In Search of Mesprit

Since we hit level 40 our Pokemon Go our play has largely been about raiding and catching new Pokemon for the Pokedex.  This week seemed like a good time for for raids as three Sinnoh Pokemon were up on the list, Azlef, Mesprit, and Uxie.

The three featured Pokemon

When the raids started on Tuesday afternoon, our regular group lit up my phone with texts when the first one of them was spotted.  We bagged Azlef pretty quickly.  What I didn’t realize until somebody mentioned it in the text stream was that each of the three were only available in specific regions.  According to Pokemon.com:

• Trainers in the Asia-Pacific region may encounter Uxie
• Trainers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India may encounter Mesprit
• Trainers in the Americas and Greenland may encounter Azelf

So we were only going to ever get Azlef locally.

As it so happened, one of the friends who had picked up my friend code when I posted it to Twitter happened to be in Japan and sent me an invite for an Uxie raid when I had Pokemon Go up on my phone in front of my face.  I jumped in and managed to catch Uxie, so I had two of the three.  (I’ve posted my friend code here before. It is 3216 2939 2424.)

Getting Mesprit though, expecting to catch a random invite at just the right moment seemed unlikely to happen twice in a week.  I have a few people on my friend’s list in Europe, but what are the odds of lucking out again?

One of the more intrepid members of our local raid team suggested using one of the raid servers on Discord.  That was what she was doing to try and get the two out of region catches.

So I looked up servers and found a likely suspect called Pokemon GO Raids.  You can click on that link to join the server if you have a Discord account.  I am playing under my usual handle, in this case WilhelmArcturus because the game doesn’t allow spaces.

Once I sorted through the instructions and rules, I got myself ready to try and get in on a Mesprit raid… which basically adds up to sitting in the “mesprit-only” channel and waiting for somebody to post a raid.  Then you have to be one of the first five to respond… you can only remote invite five friends… and get acknowledged.  Then the person who posted the raid shares their friend code, you send a friend invite, get accepted, then they go into the raid and invite the five people picked.

All of this means being quick to respond in the channel.  I made it into one raid, though I did not manage to catch Mesprit on the first try, so I have to go again.  It also means being in the channel at the right time of day.  Raids in Pokemon Go only seem to run from about 8am to 10pm locally, which is all EMEA times in this case, which means the mornings into the early afternoon my time are the likely points when I might get a raid.

So I am staring at the channel, waiting for somebody to announce a raid.

SuperData Shows Fornite Reviving a Bit

SuperData has their digital revenue numbers out for October.

SuperData Research Top 10 – October 2019

On the PC side of the chart, League of Legends regained its top spot, returning the top four to their usual ordering, with the three big Asian titles behind.

Right after that is World of Warcraft West (so no China) ringing in at number five, no doubt still going strong on the WoW Classic momentum.  That put it ahead of its new corporate sibling, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.  It had a big launch, but is much more a console title.

Then there is Fortnite in seventh, up two spots from last month, but still far back from that fifth place position it held for several months earlier this year.

After that is perennial list member World of Tanks, followed by Obsidian’s new space RPG, The Outer Worlds.  And tenth position went to the aging but strong Roblox.

In the console column Call of Duty: Modern Warfare took the top spot with a big launch last month.  This is where the Activision side of the house makes a lot of their annual revenue, so they need a big win with CoD every year.

Fortnite managed sixth place for console revenue, ahead of Borderlands 3, which held on for a second month, keeping it ahead of console stalwart Grand Theft Auto V.

And then at the mobile end of the chart, Honour of Kings returned to its top position after being dethroned last month.  It is another “big in China” title.  Candy Crush Saga popped up into third place, while Pokemon Go fell from second to fourth.  The number one mobile title for September, Fate/Grand Order, dropped off the list completely.  It has been something of a mercurial title on the mobile chart.

