I've finally conquered Interloper!
My spawn put me halfway up Timberwolf Mountain, so I quickly mountain goated down to the Mountaineer's Hut, snapping both ankles in the process.
Undeterred, I proceeded to find matches and a heavy hammer inside the hut, and used them to smash all the furniture possible, lighting a fire and boiling some water in my tin can. With the furniture and nearby sticks, I created a fire lasting the night, then harvested all the nearby cattail stalks before resting, staying warm enough to survive my first day.
At dawn, I ran from Timberwolf Mountain down to Pleasant Valley, making my way via Skeeter's Ridge and Draft Dodger's Cabin until I reached the barn at the Pleasant Valley Outbuildings. I spent the night inside the car in the barn, staying warm enough inside to recover up to half health, but ran low on food and had to smash open a few tins I'd collected along the way to avoid starvation.
The next morning was a run across to Pleasant Valley Farmstead, grabbing a couple of skinny rabbits along the way and being hounded by wolves. Making it inside, I was delighted to discover a magnifying lens in the basement and a can opener in the kitchen, which I immediately used to crack open the rest of my canned food, then burnt my second match to light up the stove in the kitchen, cooking six cans of water at a time until I'd stockpiled a solid stash of purified water.
Between the rabbits and canned food, I was finally back up to full calories! My health wasn't too bad, but I'd need one more day to recover. I spent my day repairing my clothes, looting the house for anything of value, but with my food running out by the next morning, it was time to move onwards.
Another day dawned, and this time it was a sprint from the farmhouse up to Signal Hill, passing several saplings but with no way to harvest them. A few quick stops along the route to gather more cattails netted me some vital calories, and reaching the summit as a blizzard broke, I was amazed to discover a trove of loot! Some solid hiking boots quickly replaced my worn out sneakers, two tins of peaches, a tin of coffee and a tin of tomato soup bumped up my calorie buffer, and joy of joys, a ski jacket quickly warmed my frozen body.
Nevertheless, it was time to move on the next morning, and after swinging past the Hilltop Cave and lucking into a box of salty crackers, I made it to the Winding River, harvesting cattails to stay fed and catching a few more skinny rabbits. With some lucky clear weather, I was able to start a fire with my magnifying lens, defrosting two ravaged deer and feasting on venison.
From the river, a quick trip through Carter Hydro Dam and I was in Mystery Lake, where I planned to spend a few days recovering my health after constantly freezing during my journeys. I high-tailed it from the dam to the Camp Office, using it to warm up between trips out harvesting cattails along the lake. Taking a day to rest and boil water, I finally recovered back to full health and had a decent stockpile of resources.
Now the time had finally come to focus on working towards the future instead of just surviving one day at a time. I needed tools, and I'd managed to grab a dozen pieces of scrap metal through my journey, which, together with the coal I'd saved from the cave I'd explored, would give me enough resources to craft a knife and hatchet.
With my travel rations of all the cattails I'd been able to grab, I made my way to one of my most hated regions, the Forlorn Muskeg. I sprinted as much as possible, being blessed with amazingly clear weather during my trip to the Old Spence Family Homestead and its forge. Here I was lucky enough to find a hacksaw, and stoking the forge, I crafted myself a knife, hatchet and half a dozen arrows before my fuel ran out.
With my new tools, I proudly returned to Mystery Lake, hunting down saplings throughout the region and crafting myself a bow. With this, my survival was all but guaranteed, as I now had a reliable means of hunting big game.
So far, this run has now lasted 90 days in game, and I have hunted thirty-three rabbits, eighteen wolves, three bears, a moose, and at least a dozen deer, though I typically bait a wolf into killing it for me and then stealing their kill. I'm hunting my final bear for a second coat, then I plan to explore the remaining regions, creating resource stockpiles in each one. I'm hoping I'll get lucky and find a few pairs of wool socks, and some ear-wraps, since they're the last uncraftable items I'm missing.