Ah, some of the previous posts reminded me: when I first got on the server I was wandering around looking for signs of civilization. The first thing I happened to see was a small shelter carved into the rock so that it formed a sort of overhung balcony thing. I waited out a night there using a wooden pickax from their chest to dig out some coal for them in the attached (lit up) cave system. I also left behind most of the things I had collected so far and took only a bit of cobble I had dug up and an old wooden sword to protect myself from monsters.
Soon after I fell a short distance and died because I was at half a heart. I was unable to find my way back to the place, so I hope the sword didn't have sentimental value to anyone.
I also later found myself at another cave base very close to the one open air portal (as far as I know the only other portals in the world so far are the one in Sensei's church and the one in Remuthra's base). In this one I dug up some iron and a little coal in a previously unlit section of the cave I reached by going down their stairs, and as recompensation I gave them all the emeralds and diamonds and redstone I found in the nearby cavern.
Then I took the nearby portal to the nether and found another one that exited into Remuthra's base. I chatted with him for a bit and he gave me his old leather armor, and as thanks I slaughtered some cows for him. Then I took his nether portal, which redirected me to the part of the nether where Sensei's portal is.
Looking out of the top of the church, I first saw the full extent of aristabulus's farm.
I went outside to check the place out, and accidentally caused a creeper hole in the corner of the sheep pen, which aristabulus helped me fix up.
Then I went north in a boat to look for a place to settle, got lost, found my way back to the farm, and got materials from aristabulus (I'm starting to feel like I need a shorter form for his name) to make a pair of maps. I wanted to stay within areas I had mapped out, and since I started at the farm and settled near the edge of the second map, I ended up building my shack not too far from there, as apparently maps don't cover much area unless you upgrade them to zoom out.
So everything was all cool until I dug into a cave system under my base, was killed by some monsters, and, since I forgot to use my bed at the new base, I was sent back to the spawn. I then spent about a half-hour dying to monsters as I tried to make my way back, but what upset me the most was that I lost Remuthra's old leather armor and the first iron sword I enchanted. Fortunately I had left my enchanted pick back in my chest, and I made some new leather armor and managed to enchant a new sword with Smite II before the end of that session.