Errands in Zorana

Evening of Tuesday, September 4, 2018 ~ 2

Errands in Zorana

It was time to smarten up—I could at least aim for what materials I wanted. And Luminous Stone from Zora’s Domain was a pretty easy place to start.

I wandered around to Upland Zorana—finally spying on my way, via Magnesis, the Ceremonial Trident at the bottom of the channel beneath the western bridge. Trello had said it had fallen down there....

But I only took a mental note of its location and continued up into the hills, ranging all over, collecting Luminous Stone.

On a paraglide back down toward the Domain proper, I saw that Kilton had parked his balloon near Ralis Pond, so I went to pay him a visit.

Upon approaching him I noticed that the back of his hood (he always faced away from the counter at first) seemed to have.... a hole in it? What?

So I spoke to him, wondering if he had anything new.

And LO AND BEHOLD his hot new item tonight was the LYNEL MASK.

And he confided to me that he had recently nearly been killed while studying actual Lynels to design this mask! Well that explained the hole then! XD

Lynel Mask?

YES PLEASE!

I sold him monster bits for Mon—999 Mon!—and then exchanged again and the Lynel Mask was mine.

SWEET.

I tried it on right away—and laughed so hard—for similar to how he had done with other masks, Link immediately took on the stance and air of its.... what was that word.... exemplificator....

He stood up tall and puffed out his chest and held back his arms like some beefy bodybuilder posing for a film ad! XD Oh my gosh.... XD

Kilton warned me, though.... Lynels were smart. The mask might not fool them for long.

Well I’d just burn that bridge when I came to it then. :)

With my pockets full of Luminous Stone and my Lynel Mask in tow, I sailed down to try and pick up that Ceremonial Trident....

It was a bit of a chore to reach it. But only because I so often forget and neglect the Sheikah Slate power of Cryonis. With a little persistence I was able to ice-bridge my way out to the center of the channel, grab the Trident and get back to solid ground.

But I still didn’t know how to plunge it into the pedestal at the Veiled Falls. I spoke to Trello, I spoke to Laruta, I spoke to Keye.... Keye gave the same demonstration he always had: you jump up high and then slam your spear into the ground.

But I had already tried that with Lady Mipha’s Lightscale Trident, to no effect. And I gave it a go with the Ceremonial Trident. Still nothing.

What was I doing wrong?

I didn’t like damaging these weapons....

Jump up high.... jump up high.... Did I have to go higher? There was a way for that....

I put on my Zora Armor and jetted straight up the Veiled Falls, bursting out the top to hang in the air by my paraglider. Then down, down, down I floated....

I took care to center myself directly over the pedestal. And when I was still high up, but not so high that I’d injure myself.... I let go and plunged down with the weapon....

I didn’t hit dead center, but it was enough.

The Dagah Keek Shrine rumbled out of the earth just up near Ralis Pond!

Well that would make an excellent waypoint up into the hills! It would save a long jog up the stairs and across the bridge anyway.

I entered the shrine and received the monk’s blessing. Excellent.

Trello later mentioned something about a similar effect the Lightscale Trident might have on.... Mipha’s pedestal?

What like the one in the square?

Which I considered and.... might have even tried once or twice.... but....

I don’t like damaging these spears.

Ant Lions

Waking of Sunday, June 25, 2017

Ant Lions

I waited all day on that platform for the Tower’s shadow to find me. Firing a few test shots—and hoping Kass wouldn’t mind me taking potshots at him—I hoped this wouldn’t require a Phrenic Bow, because I was fresh outta those....

But when the shadow crossed over me, a single arrow in the general direction of the sun turned out to be sufficient. Up out of the ground rumbled the Sasa Kai Shrine. A Modest Test of Strength.

I nailed it. Even forgetting until about halfway through that I was still wearing my Warm Doublet instead of the much stronger Champion’s Tunic.

Yes I think I am definitely feeling more confident in my combat skills.

After that I continued my circumnavigation of the mountain, and found a rich weapon cache under a big prominent hill! I took the rupees, the Opal and the Bomb Arrows, but I left the rest for later, and blocked up the entrance again, as I had first found it.

As I continued my trek just below the frost line, I briefly wondered whether my course would take me straight through the mountain range, for there was a lower spot that seemed as if it might cut straight across, and spit me out somewhere near Satori Mountain.

