-| Story |-
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue: Since Zelda 2 (draft)
Chapter
1: Ganon's Plan (draft)
Chapter 2: Ganon
Appears (incomplete, draft)
Chapter 3: The King's Escape
Chapter 4: The Journey of a Hero (the quest begins at the end of
the chapter)
Chapter 5: Finding New Kasuto
This quest's story is simple enough, but that doesn't mean it can't be built out. It's worth noting that while everything that takes place after Zelda 2 is my own story, everything Zelda 2 and earlier is based on the official NES games and the official canon.
We start at the end of the Fallen Hero timeline. No, don't go look it up, it's canon. This is an alternate timeline where Ganon succeeded in defeating the Hero of Time, and Hyrule is left to pick up the pieces. It starts with Link to the Past, and concludes centuries later with Zelda 1 and Zelda 2. For just a little while, let's say that isn't the conclusion.
Hyrule was a peaceful land for years. Link rid the land of Ganon and rescued Zelda at Spectacle Rock fourteen years ago, and woke the ancient Princess Zelda with the triforce of courage from the Great Palace eight years ago. Since then, things have been easy. Hyrule became prosperous. Abandoned fields of dirt have come alive with agriculture. Old trade routes have been re-established, pumping currency through the economy.
The new pride of Hyrule, however, was the Great Palace. Since its fall, it was rebuilt. After all, it was the ancient seat of power for the kings during the golden era when the ancient Princess Zelda was cursed to sleep. The palace itself required a lot of work, and so a town sprung up around it to support the artisans and craftsmen. After five years of construction, it was mostly completed. The military took over the palace temporarily. Castle Town, as it came to be known, was no longer necessary, but some people stayed and it became an official town.
There was some debate about the matter, but North Castle remained the seat of power in Hyrule. It was easier to access, closer to the wealthiest towns, and had its own moat. Not least of all was the fact that it was surrounded by beautiful fields and mountains. The Great Palace would remain a military installation for now.
As far as the triforce, the had been split up. The king intended to use the triforce to usher in a second golden era, but realized it would be a mistake. It would require keeping all three together, and based on what ancient sleeping Zelda explained, that might be a risk. Like a genie who grants cursed wishes, the power of the combined triforce attracts the means of its own downfall. Hyrule is not ready to defend against that.
So, the triforce of wisdom was split into eight pieces, placed in different dungeons. A curse was placed on each entrance, powered by the triforce pieces residing in the dungeon. Not only did the curse prevent Ganon and any allies from entering, it also made him lose control over and contact with any of his minions who entered, turned them docile, and trapped them from exiting the dungeon. If it became necessary to obtain all three triforce, the royal family could safely collect the pieces.
Link, on the other hand, was not so lucky, because he lost his edge. Practicing with the soldiers just didn't have the challenge of even weak monsters, and he fell out of practice. He traveled to provide help where he could, particularly if it meant any type of peril. He escorted important caravans, rescued missing people (mostly just lost people), and chased away bandits, but also other tasks like helping to construct a bridge or dig a well. All the soldiers respected him, and all the citizens adored him. He remained the best swordsman in Hyrule, but was concerned that he might no longer be a match for monsters.
Things don't always start when they happen. In this case, Ganon has been resurrected. His own power, by itself, is not that great. He has minions to do his bidding, but what he wants is a piece of the triforce. For now, his minions gather on the peaks of Death Mountain, where few people ever tread. And that's where they will remain.
Ganon knows better than to just start causing havoc at random. He assigns several keese to stealthily observe the Great Palace, but they aren't able to get close without being seen. Then he does the same for North Castle, which has slightly more luck. He's able to figure out the royal family stays at North Castle, but that's all.
Next he senses for the triforce. He knows that the power of the triforce could have kept him from reviving so quickly, so they must not have all three. He also remembers how Zelda split up the triforce of wisdom last time. So he decides to visit one of the old dungeons personally.
He goes to the Abandoned Mansion, south of the Island Palace. He suspects this would be one of the triforce hiding spots. This is confirmed by the fact that something is preventing him from going inside. He recognizes the curse, but can't discern the details. He sends a minion in, who succeeds in entering, but isn't heard from again. He tries his own spell, but it didn't work right. Instead of undoing the curse, it only made the monsters who enter become violent again.
Finally, Ganon has a plan. If he can't get the pieces of triforce, he can at least keep the royal family from getting them, too. While he slowly builds up his forces for an attack, he will find the locations of the triforce pieces. He will send a stream of minions into the dungeons, and then return them to their hostile state.
