You aren't sure when you might get another chance to challenge Dampe's subterranean race-course; the variable nature of the tests presented by the Ring of Trials is such that you can't be sure of getting this particular Trial just by stepping into the Ring again. Might be something to discuss with the priests...
That aside, if and when the opportunity for a rematch does come up, you'd like to have at least one form of supernatural augmentation available.
If Dampe's still annoyed by that, you can always run the track a third time, using no boosts at all.
"Before I go," you say, "I have to ask: did you really dig all of that out yourself?" You gesture back at the track, before adding, "The original location, I mean."
"Not ALL by myself," Dampe admits. "My predecessor as gravekeeper of Kakariko was the one who found the tunnels, originally, by digging deep enough to break through the roof of this very chamber and then falling the rest of the way. That's actually how I got the job; Old Gus hurt his back coming down, and it never healed right. Made it almost impossible for him to dig, so I took over that part of the work, and he supervised and handled most of the 'people' side of the business - like getting the local priest involved when we found those writings on the pillars, to make sure we weren't about to unseal something."
Good idea, especially in Hyrule.
"Of course, the priest couldn't make heads or tails of the writing, which led to the Royal Historical Society getting involved and organizing a larger dig. They cleared out another third or so of the course before they'd managed to translate enough of the writing on those stones to make out a warning about a 'Shadow Temple' and 'ancient, sleeping evil,' which spooked most of them into giving up the project and clearing out."
Again, probably the sensible approach, but... "Only most of them?"
"A pair of brothers named Sharp and Flat spent years coming and going at odd intervals," Dampe answers with a shrug. "I never was entirely sure what a pair of musicians would be looking for down here, but they seemed happy enough with what had already been unearthed."
The Composer Brothers were alive in Dampe's time? Interesting. You wonder what Sharp and his younger sibling were doing down here, but Dampe did just say he didn't know.
"And the last third of the tunnels?" you ask instead.
"Dug that section out myself, years later, when it looked like war was coming," Dampe admits with an unhappy sigh. "I had the idea that the villagers might need a place to hide themselves, or maybe supplies, that wasn't so obvious as somebody's basement, but which was closer to town than where Gus had started digging from."
"How'd that work out for you?"
"Not so well, once the Poes and ReDeads started showing up."
The Poes hovering nearby snicker.
Yeah, you can see how that might have been a problem for most people. Speaking of troublesome ghosts, though...
"On a related subject, how did that business with the Fae bodies and ghosts work out?"
"About as well as could be expected," Dampe replies somberly. "The death of their killer did at least as much to convince them to move on as a proper burial did."
You will take a little added satisfaction in your part in things, then.
With that, you wish Dampe well, and proceed to your next Trial-
!
-which proves to be somewhere in a forest. It's probably day time, but the canopy overhead, the clouds far above, and the mists hanging somewhat closer to the ground are thick enough that the ambient light is fairly dim. You are actually reminded of your trips to Faerie, although there is a certain absence of something in the air which makes you doubt that's the location the Goddesses have copied for this Trial.
"This feels... kind of like home," Briar murmurs.
"...as in 'Lost Woods', home?" you ask.
"Uh-huh."
...concerning.
Well, you're standing in the middle of a small not-quite-clearing, with paths going off in four different directions. Nothing particularly distinguishes one route from the others, whether you look at them with your eyes or various enhanced senses.
"Alright," you say, "for those at home, I am in the middle of what appears to be a recreation of a mystically difficult to navigate forest in Briar's home kingdom, so I am going to work a bit of magic known as the Spell to Find the Lay of the Land to try and counter the disadvantage of having no idea where I am or where I'm supposed to go. Briar, do you mind explaining the spell while I work?"
"Not at all. So, the ritual is a form of Divination, and one that's accessible to several major styles..."
As your partner talks, you focus on connecting yourself with the facsimile of the natural world around you. While you know that it's an artificial environment, it feels real enough even to your exotic senses that you have no worries about the magic failing to work. That might be the case if you were facing some kind of Enchantment-based, "it's all in your mind" challenge, but the Trials being derived from Summoning Magic works very much in your favor here.
About a minute later, you finish the spell, at which point your mind is filled - not flooded, thankfully, but gradually filled - with a mental map of the surrounding terrain. Said map is expansive, to say the least, dwarfing the largest Trial or Trial-like area you've previously scanned in any depth - that was probably the time Navi pitched you into the Silent Realm, you think? - reaching out eight miles in every direction without giving any indication of blurring into indistinctness, running over the edge of the world, or otherwise ceasing to be.
Just how big can the Goddesses make a Trial, anyway?
Yes.
...
Okay, then.
Anyway, with the map in mind, you can see several interconnected paths, groves, and proper clearings, which wind back and forth and all about - crossing a river in a few places - before ultimately coming to a large, open area that registers a bit fuzzily in your senses. That is most likely the presence of artificially worked materials, as opposed to weathered ones, ruins or the like, and hence probably the place you need to go. And if you trace the path back from there, you probably... have to go... east?
East looks good.
"-and that looks like the face of a guy who's figured something out," Briar says then. "Alex?"
"I think I've got it, yes," you agree. "This way."
"Hmmm," Briar says neutrally, before making a mark on one of the trees and then flying after you.
As you walk, you take the time to give your audience a brief dissertation on the nature of the Lost Woods, and how it comes by that name honestly. An ancient stomping ground for fairies and at least one major nature spirit, the location of one of the great spiritual sites of the kingdom, a region where the Material Plane of Hyrule overlaps with the Plane of Shadow, the Border Ethereal, and the Realm of Faerie...
It's easy enough to get lost in a normal forest, where directions, space, and time are constants, and there aren't mischievous Fae and unfriendly undead hanging around waiting for a chance to play tricks on clueless outsiders. In a place where the reverse is true, at least as often as not, all it takes is one misstep for you to find yourself lost forever.
"Case in point," you announce a few minutes later, as you step around a boulder and find yourself back in the clearing where you started, the neon green X your partner splashed on one of the trees standing out clearly.
It would seem that Lay of the Land, while perfectly effective in mapping the physical layout of the forest, is not so effective against the warping of local space-time.
But that's fine. Having the map in your head and the accompanying boost to your tracking skills is still a lot better than trying to navigate the Lost Woods blindly. All it will take to reach your destination is time, patience, and a little experimentati-oh, Goddesses, this is a PUZZLE, isn't it? A NATURAL PUZZLE.
Mwahahaha!
"For the record," you state aloud, "I could simply Power through this Trial, or use Wisdom to circumvent it... but this is clearly a test of Courage."
Huh?
Wha-?
Ha!
"Still, before I see what the Little Goddess of the Savage Wilds has in store tonight-"
I like this title and I vote we keep it.
Sis, I want you to ask yourself one question: "Do I really need those kneecaps?"
Both of you, hush. Not during a Trial.
"-Briar, you're a local. Any advice?"
"Well, I can't tell you the correct route," your partner says. "Aside from the fact that I don't recognize that map in your head, meaning the Goddesses thought to lay the place out differently than what I remember, the ways through the Lost Woods change over time, and I've been away long enough for there to be some alterations."
You nod, accepting that. "But?" you venture, guessing from Briar's tone that she has more to say on the matter.
"But, I can give you some general guidelines..."
Your partner was already marking your trail, so that if you got turned around, you'd realize it. She notes that a lot of people wouldn't have this option, either because they didn't think to leave signs of their passage or lacked a means to do so. Simply leaving physical signs tends not to work out once you're this deep in the Woods; too many of the locals find it amusing to interfere, whether by defacing or removing signposts and similar large markers, healing over marks carved into trees or adding new ones to confuse the issue, or otherwise being nuisances.
Magical marks don't work out so well for most people, either. After decades and even centuries of personal exposure to the general weirdness of the Lost Woods, and with millennia of "familial" exposure behind them, most of the plants are at least a little bit magical themselves, and consequently at least a little magic resistant. Arcane Marks and the like wear off faster, don't properly take hold in the first place, or develop weird side-effects from unexpected interactions with the targets' energies; plenty of the plants will react badly - and dangerously - to attempts to damage them, or even just to touch them; and of course, somebody may just dispel or counterspell your work.
"Maybe not YOUR work, specifically," Briar admits. "But in general."
All of that said, the fairies and other residents know how to leave marks that others won't disturb, and many of the former have shared the trick with their partners over the ages - though they change things up every once in a while, when the information spreads too far and unvetted and uninvited strangers start becoming an issue.
"But you know the current 'code'?" you ask.
"I got it from some of the others at your party."
Ah.
Trail markers aside, there are certain navigational trends that also come into play. Always turning right when you have the option to, specific landmarks that need to be gone past or through, and of course-
"Ready, pi!"
"Aim, pi!"
"Shoot, pi!"
-attackers that have to be dealt with in some manner.
Dodging the efforts of a shooting gallery's worth of Deku Scrubs does add a certain something to the forest experience.
For a moment, you're tempted to fire off a Color Spray, to try and render all three Deku Scrubs unconscious or confused. Then you recall that a) plant creatures tend to be resistant or immune to mind-affecting spells, b) Fae entities are often resistant or immune to Illusions, and c) Color Spray has a very short range and accordingly limited area of effect, so it might not be able to hit all of them at once.
Two would be doable, but three is unlikely.
Instead, there was a spell you'd been working on...
"Why are the shadows gathering around him like that, pi?!"
"I don't like the look of this, pi..."
"Shoot faster, pi!"
"Know, live, become-"
"A toad!" It's a classic!
And then you cast the spell.
*Poof* goes the first Deku Scrub.
*Poof* goes the second Deku Scrub.
*Puh?* goes the third Deku Scrub, who is left staring at you in alarm and then quickly pats itself down with its leafy limbs.
"Oh, thank the trees, pi, I'm still me, pi," the creature sighs. Turning to its friends, it asks, "Guys, are you- WHAAAA-?!"
*Croak* goes the first Deku Scrub from somewhere amid the undergrowth. You actually can't see the transformed forest-dweller anymore, thanks to the loss of size imposed upon it by your Shadow magic, but from how its new voice sounds almost calm, somewhere underneath the leaves, you think your spell must have been fully effective - or as close to it as possible, given the nature of its target.
Plant-based life-forms are not only resistant to mind-affecting effects, but also to polymorphs. The reason for it has to do with the mental and physical differences between plant and animal, and how most spell-crafters fall into the latter category - in terms of pure biology, anyway - and consequently engineer certain biases and shortcomings into their creations.
Being Illusion Magic rather than Transformation Magic, the Spell of Baleful Shadow Transmutation can bypass some of those resistances, but only to a point. In this case, the "Deku Toad" is likely not permanently locked in its new form, and has but to remember its true nature in order to escape the spell - a process that would still take far longer than the Trials are going to last.
*Croak-croak-croak!* goes the second Deku Toad, the higher pitch and rapid-fire nature of the calls giving a sense of urgency and alarm. Factor in how the transformed plant is now hopping in place, and it's clear they're either freaked out, really angry, or some mix of the two.
You aren't quite sure what happened there. The physical transformation is only supposed to kick in when the target is successfully tricked into thinking that they're whatever you made their shadow look like, and once that happens, they're SUPPOSED to be mentally "transformed" as well as physically. This Deku Toad, though, obviously recalls and understands that something was done to it against its will, and is not at all pleased about it.
Maybe it's that Fae/plant nature, giving the creature a degree of resistance to the change you've induced? Something to talk to Batreaux about, and to keep in mind when casting this spell in the future, particularly against plants, Fae, or Fae plant creatures.
Learned Baleful Shadow Transmutation
Gained Illusion C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
As for the last, apparently unaffected Deku Scrub, it stares in the direction of its friends for a long moment, and then turns back to you, its dark eyes wide with shock.
"They're... they're made of meat! What did you DO, you monster?!"
*Croak-croak-croak!* Deku Toad Number Two demands urgently.
"Excuse you, all my best friends are made of meat."
It's true that you're on positive terms with a lot of individuals whose bodies aren't of a conventional flesh-and-blood nature. Gorons are living stone, Kokiri and Deku Scrubs are animated plants, and as for the various spiritual entities... well.
But your BEST friends? The people who you hang out and goof around with on a regular basis? The Sunnydale crowd, Kahlua, Altria, Ichigo, Sokka? Yeah, they fit. Even Briar - who, being Fae, has a lot of magic in her make-up - is still more flesh and blood than not, especially when she's using her human disguise.
"Oh, yeah, pi? And how many of your friends have you turned into plants against their will, pi?" the Scrub shoots back. "Or rocks, or... or other, non-meat materials, huh, pi?"
"Not a one," you admit easily.
"See, pi? So how-"
"I have, however, turned MYSELF into other stuff, like stone-"
"What, really, pi?"
"-and fire-"
"YIPE, PI!"
"-so I DO know what it's like to be made of something different. Have YOU ever been turned into something other than bark and leaf?"
The Deku Scrub fidgets and looks away. "...no, pi."
"So maybe it's not QUITE as bad as you-"
*Croak-croak-croak!*
You pause and look down at the Deku Toad, whose skin you note is covered in cute little leafy patterns, while its eyes glow orange. This gives it a similar appearance to the Deku Scrub standing next to it, and the form it used to have just a moment ago, but reading its expression and movements now...
"-okay, maybe it is that bad," you admit. "For SOME people."
Personally, you have yet to experience any issues of that particular nature. Your problems with shape-changing thus far have all come down to the Curse's tendency to try and turn you into more of a Ganondorf look-alike; compared to that, just wearing a different form or being made of different stuff is pretty unconcerning.
"But need I point out that you were attacking me and my partner?" you go on. "I have the right to wield my power in defense of myself and the people I care about-"
"Aw, isn't he sweet?" Briar asks nobody in particular.
"-and I'm under no obligation to do favors to my enemies. That said, I might be talked into making a deal with someone who was no longer hostile...?"
The Deku Scrub and the Deku Toad trade wary glances.
"...what sort of deal, pi?"
That's not an acceptance, you note, just an indication that the Dekus aren't entirely opposed to the idea.
There a lot of things you could ask for in a situation like this, ranging from simple safe passage or information about the route ahead to an active escort or the identities of the parties currently at your mercy. However, the fact that this is all happening inside a Trial means that you'll have to be selective, for the simple reason that if you ask for more than the Dekus feel like giving, they can just refuse the deal and wait for the current stage to end, which will dismiss them and end the transformation you've forced on two of them.
For that matter, the Deku Toad could always hop off into the Woods and try to find a hungry monster to eat him. It'd be an unpleasant way to break the spell, but it's an option, and potentially a tempting one if he knows the real him wouldn't likely remember it.
"Well, first of all..." You pause, considering a point. "Actually, before we start, what should I call you? Note that I'm not asking for their Names," you add, half-turning as if to speak to somebody standing at the shoulder where Briar isn't hovering. "Nor am I offering my own. Names are an important and often dangerous part of magical deals, and giving up your own can put you at a disadvantage or even in direct peril, as it makes you easier to affect with many spells, including Summoning Magic. And for that reason, forcing a creature to give up their Name is something that doesn't go over well."
"...who are you talking to, pi?" the Scrub wonders, peering in that general direction.
"The audience."
"We have an actual audience for this Trial, pi?"
"We do, and I've been taking the opportunity to give them some visual demonstrations of magic I wouldn't easily be able to show off otherwise."
"Yeah, I can imagine, pi... er, wait, pi. Are the Goddesses okay with that, pi?"
"...I mean, they haven't dropped a lightning bolt or otherwise expressed displeasure, so..."
You, Briar, and the two Dekus all glance upward for a moment.
The sky remains full of mist, leaves, and clouds, but there is no ominous rumble.
"...so yeah, I think we're okay. To a point, at least."
"Okay, then." The Deku Scrub considers. "So, um, I'm Three, pi, and this" - it nods at the angry but no longer hopping mad Toad - "is Two, pi."
"And that's One?" you guess, pointing in the direction of the other Toad.
*Croak*
"Good guess, pi."
Truly, it was a challenging conundrum.
"Alright, you can call me Sorcerer-"
"And I'm Partner!" Briar adds.
"-and in exchange for reverting both of your friends to normal, I'd like three things. The first, of course, would be for you not to attack me again, as long as I don't attack you."
"That's fine, pi." The Deku Scrub sighs. "I think we can safely say that you beat us, pi."
Good to have that clear.
"Second... and then third..."
"Second, I would like an escort through this Trial."
"...you want us to go with you, pi?" Three wonders.
*Croak-croak?* Two inquires.
"I do, mainly because the third thing I'd like is information about the Lost Woods. The real one, I mean," you clarify.
"Oh, pi. So you just want somebody to talk to, pi-"
"Hey."
"-somebody NEW to talk to, pi," the Deku Scrub corrects himself at Briar's annoyed interjection.
"Fair."
"Pretty much, yes," you agree.
"That sounds fine then, pi, although I'm not sure what we can tell you about the Lost Woods that your Partner couldn't, pi."
"I haven't been home for over a decade," Briar explains, "so my information isn't current. And while I have managed to meet up with my Mom and my family since then, thanks to this guy being excessively magical... well."
"Fairies, pi?" Three asks wryly.
"Yeah, fairies," Briar agrees.
"Do we have an accord?" you ask, formally.
"We do, pi."
"Excellent. Oh, and for the record," you add, once again looking "towards the audience," "while I could have used this bargain to ask for information about the remainder of this Trial, like I said earlier, I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a Test of Courage rather than Wisdom. Going in forewarned might be Wise, but it would also ruin the surprise element."
"More so than mapping the forest did," Briar notes.
You turn to her. "I mean, I mapped the FOREST, but finding out that map didn't cover the spatial warping was still fairly surprising, wouldn't you say?"
"You're not wrong."
You get on with your spellcasting. Fortunately, despite its decidedly negative effects and potentially permanent duration, the Spell of Baleful Shadow Transmutation isn't actually a curse, so you don't need to bring out any specialized curse-breaking effects to get rid of it - a simple Spell to Dispel Magic, scaled up slightly to affect two targets at once, is entirely sufficient to get rid of a spell of your own casting.
If that HAD been a curse, things would have been more difficult, especially thanks to your decision to Heighten the magic. Lucky for everyone involved that it wasn't, then, huh?
*Poof*
"Oh, thank the trees, I'm me again, pi!"
"Huh, pi? What are you guys- oh, the target, pi! I'll get hi-"
"WAIT, PI!"
You are treated to the rare sight of Deku Scrubs dogpiling - or maybe that should be leaf-piling? - one of their own, as they try to prevent One from breaking your deal as soon as it was made.
Once that's sorted out-
"Are you SURE I can't just, pi...?"
"No, pi."
"But I didn't make the deal, pi?"
"Do you WANT to be a toad, pi?"
"...maybe, pi?"
...
"It was weird and interesting, okay, pi?"
-more or less, anyway, your expanded group sets out.
"So, where to start, pi?" Three muses. "Well, one thing that's definitely changed about the Lost Woods over the last couple of decades is that a lot of the signs of Moblin activity have faded, pi."
"Oh, that's good," Briar sighs.
"Yeah, all those paths they cut and burned through the place are starting to get properly overgrown again, pi. It'll be a while yet before they're back to the way they should be, pi, but at least now they look like part of an actual forest, instead of a road that just happens to be lined with trees, pi..."
The addition of a trio of chatty Deku Scrubs to your little entourage doesn't make your progress through the Trial any faster, nor does it prevent you from getting turned around a couple more times-
"Shouldn't have taken that left turn at the arbor cork, pi!" One chortles.
"This is actually kind of fun, pi," Three muses. "I mean, I always knew that outsiders got lost in the Woods, pi, but there's a difference between knowing it and seeing it happen, pi."
-to their piping amusement, but the ongoing conversation does make it feel like things are moving along quicker than when it was just you and Briar.
*Rustle*
On the other hand-
"RAAR!" a Moblin roars, as it bursts from the treeline.
"Run away, pi!" Two cries, while doing just that.
"Every Scrub for themselves!" Three choruses.
"Nuts to that, pi!" One declares, before spitting a Deku Nut into the snarling, bulldog face of the oncoming goblinoid.
"Ow!"
"Yeah, that's right, pi! I got more where-"
-the constant chatter MAY be drawing attention to you, you muse, as three more Moblins rush into view after their dazed companion.
"-uh, forget what I said, pi!" One adds, turning to beat roots and catch up with the other two.
The good news is that these are common Moblins, not too much bigger than ordinary humans, as opposed to one of the bulkier varieties. The better news is that you still have your Spells of Flight and Haste going, although the former is starting to run down, so you've got a major mobility advantage without having to do anything else.
The bad news is that there are four of them, all armed with sturdy spears to your currently empty hands, and your three newest allies are abandoning you to fend for yourself - and if you'd bargained for them to fight for you, you might be more put out about that. As it is, you're somewhere between annoyed and amused, as One at least briefly stood his ground.
"Stupid plant-face," the injured Moblin growls, shaking off the stun of the Deku Seed and rubbing his nose. "I'll have you for dinner!"
"Salad?" one of its brethren mutters distastefully.
"It's vengeance!" the first Moblin snaps in annoyance.
"...vengeance salad?"
"I'd rather eat the human," one of them observes.
"Oh, human! Yum!"
You're trying not to pay too much attention to the actual barking words underlying the running translation of your Tongues Spell, but-
Gained Goblin E
-some retention is, perhaps, unavoidable.
Attempts at peaceful discourse can wait until after you're sure the quartet of forest goblins aren't about to eat you or your traveling companions.
On that note, the idea of flash-blinding them with a Color Spray comes to mind. Unlike with the Deku Scrubs, the spell should be entirely capable of affecting Moblins, and it's further helped along by the fact that the four of them are standing close together - not quite forming a rank, but close - as they advance, spears out, to cover each other. If you aim it right, you should be able to catch all of them in the firing arc of the Spray.
The Moblins are already close enough that there's no point in trying to increase the range of the Color Spray, but even if they were further back, this spell isn't compatible with the Reach Spell Metamagic technique, due to its nonstandard range.
You aren't sure if there's any point to using Extend Spell Metamagic, either, but you suppose you might as well take advantage of these relatively low-stakes circumstances to find out.
Heighten Spell will work just fine, and you'd like to make sure that the goblins go down, anyway.
You focus your mana-
"Magic-user!" one of the Moblins barks.
"Stab it before it finishes!"
-back up a few steps to keep the more quickly oncoming monsters at the desired range, and then-
"TASTE THE RAINBOW!"
-there is LIGHT and COLOR.
Three of the Moblins go down instantly, without so much as a whimper. The last one - who was, unfortunately, far enough to one side to not be in the area of effect of your spell - half-snarls and half-whines, but doesn't turn to see what's become of his pals. Instead, he keeps coming at you, spearpoint first, determined not to give you a chance to follow through.
Unfortunately for him, one spear by itself is a lot less threatening than a group of spears, you're far from ignorant of how to defend yourself against such weaponry-
*Stab*
*Dodge*
*Stab*
*Duck*
"Stand! Still!" the Moblin grunts between spear-thrusts.
As if.
-and of course, you still have that Spell of Haste going.
Even so, you don't fancy your chances of disarming a fighter who knows their weapon as well as this one clearly does, and you're similarly uncertain of your chances of breaking the spear with your bare hands. Should you try to get in closer, so you can put your fists and feet to work, or is it time to get your sword out...?
Deciding not to waste any more time on this than you have to, you begin gathering ki in one hand-
"Wait, what-?" Briar begins.
-mana in the other-
"He's starting to glow again, pi!" one of the Deku Scrubs calls out.
-and, while still weaving about the Moblin's spearthrusts-
"What is this feeling...?" the dog-faced monster mutters, falling into a more defensive stance.
-take a striking stance.
Gold energy SURGES into being around your chambered fist.
"G-gold, pi!?"
"G-gold!?" the Moblin yelps in alarm-
!
-his sudden flinch leaving AN OPENING-!
"DORYAAAA!"
You step forward, delivering a mighty backhand strike.
Your Power-reinforced fist connects with the haft of the spear-
*Crack!*
-which proves unable to withstand the strike, leaving the Moblin holding a splintered half-length pole, while the spearhead and some of the supporting wood go flying off.
Gained Power Fist E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Sunder D (Plus)
Fist still glowing, if a bit less brightly, you take a step forward and redirect your backhand into a roundhouse punch-
"MERC-!"
*Pow*
-which takes the Moblin square across the jaw.
And down he goes, not knocked cold, but definitely reeling from the chin music.
"Mewthy," the Moblin whimpers, as he tries to struggle... uh, not to his feet, but his hands and knees? "Foggib uth..."
And now he's kowtowing.
"We'w thowwy, Mathtew."
Um.
Briar is staring at you, unimpressed.
The Deku Scrubs are staring at you, VERY impressed, and possibly a little alarmed.
The Moblin... is doing his best not to raise his eyes in your direction, whimpering piteous apologies as he grovels for his life and the lives of his pack.
Oh, dear.
Yeah, this brings back some... unpleasant memories.
I mean, at least it's only a summoned Moblin, right?
And if the REAL one wakes up and remembers this?
...will it?
Chances are minor, but not zero.
I suppose that a Power-punch to the face would leave a mark...
Sighing, you mutter, "This is why I can't have any fun."
Then you cast a Spell to Cure Light Wounds, increasing the range slightly to keep the Moblin from freaking out at you stepping closer or touching him.
"Huh?" the forest goblin exclaims, one paw going to its jaw in surprise. "The pain! It's gone? It's gone!" He starts to sit up, expression something resembling joyous, and then catches sight of you and immediately goes back to kowtowing. "Sorry, Master!"
"Stop that," you say firmly.
"I could never, Master!" the groveling goblin insists apologetically.
Trying not to let your feelings about that response color your tone, you state, "Fine, then. Now that we've established why attacking me and mine was a bad idea, gather the rest of your pack, and let's talk."
"Yes, Master!"
As the Moblin gets up - turning away from you before rising - you sigh and turn to Briar. / Well? Let's hear it. /
/ Hear what? /
she replies dryly. / That this is the second time this week you've had a Hyrulean monster calling you 'Master' and begging for your mercy, because you flashed the gold light around them? That... wait, what's he doing? /
Hm?