It was a deep canyon of red, windswept stone—felt like I was suddenly in Sedona—and it cut a great, penetrating swath of blank space into my map. Guess it belonged to a different Sheikah Tower.

I stayed high, as usual, but I was dreadfully curious about the layers below me, for there were many. And there seemed to be a road or path down at the twisting bottom, and it was lined along both sides with small stone frog statues.

This was so unusual....

But I still stayed high. The canyon rock at my level formed immense natural bridges and domes and I contented myself with a bird’s eye view.

One giant hole opened up in front of me into which a ringing curtain of sand was gently spilling, like a gossamer veil in the sunlight. I peered into it; a much more complex arrangement of the frog statues seemed to adorn a wider space below. What did it mean....

I got too close and fell in—I threw up my paraglider and scrambled to turn and get purchase on the stone....!

I stopped about six feet from the bottom.

Well, as long as I was here....

I let go and hit the ground—and some ruckus started up.

It was a Yiga Nest. Three Yiga Archers poofed in and out all around me, laughing and taking shots—but at least they stayed still longer than their blade-wielding brethren. I cut them down, and took their bananas, their rupees and their.... Duplex Bows. Interesting weapons. Two arrows at a shot. Can’t beat the Forest Dweller’s Bow or the Lynel’s Bow, though.

When the area was quiet, I studied the frog statues—the faces of the ones up here had been covered by flags bearing a perversely inverted Sheikah Eye. Yiga. I looked to the end of the canyon—for it seemed to end just right there—and found what I believed to be a door in the stone.

But I could not open it.

Not that I was quite so sure I wanted to.

David turned up again, froze for a heartbeat or two, and went into a transport of excitement. “I know where you are!” he said.

And then he turned to me. “Andrea.”

“Yeah?”

“This is about Zelda.” It was the preface he had designed to alert me to when he really was talking about Zelda, as there had been occasions where I’d heard him say snatches of some completely unrelated things that I’d mistaken for spoilers.

“Okay?”

“This is the part that I have most wanted to see you play.” He was positively aquiver with anticipation.

“Ah-huh....”

I still couldn’t open the door, though.

“What, do I need to walk up through the entire canyon first?”

David helpfully just shrugged.

I walked down the path in the canyon a bit—killed a couple more Yiga Archers—and came to a large platform with a sign in front of it: “Offer a Glowing Blue Stone” it said, or something like it. Would this open the door?

There were four Luminous Stone deposits surrounding it. I blew one up with my bomb, and accidentally landed a fragment right onto the pedestal.

And.... a shrine burst out of the ground.

The Sho Dantu Shrine.

A little too much fun with high explosives in that one.

The door still didn’t open, though. But I was not concerned. I climbed my way back onto the sandy natural domes and arches above it, and continued into the high canyon.

I waited out a Blood Moon and soon came to another giant hole in the ground, this one much more conspicuous—at its center was a deep pit, with sheer, wavy Sedona-rock sides. The perfectly round mouth of it was paved with flat stones above, and lined with hanging flags and draperies below the edge. What did this mean? Was this a way in?

I felt amazingly stupid as I tried to get a better look, stepped too close again and once more fell off the edge.

And again, I scrambled to cling onto the wall before I hit the floor, tasting a great impending danger this time.

But when I finally psyched myself up to let go.... nothing happened. No Yiga Clansmen jumped out at me.

There was another stone door on one side like the one back in the canyon. I was certain some diabolical passage under the rock connected them. What was in there?

And then there was that giant pit in the middle.

David had tried jumping in it.

Eh, I’d try it too.

I floated down for a bit, fell, and the screen went black. Would there be a dungeon?

There wasn’t. I just came to back on the edge above.

A note: don’t jump in the Yiga Pit; it’s just a hole to nowhere and you die. Makes me wonder about that hole where the Gerudo Tower stood, actually....

Well there was nothing I could do here, and so climbed out through the snow, freezing only a little on my way back to some warmer ground where I could stand.

It looked like this cut across the Gerudo Highlands was too high after all, even for my Warm Doublet.

But no matter.... I’d just keep going right around the mountain range....

Free Enterprise

Waking of Thursday, April 6, 2017 ~ 2

Free Enterprise

I hung around the stable a bit longer, visited with the people again, loved on the dog some more—it started following me around a bit....

And then I went inside, and found Beedle snoozing away on the floor in the back. I remembered I wanted to check on the price of ten Luminous Stones versus the price of one Diamond, and so nudged him gently awake.

