I make it to the next shrine with little incident, stopping along the way here and there to pick up forage items if I see them long the way.
The shrine is called Forward Moving Object or something to that effect, and it deals with these wheels that you can attach to stuff, and then activate. The wheels turn in one direction, indicated by an arrow in their tread pattern, and in this shrine they come pre-attached to platforms to make cars and such.
The shrine is pretty easy, although I’m sure I didn’t solve it in the intended manner. First I ride across some lava using a platform car, and then I find a large heavy steel ball, which I attach to the car. The next part of the challenge involves getting the ball up a ramp, or staircase. I don’t really try to figure out what I’m supposed to do with the tools, I just balance the car, with the ball still attached, halfway up the staircase of platforms, ignore the rail next to it completely, and then climb up to the top of the steps and grab the whole car with Ultrahand and bring it to me.
Then I’m supposed to drive it down a ramp, but I just use Ultrahand again to carry it down, which is easier. Then there’s a river with some more platforms and it looks like I’m supposed to build a floating vehicle, which I try but it doesn’t do well against the current, and just stays in place. I could have maybe tired attaching some planks that are laying about nearby to the wheels, creating a paddle wheel, but I don’t think of that, and instead just end up connecting a bunch of platforms together to create a long log bridge across the water, far enough to hover the ball across with Ultrahand, and drop it on the other side.
There’s a ladder going to an upper level catwalk, which I use to make the crossing myself, and then I Ultrahand the ball back into the first room of the Shrine, which I’ve looped around to, stick it into a receptacle in the ground, and open a gate.
I also pick up a chest in the water in the river room, which contains a Zonai sword. I get another Light of Blessing.
I emerge near the Stable I had been heading toward. I am in the Wetlands of Lanayru, and it seems to be living up to its name, raining nearly constantly. The Stable welcomes me, and I talk to the two people who are here, a man who wants to investigate the Ring Ruins at Kakariko Village, and Beedle. No one else is around, except for the Stable keeper, who tells me I have enough Pony Points to trade in for a reward. I check the rewards, and find that they have a cart harness that I can use to hook up my horses to carts. So that’ll be useful at some point, I’m sure.
I actually decide I would like to take one of my horses out, since I am trying to get back to Lookout Landing, which is nearby but still a long walk, and I’m in the lowlands with little opportunity to use the glider. Sure, I could fast travel, but I’ve explored so little of the world there’s sure to be plenty of interesting things between here and there, even along the roadway.
I embark, checking the map to make sure I’m going the right way. I turn left and cross a bridge, noticing one of those glowing blue bunny creatures that you can shoot for bonus rupees. I take aim and get a good hit, getting a bunch of rupees for my well placed shot. Near where the rupees fell, I spot a cave. Upon entering, the game notifies me that I’ve made a Discovery!
In the cave, there are a few Horriblins, milling about up on the ceiling. I headshot one with an arrow, and it drops to the floor dead. The remaining ones rush me, and I try to fight them but I’m clumsy with the controls, and keep fucking up. I do some damage but they kill me, one hit from the tough looking blue Horriblin being enough to put me to a half heart from full health.
I respawn and try again, this time nailing them with more arrows, taking them down before they can close to within melee range, and clean out their little cave. There isn’t much here worth the effort, and I wouldn’t call this a great discovery. There’s a few forage items, some dropped weapons, Horribilin parts, and a few gemstones to mine. Maybe I’m missing something? Well whatever, I’m on my way to Lookout Landing.
Back on the road, I encounter a man with a horse cart coming the opposite way, who turns out to be a merchant selling wares. I buy some oil from him, since it’s something I don’t think I’m likely to find much of in the wilderness while foraging wild plants and mushrooms.
I also run into another Addison, and help him erect another sign for his President Hudson. He rewards me in the usual fashion with rupees and some food.
Next stop, another shrine, this one a little bit of a detour from the most direct path to Lookout Landing, but it’s one of the Shrines I had pinned on the map, so I make a point to go there. It turns out it is an item throwing challenge. It’s easy. There’s some fire seed bushes and a soldier Zonaite to use as target practice. I collect the fireseeds, nail the soldier twice, and collect a reward of bomb flowers, and a Light of Blessing.
I emerge from the Shrine, mount Radish, and make for Lookout Landing. I go around and talk to people to see what they have to say. Many of them are talking about a newspaper that is bringing in reports from abroad. Apparently it is headquartered in Hebra, where the Rito live. I’m told it is very cold there, so I should not go there unless I’m sufficiently prepared. I know what that means.
I found a well in Lookout Landing, like the one I found in Kakariko Village, with a ladder leading down to a cave I can explore and pick up some free stuff. I find a decayed Royal Claymore sword, and some brightblooms and other forage. I go to the shelter below ground and trade in my Light of Blessings for two Stamina upgrades, which should help me more than hearts will at the moment. Even though I’m low on life power and my armor is poor, I think exploring is better than fighting at this stage, and I’m going to avoid combat for the most part unless it’s necessary. I have three Light of Blessings left, so I’ll need to come back with one more soon anyway.