You look over at the Moblin, who is... kicking one of his companions? Not overly hard, more like digging one toe into the left side, but still!
"Wake up!" the goblin barks, sounding worried. "The Master calls!"
The unconscious Moblin doesn't move. Neither do the ones that aren't being kicked.
"Not good...!"
On the up side, your use of Color Spray appears to have been very successful. On the down side, you may or may not have put these Moblins into temporary comas, depending on whether or not the Extend Spell Metamagic interacted with the secondary effects the way you were hoping...
No, no, on second thought, this works for you. If the other Moblins spend the next few minutes or even hours asleep, that's a lot fewer witnesses that you'll have to deal with.
"Actually, if the magic's affecting them that strongly, let them sleep it off," you tell the Moblin. "They might be out for a couple of hours, though, so maybe you should move them somewhere safe?"
"As Master commands!" he says quickly, before reaching down, grabbing the nearest of his pack, and dragging them over to the bushes.
It is with some interest that you watch as the Moblin gathers up fallen branches, leaves, and bits of litter, quickly assembling a makeshift mat, onto which he deposits the unnaturally snoozing goblin. Then he goes over to the next-nearest pack-member and repeats the process, before doing it one more time. Once all three of his comrades are lined up side-by-side, the Moblin gathers even more greenery-
"Hey, stop pulling leaves off those plants, pi!" one of the Deku Scrubs warns.
The Moblin huffs. "I follow the Master's orders! Talking plants are in the way!"
"Loose leaves are fine," you interrupt, not wanting this to devolve into a fight again.
"Yes, Master!"
-and basically covers his partners with them.
Then he starts tearing at the soil with his stubby-clawed fingers and tossing the results onto his companions' lower extremities, which...
Look, the movement honestly reminds you a lot of YOUR Moblin, but is being half-buried alive really necessary, safe, and healthy?
Somewhere in the Woods, you hear the chirr-chirr-chirr of a Skulltula.
Such is the Moblin's physical strength and apparent prior practice at "making camp" like this that he's done in less than a minute. None of the others have awoken that you can see or sense, but that doesn't prove anything; though it's unlikely, an unmodified Color Spray can potentially render its targets unconscious for most of a minute, and stunned for up to half as long again.
"Alright," you finally say. "Grab your spear, and let's be off."
"Yes, Master!"
The Deku Scrubs trade glances among themselves, and then with you.
"Stick to the deal, pi," one of them mutters.
"The deal didn't say anything about traveling with a Moblin, pi," another grumbles.
"We'll know better next time, pi?" the last offers.
Is there something that you want to discuss with your new minion while you navigate the remainder of the Lost Woods?
Your slightly larger group walks along with a certain uneasy quiet for a short time. The Moblin takes point, though it looks back to you for guidance every time there's a turn in the path or an obstacle to be dealt with, while the Deku Scrubs bring up the year, rustling ominously whenever the goblinoid is facing in their general direction.
After a couple of turns, you clear your throat. "So, Moblin; what should I call you?"
"Master may call this one whatever he wishes!" the Moblin assures you.
"And if I wish to call you by your given name?" you ask patiently.
"I am called 'Grum,' Master!"
Grum, huh? Grum. Grrrum. Grrr, um? Grum-ble? Grum-bull, even?
"Alright, then, Grum. I have heard that Moblins have been leaving the Lost Woods. Why is that?"
"Many reasons, Master!"
Grum explains that while there is a population of Moblins native to the Lost Woods-
"My pack, my tribe!" he says proudly.
-most of the ones that did the actual damage to the forest were outsiders, ordered in by Ganondorf.
"By Master! By... Old Master? Dead Master? But Master is alive, and not old and huge..."
"Try not to think about it too hard," you offer.
"Oh, thank you, Master!" Grum sighs with relief.
The Deku Scrubs give you suspicious looks.
You are very tempted to explain to them telepathically that you are not a demon, CERTAINLY not a Demon King, and have no intention of becoming either, but you can't be certain that suddenly having your voice in their heads wouldn't startle one or more of the leafy beings into saying or doing something that you'd prefer to avoid right now.
How fortunate, then, that you have a fairy partner.
/ Hey, Briar? Could you explain to the Scrubs that I'm not what Grum thinks I am, and that I'm just going along with his first impression because it avoids a fight and gets me information? /
/ I suppose, sure. /
/ Thanks. Oh, and let me know if they have any questions they'd like to ask him. /
Briar's response to that is a sense of puzzlement and then a psychic shrug of affirmation.
Grum, of course, has continued talking, quite unaware of your little side-chat. He explains that the cutting and burning of so many trees served no less than five purposes. First, it was a way for the non-native packs to vent their unease and make themselves feel safer and more comfortable in unfamiliar and unfriendly terrain. Second, it helped them to actually NAVIGATE the place, as once a section of forest had been razed, the magic that allowed the plants and the locals to so easily mess with any artificial waysigns was compromised - and if they couldn't deal with the warps that way, they could at least mark the danger zones. Third, they got quite a bit of lumber out of the deal, which the Master's army had many uses for - if perhaps not so much NEED of as many less-magical armies might have - and fourth, the clearer paths made it easier to enforce Ganon's rule over the Lost Woods, aiding the tracking of fleeing Hylians, hiding fey, and even runaway soldiers.
You are not surprised that Evil Past You was bad enough to make some of his troops go AWOL.
You ARE a bit surprised that Grum is admitting to it.
As for the last purpose of despoiling the Lost Woods - why, that was simply to spread more misery.
"Elder said that Elder's Boss said that Elder's Boss's Boss said that Old Master said 'Burn the woods until the smoke darkens the skies! Let the shadow it casts cloud the hearts of all who see it!'"
...
Really, Evil Past You? REALLY? Burning a forest to depress and dispirit your enemies? That's like, Saturday morning cartoon-level villainy... well, unless he went so far as to work a curse that allowed the physical shadow created by the burning of the forest to ACTUALLY cast a metaphorical shadow on the minds and spirits of others. Which, being fair, would have been well within his means, given he had the Triforce of Power to hand in his last incarnation.
But still, you can just HEAR the over-the-top cackling that must have punctuated that cheesy statement!
Gained Goblin E (Plus)
"Why are you admitting that?" you wonder.
"Because Master always knows, and what he doesn't know, he finds out anyway!" Grum replies swiftly. "And then it gets VERY scary for anybody who knew the truth and didn't speak up sooner! ...or so the Elder says."
...you have no idea how to respond to that, beyond a vague, "I see."
/ Well, at least you come by your hammy tendencies honestly? /
You start to nod at that thought, but pause halfway, frowning. / Get out of my head, Briar. /
/ Sorry, no can do! You invited me in to begin with, and I couldn't break the bond on my own. It's too late for regrets! /
Cheeky fairy...
That aside, you're morbidly curious. "Hey, Grum?"
"Yes, Master?"
"Did the Old, Dead Master actually cast a curse using the burning of the Lost Woods?"
"I'm not sure, Master," Grum replies with an apologetic whine. "The Elder says the Old Master cast a LOT of curses back then, so he COULD have made burning the forest part of one, but the Elder's Boss's Boss was the one who received the Old Master's orders, and he only said so much to the Elder's Boss, who only said so much to the Elder."
That makes some sense, anyway, but if that's the case, WHY does Grum know something so embarrassing that Ganon said over sixty years ago?
"We remember the Old Master's orders, Master!" Grum responds proudly, when you venture the question.
"...all of them?"
"All of them!" Grum pauses. "Well, all the orders the Old Master gave to our tribe, and to Moblins in general."
...
Good boys?
Grum continues his account of the fate of the Moblins in the Lost Woods. Once the Hero-
"Death in a Hat!"
-showed up and started wandering through the forest-
"Heh. He got lost."
-the monster population took an understandable hit. Following Ganon's eventual defeat, many of the Moblins opted to leave the Lost Woods for less confusing territory, or because they were following those of the Demon King's lieutenants that were determined to find and kill the Hero, so that they could use his blood to resurrect their master. Grum's tribe, being native to the forest, were perfectly content to remain there and quite happy to see the rest leave, even to the point of "helping" some of the undecided Moblins make up their minds to go, or "convincing" stragglers to get a move on.
Listening to Grum talk, you get the distinct impression that different Moblin tribes are not inclined to cooperate with or even tolerate one another without a powerful authority figure to force them to behave themselves, at least not when one tribe's territory has been "invaded" by dozens of members from other tribes.
With the departure of the outsiders, Grum's tribe gradually returned to the way of life they'd enjoyed before Ganon's return. They still obeyed his orders, of course, but most of those commands had been to do things they'd already been doing prior to the Demon King's re-emergence, and their numbers before and after his last reign of terror over Hyrule were small enough that their violent activities were, if not precisely appreciated by the locals, then at least considered nothing out of the normal for the Lost Woods.
You're considering how to respond to this when you ears catch the sounds of confused barking and howling coming from slightly ahead of you and off to the left... which you THINK is back the way you came.
This forest, you swear...
Grum's ears perk up. "Pack's awake, Master! Do you want me to call for them?"
Huh. That was a lot sooner than you were hoping. Looks like the Extend Spell Metamagic didn't do what you'd hoped. Might have to do some investigation into why, when you've got a chance to study...
In the meantime, what will you do about the Moblins?
You'd already figured that the fewer Moblins and other monsters that you have to deal with knowing about your access to Power, the better. If Grum tells his pack-mates to come join you, that will potentially go against that objective, even if only because the others are likely to demand to know why Grum is obeying you. Similarly, if he says nothing in response to their cries, they may decide to come after him to find out why he isn't answering.
As such, having Grum tell his companions to go about their business is probably your best bet, with a couple of sensible add-ons.
First, you tell him not to mention that you're "the Master."
Grum gives you a briefly puzzled look at that order, but then a faint light of comprehension dawns. "Master is being sneaky," he chuffs. "Grum understands, Master. Sneak up on Death and Smart Lady, and give BIG surprise when ready, yes?"
...
...you mean, you're planning almost the exact opposite of a demonic invasion, but if you can someday introduce yourself to Hyrule as Ganondorf Reborn, Chosen of Din and Absolutely, Definitely Not Evil, while surprising Link and Zelda in the process...
Grum seems to read the temptation in your expression, and starts calling to his pack.
"Grum is fine! Don't follow!"
"Why not?"
"Grum made deal with magic-user! Grum escorts magic-user and talking plants, magic-user and talking plants let Grum hide pack safely!"
...
"...good deal."
"Too good for Grum to come up with."
"WHAT YOU SAY?" Grum barks.
Gained Goblin E (Plus) (Plus)
While Grum is... sorting things out with his tribesmen, you have plenty of time to cast a Spell to Pass Without Trace, to eliminate any footprints or scent-trail your party might leave from this point on. The average Moblin doesn't have a keen enough sense of smell to be an issue, but a few do have noses that approach those of hunting dogs - and these ones, being native to the Lost Woods, are almost certainly capable of tracking any footprints you might have left. You haven't exactly been dragging your feet or going out of your way to stomp through muddy patches, but the point remains that you're an amateur woodsman at best, and more than that, you're wearing the only pair of sneakers currently in this iteration of the forest.
Unless the Goddesses have a particularly weird encounter planned for you, anyway.
Your mana reserves ARE starting to run down towards half-full, so it's probably not a bad idea if you start limiting your use of magic a bit.
"I will bite you, Dok!"
"I'd like to see you try!"
"Then face me at camp! Or run away!"
"As if I'd run from you!"
Plus, Grum seems to have the, uh, "discussion" with his packmates well in paw, so the odds of them trying to track you seem fairly low. And if they try to do it anyway, it'll be an opportunity for you to test your skills at shaking a tail... to use a figure of speech, as Moblins don't actually HAVE tails.
...you think.
You do give a moment's thought to using Ki Step to eliminate your physical trail, but you realize that this would be a waste of effort and energy. Ki Step doesn't do anything about your scent, and more to the point, you have no way of extending its effects to your companions.
IS there a ki technique for suppressing scent? Given that ki can be used to enhance everything the human body can naturally do, and in light of just how sweaty martial arts training can get, techniques for controlling and suppressing one's scent probably do exist, somewhere, but whether either of those would extend to the point of fooling the noses of dogs, you can't say.
You certainly don't know how to go about achieving either of them, which... actually makes perfect sense, now that you stop and think about it. You have no trouble whatsoever picturing some of your peers using a scent-suppression technique to argue with their parents that they don't need to take a bath, or conversely, using a scent-manipulating ability to spontaneously create unpleasant smells.
So, yeah. Lu-sensei is undoubtedly saving himself and much of greater Sunnydale a lot of hassle by not teaching ki-based scent tricks to anybody under the age of ten. Or a fair number of teenagers, at that.
Grum's growling and barking finally trails off. He waits for a bit longer, ears perked up, and when no further calls come from his pack, he huffs, nods, and turns to you. "Done, Master!"
"Then let's be off."
You reach out to Briar again, inquiring if the Deku Scrubs came up with any questions.
/ They did, but not anything he's likely to answer. /
/ ? /
/ Oh, you know, stuff like how big his tribe is, where they make camp, and what time of the day said camp has the fewest guards on duty. /
Ah. Going for intelligence on the enemy, as a prelude to an attack or a campaign of harassment. Well, you can appreciate why the Scrubs might want to do that, but Grum is indeed unlikely to tell them anything in reply, unless it's to go to the Underworld or to jump into Death Mountain. You also have your doubts that he'd accept an order from you to reveal information that could put his tribe at risk, at least when it's that directly. The Dekus may have picked up a few things from listening to him happily yammering on in response to your inquiries, as well as while he was arguing with his packmates, but when you think back on it, nothing comes to mind that seems like it'd be threatening.
Grum's display of loyalty towards you is a bit awkward, but it's loyalty all the same, and the idea of betraying it rubs you wrong on multiple levels. You're a dog person, he's a dog that IS a person, and he's been a pretty Good Boy, all things considered; it'd be pretty lousy to repay that with forcing him to put himself and his tribe at risk.
Plus, if you're ever going to take command of the Forces of Hyrulean Darkness and make them BEHAVE themselves, doing so from a position of treachery would not be the best start. You know for a fact that Ganondorf lied to no few of his followers over the years, making promises he either had no intention of keeping from the beginning, or else found more expedient to go back on when the moment of truth arrived.
So, yeah. Honesty for the win, and (Eventual) Freedom From Curses For All.
With your still-active magical mental map supported by Grum's advice-
"Yes, Master! This way is good!"
-you venture ever-deeper into the replica Lost Woods-
!
-until abruptly, all five locals stop.
"Uh-oh," Briar says.
Grum whimpers and clutches his spear. "This way is BAD, Master..."
"Nobody. Move," one of the Deku Scrubs advises quietly.
You mostly heed that warning, limiting yourself to just shifting your eyes about. You're standing to the... going to call it "north" end of a relatively large, roughly circular clearing, with a thick patch of trees growing right in the middle, and not-yet overgrown paths leading south and west.
Incidentally, your Lay of the Land spell says you want to go south.
You don't see any obvious threats approaching you from any direction, like another pack of Moblins or a Wolfos, and when you look in the direction Grum is shakily aiming his spear, there's only those trees at the cent-
!
-ah.
Those aren't just trees, are they?
VENOMOUS EVIL-TENTACLED TREE: MANHANDLA
You missed the gigantic Venus fly-trap mouths at first glance because this creature has grown a kind of camouflage, all leafy twigs and cute little blossoms, that make its lower mass look like pretty ordinary undergrowth, as long as it's standing amid other plants - which it is - and isn't moving - which it isn't. Furthermore, the thing's "heads" have been elevated atop long, Deku Baba stalk-like "necks", until they're hidden among the canopy.
That's... that's almost cunning.
"Oh, what the fu-"
"Language," Briar chides.
"-dge, Farore?"
Hey, I'm not the one who makes the monsters!
You are the one that tries to naturalize them, though.
They're less dangerous that way!
That, and you think they're cute.
If someone can't see how adorable a SHY giant ambulatory carnivorous plant is, then I'm sorry, but that person has no taste.
Oh, really, now?
"What's fudge, pi?"
"No idea, pi."
...oh, these poor, deprived forest sprites.
While Briar gives the Scrubs a quick lesson in candies, you eyeball the distance between your group and the Manhandla. Too far for touch spells, obviously, unless the monster has tendril-tentacles you aren't seeing that are a LOT closer to you than you want them to be, but as nothing's tried to trip, snare, or strangle you yet, you think you're okay on that account. With that being said, the clearing isn't so large that the Manhandla is out of reach for close-range spells, at least not in your hands, and you think you know exactly which spell this situation calls for.
"I have an idea," you state quietly.
"Does it involve fire, pi?" one of the Dekus asks carefully.
"Because we might almost be willing to go for that, pi," another adds.
"It does not involve fire, although it DOES feature something potentially just as nasty for the Manhandla. Have you ever heard of the Blight Spell?"
The three Deku Scrubs shrink back in shock and fear.
Yeah, as walking, talking plants themselves, you'd expect them to be spooked by the mention of that magic.
"Can Blight kill the crazy giant plant, Master?" Grum asks with an odd sort of hopeful urgency.
"It might, but we can't be entirely sure until we see it working, so don't let your guard down."
The Scrubs, meanwhile, having been talking amongst themselves.
"It IS better than fire, pi."
"It's still nasty, pi."
"Yeah, but so's a Manhandla, pi."
In short order, they have stated a (situational) lack of objection to you using the "horrible, nasty, root-twisting, branch-withering, leaf-shriveling, plant-killing Necromancy, pi," and you get on with casting.
Even with the extra time necessary to plug in the range increase and a boost to the defense-penetrating power of the spell, the Manhandla doesn't visibly react to your casting until after you've completed the magic and let it fly - and THEN it reacts with a terrible roar of agony and a great thrashing of many limbs. Colors fade or darken, the seemingly innocent flowers of its disguise shed their petals in a sudden rain of decay, and two of the thing's four flytrap heads wither up and fall right off its body, their weight having become too much for neck-like branches grown suddenly frail.
For all of that, though, the Manhandla is still alive, still has two dangerous heads - even if they're a bit shrunken from their previous healthy plumpness - and is now on the move, angrily hunting for what just hurt it.
"Run away, pi!"
"Hit it again, pi!"
"Should have used fire, pi!"
"Masterrrr!"
Although there is something to be said for the primal appeal and cleansing power of Fire-
Damn right.
-one casting of Blight seems to have about half-killed the Manhandla already, and that with no damage to the surrounding forest-
*Crrrraaaack* goes another of the trees in the grove where the arboreal anthrophage was lurking, as the beast forces its way free of its hiding spot.
-or at least none that could have otherwise been avoided. The grove was kind of a write-off regardless of what you did, Manhandlas are just too big and tanky for it to be otherwise.
And it's all just a projection, anyway.
That, too.
Or IS it?
You're just going to ignore that.
And also the razzberry sound.
Anyway, logically, if your first use of a spell managed to half-kill the monster, then a second casting ought to finish the job entirely.
With that in mind, and given how quickly the Manhandla is approaching your group's position AND your relative inability to double-back the way you came without tripping over the Lost Wood's bizarre relationship with space-time, you quickly say, "Everyone, stay put and stay quiet unless it keeps coming this way!"
"What was that, pi?"
"Master?"
"Here we go again."
"Why should we-"
*Zip*
"-oh, pi."
And off you go at Hasted speeds, running towards the monster for a short distance to distinguish yourself from the rest of the potential prey, and then (proverbially) cutting a circle around it to the right, to keep your distance from those slightly stiffly-moving but still hungrily snapping extensible heads, and hopefully to drag its attention away from the others.
"Is he just NUTS, pi?"
"Maaaasteeeerrrr!"
Provided certain people stop working at cross-purposes to your goal-!
Well, the good news is, whether because it recognizes you as the source of its pain or is just hurt and hungry enough to go for the nearest potential snack, both of the Manhandla's heads lash out in your direction-
!
-reminding you that they have ranged attacks, in the form of large, spat-out seeds-
"Nobody likes a copycat, pi!"
-which fall all around you to no real effect-
"Especially not one with such rotten aim, pi!"
-thanks your speed and practice at evasive maneuvering.
You don't need to keep this up for more than a few seconds before you're ready to cast again, and by that point all you need to do to see your target is look to your left. You extend your hand, point, and release-
!
-and the Manhandla bellows in agony for a second time, as the spots of discoloration and lesions scattered across its outer skin spread and worsen. The two remaining heads not only wither, but almost seem to rot on the vine, so to speak, before they fall away, leaving only the blighted bulb that is the monster's central body.
You're pretty sure it's dead, or at least dying-
"Grum will help, Masterrrr-!"
*Thunk-splort*
-but having someone make extra certain isn't unwelcome.
"...ugh, sticky plant guts," Grum complains, as he frees his spear and gets some sort of juice on himself. Sniffing at it, he makes an uglier face than usual, declaring, "Stinky sticky plant guts."
Then the Moblin pauses and frowns at his spear in a thoughtful manner.
"Good job, Grum."
There are a few reasons why you would really rather not see Grum put Manhandla juice in his mouth, so you speak up to distract him. "Good job, Grum."
Arguably unnecessary, but shows of loyalty that don't harm anybody ought to be encouraged, right?
Grum's ears perk up at your words, and his attention is immediately drawn away from the mess staining his spear. "Thank you, Master!"
"Now, hold still while I clean you and your spear."
The Moblin's ears freeze, as does his expression. "Clean?" he whimpers.
You pause yourself, alerted by the tone of a dog being told to do something he doesn't want to.
"Yes," you say slowly. "You do clean yourself, don't you, Grum?"
"Of course, Master! Hunters who smell of blood have a harder time catching more prey, so Grum just licks-"
"Don't lick the spear, Grum," you interject hastily, while trying not to think about what the Moblin was saying.
"But Masterrrrr...!" comes the pleading whine. "How is Grum supposed to get clean if Grum can't lick?"
Trying REALLY hard not to think about it!
"Have you never heard of a bath?" you inquire, sounding just a little desperate in your turn.
That frozen, haunted expression returns. "'Bath'?" Grum whispers in dread. "In... in water, Master?"
"Yes...?"
"Water is the work of the Cold One and home to hungry fish and Zoras and fairies, Master!" the Moblin replies in horror. "Grum would never dare set foot in it!"
Ah. He's THAT kind of doggo.
Well, you suppose he wouldn't be a Hyrulean monster if he didn't have at least one other shortcoming besides a tendency towards casual violence...
"Just... hold still, Grum," you say. "I promise, it won't hurt."
Grum whimpers, but does as he's told.
You point-
"PRESTO!"
-and invoke the Cantrip of Cleaning.
Grum flinches, but then immediately does a double-take at the lack of water splashing him or his weapon. He looks on with surprise as the Spell of Prestidigitation simply lifts away the grime clinging to the head and uppermost shaft of his spear, and then at your direction, moves further down to get the remainder of the spatter.
Then he yips in surprise as you move the magic onto HIM. "Tingles!" the Moblin yelps in astonishment. "But not wet?"
It takes a little bit of time, but in short order, Grum is clean.
"...no water, no cold," he murmurs, looking himself and his spear over, running one paw along the wood and then over his crude and somewhat worn-down armor, checking for wetness. Then he sniffs. "Clean! Clean without licking, without water!" Grum stares at you in awe. "What mighty magic, Master!"
...
Is... is this how Ganondorf recruited them?
I really hope not.
For once, I think I'm content not knowing.
IMPOSSIBLE!
If Grum is legitimately so frightened of cold water and fish that he's THIS impressed by a magical alternative, you feel almost obliged to educate him on the concept of a bathtub. You can't just teach him the spell, but conveying the idea of a "big container that you fill with water and then sit in" shouldn't be that hard.
And so, as you resume your trek, that's what you do.
As it turns out, Grum knows where he might get his paws on some barrels-
"Tribe stole some from Hylians with horses and moving house! Might still have..."
-which makes things easier.
Possibly not ETHICAL, but...
Anyway, there is still the matter of actually FILLING a barrel with enough water for a bath, which, well-
"That sounds like a LOT of work, Master."
-yeah, that. And you haven't even suggested trying to HEAT the water. Given that Grum's main source of serious heat would be burning stuff, and the only containers he'd have access to would be flammable to one degree or another, that's just a non-starter.
"Well, if you don't have easy access to a convenient source of running water, or a magic-user who can make up for it, you could try sponge bathing..."
You don't have a huge amount to say about bathing-
"Clean cloth is hard to find, Master," Grum mutters. "Also needed for bandages. Big leaves, maybe?"
"Whose leaves, pi?" comes a warning voice.
-and Grum can only use so much of it, so it doesn't take long for your conversation to trail off.
A few more minor encounters occur along the way: some Stalchildren crawl from their hidden graves, only to get smacked around with a spear, shot with Deku Nuts, and/or zapped with a Spell to Disrupt Undead; a small flock of the more animalistic sort of Keese, whose squeaks only register as noise even through your translation spell, descend from the canopy to make life interesting for a while before they're cut or shot down; and at one point, while passing a forest pond, the ugly face of a River Zora pops up in company with a couple of Octoroks.
"Octo!"
"Zora!"
"Shoot, pi!"
"OctOW?!"
"ZOWra?!"
"Hahahaha!" Grum points and laughs. "How do spitting fish-faces like being spat at, huh? Not so much fun, is it?"
Those three dive back into the water before you get a chance to try diplomacy, and refuse to re-surface. Ah, well.
At some length, you finally reach that area which registered as "fuzzy" to the Spell to Find the Lay of the Land, and which does indeed turn out to contain a lot of old ruined structures, worn down by the elements and half-buried by the growing things of the forest. Ancient Hylian writings in an unfamiliar dialect can be made out on most surfaces, as can once-colorful but now-faded images of mysterious figures doing mysterious things.
"Welcome to the edge of the Sacred Grove," Briar says. "Or at least, I'm pretty sure that's what this place is supposed to be."
"Doesn't look like this in the modern era?" you guess.
