The House On The hill

Something that happened to me very soon after I started playing Dawnlands that made me feel there was a lot more to the game than the bad reviews suggested was when I found an abandoned house not too far away from the starting settlement. There are a couple of spectacular geographical features in the area where you first spawn in that just demand to be explored and right at the top of one of them, a vast, rocky outcrop that looms over the countryside below, there's a house made of wood and stone that, from certain angles, looks not unlike a ship.

As the sunset shot above shows, I was still in my starter gear when I found it. I'd made myself the most basic hut down in the village but when I found this place I decided it was time to relocate. The whole place was empty. Whoever lived there had left a few bits of furniture, including a large storage chest, and there was a fire still burning in the hearth but of the previous inhabitants there was no sign at all. I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't move in.

I had a good look around and started to make myself at home. I dumped a load of wood and rock in the chest. I went outside and cleared all the goblins away. I found another chest half buried in the ground outside. Up in the attic I even found a magic spear that crackled with caged lightning. You can bet I helped myself to that.

I was all set to move in when a problem occured to me. The house was perfect. The location was stunning. The views were out of this world. The only downside was the commute.

At that point I hadn't even begun to figure out how the instant travel system worked. I didn't even know I could use the map to travel to the Shelter. About the only thing I did know was that if I died (When I died...) I'd either wake up in my bed or at the nearest Teleport Beacon. 

It seemed like it'd be a heck of a long walk back every time I wanted to sleep and at that stage I was far too nervous about being out after dark to contemplate it. I didn't even know at the time that you could teleport to your bed on demand but even if I had, the isolation of the spot would still have made settling down there seem like a bad idea.

I didn't abandon my ambitions to take over the abandoned mansion on the hill completely. In the above shot I'm wearing upgraded and distinctly more respectable armor, even if I do look like I've just finished my shift as a bike messenger, indicating a return a few days later to give the old place another look. 

I mean, who wouldn't want to look out on a sunset like that from their balcony? It's not the kind of prospect to be abandoned without a fight. Regardless, there was still one other consideration to take into account. Even imagining I was willing to deal with the long ride up and down that hill every day, if I did set up shop there in no time all the peace and tranquility of the setting would be shattered.

This is my makeshift camp back at the Grasslands Shelter. The picture was taken a few days ago . It's a lot worse now. I have two charcoal kilns set up, belching smoke into the sky. I have two smelters, ditto, only the smoke is even worse. There's a stone grinder, an anvil, a cooking pot and a roasting frame (each over an open fire), an oven, a loom...

I even have a windmill and a field of cotton. The whole place is a zoning disaster. And it's only going to get worse as time goes on. To set something like this up in the unspoilt beauty of the highlands would be a crime against both art and nature.

And then today (Edit: a week ago by the time this got published.) I made a most welcome discovery. There's a device you can make called an Echo Stone. It's one of the most basic items there is, the first piece of "furniture" in the list. I hadn't even noticed it before. I don't believe it gets a mention in the tutorial. The fanciful description doesn't make its function precisely clear but since I hadn't read it anyway I can't claim that's why I hadn't bothered to make one until now.

What the echo stone does is allow you to recall to it at will. It's your "bind", in EverQuest parlance or your Hearthstone, if that's more your era. I experimented a little and it seems you can have just one of these up at a time, so it's not the equivalent of Valheim's portals, but one is plenty for what I have planned.

Meet Karrid. She's my new best friend. Actually, she's my follower. I was looking through the store last night, something I haven't really bothered with before, when I noticed the diamond price to hire her had fallen to a very reasonable amount. More accurately, I'd saved up enough diamonds that just under a thousand didn't seem as wildly out of reach as it had a couple of weeks ago.

So I bought her. Or hired her. The exact relationship is unclear. I gave her all my best cast-offs and read to her from several books of instruction I happened to have lying around and now she's Level 4. I'm Level 28 so there's a bit of a gap but I'm sure she'll soon catch up.

Karrid and I have moved into the house on the hill together. The plan is to keep all our manufactury down at the Shelter and just move the personal stuff up to the mansion. We're going to try and stick with a minimalist theme, while still making the place feel cosy.

Finding a really nice place all ready and waiting to move into like this really sets Dawnlands apart from Valheim. I'm sure at some point Karrid and I will want to work on something we've designed ourselves but until then this rental is going to do us very nicely. Especially at the low, low monthly rent of nothing at all.

Karrid and I will have many adventures together, no doubt. I'm almost ready to build our first sailing ship. We're going to see what lies across the water. But when we're done adventuring, we'll be very happy to head back home. Just a click of fingers and there we'll be. Back in our mansion on the hill.