There’s another Prayer Statue, above ground, which tells me it wants Poes that I’ve collected from the underworld. Poes are lost souls and the statue helps return them to the afterworld, or so it tells me. I can trade it Poes for useful items, which seems a bit odd, and maybe unethical. These are people’s souls are they not? But most of the items are obtainable in other ways. The one I’m actually interested in, a new outfit, is out of my price range for now.
I go and talk to Purah, and she tells me that there are Four Regional Phenomena, points of interest on the map having to do with the Upheaval that I’m to visit in order to further the quest. There’s more talk about Zelda sightings, apparently she’s been spotted recently in Hebra, which is where one of these places is located. The others are in Gerudo, Lanayru, and Eldin, near Tarreytown.
I head out on Radish to travel, check the map for a bit, and decide to head toward the west. I’m not sure exactly what to do yet. I don’t feel ready for Hebra, although I do have some fire seeds that I can hold onto, some red chuchu jelly, and the winter pants that I found while I was still stuck on the big skyland during the opening part of the game. So maybe that will be enough to survive.
I stick to the roads, because the horses like to follow roads, and I look for things to do along the way.
I find another Addison, and help him erect another sign for the President of his company, and he gives me a few rupees and some food. A bit further out on the road, I spot what looks like a fortified hill, with a wooden palisade surrounded by spiked thorny barriers. It looks Bokoblinish to me. I’m not really interested in fights, but for some reason I decide to scout it out and see what I can find.
There’s a shallow cave under the hill, which I enter and park my horse for safety. I find a Hearty Truffle here, and I think that might be an ingredient that could help someone back in Kakariko Village, although at the moment I can’t remember if it’s the Gloom-sick grandmother or perhaps one of the family members of the village who’s mother died. I do remember someone somewhere said that truffles were good for them, though. So I hope I run into them again.
I check around the perimeter of the fort, and find a way in, and stupidly rush headlong into a trap. A Bokoblin is standing watch, and I try to headshot him with an arrow, but only succeed in letting him know I’m there, and then he sounds the alarm and wakes up everyone, who runs out to attack. These Bokoblins are well armed, one carries a shield and another is in full armor, and I can’t do damage with my melee weapon. I try tossing a bomb flower at him, but end up blowing myself up in the process, and am left dangerously close to death, which comes shortly thereafter. I glimpse an especially large enemy, who looks almost as big as a Hinox, but looks like a Bokoblin, as I go down.
I respawn, and this time I try Ascend to go through the roof of the little cave where I left my horse. This brings me up inside the fort, in the back area, out of the way of the guards, and right next to a prisoner in a cage. I am safe for the moment, but surrounded by enemies, and now I have to try to rescue this poor guy.
I don’t take a very creative approach, but just go with heavy artillery, bomb arrowing an effective tactic, which takes down the weaker bokoblins immediately, but also raises an alarm. The Big Bokoblin takes several headshots before going down, but thankfully doesn’t seem to be quite as tough as a Hinox at this point. He drops some loot, including a body part, which teaches me the name of this enemy is Boss Bokoblin. I think I like these guys.
I should be trying to flurry rush and dodge their attacks, but I’m just too clumsy with the controls to pull off stunts like that just yet. Fortunately I have enough arrows and bombs and it works. I Ultrahand the cage off of the prisoner, and he tells me he was investigating the Blood Moon, and discovered its connection with the resurrection of the monsters, which is how he got caught.
So, like, if you didn’t already know about the Blood Moon from having seen it about a million times, now you know.
He gives me three food items as a reward, and then heads for home. I continue looting the fortress, but there’s mostly just dropped weapons, and my inventory is full of those. So I find a few more items of ingredients and cooked food (probably cooked by the explosions I set off), and that’s about it.
I play around with Ultrahand and realize that if I had thought of it, I might have been able to use the Ultrahand to put the cage holding the prisoner onto the enemy, and perhaps trapped one or two. That would have been rather interesting to see if they could free themselves, or if the Boss Bokoblin would have been strong enough and smart enough to help them. I make a note to try that sometime.
I also play around a bit with the explosive kegs, and note that I can drop them from height with Ultrahand and they’ll detonate, as they will from a small amount of damage.
I get back on my horse and back on the trail.
I go a short distance, before I spot a shrine off in the distance. I’m going to need to climb a hill and glide to it, which is one of the reasons why horses aren’t really that useful in this game, because mostly you climb, glide, and fast travel to get to places faster than you can on a horse. So I ditch Radish and go climb a hill, then glide down to the shrine.
This shrine is a tutorial on the wind devices. I can use them in various ways: attach them to the ground to create an updraft that I can use to get altitude with my glider. I can attach them to a platform and if it isn’t stuck to the ground by friction, get it to move. I flip a platform upright using this power, and get access to a treasure chest, then attach two more fans to a cart on a rail track, and use it like an elevator to get to the Light of Blessing.
I’m happy with this one, because the solutions are not difficult and I learn a little bit about what I can do with this particular building block, without it becoming too frustrating.