We can again compare that to NPD’s October charts.  As always, the NPD charts are US only, combine console and PC, ignore mobile, and do not include digital revenue where noted.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
2. The Outer Worlds
3. Luigi’s Mansion 3*
4. Madden NFL 20
5. NBA 2K20
6. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
7. WWE 2K20
8. FIFA 20
9. Borderlands 3
10. Ring Fit Adventure*

* Digital sales not included

As one might expect, CoD is there on the top of  that chart as well, but so is The Outer Worlds and Luigis’ Mansion 3, all new titles for October.  Other new titles on their list are WWE 2K20 and the Nintendo Ring Fit Adventure, which goes along with their new Ring-Con and Leg Strap peripherals.

On the NPD social media impressions measure, League of Legends was at the top, followed by Fortnite, CS:GO, GTA V, and World of Warcraft.

I expect that next month we will be hearing about Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, which has been reported as having an extremely strong sales start in November.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare might face some competition for the best selling title.

Other items from the SuperData Report:

• Consumers spent $8.84 billion digitally across all games in October. Combined spending across console, PC and mobile was down 3% year-over-year primarily due to a sharp drop off in the console segment, which faced a difficult comparison against the Red Dead Redemption 2 launch last year. Mobile grew 7% as it continues to be a growth leader for digital games.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has best selling digital launch of 2019. Modern Warfare sold an estimated 4.75 million digital units across console and PC in October, down 11% from Black Ops 4 last year, although there were fewer days this year due to a later launch in the month. The average selling price of digital units also declined from last year due to the lack of a season pass bundle.
• Apex Legends has its best month since the title’s launch quarter.  Apex Legends generated $45 million from in-game spending in October across console and PC, up from $16 million in September. Respawn’s shooter has clearly grown into an important growth driver for EA since its launch in February, although we note that total lifetime revenue still comes in slightly below 50% of FIFA Ultimate Team over that same period.
• NBA 2K continues to show a slow-down in virtual currency sales. Total franchise NBA in-game spending growth has been slowing down for the past four months after a red hot start from NBA 2K19 last year. We saw this again in October, where NBA 2K in-game spending across console, PC and mobile combined declined year-over-year for the first time since June 2018.
• Call of Duty Mobile catapults into the top rankings. We estimate COD Mobile generated $57 million in total revenue in October with 116 million monthly active users, placing it as the 12th top grossing mobile game worldwide this month. iOS made up 82% of total spend.

WildStar Shuts Down

Today is the day that WildStar faces the inevitable end and goes dark.

The news came back in September that WildStar would be shutting down.  The surprise wasn’t so much that it would shut down but that it lasted as long as it did, given how keen NCsoft has been in the past to terminate titles.  Many a City of Heroes fan still laments that the game was making money when it was closed.

Back when the announcement came I wrote a post that summed up the lift of the game, from the idealistic foundation to the harsh realities of the MMO market through to the seemingly inevitable demise. That post includes links out to many others doing the same.

The announcement of a game closing seems to be the point of reflection, the time for shock and acceptance, gloating and regret, nostalgia and dismissal.  By the time the actual closing date comes much of the emotion has run its course.

And so we say good-bye to WildStar today.  It has run its course.  Launched in June of 2014, it ran for nearly four and a half years.  Carbine Studios itself, founded back in 2005 by former Blizzard employees who had worked on World of Warcraft, was shut down back in September.

Fall Movie League – Ralph Breaks the Deadlock

Penultimate.  I’m only sorry I failed to use my favorite word in last week’s post when looking over the options.  But now week twelve, the penultimate week, of our Fall Fantasy Movie League is done and gone and there is only one more chance to do well or blow it.

The week twelve options were as follows:

Ralph Breaks the Internet $566
Creed II                  $363
Fantastic Beasts 2        $362 
The Grinch                $307 
Bohemian Rhapsody         $146
Instant Family            $127
Robin Hood                $94
Widows                    $94
Green Book                $68
A Star is Born            $39
The Nutcracker            $36
Overlord                  $22
Boy Erased                $15
The Front Runner          $12
Nobody's Fool             $11

We had a couple of big new anchors on the list.