"Nope."
"What about you, Grum? Anything to say about this place?"
Grum looks around cautiously, spear at the ready, averting his eyes from some of the worn-down symbols on display. "Fairy country, Master," he says nervously. "Tribe stays away."
Yeah, considering Navi would be living somewhere in the area in reality, that's probably best for the Moblins.
...actually, wait a minute. Didn't Briar once mention something about Big Sister Summer threatening a "goblin king" on her behalf?
On second thought, if Briar HAD been abducted by Moblins at some point in her long, long, LONG childhood before meeting you, she probably wouldn't have been as sanguine about Grum tagging along with your group as she has been, partner or no partner. And while it's Moblins that come to your mind first when picturing goblins in a forest, there ARE several other goblinoid species native to Hyrule, some of which can also be found dwelling in wooded areas, or venturing in from adjacent regions.
Whatever happened back then, if it didn't involve Moblins, it's probably not relevant to your current situation, so you dismiss the thought. You can always bring it up later if you're that curious.
Looking at what's left of the ancient and overgrown walls, pillars, and statues, you have to admit that you're not sure what they were for. They don't seem to cover a large enough area to have been the sort of Temple you're used to having bad dreams about, but they're pretty clearly not an old fortress, either. You suppose they could just be some "generic ruins" that the Goddesses whistled up for the Trial, but given how many other Trials have been revealed as copies of real or once-real locations, that seems unlikely...
Unknown function or no, the Hylian stoneworks undoubtedly represent their own little maze of once-corridors and chambers, with cracks in the walls, toppled pillars, collapsed roofing, pitfalls, and the presence of plants to complicate whatever INTENTIONAL architectural nonsense the builders got up to. You don't see, hear, or sense anything that makes you think another boss-level creature is stalking about within the open-roofed and branch-ceilinged spaces, but there's probably at least a few things hiding in there.
And the boss could always be doing that sleep-lurking thing that so many of them do, when they're waiting for worthy prey to turn up.
In any case, while you could easily take flight again and bypass a considerable part of the challenge of the mini-maze, you DID say earlier that you felt this was more of a Trial of Courage. Perhaps you should respect that, and challenge the ruins on foot?
You've come this far on foot and it's worked out pretty well for you, so why change your approach now?
Looking over the front of the ruins, the obvious entrance is the remains of an arched doorway that is more or less lined up with the pathway that you arrived by. While there are a few empty window frames along the wall that could also provide access, they're high enough off the ground and far enough from any solid trees to be a bit of a pain to climb up to, so you ignore them. There's also a few cracks in the wall that might let someone in, if they were closer to Briar's size than that of any other member of your little party, or weren't concerned about the possibility of some nearby bits of stonework giving way and coming down on them.
You would rather not have rocks banging off of your head, so you stick with the main door and head on in. Briar follows without delay, while Grum and the Deku Scrubs hesitate a bit before coming along as well.
What was clearly built as one large room is now functionally three smaller spaces, divided up as it has become by fallen rubble, overgrown plants, and some bones that you inspect closely, until you're certain that they aren't about to clatter together as some form of Stal the moment your back is turned.
Grum pokes some of the bones with the tip of his spear, and once no reaction is forthcoming, he shrugs and ignores them.
With Moblin's recent performance against the Stalchildren still fresh in memory, you wonder briefly at the lack of bone-claiming, before acknowledging that Grum isn't JUST a dog, and consequently is probably smart enough not to put a strange bone he just found laying around in his mouth.
Exploring the room is no great task, and you've soon found three other large doorways heading off in what might even be the cardinal directions. Assuming the main entrance is "south," the door to the "east" has caved in on itself, becoming impassible without significant effort you don't really feel like bothering with. The door to the "west," meanwhile, is actually intact, but is also either locked or rusted shut, and you don't find anything like a key in your sweep of the room.
For the moment, you stick with the easy route, and go north, entering an intersection of two largely roofless corridors. The route north continues for a good hundred feet before stopping at a rotunda, with single doors to each side every twenty-five feet or so. The eastern hall is of similar design, but only continues for about half the distance before it's cut off by a great pile of debris, so there's only two doors you might check. As for the western way, it's a bit overgrown, but looks like it should be navigable; whether you can get into any of the ivy-covered doors is another question.
Figuring that you might as well get the smallest bit out of the way first, you take a right and walk down to the only two accessible doors in this section of the ruined compound. You make a point to check each door and take a quick peek inside before actually setting foot in either room, starting with the one in the south wall.
Given the collapsed state of the east door in the main room, you were expecting this one to be broken or jammed as well, but it opens quite easily, revealing what's left of a chamber that was probably about the same size as the ruined temple's entryway. Several trees - or maybe several sprouts from a single larger tree - are growing through the cracked-open floor and the shattered heap of the fallen ceiling, such that it almost seems like the things erupted into being in a few seconds of hyper-accelerated development, smashing through the stoneworks and withstanding the resulting rain of rubble.
Of course, you think most archaeologists and other experts in relevant fields would say that you have things backwards, and that whatever damaged the building is what allowed the trees to seed and grow within the wreckage, but in a world of magic - particularly a world like Hyrule, where the average levels tend to be higher - there is a distinct possibility that some druid, Great Fairy, or other forest spirit decided to commit architectural assault via overgrown arbors.
Whatever the order of events, the result is a clustered, irregular heap of stone somewhat off-center for the overall chamber, five or six feet high at its four tallest points, with modestly-sized trees growing here and there about or within the clutter, none of them quite tall enough to be seen from "outside" the ruin. There is movement upon and around the artificial hill, some of it the slinking, furry forms of wary animals, some the glitter of intelligent eyes peering in your direction.
You leave that room for the moment to check on its northern counterpart.
...
"This is a closet," you note.
Sure, it's twenty feet wide and almost ten deep, but the dusty shelves, old crates, and rusted, rotted tools hanging along the wall make it quite clear this place - which still has its roof, even - was meant for nothing more glamorous than storage.
"I mean, even the temples had to have SOME ordinary storerooms, right?" Briar offers.
"You're sure about that."
"Pretty sure, yes."
"Like, you'll go on record as-"
"Hey, let's not get crazy or anything."
You poke through the "closet" for a minute, open some of the more intact-looking crates-
"Let Grum, Master!" the Moblin offers. "Grum is good at breaking boxes."
"Lots of practice?" Briar guesses dryly.
"Much!" the goblin agrees with a happy bark.
*Smash*
-and break a couple of pots-
*Crash*
-just for the heck of it, but there doesn't seem to be anything here, be it hidden loot or hidden switches.
Well, then.
Figuring that you might as well clear this corner of the ruins while you're here, you exit the closet of now-broken things and re-open the door into the room with the trees.
Once again, the door is no sooner open than you can see and sense things looking at you. You squint and stare right back at them, trying to make out the shapes of the bodies that go with those eyes, hidden as they are by the boughs of the trees and the shadows they cast in the already murky conditions of the Lost Woods.
...
Okay, from the way those glowing eyes higher up look to be inverted, you're satisfied that they're some kind of bat - probably common Keese, as the fire-breathing Aches are usually found in caves and other environments less likely to go up in smoke. Not nearly enough of them to form a swarm, either, so nothing to really worry about.
Further down is a cluster of glittering eyes that move quickly and quietly through the branches. From the number of them sitting so close together, that must be a spider of some sort, albeit much too mobile to be a Skulltula. Yay?
Scattered about the lengths of the trees are some large, endlessly staring eyes, which you eventually notice are too irregularly spaced out from one another for any two to be part of the same creature.
Hurray, another eyeball monster! And adapted to the forest? Really, Goddesses, you shouldn't have.
Finally, moving among the roots and doing their best to avoid line-of-sight to the door are some small, hunched, humanoid figures. One of them is less than successful at that, and for a moment you think you might be looking at an unusually clever Stalchildren, but then you realize that it's just a Bokoblin wearing a larger creature's skull as a helmet. A grim fashion choice, but not an entirely ineffectual one...
As you actually enter the room, there is some eager chatter among the trees-
!
-which abruptly goes silent when Grum enters after you. The pause is brief, and quickly replaced by urgent whispering and hissing. Here and there among the greenery, you can see hands waving about and gesturing in your direction, as their owners argue.
"Bokoblins," Grum snorts in annoyance, speaking loud enough to carry. "Always talk too much."
"And Moblins always think too little!" one of the little goblinoids screeches back.
"Come and say that to Grum's face, runt!"
"Make me, dogface!"
Gained Goblin E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Grum looks at you, as if asking permission.
You know, that 'blin is well within range of a Telekinesis spell...
"...um, why is Master smiling like that?" Grum ventures cautiously.
"That's because I've just had an idea, Grum. Would you mind if I took care of this?"
"Not at all, Master!"
"Oi," a Bokoblin squeaks in confusion. "Did Dogface just call that human brat 'Master'?"
"You know how Moblins are," the first goblinoid replies sourly. "Beat them in a fight and they'll make you their king."
Grum glances, growling, in that one's direction again, but holds to his agreement as you quickly cast a spell to invoke psychokinetic power.
"I don't know, Boss, the human's making funny noises and glowing-"
"That's just the fairy," 'Boss' answers, trying to sound dismissive.
You raise your hand and point at the small figure lurking in the shadows. Too bad for him that the canopy isn't thicker, or the time later in the day; as it is, you may only be able to make out a silhouette under the trees, but you CAN clearly distinguish the Bokoblin from its surroundings. That's all your magic really needs.
"Hey, you!" you call out in Goblin, holding your spell.
"What the-!?"
"Did he just-!?"
"GET OVER HERE!"
"-WAAAA-"
And like that, a Bokobln takes flight, snatched from its hiding spot by invisible fingers of force.
"No, Boss!"
"Wow," Grum observes, staring in wide-eyed amazement.
"-AAAA-"
"FLYING 'BLIN, PI!" one of the Dekus chortles.
"Look at him go," another goblin wonders.
While you could have expended the full power of the magic in one go for a TRULY spectacular take-off, that would have resulted in the Bokoblin going fast enough to break bones on landing, which isn't really the result that you're going for.
It's difficult to be diplomatic when the other guy is a smear on the floor or wall, after all.
So instead of hitting hard enough to crush the little monster outright, you've utilized the less forceful but still powerful approach to the magic, effectively giving the Bokoblin a BIG push. Normally, this sort of attack would be used to drive such an enemy AWAY from the caster, but your mastery of Elemental Magic is such that just changing the direction in which the goblinoid goes flying is a simple enough matter. You even manage to use the ongoing energy of the spell to "catch" the incoming projectile of screaming head, desperately flailing limbs, and the scrawny torso that connects them, before the Bokoblin slams into the ground in front of you and gets hurt anyway.
"-AAAAaaaahhhh..." the goblinoid finally trails off as he hangs there in mid-air, staring at you and Grum. But mostly at you, since you have one hand aimed at him in a rather Jedi-like manner.
"For the record, the glowing wasn't the fairy."
"Mrgle," the Bokoblin replies with wide-eyed alarm.
You're very tempted to follow up by quoting Darth Vader, but you refrain for three reasons:
First, you're quite sure none of the Hyrulean creatures other than Briar would get the reference, and it kind of kills the mood when nobody in your audience can follow along - at least, nobody that you can see and that isn't already in on it, as your partner kind of is.
Second, you can't recall Vader ever picking a guy up with the Force. He did hold that one captain in the air with what may have been Force-assisted strength - given cybernetic forearms wouldn't let someone lift more - but that's not quite the same thing.
And third, none of Vader's dialogue that comes to mind would really flow naturally from what you've already said.
"Now that I have your attention," you say instead, while still keeping the goblinoid levitating before you, "would you like me to put you down so we can talk like intelligent beings? Because Grum would like a fight-"
The Moblin growls in just the right tone of eagerness.
"-and I'm fine with either outcome. But I rather think you'd like to talk."
"Talking's good, Master!" the Bokoblin assures you swiftly, nodding frantically.
You do not bring up what he said just moments about Moblins and kings, instead relaxing your telekinetic hold and allowing the Bokoblin to not-quite drop the rest of the way to the moss-covered and dirt-strewn stone floor-
!
-where he immediately goes down on his hands and knees.
"Thank you for sparing my life, O merciful Master! How may I serve you?" 'To keep you to keep sparing it,' you can all but hear tacked on the end.
"Well, first of all, you can stand up."
"I could never, Master!"
You pause to look at Grum, who uttered those very same words, in almost exactly that same apologetic tone - merely somewhat deeper in pitch - while doing precisely the same thing.
The Moblin doesn't seem to understand why you've turned to him, much less what you might find objectionable about this.
Sighing, you turn back to the Bokoblin. "Look, if I'd wanted you kneeling before me, wouldn't I have said so, or even telekinetically forced you TO your knees?"
"You absolutely could have done that, Master!" the Bokoblin agrees easily.
"So if I didn't do that," you begin, leadingly.
"Then it is your faithful servants' job to anticipate your desires, and bow before you have to say or do anything, Master!"
...
Ganondorf had a LOT of chances to work on these guys, didn't he? And the Curse even more so.
"We'll... come back to that," you say. "In the meantime, tell me your given name."
"This one is called 'Cruggor Nosewhistle the Jaggedtoothed,' Master!"
...
You're trying to wrap your head around that name, as well as an image of somebody fitting it on a business card or the like, when Grum snorts.
"Showing off with silly names, Bokoblin?" the Moblin wonders, disapprovingly.
"My name is not silly, Dogface!" Cruggor snaps at your companion. "It's all well and good to have some two-syllable grunt for a name when you're ten feet tall, but little monsters NEED large names to give us weight!"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
"Wait, then why is my name so shoooort-!"
Grum scoffs at this reasoning. "Names? Words on air. If little Bokoblins want to be BIG Bokoblins, they need to fight for it."
You don't entirely disagree with Grum on that point. Anyone can CALL themselves anything, but a title like "Demon Slayer" or "Mountain Breaker" means exactly nothing if you don't have the ability to back it up. Likewise, even an unimpressive-sounding name like Bob or Tom can become intimidating if the owner is known to have done something of note.
Regardless, this is getting a bit afield.
"Right, I'll call you Cruggor for the time being."
"Thank you, Master!"
"Now, Cruggor, who or what is in charge around here, OTHER than me?" You add that last bit in the full certainty that the goblinoid's answer would otherwise have indicated you.
The Bokoblin answers that the "nice rooms" in the ruins each have their own "boss," like him, including a few rival Bokoblin gang-leaders, and a Stalfos and a Deeler matriarch that have understandably never given out names.
/ 'Deeler'? / you silently question Briar.
/ Hunting spiders that roam around looking for prey, and then drop on them, / your partner replies. / There's one in the trees in here. /
You glance up.
...
Well, it's not as big as a Gohma. Still closer to "large dog" size than any arthropod would have a right to be in any kind of sane or caring multiverse, though, and a matriarch of the brood would almost have to be larger still. That's just the way these things work.
"But the BIG boss of the ruins is the Pumpkin-Headed One!"
"...'pumpkin-headed'," you repeat.
"Yes, Master!"
You wrack your brain for intel, but cannot recall reading of such a creature. Nor does it appear in any of your available memories of Ganondorf.
You look to Briar, who shrugs, clearly just as much at a loss as you are.
Advance intel on powerful monsters is rarely a bad thing to have, and that goes double for the rare situation like this, where you and your fairy partner are both drawing blanks on the creature.
"Tell me about this 'Pumpkin-Headed One', Cruggor."
"It has a BIG pumpkin for a head, Master!"
Yes, you'd guessed that much.
"I mean, it's HUGE, Master! Its mouth has swallowed Bokoblins whole, and if its head is as empty as it looks, apart from the flames, there's probably be enough space for Dogface to fit inside!"
Okay, that IS a pretty big gourd.
"The rest of the body isn't big enough to fit the head," the Jaggedtoothed continues, "but it's still taller than the Moblin at the shoulder, and about twice as wide."
"Strong, then?" you guess, judging from the suggested dimensions.
"Yes, Master! At least, it's heavy enough to cause the ground to shake when it jumps on its prey, and it can move all that weight around."
Just being big and strong is probably half the reason why this thing is the boss of the ruins, right there.
"It can also breathe fire, Master!" Cruggor adds helpfully. "Or maybe shoot it from its eyes...?"
And there's another reason why it's in charge. Spiders would be at a disadvantage against something capable of casually burning their webbing, goblinoids alternately love and loathe fire, and if Stalfos aren't precisely vulnerable to flame, they're at least not resistant to it. Plus, if this room and the overgrown hallway are any indication, there's plenty of flammable material throughout the ruins to give a fire-breather some tactical advantage without risking burning the whole place down. Provided the creature isn't troubled by smoke itself, anyway...
You ask about that, but Cruggor can't give you a straight answer. "I'm sorry, Master! I've never actually seen the Pumpkin-Headed One fight! My cowardice and ignorance are survival strategies, and I have never regretted their success so much as at this moment!"
"Fortunately, Cruggor, there is a way you can make up for your failures," you declare.
"There is, Master?" Grum wonders in confusion.
"There is, Master?" Cruggor asks, at once hopeful and worried.
"Uh-oh," somebody back in the trees says.
"I don't like the sound of that," another hidden Bokoblin notes.
Clever goblins.
"You can start by getting the rest of your group out here and introducing them."
"Wait, what?"
"Oh no!"
"Yeah, I know where this is going..."
"Yes, Master! You heard the Master, you three, get out here!"
It is with some reluctance that the other Bokoblins step out of their hiding spots and come forward to join their leader in groveling.
"This is Boggamogg Red-Eye, the Torch-Taker," Cruggor introduces the first, who does indeed have bleary, bloodshot eyes. There's no obvious explanation for the remainder of his title, however.
Turning to the next Bokoblin, who has lots of little bits of crude bone jewelry tied around or piercing through various bits of skin, the leader continues, "This is Farramus Bonecarver, the Graverobber."
This one appears particularly descriptive, you think, as you note some dirt still clinging to a few of the bones.
"And this is Korg," Cruggor adds, waving at the last one.
...
"Just 'Korg'?"
Korg practically wilts. "I'm sorry my name is so short and unmemorable, Master! It's the only one I haaaave!"
Once you get that sorted out, you inform the quartet that, to help Cruggor make up for his "failings," you'd like them to join you as an escort through the ruins.
"As the Master commands!"
"Are we going to be doomed?"
"Yeah, probably."
"But I don't want to be doomed..."
"Shut up and listen to the Master!"
Even though it's clear that some of the Bokoblins would just as soon NOT be following you, it's equally apparent that they're afraid to refuse a "request" from the Master.
There isn't much else to see or do in this half-collapsed and overgrown room, so...
"You'll get a longer name eventually, I'm sure," you reassure Korg. "But until then, just remember: there's nothing wrong with a short name."
"There isn't, Master?" Korg wonders.
"Short names are much easier to use," you reply. "Especially when you're in a hurry or in the middle of something urgent, like a fight."
For a moment, you consider using your own preferred name as an example, but you decide against it for the time being. You literally JUST met these Bokoblins and half-bullied, half took advantage of their cultural legacy to get them to help you; you'd like a more solid working relationship before you trust them with relatively sensitive information.
Grum snorts in agreement. "Boss Bokoblin try to command minions in fight using silly names, fight be OVER before names all said."
"Well, yes," Cruggor agrees, "but that's why we have battle plans worked out ahead of time!"
This is news to you.
"You actually plan?" Briar wonders.
"Not that I expect a FAIRY to appreciate tactical genius-"
"You want to earn your name all over again, Nosewhistle?"
"-bring it on, you jumped-up butterfly!"
"We go west," you declare.
The spiders ARE hunters, according to Briar, so they may get around more and have better information about the Pumpkin-Headed One.
This pronouncement is greeted with visible dismay among your newest recruits.
"Yeah, we're doomed," Bonecarver sighs.
"Why did it have to be the spiders?" Cruggor wonders.
"If only I had a torch," Red-Eye groans.
"So you could set fire to their webs?" Briar guesses, not without some sympathy.
"Huh? Oh, no, not really. Deelers don't make big webs to hunt or defend their territory, they're more about going out and hunting their meals."
Ah.
"But they still don't like fire," Red-Eye explains. "I don't know if the light hurts their eyes-"
"Soooo many eyes," Cruggor whines.
"-or if it's the smoke or heat that gets them, but you can keep a small pack of the things at bay just by waving a torch around."
You're starting to get an idea for how Torch-Taker got the last part of his name.
You shake your head at Cruggor's bold statement, knowing that he's just set himself up for a rude awakening.
*Poof*
"Who's a butterfly, huh?!" Briar exclaims as her human form looms a solid foot or more over the bewildered Bokoblin.
"Bwah, buh, bah-!" Cruggor stammers.
"Giant fairy?!" Korg cries in alarm.
"Since when can they do that?!" Red-Eye protests.
"In this case, since she made a deal with me," you interject.
"...oooh," the Bokoblins say slowly.
"Yeah, that makes sense."
"Good deal."
"Mighty magic..."
"Wait, doesn't that mean the boss just picked a fight with somebody the Master has a pact with?"
The three goblinoid minions trade glances, nod as one, and take a step away from their boss.
"Traitors..." Cruggor accuses them.
"Do your best, Boss!"
"Yeah, we're still rooting for you! ...just, you know, from over here."
It occurs to you that if Deelers are afraid of fire like Red-Eye said, then coming in bearing fire may not be the way to go if you're trying to make peaceful contact with the giant spiders.
Granted, it could also be said that the THREAT of fire might be just the thing to encourage a nest of hungry predators to be more receptive towards diplomatic overtures, but if that's the case, you're quite well equipped to conjure fire on the spot, in quantities ranging from "a tongue of flame in the palm of my hand" to "the whole forest is on fire, and it's entirely my fault."
...and then again, while YOU'RE perfectly prepared to break out the burnination if need be, your new minions aren't so fortunate. And it would be a shame for them to end up as somebody's (simulated) dinner so soon after you recruited them.
"Boggamogg," you declare, "fetch some wood."
"...Master?" the Bokoblin says slowly, and with hopeful eagerness. "Are... are you going to use them to make TORCHES, Master?"
"Not yet," you reply.
"Awwww..."
"But I want to have the option available, if the Deelers turn out to be unfriendly."
"Yes, Master! Right away, Master!"
In short order, all the Bokoblins are carrying at least one length of wood that would make for a simple but effective torch, if fire were added and given a chance to take. That they also have the length and heft to make decent goblin-sized clubs is no accident. Boggamogg Red-Eye the Torch-Taker himself is carrying no less than three such chunks of wood - one in each hand and a third tucked through his crude belt - and he even managed to find a couple of sticks suitable for you, Grum, or Briar.
Once everybody is armed, you head for the Deelers' nest.
You know that there's a technique for eliminating the focusing gestures used in many spells, just as there's another for getting rid of the need for words, but you haven't learned either trick as of yet, which means that you'll need at least one hand free if fire becomes an urgent necessity in the near future. And while you do have two hands, you also have a sword that you may yet end up drawing in these Trials - or you might use that hand for some other martial purpose, like an unarmed strike or a ki technique.
Either way, carrying an unlit torch is probably not the best use of your limbs.
Briar hesitates only for a moment before taking one of the long sticks that Boggamogg came up with, while Grum regards the remaining bit of wood before huffing, taking it, and tucking it through his belt.
He does have a spear, after all, and one that's long enough that it would work best with the leverage and strength afforded by a two-handed grip.
With everybody armed, you backtrack to the hallway, go past the intersection, and then down the western hall, where the crumbled stoneworks are gradually covered by moss, lichens, and small plants. Cruggor reluctantly leads the party past the first two doors - one on each side of the hall - before stopping in front of the second pair and facing the "northern" portal.
"They're in there?" you question.
"Yes, Master," Cruggor replies, before adding, "I REALLY don't want to go in there, Master."
His buddies murmur similar sentiments.
You crack the door open to get a look at the chamber before sending anyone in, the clinging ivy that covers the old wood thankfully not giving you much trouble in the process.
The room that the Deelers have co-opted for their lair may be the biggest one you've seen in the ruins so far, but it's hard to tell due to the fact that it's even more overgrown with plants than the chamber where the Bokoblins were hanging out. Rather than seeming to grow out of a pile of rubble fallen from the ceiling, some of the trees in here appear to have come up through the western wall, and possibly the rear northern one as well. They're also distinctly older, thicker, and taller than the trees from the Bokoblins' room, providing a lot more footing and hiding places for sufficiently agile climbers to make use of.
Unlike your previous encounters with giant arachnid entities, the place hasn't been choked by webs. There's still some spider-silk strung here and there, to be sure, but it's a mix of strands that look to be left over from descents and a few cocoons for storing... something... as opposed to the sticky mat the Gohma laid out in their lair to inconvenience and alert them to the presence of intruders, much less Liantiel's whole eerie, multi-chambered home.
In the wake of the door opening, absolutely nothing in the room is moving or making a sound that you can pick up on, at least with your mundane senses. When you shift to the supernatural spectrum, however, you can easily make out a dozen masses of monstrous energy that match to the aura of that Deeler that was lurking in the goblins' room, all hidden away in the shadows and the leaves. There are indications of at least as many more hidden from your direct sight by the bulk of the trees.
It occurs to you that you didn't ask if that previous spider was the Bokoblins' pet, an intruder, or something else, but judging from the lack of concern the quartet displayed about its presence and the reluctance they're displaying to enter this room now, the details probably don't matter.
Having a giant spider in your territory is one thing. Entering the spiders' parlor is quite another.
How do you wish to greet the Deelers?
"That's fine, you can wait in the hall."
Cruggor does a double-take. "Really, Master?!"
"Yes, really."
"Oh, thank you, Master! Your merciful consideration is completely unexpected and just as appreciated!"
The other three Bokoblins trade glances and then send a collective hopeful look your way.
Grum huffs. "Let Grum go first, Master. Just in case spiders don't recognize Master."
"I'll be right behind YOU," Briar says, being careful to emphasize that she means you and not the Moblin.
You have no problems with either of those statements, and allow the Moblin to precede you into the spiders' lair before stepping in after him.
