Episode 8 of Release the B.S. picks up mid-map with a short to-do list and a long way to dig. Basket and Scoti are still knocking out achievements to grow the border, and this time the hunt runs up a ladder, down into the Nether, and eventually into a stronghold.
Building a ladder to the surface
First we take stock of what's left. Diamonds are still the big one, plus a couple of clay colors we haven't turned in yet. One of us crafts an iron pickaxe so we both have a claim on that diamond achievement whenever it finally lands.
Then comes the boring-but-useful project: a ladder that runs all the way from our base up to the surface, about 141 blocks by the debug screen, so we have a quick route to the Nether portal. Somewhere in here we spot a counter on screen and spend a minute deciding it can't be a death counter, since neither of us has actually died yet.
Into the Nether
We step through the portal to have a look around. There's a blaze spawner up in the roof, but we leave it be, since we don't have the achievement that needs it yet. Instead we dig down from the portal, stair-stepping our way and walling off with cobble so the zombie pigmen can't wander in behind us.
The chests down here are generous: clay, netherrack, gold nuggets, enchanting bottles, and a brown dye. There's also a cow sealed in a little room, which confuses us for a second until we realize the animal noises we'd been hearing were coming from in there.
Hearing things
Not all the noises had an explanation, though. While we dig, one of us keeps catching sounds that may or may not be in the game, a wolf here, a horse there. "Maybe I'm hearing what I want to hear."
The numbers
Deeper in, we find a winter-themed vault room, snow on the floor and a glass case in the middle, with a lock that won't budge. There are numbers involved, and a stack of journals we've been collecting that are dated by day: 18, then 34, 38, 43. Trouble is there's nowhere to actually plug numbers in, so we sit on it.
One of us finally says the obvious out loud: it'd be a lot easier if these were the Lost numbers, and figures the people who built this map are big Lost fans. We also notice that the "adventuring" and "time" achievements are a different color from the rest, which feels like it means something.
A stronghold, but no diamonds
We keep pushing down toward bedrock, clearing a spider spawner on the way and grabbing all the string so we can finally make a bow. There's a running bit that this is the episode where Scoti turns heel; for the record, he does not.
Then the payoff. We break straight into a stronghold, silverfish spawner, a pile of zombies to fight through, and an end portal room with a few of the eyes already in place. No diamonds this episode, but stumbling onto the stronghold is a good place to stop. More digging next time on Captive Minecraft.