It was pretty obvious that Ralph Breaks the Internet was going to get the top spot, the question was whether or not it would be worth the price.

How Creed II would fare was less certain.  It was poised and priced for second place, but Thanksgiving weekend tends to be a kids movie weekend.  Then again, counter programming for adult sports fan might work.

Fantastic Beasts 2 was into its second week while The Grinch was on his third.  There was a match up of the Harry Potter universe sans Harry Potter against The Grinch in his primal season.  The moment you’re done with your last slice of pumpkin pie the law says it is Christmas season.

And then there was Bohemian Rhapsody and Instant Family.  BR was aging but still had some strength while Instant Family was priced to move after failing to meet expectations on its opening week.

For the Monday Hot Takes league I was feeling like Fantastic Beasts 2 might be the anchor of choice.  It is hard to beat Harry Potter, even when it lacks Harry Potter.

However, on Tuesday evening my wife and I went and saw the confused mess that is Fantastic Beasts 2.  Harry Potter, as a series, has always felt more than a bit ad hoc to me, picking up and dropping things at a whim, but at least each movie had a weighty tome behind it to explain things.  Not so with FB2, which put me off it as an anchor.  And while my personal views about a movie are rarely a good guide, this time around my gut served me well.

As part of the holiday week, the new titles officially opened on Wednesday rather than Friday, which meant no preview dollars to work into ones calculations.  It also meant a bunch of five day forecasts, rather than the usual three day weekend versions.

On the upside, we all got a good look at how the week’s line up was doing starting with the Tuesday night previews.  Both Ralph Breaks the Internet and Creed II looked to be out performing expectations.  Likewise, The Grinch was doing solid, secure in the holiday season.

In the end I decided to opt for two screens of Creed II, though in hindsight I should have gone for a screen each of Ralph and Creed.  My hope was that filler would make up the difference, and my lineup was 2x Creed II, 2x Widows, 1x A Star is Born, 1x Overlord, and 2x The Front Runner.

Come the Saturday morning estimates, Ralph looked to have the best performer nod, which grants it an additional $2 million per screen.  But the numbers were very close and Saturday is often a fool’s paradise as the estimates are pretty rough.

On Sunday though, Instant Family took over as the estimated best performer, with the perfect pick anchored on five screens of it, giving it a $10 million boost.  But the estimates were still very close.

When the actuals started rolling in, Instant Family came up a bit short on its estimates and fell out of the best performer role, to be replaced by The Grinch.  At that point SynCaine had the perfect pick.  But the numbers necessary for another change were still too close to feel secure about anything.  Then the Ralph and Creed II numbers came in and Ralph was on top again.  At that point everything hinged on how well The Grinch did.  I just needed to do about $300K better than its estimated box office, barely a 1% change, something that is pretty standard on any given week.

However, when The Grinch finally reported, he was up just 0.6% from the estimate.  Ralph took the best performer nod.  That was not good for me, knocking me out of the top ten for another week.

The numbers for the week ended up like this:

1. Ben’s X-Wing Express – $99,473,989
2. Cyanbane’s Neuticles Viewing Party – $99,214,810
3. Corr’s Carefully Curated Cineplex – $99,205,717
4. I HAS BAD TASTE – $99,205,717
5. grannanj’s Cineplex – $98,144,855
6. Too Orangey For Crows – $97,873,450
7. SynCaine’s Dark Room of Delights – $96,974,610
8. Goat Water Picture Palace – $94,271,930
9. Darren’s Unwatched Cineplex – $93,015,598
10. Wilhelm’s Kul Tiras Kino – $93,004,638

Ben took the week, and anybody who went with Ralph and Creed II as anchors made it past the $99 million mark.  Still, it was a tight week with the gap between high and low of those who picked standing at about $7 million.

