I Killed The Ender Dragon Sort Of By Accident

Dragon prow from End Ship

 I had pretty much given up on killing the Ender Dragon so I decided to try to kill a Wither instead. Hah! The Wither bashed its way up through 20 layers of rock and proceeded to lay waste to the landscape around my base*. After it defeated me multiple times, and its path looked to be veering towards my village, I cheated and switched to Peaceful mode to turn it off. Then it took me almost a Minecraft week to patch up the surface and gather wither roses.

Reading about what I should have done I saw a recommendation for 'arrows of harm' - but they needed dragon breath as an ingredient. I thought 'Well, I can't kill the Ender Dragon, but I can certainly get her to breathe on me..."

While I was trying to catch her breath I turned off a few of the pillars, but it was becoming clear that I wasn't making much progress. I couldn't get from one pillar to the other without the Dragon seeing me...

I ended up tunneling under the surface to see if I could get to the pillars that way. Instead, I ended up right next to the nest. I had read that the Dragon could not pass through obsidian or iron, so I set up a cage around the base of the nest and huddled inside.

When the dragon came back I thought it would be the end of me, but instead I found it was possible to spear** up through the bars and damage her that way. Even though I hadn't turned off all the pillars, she came back a bit weaker every time, and I eventually killed her. Unfortunately I never found the egg, but I got to read the poem and see the end credits, and it was a great morale booster.

Correction: I had thought that without an egg I couldn't spawn another dragon, but it seems as if you can do that by making end crystals. I still won't have an egg. I was lucky in that the portal that generated was not too far from an End City and an End Ship.

Maybe some day I'll get the Wither too.

*Pay no attention to those YouTube videos that show you 'how easy' it is to kill a Wither.  Next time I spawn one I am going as far away as I can, and as deep as I can - maybe even figure out how to make an Obsidian ceiling. 

**I used a trident with 'loyalty' and 'mending' charms. I call it my "Vampire Trident".

A Mine Full of Llamas

 I was deep in a mine near my base the other day when I kept hearing the plaintive cry of llamas. It turned out I had nearly a dozen wandering around at level 13.

Traders' Llamas at Level 13

I had found llamas in the mines before, but never so many. I decided to make a wide stairway up to the surface so the llamas could be rescued. I tamed a few of them and led them to the surface; however, two brown Traders' Llamas refused to be tamed or led.

Rescued Traders' Llamas

Apparently the Trader and his llamas had been materializing at the lower level of the mines. When the monsters got the traders, the llamas were left. I went around the lower levels putting up more torches, but I'll check periodically for more llamas.

It was not a totally quixotic enterprise - as I was putting up torches I found 12 more diamonds.

Trip to an Ocean Monument and a Shortcut Through the Nether

A village cartographer sold me a map to an Ocean Monument

It was a long journey overworld that crossed at least five 4x4 regions.

The gold blocks' surround. 

Once on a small island next to the monument I made a base and then made a bridge over to the monument with my supplies - potions of water breathing, milk, tools and weapons. 

I concentrated on killing the Elder Guardians and ended up only using about eight potions and two buckets of milk. I had made a conduit but didn't activate it. I did not find any sponges except those I got killing the Guardians,

Once back home I decided to try making a shortcut through the Nether so that I could continue to mine the prismarine and lamps without having to take the long overland trip or teleporting.  Back on the small island, I put up a Nether gate and made a path through the Nether back to my home portal.

Most of the journey through the Nether was relatively uneventful, although it took an awful lot of cobblestone for the path, and I had to mine through a lot of nether rack. At one spot along the path I kept meeting a pack of angry Hoglins, so I'll have to reinforce the path there or start a hog farm. In the basalt delta at the end magma cubes nearly finished me a few times. Vertigo was probably the worst problem, as the path was high over lava in some places. 

I found if you meet a Piglin on the path you can pass by him. (Don't forget to wear something made of gold).

I'm playing with cheats now (keep inventory, teleport) but I'm thinking that in my next world, without teleports, this would be a good way to travel between points.