there why didn't he send Illy that way?

One presumes that until you go into the Witch's hut, it won't activate that way - the same way I presume the secret entrance to the sewers doesn't work until you've been in the sewers.



Part 23: Finale

Spoiler

Show

Thursday, Winter Day 18, Year Two

Time is moving on... It won't be long now before Illy has to go to magical paladin school!

Olivia is the one Illy will be giving a secret present to this year... Wine? No, a diamond, everyone likes diamonds.

Illy finishes her chores and then goes to both quarries, searching for geodes. She doesn't find many and heads to Clint's to open them - nothing.

She steps back home and sets out for the mines. She finds about seven magma geodes, as it down the mines until past midnight (she had a farm totem with her).



Bat objective completed...

It's getting towards one before she heads to bed.




Winter Day 19, Year Two

Gus has left a letter to say he wants a coconut! that's shouldn't be too hard, since Illy keeps one or two on-hand!

Illy does her chores and heads through town,. Krobus has another iridium sprinkler for sale (every Friday), so Illy buys another one, and wishes she had found this out much earlier, it would have saved her a lot of iridium. Clint is not there, to Illy's annoyance, so she heads back home and out to the mountain lake to try and catch a lingcod, since to her knowledge, that is where they are found.

Illy is pretty sure she encountered no less than four, but even with her tackle AND fishing boosted to eleven, they dart up and down so fast (and the STUPID, STUPID bouncing of the bar on top and bottom), she doesn't even get CLOSE to catching one.

She goes back via the adventurer’s guild to get her reward for bat-slaying... A vampire ring, which heals her after she kills a monsters. The glow and magnet ring are far too useful at the moment, though.

Home, a little bit of clearing up some tree seeds, and then it is bed-time once again.



Winter Day 20, Year Two

Gus has sent Illy a recipe for cran. sauce, that's nice. (Cranberry sauce, she assumes.)

The starfruit and ancient fruit wine is done (Illy is a bit surprised, she thought it was a week); she doesn't load the keg yet, though, since there will be a new crop of ancient fruit tomorrow.

The geodes yield... Two iridium ore, which is enough to make one more bar. Illy is not going to get her tools upgraded before the year is out, is she?

As Illy's luck is said to be bad today by the fortune teller, she doesn't bother with the mines, but elects that she might as well try fishing again.

Illy manages to catch a couple of hard fish - but they, of course, surgeon. *sigh* She also spots a shimmer in the water, but apparently, panning spots are ALSO timed, as it disappears before she's finished fishing. Well, that would explain why she seen so very, very little spots to try and pan.

She goes down once more to the farm quarry. Well, her luck can't be THAT bad, since she finds enough iridium ore to make two more bars! She just needs, like six more bars to upgrade her tools, plus about another four to make upgrade all her sprinklers...

Yeah, that seems unlikely with less than a week to go (with one day being a festival!)



FINALLY!



Well, that's something, at least!




Winter Day 21, Year Two

Okay. Illy has a plan (a stupid plan, but a plan nonetheless). Today, she is going to take her money and just dump it into stone. She should be able to get enough to make 37 stairs (at the cost of cleaning her out), plus another 20 from the stone she already has. Then, starting from tomorrow (and excluding Wednesday and Thursday) if she gets a lucky day, she will drop everything and rush to the desert (well, she can't get there before 10, since Pam won't be there, but...) and try and get as far down as she possible can and get as much ore as she can. As there is one more Saturday before the end of the year, she will have another influx of cash (and, if she needs it, she stored away another 24 starfruit wine as well she could sell, though ideally, that's a reserve for the casks).

Illy learns how to cook bruschetta from the queen of sauce.

Twenty-four ancient fruit go into the kegs; the last five seeds go into the seed-maker.

Illy must remember to ship one ancient fruit and coffee bean next week (the former will have to be next Sunday, the last day of winter!) to complete her crop shipping collection...

She gets ten ancient seeds from her crops. She only plants eight, since the last three spots before she runs out of sprinkler space are for her coffee beans (she's planning on producing a fair bit of coffee, and you need five beans for every one per keg, so sixteen plants should ensure a steady supply).



The other two seeds will go away for future use. (Had she realised this about five minutes earlier, she'd have shipped that last fruit, but oh well...)