That tight of a range meant not much movement in the overall season totals, which ended up looking like this:

1. Goat Water Picture Palace – $920,866,092
2. Wilhelm’s Kul Tiras Kino – $913,478,307
3. Corr’s Carefully Curated Cineplex – $904,240,326
4. Too Orangey For Crows – $895,300,662
5. Ben’s X-Wing Express – $886,505,792
6. I HAS BAD TASTE – $883,962,097
7. grannanj’s Cineplex – $861,395,328
8. Cyanbane’s Neuticles Viewing Party – $844,566,659
9. Darren’s Unwatched Cineplex – $843,259,499
10. SynCaine’s Dark Room of Delights – $840,558,352

The gap between Goat and I is close enough that I might be able to make it to first, so long as we don’t pick such similar line ups again.  Corr isn’t too far back, but the gap is big enough that Goat and I probably have to pick badly for him to have a hope at first place.

On the alternate scoring front though, things look much rosier for Corr.

1. Corr’s Carefully Curated Cineplex – 71
2. Goat Water Picture Palace – 61
3. Wilhelm’s Kul Tiras Kino – 57
4. Too Orangey For Crows – 57
5. Ben’s X-Wing Express – 49
6. I HAS BAD TASTE – 47
7. SynCaine’s Dark Room of Delights – 41
8. Vigo Grimborne’s Medieval Screening Complex – 41
9. grannanj’s Cineplex – 38
10. Cyanbane’s Neuticles Viewing Party – 38

Corr isn’t a 100% lock to win the alternate scoring, but in order for him to fall into second he has to forget to pick or pick so badly that he doesn’t make the top ten AND Goat has to get first place.

Ben’s rise up the ranks has probably reached its zenith, though he could get up to third place if he can manage another first place finish and both Bhagpuss and I do poorly.

So that is how it stands.  The volatile alternate scoring looks to have already picked its winner while the traditional scoring, where the winner is generally obvious by now, still has a couple of possible outcomes.

All of which brings us to the final week, week thirteen, and the titles we have to work with.

Ralph Breaks the Internet       $460
The Grinch                      $334
Creed II                        $304
Fantastic Beasts 2              $205
Bohemian Rhapsody               $144
Instant Family                  $134 
Robin Hood                      $73
Widows                          $67
Green Book                      $64
The Possession of Hannah Grace  $57
A Star is Born                  $32 
The Nutcracker                  $27
The Favorite                    $18
Boy Erased                      $14
Nobody's Fool                   $8

It is going to be an odd week as there are no big new releases, so we have to work with pretty much the same anchor options as before.

For filler we do lose Overlord and The Front Runner, getting The Possession of Hannah Grace and The Favorite in their place.

The Possession of Hannah Grace is a supernatural horror film… just the season for that… involving an exorcism gone wrong, a midnight morgue delivery, and demonic possession.  I know I always under estimate the draw of the horror genre, but is the timing on this bad enough?  Long range tracking has it down for $3 million for its opening weekend.

Then there is The Favorite, an 18th century period-piece comedy drama, if that is really a thing, about two women competing for the favor of Queen  Anne.  It stars Olivia Coleman (Hot Fuzz, Broadchurch) as the queen, with Emma Stone (La La Land, Birdman) and Rachel Weisz (so many damn things, but the only one of the three to be a guest on The Simpsons), who are all top notch, but it isn’t even being tracked and the pricing puts it at like a third of The Possession of Hannah Grace, so call it maybe $1 million?

Where does that leave us?

Ralph is going to be strong, and there is enough cheap filler that you can get away with two screens of it and not face an empty slot penalty.  But you really have to believe.

The Grinch is in his home season, enough so that it is the one film that went up in price this week.  But it is also going into its fourth week and the kids are all back in school until Christmas, so will it be worth the money?

Fantastic Beasts 2 is still Harry Potter without Harry Potter and in its third week… and remains a mess that only a true fan could love or understand.

Then, for the adult audiences, there is a Creed II in its second week and Bohemian Rhapsody going into its fifth.

And, finally, you can go with as many as seven screens of Instant Family as an anchor if you’re feeling it for Marky Mark.

