Volcano Wanderings

Waking of Saturday, October 28, 2017 ~ 2

Volcano Wanderings

I wandered on down the road toward a treehouse that looked intriguing. I had it out with the slew of Moblins up top; but pacified as they were by my Moblin Mask, they couldn’t be kept at bay for long once I started throwing punches.

I had almost polished off the last of them when I heard the Blood Moon music.

That wasn’t good.

I quickly ransacked the three treasure chests, headed for the ground floor, and was duking it out with a Lizalfos when midnight struck.

Too late.

When the vision ended I was surrounded by baddies again.

I booked it.

There were Koroks here and there.... another Shrine.... the Qua Raym Shrine? Maybe.

What else was around here....? I knew I’d meant to take a bit more time visiting the South Mine, as the last time I’d seen it I’d come tearing through under the influence of a certain elixir, and was gone before I had seen much of anything. And it had that familiar music I’d wanted to hear more of, too....

But I also remembered one of the Gorons in town having mentioned an Igneo Talus to be defeated at Darunia Lake. My imagination flared up with more cannon shenaniganry.... that sounded like FUN....

And so I ran back to the lake at the North Mine with its cannons and had a grand old time blowing up the resident baddies.... but could not find a Talus to shoot anywhere.

Wasn’t this a quest? I checked my sidequest log. Yes it was a quest.

I selected it, dropping a location marker for this particular quest to show up on my map.

And show up it did. Right over there. Across the lake and on the shore.

Out of range of the cannons.

No cannon shenaniganry this time. :c

It looked like I’d just have to kill it the old fashioned way.

So I did—after finding a perch low enough to keep its attention but still high enough to protect me. (Don’t go for the extra-high cliff; he’ll pelt you before you can climb out of reach.)

The quest log updated, and I went back to report to whatever Goron it was that had set me to it. I remembered. It was the apprentice of that—

Ah.

Hhhhh.

The apprentice of that Master Rohan.

I remembered. Or rather, I didn’t remember. For most of the points of this particular sidequest had sailed in one ear and out the other due to the fact that my mind had jammed like a printer on that name:

Master Rohan.

And I wondered where my friend had gone.

It’s been nearly three years.

....

Seemed this Goron Master Rohan too was an artisan. His apprentice—Fugo was his name—thanked me with some reward or other, probably rupees. But Master Rohan himself was.... a bit grumpy as I recall. Brooding and gloomy and crotchety.

Guess that’s a nut to crack some other day.

I don’t even remember what their whole deal was anyway. Fugo wanted some kind of acknowledgement or something from his master....?

Hhhh. Master Rohan.

I wandered on, eventually coming to a place called Gorko’s Tunnel. It was fairly short, and dead-ended, and there was a single Goron inside, swinging a pick at the tumble of rocks at the far end.

None of my implements could speed the work.

I gathered that the tunnel seemed to lead to somewhere or something special, but I couldn’t get out of the Goron what that could have been.

I couldn’t get it out of David either. He was infuriating.

.... though I don’t suppose I’d have it any other wayyyyy maybe.

So many dead ends just leave you so confounded.

Where do people go?

HOTFOOTING IT

Waking of Saturday, August 12, 2017 ~ 2

HOTFOOTING IT

Perhaps it was that I had so recently finally consumed one of the Spicy Omelets in my inventory. Perhaps it was that I now had plenty of Fireproof Lizards in my pockets. Perhaps I just couldn’t take being called That guy who backed out of the endurance challenge.

Or maybe my shame had finally caught up with me for being such a dawdler.

I warped to the shrine in the desert near Digdogg Suspension Bridge, and hiked from there up into the mountain until I found Bayge, Heehl, Kabetta, and their giant molten hotplate of death.

I hopped up onto it, my clothes started to smoke, and Bayge’s cinematic wound up in an overdone countdown that had me juddering to hit the pause button and find that elixir!

