An Imbecile's Survival Guide on the Ash lands
Enamos Cleft is known for his unfiltered commentary on the... rougher parts of life in the ash lands. Take what you read with an appropriately sized dumping of salt.Author's Disclaimer: If you are using this as a primary tool to save your own life in the barren hellscape out there, first of all you should've been tested for chronic stupidity at birth, shame on our society for that, and secondly, your expulsion from society is wholly justified for the communal betterment of our collective intellect. Regardless, try to read on for your own enjoyment and to the comedic benefit of those fortunate enough to watch you attempt to do so.
Keeping an Eye Out
Shelter
There is no point in setting out into the barren ash lands unless you know what you are looking for. Sadly, most exiles do not know these facts and thus rely on their quite dated natural instincts. The first and most important rule is to always be in sight of shelter, or a location to make a quick shelter. You make yourself look like quite the bumbling fool if you don't make it past your first day (don't worry about making a fool of yourself, there are few people insane enough to travel the ash lands anyway, as such you will likely die and be buried beneath a pile of ash before anyone finds your body, so it won't be too embarrassing).A Hotspot
Lets assume you make it past the first step, next you'll need to track a source of lava flow. Along one of those streams you'll find all the resources you could possibly need: wild Silplants, ore deposits, a deadly heat source. There's but one problem, you'll have a few competitors as Silca vie for territory here. Lets say you can avoid being ripped to shreds by a Rattler, trampled by an Ironfoot, or mistaken for a dartboard by a Shardspit. You'll have a source of food from Silplants (although always crush them first unless you first want to drink some burning lava to help digest it), a water source collectable by precipitating it from the rest of the deadly gases, and metal, what will keep you busy for your short time out here (short-lived only by your victorious return to civilisation, or more likely, your return to ash in the circle of life).Metal
Metal will save your life out here if you can shape it correctly. Bare stone tends to make the best mold but compressed ash could work in a pinch (and by in a pinch I mean, you care so little for your own survival that you can't be bothered to spend five minutes looking for a decent stone shape). First you'll need the husk of a Slatefruit. This will act as a makeshift forge. If none can be found, two Bubbler shells bound as best as you can, will suffice. Next you'll want to track down a discarded shard from your good old friend the Shardspit (just be careful not to get seen by one unless you don't mind punctures to your internal organs, including, but not limited to, your lungs, heart, kidneys, stomach, liver, and or intestines). Now you can place your ore berry chunks within the makeshift forge and, using your shard as tongs, lower it into the magma for several minutes, making sure to not submerge the air vent. When you can see a distinct glow, from within, you can pour your molten goop as necessary to forge a makeshift weapon, a walking stick (far more useful than you'd think), or if your expectations of your life expectancy are particularly low, you could try a spoon to eat your last meal with (granted you can even find your last meal, with the same brain that had you forge a spoon with the most valuable resource within several days of travel of you). Should you happen to have a flat rock or a hammer on hand, additional tempering can improve the shelf-life of your weapon while inversely reducing your shelf-life as you loudly bang on metal and attract predators. Perform at your own risk. Note: The deposits found on the ash lands are rather high concentrations of metal and thus are highly prized for their ease of extraction. Carrying anything of the sort makes you a beacon, not only to greedy traders in a city, but also your bounding molten rock friends, so it is advised to run for dear life after successful extraction.Purpose
Travel Across a Hellscape
The ashen land is traversed by wanderers, those in search of valuables in the otherwise barren land beyond civilisation. It is also a life forced upon the less fortunate, those exiled to the lands beyond often with no hope of return. For both of these cases, the only things given to either of these people is a reinforced mask and a pair of ash shoes. If they had been blessed enough to read this, perhaps they could survive a while longer, or at the very least imagine what survival might have been like in their final moments of incompetency.Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Very fun :)