For me it is a toss up between two screens of Ralph and three screens of Creed II, each supported by some very cheap filler options.  Maybe two screens of The Grinch, if it looks like it is staying strong, and some more expensive filler to back it up.  No matter what, it seems likely to be a slow week, so my hopes of catching first place are probably only slightly better that Goat’s hopes to win the alternate scoring title.

My Monday Hot Takes compromise pick is 1x Ralph, 1x Creed II, 1x Bohemian Rhapsody, and 5x The Favorite on the hope that this is the season for 18th century period-piece comedy dramas.

Finally, as a heads up, at the end of this season, which will come to a close with next week’s post, that will be it for FML here for a while.  I will be taking a break from running and posting about the TAGN league.

If somebody else wants to run a league, blog about it, or whatever, I’ll join in.  And I will leave the TAGN league up and still likely pick every week.  I just won’t be doing any posts about it here.  The plan is to get back to that for the summer blockbuster season again in 2019.

Planes of Prophecy Expansion for EverQuest II

It is that time of year, the expansion season for the Norrath franchise at Daybreak, and today the first of the pair to launch is EverQuest II which is going live with the Planes of Prophecy expansion today.

Planes of Prophecy

As down as some people are on Daybreak (looking at you Massively OP) I still see a victory in every additional expansion they manage to ship for EverQuest and EverQuest II.  Even though I don’t play either any more, and really can’t bring myself to stick to either when I try, they still both occupy a special place in the pantheon of MMORPGs for me.

Anyway, the fourteenth EQII expansion takes us to the elemental planes again, as the title indicates.  I guess that counts as something of a nod to nostalgia as it even has the same acronym as the famed/infamous 2002 Planes of Power expansion for EverQuest.

The feature list reads as such lists tend to, with more of just about everything including levels, quests, zones, raids, and so on.

• New Zones including
  • Plane of Magic
  • Plane of Valor
  • Plane of Innovation
  • Plane of Disease
  • Bastion of Thunder
  • Solusek Ro’s Tower
  • Brackish Vaults
• New Heroic Dungeons
• New Event Heroic Dungeons
• New Solo Dungeons
• New Duo Dungeons
• New Raid Dungeons
• New Large Overland
• New Hub Zone “Coliseum of Valor”; provides access to dungeons, raids, and public quests
• Alt-Friendly Keyring System: If you unlock a new heroic or raid zone on your main, your alt will also gain access to it.
• New Signature Quest Line
• New Public Quests
• New Timed Key Quests
• New Collection Quests
• New “Soulbound” Weapons: Soulbound weapons will be able to level up and become even more powerful!
• New Weapon Type: Crossbows, a ranged weapon usable by all
• Adventure Level Cap Raised to 110
• All Ascension Classes Level Cap Increased to 15
• Guild Level Cap Increased to 250
• New Factions
• New Achievements
• New Items
• Tradeskill Level Cap Raised to 110
• New Adornments for Crafters to Make
• New Tinkering Recipes
• Mercenary Level Cap Increased to 10
• More Mercenary Gear Slots: Six new slots for hands, legs, feet, and 3 additional accolades

Lots and lots of “new” and “more” on that list, enough to keep people busy for another year… or at least until the spring game update.

A few items jump out at me from the list.  I am curious as to how this Coliseum of Valor will work, or what it actually is.  Is this the EQII version of the Plane of Knowledge?

Then there are crossbows because… well… I bet they look cool.  Still, that seems like something that wasn’t really missed for the last 13 years, so why bring them in now?

And then there are the new Soulbound weapons, which on the surface sound a lot like Artifact weapons from WoW Legion or Legendary weapons from LOTRO.

Which is to say it could be a good idea, but it could also be a bad one.

I actually ended up liking the Artifact weapons in WoW Legion even though, for example, every retribution pally gets a copy of Ashbringer.  That you can unlock special looks for each artifact weapon helped on that score.

