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.

Patience

Evening of Sunday, June 10, 2018 ~ 2

Patience

I’ve been.... known to be a nice sister sometimes....

I would wait for David before entering the Yiga Nest.

In the meantime.... I erranded.

Off to Dueling Peaks to ask Hino about the moon.... No Blood Moon this time.

Away to Hateno to swoop down on Teli once more.... No cores this time either.

Then a warp to the Divine Beast Vah Ruta to start another float down the lazy river, fishing for more Hearty Bass. As well as venturing inland to clear out some of my obsolete stamps. More than a few Lizalfos misadventures there—I’d forgotten what fun Shock Arrows can be.... @_@

I ended up in the wetlands before I thought to go back to Zora’s Domain to see if anybody were simply selling Hearty Bass.

They weren’t that I could discover.

But my sensor did lead me to find some more of the fishies out back, shooting up the waterfalls into Upland Zorana, until finally, finally.... I had ten of them.

Another warp over to Cotera—the fairies had respawned—how long do they take?? I caught three of them, but failed to notice a fourth before accidentally scaring it away.... Rats!

The Great Fairy was able to upgrade one of the remaining two pieces of Zora Armor. But I found that I had been so focused on collecting Hearty Bass.... that I had completely neglected to watch my supply of Lizalfos Tails! I was SHORT! D8

I don’t know! I had just always assumed I would have enough! You know, like Bokoblin horns, I thought they’d never run out! I’d certainly killed enough of them....

Evidently not.

Well.... I knew where I could find them at least.

I warped back to the wetlands and got busy hunting.

[Masks.... are so handy.]

But the reptilian devils were stingy; I wasn’t able to collect very many tails.

But as long as I was there.... when I could find no more Lizalfos to fight, I turned to the loose Guardian Stalker that had so terrified me before, as I had skirted round it high on the naked cliffs....

I killed it.

And—oh delight of delights—it dropped a CORE for me.

Excellent.

As the days continued to turn, I bounced again between Hino for moon details, and Teli to check for cores. But I had no luck with either of them....

Until David came home.

But by then it was so late, and I knew I would have to wake up so early, that....

I wasn’t sure if I was even up to tackling the Yiga Nest anymore.

Which was a little dispiriting. For both of us. But.... I was trying to be as sensible as I could be, with whatever sense I had leftover.

In the end, out of juice, I flipped to my map and piddled around aimlessly looking at various locations....

“You know,” said David, “I think you spend most of your time in this game just looking at your map, groaning about places you can’t visit.”

KhAUgh! .... My heart! X⩄X

He was exactly right. I was hungry to play more and yet fearful of getting too far ahead of the log.... looking at all the places I could visit but didn’t want to let myself get to.... And I didn’t want to cheat myself of too much sleep besides.

A laughing groan was my touché back to him, and we grimly grinned in my plight.... fed up....

But I wanted to finish up with something.... And on my map I spied a very large Korok spiral on a butte southeast of Spectacle Rock.

Spectacle Rock....

I may not have played every Zelda game.... but there were some names I knew to hold in reverence.

Spectacle Rock was a huge, wide, flat-topped mesa just east-southeast of the Wasteland Tower. Or perhaps.... did it include the natural arch that connected to the tower’s butte?

Did it include both mountaintops?

I don’t know.

I warped to the Wasteland Tower, and paraglided as far as I could toward my destination, but was brought to my feet halfway across the natural arch.

I had never been to Spectacle Rock before. The vast openness of its upper reaches—its upper reach, for how could a plane so singular be anything but whole?—was unsettling.

It should have been the home of Taluses. I felt sure that once I crossed the midway point, some gargantuan monster of stone would erupt out of the ground at my trespassing to have a stern word with me.

Or perhaps in the center—those tiny little knobs there—surely between those would be a Korok hiding under a rock.

But there was nothing.

Just nothing.

There was a wolf. And a blue butterfly.