There is a rustle among the leaves that MIGHT just be the breeze, but is more likely the shifting legs of eager, hungry, and overlarge arachnid predators.
You decide to hold off on making with the magic until you're sure there's a point to it. If the Deelers aren't any smarter than their moral kindred or ordinary animals, then trying to cow them with an exotic threat display is probably just going to waste mana.
That said, you DO have a lot more ki remaining than you do mana, and you'd be just as happy not to have to step too close to that spider-infested canopy, so a little vocal projection might be called for.
Pausing to alert Grum-
"I'm going to speak loudly here in a moment, Grum. Mind your ears."
"Thank you for the warning, Master."
-you clear your throat, channel a bit of energy to it, and then Speak.
"GOOD AFTERNOON."
"Wah!" a Bokoblin exclaims, noticeably recoiling.
One of the others sighs. "Really, Farramus?"
"I was surprised!"
"But he literally JUST said..."
"I didn't think he meant THAT loud!"
Ignoring that thankfully not too loud argument, you continue: "I WOULD SPEAK WITH THE MOTHER OF THE-"
/ Cluster, / Briar notes through the bond.
/ ...what, really? /
Her response is another psychic shrug.
"-CLUSTER," you state aloud, not missing a beat.
...
Hmmm. No verbal response, but some of the Deelers are crawling out of cover, their multi-eyed gazes fixed on you and your companions.
"Yes, yes, you can wait out here, too."
"Thank you, Master!"
"No spiders? Yessss!"
"New Master is best Master!" Cruggor cheers.
"Best Master!" Farramus and Korg chorus.
"...wait, doesn't this mean the torches aren't going to be lit?"
The other three Bokoblins pause in mid-celebration to turn to Red-Eye in exasperation.
"Really, Boggamogg?"
"I knew this was coming..."
"Never satisfied unless something is burning, are you?"
The Deku Scrubs keep on not saying anything to your latest recruits, but at this remark, their eyes widen, and they take a collective step AWAY from the Torch-Taker. Just in case.
Boggamogg is busy arguing with his buddies that they don't understand or appreciate the beauty of fire, and doesn't notice the movement.
Cruggor DOES see it, and just nods, looking completely unsurprised.
It's possible that a fight is inevitable, here, but it's also possible that it's NOT. In either case, you are determined not to be the one who throws the first punch, fireball, or glob of webbing that turns things from "menacing uncertainty" to "certain violence."
On that note...
"Easy, Grum," you tell the Moblin in a normal tone, the effects of your Ki Shouting having passed. "Don't strike first."
"But that's the best way to fight, Master?" the Moblin asks in confusion, even as he keeps his eyes and spear aimed at the growing number of arachnids.
"You're not wrong," you admit, thinking of various first-strikes, surprise attacks, and a distinct preference for hitting things as fast as possible. "But it's not a fight JUST yet..."
Grum makes an unhappy sound, but doesn't move to strike.
By this point, perhaps half of the Deelers that you picked up on earlier have emerged from their hiding places, gathering into a loose wall of chitin. Some hang, inverted, from the branches of the trees, while others cling to the trunks, staring at you from a ninety-degree angle. A few have dropped to the floor and now stand there, hunkered down, ready to pounce at the first provocation or opportunity.
You listen intently, trying to focus on the still-unseen spiders lurking in the shadows, who are hissing and chittering-
?
-but despite your Spell of Tongues, you hear no words, only the unsettling noises of territorial and possibly hungry arachnid predators.
Common Deelers, it would seem, really aren't much more than giant insects. As for their matriarch... judging from the strength of the auras you're picking up on, and how one of them clearly stands out from the rest - even if it's still not a patch on the mother Gohma you've fought twice now - she's definitely lurking there in the back of the cluster, but whether she understood your greeting or not is another question entirely.
Words alone don't seem to have been enough, so you try again, with a little more... EMPHASIS.
Namely, you focus on your internal energies and PUSH, projecting that power outwards with a certain amount of force - not so much that the magical, spiritual, and psychic aspects of your being will merge and manifest as the overwhelming force of your golden Power, but enough to feel a lot more like that than just a conglomeration of weaker essences.
"I say again," you repeat, as the Deelers register your aura and collectively flinch back, "I would speak with the mother of the cluster."
Your voice isn't as loud as your previous bout of Ki Shouting, but even so, you think it has more impact this way. Even if the Deelers don't understand language, they can clearly recognize Power, or at least the potential threat it poses.
You wait a bit longer, to see if a further new reaction is forthcoming, and when the giant spiders still don't respond with anything you can recognize as an attempt to communicate, you fall back on spellcasting.
A Spell to Speak With Animals won't work here, because for various reasons such as wearing their skeletons on the outside, lacking vertebrae, and how that affects the way energy moves around and through them, magic doesn't consider arachnids to be "animals." That said, you can use the framework of the known druidic spell as the basis for a Ritual to Speak With... Arachnids.
Regardless of the form you go with, it'll take a few minutes to shape the magic, but with the Deelers visibly startled by your Aura of Power, if you keep your casting steady, you think you'll have the time to work...
A Spell to Speak With Vermin would have the broadest utility, allowing you to communicate with insects, annelids, crustaceans, and some other creatures, in addition to arachnids. However, such wide applicability would come at a certain cost of depth of functionality, limiting how accurately information could be conveyed in either direction; more to the point, you're only trying to talk to some spiders right now, making any ability to speak with other kinds of creatures superfluous, at least in the short term. Long-term could be another matter, depending on where you end up, but it's a bit difficult to predict such a thing, even for someone with your familiarity with Divination Magic.
After all, as the little green master said, always in motion, the future is.
On the flip side, a Spell to Speak With Spiders would be exceptionally helpful here and now, but would have rather less potential in the long run. You'd gain greater clarity for this conversation and other theoretical future chats with spiders, at the cost of not being able to understand non-spiders any better - and for all that you've found yourself running into clusters and swarms of giant spiders and spider-like entities, you know that they're still only a small portion of the total population of creepy-crawlies. On top of that, of your two previous run-ins with supernatural arachnids, one group were already capable of communicating with your clearly without any need for such specialized magic.
Granted, that's because they were Fae spiders, but the point remains that there are some eight-legged things you simply won't NEED such a spell to speak with. Really, the Gohma kind of fell under that category as well, if for entirely different reasons...
With all of that in mind, you decide to split the difference. A Spell to Speak With Arachnids won't let you communicate with as many things as a Spell to Speak With Vermin would, but it will work for a greater variety of species than a Spell to Speak With Spiders, and if it won't grant the level of "fluency" that the latter spell would, it should still provide you with superior mutual intelligibility than the former.
That's your theory, anyway.
You make with the magic, being careful to regulate your aura so that it doesn't spike in a manner that the Deelers might perceive as threatening, but also keeping it from diminishing in a way that could make you appear weak.
The Deelers chitter and fidget nervously as magic visibly swirls about you, but when the lightshow is the only apparent result of your efforts - and that concentrated on your location rather than reaching out towards theirs - they calm slightly and continue to observe.
"Is Master going to set all the spiders on fire at once?" Red-Eye whispers hopefully from behind you.
"He's going to try to talk to them one more time," Briar replies.
"Awww..."
"What, again, pi?" one of the Dekus says in disbelief. "Is he going for a full monster army or what, pi?"
"What the bush-head said," one of the Bokoblins echoes.
"I have a Deku Nut with your name on it, gobby, pi."
"If Master wants spider-army, Master GETS spider-army," Grum interjects firmly, in a tone that's clearly meant to be the end of the discussion.
"But what if the spiders still say, 'No'?" Korg wonders.
Grum considers that, and then shrugs. "Then we kill spiders."
"With fire?"
"Shut up, Boggamogg," several people say at once.
Not too long after that, your spell takes effect.
"Once again," you declare, "I would speak with the mother of the cluster."
And if this doesn't work-
"What do you want, magic-user?" a voice hisses from the shadows.
-hold that thought.
"I want-two things."
"First, I seek information on the Pumpkin-Headed One who rules the ruins."
There is a hiss from the leafy darkness. "You mean to hunt it?"
"I do."
"It is dangerous."
"I have killed many dangerous monsters on my own."
"It is large."
"So were several of the monsters I have slain, including the Manhandla hiding in the Woods beyond these ruins."
That gives the spider-mom momentary pause, before she adds, "It breathes fire!"
The lesser Deelers shudder and hiss at that admission from their matriarch.
"I can ALSO breathe fire, when I choose to," you reply. And not just fire, at that; the Spell of Dragon's Breath is fairly versatile. "And more than that," you continue, "I can ward myself to WITHSTAND fire."
Suddenly, every spidery eye in the place is fixed directly on you.
"Is it possible to share this power?" the mother-spider hisses eagerly.
"Oh, no," Boggamogg whimpers.
"It is, if only temporarily," you admit.
"Please, Master!"
"If you wish to gain this protection for yourself and your children-"
"Anything but that!"
"Shut it, Red-Eye!" another Bokoblin hisses.
"-then I will have you fulfill my second request, and have you and your cluster join me in taking the ruins from the Pumpkin-Headed One!"
The Deeler matriarch considers this for a long moment, and as the seconds pass, you start to wonder if you've asked for too much - but then there is another, heavier rustling among the trees, and some of the smaller Deelers move aside as their leader emerges, revealing herself to be somewhat larger than a typical adolescent Gohma. Her legs are more spread out along the sides of her body than a Gohma's, and lack the bristles; also, the shape of her exoskeleton is somewhat different, and her overall coloration a shade of blue rather than the mostly brown of the other species.
"For protection from fire, and for the defeat of the master of the domain," the Mother Deeler hisses, "we will agree to your request."
And with that, you have a spider-army.
Gained Spider F (Plus) (Plus)
Under different circumstances, recruiting all the other Bokoblin-gangs in the ruins might have posed a problem. Cruggor admitted that his bunch and the other gangs fought each other over territory and resources and just to fight, so with them on your side - and Grum besides - at least some of the other goblins would have been likely to try picking a fight.
With your force swelled by the addition of the Deeler cluster, the Bokoblins prove VERY receptive to the idea of joining forces-
"If they will not serve you, magic-user, may we eat them?" the Mother Deeler hisses eagerly.
"...Boss, I don't know what the giant spider just said, but I REALLY don't like the way it's looking at us..."
"Are you sure you want to eat them?" you ask the matriarch, to much gulping from the goblinoids, who can understand your words just fine. "You don't know where they've been."
"Parley! PARLEY!"
-at least after a little diplomacy.
Gained Commanding King E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Goblin E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Dealing with the Stalfos is even easier; you just look into its chamber, cast a Heightened, Inversely-Extended Spell to Command Undead, and issue new marching orders.
"I'm recruiting everyone in the ruins to go beat the Pumpkin-Headed One," you tell the undead warrior. "Join us."
The Stalfos doesn't acknowledge your command with words, instead raising its sword in a Hylian-style salute - and not one of the challenging varieties, either.
After that, it's just a short march to the boss's chamber. The tumbledown and overgrown halls of the ruins are a bit crowded for the number of troops you've impressed into service, but the fact that the Deelers can navigate the walls the branches makes things easier in that regard.
/ Are you SURE this is a good idea, Alex? / Briar inquires, looking around at the two-score and more army of monsters you've managed to pull together with some words, acting, and a few displays of power.
/ I mean, I don't think I'd want to do this for REAL, / you admit, / but here in the Trials, where none of the creatures involved are really going to get hurt, and I've got them attacking another monster instead of innocent people? I think that's about as safe as it can get. /
/ Well, yeah, but... /
/ Still kind of unsettling? /
you guess.
/ Yeah. /
That's fair. Like you said, you wouldn't be comfortable doing something like this with REAL monsters, at least not for the purpose of defeating one opponent that isn't actually a threat to anybody, and which you could undoubtedly handle on your own. If there were serious stakes that made using a monster army a reasonable approach, then you'd consider it, but otherwise, it's definitely a page out of Ganondorf's playbook that you don't want to be too casual about reading from.
Like most other Hyrulean structures, there's a fairly large open space before the lair of the monster-in-chief where challengers can take a breather and make their final preparations. It's big enough for everybody, with just a few spiders hanging from unusual places, something that seems to suit them just fine.
A couple of Mass castings of the Spell to Resist Fire later, and you're prepared.
"FOLLOW ME, MY- wait, almost forgot."
Aside from the Spell to Resist Fire, there's a bunch of other buffs you would have liked to provide your new army, if only to ensure as many of them as possible came through the impending fight in one piece. Unfortunately, given that there are more than forty of them, that your mana reserve is starting to get low, and that you have other magical responsibilities to see to after this, you can't really do that. The only mana restorative you've got on your person at the moment is a bottle of Balthazar's Liquid Starlight, and you would rather not use that if you can help it.
That said, you think you can afford a couple of spells. Take Mage Armor, cut the duration down from hours to minutes, increase the number of targets, and increase the range so you don't have to run around touching every single member of the mob, and you have something that can cover everybody with... three castings, though you're able to save a little energy on the last one due to the much-reduced number of targets.
After that, the Spell of Heroism is a good all-around improvement to combat ability. There's no point applying it to the Stalfos, since it's a mind-affecting spell, and those don't work on the undead. It also wouldn't work on typical verminous creatures like spiders, unless they're considerably smarter and more human-like in their thought processes than the average bug, which is something you aren't convinced of for any of them - though the matriarch seems likely to be an exception.
It'll work just fine for Grum and the Bokoblins, though, and the numbers of the latter are such that you can get all of them AND one Deeler with a single casting. You go ahead and do that, targeting one of the lesser spider-spawn to see if there's any effect-
"Oooh, shiny," the critter chitters, as the light of the spell washes over it.
"Do you feel any different?" you inquire.
"I want to bite something," it reports eagerly.
"...more so than usual, you mean?"
-and when that seems to have worked, you repeat the previous process.
That done, you take out your sword-
"Did you beat a Hylian for that, Master?" one of the Bokoblins wonders.
-and raise it high as you channel your ki through the weapon, powering up a Sword Beam.
"Is everyone ready?" you call.
There is a great deal of hissing and hooting and, "Yes, Master!"
"THEN FOLLOW ME, MY MINIONS!" you roar, as you charge forward-
"For the Master!" a LOT of Bokoblins scream.
"Vengeance!" the Deeler matriarch hisses.
Grum just howls eagerly, while the Stalfos clatters its teeth.
"Oh, boy," Briar sighs.
-and enter the boss chamber.
The room is as big as any of the ones you saw while recruiting your army, but it's distinctly less overgrown. Then again, that may have something to do with the boss's purported ability to breathe fire, as there are scorch marks and some small piles of ash scattered about the chamber...
Speaking of the boss, it appears near the center of the room, a humanoid figure twice your height, with a fairly shapeless torso holding up a huge orange gourd carved with a leering face, flame burning steadily in the pits of its eyes and throat.
THE PUMPKIN-HEADED ONE: HARON
It might be more menacing if the creature weren't recoiling in obvious shock from the sight of the small army of monsters charging into its sanctum in your wake.
Or maybe it can see the boar-shaped - and boar-sounding - glowing aura of your Spiritual Enhancement, and THAT'S what has it spooked? The Overload is enough to push past the edges of your Mind Blank...
Or both. Both are possible.
"I got it from the Goddesses."
In the wake of your statement, there is a sudden hush, broken by the collective *crack* of necks turning faster than is probably healthy for them, as goblinoid heads - and one skeletal one - whip around to stare at you.
"...wow," some Bokoblin says.
"He truly is the Master!" another whispers.
"It was really more of a gift, though," you say quickly, trying to dissuade that particular logic.
"He tricked them into giving him a gift?!"
"Amazing!"
"Awesome!"
"Hail the Sneaky Master!" Grum cries.
"Hail!" a lot of the Bokoblins cheer.
"Yeah!"
It didn't take prescience to see that one coming.
Bwahahahaha!
Or that one.
...um. You, uh, MAY have inspired something, here.
There's one chitinous lining, though, this being that the Deelers aren't making a particular fuss about what you said.
Shaking your head with a sigh, you raise your sword and commence the charge.
For all of Haron's obvious shock at finding itself on the wrong end of a sudden and violent migration of the total population of the ruins - plus three - the gourd-headed goliath recovers with admirable speed. You can see the flames inside of its head growing brighter as its chest swells in mimicry or mockery of a more mundane creature taking a deep breath, but before the beast can exhale its flaming halitosis, your twice-augmented speed has helped you to close the distance and bring your Blessed Blade around-
*Scree-KOW!*
-slashing the boss not only with the Ki-Enhanced force of the sword's strike, but also the added bite of the Overloaded Sword Beam surging about the bared blade of Hylian steel.
Haron recoils in pain, and while this doesn't prevent the monster from exhaling that built-up blast of flame, it does send the fire-breath raging off at an angle, sweeping over only a small portion of your force instead of catching the center of the lot head-on.
You came into this fight wondering if Haron was going to be blasting at you like a dragon, but that seems to not be the case. Where the weapon of a fire-breathing dragon is a cone, line, or occasional cloud of contiguous high-intensity flame, the Pumpkin-Headed One's attack is more like scattered motes of fire spread out on a blast of hot air - or maybe even burning leaves, caught and flung wildly about by a sudden gust of wind.
It's still enough to make a lot of your minions off to your left hiss, yelp, or otherwise exclaim in alarm as the "burning wind" washes over them, and from the sound and sense of movement momentarily faltering behind you, it provokes plenty of flinches as well. But those sounds are swiftly followed by cries of amazement and triumph as the monsters realize-
"It doesn't hurt!"
"It doesn't burn!"
"The Master's magic protects us!"
"We are INVINCIBLE!"
"HAIL TO THE MASTER!"
"HAIL!"
"KILL THE PUMPKIN-HEADED ONE!"
"FOR THE MASTER!"
-well, that.
Haron has enough time to give you a look asking, "What the hell, man?"
And then suddenly, goblins.
And spiders.
And goblins RIDING spiders, what the actual-?
Your mob of minions is much too large for EVERY member to get in close and take a swing at - or a bite out of - Haron, but some of them demonstrate a certain brutal cunning in the matter. Grum's height and the length of his spear allow him to simply stab over the heads of his smaller cousins, and the Stalfos enjoys similar advantages, its longer arms helping to make up for the shorter reach of its blade. The Bokoblins and Deelers clearly have plenty of experience with swarm tactics, at least among their own kind, managing to advance and strike in threes and fours with a kind of instinctive unity that honestly looks nothing like the organized maneuvers you've seen the Memorians use, but which seems to get the job done.
And then there's the ones that are actually teaming up across species, Deelers allowing Bokoblins to ride on their backs and Bokoblins trusting Deelers not to eat them, all in the name of getting just one more body into striking distance of the enemy. There is something about arachnid-mounted goblins that is just deeply unsettling, and you try to keep from shuddering at the sight.
On the positive side, Haron goes down in a heap with smaller monsters all over him, so, hooray for teamwork?
The press of bodies is enough that you have to take a step back, and once that happens, Bokoblins and Deelers press into the space you've opened up, pushing you back even more and obscuring the Pumpkin-Headed One from your line of sight. You thus aren't sure what happens next, except that there is a lot of surprised shouting from the mob, a sudden shift in their "formation"-
"Heads up!"
"Literally!"
-and Haron's gourd goes flying right out of the crowd in a wide arc-
*Crash*
-that ends with it slamming into the ground with a LOT more force than you would have expected of a hollowed-out pumpkin, even one of that size!
"Did anybody get dead?"
"Spider down!"
"Master, Master! It killed Kenny!"
"You bastard!"
Wait, there's a Bokoblin named "Kenny"...?
"I'm... not... dead... yet..."
"GET IT!"
"FOR KENNY!"
Bokoblins scramble about and swarm over the pumpkin, weapons-first-
"GIVE ME MY FIRE, YOU SELFISH JERK!" one particular goblinoid screams, as he shoves one end of a torch-club into Haron's gaping, fire-filled mouth.
"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, BOGGAMOGG!"
-and a moment later, a small, ghostly figure flees, screaming, from the boss's decapitated head.
"What's THAT thing?"
"So tiny..."
"Is that what he REALLY looks like?"
"We were afraid of THAT?"
"NOOOO, MY FIRE-!"
Amid the screaming and shifting mass of bodies, you see the downed Bokoblin and Deeler, both looking... sort of crushed, although they're still moving.
Wait, what are you thinking? You don't have to choose between healing your allies and smiting your enemy, you can just do both at once - and with the same spell, even, now that you know Haron is actually an undead spirit of some kind!
One shot of Reach Spell Metamagic for range, one of Marking Spell Metamagic for number of targets, a quick moment's gratitude that your grasp of Healing Magic is sufficient to cover all three intended targets at the resulting level of output, and then you cast.
In the handful of seconds it takes for you to shape the mana, your minions try to repeat their earlier strategy of burying Haron in bodies. It doesn't work against his current spectral form, which seems to laugh at the efforts of the goblins and spiders before breathing another gout of flaming embers over them. Although this blast catches a much larger portion of your force head-on, it has even less effect than the first shot, for the monsters now know that your magic protects them from the fire, and they're out for blood besides.
"Yes, give me the fi- WHY WON'T THE TORCH BUUUURRRRNNNN?!"
"SOMEBODY SHUT HIM UP!"
Well, MOST of them are out for blood.
The mass pursuit of Haron has a secondary benefit, in that it clears out the crowd around the wounded, giving you a clear line of effect.
As you finish your spell, with all three targets in sight, you declare, "BE HEALED!"
Sparks of soothing light rain down upon Kenny the Bokoblin, the unnamed Deeler, and Haron.
"Oooh, pretty..."
The (formerly) Pumpkin-Headed One screeches in pain.
"Oh, that looks like it hurt."
"Wait, what about Kenny?!"
"I feel... a lot better, actually."
"I live?" the Deeler chitters in confusion, before rising up and waving its mandibles and forelegs. "I LIIIIVE!"
"The Master HEALS?!"
"No, dummy, he clearly sucked the life out of the enemy to heal the loyal fallen!"
"Oh, that makes more sense... I mean, HAIL THE MASTER!"
"HAIL!"
Haron shakes off the clinging sparkles, gives you a furious phantasmal look, and then flies through the mob-
"Ack!"
"Ugh!"
"That feels WEIRD!"
"How is it cold and hot at the same time?!"
-en route for its abandoned gourd. When the spirit's burning form sinks back into its anchor, the rest of Haron's original body - which you belatedly realize disintegrated at some point - rematerializes underneath it, lifting the pumpkin out of easy striking distance once more.
*Scree-KOW!*
At least for melee weapons. Your Overloaded Sword Beam doesn't hit hard enough to knock the monster's head off, unfortunately, but it does stagger Haron and force him to spend a couple of seconds reaching up to keep his gourd on-
"GET HIM!"
"YAAARRRRGH!"
-which is time enough for the mob to wheel about and charge him once more.
The boss manages to leap out of the way, covering quite a bit of distance and coming down with enough force to shake the room and knock a few unprepared monsters off their feet, while staggering the rest. But as the Pumpkin-Headed One raises his hands to the broken ceiling, summoning burning spheres that radiate an elemental aura of Fire intense enough to make you worry that it might overcome your protection spell, the nearest members of your horde manage to recover-
"CHAAAARGE!"
"HOLD THAT POSE, PUMPKIN HEAD!"
"Oh, for Darkness's sake..."
-close the distance, and bury the boss once more.
From there, it's pretty much a repeat of what happened before. Down goes the body, off goes the head, and out comes the flame-like spirit - and this time, it stays out for a while, as some of the Bokoblins get the idea to pick up the pumpkin and make a run for it, forcing the Ghost of Hallowe'ens Past or whatever Haron actually is to chase them to get his focus back.
Under other circumstances, the Pumpkin-Headed One would be too dangerous for the monsters to do this, its size, fiery breath, and intangible true form presenting a combination of offense and defense that none of the residents of the ruins would be capable of overcoming. Your contributions have tipped the scale in the other direction almost entirely, and while Haron's spectral body still poses something of an issue for the mob-
"Stalfos, get it!"
*Clatter-chatter* go the skeleton warrior's teeth, as it rushes in to strike.
-the one undead you DO have under your command proves able to "interact" with its peer in an effective manner.
You hardly have to do anything but wait a bit for the monsters to whittle Haron down to size, before-
It would be a very simple matter to let your minions finish Haron off. You could just stay where you are and allow the Stalfos - which has just enough magical and/or spiritual potency in itself and its weapon to affect the incorporeal entity - to finish ripping the fiery spirit's form apart.
And yet, you find you don't want to do that.
Maybe it's the fact that you've successfully recruited every other monster in the ruins, and a few more creatures from out in the simulated Lost Woods. Perhaps it's the sneaking concern that drowning an enemy in numbers and then mercilessly finishing them off is the sort of thing Ganondorf would have done. It could even be a belated sense of guilt at not even TRYING to be diplomatic with the Pumpkin-Headed One, after going to all that effort to (mostly) non-violently impress the other ruin-dwellers into your little horde.
Whatever the reason, you want to try for a victory where nobody has to die, even temporarily. And so, you raise your hand, press out with your overcharged spiritual aura a bit, and call, "HOLD!"
"Huh?"
"What?"
"But we were winning, Master!"
"No kill?" a Deeler hisses in confusion.
"Clear the way!" you follow up.
There are numerous puzzled blinks-
"Out of Master's path!" Grum says, thumping Bokoblins aside with the haft of his spear, clearly having figured out something of your intention.
-but your minions murmur and step aside, allowing you to walk up to Haron's currently bodiless gourd-head and look it in the burning eyes.
"Pumpkin-Headed Haron," you declare, "ruler of these ruins and scourge of the Woods beyond, you stand on the brink of defeat."
Is it your imagination, or does the ghost-fire within flinch at that statement?
Since Haron is a spirit of some sort, it only seems right that you keep leaning on your currently amplified spiritual presence in order to make sure that the fiery phantasm fully comprehends what you are saying, and can make a properly informed decision.
"You are not the first monster to face defeat at my hands and the hands of my forces this day," you state, while once again pushing your aura through the barrier of your Spell of Mind Blank.