The downside is that artifact weapons will cease to be a thing come the Battle for Azeroth expansion, which will leave an awkward 10 levels towards the end of the level curve where you have to get and upgrade a special weapon that you’ll likely throw away before you’ve had a change to fully upgrade it.

As for LOTRO and legendary weapons… ugh… that seemed like a good idea back in Mines of Moria, but it quickly got old for me there and Turbine’s, and then Standing Stone’s, continued use of the awkward mechanic is on the long list of things that keep me from going back to play the game.

I haven’t followed the updates for the expansion, so I am not sure what path Daybreak plans to follow here, but I am wary none the less.  And what do these new Soulbound weapons mean for Mythic weapons, yet another category I am told exists.  I am clearly out of my depth here.

Anyway, you get all of that when you buy the standard edition of the expansion along with a level 100 character boost.

But, of course, the expansion comes in three flavors, the same as before, so I don’t even have to crop up a new graphic for the pricing and can just roll with what I did in 2015.

Premium packages available for premium prices

For the Collectors Edition you also get a trade skill level 100 boost and a 5 ascension level boost along with an array of other items, and with the $140 Premium Edition you can add on a 10 ascension level boost as well as even more… um… stuff.

You can get all the details from the expansion order page.

Sadly, if you’re reading this and have not ordered yet it is likely you missed out on the Clockwork Calamity illusion pre-order bonus item, some aspects of which Bhagpuss has demonstrated in a video.

Bhagpuss also has some words about the expansion in his post today which are probably better than my own as he pays more attention to EQII than I can manage.

That is it, another year and another EverQuest II expansion.

More Minecraft Mansion Fun – Tunnels, Fires, Explosions, and Llamas

I kept on working around the mansion I had found last week over the weekend, both to make it more livable and to connect it to our nether transportation hub.

Livability meant expanding my farm, exploring a bit, marking trails, and taming some of the local llamas.

They look so festive when festooned

The latter was the larger effort.  As noted previously, I was into the nether and up into the roof after a couple of mishaps, but that still left the long dig to the nearest station or terminal on the nether rail line.  Just looking at the rendered map of the rail loop and dividing by 8, the portal and rail terminus in the nether for the Mesa Biome Station seemed to be my best bet.

The question was how many picks would I go through in order to make it there.

In dying and respawning far from home, I was well away from the Zombie Pigman harvesting machine which can be used to collect gold as well as experience.  Tools with the mending enchant on them can be repaired via experience gain with that machine, so tools rarely break for me as I just go top them up when I get low.  Or I do when I have access to it.  Now I would have to dig to get there.

I wore my enchanted diamond pick down to the very nub, eating through netherrak and an impressive pace, then stored it away to be repaired later, and started digging with the two diamond picks I had been able to make.  I had about 2,000 blocks to go southward, and another 200 westward to hit the portal if my calculations were correct, and my tunnel was 3 blocks high and 1 wide.  So a minimum of 6,600 blocks of netherrack to remove, though that number is low because I had to dig out waypoints along the run to store the netherrack.

As with every such infrastructure project I have done, having to run back and forth from your staging base begins to eat up more and more of your time the further along you get.  So I had a stack of chests with me (no shortage of wood up an the mansion) and would dig out rooms at points to put down a chest to store the netherrack when my inventory got full.  And then, once the second diamond pick was gone, to store the iron picks which wore out quickly and dug much slower to boot.

Eventually though I hit the point where I thought I needed to turn west.  Just two hundred meters to go.  And, as it turned out, my calculation was correct.  I hit the northeast corner of the room where the Mesa Biome portal and rail line were located.  But if I had cut west just two blocks earlier, I would have missed it completely.

That done, I rode a mine cart back to the hub, repaired my tools via the Zombie Pigman machine, and started scrounging about for material to make rails.  I had excess rails all over the rail loop, but remembering exactly where was a bit of a chore.  Once I had filled my inventory though, I rolled back out to the Mesa Biome portal and began laying track in the nether back along the tunnel I had dug.

