It was midafternoon on the third day out from town when I finally found some ferrous rocks still in the ground, rather than in the riverbed. The problem was they were halfway up a cliff face above the river.

That’s not exactly helpful. You can’t build a mine forty feet directly above a raging river. Not easily anyway, and there’s no way it would be worth it for that little bit of ore showing unless it widens to a much bigger vein. Come to think of it, that patch isn’t large enough to account for everything I saw in the river. Guess I keep going.

A couple hours later, I hadn’t found what I was looking for and evening was rapidly approaching. There were still ferrous rocks in the river and even a few loose chunks away from the river, so I knew I was on the right track, yet there were no deposits in the ground.

By that point I was well into the foothills, or perhaps even into the mountains—I wasn’t really sure where to draw the line. Regardless, I was a few hundred feet above the river, skirting around yet another gorge. I could hear the water below me, but between the trees and steep slopes I couldn’t see it or anything upriver.

I need to start looking for somewhere to spend the night. This area is too steep and exposed for my liking, not to mention all the pine sap, but it looks like there’s blue sky up ahead, so I should be able to get a look around. Hopefully it’s not another cliff though; I don’t think I’ll have time to navigate around one before nightfall. And blundering about in the dark seems like a good way to fall to my death.

I kept on for a little and, sure enough, the forest opened up. Before me was a wide valley with meadows and trees around the outside with a lake in the center. The meadows seemed oddly lumpy, but I paid that no heed. The river I had been following flowed placidly from the lake, which in turn was fed by several large streams.

And below my feet was another vertical cliff several hundred feet high.

Well, fuck. Now what? I looked around for a way down. To my right, the cliff continued until it joined with the gorge I had been avoiding. Clearly nothing that way would help.

To the left, the cliff also continued, but perhaps half a mile away, there was a place where, in centuries past, a portion of the wall had collapsed. There, the cliff was shorter and the pile of debris beneath it was just large enough to reach the top. Rocky sections running down the slow with little vegetation led me to believe there had been a couple more recent rockslides and avalanches, but the trees growing nearby left me generally optimistic about its stability.

I might make it down there, but definitely not tonight, so I either spend the night up here or start backtracking now. Where would I go if I turned back? I don’t remember any decent flat ground for miles back. I would probably wind up walking until dark and then huddled up under a tree for the night, only to have to walk back here tomorrow. Better to just find a tree here and cut out the extra walking.

Do I even want to go down into the valley though? I know that the iron ore in the river was from somewhere between where I was last with the river and the lake in the valley. That just leaves the valley or the gorge as possible sources.

Therefore I either make a treacherous descent or write this entire trip off as a loss right now. Damn; I’m going to risk life and limb again, aren’t I? Hopefully there’ll at least be some fish I can eat.

I started walking again, toward the collapsed cliff, and found a mostly flat patch of ground to spend the night on. Sleep came slowly to me that night, as I kept worrying about the next morning. Is there any way I could make the climb safer? Ropes would be nice, but I wouldn’t trust any that I braided by myself. Perhaps I should keep walking around the outside of the valley; surely there’s another way down?

Eventually, I did fall unconscious. The night might have been clear, but it was cold and windy on the mountain, so I slept fitfully.

I rose before the sun the next morning and kept my blanket over my shoulders while I hunched over, struggling to light a fire with my numb fingers and shivering body. When I finally succeeded, I boiled some water with pine needles in it to drink. This, together with the fire and the rising sun, finally warmed me to the point where I was ready to get on with my day.

Steeling myself, I walked to the top of the landslide. Oh boy, that’s a long way down. Still though, it looks doable. And it should be easier to climb up it, if I can’t find a better way.

I looked again for another path down, just in case I missed something in the dusk the night before. Definitely not because I was stalling. Across the valley, there looked to be a couple similar slide locations, but nothing else—no convenient staircases or mysterious doorways to be seen.

Alright, now what do I do with my spear? Getting it down would be easy, since I can just drop it when needed, but bringing it back out would be a chore. It could help on the way down though, poking at rocks to see if they’re stable and whatnot. Am I more likely to need it down there or up here?

Eh, between Teleport, Mana Bolt, and traps it’s basically just a glorified walking stick at this point. Not that I’d let Griff hear me say that. He’d probably make me fight him with my bare hands versus a spear or something. Anyway, if I find something dangerous I’ll just run away. That settles it, I’ll bring my spear down and leave it there if I have to.

I couldn’t think of any more reasons to dither about at the top, so I started my descent. The going was predictably slow, with much crawling over and around boulders and cautious prodding with the butt of my spear, but I made steady progress, and before I knew I was at the choke point where the missing cliff met the piled debris.

