As the SS Linebeck heads into the foggy area where the ghost ship is, the engine goes out. Linebeck goes below to fix it, but he’s going to have to stay below to keep it working, so Link takes the wheel. This section takes advantage of the more direct control over the ship’s direction by having Link adjust heading as he goes. The three spirits float in front of him, and when he’s pointing toward the ghost ship, they start shedding sparkles and the pinging that serves as an audio cue speeds up. Following the spirits’ guidance, Link eventually finds the ghost ship, and he, Linebeck, and the three spirits get on board.
To no one’s surprise, Linebeck finds the ghost ship scary, and Ciela takes great joy in calling him a chicken. Er, cucco. So, it’s up to Link to explore the ship and look for Tetra, and possibly treasure. One deck down, Link finds a girl huddled up in fright; she says she’s the youngest daughter of the House of Cubus. She and her sisters were kidnapped and have been prisoners on the ghost ship ever since. There are three more for Link to rescue and lead to her. When she talks about the enemies below, she gets a little weird, saying, “Fallen! Fallen! They are the fallen!” Actually, her entire manner of talking is stilted, but that outburst still stands out.
One of the sisters is on the same deck as the youngest, and she isn’t too hard to rescue. Sure, she stops moving if Link tries running too fast, and she screams and stops dead if she gets too close to one of the Skulltulas who drops from the ceiling. But it’s not until the next sister, one level down, where the real fun starts. The bottom two decks have safe areas similar to the Temple of the Ocean King, and they wouldn’t have those if there weren’t something to be safe from. In this case, Reaplings, Grim Reaper-esque critters that hit hard if they catch up to Link. So sneak around it is. This is already annoying enough without the escort aspect, but the Cubus sisters really aren’t helpful. Having to backtrack if he runs to fast is bad enough, but their arachnophobic screams alert the Reaplings. Oh, and they give advice, but it’s bad; the second sister points Link to one of two treasure chests… that contains a Rupoor that steals 10 rupees and creates another Reapling on the level. If Link/the player learns their lesson from that one, when the third sister says not to shoot the Reaplings in the back, he can take learn the opposite, discovering a way to stun them. Here’s where I’d say this couldn’t be more frustrating if the sisters were trying to sabotage Link…
…but they are. As soon as they’re all reunited, they express disappointment that the Reaplings didn’t kill Link, but they decide they can do it themselves. They bring Link to the boss arena and challenge him to a match of “dead man’s volley” – the now well-established game of reflecting energy attacks. Oh, and they reveal their true demonic faces and are identified as the “Diabolical Cubus Sisters.” In the first round, three of the sisters shoot laser beams while the fourth attacks. Once the first sister is down, tactics get messier: in particular, after Link reflects an attack, the sisters bounce it among themselves before sending it back to him. This continues until it’s down to just one, who shoots three attacks at once, only one of which can be deflected.
Once the last sister is down, she makes a taunting comment about Tetra before poofing and dropping the key to the hold where she is. (Ciela calls the sisters “volley girls.” Heh.) When Link goes below to find Tetra, the Reaplings are gone, leaving him free run of ship. He finds Tetra, but too late… she’s petrified. Linebeck shows up, noting that the ghost ship’s fog has dissipated and now he’s interested in the legendary treasure. As Linebeck examines Tetra, Oshus shows up, explaining that the ship drained her life force, leaving her in her current state.
He says it’s time for Link to know everything, starting with who he really is: the Ocean King. (Oshus. Ocean King. I should have known.) He was attacked by some sort of abomination named Bellum, and taken to the Temple where his life force continues to be drained. Bellum’s monsters spread over the sea, capturing Leaf and Neri, but Ciela split her soul and escaped, which inspired Oshus to do the same. Meanwhile, Bellum created the ghost ship to lure in people seeking treasure and drain their life force. It’s not too late to save Tetra, if Link can defeat Bellum before all of Oshus’ life force is gone. He directs Link to Zauz, who will know how to defeat Bellum.
While this is going on, Linebeck leans a little too hard on Tetra and knocks her over, then picks her up and inspects her for damage… but then the important part clicks for him: there’s no treasure! With his entire motivation gone, he quits, intending to take his ship and go home. Ciela can’t talk him into staying, even by pointing out that for a seafarer, the Ocean King being consumed by evil is probably not the best turn of events. But Oshus has his own way: he offers to grant a wish to Linebeck for his continued assistance, and Linebeck jumps to action. Oshus apologizes to Link for dragging him and Tetra into what should be his battle, as Linebeck continues to urge Link to hurry up and go.
Next: The second quest.