Freedom of movement came soon enough. (Link’s overheated expression in the pause menu looked quite duressed!) I found the elixir, downed it, and returned to the game to find myself.... standing rather sedately on the glowing hot skillet, smoke no longer issuing from my person. That was nice.

I wondered if they’d give me fireproof clothing for beating this! I’d forgotten that it was actually a Shrine Challenge, and so was only slightly disappointed when Bayge called time and the thing rumbled up out of the earth.

The Gorons were all wowed and impressed anyway.

I beat the shrine, collected the Spirit Orb, and decided.... it had been long enough.

With a few more freshly-cooked Fireproof Elixirs in my pockets, I warped to the Eldin Tower.

Setting my face toward what appeared on my map to be the quickest road to Goron City, and what appeared before my face to be a random tangle of ash-slides and twisted rock, I stepped to the edge of the tower, and took a flying leap.

Fwoom! went the thermometer as smoke began billowing from my clothes again. And into the pause menu I went, downed another elixir, returned to the game.... and was safe in my silent glide into the inferno.

The time limit for the elixir’s effect ticked soundlessly away, gleaming unobtrusively in the upper left corner with all the innocence of the impending vacuum of space. The upper volcano was eerie. The glow of the lava so close and ash and lit cinders in the air.

But my boots soon hit the rock, and I was on a mission. I didn’t stop for Lizalfos. I didn’t stop for ore. I didn’t stop for critters.

I had to get to Goron City.

I tried to stay high and cut the corners of the path in my HUD map, capitalizing on the chance to cover distance by paraglider. And when my flight speed and altitude were spent, and I flushed down into the low road, I sprinted. I could only keep on hoofing it up the track.

And then of a sudden I burst through the midst of a gang of Gorons hard at work—the South Mine this place was called. I stopped to talk to a rather swarthy one in a hardhat, some kind of foreman or boss I gathered. The dialogue paused the timer, as I’d hoped it would. But I still didn’t catch his name; I felt too eager to continue.

The Goron simply expounded on what they were about, and how Vah Rudania, the Divine Beast, prevented them from accessing their other mining areas further into the mountain.

How interesting, I thought, and kept on running.

If I’d been feeling a bit more lax, I might have spent some time and thought wondering about the music. There was something.... very familiar about it here in the mining area, and further up the trail. Must’ve been a track I’d heard on a CD; it didn’t sound like it came from a game I owned....

And then Link came to a halt and shook as an awful roaring rent the air—

What about my timer?

The timer was gone. The screen faded instead to a much closer view of the Divine Beast Vah Rudania as it prowled around the cone of the volcano.

My gosh it was....

It was....

But how does one describe the cinematic passing of a Divine Beast, wherein every intricate detail, every curve and corner, every arch, rib and strut of its gleaming bronzy form is at last able to be glimpsed?

I already knew it was big.

....

The short cinematic ended and I kept on running. More and more bits of deliberate metalwork showed up, in archways, in fenceposts, in bridges. Gorons stood or walked here and there. I passed them. I could see the habitation drawing nearer in my HUD map. The name Goron City glowed across the screen. I could see the yellow dot indicating the one I was supposed to meet with. My fireproof timer was about to run out—

That big old stooped Goron was the one I needed to talk to—I ran into the town—Somehow reaching that point had become connected in my mind with the last crossing of this whole terrible bridge. Surely beyond that there would be some sort of fix, some sort of respite. Although.... there also might not be—I sprinted past rocky structures—What would I do when I had painted myself into a corner? What would I do when I had finished speaking with this elder Goron, and found myself in imminent danger of spontaneous combustion? Did I talk to the guy or—

WAIT.

Less than fifteen seconds.

My eyes darted to my HUD map. The building icons had populated.

Clothing shop, clothing shop.... There it was!

Less than ten seconds.

I ran inside, looked at the wares—600—700—2000 rupees—I had money.

Less than five seconds.

I bought them all and put them on—

And I was safe.

And I stood there as my timer ran out.

....

I looked like an old-timey scuba-diver.

....

. . . . . . .

Do you ever wonder if you’ve just made a big dumb purchase?