This isn’t so bad actually. This area is much wider than it looked from up top. Still wish I had some rope, but I should be able to pass this with no problem.

Out of curiosity, I Identified some of the nearby rocks, and it turned out they had iron in them. A lot of iron.

Looks like somewhere around here could be a good site for the mine. How would we get the ore out of the valley though? Some sort of pulley system, I suppose. Or maybe these rocks are from far enough up that it won’t even be necessary. I really should have remembered to use Identify on the way down. Guess I was too preoccupied.

Now what? I could just climb back up, head back to town, and report what I found. Feels a bit weird getting all the way here just to turn around, though. I’d like to eat some meat today, too, and the valley looks more promising than the top of the cliff. Yeah, I could even set some traps and spend a couple days here looking around; after all there’s no rush and I might find a better spot for the mine.

With my course set, I resumed my descent, settling into a routine. Soon, my pace began to quicken. Then, when I was about three-quarters of the way down, a rock slipped out from under my foot, leaving me dangling from one arm and my other other foot. Below me, about twenty torso-sized rocks were careening down the slope.

Fuck. That was why I was poking things with my spear; when did I stop doing that?

I wasn’t exactly hanging over an abyss, but there was about ten feet of now-impassable terrain below me, so I dropped my spear down. Luckily it didn’t roll away. Next, I climbed up, looped around, and picked up my spear. After that, I traversed across the slope a ways, to be clear of any instabilities caused by the falling rocks, then started back down. From then on I was much more diligent in my foot placement and made it to the valley floor without further incident.

Once I was safely at the bottom, I took a second to rest and marvel at the cliffs surrounding me. Those have got to be some of the strangest natural features I’ve ever seen. I wonder how they formed? After eating and drinking the last of my food and water, I left for the lake in the center of the valley to restock.

I saw several more groundhogs while on the way, but didn’t manage to kill any of them. Thankfully there were also edible plants that I could pick.

At the lake there are some fish swimming around, though none were large enough to spear. Instead, I set a few snares for the groundhogs. Their meat didn’t taste as good as rabbit, but they were a bit bigger, so I was content to switch targets. After grabbing some water from one of the inlets, I set out to explore the valley, looking for a campsite for the night and perhaps a better mine location.

Faint birdsong accompanied my every step, and a gentle breeze swayed the treetops. Huh, this valley is actually quite peaceful. The ring of cliffs sheltered it from the wind and the flat interior meant the dull roar I had become used to while following the river was absent. As if the valley really wanted to prove its idyllic nature, just then I broke through the trees into a flower-filled meadow. In the distance, one of the streams cascaded over a cliff. The late-morning sun shone down, illuminating the waterfall and creating a rainbow in the spray.

It’ll be a bit of a shame to have to make a mine someplace so beautiful. Still though, the valley is big and there aren’t all that many people in Trash Heap, so how much damage can we really do?

Eventually, I tore my eyes away from the waterfall and looked around the meadow. Weird, these bumps are even more pronounced up close. What are they, animal burrows? Not for anything I’ve seen though, and I don’t see any entrances. It would have to be quite a large animal too, and therefore somewhat obvious, seeing as some of these mounds are almost twenty feet tall. Some sort of natural formation? This entire valley is a bit weird—maybe some sort of magical phenomenon carved it out.

I wandered around the meadow for a bit, climbing on top of the various mounds and even jumping on or kicking them occasionally to check if they were hollow. After a while, I made my way to the top of the tallest hill, located at the far side of the meadow. Surveying the area, I began to see patterns in the mounds, big parallel curves and concentric circles.

Is my mind playing tricks on me, forcing me to find order in randomness? Or were they somehow systematically arranged? Well, I won’t find answers standing here, so I guess I’ll take a closer look. Might as well start with the one I’m standing on.

I climbed down a bit, then began circling the hillock. When I reached a particularly steep section, I found some exposed rock, so I cleared away the surrounding dirt for a better view. It was granite, like most of the rock in the region, but instead of the grainy, crumbling texture elsewhere, it was smooth and very slightly curved. Like it had been cut.

Mounds arranged in a pattern with manufactured granite sides? These have to be ruins. But of what? And does that mean this entire valley is artificial? What could have happened to wipe out a society that powerful?

If they were that strong and died here or abandoned this place in a hurry, then surely they must have left behind some valuable artifacts. This could be a lucky break for me: the wealth of an entire town if I don’t let anyone else know about it. To what end, though?

If I show anything valuable in town, they’ll want to know where I found it. Best case scenario is being followed back here, and then word will surely make its way back to the Empire, which, from what I’ve heard, means some noble will show up and take everything. That means I have to keep this place secret, so no iron mine, unfortunately.

