Hi gang, This story is in full support of Evesthery's minecaching idea, follow the link to learn more. Obviously I dramatized some things here, but hey: that's what a story is all about, no? Also: no spoilers here Minecaching? I'm on my residence on SMP2 when Aya suddenly comes back from the AFK and enthusiastically asks me if I heard of Minecaching before. She was so excited that she even forgot to use local chat and used town chat instead. Some other players (Hi LadyJaye!) joined in and immediately wondered if this could have anything to do with geocaching. Well, it does indeed! "We should totally do this!", Aya tells me: "it's gonna be fun!". Well, I don't really mind checking out another server, and the fact is that I seldom come onto SMP7 so that could be fun as well. I take off my armor and prepare to put everything in my transfer vault page. Whenever there's an adventure I'm taking my voters gear with me! "do u have any gifts 2 bring?", Aya asks. Of course! Geocaching is about finding some nice trinkets but also about leaving something behind. Still; the main goal is of course the challenge of finding the chest and not so much the trading itself. Lets see... I go over my chests... hmm... I'm sure people would like some emerald blocks. And maybe throw in some ores as well. And a small story in a book to show our support and appreciation! On to SMP7! Once we arrive it turns out that Aya is already wearing iron armor. "I see you prepared yourself", I tell her. "naah, i dunno where this came from. hmm, what 2 wear? grey or blue armor? ^.^", she mumbles in response. Awww, darn. I forgot to bring any food! When I tell Aya she just grins: "and this is why vaults rule", she tells me while opening up hers to search for some. Well, that's one problem solved "U ready 4 this?", Aya asks. I nod and quickly invite her to a new group. This allows us to play at the same difficulty level. I normally play on 6 (or higher) while Aya likes to play on 4. But we decided that whenever we play together that we'll stick to 5 (which is the default anyway). How to do that? Simple: /group difficulty 5, this will force the difficulty setting of everyone in the group to 5 (only the group leader can do this by the way). You can use 0 to reset the restriction again. And off we go! The direct surrounding of the outpost looks decently nice but as we travel deeper into the wilderness the area starts to look like an explosion of some sort happened! This is going to be a little more trickier than I thought. "u got the coords?", Aya asks me. I nod, I wrote them up and already programmed them into my compass. That makes it really easy (and fun!), just follow the needle! We climb down, up and even have to fight off a horde of creepers. They don't call this the wilderness for nothing you know. "need a hand?", Aya asks me when I climb up a small hill. We look across a wide area and the funny thing is that now the area starts to "heal" itself again, or so it seems. Its obvious that many players only stick to the direct surroundings of the outpost but don't travel any further. Aya looks at her compass. "we need 2 cross this desert, then past that tower and there should be a small lake there", she says. "ill scout ahead, my armor is better than urs ^.^", she teases. Grmbl I'll scout ahead... We almost crossed the desert when the area becomes really dark all of a sudden. And I can also see a large lake. Guess we'll have to swim for it... And here I was hoping to keep my clothes dry. Oh well. "would u look at that!", Aya says while looking up: "its amazing!". Yeah, sure, but what are those shadows I see up ahead. "Uhm, Aya?", I ask while softly poking her. "not now, look at that, some1 build a huge air build!", she answers. The shadows come closer and it becomes clear that we've found a few zombies. "Uhm, Aya, we got some company!", I tell her. "cool, can u ask them who build this?", she asks. Yeah, that's so not going to work. Oh well, guess I'll have to deal with these guys myself Uhm... Aya? Once I've dealt with them Aya walks up to me: "why didn't u tell me there were zombies?", she asks. I sigh, oh well: "well, they're gone now", I say. We decide to take a small detour so that we can avoid the darker places. I have to admit that Aya is right about one thing: the air structure looks absolutely amazing. I didn't see all of it myself, but judging from the size of it its obvious that some players have been really busy here. Which I think deserves respect! We cross the border of the dark spot and have to fight a few more mobs. Mostly zombies and skeletons fortunately, nothing which Aya's sword can't handle "yaaay, we're safe!", Aya yells when we crossed the dark area and are now heading into the plains. But as soon as she said that the ground started to tremble and an odd noise sounded. "uh oh"... Safe you said? "not him again", Aya sighs: "hes so annoying! ". We decide not to fight him for now and instead make a run for it before Momentus finds us. Another look at the dark area behind us, you can clearly see that it's pretty large! "Hey Shell, what brings you to SMP7?", a friendly voice suddenly asks on the radio. That almost sounds like ChrisTheHylan! I tell him that Aya and me are searching for a hidden minecache and briefly explain the principle. "Cool, so you can trade stuff?", he asks. I tell him that's more about the searching that trading, but that the trade is most definitely a part of it. "Say, do you mind if I tag along?", he asks: "sounds like fun". And for sure! We quickly invite Chris to our group and tell him where we are. As it turns out Chris already spotted me on the radar and headed to my global direction. We decide to head for the chest and meet up at our destination. This picture doesn't really fit the story, but I still think it's fun to share It takes us a little longer but suddenly I spot an open area and... is that a chest I see? I quickly head over and beacon Aya to follow me. And she does, but also walks totally past me. I step on the pressure plate and for sure: this is what we've been looking for! What's in the chest you wonder? Sorry, no spoilers! "Hey, where are you guys, I think we should be close", Chris says in local chat. I beacon him also and it doesn't take long before we finally meet up. Our adventure has succeeded! Hi Chris! And the trip back? Well, that's a whole different story and one which I might be telling you guys later this week. Thanks again for the awesome idea Evesthery, we had a really fun time doing this. And for sure: Aya and me are already planning on setting up our own Minecaching chest on SMP2. But... We'll talk to Eve about that first of course