I did not expect his reaction then.

I don’t even remember how or why it happened; I didn’t feel like we really knew each other that well, but he just seemed so excited to see me....

He gave me an Ancient Arrow.

8O

I recognized it.

I recognized it from the teaser I’d seen ages and ages and ages ago! The one with Aonuma’s introduction—the one where Link was running from that terrible Guardian, riding away on a horse until he was cornered, whereupon he vaulted from his horse’s back, nocked the baffling arrow to his bowstring—it whirred and moved and glowed—and let fly.

Oh my gosh, Beedle just gave me one of those.

He told me he got it from a man named Robbie, at the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab.

!

Oh my—Robbie....? Purah had recommended I visit one called Robbie.... I’d forgotten all about him.... And I’d heard the name Akkala said here and there, but I wasn’t quite sure where it was.

But Beedle clued me in—he said Akkala was waaaay north of Zora’s Domain, and he told me that this Robbie was completely obsessed with ancient technology, always studying and experimenting and constructing things like this arrow....

North of Zora’s Domain? Those shrines I had seen from the clifftops of Upland Zorana.... And that Sheikah Tower patrolled by the hovering, red-lighted terror....

Were those Akkalan lands?

o__o

I certainly had a lot to think about.

But.... to the business at hand....

I looked at his wares and he looked at mine, and the going price for a Luminous Stone was seventy rupees, but a Diamond’s worth was five hundred.

So the Luminous Stones were more valuable by the tens.

Huh, perhaps I wouldn’t trade them all away to Ledo after all.... but I didn’t want to sell them to Beedle either.

I don’t know, I felt like I might want to keep them for something, their elemental values.... I felt like they must be used for something else, later....

Then again I know it is a bad habit of mine to hold in reserve, hold in reserve, hold in reserve for the WORST emergencies, until I simply find myself with unused hoards of stuff.

But I decided to lighten my pockets at least a little. I could spare a few Ambers, and I was not short at all on monster-bits. Bokoblin fangs and lizalfos horns might go for cheap, but when you’re carrying several score of each.... it adds up pretty quick.

And then suddenly I had over three thousand rupees.

I could buy that house in Hateno.

And instantly my mind began to make war on itself—Did I really want the house? Did I like the flavor of Hateno? Were there other places in Hyrule for me to live? Better places?

Because for some reason Hateno had always left a weird taste in my mouth. Maybe it was that I was so exhausted when I first got there. Maybe it was the sense of unease I’d had at the time. Maybe it was the proximity of the Yiga encounters, or the dread close hills haunted by that dratblasted Piano....

Maybe it was that encounter with SATAN.

But.... there were nice folks there, too, like that man who’d been so happy to show me around town. Or.... or.... um.... Karson and his fellows; they’d seemed pretty decent. And I guess that little kid who’d shown me the horned statue was pretty cute, albeit seemingly misguided in his sculptural preferences.

I guess I hadn’t really taken a lot of time to get to know the people there, either.

Except for Purah.

And she was weird.

But, with three thousand rupees in my pocket, the option was now open to me.

And that was more for me to think about.

Errand Boy

Waking of Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Errand Boy

The unholy smoke started curling from the ground, and I began to sprint up the stairs, accidentally chasing a poor hapless fox up in front of me. There was a bed up on top of the Reservoir wall, and I really wanted to sleep in it before the Blood Moon shone—

I was five feet from it when the final crash of darkness sounded, and the Princess’ voice warned me to once again please be careful.

Oh but I was being careful, I thought as I came back to myself. I was going to have a good long sleep in this bed. You see because I wasn’t feeling very well, because a Hinox had fallen on top of me.

The rest I had until the morning was most welcome....

Earlier, I had paraglided down from Vah Ruta’s high spring and begun combing the Domain once more for those historical tablets, only becoming distracted by the other Zoras’ issues once or twice.... or thrice.... along the way.

I found a few new tablets, with some interesting and informative histories on them! But there were still a few more, somewhere waiting out there. Jiahto offered to tell me where some of them were, but I told him it was okay; I’d find them.

In fact, I was finding quite a lot in my searchings, including more luminous stones. But Ledo was still sleeping when I came back to him again.

One of Mei’s and Fronk’s children, Tumbo, was selling frogs to raise money while his mother was.... not working, so I donated some of my Hot-Footed Frogs to him. And in the square by the fountain, one Zora child named Keye, while at play, unintentionally gave me a helpful hint about the pedestal at Veiled Falls—perhaps I should try thrusting the trident into the pedestal.

