There are two stables in the Woodlands: Woodland Stable to the east that Link visited on his first trip to the area, and Serenne Stable to the west. There’s not much left of interest at Woodland Stable, just a Skyward Sword fangirl who wants to see balloons lift a barrel into the sky. Link obliges with Octo Balloons and gets a Star Fragment [1] as thanks. At Serenne Stable, there are three people arguing about leviathan skeletons in the Eldin, Hebra, and Gerudo regions. They want to see pictures of the leviathans’ skulls, so Link volunteers to get them as he explores. This quest will take a while.
Near Serenne Stable, there are two shrines. The first is the one immediately nearby for quick travel, Monya Toma/Drawing Parabolas. This is a simple puzzle using launchers to send an orb into its socket; the two complications – one of the launchers rotates with a crystal switch, and there are crates in between it and the final objective – are easily understood and dealt with. The other shrine is technically in the next region over, but the Sheikah Sensor works across region boundaries… but the shrine is hidden in a cave, which is where the Sensor has trouble actually guiding Link/the player to the shrine. Once you see the wall, it’s obvious it needs a bomb, but until then it’s frustrating. Even though there’s no shrine quest, the shrine is hidden enough that it’s worth just being a blessing shrine (Maag No’rah).
Northwest of Serenne Stable is Tanagar Canyon, which is notable for two things. Dinraal flies down it, which means I can get a scale and go back and pay tribute at the Spring of Power. Befitting the “power” theme, the Tutsuwa Nima Shrine there is A Major Test of Strength, a fight against the toughest type of Shrine Guardian, and this one has the added complication of not having any pillars for Link to hide behind when the Guardian makes its spinning charge attack. To compensate, the floor is covered in water, so Link can use Cryonis to make his own pillar. [2]
At the northeast end of the canyon, Link can journey into the Forgotten Temple. The temple is littered with Guardians, and Link often has to face more than one at once. There was one other thing worth buying from “Cherry”: the Ancient Shield, which automatically reflects Guardians’ lasers back at them. It was a real timesaver on this journey. At the end of the temple, Link comes to a blessing shrine (Rona Kachta).
The final shrine is in the area of darkness; as Link approaches, the Spirit Monk challenges him to find the shrine in the dark. The way is indicated by a bunch of bird-shaped torches whose beaks point the way to the next waypoint. At the end, Link comes across an orb pedestal, and the orb is just a little farther along… on a Hinox’ necklace. I may not think much of Hinox fights – and despite the darkness, this one wasn’t any harder [2] – but I still said “holy shit” before pulling out the bow. Again, the challenge was getting to the shrine, so Ketoh Wawai Shrine is a blessing shrine.
There’s not much chance to use the Korok Mask in this region, which only has about thirty Koroks. Notables include lots of bombable walls and a half-underwater Magnesis puzzled. Lynels in this region get two new complications: first, the white-maned ones start appearing, and they get a new attack, where they roar and slam their weapon down, creating a giant shockwave. For a long time, I’d run from these, but I’ve learned to parry the shockwave which is ridiculous but great. Second, weapon variety expands to include giant clubs [3]. The clubs do huge damage, and send shockwaves which make dodging iffy (the charge slam attack can be dodged, if you sidestep to the Goldilocks range where you’re close enough that it counts as a dodge but far enough that the shockwave misses you during the charge). These Lynels also have two very similar attacks (a shockwave slam and a triple slam) that require different reactions and are hard to tell apart. Or, in short: My first encounter with a club Lynel was really not that different from my first encounter with a sword Lynel, and I had to get the hang of it all over again.
Next: “I'm programmed to understand over one hundred languages and dialects and in not one is the phrase ‘on fire’ positive when referring to a person!”
[1] Star Fragments are rare items used for upgrading armor. Link needs a lot of them, and they’re really rare, unless you’re willing to sit for (game) hours at night watching the sky for a shooting star that drops one, then running to claim it before it vanishes with the dawn.
[2] This was before I did the Trial of the Sword with the recreation of this fight, which was both harder (because I had to rely on the stuff that drops in the Trial) and easier (because I saw it coming as soon as the dark stages started and prepared accordingly).
[3] One with a spear appeared in Akkala, but it was not that different from the sword ones. It has a jump slam attack that the sword one does but only very rarely uses, and that’s about it for difference.
