Adventure in Skyloft

[Knuckle 484]

"This is... The Lanayru Sand Sea!" Zurin explained. "I remember when this was miles of ocean, back when the Goddess still walked the earth and Demise sought to conquer it." He scanned the far horizon for a sign of water but saw only churning sands. "That said, I do not believe any organized demons live out here, just a few pirates and wildlife." Focusing on the foreground now, the group spotted a rusted robot and some sort of machine made for crossing water that Zurin called a "boat" when asked.

 

Zurin saved the group a bit of time by teleporting everyone closer to the boat dock (he admittedly felt silly for not thinking to do that during the tedious clawshot process earlier) and link used his sword to activate a timeshift stone on the boat's deck. Even the demon was surprised when the time displacement restored not only the boat and dock, but the seawater as well; a perfect sphere of blue surrounded the boat.

 

Everyone snapped out of their amazement when the now-functioning robot called out, "Hello there, what brings you to the open sea? Are you looking for my missing ship as well?"

[HylianFromLandOfOoo 24]

"We're looking for our friend." Link replies, "and also one of the three sacred flames."

The robot looks sad for a moment.

"My ship used to protect on of the flames." He said, "If you help me find it and save my crew then I'm sure you'd be able to find the flame."

(Yay only posted the same thing once this time!)

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

(Sorry! I could have sworn I replied to this on Friday!)

 

"We'd be happy to help," Pipit said, offering the Robot a small smile. We all watch in silence as the robot hovers over the ground in the direction of the docked boat. It's small, and brightly coloured. It's squash to get on, but we just manage to fit inside. Link takes a moment to rummage through his pockets, and as he does, his hand grazes over the wound on his chest. I think I'm the only one who notices the pained expression he wears for a moment, before masking it. He hands the robot his map. The small robot shakes it's head.

"No... this won't do, we need a proper sea chart! There should be one in my retreat in the sand sea. It'll take a while to-"

"It's fine!" Zurin cuts in. "I believe I have a sea chart..."

He pauses, searching through his bag before producing a folded and aged map. He hands it to the robot who examines it carefully.

"Ok..." he says. "It looks like this is the sea chart we used to use on my ship! Before the pirates came, of course." I'm a little put off by how blunt he sounds, though I suppose robots don't have emotions.

Fi emerges again from Link's sword, startling us all. Emzy jumps back, knocking into the edge of the boat and making it wobble, sending out ripples of water. Fi is as emotionless as the robot as she says "Seeing as this map was used on the sandship, we can use this to help us dowse. Master Link, I recommend you begin dowsing for the sandship immediately." With that she dives back into the hilt of the sword.

"Well..." I smile. "What are we waiting for?"

The robot reaches out, gripping the large wooden wheel that I presume steers the ship. He instructs Link and Pipit on use of the canon to ward off monsters. Pipit grabs the canons steering tube and readies himself, while Link stands just behind to shout the instructions.

"Right," Zurin says, grinning. "I've always wanted to say this... SHIP HO!"

[HylianFromLandOfOoo 24]

We start sailing around until we pick up the ship's aura. Apparently it's invisible to protect the flame so we shoot it with the cannon to find it.

[Knuckle 484]

Zurin kept his eyes peeled for a break in the ship's cloaking device, but unfortunately he was bad at being a lookout. Link seemed to be the best at finding the location of the ship thanks to his sword's ability to "dowse," however the thing seemed to be plowing its way around the sand sea as Link's sword would occasionally sway or even jerk violently in a new direction. After a few more minutes of searching and shooting at the air, one cannonball made contact with an invisible surface and the image of a great sea vessel winked in and out of view. After another volley, the invisibility wore off and the sand ship slowly came to a halt in the dry tides.

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

We all stand in silence, staring up at the large ship as the robot pulls his comparatively miniscule boat to a halt by the entrance ladder. I want to say something, but it's like my mouth has turned to dust staring up at this vast monstrosity. Ripped and tattered sails ripple in the wind, the wooden planks that the ship is made of are worn and splintered - threatening to break at any moment. I can tell from the expressions that my friends wear that none of them really want to get on board the ship. But the sacred flame...

"Right..." Link sighs, shouldering his sword in its scabbard. "Let's go."

