Korok Trials

Waking of Saturday, December 29, 2018 ~ 2

Korok Trials

Augh.

On that unhappy note and yet with plenty of energy left to play.... I remembered David’s blatant tut-tutting over my sparsely-filled map of the Great Hyrule Forest. The look he’d given me....

There were shrines to get there.

I didn’t feel like getting them then. That memory had been heavy. But they were there to get, and I knew I wanted to get them eventually. So.... I went to get them.

And, upon warping to the Korok Forest, for the very first time I acknowledged that little Korok near the entrance to the Navel who was always trying to get my attention—Chio was his name—and he told me all about the Korok Trials.

There were three of them, one each to the southwest, to the northwest, and to the east. These must have been the ends of those paths I’d always seen meandering off into the trees beneath the giant bean-pods....

Well.... I went to it.

The first trial, to the southwest, was the Trial of Second Sight. A Korok named Zooki stood a little along the path and gave me a few pointers....

I don’t suppose I really knew what I was expecting. I guess I’d just imagined that the warmly lit forest simply extended further out, rolling into grassy wilds and forests full of animals and useful herbs.... I was only a little surprised when, moving away from the Great Deku Tree, the oppressive, curling mist returned, darkening the world while the Piano once again closed on its repetitive G in petrified focus.

I had to find my way again. But this time, instead of following embers in the breeze, I had to follow metal. There were more of those gape-mouthed trees—nothing but those gape-mouthed trees—and some of them had great stones in their mouths, and some of these stones were metal.

Activating my slate’s Magnesis, I could see the metallic glow through the mist like flags through a sandstorm, and I followed it into the gloom....

At times it became a little tricky. Once I had to climb to the top of a tree in order to spy the next path-marker. But after a short time (and only a few baddies) I made it to the edge of a small lake—Lake Saria.

There was a bit more Magnesing and moving things around between the horrible, gaping trees; and for a time, and in light of some of the local signposts, they seemed almost a friendly, relatable lot....

And then after a short, leaf-powered raft-ride across the deadly still and silent lake, and one more placement of a metal chest inside a tree’s mouth.... the Kuhn Sidajj Shrine came towering up out of the earth with all the ungodly, earth-shattering tempestuocity of a rising Morla.

The Piano didn’t like it....

I guess nothing so still and focused ever would.

It was a Blessing Shrine.

After I’d come out, I saw on my map that I was quite close to the edge of the island—the Hyrule Great Forest, it’s surrounded by a misty lake on most sides.

Hm, I guess technically that’d make it a peninsula.

Anyway, I pressed on into the misty trees to see if I could make it to the shore; I could see the gaps through the last standing trunks, or I thought I could....

But the fog swallowed me again, as it had when I’d strayed from the path into the woods.

I turned up back at the shrine.

I think I just warped back to the shrine in Korok Forest.

The second trial, to the northwest, was called The Lost Pilgrimage.

This one was a bit more challenging, in that somebody else was already taking it. One Korok, Tasho, wanted me to watch over her little one, Oaki, as he made his way to the shrine at the far end. The only catch was that she didn’t want him to know about it! Because if he found out someone was babysitting him.... Well he’d just have to quit and start over and do the thing properly.

Can’t say I blame him.

So I had to stay out of sight. The curling mist made this fairly easy.... but it also made it exceedingly difficult to keep track of him whenever he had a spurt of confidence and dashed forward and ahead. He was a short little thing in the grass!

Most of the time I was just crouching through the grass behind him, and could overhear him muttering encouragements or questionings to himself.... More than once he squeaked something like, “What was that?” and whirled around. Once he even backtracked to have a look.

He caught me.... more than a few times. And he started over each time.

But I kept trying and Tasho kept putting me up to it and Oaki kept waddling off into the gloom.... And he was a slow walker.

Well, I guess his legs were shorter. Can’t fault him there.

Stray tree branches dropped. Oaki whirled. And I hid myself.

Oaki paused and ducked down. “Ooh, what pretty flowers!” I heard him say. And I just had to wait.

Once, a wolf howled.

糟糕透了！ಥ⩄ಥ

I don’t think Oaki saw it. But it saw me.

How do you engage a feral beast on eggshells?

How do you swing your sword (for which Link always emits a shout) when you’re pretending to be a tree?

I don’t know, but I seemed to have done it. Fortunately I’d lately become more expert at battling wolves. You can’t Z-target onto them, you know. Er, L-target.

When they bark, they’re about to lunge. When they lunge, just sidestep to avoid it, and while they’re close.... slash!

Did Oaki hear me? It had only taken one cut, maybe two, to put the thing down....

I found him again and kept following.

Late on the third or fourth or fifth attempt, I caught the shrine’s orange glow in the distance, and followed after Oaki very carefully. After how many times he’d discovered me I wasn’t going back to the beginning now!