Well, I tried it, with Mipha’s Lightscale Trident, which I had been loathe to actually use. But nothing happened. And now the Lightscale Trident doesn’t have its pristine luster in my inventory anymore. However, Dento assured me that I could come to him if it ever broke, and he could remake it for me. He’s handy in a workshop, that one.

But I’m still not sure if I’ve ever seen the Ceremonial Trident Trello keeps talking about; he said he dropped it somewhere under a bridge....

Guess I’ll just keep looking.

From Veiled Falls.... well, I was close enough to Ralis Pond to go try and have a go at Torfeau’s Hinox.... so I goed.

It was Torfeau who had asked me if I would try and kill it.

Of course it had been Torfeau. She’s the one always practicing with her spear, the first Zora I had seen wearing armor. Tula and Tona were only concerned with their Prince Sidon Fanclubbery.

Well, it started with the letter T anyway.

I drank a sneaky elixir and crept up to the big sleeping Hinox, my heart thumping madly, thinking maybe I could crawl on top of it to steal things off its necklace. And I did come quite close to it. Right next to it, touching it, even walking into it in fact. But I could gain no purchase to climb.

Instead, I thought Oh just blow it and began hacking at it with my Special Thirty-Eight Big Stick. It got to its feet....

Never hack the legs out from under a Hinox at close quarters.

You will regret it.

After a narrow escape and a good long rest and for my second attempt at the Hinox.... I just took David’s approach. Which, honestly, was kind of my approach too, or it would have been if I’d engaged a Hinox before now. It was a good approach—why would I think to go and start attacking one directly? In reach of its—oh Farore they’re so ugly....

Instead! I speared up through the Veiled Falls, made my way to the clifftop above Ralis Pond, and invoked the beautiful aid of Ja Baij.

Of course, the bombs were slow, and the great brute kept wandering—didn’t have a clue who was pelting it with tiny explosives. And so I switched to arrows. A bit faster, and more damaging, so that in a few moments.... I had slain my very first Hinox.

Felt good to clear up Ralis Pond of that filth.

Ralis....

There was a name I respected.

When I finally caught Ledo awake and at his work, I gave him the ten luminous stones. He made a great and humorous fuss about counting them all out—and then he rewarded me with diamonds.

Oh my, but I must look into what those could be used for, or how much they could be sold for—

I might finally claim that house in Hateno Village to be.... a home for me....

Ledo invited me to bring him any more luminous stones I might find, though he said any other sets of ten he’d only trade me one diamond for, not two.

Well that was fine with me! C8

I had eleven more on me just then, but....

Yes I should like to research this.

Adventures in Zorana

Waking of Saturday, March 25, 2017

I.... played from the activation of Vah Ruta again today.

Because.

Adventures in Zorana

After warping over to Cotera’s Forest to have her modify my new pants, I headed back to Zora’s Domain.

I had done the favor for Laflat—and that Lynel Safari had been brutal. Some other Zora—maybe Tula or Toma—had asked if I would go slay the Hinox at Ralis Pond.

“Not now,” I’d said.

Maybe later. Truly.

Kapson had asked me to find just one more betrothed couple he could bless in his old age, and Jiahto, another elder Zora, wanted me to scout out the rest of the historical stone tablets scattered about the Domain so I could help him write his book.

And Fronk....

Fronk had seemed.... down.... whenever I talked to him. He always claimed to be just lost in thought, a few times he told me to just get out of his way, and once I heard him say something about.... something being all his fault.

At first I’d thought he was talking about Vah Ruta—what, had he triggered something? But now.... as I passed him again, he finally opened up to me.

I had heard a couple of the Zora children saying something about their mother, Mei, failing to return from somewhere—some kind of work she does, I gathered—but they were sure she was safe.

But now I found out that Fronk.... was Mei’s husband.

And he was worried sick about her.

Oh gads, perhaps he and others had been protecting the children—was the situation really much worse?

I told him I would help him find her.

I would help him find his wife.

....

If I’d been more in character, I might have rushed off to that right away. But first.... Ledo had asked me something a bit more simple than any of these things.

I’d seen him hammering away at the pillars and fixtures all about the Domain, and he said he had a lot of work to do yet. He asked me if I had any luminous stone.

As it turned out I did; I’d run into a sizeable quarry of them back near Hateno, when I went chopping—er, exploding wood.