And nothing.

The afternoon was sinking; I wanted to be off that rock.

I steered according to my HUD and did not stop when I came to the edge but leapt off at once, heading for the Korok spiral’s butte.

I landed on the wall somewhat below the mark, but the scramble to the top was easy enough.

There were two spare rocks here. And a long way down on all sides, and so I knew I’d best not waste them....

I couldn’t quite tell where to put the extra rocks until I actually counted how many there already were in each arm of the spiral.

Two of them were shorter than the others.

Well, a little heavy lifting fixed that!

And out came the Korok and gave me a seed.

And that.... that was enough for the night.

I warped back to the Gerudo Canyon Stable.... and a good night’s sleep.

FEVER

Waking of Saturday, May 27, 2017 ~ 3

FEVER

There is a really joyous kind of abandon to this game that.... really doesn’t give a fig whether you’re hungry, or low on sleep, or even trying to keep a careful log.

There are colors in the distance, and creatures to behold.

There are hills with other sides to be got to....

Sometimes I forget why I’m writing this.

Sometimes I wonder what I’m even doing.

Part of it is for me. I’m a journaler, I’m a logger, I crave the art of crystalizing experiences within combinations of words—and this is one exciting adventure to take down!

But part of it is still a love letter too. Still one great big reaction comment composed with love to the game’s developers.

Hhhh, I just keep falling into this cycle lately. It goes like this:

1. Plunge into the game for several hours without coming up for air.

2. Jot down a skeleton of notes and then crash.

3. Guardians in all my nightmares.

4. Flesh notes out into proper log entries.

5. Get super caught up in finessing the writing until I think I’ll never catch up to my last save point.

6. Procrastination Oreos.

7. Half-watch David play when it’s not too spoilerish, and if he starts laughing at how few shrines I have compared to him, remind him that I’m still way richer than he is. And I have Zora pants.

8. Ache to play the game again myself.

9. Remember that I’m not writing a friggin’ novel; zoom out, pull back, and gloss over with quicker, easier log entries until I write up to where I am in the game.

10. Repeat.

It drives me.... only a little bit batty.

HuHHH I didn’t want to keep falling into that one; it’s just that I love the game so much. I love to play it. I love running around the world and seeing where the trails lead and rooting out the secrets.

I’d thought to just take smaller bites of the gameplay, to make the logging easier, but....

Oh man....

KNOWING the heaps of self-inflicted homework it would lay on me, and yet.... feeling so full of a glorious lack of concern, and ultimately deciding that.... I didn’t care! —

~

It was with the freest, sunniest abandon that I forgot the Hateno House, warped to Zora’s Domain, climbed up into Upland Zorana, and paraglided into the warm, autumnal glow of the north countries. The sweet lush valleys I had so scarcely laid eyes on.

(Which was the same route David used to get into Zora’s Domain, by the by: he Cryonised his way up one of the waterfalls near Toto Lake.

He said he’d tell me some day and now he’s told me and now I’ve recorded it.)

I sailed down into lush grass beneath ruddy trees with golden leaves, where red rocks broke through the surface of the earth in lumps and piles and wild cascades just begging to be jumped and hiked and climbed upon!

Scattered a pack of wolves just to enter that first nearby shrine!

Crossed over beautifully shaded bridges beside towering, romantic waterfalls beneath the cliffs of Zorana!

Trekked westward past the Akkala Parade Ground Ruins!

There were parades here once? :D

Contracted a tiny case of the willies as I looked over the big open square—decided to stay on the road!

All the while the terrible Sheikah Tower patrolled by Guardian Flyers loomed tall and mighty above me to the north....

Threw a bokoblin off a woman named Chabi, who gave me in return.... what some kind of Monster Essence? 8O

Said she got it off a guy named Kilton, who runs some kind of establishment called Fang and Bone, and that it’s only open at night, and it deals in.... all things monster??

She said that essence would go great in any dishes I cooked, but.... I had reservations.