He's first to approach the ladder, his hands grip the thin steps of the ladder, and he slowly begins to haul himself up. Emzy follows, then Pipit, then Karane, then me. Eventually, we all find ourselves on board the sandship. A tall mast is in the middle, and I can see piles of bokoblin bones on various patches around deck.

"Where to first?" Bryarly asks, looking around.

[Franne 2]

"Let's go there..." Link says, walking to our left.

Inside, the ship looks as vulnerable as outside, and when we take only a single step, the wooden floor creaks dangerously. We go down a set of stairs, and there are tiny scorpions we have encountered before running around everywhere. There are also electric keese, a spume and sink sand, and this ship looks like a miniature version of Lanayru desert. There are also loads of locked doors, so I think we'll be here for quite a while.

Suddenly we find ourselves in a corridor with an army of arachna.

"Get them of me!" Emzy yells, wildly swinging her sword around her.

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

The group goes into a frenzy, attacking the Arachna as quickly as we can. They're littering the walls, ceiling and floor, but with the combined strength of the group we tackle them quickly. To be honest, I'm not really much help myself, but the other take them out in a good amount of time. We make our way forwards and round another corner, only to find an ornate door in front of us. It's grand, with another one of those strangely shaped key holes. However, it's blocked from access by a collection of metal spikes on wires.

Just at that moment, Fi appears. She instructs Link of the importance of the door ahead of us, completely ignoring the rest of the group, before vanishing into the sword again.

"What's up, Link?" Karane asks, noticing his grim expression.

"These doors are never good news," he sighs. "They always have powerful enemies behind them. Last time... well..." he glances down at his chest for a moment, before shaking his head. "Forget it, let's press on!"

As he marches away from the group, we all exchange bewildered glances and follow.

After a little traversing, we find ourselves in a room filled with sand. Small robots fill the room, but they're broken, decayed. None of them appear to be in working order. A small sense of guilt tugs at my heart knowing that they were captured on this ship for so long, that in the end, they just broke down. I can sense that the others are feeling it too, but Emzy puts on a brave face.

"Come on, we can help them," she says. "We just need to figure out the code to get through that door ahead of us."

[Franne 2]

"Let's clear this up," Link says, and he pulls out a weird item.

"What's that?" I ask.

"Gust bellows. Let me show how it works," Link says. He points the item at the ground and presses a button. The sand flies away and we see weird symbols on the ground. After Link cleared everything we all examine the symbols.

"I got it!" Callia suddenly yells. She runs towards the door and hit's the things on the lock with her sword in a specific order. Suddenly, the lock falls off and we can continue.

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

We make our way into the next room, but it's not another puzzle room like I expected. Instead, it's small, compact, with just a single chest in the centre. Link kneels down and opens the chest to produce a small silver key.

"Perfect!" Zurin smiles. "The first locked door way in the first room off of the deck I believe."

"Let's go then," Pipit grins.

We make our way back past the little robots, and I feel a tug of guilt again. We haven't found a way to help them yet... but the ship is still vastly unexplored. Maybe we'll find a way later.

"Callia," Fledge says, lingering in the doorway. "Come on," he offers me as a small smile as the other dash away. I smile, back as me and him run to catch up with the group.

Eventually, we find ourselves back by the locked double doors. Link sticks the key in the lock and we all watch in silence as the chain and padlock fall to the ground with a clatter. He pushes the door open, and we all make our way through.

We arrive back on the outside of the ship. There's a small decked area where we all stand, and a long narrow pathway extended before us. Standing on the edge of that pathway, is a tall figure. I can't make our his features, all that I now is that he's tall, broad, and he wears a billowing red cape.

"What are we supposed to do?" I hiss.

[Knuckle 484]

"Don't worry guys, I can handle this." Link whispers, drawing his sword. Most of the group shows discomfort at having Link go it alone, but Zurin wasn't so nervous. "Guys, I think Link is right on this one," he said, "the platform that enemy is occupying would make more than 2 combatants almost impossible since its so narrow, and-." The demon's analysis was halted when he realized Link had run ahead and gotten the enemy's attention. Zurin didn't care for the rashness of this move but figured they might as well get this over with.

