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.

High Hopes . . . Bogged

Waking of Saturday, December 8, 2018 ~ 2

High Hopes . . . Bogged

David asked me later about the shrine in Ludfo’s Bog, and how I had gotten the orbs down.

“I just climbed up and got ‘em,” I said.

He stared at me.

“....What?” I said.

“You climbed up and got them?”

“Well, I mean, it took some doing, but I had enough stamina—and the Climbing Gear!”

And he stared at me like Gonzo stares at an imbecilic Rizzo, and I stared back at him like an oblivious Kreacher who doesn’t see the issue.

And then he shook his head and I kept playing.

Off to Hestu. I had enough Korok seeds. I asked for one last dance and Hestu did his thing and sang his song, his maracas exploding in a giddy burst of blue confetti.... and I obtained the final shield slot.

Now all my equipment pages were full.

“Shakalo!?” he started with a jolt, “You’ve expanded all your inventories!?”

But he recovered himself quickly and resumed his easy swaying stance dance. “Naaaaaaice!” he said, the word flanked by little music notes. XD

NOW what would he do?

“Thanks to you my maracas sound so... shakey-shake SHAKETY!”

Yes? OuO

“There are more children of the forest out there, and I’m sure they’d still love to meet you!”

Or some such words.

....Oh.

I guessed that really was it. Each equipment page now had twenty slots of hammerspace and.... that was it.

I guessed the rest of the Koroks were....

Well what would happen if you got the rest of the Koroks?

....

I might not pursue that in this playthrough.

Well! With my pockets deep as they would ever go it seemed, I ran to see what I could see in another unvisited piece of the world.

I’d seen this one many times in looking over my map of Central Hyrule—it was hard to miss with its contingent of giant ribs sticking out of the earth in unnatural arrangements, the tight cluster of weathered skull-dens, and the giant horned skull that sat atop the crest of the hill.

This was a place my map called the Bottomless Swamp. It was situated on the eastern edge of the central plains, just north of Whistling Hill. But I’d never ventured close to it for the rampant Guardians in the area....

It seemed a Guardian-free approach could possibly be made from the riverbank on the east side. But that direction led up through the forest of battlemented ribs, as well as an overabundance of sprawling, gurgling Pools of Malice. And it was uphill from low ground, no less. No.... I would take the back door.

I could handle the Guardians now.

I ran out into the grass until the Guardian Stalker saw me. It had the higher ground, but I could still time my parries all right.... Maybe due to my experiences outside the Pit Gate, it just made me nervous whenever they had the high ground.... in the grass....

I took the Guardian down, and proceeded to the top of the hill. At the crest, the grass died away and the earth became pale and hard, sinking into a large depression full of bogwater, in the middle of which rested the enormous horned skull. Monsters patrolled around on it, inside and out, except where one massive horn had partially broken off. That ponderous fragment rested alone and low in the muck. Around the edges of the bog, Malice pressed in toward the shore and sloughed heavily away downhill to the east and among the skull-dens clustered into the rock like trophies. By the river, the ribs stood clawlike in a challenging and grotesque barrier. Interspersed with all of this stood tall, jagged rocks that were pocked all over as if they’d been boiled.

Ugh, it was creepy. Malice and bogwater....

I stormed the castle nonetheless, knocking what baddies I could into the muck with my arrows before.... eugh.... paragliding over the bog and landing on the connected horn’s lower tip—for the horns curved back and down and around, like rams’ horns.

The number of silver monsters I was made to endure, Bokoblins and Moblins, was a right pain in my royally beknighted patushka. I knocked them into the bog as often as I could; any gemstones they might have dropped weren’t worth the hassle of beating it out with them over solid ground. Or bone.

After I’d cleared the top, I was blessed to discover a hole in the crown of the skull, via which I could rain terror from above on the inner inhabitants, courtesy of Ja Baij. And as the inner level was not well founded, the blasts were sufficient to knock most of the smaller baddies over the edges and into the sucking, mucky drink. But that big heavy Moblin.... him I just had to sail down and deal with personally.

When every last baddie had been sent back to the Evil Jar, I turned my attentions to the precarious plank of wood bridging a large and dangerous gap in the floor of the inner layer. On the other side, nestled in the cavity of the occipital bun, was a wooden chest.

Huh, wooden....

But appearances weren’t everything. This place was so dreadfully imposing, so heavily guarded, surely there had to be something valuable inside....

I tiptoed my way across the plank, and opened the chest.

It was a hundred rupees.

A cool hundred rupees.

Neat.

Thanks, guys.

I got off the skull island and traipsed around the hillside to the east, skirting the Malice pools and sweeping up what baddies I’d missed. There was a small forest a short way to the north. The forest that spanned from one shore of the river to the other, just near the Wetland Stable. Pikango had said.... there might be a memory in there....

Or, well, rather I had shown Pikango one of the images from Princess Zelda’s pictograph gallery, and he had said the pictograph was probably taken in that forest, though on what side of the river he could not tell.

I knew David had yet to find the memory linked to the pictograph taken in a woods....

But David never stops to chat it up with the locals.

The only problem was.... David and Savannah were in the room with me now, and they wanted to watch a movie.