Continued west as the path gained in altitude, and came upon—a diverging of the ways! The bridge north to the tower? Or a paraglider float west to a very near stable?

Briefly felt like Robert Frost! D:

HNNNGGG Decided to lock down the stable first and SO....

Continued west again!

Rescued a couple of sisters from some more bokoblins! How dandy it was to be able to read my enemies’ health-meters!

“I got the Champion’s Tunic!” I had joyed to David.

“Oh!” he gave me a polite smile, “where’d you get it?”

“Impa gave it to me!”

—And his furrowing brow made his eyes narrow at me and he looked confused....

Well where’d he get his Champion’s Tunic?

Continued along the yellowy path!

Found the Foothill Stable and beat the resident shrine!

Cliiiiimmmbed the long road back to the bridge toward the north!

SPORTED WITH SOME BAD GUYS AND FOUND SOME LOVELY WEAPONS!

CROSSED THE BRIDGE TOWARD THE NORTH.... CLOSER TO THE AWFUL TOWER....

Found.... another Stable first! :D The South Akkala Stable!

This was Akkala! I knew it!

Robbie was somewhere close!

And that tower, high up on the red crag, had to have the Akkala map!

Started climbing the red, red rock!

Encountered—

Oh....

Right....

GUARDIAN FLYERS. .__.

Sirens of West Necluda

Waking of Saturday, March 25, 2017 ~ 2

Sirens of West Necluda

Long ago on the Plateau, as I went to meet the Old Man for the last time, I stopped inside the lower halls of the Temple of Time to visit the statue of the Goddess once more.

I had collected four spirit orbs by that point, and in exchange for those four spirit orbs, the Goddess offered to gift me with my choice of either stronger health or greater stamina. I chose health, and received another heart container.

I have been collecting spirit orbs and praying at Goddess statues for this purpose ever since.

But all throughout Upland Zorana, and for a long time before that, I’d only had three orbs to my name.

I knew of one shrine that I had left alone for a long, long time, back in West Necluda. It lay far to the north of the road, on the other side of a tree-smattered spread of hills I had not wanted to stray into, across a little bit of river, and on an island. I’d marked it with a marker in my Slate so long ago, but I had never gone back to it.

Considering the increasing treachery of the monsters in my path, I figured it was time to pay it a visit, and thus attain a fourth spirit orb. But I was in luck: my map of the Lanayru region, home to the Zoras, showed that I could more easily approach that island from the north bank of the river. It would be just a little dash across the wetlands I had already explored, over some mostly bare land, and it should be just right there. Easy in reach.

I warped back to the shrine in which I had weathered the lightning storm. There were still lizalfos lurking about; I killed a few. There was also one of those prancing spectres with the lightning rods—I’m sorry to say I rather ran away when he shot an electric keese at me—I couldn’t ready my bow in time to take it down, and I didn’t have any wood or bone weapons....!

But after I’d given myself some distance, I ran back in again and laid that skipping D-cell to waste.

The.... well I guess you could call it a boardwalk—was completely submerged in places, but I semi-followed it to some dry hills—and my shrine locator started beeping at me.

But.... it was in a different direction....

There were more shrines, it seemed.... very nearby.... but just off my map a bit....

I found a road as well, and people walking and riding along it! People I’d never met before. One man on a horse told me I might want to get close to Hyrule Castle thinking of finding treasure there.... but that I might lose my life along the way. It was too dangerous.

This world was so big.... No but what was I doing out here? Just the shrine. Just the one shrine and then I needed to get back to the Zoras; I still had all Ledo’s rocks in my pockets.... Though it wasn’t a bad thing venturing about for shrines, expanding my map.... after all, I had to find the other races and their leaders, and I had to find my memories....

Oh who was I fooling? —

This was a Zelda game.

The Sirens were singing.

I wanted to wander....

Maybe some of the Courage of my former life was coming back to me.

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