Sept 30 notes

 I'm in a spruce forest.  There's no villages or oceans.  I see a lava pool though.  location:  53,,-84

I found a shipwreck and treasure map.  Now i'm set for hitting the nether and looking for a bastion.  heading to the lava pool now.

nether portal location in soul sand valley: 16,98,-8

Bridge bastion 1: -214,70,136

got killed by a brute after getting the chalice.  some stuff i heard burn in lava.  :(

killed again

killed again

again

again

killed again, this time i found most of my inventory.  did a bit of trading with the one dude I could corner.  No fire res yet.

the plan now is to collect nuggets and keep trading safely.  until I get fire res.  then I go look for the nearest fortress.  

so far I'm 4 hours in.  Last round I speedran the game in 21 hours.  We'll see if I beat that.

I parked a chest behind the bastion at -193,,183.  I'll go look for gold for a while and try to get back in one piece.

I ended off today across some lava in a warped forest.  Got a couple of eyes there.  Right now there's an enderman screaming at me but can't reach me for some reason.  I blocked in to help him forget.  Next, go unload my nuggets in the chest and find some more.  There is another nether waste on the far side of this warped forest - maybe i should just go there next before unloading.

I should have gone there to unload.  I decided to go collect more nuggets first.  killing a bunch of endermen along the way.  one of them killed me!  and I lost (sigh) all my gold again.  Couldn't quite get back in time.  

For next time - continue rebuilding gold, collecting mushroom to eat, killing endermen carefully, and go back to the bastion.  I suspect there will be a fortress across the lava sea I'm near.  

I'm at 8 deaths and 5 hours.

Well, make that 10 deaths.  I collected a bunch of gold and, true to form, died with it.  And got there too late to collect it again.

Now i'm goign to keep collecting gold and barter it every time i see a piglin.  I don't think there's any advantage other than time in getting a bunch of them in a hole and throwing a lot of gold at them.

I also lost my 4 eyes of ender.  duh.

I'm now up to 4 ender eyes through trading as I search for nuggets.  I hope i don't get lost.

I got 11 eyes!  and one fire res.  I found my way back to the stash behind the bastion and left them there BEFORE MY SUDDEN DEATH!  So now that i've died, I'm not starting from scratch.  I couldn't find my inventory somewhere at the edge of a basalt delta that I found.  I left the game standing by the enderman candle area.

I decided to go around the other way to look for nuggets and found a fortress just  a stone's throw from my portal!  died from distant blaze fire.

I went into my mine to prepare this time.  got some iron and gold.  and a few diamonds.  I think I'll go get my arrows, shoot the blazes from a safe distance, then use fire res to go collect the rods.

I got one more fire res from my piglin friend in the bastion.  I'm near the fortress but i'm scared of the blazes spawning out in the open and sniping me.  

Wow.  I'm at the fortress.  I'm walled in because there are blazes from all sides, and ghasts, and wither skeletons.  and no walls or ceiling to make blockers on.  I think i need to find the spawner, make a barrier to keep it just to me and THEM, drink the orange drink, and hope for the best.  Maybe I'll make a chest in my shelter first to leave my good stuff.

good idea. 

I died after going out from my shelter, around to the left, then down the narrow stairs, and running away from wither skeletons.  In a little dead end, no pun intended.  Not sure if I want to go back there right now!  But my two fire res potions are in there!

lost it all.

beginning of the fortress is at 75,, 146.  Why can't I see it from my portal?

I think I'll take time to mine out some gold in the over, trade with piglins again!  and try a different approach to the fortress.  I think I'll bridge out over it, and snipe the blazes and wither skellies.  Actually, I should speedrun torches over that whole top level.  That might give me a chance to isolate one platform of blazes without being tormented from every side.

I've been speed-dying/speedrunning torches.  Left stacks of unused torches in all the deep places too.  But it helps, so i'm going to get more coal and spread those things all around, not just in stacks.  The blazes are still spawning, and sniping me everywhere I go, and I have not seen a single blaze spawner yet!

12 hours in game, 34 deaths.   so far.

I spent this evening mining coal, kelp and trying to light up the fortress plateau.  a good many deaths, and lost torches again, but making progress.  Hardly any wither dudes left.  But so many blazes, everywhere, all the time!   It's actually just stupid, I should find a different fortress.  But, I like a stupid challenge, so I think I'll strategize a next step.

next day:  I think I'll explore the hallways below surface.  See if any lead to spawners and keep track of my turns.

yes, I explored the hallways and did not find spawners.  But I did find isolated blazes and have managed to eke out 5 blaze rods so far!  I think next time i'll hunt down enough to get 8 in total, then head for the END!

As of right now: 52 deaths, and 15 hours.  I think I'm on track to beat my record!

Next day.

Yes, i have definitely set some kind of record.  I am at 72 deaths now.  and only one more blaze rod!  6 might be enough, right????  Sheesh.  I need a nap.

Next morning:
i had an idea.  I tunnel my way across the plain of death and through to the target area in the fortress.  I figured I could do that before breakfast.  So I walked the dog and logged in.  Got stone tools, dug a tunnel, perfectly lined up.  Cut through to the path of pain safely.  In a moment, two blazes showed up at the mouth of the tunnel.  I backed out of the way and let them fire.  Ran at them, killed them both, in the comfort of my tunnel, and POOF!  Two more blaze rods!  I now have eight (in various chests in this fortress) altogether and will be heading for the end next!