"Wait, he's not?" a Bokoblin mutters.
"Somebody ELSE fought the Master?"
"Hush!" Grum growls.
"But who was-?"
"Hush, now!"
"One of those that fought me and lost was destroyed," you continue, aura building around you, "but the rest walked away with their lives, even agreeing to work with me in my... exploration of these ruins."
"Waaaait a minute," Cruggor drawls.
"Grum said hush," the Moblin warns again. "Grum not say it again."
"So, Haron," you continue, as the silhouette of the Boar takes shape above and about you, joining you in looking down at the spirit, "you have to ask yourself how you see this ending. Will you go down fighting, for no purpose but empty pride?"
"Please say yes."
"That gets my vote."
"Or will you yield?"
"Aw, come on-"
"But, Master-"
"No way-"
The Boar rumbles, silencing the peanut gallery.
Haron's spirit form doesn't have much of a face, but as the motes of fire behind the pumpkin's carved-out eyes look from you, to the spirit beast towering above you, and then back again, you can just make out an expression that reads, "Is this a trick question?"
Then the fire-spirit pops out of the gourd's grinning mouth like a literal tongue of flame, stubby hands touching the ground with a hiss of singed stoned and burnt litter, before it presses its rounded head to the half-buried flagstone.
"I surrender!" a startlingly high-pitched voice crackles, like a cross between a chipmunk and a campfire. "Have mercy!"
Gained Spiritual Power C (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Threat D (Plus) (Plus)
...so, I have to ask; do we send him into his last Trial with just his partner, or do we let him keep this whole little army for the next bit?
Huh. I hadn't thought about that.
We HAVE seen him fight on his own quite a lot by now. Commanding troops in an actual BATTLE would shake things up...
You look up at that, surprised.
"Um, if it matters," you call out to the ceiling.
It generally does.
Hm?
Oh, this is going to be good.
"I would vote for keeping the army."
"Of course you would," Briar sighs.
Noted.
"Uh... who are you talking to, Boss?" one of the Bokoblins asks, looking from you to the ceiling and then back again with obvious puzzlement.
"The Goddesses."
"Wait, what?!"
"They're watching us?!"
"DOOM!"
"DOOM!"
Much alarm ensues, with a number of the Bokoblins raising their hands in curious warding gestures. You stretch out your senses at the sight, but-
Is that supposed to do anything?
Not without actual magic or true faith backing it up, no.
Ah, a power issue. Say no more.
-they don't appear to be accomplishing anything.
Maybe it makes them feel better?
Let's just get on with this.
As a result of your words, the screaming that ensues when you and your army advance to the next Trial may be more panicked than it otherwise would have been...
There is some shouting, hissing, and other noises of surprise as reality blurs around you and your minions, but when things stabilize once more, the monsters calm down.
"What in the Dark World just happened?!"
"Where are we?!" a Deku Scrub exclaims in distress. "Where's the forest?!"
"I don't know, but I kind of like the look of this new place."
"I hate the look of this new place."
"You never did have any taste."
Most of them, anyway.
You've been transported to a volcanic wasteland. The sky overhead is choked with dark clouds of smoke and ash that still surge from the cone that rises up before you, which may or may not be an incarnation of Death Mountain; it's a little hard to be sure, given how the place changes in appearance from era to era - and sometimes just in the span of decades - due to its ongoing activity and the efforts of various powerful monsters and would-be Dark Lord types. Still, Death Mountain IS the preeminent volcano in Hyrule and so the most likely candidate for emulation in this Trial. More than that, if you squint, you can make out a rock formation higher up on the slopes that seems to be split into two near-equal halves, which would be Spectacle Rock.
Your force has been deposited at the foot of the volcano. The ground about you is a carpet of ash, pierced by bare, fire-blackened stones, the scorched and withered remains of a handful of trees, and even a few immobile skeletons. Lightning flashes overhead, thunder cracks, and a spray of cinders hiss as they fall to the burnt earth some distance away. You don't SEE any active lava flows, but you make a mental note to keep an eye open for them.
The Spell to Resist Fire is good, especially in your hands, but it still has limits, and falling into molten rock would threaten to surpass them.
Idly, you recall that Kahine is in the audience back in the Ring. You wonder what she's making of this other volcano...
Aside from the natural disaster in progress, you can see other monsters moving about on the slope of the mountain. There's a few bouncing, insect-like shapes that are probably Tektites, at least one group of Moblins, and something slightly larger, a reptillian humanoid with an alligator-like head that you don't immediately recognize.
"Pretty sure that's a Daira," Briar notes, when you point out the creature to her. "They fight with axes, and can hit hard enough to shatter most shields or break the user's arm."
Fun.
"Some of them also know how to do the repeating Sword Beam trick with their weapons, so they can 'throw' them constantly."
Even MORE fun.
On the plus side, you don't see any Lynels - not that you're going to mention that aloud and risk giving the Goddesses and Murphy free ammo, of course!
Regardless, you have your troops form up.
While Grum, the Bokoblin pack-leaders, and the Deeler matriarch are getting the rank and file into order, you start casting the Spell of the Lay of the Land again, wanting a better idea of what the layout of this incarnation of Death Mountain is like.
As you shape the energies of the spell with one hand, the other digs into your pocket for the Necklace of Adaptation, which you quickly place about your neck to fend off the ash, smoke, and unseen volcanic gasses in the air. Given that you're running a Trial, the air quality around here wouldn't actually harm you in the long-term, but in the short term, a poorly-timed coughing fit could interrupt your spellcasting or a set of orders at a critical moment, which is something you'd be just as happy to avoid.
"Mind if I ride on your shoulder for this part?" Briar asks, as soon as fresh air starts swirling about you.
...um.
/ I was going to make you my second in command for this part, Briar. /
"...what, really?"
/ I mean, we can communicate like this, and you have access to the same battlefield knowledge that I do, whereas the rest of these guys... /
The two of you pause and look at the troops. The Deelers aren't much more than overgrown bugs, and the Bokoblins, while clever, are a bit-
"I thought torches were wonderful."
"Oh, boy."
"I thought the Pumpkin-Headed One's fire breath was fearsome."
"Here we go."
"But it is only now, as I look upon the MOUNTAIN THAT BURNS-"
"I swear, I don't know this guy."
"-that I begin to understand what FIRE TRULY IS!"
-yeah, that.
Grum, by his own admission, is a pack-hunter, not a war-leader or tribal chieftan. Keeping this many bodies in line would likely be beyond him even if almost half of them weren't spiders that couldn't understand him and the other almost-half were Bokoblins that didn't like him very much.
Haron, who's reassembled its humanoid guise, you have no idea about. Could be a genius at command, could be a complete incompetent. Then again, given the general lack of loyalty among the other inhabitants of the ruins, you're leaning towards "incompetent"...
Ironically, the one minion who probably DOES have some understanding of military leadership is the Stalfos, who is empty-headed in a rather literal fashion. Unfortunately, the undead soldier doesn't appear to be able to speak, so actually commanding troops is beyond it.
So, yes, having Briar to handle some of the troops - most likely the Bokoblins, since you're the one with the Spell to Speak With Arachnids on you - does make some sense.
A thought occurs.
You summoned Moblin to assist you in your skeleton-related magical demonstration back in the First Trial, so if Briar would prefer to stick with you to avail herself of your supply of fresh air, you could summon someone else from Earth to handle the job of wrangling some of the troops for you: someone who knows you; someone who is on good terms with you; someone who is strong enough to look after themselves in this situation, but not so strong that summoning them would be problematic for you; and ideally, someone who'd have actual training for the job you have in mind.
Among your circle of friends and acquaintances, the ones that come to mind as most likely fulfilling all of those requirements are Altria and Kahlua. While it'd be nice to summon both of them, your current mana reserves don't really allow for it - and of the two, you think Altria is more likely to fit the bill. She's training to be a knight, after all, whereas Kahlua is... well, she's training to be a vampire. Which doesn't PRECLUDE the possibility of working with others in combat, certainly, but also doesn't assure it the way prospective knighthood does.
So, yeah, Altria is probably your better bet here. As a bonus, you can use the Aries Crystal to help increase the duration of the Summoning Spell - not by as much as your metamagic skills would allow, admittedly, but also not as costly. That just leaves the question of how much mana to invest in summoning her...
Before getting into that, however, there is the Spell of the Lay of the Land to finish, which you do-
!
-and now you're rather glad that you opted to cast this spell, because the map that's forming up in your head is a concerning one. The slopes of Death Mountain are bad enough by themselves, what with the steep cliffs, rock formations that would provide cover to clever opponents and also don't all seem like they're entirely stable, paths that wind back on themselves or into various dead ends, but the ongoing volcanic activity adds a number of other dangers. There are some places where a relatively light ash-fall will make footing or handholds unsteady, and others where it's thick enough to obscure hazards, ranging from small bumps that somebody might stumble over to crevices big enough to swallow a grown man.
Also, yes, there are a few active lava flows in your range. Not big ones, admittedly, but even a small amount of molten rock is STILL molten rock. You're careful to make extra note of THOSE locations.
And then there are the caves, which have literally dozens of entrances scattered all over the mountainside. Some are at higher elevations, others low. Some are clustered together in groups of two and three, while others are off by themselves. Many look like they can't be reached by following the mountain trails, suggesting that traveling underground would be necessary - and Lay of the Land doesn't provide anything in the way of subterranean guidance.
There's also a couple of caves that have lava coming out of them. Those, you can safely say that you will NOT be trying to enter.
Still, for all the twists and turns and uncertainties about what lies beneath the surface, you can make out a few routes up the volcano. Surely, one of them will be able to accommodate your army?
While poring over the map in your mind, you start gathering mana for your summoning spell. With your reserves in their diminished state, you can't really afford to have to re-cast this spell if you underestimate the difficulty in summoning Altria, so you shoot for the middle of your summoning capabilities.
Leaning towards the high end of the middle eats a little more mana and might potentially waste some of it, but it also ensures you'll get the strongest version of Altria that you can. Considering that you're preparing for at least one battle, you'd rather your friend not come in with a handicap.
So!
*Summoning!*
*Poof!*
"Upon your summoning, I have come for- is that a VOLCANO? Are those GOBLINS?"
*Shing!*
"Yipe!"
"Sword!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" you call, raising your hands. "Everybody, stop! Peace, Altria!"
Not dropping out of the ready stance that promises Great and Terrible Impending Violence, your friend's gaze cuts in your direction. "...Alex?"
"Hi."
"...so, you summoned me."
It's not a question, but you nod anyway. "I did."
"...to Mordor?"
...
"...I can see why you might get that impression," you admit, taking another look around at the whole situation, "but no. I'm running the Ring of Trials on Bali Ha'i again, and this is a recreation of a place in Hyrule called Death Mountain."
The volcano rumbles.
"...an appropriate name."
"It is, isn't it?"
"Short, blonde, carrying a sword," one of the Bokoblins mutters nervously.
"He's wearing the wrong color."
"I dunno, I heard Death wore blue sometimes..."
"I never heard about Death wearing a dress, though."
"Okay, that I can't explain."
"Plus," one of them adds, sniffing in Altria's general direction, "I think this is a girl."
"Oh, thank Darkness."
"Yay, we get to live!"
"False alarm!"
"Do you think she might be the Princess?"
"With a sword?"
"With no jewelry?"
"There's a big purple rock in her chest, though?"
"Stop dashing my hopes of survival, damn it!"
Still on guard, Altria asks, "Why are we surrounded by goblins, and who are they comparing me to?"
"Well, they..."
After explaining the situation...
...you have a few questions.
"So, Altria, you were saying something when you showed up. 'Upon your summoning,' and such. What was that about?"
Your friend has donned a helmet since her arrival-
"Oh, I get it! She's a tiny Ironknuckle!"
"So, like a 'Tin-yknuckle', then?"
"Hurray!"
"We're actually not doomed after all!"
-but is keeping the visor up while you talk; thus, you can see it clearly when she blinks.
"Oh, that?" Altria shrugs. "It just seemed like the right thing to say at the time."
"No idea where it came from?"
"Not really, no. But when in doubt-"
"-blame Ambrose," you and Briar join her in saying.
Of course, you didn't fail to notice that Altria can understand the Bokoblins' chatter, even if she's missing some of the context. While this is certainly convenient for you, since it spares you having to cast a Spell of Tongues, you are curious as to when she learned to speak Goblin - and for that matter, why.
"Another part of my studies," she replies. "Mother insisted, and Ambrose agreed."
You aren't too surprised that the wizard's involved, but... "Your mother did?"
"She did, and while her explanation that the widespread nature of the language and its typical users makes it very useful to know, Anna and I suspect that she had another motive."
"But you don't know what that motive is," you conclude.
"Not yet, at least," Altria admits.
Huh.
Well, you can see where Lucia's OFFICIAL reasoning comes from. Goblinoids turn up all over the planes, and while their native tongue doesn't have the kind of primordial origins, mystical potency, and nigh-universal consistency of the Fae dialects, dragon-speech, or the languages of outsiders, it's still got a little magic to it, enough so that a speaker from one world can usually catch the gist of what a speaker from another world is saying.
Gods are involved, or so your lessons with Batreaux and the priests have informed you.
Putting the matter of goblinspeech and Lucia's odd insistence on her daughters knowing it aside, you ask Altria how she feels, after having been summoned in a somewhat impromptu manner.
"Not uncomfortable," she replies, "volcanic terrain aside, I mean. Although there is a sense of... space? Like wearing a coat that is altogether too large, and catches when you turn suddenly."
That suggests that you did overdo things when summoning, and could have gotten Miss Drake here with a less powerful spell. But it's not going to hurt her, and you will know better in the future.
"Also," Altria adds, looking down and poking at the Aries Crystal fused with her armor, gauntleted finger clacking against the stone, "I have some concerns about this... addition."
"Such as?"
"I know that it is magic, but I cannot help but feel that you have introduced a weak point into my armor, or worry that the crystal will shatter if struck."
She should be fine. Hornfels "wore" the Aries Crystal all through the Memorian Base without problems.
"Yes, but he was both an elemental and a much more experienced warrior than myself."
True enough. "It's not causing you any discomfort, though?"
"No, it appears to be linked only to my armor rather than to my self." She pauses, frowning. "What would happen if I took my armor OFF like this?"
"I honestly don't know," you admit after a moment's thought. "Do you think you COULD take the armor off?"
Altria looks down at the Crystal in her breastplate. "...now that you mention it, I am not certain that I could."
A matter for later investigation, perhaps. Right now, you have a volcano to storm; saying as much gets Altria's agreement, as well as an eager grin.
Your casting of the Spell to Find the Lay of the Land has given you a detailed map of Death Mountain, and a good idea - if still an imperfect one - of how to get to areas of interest, and how to avoid some particularly problematic locations. That said, the mountain paths are fairly treacherous overall, and moving as one large group will slow you down quite a bit, as only so many of your minions could move through any given area at one time.
For all the inconveniences that come with traveling through difficult terrain in a large group, there is still strength in numbers. Even when they're mostly just Bokoblins and Deelers, a force of almost fifty monsters is still the sort of potential threat that would remind a lot of other monsters of their own mortality, and discourage trouble-making.
...well, usually. Some critters would look on your current force and just see a challenge.
You really do hope there isn't a Lynel up there, somewhere...
"Making for the high ground, then?" Altria says, in response to your thoughts.
"The very highest," you reply, as you finish pulling on your Boots of Air Walking, and then take a second to tighten the Vambrace of Force Shielding about your arm. You already had the Ring of Invisibility on (but currently inactive), which leaves you still holding Goldschmidt's Ring of Fire Resistance. There isn't a lot of reason for you to actually use this thing, as its protective power is strictly inferior to the Spell to Resist Fire you're already under, and won't enhance the greater effect. Really, the only reason you might keep the Ring on is as a backup, in case your current protective spell is dispelled.
Considering where your own skills in Abjuration Magic sit and the relative rarity of high-end magical talent among Ganondorf's armies, you have to say, you consider that danger to be unlikely to come to pass.
Altria, on the other hand, has no special defense against fire active. She's not complained of the heat, but you're about to start climbing the volcano, with the intent of going for the ash-and-smoke-spewing rim.
"ALL FORCES READY?" you call out.
"Yes, Master!"
"'Master'?" you hear Altria muttering inside her helmet.
"THEN TURN YOUR EYES AND YOUR FEET TOWARDS THE BURNING PEAK OF DEATH MOUNTAIN!"
"Oh, crapbaskets."
"Doomed!"
"YES! WE GO TO THE FIRE!"
"NOW, MARCH!"
"We march!"
"For the Master!"
"TO THE FIRE!"
"To our doom..."
"Although, before we move out," you add then.
"Yes?" Altria inquires.
"I want you to have this," you say, palming Goldschmidt's Ring in one hand and reaching out to turn Altria's empty hand over with you other-
"Wha-"
-before dropping the Ring into her palm.
*Toing!* goes that one strand of hair, somehow sticking out even though Altria is wearing a helmet at the moment, its tip locked on to the gold as surely as her eyes are.
"-oooh, shiny..."
"It's not much-"
That breaks her out of her draconic fugue. "Eh?"
"-but it'll give you some protection against fire while you're here."
Altria pauses at that, looks at the Ring again, more closely than before, and then looks up at the volcano.
"...you are CERTAIN that this is not Mordor?"
"Quite certain, yes."
The parallels are certainly there, as Ganondorf set up personal holdings on Death Mountain in a couple of eras and had his main base located within sight of it in a few more - kind of hard to avoid that, given what a major part of Hyrule's skyline the volcano is even when it's NOT active - and he did corrupt various people and things to his service and come back from defeat more than once. However, you don't recall the big guy ever handing out magic rings to anybody, vectors of corruption and control or otherwise.
As you've long since discovered, Ganondorf was NOT a serious maker of magic items. So Sauron had that much on him, at least.
"But if you're really worried about it," you go on, reaching out slowly and obviously, "I can always take it back-"
"No!" Altria says quickly, fingers closing around the precious thing. "I mean, no, this is fine. And thank you for the gift."
"You're welcome."
...
"...you do realize that it's only a loan, right?"
"Huh? I mean, yes, of course."
"And that when this is all over, you won't be able to keep that?"
"WHAT TREACHERY-? I mean, yes, right. Magic, summoning, not really here. I do pay attention to Ambrose's lessons, you know."
"I never thought otherwise," you reply lightly.
"Good." In an undertone, you hear her mutter, "Stupid cheating magic..."
With that sorted out, you begin your advance.
As expected, it does not go quickly. Bokoblins aren't best-suited to life in mountainous environments, and the residues of the ongoing eruption make the terrain even tougher for them to deal with; throw in their fractious nature, and trying to move a force of the small goblinoids across this sort of terrain would be a recipe for disaster for most commanders.
You have several advantages in that regard. Even if you haven't shown off your Power to them yet, the Bokoblins still respect what they've seen of your magic, and that Spell to Resist Fire in particular is really pulling its weight under the current conditions, cutting down on at least one possible source of complaining. You've also got the obvious loyalty of Grum and the Stalfos and the allegiance of the Deeler matriarch and her brood, and you led the whole force to subjugate Haron - something the Bokoblins never thought they'd be able to do, and thus something worth a whole lot of brownie points.
...or goblin points, you suppose.
And you just called up a "Tinyknuckle," which has further impressed them.
As for the Deelers, while their chittered remarks make it clear that they don't really care for rocky terrain, either, they're having an easier time navigating it - score one for arachnid agility - and while their awareness of the surrounding heat has them on edge, every minute that goes by without one of them succumbing to the heat raises their trust in you and your magic that much more.
On a related note, your Spell to Speak With Arachnids starts to wind down during the march. Since you can't afford to be unable to communicate with half of your fighting force, you let the magic keep going until it's used up all but a few minutes' worth of time, and then renew it, timing the ritual so that the new spell kicks in just as the old is giving out. And since it's going to take a while to get to the top of Death Mountain, you go ahead and extend the spell, to reduce the odds that you'll need to re-cast it again before the Trial is completed.
You also take the opportunity to renew the Mass Spells of Mage Armor covering your troops. Fortunately, THAT is a spell you know inside out, and thus are able to cast by drawing upon the abundant ambient energies of the volcano, substituting for your flagging mana reserves.
As your force scales the mountainside, you spot a number of other, smaller monster bands eyeing you from a distance. Tektites take one look at the number of troops you have and turn and bound away, while the Moblin war parties visibly measure their chances before grumbling and holding position. Even that gator-headed creature Briar identified as a Daira takes its axe to the skeletal husk of a nearby tree, working out some frustration.
These are good things, yes, but seeing them also makes you wonder when the other shoe - or boot, in your current case - is going to drop. Because it usually does even in the real-world, and here in the Trials, it's basically guaranteed-
*Crash!*
-and your musings are interrupted by the sudden impact of a boulder almost as big as you are, some distance up the slope ahead of the front rank of your troops.
"Ambush!" a Bokoblin cries.
"No, avalanche!" another argues.
"Ambushlanche!"
Further sounds of rock smashing into rock draw your attention further up the mountainside, to where several more large stones are falling towards the path ahead, crashing off the slope and bouncing madly about as they descend. You don't see anybody throwing them, but the way they're falling doesn't seem natural, either; there could be groups of monsters up there, hidden by the angle of the cliff-face, simply pitching stones out into space.
Some part of you muses that you're fortunate that what's falling from the sky aren't lava bombs, as has been known to happen in some of Death Mountain's nastier eruptions...
Your mental map tells you that there is another route that would get you where you want to go, but it's a longer path and would eat up a lot of time. That's not a huge concern for most of your active magic, now that you've replenished the spells that were failing, but the Summoning Spell holding Altria here is another matter.
"Alright, everybody!" you call out.
"Oh, no."
"He's going to order us ahead, isn't he?"
"I knew it was too good to last..."
"For the Master..."
"Let's back it up a bit, so we're not in danger of getting crushed-"
"Wait, what?"
"Can it be?!"
"D-did I hear that right?"
"Master?"
"-and you all can set up a watch and take a breather while I go see who or what is dropping rocks on the road," you conclude, while taking a step into the air with your magic boots.
"The Master is merciful!"
"The Master is gracious!"
"The Master is- walking on air?!"
"Master!"
"Altria, you're in charge until I get back," you say, loud enough for everybody to hear it. "Grum, Stalfos, Haron, you listen to her."
"Yes, Master!"
*Chatter*
Haron sighs an affirmative.
"Understood," Altria replies sternly, and in Goblin. She looks over the ranks, and adds, "Permission to throw troublemakers off the mountain?"
Haron perks right up at that, and Grum as well. Even the Stalfos looks interested.
"Urk!" go most of the Bokoblins.
You raise an eyebrow at Altria for her choice of words - you're PRETTY sure she's bluffing, but she's got a good poker face, and you also have to consider that this IS a Summoning-based simulation, and she knows it - yet you can't quite help glacing over the side of the cliff and measuring the distance to the ground. You aren't that high up yet, but a Bokoblin still wouldn't enjoy the fall.
After that, you start making like there's an invisible staircase right here. You can't leverage the full benefits of your active speed enhancements while ascending like this, as the boosts interact poorly with the magic of the Boots and would result in you losing control, but going more or less straight up like this is still a lot faster than your previous method of ascension.
Up, up, up you go-
!
-and as you get higher, you start to hear... muffled explosions? And you can see the familiar reddish-orange glow of molten rock - not a lot of it, but enough to make you double-check the mental map of your Lay of the Land Spell to confirm that, yes, there's a small pool or vent or whatever you call it up there. Yet the rocks weren't molten or even smoldering, meaning they're not volcanic in (immediate) origin, so what's going on up there?
Shortly, you're high enough to see the top of the cliff that the boulders were coming over the edge of.
You'd expected work-gangs of Moblins or other monsters. You'd also considered that Gorons might be amusing themselves by rolling down the mountain, and knocking other stones loose in the process. And you'd just ruled out the possibility of volcanic eruption - but what you've actually found is almost as alarming as that last one.
"Briar," you say slowly, "is that a field of Bomb Flowers?"
"It is," your partner replies, in the same tone.
*Boom* goes one of the explosive fruits, as the heat radiating off of the pool of lava proves too much for it. The nearby rock shatters from the force of the blast, and good-sized masses of stone go flying in several directions, including right over the edge.
"If this keeps up, those Flowers are going to rip this whole cliff apart," Briar says worriedly.
And the resulting avalanche could sweep away your intended path, or at least bury it.
"They might even open up the shaft the lava's coming from."
And then you'd have a LAVAFALL to contend with.
Well, then.
"At your discretion."
"""We'll be good!""" half the Bokoblins hurriedly assure you.
"I'll believe THAT when I see it," Briar mutters, as you start to walk up.
You consider just downing your one mana potion and casting Spells of Flight on your army so that they can bypass this obstacle, but then you consider what having a score of Bokoblins, about as many Deelers, and a handful of stronger creatures flying around a volcano in the middle of an eruption is liable to actually LOOK like.
At the very least, your force would get spread out, as this or that goblin tries to see how high, how fast, and how far they can go, or gets into a race with his buddies, or just starts playing around in mid-air. You can empathize with such desires, but you don't really want to deal with them right now. Plus, splitting up the unit would likely result in the local monsters finding their courage again and going after any smaller groups that wander within range of their weapons.
*Flash*
*Rumble*
The crack of lightning from the ash-cloud above you provides another reason for why mass flight is probably not a great idea.
But if an outright airborne redeployment isn't in the cards, the idea of just bypassing the part of the path under threat of falling rocks is still on the table. While there is a bit of a breeze due to the heat pouring out of the caldera, it's not so windy that the Deelers couldn't just climb straight up the mountainside; they've been going along half the vertical surfaces you've passed as it is, and having a rather easier time of things than the Bokoblins due to how much less ash clings to the sides of (mostly) upright objects than piles up on (mostly) horizontal surfaces, to say nothing of their arachnid agility.