Next job, Robin's for stacks of stone!

After collating her stacks, Illy finds she can make 58 staircases (with 28 stone spare). That ought to get her down a goodly way!

She makes another dozen bombs, and another dozen life elixirs, plus a farm totem. She also cooks a couple of lucky lunches and thirty sashimi (she needs to be as lucky as possible, and have a nice big store of healing items!)

Bedtime!



Winter Day 22, Year Two



Given the time available, Illy is not going to hope she gets maximum luck tomorrow, so she decides sod it, go!

She does actually have time to do her basic chores, and reaches the bus stop with some time to spare.



Ready to roll!

At ten-past ten. Pam arrives! Off Illy goes!

By half-past, she's ready to go down!

Illy makes good progress, rarely stopping but to drop a bomb on areas which are fairly safe. She finally uncovers a hole.




That leads her to another hole that drops her three more levels (nice!)



Also nice!

(GRAAGH! Got down to level 64 and then the stupid game made me leave the mine instead of eating an item! I'd just found another treasure room with five damn farm totems, too. Good job I saved after the first treasure room...)

Level 100!



Illy drops down one more floor and grabs a couple more iridium ore, then teleports home. she doesn't bother to unload, just goes straight to bed (it's half-past one before she's under the covers as it is...



Hoo-fracking-rah!



Winter Day 23, Year Two

The fortune teller says Illy's luck would have been poor today, so good job she went yesterday after all!



Illy did it four times over, darn it...

Well, Illy got 72 iridium ore from that trip, so it did achieve its objective! She might JUST get all her tools upgraded before spring!

The rare seeds sprouted their sweet gem berries. Illy will hold onto one for the statue in the secret forest; the other will be sold (since she can't do anything with it).

It takes Illy two trips to Clint's to open all the geodes she has (she found twenty five omni geodes yesterday, which is a trip of its own all by itself).

Illy then facepalms - she forgot that she needs 25k to be able to upgrade her tools. So she takes ten diamonds (she still has over thirty) to sell to Clint, and that gives her enough cash to put her hoe in for upgrade.

It's Leah's birthday today, so Illy grabs a poppyseed muffin and heads out. Leah is at the bar by this point.

Oh, hey! something is happening! It's been a while...!






Good to see Sam is as good as Illy at this game...




Okay, maybe very slightly better than Illy...





Pssh, Illy can't make it past the first stage!

But apparently, she has to lie about it.



(Really? No, "I absolutely suck at this game" answer?)





Illy and Shoulder!Alluria exchange glances and raise their heads to give the heavens a hard stare.




Has Sam considered splitting the difference and composing music for games instead?






Bye, Sam!

Happy birthday Leah!




Illy goes home and takes a trip down to the mushroom cave to fill the rest of the day.



Winter Day 24, Year Two

Illy has one very important task to do today, for soon she will set out to magic paladin school!

But first, chores. The starfruit in the greenhouse as come in, so Illy spends some time making seeds out of them until she has enough to re-plant.

While she's waiting for that, she uses one of the iridium bars to make an iridium sprinkler and re-organises her main crop field.



Half done!

In the afternoon, Illy heads out to do the most important task!

Illy finds Abby in the museum.

Illy sidles up to Abby.

So, Abby, Illy is thinking she is needing to go to magical paladin school soon. Which means she'll have to leave the farm. After all, paladins can't be farming 365 days a year.

Abby blinks and points out there's only a 112 days in a year.

Abby, Illy and Shoulder!Alluria exchange glances and raise their heads to give the heavens a hard stare.

Uh, so... Maybe Illy can come back on the weeks when she's... Not actively at magical paladin school? (The heavens has happened to all the other days? Has she just been sleeping, like, really heavily?)

Um, anyway, Illy is getting side-tracked.

So, yes, leaving the farm. Illy has been thinking lately, especially as she's been a bit busy, trying to get all the iridium sorted out, that as she's been running away from Bad Things in the mine, that she ought to be making a little bit more of a commitment to the girls. A serious commitment. She doesn't want things to end just because she's going to be a magical paladin, Illy means, one day, might actually retire like, for reals, once she's properly made amends...

Illy is thinking that maybe the girls need a centralised meeting place where they can hang-out that's suitable for private time, so the farmhouse is a good spot, now it's all big and stuff.

