Lost at Sea… Almost

So I defeated the elder who was on a second island and decided it was time to take to the sea to find the swamp.
I'd spent a few hours playing so thought "oh it's OK, I'll find the swamp, lay down a portal and then that'll do me" ready for the next time I hop on the game…. I wish it was this simple.

So after stocking up on food supplies for my journey, weapons etc, I decided to take my Karve and sail into the distance. The sea was steady, calm for most of the journey. I passed a couple of friendly leviathan friends, but for some reason I just couldn't find the swamp biome. I went from mountain, to plains, to black forest to meadow. But absolutely no sign of a swamp anywhere.

2 hours pass by (it's now 2am) and at this point I'm determined to find a swamp before I come off the game. On my travels I've picked up some loot, troll hides, ancient seeds, surtling cores, all sorts of handy things.

I am now SO far from home that I decide to just make a portal and take all my loot home admitting defeat. BUT I soon realise I didn't place a portal at my homestead ready for the new one I was going to create. So now I'm stuck, miles from home, with no swamp and no way of getting back apart from the karve.

So I climb aboard for the long voyage home, hoping it's as easy going as it was travelling here. With all my loot, with enough food to get me back I set sail. Majority of the journey is against the wind. I'm trying hard not to nod off whilst I'm playing but I'm determined to make it home before I logout.

I get maybe 2 thirds of the way home, then a storm breaks loose. A storm unlike I've ever seen before on this game. HUGE waves throw my little karve around like it's made of paper, I take huge damage over maybe a 30 minute period, I'm in deep ocean and know just a few more hits and I'm dead. I also know I'm too far into the ocean to easily retrieve my loot. I CAN'T die here I say to myself.

It's pitch black and I'm battling with the waves. Through the moonlit sky I see a land mass, with trees with no leaves. "that's the swamp!" I think to myself. So I head to the coast in my battered ship. Wanting to repair my vessel, I beach her, jump off, but before I manage to place down my craft table I'm attacked. Draugrs come at me like a swarm. Luckily this is my second playthrough so I knew how to deal with them. But I didn't have the weaponry, I'd not planned for this. All I had was my bronze mace, wooden shield and my bow. I battled a few of them. But I was overrun. So I hopped into my broken ship and tried to move away from the coast but the HUGE winds were pushing me back. I was getting hit by arrows. My health was below 10. Surely this wasn't my time to die. Surely.

I manage to make it off the coast with my still battered vessel, in all the panic I haven't even checked my map. The winds carry on, I'm blown further up coast but luckily this is black forest territory. I check my map and to my huge relief, I'm back at the elder… Where my portal still remained.

I return home, battered, cold, wet. My bee hives bursting at the seems. My tree saplings now fully grown towering over my homestead. How long was I gone?

It's now 3.35am, the sun's coming up. Bedtime. I'd achieved my goal of finding the swamp, but I'd originally planned to be asleep for 1am ready for the kids waking me up in the morning.

As I lay in bed I think to myself, no game could ever give me an experience like that. Valheim creates moments like no other game I know..

What a special game.