A couple of castings of the Spell of Spider Climb, modified to target the numbers involved, would give your other troops a similar degree of mobility, at least for a little while. Communal casting would be a bit too inefficient, as you'd need five such spells to affect everybody involved, but two Mass-castings could achieve the results you want - and since you have to "walk" back down to your troops, and then back along the path for a bit to get to a spot where ascending the mountainside will put your troops on a path that actually goes where you want to go, you've got time for ritual-casting.
So you go with that, conveying your thoughts to Briar as you turn and march back "downstairs," shaping ambient mana all the while. You're still casting when you touch down, so your partner just relays a message to your appointed second-in-command, which has Altria-
"Prepare to move out!"
"Are we doomed again?"
"I don't know, I've lost track!"
-taking charge and getting the Bokoblins and greater monsters moving back up the path. Though the Deelers can't understand Altria's words, their matriarch takes her cue from seeing the rest of the small horde start marching again, and chivvies her brood along in their wake. For your part, you complete the Spider Climb Spell and start walking among the goblins, passing out the magic with a tap.
"More magic, Master?"
"We're not worthy!"
You save one shot of that spell for Altria, so that she can lead the first batch of troops up the mountainside while you're working on getting the second lot buffed. You also spare a moment to explain the plan to the Deeler matriarch, who quite approves of taking a shorter route that doesn't involve walking underneath falling boulders.
After that, it goes smoothly enough, although you do see several local monsters staring and pointing and gibbering in confusion, protest, or confused protest at the sight of your force climbing up the cone of the volcano. You don't think you'll be able to risk climbing like this all the way up, as your troops need to use their hands as well as their feet for the magic to work properly, which means they can't really defend themselves if somebody starts shooting at them from above - or just dropping more rocks.
Still, the arachnid ascent DOES shave a good amount of time off your trek to the peak, such that even with the delay of your Air Walking and the doubling-back, you think you're actually a bit ahead of where you would have been if you'd been able to cross the route with the boulders at your normal marching speed.
So that's nice.
Less nice is when you clear a rise and see an enemy fortification laying across the path ahead. It's a crude thing: a wall just a single story high, assembled from chunks of stone, various large bones of uncertain provenance, and random bits of junk that haven't burned away from the heat and periodic rain of cinders; two squat towers of similar construction, only slightly taller than the wall they flank; and in the middle, a gate shaped like the head of a monster of uncertain species, the lowered portcullis evoking gnashing teeth.
Four Moblins stand watch atop the small lookout, and they've clearly seen your force coming, or possibly heard you; your goblins may not be wearing heavy armor, but they aren't exactly quiet when they march. One of Grum's kin is blowing into a horn of some sort, and its low droning is already being answered by howls from at least two different groups, one of them inside the thing you hesitate to call even an outpost, the second from somewhere higher up the path behind the structure.
Judging from the level of noise, the Moblins within and upon the barricade might number a dozen or so, while the other group is perhaps half that large.
"Form up and be ready to move or defend if they attack," you order, as you start stepping into the sky again.
"Form ranks!" Altria calls.
"What's a rank?" a Bokoblin wonders below.
"I think that's your smell..."
Further commentary from THAT Bokoblin is cut off as Altria's small but armored hand clamps down on his shoulder. "'Form ranks'," she says evenly, "means to arrange yourselves in lines, so that if the enemy comes forth to give battle, they cannot attack ONE of you without being in striking range of at least THREE of you."
She's dumbing it down, of course, because goblins.
"Oooohhhh," several of them nonetheless reply, as if witnessing one of the mysteries of the universe unfolding before them.
"I like the sound of that."
"Yeah, fighting three on one means I'M a lot safer!"
"YOU are-?!"
"'We'! Meant 'we.'"
"Why didn't you just say 'line up'?" another asks, from outside of grabbing range.
"Because then you would have formed only a SINGLE line, and the much larger and heavier enemy would be able to smash right through it," Altria continues. "Whereas several lines, one behind the other, will be more difficult for them to penetrate."
"Oh."
"Also, you just volunteered yourself for the front line."
"What? But I don't-"
"Or for being the first one off the mountain."
It says something that the Bokoblin visibly considers the two options for a moment before sighing and walking up to the front of the group.
While Altria is getting the goblinoid troops into position, with some help from Grum, the Stalfos, and Haron, the Deelers spread out along the flanks. For your part, you climb until you're level with the top of the barricade, looking the Moblins there right in their squinty eyes - although they're currently wider than usual, staring at your casual display of magic footwear.
You clear your throat, channel some ki, and speak: "I AM ALEX, AND I DEMAND TO SPEAK WITH YOUR LEADER!"
All four of the guards yelp and flinch with surprise at the boom of your voice. Two of them, you note, aim their spears forward as if they expect you to attack, or just for the unspoken threat - a sign of good training, or just good instincts? The third Moblin hunches fearfully and makes as if he's about to head towards one of the towers, when the fourth growls reaches out smacks him in the back of the head with one paw.
"Leader not here, Magic Boy!" that one shouts back. "You speak to Durg!"
"VERY WELL, DURG!"
"What does Magic Boy want?"
"I WANT-"
"-YOU TO JOIN MY FORCES!"
"Again with this?" Briar wonders.
"If it ain't broke," you murmur, momentarily suppressing the ki boost to your voice.
"No!" Durg returns forcefully, interrupting you.
...
"...JUST NO?" you call, a little bemused by the bluntness of the reply.
"Durg already serve Pack-Leader!" the Moblin... sergeant, you're going to say, states. "Leader already serve Boss! Leader finds good territory, and leads well in hunt and in battle! Boss gives good weapons and strong allies! What does Magic Boy give? Bokoblins and spiders and standing on air? Bah! Durg not take those even if Durg NOT already follow Leader and Boss!"
...
This Moblin would appear to have some principles, or at least enough brains to recognize when he's got a good thing going - not to mention hints of actual loyalty to the ones that provide the good thing.
Good for him, you suppose?
Even if Durg didn't have some valid reasons to reject your offer out of hand, you wouldn't be surprised that he IS turning it down. You didn't manage to recruit Grum until you'd beaten him up with Power and violence, on top of magically knocking out the rest of his pack. Cruggor's little team likewise only agreed to follow you after you telekinetically goblin-handled their leader, and the other Bokoblins in the ruins joined mainly because you'd already recruited all the Deelers, whose aid you got on the promise of beating a fearsome enemy, and the gift of magical fire resistance. The Stalfos was the necromantic equivalent of mind-control, and Haron was basically press-ganged.
Like Durg just implied, walking on air doesn't really have the same impact as reaching out and telekinetically grabbing somebody, or otherwise exercising great and terrible arcane forces upon them. Turning up with an army should have been a bit more impressive - and judging by the nervous looks from that one Moblin that Durg slapped and the defensive stances the other two are still holding, you actually HAVE made a solid impression on at least some members of the guard squad - but then again, they do have a crude fortification to hide behind and reinforcements incoming. That's probably lending them courage.
Well, then. You should probably do something to make it clear that the wall of junk won't help the Moblins if things come to violence.
You had considered simply casting the Greater Spell of Shouting to knock it all down, but the Moblin guards have spears sized and balanced for throwing, and making the spell work would require you to get close enough to your target that the monsters standing atop it would have a chance of hitting you. Your Vambrace of Force Shielding, active Ki Enhancement, Spell of Haste, and Spell of Mage Armor do give you a reasonable level of defense against that, but the fact that you're air walking at the moment makes the non-force-based effects a bit less reliable - and they'll get even less so if you start deflecting hits, as the force behind the throws transfers to you and starts you spinning in mid-air.
Throw in the state of your mana reserves, and the idea is a bit unattractive.
On the other hand, you're level with the top of the simplistic fortification, giving you a clear line of sight to its four occupants. You've also got plenty of ki left. A rain of Ki Shots or a few well-placed Ki Blasts might clear the "battlement" - for that matter, a full power Ki Blast might well put a hole in the thing, and an Overloaded Blast surely would.
You also have your troops. With that Spell of Spider Climb still active, as it will be for a while yet, the "barrier" would be far less effective at stopping your force than the Moblins think it is, meaning that having the Bokoblins and the Deelers charge and overrun the thing is a valid approach to dealing with it. The main thing holding you back from that is the likelihood of at least a couple of your troops getting killed before they can take the wall - Moblins know what they're doing with their spears, and Durg and his lot are a bit bigger and meaner-looking than Grum - and the equal odds of one or more of the guards dying in return.
You have a pretty good recruitment record going from the last Trial, you'd like to keep it up if you can.
"I APPLAUD YOUR LOYALTY, DURG!" you commend the Moblin, as you focus your energies. For a moment, you consider asking him how much of the volcano his boss controls, but given you literally JUST praised him for faithfulness to said superior, that strikes you as the wrong tack to take. "BUT ALLOW ME TO OFFER THIS IN RESPONSE!"
When the Moblin sergeant sees you gathering a ball of ki between your hands, the sudden shift in his expression clearly conveys something along the lines of, "Oh, crap, battle magic!" He dives for cover behind the battlement, dragging his two nearest subordinates down with him. The last one sends a startled glance their way, but manages to follow suit before you release your Overcharged Ki Blast.
Fortunately for the Moblins, you weren't aiming at them. The cheap materials and shoddy construction of that barricade are such that you're pretty sure a regular Ki Blast would punch right through and hurt at least one of them, to say nothing of the shrapnel. An OVERLOADED Ki Blast would be considerably worse, which would be rather counterproductive, given you're still trying to convince them to join you, or at least to get out of your way.
So you aim your Blast lower, sending a brief, bright shot of energy straight at the maw-shaped door.
*ZAP!* goes the Ki Blast.
*Bang!* goes the portcullis.
Even with the Overload, the resulting explosion isn't overly large, as area of effect isn't what a Ki Blast is designed for, but dust and debris aplenty are thrown up from the impact, the carpet of volcanic ash in particular adding to the mess. You lose sight of the point of impact and most of the surrounding door for a few seconds-
*Crash!*
*Bang*
*Clonk*
-but the sound of something falling over and falling to pieces comes through quite clearly. When the smoke clears a few seconds later, you can see that most of the portcullis has been knocked flat, with only a couple of "teeth" on either side still upright. Of the parts that were blown over, you can see a fairly rounded hole with bent edges near the middle, where you were aiming and where your attack clearly punched through.
After a moment, Durg hauls himself back to his feet, coughs a bit and waves one paw to clear away some of the rising smoke, and leans over the parapet to see what happened.
From this angle, the only thing you can see is how his ears droop, but that by itself is fairly telling.
"Did that change your mind?" you call, before frowning at the realization that your modified Ki Shout has failed. Granted, the technique was only meant to be a one-shot affair, so it's not really surprising, but it is a bit annoying.
Maybe you need to speak with Lu-sensei about long-term vocal enhancement tricks?
"...Durg IS having second thoughts about letting Magic Boy pass," the sergeant admits.
"Durg had better not!" another Moblin calls from inside the damaged structure.
"Shut up, Brak!" a third Moblin says shortly.
"You shut up, Rogg!"
"Make Rogg!"
"Brak and Rogg BOTH shut up!" Durg shouts down. "Or do Brak and Rogg want to fight Magic Boy who shoots through WALLS by THEMSELVES?"
...
"That what Durg thought."
Given the loyalty that Durg's previous statements suggested he holds for his leaders, and even with the, ah, "impression" that you've made upon him - and his gate - you suspect that attempting to press for him and his troops to join you would take up enough time for that patrol of other Moblins you heard responding to the horn-call to get here.
If you got the count right, half a dozen Moblins in addition to the twice as many already here wouldn't make a big difference, but it might be enough to convince some of Durg's lot to try their luck fighting you anyway, especially if the other lot come in stabbing. You also can't say for certain that there aren't other monsters with that unit, or elsewhere in the area, that didn't audibly respond to the alarm and begin making their way to the miniature fort.
All in all, it seems best to get your forces through this choke-point and back on the move.
Of course, you aren't about to march your minions through a structure that has a bunch of un-allied monsters hiding inside it with weapons, and so there is a bit of a delay as Durg orders his goblins up to the rampart with him and the trio that were already there. The result is a bit crowded, but it puts the whole unit in plain view of you and your implied displeasure if they try anything.
For your part, you order your Bokoblins not to loot anything-
"No loot?" several of them demand in dismay.
"No fighting, either," one points out reasonably.
"But no loot!"
Altria shifts uncomfortably, but doesn't say anything.
-or deface the structure-
"Oh, sure, knock the door down and then tell US we can't make a mess."
"'Do as the Master says, not as the Master does.'"
-and then have Altria, Grum, and the Stalfos lead them through the broken gate and out the back, while Haron joins you in keeping an eye on the Moblins, idly breathing fire into the air to keep them honest and ensure their spears don't leave their paws.
While the Bokoblins are going through the little fort in their sevens and eights, the Deeler matriarch sends her spawn up and along the rock face, bypassing the blockade altogether.
Some of the Moblins stare at the passing swarm of giant spiders with visible dismay, while others shudder. A number of them give Durg looks of gratitude, even if it's grudging in a couple of cases, and the sergeant just huffs and nods to himself.
Once everyone else is through, you and Haron follow.
"Thank you for your time," you tell Durg, as you're about to enter the base. "And, uh... sorry about the door."
Durg huffs.
Under different circumstances, you might be tempted to cast Make Whole on the punctured portal, but you're not about to stick around for the ten minutes that would take.
Your minions resume their march, and several minutes later, after the Moblin outpost has disappeared from view and the reinforcing patrol has failed to turn up - at least on THIS side of the barrier, though from the lack of any sounds of angry discovery or pursuit from behind you, they might not have reached Durg's command yet - the path diverges in three directions.
According to the map in your head, the route that goes to your left and slightly downward is actually the quickest overland route to the peak, provided that you don't run into any more blockades or similar sources of delay. The route that goes more or less straight ahead leads to a cave, with whatever lies beyond that being unrevealed by your Spell to Know the Lay of the Land. Finally, the right-handed path just goes into a maze of overlapping switchbacks and dead-ends that would eventually lead you back to where you started.
Of course, that Spell of Spider Climbing is still in effect, and if you consider VERTICAL distances, the tangled route to your right includes a series of plateaus that your troops could scale in short bursts, minimizing the time they'd spend unable to defend themselves. The left-handed path isn't so amenable to such a feat.
Seeing as how you're the only one with a map of Death Mountain, one route is as good or as bad as another as far as your troops are concerned. Thus, when you order them to go right, there's no objections or even much in the way of discussion.
THAT starts up not too long after you've entered the maze-like area, and the Bokoblins start to get an idea of just how many different paths there are in here.
You have the group take a few turns, go straight a couple more times-
"Does the Master know where we're going?"
"He hasn't hesitated once."
"He could be faking it, though."
"He wasn't faking with those Moblins back there."
"It's a completely different thing!"
-and shortly call a halt next to a particular stretch of cliff.
Altria notices you examining the rock face and muses, "Up and over?"
"Up and over," you reply with a nod. "And then over again."
"Hm," she answers, squinting up at your chosen route. "Could I trouble you to scout ahead? Just so we know if there's anything hiding up there, before we climb right into their nests."
Entirely sensible, and completely doable. You get some altitude underneath you-
"Hiss!"
-and are quickly glad that you chose to summon Altria, as the Dodongo lazing about on that one outcropping of rock reacts poorly to your presence, even from a good fifteen feet away.
It probably doesn't see many airborne humanoids around here, or at least not ones that aren't going in the other direction and at rather greater speed...
As you keep going up, you spot more monsters, some of them just going about their business like the Dodongo, others clearly part of the armed and organized force that claims this territory. All of them eye you consideringly once they've noticed your presence in the air, and those with weapons brandish them eagerly, as if daring you to come at them.
A couple of those alligator-headed Dairas throw axe-beams at you, a process that looks a lot like they're actually throwing short-handled, single-bladed axes, but between the distance, your defensive boosts-
*Tink*
-and the presence of your Vambrace of Force Shielding, you're able to weather such attention.
...for some reason, the sight of you blocking an Axe Beam with your projected shield sends the Daira responsible for the attack into a fit of snarling, hissing fury, weapon and claws waving about in ways that have nothing to do with trying to attack you again, but instead look more like... well, like somebody angrily demanding a do-over or calling you a cheat.
The heck is THAT about?
Gained Ranged Defense F (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Anyway, with Lay of Land letting you plot a course and your Boots of Air Walking allowing you to inspect it for obstacles of a non-geological nature, you'll be able to guide your army all the way up the cliffs here with the minimal number of encounters. That could still take a while, though; there's no spots along the way where your entire force can assemble, so they'll have to do this in groups, spaced out enough for each to be able to catch their breaths after a climb. Going one unit at a time would take much too long for your tastes, but looking at the way the cliffs are laid out and where the monsters are, you probably can't move more than a dozen Bokoblins and Deelers at a time. So that would make it four separate waves, with one of your larger followers to act as leadership for each group.
Oddly convenient how that works out.
Of course, even with a plan, you can't guarantee there won't be any contact with the enemy. The Dodongos, Tektites, and other animalistic monsters are one thing, and will likely be content to ignore your troops as long as they keep a distance, but once the Moblins and Dairas and such see your goblins and spiders moving up the cliff under your direction, they'll likely find some way to attack, or to signal their allies and let them know where you are.
As an alternative to trying to avoid all contact, then, you could use your information about the layout of the mountainside to plan an attack of your own. Send a larger number of troops up at once, on paths that will take them almost directly to the nearest enemies and with strength enough to put them down quickly, rest afterwards, and then repeat. You'd be able to move your force faster overall, but you'd probably start losing troops unless you had Altria, Haron, the Stalfos, or the Deeler Queen lead the charges - Grum isn't strong enough to take on most of the critters you've seen.
And as a third option, you could clear a path yourself. You wouldn't be fighting EVERYTHING on this part of Death Mountain, just a dozen or so monsters that are either close enough or have the ranged weaponry to cause problems for your troops as they scale the best route.
It occurs to you that, having taken no injury since these Trials began, you're fully capable of repeatedly firing off Sword Beams at no cost in ki, which would allow you to clear out a number of the monsters before you without risk of harm. You could also Overload the technique to speed things up - that WILL cost you some ki, but it should still only be a fraction of the usual amount.
Of course, this discount to your Sword Beams is contingent on not getting hurt, which the presence of the Daira in particular makes something you can't guarantee. It would be nice if you could have Body Flickers ready to go, but using that technique while Air Walking would send you tumbling out of control, and long enough for the Daira to take another shot at you.
With that level of evasion unavailable to you, you'll have to make up the difference in other areas. With that in mind, you raise a Ki Aura to intercept projectiles, infuse ki into your clothes with Ki Reinforcement to harden them against blows, and finally toughen your flesh with Ki Armor.
Given what you sensed from the Daira's Axe Beam, particularly when it hit your force-shield, it's clear that none of those three defensive techniques would be able to stand up to the gator-headed warrior's attacks o their own. They might not be enough even when combined, but having them all up and running would certainly be better than taking such a heavy blow without them.
Next, you channel some ki to your eyes to invoke a Sensory Boost, which should help cut through the haze of the falling ash and not only make it easier for you to see what's coming at you, but also to aim your own attacks. After that comes Brain Enhancement, which you trigger in tandem with the psychic technique of Mental Enhancement; while you don't particularly want to remember all of this encounter in high-definition in the future, the increased awareness of there here-and-now is valuable.
Gained Ki Aura E (Plus) (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Mental Enhancement D (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Sensory Boost E (Plus)
With the bulk of your preparations made and the short-lived Doppelganger technique ready to go, you take a moment to consider which of the various creatures needs to go first.
You immediately rule out the Tektites, Dodongos, and other such creatures. As you already noted, they're not much better than large, aggressive, unnaturally tough animals, and more to the point, most of them have no way of attacking you as long as you remain airborne and at a distance, unless it's to throw themselves from the cliff-side. Clearing them out is thus a low priority.
More concerning are the Moblins, Octoroks, and Goriyas, who do have ranged attacks, and moreover are smart enough to start using them and potentially even coordinating their fire once you start making a dangerous nuisance of yourself. That they haven't started shooting already is likely a consequence of their reliance on limited supplies of physical ammunition, as well as having seen you prove yourself a hard target by deflecting the Daira's attack. Regardless, there's a good number of these monsters along or within firing distance of the path you intend to clear, so you've got to take them into account.
By far the biggest danger here are the two alligator-headed warriors and their Axe Beams. The good news is that the Dairas are far enough apart that they can't reasonably both try to hit you at the same time; even if you were standing equidistant from the two of them, you'd have room enough to dodge or deflect their ranged attacks. The bad news is that the Dairas' version of the Sword Beam outranges yours by a bit, so you can't simply hover at a distance and rain shots down at the gator-men with impunity; you'll have to get within their reach. On top of that, a quick consult with Briar confirms that the Dairas are at least as tough as their scaly, muscular, and armor-clad forms would suggest, so not only will you be in danger from their counterattacks longer, you'll have to be careful not to over-focus on them, lest you give any other nearby monsters a free shot.
...or even NOT so nearby, it occurs to you, as you look up the slope. Enemies on higher elevations would have certain advantages when shooting DOWN...
While the weaker monsters can't hit as hard individually as the Dairas could, there are a lot more of them, meaning their collective odds of hitting you are higher - and all the more so, if you're focused on dealing with one of the axe-wielding gator-men. At the same time, the Moblins, Goriyas, and especially the Octoroks are MUCH more likely to keel over from a single Sword Beam, meaning you could start clearing them out and reducing the threat they pose to you much faster than you could the Dairas.
Also, it's occurred to you that once your forces see you engaging the enemy, they may try to charge up the mountainside to assist you, whether out of loyalty, fear of punishment, or eagerness to join in. Altria seems like she'd be particularly prone to that last emotion, as the spell you used to summon her is winding down and she has yet to have a chance to actually FIGHT anything, which is probably getting on her nerves now that you stop and think about it.
Perhaps you should let her know what you have planned?
With that settled, you raise your Blessed Sword to a ready position and channel your ki around and through the blade, causing it to hum and then glow.
Some of the monsters with keener hearing or eyesight recognize what they're witnessing and raise the alarm-
*Scree-KOW!*
-which does nothing to save the first unfortunate Octorok in your firing range.
You offer an apology to Assistant, wherever he is, as his distant relative takes the Sword Beam right between the eyes and bursts into a skull-shaped patch of smoke from the Overloaded strike.
The monsters respond with howls of anger and a rain of projectiles - spat stones, hurled spears, deftly flung boomerangs, and glowing axe-shaped constructs of vital energy that spin end over end. Between your natural abilities, assorted enhancements, and simple distance, quite a few of the attacks fall short or are easily dodged, while your force-shield blocks several more - specifically, one of the Dairas' strikes, plus a couple of Octo-rocks with better range and accuracy than most - and your Mage Armor and underlying ki-based defenses soak what little is left.
*Scree-KOW!*
This time, you hit a Moblin, who actually survives the blow to the chest. It does knock him over backwards, however, and in his moment of shocked pain, he drops the spear he was preparing to throw; it falls over the side of the ridge he's now laying back on and starts clattering its way down the slope.
Not the kill you were hoping for, but a combat-ineffective is almost as good!
Keeping one eye on the monsters scattered across the face of the mountain, you glance down to the monsters assembled below you, pointing at the small, blue-clad knight among them.
"Altria," you murmur, "I'm going to start shooting at the enemies with ranged weapons in a moment."
"Are you sure that is wise?" her reply comes without delay and in the proper tone for the Message Spell to convey.
"I'm not going to try to clear out the whole mountainside by myself," you assure her, "or even just the path I want the army to take."
The two of you spend a couple of minutes discussing that route, during which your enemies make a few more probing attacks. One of these, courtesy of an Octorok, you see coming with plenty of time to just step out of the way. Another comes from that Daira, who starts snarling and gesturing angrily again when you block the Axe Beam with your force-shield for a second time. And then there's the one Moblin who gets overeager and tries to chuck a spear at you - that one, you just stand in place and watch, clinically, as it falls short of your position and sails down into the maze (fortunately some distance off to the right of your troops).
You aren't the only one to give that Moblin a disapproving look.
Finally, when you're satisfied that Altria knows the route you want her and your temporary minions to take, you state, "Give me time to get them good and distracted, and then start the charge."
"Understood."
"And watch out for the alligator-headed humanoids with axes," you add. "There's only two of them that I can see, but Briar tells me they're tough, and they can use my Sword Beam trick with their axes."
"I will watch for them," Altria says, sounding at once cautious and eager.
...
"She's going to try and fight them, isn't she?" you guess, speaking to Briar in a normal tone of voice that your Message Spell won't pick up.
"Seems like a safe bet," your partner agrees.
Letting the spell go, you give Altria time to relay your orders to the troops, doing a few mid-air forms to limber up before you begin your bombing run, and also to put on a show to draw the enemy's attention even more solidly upon you.
And then you begin.
Poof goes the Octorok, down goes the Moblin-
*Scree-KOW!*
*Scree-KOW!*
*Scree-KOW!*
-and two more Octoroks and a blue-furred Goriya join them in short order, the latter monster proving tough enough that an Overloaded Sword Beam to the shoulder doesn't kill it or even knock it down, though it does thoroughly disable that arm, hindering the overgrown weasel-dog's ranged assault.
All the while, rocks, spears, boomerangs, and glowing axes continue to fly in your general direction-
*Poof*
-or at least what the monsters THINK is your general direction, as the sudden appearance of your Doppelganger, wherein you seem to blur and split into two identical bodies, visibly confuses most of them-
"OCTO?!"
"What the-?!"
"GORI?!"
-and audibly alarms several.
The amount of fire that your temporary clone leads away from you is such that you're able to weather your half of the barrage without taking a meaningful hit, although once again, you are caught by a couple of dull rocks.
The Doppelganger has it worse-
*Poof*
-and vanishes when it tries to block the Daira's Axe Beam.
The gator-man actually starts to celebrate at that, but then pauses and looks your way with a suspicious glare, before throwing back its head and roaring to the sky.
You've just taken down a second Moblin when you hear it.
"Chaaaarge!"
"For the Maaaastaaaah!"