Laying track goes quickly if the path has already been dug, though it helps if you do not forget to bring along the redstone torches necessary to light up the powered rails that actually propel mine carts down the line.  There was still some running back and forth and I eventually ran out of rails and excess iron, but Aaron said I could tap into the stock he kept at his base.  That was enough for me to finish the run.  As with the ride out to Aaron’s mansion, riding out to mine takes nearly 10 minutes by rail through the nether.  Still, much better than walking overland.

Aaron came out to take a look at my mansion, as it had some rooms his did not.  He also found a secret room on the second floor that I had missed.  But neither of us could find the secret location I knew existed.

In order for me to use the map tool to render a map of our world into Google map format, I have to download a backup of our world from Minecraft Realms. (And if I have to pick the best thing about Minecraft Realms, aside from price, it is the fact that they back up your world regularly with no fuss about disk space.  And you can roll back to a save pretty easily.)

When I download the backup from Minecraft Realms, it goes into the Minecraft saves directory, where it acts like a local world.  I can log into the save and tinker with things if I want, though I usually don’t.  But after I had burned the woods around the mansion, carefully keeping it from catching fire, I wondered what would happen if it did catch fire.

So I went into a recent local save, got out my flint and steel, and ran around the mansion setting it on fire, then let it burn itself out to see what remained.  Here is what I ended up with.

As you can see, fire is not efficient at spreading.  While it burned plenty of the mansion away, it still left odd gaps in the middle of otherwise quite flammable wood.  It also burned away part of another secret room, the one I was looking for when Aaron arrived.   In the burned out mansion on the save I found the key elements of it, which were a trapped chest with two blocks of TNT, one on either side.

Trapped chest

Being in a destructive mood… I had just set fire to a mansion… I stood back and fired a flaming arrow into the TNT, which ignited the fuse and set off the charge.  *BOOM*

That was the end of that… sort of…

The charges broke the cobblestone blocks below the chest, which turned out to be infested with silverfish.  When freed from the blocks, they came straight for me and I had a running fight for a bit as I tried to slay them with my bow while keeping some distance between myself and the attacking mob.

I survived, but the chest had been obliterated.  I didn’t note down the coordinates, but recalled the general area of the chest and the fact that it was on green wool of all things.

The wool set me off in the wrong direction as close by where the chest room was there lay an Illager statue room, the statue made of wool.  I thought the chest might be buried in the giant head that fills much of that room.  So when Aaron arrived I had already been fruitlessly digging through the illager’s wool brain.  I mentioned the room to Aaron, but neither of us could find it.

Later, I went back to look at the screen shots I took of the burned mansion.  The picture of the chest exploding showed the area to be in a corner of the mansion.  That, along with the wool, had put me in the statue room, which was in a corner of the mansion.  However, the other picture showed a cobblestone wall, which gave me the bearing I needed.  The mansion had a notch so that there were two corners at the back of the mansion, one at the statue room and then another behind a cobblestone jail room. (You can see all the room types on the wiki.)  The wall in the picture with the chest had to be the back of that room, so I dug through the back wall of the cell and found the room.

Another chest with explosives

Now, of course, the question is how to deal with this.  How to deal with TNT that has been placed is a long discussed topic, however many of the threads I have seen are somewhat vague and often so old as not to be trustworthy anymore.

So the chest abides for now, though I think I will go in and clear out the silverfish blocks one by one before I try anything.  No need to have an explosion AND get mobbed at the same time.

Meanwhile, back in the village where I spawned my cartographer, and where I went to collect rails and other materials once the nether tunnel was complete, I found that a second cartographer had been spawned in my rush to breed some new villagers.  I stuffed him with paper and compasses and, thus sated, he offered up for sale a map to a third woodland mansion, this one in the southeast.

The third map

I sent out a note to everybody about the map, placing it in a chest in the nether transit hub if anybody wanted to go off on their own mansion hunting adventure.  We shall see if Xydd or Skronk take the bait.