His main forces gather in several discreet locations, and wait. Once every group is ready, it's all about picking the timing. He waits, and he watches for an opportunity.
A few weeks later is a dreary stormy day in spring. The clouds are heavy and dark. The rain is constant, although the intensity is inconsistent. Best of all, Link is on the other side of Hyrule. Ganon considers waiting for the king to be more vulnerable, but barring some royal mistake, this is about as good of an opportunity as he was going to get.
The forest north of Rauru darkens, with the light dimmer than the thickest cloud cover. A portal opens just below the treetops, a dark purple smoke eddy surrounded by gray rectangles covered with a labyrinth of glowing pale yellow lines. At first, a few keese pop out and flutter around. They are soon followed by other monsters, all different types. There are several other locations throughout Hyrule, but this is the only one Ganon opens.
The first task is to secure the area around the portal. There weren't any people nearby in the forest in this weather, but people in Rauru were bound to notice. They set up a small defensive force between the portal and Rauru's entrance, but otherwise they focused on the upcoming attack.
A force of darknuts, goriyas, keese, octoroks, and gels are dispatched west toward the castle as the first wave, led by a few lynels. Again, there wasn't anybody out in this weather, so they march west confidently and quickly. They stop a few hundred meters from the castle moat, and form up ranks. They also send out octoroks and gels to scout the fields around the castle.
The group has one goal: to make a siege of the castle unnecessary. Two splitting darknuts are given instructions. Once that has been completed, the whole group is to try and take over the castle courtyard. They are to kill anybody they come across, except that King Lido, Princess Zelda, and the royal wizard are to be unharmed. Then they are to ensure nobody escapes until the second wave arrives.
Of course, if they failed, a full siege was still on the table. It just wouldn't be ideal, with his minions divided up. But, if they could get a foothold inside the outer walls, breaching the castle itself would be easy.
The second wave is due to arrive a half hour later, with stronger forces that are always so much slower between their armor, accommodations, and the squabbling. They would be enough to breach the castle door or to lay a proper siege.
Ganon plans to unleash the third wave as soon as the second wave approaches the castle. There are portals in eastern Death Mountain, northern Maze Island, western Nabooru Outskirts, western Lost Hills, eastern Lost Woods, and eastern Moblin Woods. All the portals except the one in central Kasuto Outskirts.
At that point, monsters will spread throughout Hyrule. Their goal is to ensure no inter-village trading or communication, and can cause as much destruction as they want. Just in case, they also have orders to capture King Lido, Princess Zelda, and the royal magical advisor Waglengo unharmed.
The final portal will be opened six hours after the third wave. However, if Ganon thinks the Great Palace is on to him, then he'll open it sooner. The longer they stay in the dark, the better.
And once the North Castle is taken, half of the monsters in the attack will join the third wave in causing destruction. Then it will only be a matter of time until the Link appears.
As the first portal opens...
From on top the North Castle wall, just north of the drawbridge, Corporal Rinvul of the Hyrule Army can normally see the forest off in the distance. The plains stretch out to the east and north, dotted with shrubs and small trees. He couldn't see the ground the whole way, but he could normally see the trees off in the distance.
He stares off the east as hard as he can, squinting against the rain. Instead of the forest, it just looks like darkness, like a black smudge of smoke that never lifts. It just sits there like a hole in the world, made less substantial by the rain.
He rubs his eyes and turns to the north. He should be able to see to the desert off in the distance Through the rain, it looks a little yellow. Still, it doesn't look dark. He looks northwest to the mountains, while are cloaked in the rain, but look normal. He looks south towards the mountains separating everything here from the horrible swamp. It looks normal for a storm.
“So,” he asks himself out loud, “why does the forest look wrong?” He stares to the east again, at the unusual darkness. “Something is definitely wrong.” He considered the possibilities, and came to a conclusion. He knew a fire could cause a dark smudge in the sky, and knew of nothing else except magic. Besides, once you factored magic in, you never knew to be on lookout for.
He walks to the special sound tube in the wall. It goes down into a room in the base of the wall. The end is shaped like a horn, and is able to relay orders up the wall and reconnaissance down. He whistles once “Uh. Up here on the wall. I think there's a forest fire near Rauru, but I'm not sure. Can I get another set up eyes up here?”
Inside the room, Sergeant Laigner was finishing up some paperwork. He was an old brawler, his face scarred from several battles, but not so young anymore. He could still hold his own, but he was glad to be overseeing guards instead of out in the damp dark himself.
