Returning to Death Mountain Crater as an adult, Link finds the bean has flourished into one of those elevator plants that’ll take Link up to a heart piece for another full heart. The elevator plant will also take him to the top of the crater where he can go out and meet Biggoron, the creator of the broken sword. He’d fix the sword, but he’s got dust in his eyes and needs medicine from King Zora before he can work again. I’ll go visit the Zoras after the Fire Temple, so let’s put this quest on hold till then. Getting back down requires the Bolero of Fire again (or going the long way, down Death Mountain Trail to Goron City, but let’s do it smart), and then it’s down a long ladder and into the Fire Temple to rescue the gorons.
Shortly after entering the Fire Temple, Link finds Darunia. Darunia’s about to make a doomed charge against Volvagia, and asks Link to rescue his people. The gorons are spread throughout the dungeon, locked in cells, and each cell has a small key in a chest. They also give hints when Link springs them. There are five skulltulas in the dungeon: two easily spotted on the main path, one hidden behind a bombable wall, and two on a side path that’s really only of interest to dedicated completionists (or skulltula hunters, although I would guess there’s a lot of overlap between completionists and people who continue actively hunting skulltulas after getting the heart piece reward).
There’s not a whole lot of combat in this dungeon, and most of the enemies that do show up are fairly simplistic: fire keeses (whom I’ve finally got a hang of now with the hookshot), torch slugs, and the reintroduction of like likes that now eat tunics in addition to shields. Speaking of shields, the spinning floor tile rooms are back, and once I realized that’s what was going on, as easy to deal with as in Link’s Awakening. The most involved combat, aside from the boss, is the flare dancer minibosses, which are quite fun: use the hookshot to pull them out of the flames, then whack them with the sword until they jump back in and light back on fire. The dancers’ fire turns different colors as they take damage, and eventually they just explode.
If the Forest Temple was about puzzles, the Fire Temple’s about mazes and platforming. There are lots of sequences of hopping over lava pits, a room that Link explores both from the ground as a maze with boulders rolling through it and then on top of the pillars that defined the maze, a maze where the “walls” are fires that are only visible from up close, another room where Link’s pursued by a wall of fire. There are two treasure chests protected by flames which can be temporarily dispelled by stepping on switches, and then Link needs to hurry to get the chest before the flames come back. The first of these is unimportant, just a gold rupee.
The second fire-protected chest holds the dungeon’s treasure, the Megaton Hammer. Getting it requires running along a narrow curving walkway, which I have trouble with even without the added pressure of having to do it quickly. Farore’s wind is incredibly useful here, because if Link falls off the inside of the curving path, it’s a long way down and a long way back up without magic. Screw that. But the feeling when Link finally navigates the path and reaches the chest and gets the hammer is great, and the hammer is a wonderful toy. It smashes tiles to open up ways down through the dungeon, can press switches that have rusted shut, flip torch slugs onto their backs where they’re helpless, and it’s just fun to swing around and break stuff.
When Link arrives to confront Volvagia, the subterranean lava dragon, Darunia’s nowhere to be seen. A quick survey of the battlefield: There are nine holes arranged in a 3×3 grid. The dragon pops out of one of these holes at random to attack. Link has a hammer. Yep, I’m pretty sure this is a game of Whac-A-Dragon. I say that flippantly, but it’s really quite fun [1]. Between chances to whack the dragon, the dragon completely flies out of a hole and either chases Link around breathing fire or flies up to the ceiling and starts raining rocks on everything. Finally, after taking enough hits, the dragon rises up one last time and crumbles to ash, and the sky over Death Mountain clears up.
Link meets Darunia again in the Chamber of Sages. Darunia thanks Link for everything he’s done for the gorons, and says that he’s happy to help Link save Hyrule by acting as the Sage of Fire. He gives Link the Fire Medallion, and as Link returns to Death Mountain, confirms that they’re brothers.
With the hammer, Link can exit the crater normally by smashing rocks and creating a path. Along the way there’s a Great Fairy of Magic, who doubles Link’s magic meter, so I’m guessing magic’s going to be a lot more useful in recruiting the rest of the sages. On the way down from Death Mountain, Link can discover two more skulltulas hiding behind rocks. There’s nothing new at the House of Skulltula, though, so breaking the curse on the last one’s probably going to require killing all 100 of them.
Next: Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.
[1] More fun than I’ve ever found Whac-A-Mole, really. Tontie is pretty fun, though.
