The hunt begins

With a bow in hand, I hiked my way up to the surface and was greeted by a moon in the sky and stars all above.  Knowing the time was ripe for a monster hunt, I made my way over to a larger landmass in the distance. Quickly I found a Creeper bouncing along. I was giddy as I safely plucked arrows at it from a distance, not needing to fear an explosive end to the evening. I noticed it dropped a grey lump of something, which I quickly picked up. I had one like it it in my pack for some time, and had been wondering where it came from.

It was then that I recalled the words of a friend I know who plays Minecraft, who spoke of getting gunpowder from Creepers. Now I had a lot more drive and initiative to keep hunting. This initiative was almost brought to a screeching halt when one of those damn skeletons starting sniping at me from a distance. A little fancy footwork later, and the archery battle was won by myself. Dawn broke, and on my way back home, I noticed something off in the distance. Heading over I found it was bamboo.

Note the hairless sheep in the background

Pleased with this little discovery, I grabbed what I could and went back home, killing some pigs along the way for meat. After tending to my wounds and playing around a bit with the bamboo, I found I could craft paper with it.  The day went by with arrow crafting and flint mining, and once the next night began I started my next hunt. This time however, the situation did not look so good...

If you look close you can count 7 skeletons

Skirting the coast for awhile, it seemed it was just skeletons everywhere. I eventually did manage to snag another gunpowder off a Creeper, but it was a disappointing night overall. The dawn did bring this satisfaction though...

I love the smell of flaming skeletons in the morning

Some things came up which cut my play sessions short, but I overall feel like I have a better plan now than I did before. Another thing I'm considering is seeing if I can manage an animal farm perhaps down below. Corralling them in there though might be easier said than done, but an animal/tree farm could help keep me more self-sufficient.