He was sitting in a dingy and mostly bare room that functioned as an office and a break room. There were a couple tables with candles, including the one Laigner sat at, and about a dozen chairs. A large heavy door in the wall facing the west towards the castle led outside to the courtyard, with coat racks next to it. A small emergency armory lies behind a door to the north, along the wall. Stairs lead up to an upper door that opens to the top of the wall, where Rinvul was.
He wasn't happy about going out into the weather, but he knew a fire was serious. “Roger,” he responded to his own side of the tube. “I'll be up in a minute.” He tapped his pencil on the table as he considered the odds of a fire in this much rain. Low. It was probably something else.
He put down his pencil, walked over to the main door, and put on his overcoat. He trudged up the stairs, of which there were a considerable number. He kept thinking about the last forest fire they saw. It was so long ago he was still on the patrol rota, although he hadn't been on patrol at the time. His old sergeant had everybody on the wall to see it.
There had also been a painting of an earlier forest fire. It had been in the training library. Aside from reference books and books on strategy, and of course the bawdy novels that various guards had brought over the years, there were a series of paintings of different events that were part of training so soldiers could recognize them. The entire training library had been moved to the Great Palace, but he thought about asking to have duplicates of a few of them made. As he reached the top of the stairs, he put a pin in it.
The light outside was blindingly bright compared to the office, despite the heavy clouds. When Laigner stops blinking, the first thing he notices is the corporal standing at attention.
“At ease, corporal,” Laigner says. “Now, what seems to be the problem?”
Rinvul pointed to the east. “I'm not really sure. It looks like a fire, but the smoke is just staying there.” As Laigner studied the distance, Rinvul continued. “I've had campfires in the rain before, and never saw the smoke stay near the ground.”
Laigner agrees, but thinks for about twenty seconds before answering. “This is not a wildfire. I think somebody is messing with magic.” He turns back towards Rinvul “Corporal, run to the main guard room in the castle. Tell them something is happening in the distance, and to bring the Wizard and a scope to the drawbridge wall. Then run back here to resume your post.”
“Yes sir.” Rinvul hurries down the retractable ladder to the ground and runs off to the castle.
Laigner looks around. This is definitely not right. Something unnatural was happening in this storm. And whatever it was, it was bound to be up to no good. He couldn't begin to guess what he was looking at, but hopefully that charlatan will know.
For now, he'll go back to watching. He knows exactly what he's supposed to do, because he's the sergeant. He also know what he's going to actually do, because he wasn't always the sergeant. But if something is going on out there, somebody might be bringing news or fleeing danger. He was going to make sure they don't go unnoticed.
After a couple minutes of seeing nothing interesting, he hears running. Rinvul climbs up the ladder as fast as he can, carrying a scope. He immediately leans over the parapet, peering at the darkened forest, ignoring the Sergeant. The younger recruits always liked playing with the scope, so it's no surprise he wants to use it.
“Ahem, corporal?”
“Oh right, sarge. I can see a lot of darkness. There's some light in there, yellow, but not the yellow of fire. It doesn't look like it's changing either. I don't know wha-”
Laigner snatches the scope away from Rinvul. “Corporal, you can reflect on what you saw, but right now, you need to watch the road. Somebody might be traveling through this weather if something bad is happening.”
“Yes, sarge.”
Laigner put the scope up to his eye. It was much like a handheld astronomical telescope, with a dial to adjust the focus, and two lenses. It had what they called a four by eight exhume. He didn't know what an exhume was, but it meant things were four times bigger or eight times bigger.
He trained the scope to the west. “Corporal, I see your black smudge. It's sort of like if there was a torch that spread darkness instead of light. It seems to encompass the whole forest though. It's all just... dark.” Had he known about astronomy, he might have described the woods as having its own personal eclipse.
He switched the lens, and could see much better. The darkness did not look any better or clearer. But near the top of the darkness, amid a wreath of smoke, there was a gray structure like Rinvul claimed. And in the gray whatever-it-was, pale yellow lines at right angles, like a children's maze. That was definitely magic.
“Sir?” Rinvul asked.
“It all still looks pretty magicky out there.” Some sort of smoke spell maybe, or maybe trying to play with lightning, even though there wasn't any. He couldn't tell. Where was that damned wizard. “I can see your rectangles and lines, so there's definitely something out there. I see smoke too.”
“Sarge!”
What he saw next almost made him drop the scope. His eyes widen as he exclaims “Oh gods no.” He could swear he saw a lynel jump down from the cloud. “This is very bad.” He stared into the cloud, waiting for another glimpse to confirm it, until Rinvul grabs his arm.
“Sarge! Somebody's coming. Can you see who it is?”
