The Longing-ist Playthrough: Day 13 – 13/01/22 – 369 Days, 16 Hours, 29 Minutes and 57 Seconds to go…

“When will my longing end?”

Monty

From Monty’s opening words, I guessed that he hadn’t enjoyed his evening digging in the [mushroom mines] 😅. But that was an attitude for yesterday – Day 12 is in the rear view mirror and Day 13 was in front of us. After a frankly rubbish day yesterday, I was determined to make Day 13 not only more enjoyable but more productive too, and I was going to hang out with Monty until I felt I had completed something of note.

Checking in on Monty, I could see that he had indeed stopped digging only a little way into the wall, and asking him to try again gave me the dreaded ‘granite conversation’ as I had expected. The one silver lining is that we were now at six total Disappointments and we only needed one more to have enough to pay for one of The Face’s answers.

I had decided that we’d continue to explore the [mushroom mines] and double-check every single tunnel just to be sure; I’ve no doubt that we missed something the first time we were down here. I asked Monty to start by checking out the uppermost tunnel on the eastern side; we’d zig-zag back and forth, right then left and work from top to bottom so as to be thorough and logical.

Arriving at the end of the first tunnel, I was happy that the ‘Use Mattock’ prompt appeared and I could set Monty to work. After just a few minutes of digging, I could see the camera beginning to slowly pan to the right, revealing a space behind the wall Monty was working on! We can break through into a connecting tunnel! Bingo! What a start to the night. And wouldn’t you know, just five minutes later we’d broken through the collapsed wall and into a long tunnel beyond… Where will this lead, I wonder?

Nowhere. Absolutely nowhere.

Well that’s not strictly true, but walking to the end of that tunnel to find a tall overhang that Monty couldn’t climb washed that ‘new day, new vibe’ thing away pretty quickly. Monty though, was convinced there was a way to get up to the ledge… Perhaps we need to build some kind of tool to clamber up? A ladder, or a grapple?

Monty and I wandered through a few more uneventful tunnels before eventually reaching a long burrow that stretched out far to the east, beyond where we first met out lil’ friend, the spider. Oh crap, I completely forgot about this place! A large pink crystal game into view, nestled against the dead end of the tunnel – I had found it on my first sweep through the [old mines] but it didn’t like seem I’d pinned it to my remembered places and had totally forgotten it existed. Good one.

“Don’t worry, my little crystal. Soon you will be freed from your sorrow.”

Monty

Kinda overly dramatic, but sure – you crack on 😅. And crack on, he did – for ten minutes or so and then we added a pink crystal to our growing collection of gemstones. Sweet.

The rest of the tunnels in the [old mines] proved fruitless, and I was left with only the platform above the first mattock to explore. I remembered that it was a dead end with no way to reach the lower area, and almost didn’t even bother looking at all… But am I glad that I did!

Monty walked into the room and I could see the tunnel leading off to the east, with the mattock sitting on the platform below, continuing to mock me (despite me having found one already). I ushered him towards the end of the tunnel and then I froze, hearing a sound that I hadn’t heard anywhere before… A crunchy, crumbly sound, repeatedly crackling away… Where is that coming from?

Looking over the room, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t spotted it before… What a dummy. One of the supporting struts that held up the platform Monty was standing upon was clearly at an angle, seemingly having started to slip. The crunching sound was the stone that Monty was standing on beginning to give way! All I had to do was wait until…

…

…

There we go! The platform gave way and spilled Monty onto the floor below, amidst a scattering of broken wood. Broken. Wood? 🤩 I button-bashed the ‘A’ button (which you’ll know is my specialty, if you’ve ever played party games with me) and I grinned as the wood flew into my inventory. Bed time, bay-bay!

Six wood. 😊

Seven wood. 🤗

Eight wood. 😄

Nine wood. 😍

…

…

…You’ve got to be kidding me.

I put down my Switch and stared at it from a distance for a few minutes, hoping there was another fragment of wood on screen that I hadn’t seen, and then almost trying to will one into existence. Sadly, readers, that didn’t happen, and I was left to settle on the crest of victory for now – mere fingertips away from my goal. Nine out of ten pieces…

Bed-based disappointments aside, we were in a new area and I had Monty snatch up the second mattock before we went any further. The lower tunnel stretched to the east and downhill, delving deeper into the mountain. There were small rails on the floor for a mine cart of some kind, and following them downhill, a small tunnel appeared overhead; it was angled and too high for Monty to reach… That looks like a dumping chute for tipping coal down into the cart below (if only there was one).

Passing under the tunnel and onto flat ground once more, Monty came to two doors in the back wall of the tunnel. Monty passed through the first one and appeared in a small elliptical room that shone with a yellow hue. There are no lights in here though… is it the stone itself that’s yellow? I moved Monty to one of the murky yellow walls and he began to dig with the pickaxe, remarking about how there was a strange smell emanating from it. Sulphur!

I turned out to be right, and a small lump of sulphur fell to the floor for Monty to scoop up. Awesome, now we can paint in every colour! I had Monty chip out a further piece, should we need one, and then left the room to check the second doorway. This door held a room that was much less interesting, but equally beneficial, as Monty emerged in a half-dug coal shaft. Knowing that I was about to switch off anyway, I asked Monty to start digging for coal – hoping he could gather a big stack on his own and we could have a big collection tomorrow; maybe even enough to pay The Face with… I’ll bet he just carves off a single piece and we’ll have to do it all manually when I next check in though… 😖

See you tomorrow pal – don’t work too hard.

Continue reading: Day 14