Maybe I could let one or two people know and convince them to keep it a secret, but who? Griff and Marnie have been nice enough to me, but what do I really know about them? I keep feeling like I’m missing something whenever I talk to them. Besides, they are doing well enough on their own, and if they did want to come here I’d probably become reliant on them. Doesn’t seem worth the risk.

Let’s see. Worst case of settling down here alone is I build a nice cabin for myself, along with trapping and smoking infrastructure, but find nothing while excavating. That’s still better than where I am now and the only thing I’m missing out on in that scenario is metal tools, but I’ve made do so far. Even if I find another nearby source of iron I probably still shouldn’t report it since more traffic over here increases the likelihood of someone else stumbling on the valley.

Best case for staying here is I find enough for a comfortable life here and have some valuable artifacts when the Empire opens up two-way travel. Might be a bit lonely in the meantime, but I can always visit the town.

Best case for telling people about the valley is I get some iron tools then have to find somewhere else to settle. On the other hand, I could also wind up doing forced labor excavating for some noble or even dead. Well, I suppose death is possible with either path.

Still, keeping the ruins secret is clearly the better option.

Mind made up, I resumed my survey of the valley. I found a larger meadow with even more mounds and, now that I knew to look for them, signs of buildings underneath some of the forest. On the far side of the valley from where I had entered, there was another rockslide that was a bit wider and had a slightly gentler slope, making it a better entrance and exit.

I chose a campsite by the cliff about a quarter mile away from that slide. There was enough of an overhang that any debris falling from the top of the cliff would miss me by a good margin, but I still wanted to build a lean-to to protect me from the weather. A lean-to there would be a nice stepping stone to a more permanent home in the valley. There was also another inlet not too far away, although the waterfall feeding it was lackluster compared to the first one.

Over the next couple days, I continued setting and checking my traps, building my lean-to, and, of course, practicing Teleport. It turned out that deliberately trapping a new species was good for my Skills:

Trapping has advanced to Level 2!

My lean-to was also coming along nicely. Well, maybe not quite nicely, since I built the frame using only the random deadfall in the area, but I had a sleeping area with a complete vegetation-filled roof that I hoped would keep the rain off. Beside it, I had made a little stone fire ring along with a large rock that I rolled over to sit on. I even started a small pile of firewood right at the base of the cliff, where it would hopefully be able to dry out.

In short, I settled into the valley. The only problem was I felt uncomfortable with how I had left things with Griff, vanishing without any sort of goodbye and all. Given his position as the de facto mayor of Trash Heap and all the help he provided me, I thought he deserved to know I was settling away from the town. That way he could at least give my shack to the next poor sod to come along.

So, a trip to town was in order. Ideally I would be able to pick up some supplies that I couldn’t make for myself while there, such as rope, but that would require something to trade. Something I didn’t have. All I had was a few pelts, but since forest animals were a major food source of the village, I figured they wouldn’t be in demand—especially seeing as Rupert had readily given me a blanket made of the things.

Thus I once again searched the valley, this time for rare plants that I could trade to Cassie, or anyone else, for that matter. My hope was that the secluded nature of the valley would lead to the flourishing of some unique or magical species, or perhaps that some plant the previous inhabitants had been cultivating was now growing wild. Unfortunately, I had no such luck in my hunt. If they did exist, I either missed them or my Identify wasn’t high enough rank. My search wasn’t quite fruitless though, since I did find an interesting bush:

Aazal Bush (Common): A hardy bush that can grow in a wide variety of climates. The leaves are highly flavorful and are used as a seasoning in some cultures. Produces a large yellow flower in late spring.

There were actually patches of them throughout the valley, and I didn’t remember seeing any in the forest around town, so there might have been some merit to the idea that they were left over from the builders of the ruins. They were only Common, so I wasn’t optimistic about what I could get in trade for them, but I did pick over a pound of the leaves, just in case.

That night, I ground up some of the leaves and smeared the paste on some groundhog meat before cooking it. It was a bit of a risk, seeing as Identify didn’t specify what species the cultures that used it were, but I figured it was much more likely to just taste bad or make me moderately ill than to actually kill me, and I didn’t want to try selling something awful or poisonous. Thus I deemed the risk acceptable.

The result was, thankfully, edible. The meat had a strong flavor that I couldn’t place, not that I had much to compare it to, and it made for a welcome change from unseasoned meat, but wasn’t really something I was interested in eating everyday. Hopefully someone in the village will like it though.

After eating, I sorted through my stuff, packing what I would need for my trip to town the next day, then settled into my lean-to for an early night’s sleep.