 

The strange creature swiveled around on the tip of the prow, revealing its mechanical anatomy and a bulky hook hand to compliment its heavy rapier, while a spiked board raised out of the ground behind Link to prevent his escape. Both combatants sprinted toward the other to gain ground, but the hero knew to expect a quick swing from the robot and bashed the blade with his shield before landing a blow on the enemy's chest plate. The sword could not penetrate the metal, but the energy of the blow slid the robot backwards and weakened its grip on its weapon. Link quickly squeezed in a few more thrusts before another swing of the enemy's rapier was imminent, then once again blocked it with such force that the robot was completely stunned. This time, Link used a jump attack to send the robot far back along the plank and disarm him of his rapier.

 

The fight was far from over however, as the enemy flourished another sword and forced Link to leap back a yard or so with his display of the backup weapon. Link quickly regained his ground by parrying his adversaries' attacks and using jump attacks to maximize knockback, driving him to the edge again and busting the robot's sword arm beyond use. Furious at the loss, it swung the massive hook arm at Link in a last-ditch defense , which the hero opted to dodge with a backflip. However, the hook arm was much too heavy for a quick second blow, and Link had penty of time to land a flurry of thrusts that fatally stunned the mechanoid. With a final strike, Link sent the monster over the edge of the prow and to its destruction.

[HylianFromLandOfOoo 24]

As the pirate-robot thing is defeated, a chest appears. We run over to see what's inside.

Link opens it and takes out a bow and about 20 arrows.

"That could be useful." I say.

"I bet it will be." Link replies, "Whenever you defeat a big monster like that it almost always gives you something that'll come in handy."

(Sorry I've only be posting short parts lately. I've had loads of "end of term" school work to do like essays and stuff.)

[Franne 2]

"Where to now?" Emzy asks.

"The deck," Link says, taking the lead. I have to admit, he is quite good at this dungeon crawling thing. I never really liked it, to admit, but seeing Link doing it, it's like he was meant to be doing it. Which, I guess it the case here.

We arrive at the deck and look around for something we can use the bow on.

"There!" Pipit yells, pointing to a blue target.

"Great!" Link says, raising his bow and sending an arrow towards it.

Suddenly there raises a timeshift stone at the top of the ship. Fi jumps out of Link's sword and informs him it's a timeshift stone. Not that we didn't notice. She's kind of annoying, always stating the obvious.

Link hits the stone with an arrow, and the whole ship returns to the past. It looks stunning, to admit. Suddenly, we hear the screech of a bokoblin.

"Oh no..." Callia sighs.

[NayruGoddessOfWisdom 8]

I've got no intention of going anywhere near those things again, so I duck behind the rest of the group as Pipit and Emzy carefully tackle the bokoblin. Once he's down, we all relax and start to scan the surface of the ship. Far in the distance, on top of the mast, a patrolling bokoblin jams his weapon into a drive and twists the lock. Bars appear around the timeshift stone, preventing us from using it again, and the door behind us is barred shut.

"Well..." Emzy says, "looks like we're finding a new way around here then."

We try to head up to a higher part of the deck, but the door up there is locked. Link uses his bow to shoot a switch that sends a smaller boat downwards, but it only gives us access to a locked portal. Defeated, we make our way back to the main deck.

"Hold on..." Zurin says. "I feel like there's been a massive oversight here. We've missed something so glaringly obvious!"

"Huh?" Bryarly frowns.

"The mast!" he exclaims.

"What the heck is a mast?" Pipit asks the question we've all been pondering.

"It's the tall pole in the middle of the ship," Zurin answers. "It holds the sails, and may just give us access to the dial that the bokoblin just used! It'll let us access the lower deck again if we can switch it back.

"Ok..." I say. "But let's save time fiddling around with the ladders and wires... how about you just teleport us up to the dial?"

He complies, and a few moments later, we all stand on a small circular deck where a dial stands. Link quickly tackles the guard bokoblin then inserts his sword in to the slit. Moments later, the bars blocking the time shift stone and the door vanish, allowing us access again.

"Ahh! Excellent job!" comes the robots voice from below us.

[HylianFromLandOfOoo 24]

"This should make things easier." Link says.

"What should we do next?" I ask

(Again, sorry it's so short.)