But Ledo needed ten of them for his repairs, and I only had six. However, he did say they were plentiful to be found all over Upland Zorana.

I’d seen that region on my map. A slightly lower area of hills a bit west of Ploymus Mountain.

Vah Ruta had been won, the rain had stopped, the day was saved.... It was time for some friendly neighborhood hero work and a good romping explore.

Besides, now I had the Lightscale Trident, and the Veiled Falls were on the way to Upland Zorana!

But when I got there, there wasn’t really anything to be done. The falls didn’t split open as I waved Mipha’s weapon. All I saw of note was a great orange dais beneath the water. The kind those big heavy Sheikah orbs can be fitted into. Hmmm.... Maybe I’d have to speak to Trello—he said something else about a trident he dropped.... or perhaps Dento, the arms repairman. Maybe one of them could give me some clues....

Or perhaps that little Zora girl who sings the song....

Well, the Falls weren’t going anywhere, and so I speared up through them and onto the higher hills.

It rained for much of the time. Which was only a little wearisome—hadn’t the Prince and I had just gone through so much trouble to get it to stop raining?

But perhaps it was fortuitous—it did give me a little bit of cover and din to hide behind, for there were lizalfos up here. And moblins.

I spent a lot of time casting bombs down from hilltops. One lizalfos at a time I can handle, but.... when there are a few of them all in the same area.... And I still don’t feel comfortable fighting moblins.... That hammer incident seemed so distant and lucky now....

I just need to work on my timing. Maybe I can practice a bit back on the Plateau.

The luminous stones were tricky to find through the rainy haze—it was much easier at night, when they glowed bright blue. But I did find enough to bring me up to ten, and then some—for their description said something about.... they can be used in some kind of weaponry....

So I’d keep a few extras handy if ever I figured that out.

I jumped off a huge jutting rock to get back to Zora’s Domain all quick-like, and proceeded to ask everybody I met where Ledo had got to, but when I finally found him.... he was asleep.

The Zora sleeping quarters.... they’re these deep pools back beneath the throne room.

Ledo was zonked and there was no waking him.

Well.... guess I haven’t really been the model of circadian responsibility myself. You know, I think Link can run around for days on end without sleeping because.... well he’s been asleep for a hundred years!

Oh well, there was nothing I could do.

Jiahto stood nearby, studying one of the tablets. Thinking again about what I’d seen written on them.... I knew there was some treasure up there.... somewhere on the mountains....

I read the tablet near Jiahto’s spot again. This one was a replica of the one about the ancient Hero defeating the Lynel. He’d been given a helm in reward. And that helm rested.... ugh, but this tablet was still degraded! I couldn’t tell where the helm rested! It was near a lake with a four-letter name. Which sounds awful but, just—Well I’d kept thinking Lulu Lake, but—

AND THEN IT HIT ME LIKE A TON OF POUNDS.

In my wanderings around Zorana, I’d come to a Toto Lake.... and there were sunken ruins in it jutting from the water!

“I didn’t try Magnesis!” I shouted, and David perked up from his phone and watched me at whiles as I made the long, long climb back up Veiled Falls, back round through the twisting hills, back eastward toward the mysterious Toto Lake.

This seemed to be the very border of the Zoras’ Kingdom.... and I’d seen things from these hilltops.... and some of them looked spectacularly welcome.... and some of them made me want to crawl into a hole and never come out again.

There was another Sheikah Tower very near here.

But it seemed to be guarded by .... something I have no name for. Something that patrolled in a hover, and searched the ground with a beam of red light. It looked.... like a machine.

Agh, and there were shrines so close.... but....

These Zoras first.

I found the lake again, crawled out to a high jutting point of the sunken ruins and waved my Slate around....

There! There beneath the water was a chest! I pulled it out onto an exposed part of the ruin and opened it.... and it had a Zora Helm inside of it!

Ah! My ensemble was complete! How DANDY I looked! ^_^

Ah, very regal, sleek and blue and silver and scaled, with that slick protruding helmet bit at the front.... very menacing.... Ah, yes. Ah, and the asymmetricality of it! For on the left temporal fin there were what looked like little ornamental earrings or something, just two of them, small silver hoops, very subtle; but the right fin was bare.

Very nice, I liked this get-up.... and I could swim faster in it too!

And with that it was time to pay Cotera another visit!

She really is a nice Great Fairy. :3