Abby is the obvious choice to hand the keys over to, because Abby is, as Illy has noted before, freaking the BEST. But it wouldn't be very fair to have Abby walk over all the time to the farm and stuff. Abby ought to move in, really, for that.

Abby nods, wondering where Illy's babble is going.

Illy is thinking that, as a paladin, she ought to Set An Example and not to be living in sin - Abby snorts with laughter - especially since Illy's done that a lot - Abby laughs harder - so...



Illy gives her most innocent, hopeful beaming smile.

Will Abby marry Illy?



Abby splutters, eyes wide.



Abby, Illy and Shoulder!Alluria all squee excitedly and bounce up and down. Elliot and Gunther - the only other two in the library - jump out of their skins. It is quite likely everyone in the valley hears it. The girls certainly do, Illy telepathically is broadcasting so loud, and their mental squeals of delight join the physical ones.

Once the ringing in his ears has ceased, Elliot is the first to congratulate them (and good naturedly curses his luck).




Abby is the BEST! Sounds good to Illy!

They have a little sit down and work out how they should propose to the other girls in due course (as Illy insists, it IS Abby's harem, after all, Illy is just chief consort.)



Neither did Illy, for that matter!



Oh, so much so!





Illy wouldn't say that, Penny...!



Speaking of surprises, Pierre will be having one soon...



Awwww!



Nothing, Haley should express herself however she likes! (Well, maybe not with, like, going Evil and laying waste to the everything or something, but Haley knows what Illy means!)



Yes! Excited and nervous - magical paladin school is going to be a whole new experience for Illy!

Illy skips home. She takes Celestia out for a ride to the Secret Woods.



She gives the statue the sweetest thing it has been looking for...




And gets a stardrop in return!

Home a little late, but Illy doesn't care, she's too excited! And tomorrow is the festival of the winter star!



Winter Day 25, Year Two



Aw, Illy has watched quite a lot of this show!

While she's waiting for the festival to start, Illy looks at some crafting. She finally makes a flute block to go by the drum block.



Oh, snap, that would mean Illy could free up a ring slot... But DARN, she only has 25 solar essences!

She should buy some from Krobus...



There, some fancy crystal floor to impress Abby!

Feast of Winter Star time!



It sure is!



Well, Illy suggests Demetrius makes a really large list of all sorts of ideas as that gives everyone lots of ideas and it also means there is still some level of surprise at what Demetrius might get. That's what Illy thinks, anyway.

(Always worked for me. Bonus points if you keep the list dynamically updated between birthday and Christmas...)



Ah, George, cheerful as ever, Illy sees!



Actually, no Illy is resistant to cold!



Ooh, Illy hopes there is one for Haley too!

Hi, Emily!



Ooh, ooh, how about some nice mead!



Emily can have as much of a taste as she likes, if Emily knows what Illy and Shoulder!Alluria mean. (Which Emily does, and giggles a lot.)



Oh ho, steady, Caroline!



Illy would like to see that! For several reasons, including, aside from naughty ones, it would be really funny if Abby got her tongue stuck! Abby swats Illy upside the head.

Olivia, time for your present!




Wow, Illy is apparently really bad at presents. Should have gone with the wine, Illy...



Oooooh!



Don't have to tell Illy twice!




Aww, no, it's lovely! Illy will put that in her special stash!



Feast with Abby and company!

After a great day with the girlfriends, Illy heads home.



Winter Day 26, Year Two

After chores, Illy heads out, but Clint is not in his shop today, so Illy will have to get her hoe tomorrow - and she won't have chance to get her axe done. Oh well!



Illy grins.



It's that last moment. You know, before everything changes, that last little zone of calm, like the last few minutes before you have to get up, but extended out. Illy is making the most of her last time here!



Farmer-turning-paladin, please! Like all Good farmers!



It is. Illy is kind of nervous, actually... But a good nervous.

Illy go to Krobus. She has to buy her solar essence in three goes, because Krobus will only sell her ten at a time. Illy presumes this is some sort of regulation that exists but it kind of easy to get around, like buying paracetamol...

She also buys a sprinkler for good measure.

First batch of coffee is done!



Illy crafts her iridium band, which means now she can put on that vampire ring as well! She makes two more iridium sprinklers, which means the primary crop field is FINALLY updated!