Several of your opponents start in surprise and either lean forward or just glance downward to see what's causing the ruckus.
The sudden distraction of your opponents is too good an opportunity for you to pass up, and rather than just stand where you are and waste precious time waiting for your next Sword Beam to charge up, you move towards the nearest distracted monster as fast as your Boots of Air Walking will allow you to go.
Fun fact: For all that the magic of the Boots allows you to walk on air like it was solid ground, you don't make NOISE like you would on a hard surface, or at least not to anywhere near the same extent. Perhaps, if you listened closely in a quieter environment, you might hear something akin to a series of heel kicks being delivered against an imaginary opponent...?
Whatever the case, the absence of the sound of bootheels hurrying across a rough trail of ash-carpeted stone, combined with the audible and visible distraction below and the background rumble of the volcano, lets you close to melee range with the nearest of your enemies unimpeded. The Moblin in question DOES sense your approach on some level, looking up abruptly just before you're in striking distance, but the shock of seeing you suddenly THAT close to it delays the bulldog-faced goblin's response by precious fractions of a second-
*Slash*
-which are enough for you to finish the job.
And then, with your Overloaded Sword Beam powered up once more, you turn and take aim at another Goriya on a level slightly below you, who has turned at the sound of the Moblin's dying howl-
*Scree-KOW!*
-and thus takes the shot right between the eyes, which drives it back and over the edge of its little cliff. Fortunately, the furry boomerang-thrower dissipates into dark smoke before it's completely disappeared from your view, rather than becoming an accidental case of friendly fire against your troops below.
The other nearby monsters are now fully aware of your change of position and trying to line up their shots accordingly, but only a fraction of the remaining enemy force have any kind of angle on you, and some of them are understandably more concerned by the force swarming up from below-
"Wow, look at her go!"
"Follow the Tinyknuckle!"
"I'm not part comet, damn it!"
-which it rather sounds like Altria has taken the lead of in a very literal sense.
"Briar, would you mind taking a look?" you ask.
"Just a quick one," your partner says, before flying off your shoulder.
While she's away checking out what's going on, you sidestep a rock and deflect a flung spear with your shield-
Gained Ranged Defense E
-and then you catch sight of a Moblin and a pair of Octoroks preparing to leap down from higher platforms to engage you directly.
Your Sword Beam is charged up again.
For all that Octoroks have eight limbs, any one of those "arms" isn't particularly large or especially strong for its size, and they also lack dangerous features like hooks, acidic slime, or the ability to discharge electrical shocks. Throw in the fact that an Octorok generally uses half of its limbs just to get around, and it's really the Moblin with its comparative size and strength, as well as the reach of its spear and its skills in wielding the weapon, that is the greater threat here.
*Scree-KOW!*
And so it's the Moblin who receives your Sword Beam of Greeting in mid-jump. Even Overloaded, the force of the blast isn't enough to one-shot the goblin or slow his descent, but the momentary stunning does prevent him from controlling his landing-
"Awoooo-!"
-which has fairly predictable results when the edge of the cliff is so close.
"Death from above!"
"It's raining dog-men!"
"Watch out for cat-men!"
"Don't even joke!"
Sounds like you may not be the only one who would really rather not run into a Lynel...
You'd considered using a Spin Attack to take both Octoroks at once, but their descent brings them down close enough to you that you're already fending off grabby or bludgeoning tentacles, which doesn't leave you the time you need to get into the proper stance and charge the attack. Maybe if you were better at using the Spin Attack, you might manage something, but then again-
*Stab*
*Slash*
"Ock-!"
*Slice*
Gained Cleave D (Plus)
"-tooo..."
*Poof*
-you still might not have bothered, as Octoroks of this size only get so tough.
As bits of loose tentacle and hide turn to smoke about you, you look around, considering the situation. There are still several monsters that could try to attack you, but between your casual handling of their allies who already tried that and the encroaching threat from below, none seem eager to try their luck. As for that latter matter-
!
-ah, here comes Briar.
"What's the scoop?" you ask.
"I'll give you three guesses which monster Altria decided to go after first," Briar replies, "and the first two don't count."
Of course.
It would be rude of you to interrupt when your friend is FINALLY getting a chance to fight something on this summoned outing, especially something as (relatively) strong as a Daira. You know you'd be annoyed if somebody jumped in unannounced and uninvited when you were in the middle of a good fight, and Altria is no different. Combined with your knowledge of her skill and what you've seen of the gator-men so far, you think you can trust her to be able to handle one Daira.
And if it turns out that she can't handle things... well, it's a bit mean to say it, but Altria IS only here due to your Summoning Spell, so the axe-gator can't TRULY injure her; at worst, the real Altria will have an unpleasant memory to deal with when she successfully recalls these events.
So it's perfectly fine! Really!
On a related note, while you're willing to respect Altria's claim to fighting the first Daira, you very much want to fight the other one yourself, before she has a chance to call dibs. With that in mind, you start walking - or jogging - into the air again, moving a bit away from the mountain as you ascend. You try not to move far enough out from the rock face that the remaining monsters can all get a clear line of sight and start throwing their various projectiles at you again, but you also don't want to come up right underneath an overgrown reptile with a big axe, either. Based on the build of its counterpart, the Daira have enough reach to hit you like that - in the head, particularly! - even without taking the Axe Beam into account, whereas your own weapon would have trouble getting at any of the monster's vitals.
There are reasons why fighters go for the high ground; this is just one of them. Another is demonstrated a moment later-
*Scree-KOW!*
-as you bring up your force-shield to intercept an Axe Beam, launched over the edge of the cliff on which the red-scaled gator-man stands. It snarls in annoyance at the sight, but doesn't fly into the same fit of protest that its counterpart did when you tanked its ranged attacks earlier; instead, the Daira swings its glowing axe again, and again, and AGAIN, each time sending another glowing replica of the weapon flying at you, business end first.
While the projectiles definitely feel like they're hitting harder than your normal Sword Beam would, and possibly even its Overcharged form, they aren't hitting hard enough to disrupt the function of your Vambrace of Force Shielding. The axe itself might be another story, especially if the Daira thinks to keep it charged up when it strikes...
That's not to say that the steady Beam-barrage is a waste of time, however; they're certainly succeeding in keeping your attention on the Daira and your defense, and from the way the monster snarls out something that sounds a lot more like orders to its lesser compatriots than just Angry Monster Noises, you're about to get attacked from other angles you can't block or even take a good look at just now.
What happens next might look a bit silly from the outside, as you basically start running in place - only each time one of your feet comes down, it stops at a point a few inches higher than it was before. In this way, and while angling your shield as you climb higher and higher so that it remains solidly between you and your primary foe, you rapidly rise until you're on approximately the same elevation as the Daira.
The good news is that this quick ascent seems to confuse the other monsters that were lining up shots on your position; for all that they've seen you running around on air already, they still haven't quite gotten their heads around how it works, and weren't prepared for you to just go straight up like that, as opposed to the more stair-like manner you'd used before. As a result, several rocks, a couple of spears, and a boomerang go whizzing by you at varying altitudes, a few of them passing right underneath your feet.
The bad news is that, for all that you forged ahead while also gaining altitude, you haven't been able to get solid ground under your Boots. Your gator-headed opponent wasn't standing right on the edge of its particular outcropping of stone, but was nonetheless close enough to it to deny you room to stand.
In the process of closing the distance to the Daira, you got near enough for the monster to take a couple of swings at your force shield with its weapon. The impact confirmed your suspicion that a strike from the axe itself, while empowered with an un-launched Axe Beam, might hit hard enough to damage the barrier projected by your enchanted Vambrace. It's not causing a huge amount of damage, but the chips and cracks in the previously solid pane of force are a bit unsettling to see all the same, and seem to be encouraging the Daira to try harder as well.
Probably best to discourage it, then. With that thought, you raise your Blessed Blade, the energies of another Overcharged Sword Beam already shimmering into being about it, except for where another, slightly purer sort of energy shines through.
"Feel the tusks of the Boar!" you declare, as you strike-
!
-only for the Daira to catch your blade along the curve of its axe, sending the glowing edge of your weapon shrieking along the similarly empowered head of its own, sparks flying from the point of contact. The gator-man adjusts its grip on its weapon, one hand remaining locked about the wrapped handle while the other shifts up behind the head, and pushes forward hard, trying to sink the charged-up half-moon blade into your flesh!
*Crunch*
Fortunately, you have your shield to protect you, even if it's a bit awkward to fit in where two other weapons are already taking up so much space.
You spare a moment to be grateful for your natural fitness, training, Ki Enhancement, and Spell of Heroism, because even with all of them combined, the Daira is still large enough, powerful enough, and capable enough with its favored weapon that it's pushing you back slightly. The "flat" and unobstructed nature of the air you're standing on isn't exactly doing you any favors there, but if you weren't as strong and as skilled as you are, you'd have come off a lot worse from this latest exchange. As it is-
"I said," you grit out between clenched teeth, "FEEL the TUSKS of the BOAR!"
-with the Daira's axe committed elsewhere, you're able to get in a thrust that cuts through leathery armor and the tough scales beneath to get at the flesh beneath even THAT. The Daira snarls and falls back slightly, the tip of your sword sliding free from the wound, the dark blood that stains it seeming to be rapidly boiled away by the energies swirling about and within the Blessed Blade.
Gained Spiritual Imbuement D (Plus) (Plus)
Gained Sword Beam C (Plus) (Plus)
The injury is minor, however, especially for a monster this large, and doesn't prevent the reptile-man from bringing its axe around in a shining arc, trailing a tail of Beam-force almost like a comet-
!
-as it goes for your sword!
You hastily pull back the weapon before it can get damaged, and a moment later make another strike at the Daira-
*Clang*
-which is knocked aside more violently than your opening attack was.
You weren't ignorant of the fact that axes can actually be wielded defensively, as opposed to just hacking away at anything in reach, but you have to admit, you didn't think one would be THIS effective in that role!
It would be nice if you could use a Body Flicker right about now, but with only air and the magic of your Boots under your feet, that wouldn't work out very well for you... or maybe...?
With the Daira having proven a bit more resilient than you were expecting, and the threat of the other monsters taking the opportunity to get in another round of attacks while you're distracted by the scaly roadblock, you decide to put some distance between you.
On that note, you stop resisting the force the Daira is bringing to bear against you, allowing the monster to push you back-
!
-and from the way the gator-man's eyes bulge in surprise as it suddenly finds itself half-leaning and half-falling towards the edge of cliff in the sudden absence of counter-pressure, it wasn't expecting that!
This definitely counts as a whoops for somebody, but you'll take it; in the scant seconds that you have while the Daira catches itself and recovers its footing, you hastily back away, beyond the reach of that dangerous axe-
*Scree-KOW!*
-and force the remaining energy that you'd channeled through your blade into a projectile Sword Beam, which takes the Daira right in the chest. Armor dents, scales split, and muscle recoils as the monster is rocked back by the blow, but despite a gasp of pain, the reptillian maintains its footing, and quickly snarls in rage as it tries to return the favor.
*Scree-KOW!*
*Scree-KOW!*
Your Vambrace of Force Shielding once again absorbs the Axe Beams without issue, but as you'd feared, with your main defense aimed forward, some of the other attacks flying your way manage to get around it - although with differing degrees of success.
You reflexively duck as a Moblin's spear comes down with its haft almost halfway across the barrier, pointy head still high enough that it wouldn't have hit you, but more than close enough to set off ancient instinct and personal training alike.
A boomerang swoops under your feet again, curls around as it reaches the end of its range, and comes back at a higher elevation, just enough that you're forced to step out of the way.
And once again, you take a couple of Octo-rocks to your several-times-reinforced body, one of them heavy enough, pokey enough, or just well-aimed enough that it actually stings.
You aren't sure if you're more pleased about having been able to soak so many "hits" before you were finally properly hurt by them, or more annoyed that the attack which ended up robbing you of the ability to fire off Sword Beams for free was a mere rock.
"Victory to the Tinyknuckle!"
"Follow her! Follow her!"
"To victory!" Altria yells.
"TO THE MASTER!" your Bokoblins yell back.
Under slightly different circumstances, you would keep fighting the Daira as you have been.
Based on the skill and especially the speed the monster has displayed thus far, your usual tactic of overwhelming your opponent with Body Flickers would be entirely valid, even if it might take a bit longer due to the Daira's proven toughness. Unfortunately, that approach hinges on having solid ground under your feet the entire time, which is proving difficult to arrange.
If there weren't still so many monsters with ranged weapons scattered about within striking distance of you, you'd be content to stay put and keep raining Sword Beams on your enemy. It would be more costly in terms of ki than before, but you don't have any reason to think that it wouldn't work, eventually.
Time, of course, is the issue there, what with Altria once again leading the charge up the cliff-face, and since you don't want to be outdone by your friend - much less to have your kill stolen from you by your minions! - a change of tactics is called for.
There is a spell that you've been working on for a while, one that Briar was not really thrilled to learn had become part of your arcane curriculum. Batreaux wasn't exactly eager about schooling you in true Death Magic, either, but your DARK MASTER did note that your studies in Necromancy are at the point where learning such a spell was probably a good idea, from the perspective of control and safety.
Not that you were likely to go firing off slaying spells at random due to stress, emotional outbursts, or unexpected conjunctions of supernatural influence - your control over your magic in general is too well-developed for that, and even if it wasn't, Death Spells are potent enough that you have your doubts even YOU could bring one into being by accident, Curse notwithstanding - but the point remains that knowing how and what to do to invoke such magic makes it much easier to NOT do so, intentionally.
Since you need a hand free to cast this spell, and because you can't afford to use your shield-hand and weaken your defense with the Daira ready and able to keep flinging Axe Beams at you, you sheath your sword and reach into your diminished mana pool, drawing forth a flow of power darker than most that you normally deal with. An aura of shadow seems to grow about you, something you've previously experienced in practice sessions, a force that is FELT more than SEEN.
*Tha-thump*
The Daira's eyes go wide, and it backs up a step, axe looking at once half-raised in a defensive stance, and half-fallen from its grasp.
*Tha-thump*
You raise your hand and point your index finger, gun-like, at the monster, even though a feeling from within tells you that you should be holding your hand palm down, like a king or general indicating a target for removal from his sight, rather than a child playing cowboy.
*Tha-thump*
In a solemn voice, you declare a single word: "Bang."
*Tha-THUMP*
And in a flare of negative energy, the Daira's life-force is snuffed out.
Learned Finger of Death
Gained Necromancy B (Plus) (Plus)
...
It's been a while since you learned a spell you didn't like the feel of quite this much.
As the fallen form of your alligator-headed opponent poofs into smoke-
Is it your imagination, or does the skull look more pronounced and realistic than usual?
-you shake off the unpleasant lingering chill of the Death Spell and turn your attention to the battle in progress.
Thanks to your Spell of Spider Climbing, your army has crossed over half the distance between the ground and your current position, just a couple of "levels" shy of the top of this particular cliff. While they've spread out a bit more than you might have preferred, thereby getting into fights with some of the territorial, animalistic monsters that would otherwise have left them alone, the Bokoblins and Deelers are nonetheless maintaining a reasonable formation, and not actually trying to fight the ENTIRE local garrison, or whatever this bunch of beasts should be referred to as.
Altria is still leading the way, using your spell to scale the stone wall to a certain point before stopping, holding herself with one hand for a moment while she draws her sword again, and then launching herself to the nearest outthrust platform on short-lived jets of mana. The reaction of the enemy there - another Octorok - is not the complete surprise of one faced with an unfamiliar target doing utterly unexpected things, indicating that this particular land-going cephalopod saw your friend using her high-speed movement trick already. At the same time, however-
"O-o-octo?!"
-its obvious, tentacle-flailing distress, badly-aimed stone spit, and cry of "Death!" make it clear that the monster is not remotely happy to have a small blonde swordskid come flying at it.
You aren't sure if the creature has misidentified Altria as Link, or if it's having an actual flashback, but either way-
"Is it Death?!"
"Too fast!"
"A swift Death?!"
"Swift Death in a dress!"
"KILL SWIFT DEATH IN A DRESS!" one of the last hostile Moblins calls frantically. "KILL KILL KILL!"
-it's not the only one having that sort of reaction to her presence.
Briar starts sniggering in your ear.
"Share with the class, partner," you say simply.
"It's just- hee-hee! I just pictured... word of this getting back to Hyrule."
You consider that.
"Can you imagine the look on Link's face if he hears about it?"
I don't know about him, but I can.
Farore, no.
I just said that I could picture it, not that I was going to try and arrange for it to happen.
...good.
Besides, if the Kid-King keeps on as he's been going, it'll come out on its own eventually.
...she's not wrong.
Between the loss of both Daira and the other monsters you eliminated, to say nothing of the emotional impact of seeing your Finger of Death in action, the local opposition was already suffering from morale problems. With Altria doing an inadvertent Link impression and your minions swarming up the cliff-
"Climb, climb, climb!"
"Kill, kill, kill!"
"We're almost to the Master!"
"Raaaar!"
"I still wish I was burning something, but this is good, too!"
-you see their resolve falter further, and when you personally move to attack another Octorok-
"Rooook!"
-you aren't terribly surprised when it dives into a nearby hole, squirms through a space too small for you to follow, and tries to drag the loose earth and stones about the entrance in after it to seal the way.
That one retreat is like a signal-
"Octoooo-!"
"Every gob for gob's self!"
"Climb away! Climb awaaaay!"
-as you see more monsters running for nearby cave openings, or trying to scramble up makeshift ladders and ropes and even the stone of the cliff to reach an actual path away from this area. Some of the Octoroks go even further than that, taking deep breaths of air that inflate their rubbery bodies and then leaping OFF their rocky posts, limbs whirling about almost like propellers as they fall away from the cliff. They're definitely not flying, and you'd hesitate to call it floating, but they do seem to be falling a bit slower than normal, so... good for them, you guess?
In short order, the cliff is clear.
"Aw, no more?"
"Victory!"
"For the Master!"
"And for the Tinyknuckle!"
"FOR THE MASTER AND THE TINYKNUCKLE!"
Counting heads, you confirm that it was a victory, but not a bloodless one. You're coming up three Bokoblins and four Deelers short of what you had to begin with. There aren't many injured among the surviving rank-and-file, but you suspect that's a consequence of how weak they all are compared to Death Mountain monsters.
Even with your buffs helping out, all it really takes to fell these guys is one good hit.
Regardless, with the way cleared, you have your force move up to the top of the cliff in easy stages, at which point you allow them a rest. By this point, the Summoning Spell holding Altria here is just about done, so you go ahead and dismiss her-
"Bye, Tinyknuckle!"
"...good hunting," Altria replies after a moment, as politely as Goblin will allow her.
"You, too!"
"I'll take the Ring back, now, Altria."
...
"...Altria?"
"Yes! Yes, of course. H-here you are."
-and then tap into the local energies and the lingering essence of her presence to re-summon her right away, this time using the fifth-circle iteration of the Spell to Summon Monsters.
Better to err on the side of... you suppose you can't really say, "caution," given the whole Raid on Death Mountain bit, but perhaps "the side of not having to summon Altria for a third time" works? A bit cumbersome, but...
The thought occurs to you of summoning Kahlua instead, but you went with Altria and her now-proven leadership potential for a reason, and you'd like to keep making use of that resource. Plus, you expect the younger daughter of the House of Drake would like to see this little quest you're on through to the end, even with a brief interruption.
That's without getting into the technical questions, like whether or not you CAN properly summon Kahlua with a fifth-circle spell, or how you're exploiting the leftover energies of Altria's first, "ill-fitting" summoning to empower your re-summoning - after all, you can't normally cast the fifth iteration of the Spell to Summon a Monster without using a ritual to begin with, even if it's a shortened one, which would typically preclude using a ritual to offset the mana costs. But with access to the fading power of a summoning template tailored for a specific, well-known individual rather than a more general conjuration, as well as an item she'd been wearing and exposing to her own powers for a while, and with a further push from the emotional connection the members of your little army feel towards her right now-
"I'm going to miss the Tinyknuckle."
"Yeah, she was a good underboss."
"Just enough threats to make sure everybody behaved themselves, but no actual throwing poor goblins off the volcano."
"She totally would have, though."
"Oh, totally, that's why I didn't push her!"
"She was a great distraction, too. Look how few of us died in that fight!"
"Yeah, and I didn't even get scratched!"
"...I suppose she had to have SOME failings."
"Yeah, no boss is perfect."
"I hate you both."
-as well as the volcanic energy of Death Mountain being a pretty good match for somebody who has a dragon in their soul, you can boost the effectiveness of your spellcasting a bit.
And so, a few minutes later-
*Poof*
"Upon your summoning, I have the oddest feeling of deja vu, what is this even...?"
"The Tinyknuckle returns!"
"Alright!"
"Now we probably won't die again!"
Altria glances at the goblins, hand going to her sword again, but this time hesitating to draw. "...ah. Yes."
-she returns, much as she first appeared.
"How do you feel this time?" you inquire.
"Apart from the initial confusion?"
"Has that gone away?"
"It has, yes."
"Then yes, apart from that."
"If you will recall, last time I said I felt like the spell holding me here was slightly too loose." At your nod, Altria continues. "Now, it feels slightly too TIGHT."
Huh. Now is that because she's just strong enough to be at an awkward point, magically speaking, or does it have more to do with your own magic?
Something else to check on at a later date; right now, you have a volcano to finish conquering. Handing Goldschmidt's Ring back to Altria - who does NOT snatch it from your hand and make funny noises in her throat while holding it close, no sir - you get the rested-up troops back into marching order and resume your ascent.
The Spider Climbing assault trick is not going to be an option for most of the rest of the trip, as there aren't any more of those helpfully tiered cliffs that your troops could scale in short bursts, just large slopes where they'd be too open to attack from above or by flying opponents for your tastes. That said, the map in your head highlights three paths that lead to different points along the rim of the caldera.
You write off the first path almost immediately. If it was just you and Briar, you wouldn't be too concerned about unstable ground, and you might be willing to take Altria along as well - she's small enough that your Boots of Air Walking could probably support the extra weight of you carrying her, and if not, you've got Fly Spells to fall back on - but taking an army into that sort of terrain is just asking to lose it.
And that goes double or even triple when the terrain in question is on top of an active volcano!
You consider the two remaining routes for a moment, before shrugging and going with the nearer of the pair. Not only is it closer, but its appearance through the Spell to Know the Lay of the Land makes it seem quite a bit easier to navigate, which is always a consideration with a body of troops. Where your minions would be able to move along most of the second path four or five abreast, allowing them to cover each other in case of ambush, the other trail is only about half as wide in most places, which would make things rather less safe for your forces.
With that decided, you move out.
The open route proves to have a downside in that, being so clear of obvious enemies or places that they might be laying in wait to jump out and attack, the Bokoblins start to relax, let their guard down, and chatter. You don't hear any complaints about the march yet - they're still in high spirits from the relatively easy victory on the cliff - but there is some grumbling about the lack of another fight they could win. Altria promptly moves in to deal with that, but rather than threaten to throw anybody off of or back down the mountain, she instead teaches the Bokoblins the words of a marching song.
The goblinoids take to it quickly, and with surprising enthusiasm.
'ere we go!
'ere we go!
'ere we go!~
Maybe they just like the simple lyrics?
Shrugging, you let them sing.
As you advance, you soon realize that the reason this path is so wide is because it isn't entirely natural. The shape of this part of Death Mountain is certainly more open and, if hardly level, then at least lies at an easier angle than most of the routes you've already walked today. But it's clear that, at some point, somebody has come through here with tools or magic or maybe just a few rolling Gorons, and flattened parts of the terrain to make something that approaches a proper road.
And the only reason somebody would do that, you realize, is if they had need of a road themselves...
Sure enough, as you approach the top of one hill, you catch sight of another of those outposts of scrap, laid out across the almost-road. This one is larger than the barricade whose "teeth" you knocked out, with no less than four towers, and its walls are visibly thicker and better put together as well. Once again, there are Moblins standing watch on the simple battlement, but there seem to be a dozen of them out and about already, and they're not alone; a pair of Daira stand at attention on the ground before the base, flanking the gate, and you can see a third gator-man moving among the goblins with an air of authority.
Altria comes up alongside you and sneaks a quick look over the rise, before ducking back down and turning to you. "I do not think we will be intimidating our way through this one."
Probably not, no.
While you would like to make one more attempt at gaining relatively peaceful passage, after seeing what a Daira can do with its axe, you're not exactly keen on stepping out into the line of fire of no less than three of the creatures.
Perhaps an Illusion, then? The Spell to Project One's Image would be ideal, but you haven't finished studying that one yet, and while the Spell to Create a Major Image has served you well for past illusory shenanigans, its ability to produce sound doesn't actually extend to proper speech. Hmmm...
!
A thought occurs. "Hey, Briar?"
"What unfathomable notion has just popped into your brain this time, partner?" comes the reply.
"Do you think you could project an illusion of me in the air above that fort, and speak through it using the Spell of Ventriloquism?"
Briar considers that. "The Image, yes," she replies slowly, "but I couldn't throw my voice that far."
"So I'll have to cast that spell on you, then," you muse.
"Yeah. But I can make myself sound like you, no problem."
And like that, a plan comes together. You explain it to your leadership cadre.
"This is workable," Altria says with a nod.
"Grum agrees," Grum agrees.
Haron chuckles darkly. "Ashes to ashes, they all fall down."
You can't quite avoid giving the spirit an odd look at that; Briar and Altria join in.
"How do you know that line?" Altria inquires.
Eyes of flame blink in puzzlement. "...it's a line?"
While Altria begins explaining the rather grim origins of the "Ring Around the Rosie" nursery rhyme, you once again tap into the ambient energies of the volcano to ritually cast a few spells. The first of these is an Extended Spell of Eagle's Splendor, to give her admittedly humble presence a little more... well, presence, and the next is an Extended Spell of Ventriloquism, placed on Briar so that she'll be able to project her disguised voice to the monsters occupying the small fort.
You give Briar a minute to practice your voice first-
"TREMBLE BEFORE ME!"