Laigner did not need to look. While Rinvul gaped in surprise, he sprinted the six steps to the bell, and rang it as loud as he could. He quickly brought the scope back up to see down the road. “Arm yourself, now!”
The two guards in the gate room hear the bell. They try to lift the bridge, but it's too late, two black darknuts are already on it. The other monsters wait on land, but the two darknuts are formidable enough.
As the guards strain to raise the bridge, and the guards on the wall helplessly shoot arrows at the darknuts, the darknuts attack one of the chains. Once it's destroyed, they turn their attention to the other chain.
Up on the wall, Rinvul was getting desperate, and he had lit bomb despite the rain. It flew down from the wall onto the bridge and exploded. Both darknuts were hit. One was tossed into the water, and wearing all that heavy armor, it was never seen again. The other got knocked aside, but was able to shake it off.
The remaining darknut went straight for the second chain. Rinvul struggled to light a second bomb as quickly as possible, but there was no time. The darknut broke the second chain just as the guard threw down the second bomb. As the broken chain fell, the darknut turned around to face the bomb. His shield took most of the damage, but he was knocked into the water, and sank like his companion.
Rinvul yelled a cheer at his success, but there wasn't really anything to celebrate. The bridge is no longer an obstacle for the monsters, and the first few goriyas step onto it.
A squad of soldiers step up to the opposite end of the bridge, followed by a second squad that lines up behind them. They are all heavily armored, but the first squad is also carrying very large shields. The first squad draws their swords, but holds them to the side as they brace their shields. They wouldn't need their swords yet, but there might not be space to draw their swords when the time came.
The second squad lines up behind them, but offset. They lower their spears down, in between the shields of the first squad, sticking out like steel tipped splinters. They are ready to aim and thrust when anybody gets close, the swords still sheathed. Of course, they aren't preparing for a few goriyas.
A squad of archers had also lined up on the wall. As the leader drops an extra supply of bombs at the feet of the still-excited guard, the others take aim. The goriyas are easily dispatched by a volley of arrows.
That was only the beginning. A wave of keese now flew across the river towards the archers. The archers have no choice but to turn their attention. Fortunately, a second squad of archers had lined up on the other wall, across from the bridge opening.
A wave of arrows met the wave of keese, killing about a third of them outright. As the archers let loose more shots, both the squad leaders drew their swords to protect the archers. The keese split up and flew apart, and the archers' attention was pulled even further from the bridge.
Meanwhile, a blue lynel steps onto the bridge. A line of goriyas and darknuts crowd just off the bridge, stamping their feet in unison. The lynel stares at the line of shields facing it, and roars.
The archers are suddenly very aware of what is happening on the bridge. There aren't as many keese left, so half of each squad concentrates on the bridge. A few arrows hit the goriyas, and one even hits the lynel.
The yell did more than that. Nearby high-flying bats were called in. The archers still attacking the keese noticed immediately. They yelled at the others for help, but they were concentrating on the lynel.
Suddenly the bats were upon them, catching the other half of the archers by complete surprise. The squad leaders did their best to fend off the attacks, but two archers were killed by the time the bats were dealt with.
The bat distraction let the darknuts and goriyas make a run across the bridge. The goriyas boomerangs were easily blocked by the shields, and they would be easily stabbed when they got close enough to a spear. The darknuts made the first squad of soldiers nervous.
A bomb landed in the middle of the bridge, knocking back most of the monsters that were in front. A darknut, a goriya, and the lynel were knocked into the moat. The lynel really did not like being in the water, but it and the goriya were able to climb out of the moat.
A second bomb landed on the bridge, and the monsters scattered. A couple goriyas run towards the castle and were killed by the spears, but all the darknuts retreat fearing a watery grave. It was a good thing too, because Rinvul is too distracted by a bat to light another bomb.
The soldiers laugh at the mayhem a few bombs caused. They knew what odds they personally were up against to survive, so any release in tension is worth it. They are unaware of the mayhem that was just caused by the bats.
Another squad of soldiers and squad of archers arrives at the bridge, led by the castle's defensive overseer General Paloent, and followed by two medics wheeling a cart. At the orders of the general, the medics help with the minor wounds, while the four of the soldiers recover the dead. The archers and remaining soldiers split up to join the two groups of archers already on the walls, carrying supplies of bombs and arrows from the cart.
Already the monsters were starting to reform ranks, outside of bomb and arrow range, of course. They are taking a page from the defender, and putting a line of shielded darknuts first. On the wall, they can see a line of goriyas behind them, and then a second line of darknuts.
...(still being written)
? burns the bridge to keep the monsters from getting across...
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