Started a new map last night. I didn't see any ore or caves after a brief look around so I immediately went to work tunneling into the mountain behind me. I build walls and a roof for my new shelter. It was too dark inside when night came, so I worked outside in the moonlight harvesting sand. There were a few 'incidents' with wandering creatures, including one particularly nasty spider, but after a few respawns, he was dead and I was able to get back to work.
Come morning, I went back to my tunneling and soon found a few specks of coal. With the ability to craft a torch, the mining operation went into full production. We finished off the front of our shelter and put up a door, made another door to keep the mining operation separated and kept digging.
We found some ore and more coal, and eventually poked through to the other side of the mountain.
With our first objective accomplished, we went about sprucing up our appearance. A front walk was created and flowers planted. Since we had coal to spare, we tore down the front of our house and replaced the stone front with a much nicer glass front.
Having learned my lesson from earlier efforts, I knew I needed a beacon to be able to find my way back once I started exploring so I made an observation tower with some of the harvested stone. The extra glass came in handy at the top.
From the top, I could see an exposed opening to an underground cavern. I investigated but there wasn't much inside besides some coal and one of those green explodey guys. I climbed out from the other side, looked around, and immediately could find where I was. Bingo!
With new confidence, I roamed further afield. I spotted bamboo:
I saw a weird, naturally-occuring formation:
I just had to investigate it. Once up top, I looked around. I spotted this little wonder:
The shadows were lengthening and I wasn't supplied well enough for spelunking, so I headed back to base to unload things I wouldn't need and to load up on torches, picks, and swords. That cave will have to wait until tomorrow.