"I do not sound like that, Briar."
"Well, actually..." Altria says.
-then give her a warning poke as you impart the voice-throwing magic, in company with a silent reminder for her not to speak or send forth her Illusion until you're in place and ready to act.
With that, you cast an Extended Greater Spell of Invisibility and then begin Air Walking once again, gathering more power as you go for another, rather more destructive spell. The volcano's cast-off power, while not really ideal for the previous Spells of Augmentation and Illusion, proves much more compatible with the spell you have in mind, even if it's not as good a match as it was for re-summoning Altria...
Once you're a good way into the casting, you signal Briar.
A moment later, an Image of you appears amid the falling ash - some distance away from where you are, as it happens - and glares imperiously down at the outpost, whose guardians have already caught sight of "you."
"DENIZENS OF DEATH MOUNTAIN," Briar booms, "HEAR MY WORDS AND TREMBLE BEFORE ME!"
Oh, come ON! What did you JUST say?
"MY POWER IS INVINCIBLE! MY FORCES, BEYOND THE COUNTING OF YOUR FINGERS AND TOES! I MARCH FOR THE SUMMIT OF DEATH MOUNTAIN, UNHINDERED BY ALL THOSE THAT HAVE DARED TO OPPOSE ME, AND NOW YOU AND YOUR WALL BAR MY WAY!"
The Daira, unsurprisingly, try to hit the Image with their Axe Beams, but the range gives Briar time to make "you" move casually out of the way, walking forward a few steps to avoid the first two strikes, and lifting one arm to point down menacingly, while taking it out of the line of the last bit of Beam-fire in the process.
"I GIVE YOU THIS CHOICE. IF YOU SURRENDER AND JOIN MY LEGION, YOU WILL BE WELL-TREATED AND SEE GLORIOUS VICTORY! IF YOU INSTEAD THROW OPEN THE GATE OF THIS RAMSHACKLE HOLD AND STAND ASIDE, YOU WILL NOT BE HARMED. BUT IF YOU CHOOSE TO OPPOSE ME..." Briar throws in a dark chuckle. "WELL. IT IS A... QUAINT LITTLE BASE THAT YOU HAVE HERE. IT WOULD BE A SHAME IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN TO IT."
...
They don't seem like they're going for it.
Well, you tried - and with diplomacy having failed, it is now time for violence!
On that note, you signal Briar that you're just about ready to cast, and need only a few more seconds.
"IS THAT YOUR FINAL ANSWER?" your partner declaims.
The monsters snarl defiance, and fling more projectiles.
"VERY WELL. JUST REMEMBER: YOU WERE WARNED!"
And a moment later-
"FALL!"
-four beams of greenish light flash from your location to the bases of the four towers. Almost immediately, four large cubes, each ten feet to a side, are simply gone from the structure of the fort of junk.
For a moment, everyone stops and stares, and nothing more happens.
Then, with a heavy groaning, the fortress collapses.
You'd been planning to snatch the Moblins from the battlement with a Spell of Feather Fall, but you misjudged just how quickly the outpost would crumble once you ripped out chunks of its structure - and more critically, how fast you'd lose sight of your intended targets when the floor dropped out from under them - and were thus a bit slow off the mark in your casting. While you're still able to catch five of the dog-faced goblinoids, the rest of the group and the Daira that was up there with them vanish into the crumbling soon-to-be-pile of junk.
As for the lucky few, they bark and whimper and stare down in fright at not just the sudden destruction of their mighty stronghold, but of whatever unseen force has now taken hold of them!
While the floating Moblins sink slowly towards the ground, the towers are much quicker in their progress, dragging the rest of the outpost down with them. A moderately large roar goes up, accompanied by a cloud of ash and a few bits of debris - if not nearly as many of the latter as an explosion would have kicked up - as hundreds and perhaps thousands of pounds of stone, metal, and charred wood come crashing down. The two Daira that were guarding the gate manage to run clear of the immediate collapse, although they're briefly swallowed by the ash cloud anyway, which also obscures your "rescued" and terrified Moblins for a brief moment.
Fortunately, you don't need to MAINTAIN line of sight to them for your spell to keep working...
The wall wasn't so large that its destruction threatens to drag on for a minute or three like some epic final scene in a fantasy film, and in short order, the noise has stopped, the ash has begun to settle, and even the Moblins are beginning to touch down - several of them dropping to their hands and knees and kissing the stones or junk upon which they landed. For a moment, aside from the whimpers and grateful barking of the survivors, there is little noise.
Somehow, you note with bemusement, the monstrous facade of the main gate survived the collapse of the wall behind it, as did the gate proper. Probably just as well that you brought everything else down, then...
Your thoughts are interrupted as a roar of triumph goes up from your troops.
"Hail to the Master!"
"Breaker of Barriers!"
"Wrecker of Walls!"
"Flattener of Forts!"
A couple of the "rescued" Moblins immediately shift from kissing the ground in relief to pressing their faces to the volcanic earth, begging for mercy. Their compatriots look somewhere between annoyed and understanding.
The two Daira, meanwhile, exchange nervous glances.
You decide to let your army get in on things, and fire off a quick Message to Altria to have them advance - but not attack, just yet.
"All forces, at the ready!" the Tinyknuckle declares in a clear voice that echoes slightly due to her helmet.
"Ready, boss!"
"Yeah, let's get 'em."
"Advance! Slowly," Altria adds, to the clear confusion of your minions, your opponents, and even the fake you Briar is piloting.
"Huh?"
"Whuh?"
...
"...oooh, I get it."
"We're being MENACING, aren't we?"
"Seriously, BEST bosses."
There is quite a bit of cackling as well.
And so, your army advances, slowly, weapons at the ready-
*Tromp*
*Tromp*
*Tromp*
-their numbers helping to make up for the fact that most of them are on the small side, so that their unified footsteps are still loud enough to provide... a certain "encouragement."
You signal Briar to start saying something.
"Huh? Oh, right." Illusionary You clears his throat. "YOU HAVE CHOSEN POORLY - BUT! I AM NOT- OH, COME ON, REALLY?"
The Daira have just thrown down their axes, turned tail - and they actually have gator-like tails, making the metaphor all the more apt - and started running for it.
"Wait for Mutt, boss!" a Moblin howls, following suit.
"Wait for Pug!"
"No leave Sam!"
...
There's a Moblin named "Sam?" Really? You wonder what the story is there...
Your army pauses in their advance, watching and jeering as those enemies that weren't killed or buried by the collapse of the fort run for their misbegotten lives.
"That's right, you'd better run!"
"Hahahaha! Look at 'em go!"
"Will I NEVER get a chance to set someone on FIRE?!"
"I HAD THIS WHOLE LITTLE SPEECH READY AND EVERYTHING," Briar complains, still using the Image of you and your Ventriloquism Spell. "SOME MONSTERS, I SWEAR..."
While you are somewhat disappointed at not managing to recruit any more minions, your main goal here was just to get past the blockade, and there is no longer anything in your way which could prevent that.
True, the pile of rubble that used to be the wall might SLOW your forces a bit, especially when compared to the open path before and beyond it, but it's no longer capable of STOPPING them - especially not the Deelers.
As you think that, you gaze after the fleeing forms of the surviving Moblins and Dairas. You could order a pursuit, whether to capture or kill, and from a certain perspective, you SHOULD do so, in order to prevent word of your passage from reaching other enemy forces in this area. But as much fun as you're having impressing monsters into your army and knocking over scrap-forts, you're not actually invading Death Mountain; this is all just a simulation, and when you've cleared this Trial, it'll all disappear. Among other things, this means that you don't really have to worry about the long-term issues that would come with trying to occupy the volcano and subdue its monstrous inhabitants, which in turn means that a few enemy troops getting away with information about your tactics and abilities is a lot less of a concern.
They could still inform others of your location, but...
...you're not exactly planning on hanging around here to dig through the wreckage. It's not like anybody could have survived that collapse, and there's no loot to be gained here, so there's no point in the endeavor. Not only that, but with the speed your army was able to move along the open path and the distance that remains to the summit, you think there's a very good chance you can get there before enemy reinforcements could catch up to you.
Well, at least as long as there isn't another of these junkpile strongholds blocking the way to slow you down...
On that note, you retain the spell and tell Briar to tell Altria to resume the march.
Being invisible is something of a barrier to properly commanding an army, but between being able to pass messages through Briar, Altria's successful installment as your second, and the fact that you can still be heard speaking normally, you figure that the hassle is manageable, and worth putting up with to retain the tactical advantages in future encounters.
Your army moves out in good order. As predicted, the Deelers are barely inconvenienced by the pile of loose stones and scrap that used to be a gateway, skittering up and over the heap as they have been doing to other rocks during this ascent. The Bokoblins eye the wreckage with some uncertainty, visibly comparing its height and abundance of holes to the length of their little legs, and finding themselves *ahem* coming up short.
"Wait, you're all idiots!" one of them declares abruptly.
"Who are you calling-?!"
"We're still under the Master's magic!"
"..."
"..."
"...okay, yeah, I'm an idiot."
"Climb! Climb, you fools!"
And so they climb.
As the Bokoblins are going over the top, you notice the Deku Scrubs huddled together.
"...did you remember-?"
"Of course I did!"
"Then why did I see you hesitating?"
"Me? What about you?"
About half of your army has overcome the obstacle when something in the pile shifts.
"What the-?!"
"Impossible! Nobody could have survived that!"
"RrrrAAAAGH!" a monster declares as, with tremendous effort, he drags himself out of the collapse.
If you'd thought that any of the guards might still be alive, you would have guessed it to be the Daira that went down with the towers - their combination of natural armor and innate supernatural resilience just made it more likely - but that's not what you see.
Instead of a humanoid alligator, you see the battered, bleeding form of a Moblin, throwing his head back as he howls to the ash-choked sky in triumph at his survival.
"Like Demon King from fallen castle, THOG RISES!" he declares. "THOG IS INVINCIBLE!"
"Oh no!"
"Fear the Thog!"
"We're doomed!"
And then Thog falls over, unconscious.
"..."
"..."
"...we're saved?"
"We're saved!"
"It's a miracle!"
While the Bokoblins are being themselves, Grum carefully navigates the junk pile and makes his way over to his kinsman. Kneeling, the forest-dwelling Moblin examines his volcano-dwelling counterpart.
"...Thog alive, but not for much longer, Grum thinks," he calls. "What Grum do, Master?"
You're feeling merciful today, and so you Air Walk unseen over to to survivor, telling Grum that you'll take care of this yourself.
"Farewell, Thog!"
"We hardly knew ye!"
...maybe you should have phrased that a bit differently.
Anyway, when you crouch down next to the sorely wounded Moblin and give him a once-over, the state of his injuries is at once grim and yet miraculous. He's got flesh wounds aplenty, ranging from bloody scrapes to deep puncture wounds, and from what your humble first aid skills and rather more advanced mystical senses can determine, he's got a few cracked bones besides. For all of that, though, nothing truly vital seems to have been pierced, and nothing's outright broken; it's the sheer quantity of injuries that threatens to do him in, rather than any one thing.
Fortunately, that is within your means to address. While you could cast a Spell to Cure Serious Wounds or even one to Cure Critical Wounds and have Thog almost as good as new, you aren't feeling quite THAT merciful, especially towards what is still an enemy. You don't want to leave him to die like this, but you also don't want to heal him so much that he might get silly ideas and force you to kill him anyway.
That said, a simple Spell to Cure Light Wounds will be sufficient to stabilize Thog, while leaving him sore enough that he should get the idea fighting is no good.
And so you cast.
"Is that magic?"
Flowing blood clots.
"What's the Master doing?"
Gashes close up, but don't disappear.
"I don't know, I can't see him!"
Bruises lighten, but likewise remain.
"Keep climbing, you!"
Thog's faint breathing evens out, and while he doesn't suddenly reawaken and declare himself immortal or something, his unconsciousness is more like ordinary sleep than the dangerous fading state it was before.
Grum, who has been staying close enough to see all this, bows his head. "Master is merciful. Thog be grateful!" he chides his kinsman.
Thog doesn't react that you can tell, but Grum nods and grunts as if satisfied.
"Master want Grum to drag Thog along?"
"That would just reopen some of his injuries," you reply, getting back to your feet. "We'll let him rest here until he wakes up on his own, or the Trial ends."
"...Grum almost forget this magic dream-place," your Moblin minion admits, looking around. "But Grum never have dream where Grum work with Bokoblins...!"
You resume the march, moving farther up the side of Death Mountain. You're on the cone, now, and while your route remains relatively wide and clear, it does start to turn away from a straight shot towards the peak, instead starting to curve up along the slope and around to the right. Even with all the ash in the air - which is getting thicker as you climb higher, and has you keeping one eye on your troops for signs of breathing problems, which don't seem to have manifested yet - you're still able to make out the fleeing forms of at least three of the monsters that survived your single-handed destruction of the fort. Thanks to their head start, panic, the good quality of the path, and the fact that they aren't constrained by moving as part of an army, the escapees have gotten a good ways ahead of you and your force.
Conserve your troops' energy and maintain your current pace.
The majority of your forces, being small goblins and dog-sized spiders, don't have naturally long or quick strides. While you could push them to try and keep up with the fleeing monsters, you'd wear them down more in the process, which could become a problem when you encounter the next big group of enemies - and you're quite certain there's at least one more such encounter ahead of you, the enemies ahead of you are fleeing a bit too purposefully.
Hurrying to catch up with Altria - who, in the absence of a Spell of Spider Climb, has simply jumped over the pile of junk on short-lived jets of mana-
"She can fly?!"
"It looked more like a jump to me..."
-you express your thoughts.
"I agree," your friend says, following a long glance in the direction of the escaped monsters. Then she turns to the seemingly empty space that your voice issued from, and says, "But you realize that by allowing them to escape, whatever force they are fleeing TO will have warning of our approach, and that much more time to prepare for our arrival."
That thought had occurred to you, yes. Looking at the distance between where you currently are and where you mean to go, taking the elevation and curve of the road into account, and factoring in the time it took you to get up the first part of the open path... you'd make it another fifteen minutes, at your current pace, before you reach the summit of Death Mountain.
You could use that time and your still-active Greater Spell of Invisibility, as well as that Haste Spell and Ki Enhancement - which you haven't been able to leverage to full effect due to all the Air Walking you've been doing - to run ahead, see where the monsters are going, and get an idea of what you'll be up against. Maybe even do a little subtle sabotage, or just commit more sudden and terrible violence on unsuspecting junkpile fortresses and the occupants thereof.
Alternately, you could stick with your troops and use the time to perform a few more ritual castings to buff them up for the fight ahead. Summoning some additional reinforcements would also be doable, although a part of you would prefer to stick with who and what you have.
After seeing these monsters work and fight all this way up the volcano with you, you can't help but feel that they deserve to finish the Trial on their own merits.
Plus, you've already summoned Altria. Summoning another of your friends, especially this late, might not go over so well with one or both parties.
Technically, you could also take the "do nothing" option, and just stick with your troops and keep on as you've begun. The main downside of this idea is that your Greater Spell of Invisibility will have run out before you reach the summit, making it a bit of a wasted effort.
Deciding that you might as well make full use of your various active spells while you've still got the opportunity, you leave Altria in charge of the troops once more and hurry to catch up with the fleeing monsters-
"Not without me!" Briar declares, throwing her voice in your general direction.
-before they get to wherever they're going.
As you rush along the path, you note that while your feet may be invisible, they are nonetheless kicking up some of the ash that carpets the way. Given that you won't be able to catch up with your quarry if you try Air Walking, you'll have to take the chance that one of the targets of your pursuit might look back, see the ash moving, and realize that the local weather and geology weren't responsible.
You make a mental note to resume Air Walking once you're close, before focusing on speed.
"What do you think we'll find?" Briar asks from your shirt pocket, which she's tucked herself into to hide her usual glow from notice. "Another pile of junk, crawling with guards?"
"Sounds about right," you reply. "Given the location, it'll probably be the biggest one yet."
"Yeah, makes sense. Top of the volcano, great view of the kingdom and all that."
"Half the reason Ganondorf set up shop at Spectacle Rock," you agree. "...well, no, maybe more like a third of the reason."
"Reason number two being that anybody that wanted to get to him had to overcome the volcano, first," Briar says simply.
"Exactly."
"What about the third reason?"
"I'm pretty sure he was tapping the volcano's magic."
"What, having the Triforce of Power wasn't en-? Wait, what am I saying, of COURSE it wasn't enough, it wasn't the whole Triforce."
Not that last time, anyway, you note internally. Aloud, you say, "There's that, but also, I think he may have been planning to set the volcano off."
"While he was ON it?"
You wouldn't put it past your former self, especially if Link's arrival had been delayed long enough so that he only killed the Demon King AFTER the latter had gained full control over the volcano, but mostly... "It feels more like... if Ganon could have gotten a good, continuous eruption going and manipulated the weather correctly, how much of Hyrule do you suppose he could have buried in ash?"
Briar considers that. "Ugh. He would have, wouldn't he."
He would.
Anyway, between your Spell of Haste and Ki Enhancement, you don't even have to run all-out to catch up with the survivors; a good jogging pace is enough to carry you steadily closer, each of your strides worth two of theirs and more besides, and in short order you can see that you're actually chasing two groups. The rear lot consists of a trio of Moblins, all of whom are panting with the effort of maintaining their hurried pace in the thickening ash-storm, but who are not slowing down; farther ahead, you can see the other two goblinoids and that pair of Daira.
Knowing that the dog-faced goblins have reasonably keen senses, you slow your advance and take to Air Walking once more, both to avoid creating a physical trail that the rear bunch might notice and to maintain a safe distance beyond the range of their noses and ears to detect.
The three trailing Moblins don't have the breath to spare for chatter, and you aren't close enough to hear anything the lead group might be saying - at least not over the constant thunder of Death Mountain's active peak, which has been getting clearer and clearer as you come closer and closer to the rim of the caldera - so the next leg of your "pursuit" is made in relative, boring quiet.
In those minutes, you can't help but be aware of the timer on your Spell of Invisibility ticking away, but fortunately, the spell still has a good six or seven minutes left when your route winds its way far enough along and up the cone of the volcano for you to see what lies at the top.
It is, indeed, another building of scrap, the largest yet and the closest to actually deserving the title of "fortress." Sitting in a gap in the rim of the caldera, it's got space enough that instead of being one large wall with a few squat towers and a barracks behind it, there are four walls and a dozen towers surrounding a larger, taller structure about four floors high - five, if you count the rooftop. Not only that, but while the place is still assembled from junk, it's higher quality junk than what you saw below: there's no wood, for example, only stone and metal; the rocks are actually cut to fit together somewhat; and all the metal looks to have been forged, rather than just being hammered into crude approximations of the desired shapes.
Also, being effectively at the mouth of the active volcano provides a certain backlit glow, which makes the whole thing look much more impressive.
It's STILL not much more than a cheap imitation of most of the places you can recall Ganondorf's forces using as bases in eras of his dominance, let alone his PERSONAL strongholds, but then again, you wouldn't want to try storming most of those locations with your current forces and depleted mana reserves.
Most of the guards that you can see - and you can see quite a few - are once again Moblins, but some of them are leading Dodongos around the perimeter on chain leashes, there are several more Dairas guarding the main gate and atop the walls, and there are gargoyle-like statues and faces scattered about, glowing with magical auras that you don't think can mean anything good. You'd have to get closer to discern exactly what they're meant to do, though...
Whether due to bad eyesight, the ash-cloud cover, or simple laziness, the monsters in and around the fortress haven't noticed the approaching survivors of their destroyed outpost, but that won't be the case much longer.
What do you want to do?
Bringing the wall down worked out very well for you at the last base, and while this one wouldn't be quite as badly impaired by having the supports of one of the four faces of its outer wall unmade, it would be very distracting all the same, and take down... hm, make it a score of enemies, maybe two-dozen depending on how the debris falls, how quick the monsters below are to run for their lives, and whether or not you manage to bring down parts of the adjoining walls.
That said, there is another option; if you do your "stair-running on air" trick and put enough height under you, you could get a clear line of fire on the lower part of the crude central keep, and try to bring THAT down. That would reduce the number of Disintegration beams you have to throw at the walls... unless you further increase the number of targets with Marked Spell Metamagic, anyway, although your skills in Transformation Magic will only allow you to go so far with that.
As you begin the ritual, what specifics do you wish to employ?
The notion of bringing down the central keep is tempting, but after eyeballing its dimensions, calculating what sort of height and angle you'd need to be firing from to properly bring the thing down, and how many shots a scaled-up Spell of Disintegration would get you, you decide that it's probably just as well if you stick with taking out the front wall.
The main tower is large enough that it actually might be able to stay standing if you only took two side-by-side chunks out of one of its lower levels, and the outer wall is close enough to the keep that the angle won't let you dig deeper into the structure unless you clear some of the barrier or part of the higher floors first - and even pushing the Marked Spell Metamagic technique as far as your currently skills in Transformation Magic will allow, you might not have enough shots for that.
Not only that, but ritually casting the spell at that level of augmentation would take more time than your Spell of Invisibility has left in it, meaning you'd be exposed to ranged attacks for most of a minute. Even with the range you can fire these particular death rays from, there are enough Dairas marching around or standing watch over the fortress that the idea is somewhat unwelcome: if their collective aim is good, they might just able to overwhelm your force-shield by sheer weight of fire; and even if that fails, they wouldn't actually need to HURT you, just rattle you hard enough to break your concentration and ruin the spell.
That many Axe Beams could certainly manage that much.
All in all, better to take out the wall and leave them scrambling amid the wreckage while you beat feat - and air - back to your troops.
After all, you can always prepare a second volley of wrecking rays later...
With that in mind, you move into casting range, gathering mana as you go and letting the nearest bunch of Moblins pull ahead of you, so that they don't overhear when you start chanting. The constant eruption is your friend in this endeavor, providing plenty of background noise to help cover your voice, and not one of the dog-headed goblins looks back or even twitches an ear in your direction that you can see.
You know that you're far enough from the fortress that none of its occupants are likely to detect you, either, but your heart still skips a beat when a horn sounds and is greeted by shouts among the guards and patrols. It soon becomes clear that they've just spotted the incoming band of survivors and are making ready to receive them.
Your ritual is long enough that the monsters have had a couple of minutes to actually talk to their panting counterparts and hear what happened to the outpost further down the path. From the body language and shouting, there is some disbelief at the claim that "you" knocked down the entire wall with one spell, but there's also a good deal of anger, and no small amount of fear that the story might be true.
And then you finish your spell, unleashing three bolts of green destruction that prove the escapees' claims in full.
Once again, four large cubes of scrap metal and stone are erased from the foundations of the towers that line the target wall, and for just a moment, all is still.
Then, with another of those deep groaning sounds, things fall down - specifically, the first tower to the left of the gate, which collapses down on itself, taking the adjacent sections of the wall and the battlements above them with it. For a second, it almost looks like that's going to be the only part of the wall that goes down - something you attribute to the superior worksmanship that went into this structure - but then the left-hand corner tower starts to tilt towards its fallen counterpart, dragging part of the adjoining wall behind it along with the ear-wrenching sound of tearing metal and a number of monstrous screams of surprise and dread.
Perhaps because of the vibrations this is kicking up, the tower on the other side of the skull-like gate also gives up trying to continue standing. The right corner tower creaks and groans a bit while the monsters standing atop it panic and recoil from the falling parts of their base, but somehow, that one section of the front wall continues to stand despite the large piece removed from its base.
As before, you briefly lose sight of the damaged area due to the cloud of ash that's been kicked up by the collapse.
With your Greater Spell of Invisibility on its last legs, you-
-just turn and leave.
You would rather not hang around now that your Invisibility Spell is wearing out, and you certainly don't fancy the idea of getting closer to the breached stronghold without it - as you would have to, in order to make a proper sweep of the place with all the ash floating about.
Shocked as they are at the moment, the monsters are bound to look up sooner or later, as they try to spot the source of the sudden destruction and watch for follow-up strikes. Given the moderate height of the remaining walls and the tower, as well as the presence of at least some Daira atop them, you'd just be too close for comfort.
Asking Briar to take a look for you is a bit tempting, as she's not only much faster and more agile in the air than you currently are, she's also a lot smaller. Harder to see, harder to hit - but at rather more risk if something does catch her by surprise, which is ultimately what leads you to dismiss the thought.
Taking advantage of the ash-cloud that's hanging over the scene and the fact that the forces in residence are all thoroughly distracted, you turn, set your feet firmly on the ground, and hurry back down the path as quickly as your combined enhancements will allow. Which is pretty quick, although it still takes a few minutes for you to link up with your forces, who've been maintaining that same easy pace you had them going at before you took off to do some sabotage.
"The Master returns!"
"Smasher of-!"
"Hup, hup, hup!"
"...why are you stopping me?"
"We don't actually KNOW that he knocked the place down."
"...good point."
You bring Altria and the other leaders up to speed on the initial state and population of the volcano-top fortress, your successful destruction of most of the front wall-
"There we go."
"Hail to the Master!"
"Smasher of Strongholds!"
"Leveler of Locations!"
-and the likely casualties.
As you're describing the event, Haron notes that the enchanted gargoyle heads you spotted on the walls of the fortress are likely empowered to spit projectiles of some sort at intruders - most likely fire, given the location, although force-bolts might also be possible. If they're the sort the Pumpkin-Headed One is thinking of, they wouldn't have the best accuracy or range, but they would be able to shoot reasonably quickly and across a wide arc - in short, they'd be reasonably well-suited to thinning the ranks of a hostile force that got too close to the wall.
Or at least they WOULD have been, if you hadn't brought said wall down. You spotted a few of these enspelled statues on the main tower, but it remains to seen if any were low enough to actually hit anything in the (rather narrow) courtyard, or if the builders of the scrap stronghold thought to include more of them as interior defenses.
You mean to keep your briefing short, since the longer you take, the more time your enemies will have to get over their shock at the breaching of their base and come up with a plan of their own - and they've had a few minutes for that already.
That said, how do you want to tackle the fort?