Huaaugh I killed time in pointless ways, examining boring-looking hills for Koroks, running back to climb a stone tower.... The forest was so close.... I wanted to explore it for the memory, but.... I didn’t want to let on to David what I was doing.... Plus with he and Savannah together in the room.... That was an as yet unknown variable, and I didn’t want to risk any buzzkill at all, especially with a memory cinematic on the line....

Eugh and there was that tense bit in the conversation; David kept pestering me to wrap it up and get off already.... but I kept pressing that I wanted to explore.... How did it lead up to what he said....?

“What is there a memory in there or something?” His voice was still chiding, not serious, but crap.

“I didn’t say that—” Wrong thing to say. “—I’ve been trying to find Koroks....” Or some such lame excuse when I’d ONLY JUST already maxed out my carrying capacity....

I ran around the riverside green like a distractible puppy—typical enough behavior in and of itself whenever I was running out of juice on playtime.... Did it throw him off the scent?

He pressed me further. They wanted to watch a movie.

“Okay, okay,” I said at length when I could think of nothing else to do.

I relented, and went to Pepp’s—it was 9:00 in the morning, game time—and slept until noon.

Good night.

A Familiar Face

Waking of Wednesday, March 29, 2017 ~ 4

A Familiar Face

The girl slowed to a walk.

I doubted another Yiga would venture this close to civilized folk, and I spoke to her.

Her name was Leekah, and she thanked me for my help on the road. She even said she felt less anxious with me around, and I thanked her; that felt good.

Once I had seen her safely into the glow of the Woodland Stable, I turned back to the tall, bobbing figure across the road.

I ran to meet him.

“SHALAKA??” he exclaimed at the sight of me. He was happy to see me, and I to see him. ^_^

What is “shalaka”? Just some snatch of Korok-ese, I imagine. Either that or he just likes to scat. He does sing a bit when he works his magic on my carrying capacity. In fact he sings a very recognizable little tune every time that just makes me grin and tickles me no end....

Before, when he had allowed me to carry two more weapons, he had done a little dance with his special maracas, and it had ended with a little bang like a cheap firecracker and a small shower of scarlet confetti.

It was quite adorable, really. :3

But this time, as I asked him to allow me to carry more bows, he did his dance, but the confetti came out green.

Oh, I thought, perhaps it’s some kind of evolution his character goes through throughout the course of the game. Do his upgrades become more powerful or something?

But then I asked for more shields, and the confetti turned blue!

Why! Those were the Triforce colors! Red for Power, Green for Courage, and Blue for Wisdom.

And I pondered.... Yes, those two weapons.... the weapons in general.... those were definitely a symbol of Power.... employed to inflict your force upon those you deem fit to slay. That was Red.

And the shields.... Protection. Cover and safekeeping. Giving yourself a safe space. You can’t do anything in there, but it buys you time.... time to formulate.... time to think.... A bubble of relative calm and quiet. That could be the Blue of Wisdom perhaps....?

But what about Courage and the bows?

That sounds like a band.... formed by skull kids maybe.... a very juvenile boy band, yes....

*COUGH* What about Courage and the bows?

Well it’s definitely a weaker weapon than the forceful blades you could be using.... Huh but.... archery kind of like sniping.... while hiding....

Well that seems rather cowardly, doesn’t it? :(

But it’s not like I hide every time I use a bow....

Maybe just the thought of it being a weaker weapon.... but still a weapon nonetheless. It can’t rely on great overwhelming force and you can’t use a shield while you hold it, but it can still do something. That’s got to take some of the Green of Courage, hasn’t it?

It was a bow that quieted Vah Ruta.

....

Maybe I did use to be a great archer.

Mister Hestu allowed me a few more trades this time. They got more expensive per carrying-type as they went on, but I had plenty of Korok seeds.

But after a time, he looked up with a jolt, and said he thought he might remember his way back home after all! (He’d been a bit lost, you see.) He also said something about his father or grandfather might be waiting for him.... I do wonder if I’ll ever find his home, or meet his family....

We parted ways, and I turned toward the little pond by the stable.

There was a shrine there, and I had come a long way.

The pounding rain finally let up as I passed a sodden open-air dining area or deck of some kind, and I made my way beneath a high cliff, along a narrow bank toward the shrine.

Two stalizalfos popped out of the ground and I slashed them both to bits, killing one with my blade, and taking the other’s skull-head and punting it into the water, which felt AMAZING.

And in I went, into the shrine of Mirro Shaz.

“I said it was SIMPLE, I never said it was easy!” – The Witch of the Walls, Legend of Zelda cartoon

I think I must always have had some kind of soft spot for Bob Forward....

I broke a few weapons, hounding after the prizes of Mirro Shaz, the tricksy devil.... That very last hidden one was an arduous exercise in math, science, physics and athletic precision. And patience. At one point, wanting to go faster and hitting the wrong button too soon, I caught the wrong end of Ja Baij’s gift point blank and blew myself across the room.

Have I mentioned yet how beautiful the animation is of Link sent flying?

He looks like what a person would look like, as the poor guy rolls to a dazed and dizzied stop.

Very lovely. Very fluid.

Very painful. -__-;

Weapons shattered, numbers mounted in my skull, hearts were lost, but it was worth it, getting that final chest behind the last barred door.

I wonder what Purah would make of a Giant Ancient Core.

It wasn’t until later that I wondered what the stable folk might have thought of me as I jabbered away to the empty rain.... since most people can’t see Koroks it seems. I’d forgotten.