Illy takes her last dish o' the sea and heads up for some evening fishing at the lake as her last chance to try and catch some lingcod!

She is in luck! the increase to her skill is just enough she can catch two before it is time go head back to bed via a farm totem!

Big day - the BIGGEST DAY - tomorrow!



Winter Day 26, Year Two







Shoulder!Alluria whoops and waves two flags, one with each of Illy and Abby's faces. Illy and all the girls laugh. Everyone else is nonplussed and Mayor Linkara just assumes he'd said something really funny.











Back home!



They were so eager, they got married before six in the morning!




DAMN, Abby works fast!



Okay, Abby gets an amethyst.




No, Abby is! No, Illy is! No, Abby is! This goes on for several minutes and ends in a giggle-filled snowball fight.



Illy heads off for her chores.

The goat's cheese in the cellar is done, so Illy replaces it with regular cheese (she's storing up goat's cheese, so when the next lot is done, that should be able to go in.)



Well, Illy knows what Robin's wedding present was!

The next round of win is done, so that goes off for sale.

Right, next job, get Illy's hoe back!

Illy always manages to pick such good times...









Oh, thanks Mayor Linkara, dump Illy right in the middle of this.

Well, honestly, though Sam, skateboarding up Haley and Emily's trough is kind of... Not good?



Now, don't be childish, Sam. Emily's flower box is not your personal skate park, is it? Seriously, Sam, you are old enough to be getting married, you ought to know better, seriously. You aren't like, twelve.





Illy means, it's not exactly hard.



Illy sighs. BOYS. Why are vast majority of them so icky...

Illy spends the rest of the day pottering about, using the secret notes to try and get a present for everyone - she's going to try and give them all a gift tomorrow. (Anyone she doesn't have an exact gift for will get a diamond.) Actually, might be a little tight to catch everyone in one day (especially if she has to do the greenhouse), so she'll go to the bar and maybe Rassy's and maybe Linus's tonight.



Heehee!

Roasted hazelnuts for Kent.



Truffle for Leah.



Diamond for Andy, but that was a mistake (probably should have gone with joja cola...) Well, Illy tried...



Marnie, Gus, Willy and Clint all like their diamonds though!






Beer for Shane.



Ruby for Emily!



Illy will just see if Robin is around and then maybe catch Linus (she might not get to Rassy, given how far off he is, unfortunately...)



Maru is out in the garden, at least!





Oh, cool!




It's not the only thing...



Oooooh, preeeeeetty!




Gone... Where... Oh, right, to the farm! Maru giggles.

Maru-who-made-an-FTL-engine-in-her-basement is being very silly!



Yes, humans are very silly indeed!




Illy gives Maru a knowing glance. Illy will miss Maru too. Look at it this way - Maru will be able to see the star where Illy will be and she'll only be a comm-call away!




Oh, darn, Illy let Maru go without the presents!

Oh well, Linus is still up!




Aw, Linus, Illy will miss you!

Back home, at least some of the work done!

Night, night, Abby! (Abby is going to have to get used to the fact Illy snuggles. Like, a lot. Plus side - with the feathered wings, Abby won't really need a duvet!)



Heh, plenty of money in the bank now!





Winter Day 28, Year Two

Illy gives Abby her going-away gift.



Oh, and an amethyst too...

They both watch Queen of sauce and learn how to make stir-fry.

Willy has sent Illy a recipe for escargot as well, that's nice.

Bye bye, animals! Illy loves you!




Bye, bye, Kittymancer!



Illy quickly harvests the ancient fruit crops and drops thirty six into the kegs - Abby will not be struggling for money! There's even three left. Illy holds onto them (one she needs to sell), rather than turning them into seeds, she has a lot of people to see today! Illy forgets to harvest her coffee beans, but nevermind, he's a bit laden with presents anyway!

Parsnip for Pam (since she'd already had two gifts last week and couldn't be given hers last night!)



Coffee for Harvey!



Diamond for Pierre!



Fish taco for Caroline!



Leek for George! (See, Illy can even get a smile out of him!)




Sure, why not hedge your bets! There's plenty of divinities out there!

Pancakes for Jodi!



Diamonds for Olivia and Victor!




Tulip for Evelyn!