And so I waited, and waited, and waited, until the Korok was completely done moving, before I approached.

“Guess what, Mr. Hero! I did the trial all by myself! Aren’t I brave?” he chirped.

Oh son.

He went on. “Oh, you’re probably here for the shrine. Why don’t you go take a look?” he said, or something like it.

And I went and claimed the monk’s blessing from the Daag Chokah Shrine.

And after I came back out, I just found my own way back to Korok Forest. I’d walked the route enough times.

The third and final trial, to the east, was called the Test of Wood. At this trailhead, a Korok named Damia presented me with a series of Forest Dweller’s gear—a sword, a shield, and a bow. They were all made of wood. The Forest Dweller’s Shield was quite stylish, actually; I’d seen David with that one....

He said all I had to do was keep these items equipped and intact, and get from where I was now, to the shrine at the end of the trail. It sounded simple, he knew, but he said most people thought this was the most difficult of the Korok Trials.

“I said it was SIMPLE, I never said it was easy!” I thought of the Witch of the Walls again.

What was down this path....?

As I moved ahead and the mist pressed in once again, I soon found out: it was an absolute nightmare of lesser monsters, manifesting a variety of elemental affinities. Common garden Keese and Blue Chuchus gave way to Fire Keese and Electric Chuchus, a host of Octoroks leapt up from boggy pitfalls to spit rocks, and the branches above were crawling with bow-wielding Bokoblins.

Indeed it was dicey for the first little while, even at church-mouse speeds. I could handle the brutes as they came one or two at a time, but I wasn’t sure how many monsters there would be to defeat—I didn’t want to lay too many strokes to my wooden sword, or pounds to my wooden bow. But eventually I did get to an especially boggy spot where the lower beasties tapered off, and it was just me and the Bokoblins.

But then.... I’d had them fooled from the start.

Damia hadn’t said anything about Masks.

In the swamped out area just before the shrine, I traipsed a winding and circuitous course across half-sunken logs in the bubbling bog, under the watchful and curious gaze of no fewer than three armed Bokoblins in the tree branches above.

Thank—you—Kilton.

Once I was clear of the muck I entered the Maag Halan Shrine for the final blessing of the Korok Trials.

After reporting back to Chio, he gave me some prize I don’t remember, and I decided to climb up to the crown of the Deku Tree to have another visit with that Colonel Mustard....

Walton was his actual name. Walton the Korok.

There was one more trial up where he perched, I knew. I’d declined taking it before. But I’d been a few places by now. I felt more confident I’d be ready for his Ultimate Challenge....

At it turned out, the Ultimate Korok Challenge didn’t even entail going anywhere. Walton simply recited a series of riddles for me to solve. The riddles gave clues to certain objects, and if I could lay those objects down on the platter-sized leaf in front of him, he would give me prizes!

And, I must say, these were some of the cleverer rhymes I’d seen in this game—and some of the rhymes were subverted on the last word, a la Sweet Violets! It was hilarious.

There were five riddles in all, I think, and my inventory was so full (I almost always made sure to keep at least one of every item I’d ever found), that I had very little trouble laying down the items Walton was looking for.

An apple.... a certain breed of fish....

The fifth and final riddle I had actually seen previously, while David had been playing:

If stepped on by this, you will go poof!

It starts with an H and ends with an oof!

I’d known what it must have been right away.

But David had never killed a Lynel.

I’m only a little sorry to say I took some pleasure in watching him crack his head over it. What could it beeee? he wondered.

I didn’t spoil him too bad, but after only minimal nudging on my part he came to the conclusion on his own that it must indeed be a hoof from a Lynel.

He’d never killed a Lynel before....!

I wanted to watch him complete this last test for Walton.

I was happy to offer guidance on where to find good Lynels to fight, and he took it. And that is how I got David to FINALLY talk to the Zora Laflat so he could get the Zora Pants.

But first he had to climb Ploymus Mountain and have it out with the Devil....

Fortunately for him, I had already carried out enough trials and errors to know how to stand up to them decently enough.

He did well! Though, like me, he did burn his fair share of restorative items through the fray. But that was kind of to be expected, when it was a matter of Lynels.

And so it came to pass that David slew his very first Lynel. And when he brought the hoof back to Walton, he was able to finally complete the Ultimate Korok Challenge.

Just like I was going to do, now....

And after that....

After that....

Didn’t know what to do. Hhhh, how the heck was I gonna find an Ancient Battle Axe+ for Nebb? I had 21 Spirit Orbs; maybe I should have prayed.... Wandered around. Gorko’s Tunnel on the volcano? Still couldn’t solve it. Asked around Goron City to no avail. Saw the sleeping Gerudo. Was jealous. I just wanted to sleep....

I dipped around for only a little bit more before.... I headed back to Pepp’s, and bed.