[@Ashgan]

For a long enough time that Pick now only has a scant few memories, his short wake up routine is: Push self off the ground, try to avoid any action however minor that could cause death, discover a new wrong thing to do and die. The pain, which he believes is in his chest and not his back, has been the least of his worries. At this point he's started ignoring it is all since he can't properly feel it. As for someone trying to pull it out, we'll wait and see :).

Now regarding the map, I purposefully was very light in how I tread here. I have yet to describe anything else about the map, and there are mountains in the other world so this connection might be one that isn't there. I didn't even properly say where on the map the mountain is (only that it's in a corner), or if he's even reading it right. If these possible parallels are something NewSun wants to use then he may but for now things will remain vague and I'll keep my thoughts to myself ;). I have a plan, but it's very flexible.

Finally, yes the world before. While the oil headlamp is an invention that has only existed for a bit over 100 years (to my understanding), the world before doesn't seem to run perfectly with ours. 'Mer' are mentioned, and magic is apparently an existing factor. Normally when these are the case certain technologies can sprout up before their time. The idea of putting a lamp on a helmet was born of necessity, so the necessity could have come far sooner in the world our characters came from. That's all I have to say on my contribution to the confusion- I do my research to an extent :P