Autumn's bounty for Mayor Linkara!



Strawberry for Maru!



Cactus for Sam!



Fairy rose for Jas!



Cranberry candy for Vincent!



Crab cakes for Elliot!



Iridium sunflower for Haley!



Nothing at all for Alex-short-for-Alexander, because screw you!



Frozen tear for Sebby!



Diamond for Robin!



Bean hot pot for Demetrius! Or a diamond, because Illy clicked the wrong thing!



DARN IT!



Penny, you're killing Illy you, hear, why did Penny sneak off to the trailer! Illy was SO CLOSE, if Penny hadn't hidden, Illy could have gotten everyone! Now she feels guilty!

(Well, except Krobus (whom Illy completely forgot, oops, Sandy, who was too far away, and Marlon, Gil and Gunther who don't accept gifts anyway.))

Oh well, Illy will just have to give Penny something special next time.

Illy has one last ride on Celestia, down to Rassy's.

A diamond for Rassy!



Illy rides home for the last time for a food while, enjoying the wind and the snow.



Illy settles into her bed, besides her sleeping wife, and drifts off to sleep dreaming of all the adventures that lie ahead of her... And something else...




It must have been so long ago... Illy barely does.




Illy sniffs a bit.



Ooh, ghost grandpa!







Ghost-grandpa has no idea, after all she's done, all she became, how much that means to Illy.




Illy waves farewell as the spirit departs.



Monday, Spring Day 1, Year Three



Shrine's lit up!

Today, Illy must depart! But she has a little time to do the chores first, the transport is not coming to pick her up until nine pm.

Well, that's a nice thing to end on!



With her iridium hoe, Illy manages to get the primary crop zones cleared and planted (though she didn't try to put fertiliser down this time). She even manages to prepare the beehive plot (and she does fertilise that!)



Everything is nicely set for Abby now.



Illy takes one last look around the place that has become a new home, perhaps the first true home she's ever known. A place she will come back to. But for now, Illy must head out, for she has many sins to atone for, and her work as a magical paladin is just about to start.

The quiet of the valley is interrupted by the hum of an approaching shuttle. It hovers on grav engines which do not even disturb Illy's freshly-tilled soil, and drops a landing ramp. Alluria stands in the entrance.

Abby comes out, followed by Haley, Emily, Penny, Maru and Leah and each of them and gives Illy one last kiss. (Penny is given her parting gift of an emerald as well!) Robin, Illy's best friend here, gives her a good slap on the back and tells her not to do anything she wouldn't do.

Alluria floats down to meet them all, and they have but a few minutes to say hello and goodbye. There are a few tears all round, but then it is time. Illy and Alluria extend their wings and a single beat carries them both (and Illy's bags) onto the shuttle's gantry.

As she turns, Illy calls out she loves them all, and that she will keep in touch. The girls wave. Then the door slides shut, and the shuttle ascends into the night. The girls watch for a while, and then head back inside, closing the door behind them.

Concluding thoughts

I choose to end it here as a natural break-point. At this point, I have now logged as many hours on Stardew Valley as I have on Pillars of Eternity 2 (and that includes the 20 hours of the first playthrough I aborted!) Now, granted, some of that includes the write-up time as well! It also has the most screenshots of any I've ever done, over 2200. (The finale had to be split into two parts on Fimfiction because there were just too many images! Heck, Rich and the board maintenance team might appreciate me stopping here on that count as well...!)

Carrying on with the let's play through year three would have probably been another 70 or so hours and I felt it might be good to call it here, rather than have it peter out because my notorious computer-game ADD kicked in. We're also about out of story stuff (bar the heart events for some of the characters Illy hasn't maxed out) - there are no outstanding quests at the moment - and, as you've noticed the last couple of instalments got a bit dry in places. So this was a good place to leave off.

Can't really complain for a game I bought for, like £4 and wasn't sure I'd play for more than a couple of hours!

This is not necessarily the very last will we see of Erinyes Farm, as I might pop back to it (quite likely, actually, with Stuff Still To Do...!) at some point down the line. (I will probably also update Stardew Valley Expanded to a newer version (once came out part-way through), but I couldn’t be arsed to do that while I was playing this.)

(Though, given the the thread necromancy rules here, it might have to just be on the fimfic blog if by the time I come back to it, the limit has expired.)



So, how has Illy done?

Illy ended with 112360g, which is not too terrible for a mostly-blind playthrough and given she did blow so much on those stacks of stone. That said, the money will start to roll in now, as the wine kicks into high gear. A new game and I would probably do a lot better. (I didn't look at the wiki for values and stuff until I'd experimented, and only went looking for things in the end when I was stuck.)

Illy has ten in farming, mining and foraging, with nine is fishing and combat.

Illy is at 11/12 hearts with Abby, and ten hearts with Robin, Pam, Maru, Jodi, Linus, Haley, Leah, Rasmodius, Emily, Caroline, Mayor Linkara, Jas, Penny, Evelyn, Marnie and Demetrius. Below that is Pierre (9), Gus (8), Elliot, Sam, Vincent and Kent (6), Sandy, Olivia and Willy (5), Clint, George and Harvey (4), Krobus and Andy (3), Sebastian (2), Victor (1) and Shane and Alex-short-for-Alexander (0, but with the latter at the bottom of the list!)

She's completed the minerals (and almost the crops, if she'd not forgotten to ship an ancient fruit then!), and all but one secret note (albeit with a few still unsolved); she's only got about half the artefacts, and maybe three-quarters of the fish and food.

Out of the 28 in-game achievements, she's got twenty-two (and the rest pertain to completing the above collections, plus crafting everything and shipping everything (and shipping 15 of each crop).



I am, in the end, very glad that I didn't do this as game!Bleakbane. Illy made for a much better protagonist in this instance, where self-insert-me would not have been anywhere near as suitable in the way of narrative. It was also rather fun to be so... Uncharacteristically racy in places.

I was not terribly sold on the animals. While they did provide a steady flow of eggs and milk, having to pet them every day uses a lot of time. On a subsequent playthrough, I might be tempted to not bother with ducks, rabbits or sheep and just have more chickens or void chickens. I was also slightly miffed that the barn animals never had any babies, but the chance is apparently extremely low (like a quarter of a percent per night).

One trick I'd missed was to have put a shed in the crafting zone and dumped all the crafting machinery stuff in there, with the shipping bin right next to it, which might have saved some space and been more efficient. Something to try for another time.

Fishing... Still not a fan, but I think eventually, the people on the net are right, you do start to get some sort of feel for it. But the difficulty curve is well backwards, which makes it so damn hard to get started. That was probably the worst part of the game (aside from the arcade mini-games in the pub.)

The crab-pots were useful-ish, providing a steady flow of fish at minimum effort for crafting, but again, one wonders if the time might be better spent in some other ways.

Panning seemed like it was entirely a waste of an inventory slot to carry the dish around, especially late as it was. I saw spots only three or four times and that was it.

On another playthrough, I think I would set up a line of trees on one or maybe both sides of the lane between the farm and the village for tapping (and a slight bias towards pine tar (rain totems) and oak resin (kegs)), the earlier the better.

The outside fruit trees feel a bit pointless at this stage, and even having more than one of each type in the greenhouse feels excessive; the fruit bats may be a better option for just getting them for completing the community centre bundles (given the excess of mushrooms I had).



So, overall, Stardew Valley can pat itself on its back. I can see this filling the role that War for the Overworld and Dungeons 3 fills, where I will go back between other games for a few hours for a break and something not too taxing.

I hope you have enjoyed this playthrough and thanks for reading!

Now I suppose I had better get back and finish off PoE 2, since I have a kazillion other games yet to play!

[Kantaki]

Yay! Happy End!
Well, not end, seeing that Illy's story is far from over.
Happy cut-off point?
Sounds weird...
...
...
Yay! Happy End!

Also, Alex totally got a farewell gift.
Illy didn't hellfire him in the face.
Might've been a improvement though.

[Aotrs Commander]

Yay! Happy End!
Well, not end, seeing that Illy's story is far from over.
Happy cut-off point?
Sounds weird...
...
...
Yay! Happy End!

Also, Alex totally got a farewell gift.
Illy didn't hellfire him in the face.
Might've been a improvement though.

*tips helmet*

Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading and especially for commenting - it really does help to know one isn't shouting into the wind. (I mean, once I'd started, I'd have gotten through to this point anyway even if I was, but that, as they say, is the danger!)