Trouble in Little Yetiville [Snowpeak] (Genzo with Devilsteel)

Briggson shattered his way across the wide balcony. His intimidating boulder-like fists and rippling statuesque muscles made easy work of the ice-based skeletal creatures. He was almost certain that with a welcome like this, much worse was awaiting them. He lifted another Chilfos by the waist, and used it as a club to smash its ally. With another two immediately destroyed he continued his grim charge to the eastern landing. The pack of fighters on the other side were funneling the remaining enemies in. Apart from that, it seemed Sandal had placed Eve in a safe position. Additionally, the vulnerable Pooky was still on a curving arc from the ceiling and scaling down the wall to their position. It was becoming safe for him as well, not that he didn't have other ways of defending himself.

Gyoma held his shield high, allowing himself safety from the onslaught of giant icicles. He took a moment to lower his shield as many of the foes went down one-by-one taking heavy hits from all of his brawling companions. He witnessed Briggson truck down the way to his side, smashing through multiple enemies like a freight train. The pack all turned their attention to a large door. There was a door on the west end as well, but it might have helped them to all enter the next door as a group. Nobody knew who was puppeting this army of foes after all.

"Don't wait for me, everyone." Briggson insisted. "Let's breach that door as a group though. We have no clue what could be in this madhouse."

Pooky landed from the wall just as everyone gathered to the door. Eve moved from her safe spot to the door. Knowing someone would place her in the back, she sorted herself to the back of the line. Briggson and Gyoma converged at the door with the others. There was a bit of a pause, as these two weren't about to smash down a door without the other fours' input.

"What say everyone?" Gyoma added. "So long as we're all over here, of course."

With several of their torsos forcing into the door, the pair of swinging doors opened with a loud crash. What was inside was nothing if not a surprise. What was before them was a long dining hall. The massive long table was set with everything from dishes to napkins to cups, and looked like it had been untouched for decades. In fact, nothing in the entire chamber seemed to be knocked out of place or out of shape. It seemed to imply that not the entire castle had been overrun by wild monsters.

The entire group made it carefully to the other side. . . there was nothing suspicious and everything was eerily quiet the whole way. It was possible they had gone the wrong way, but the peaceful nature of their findings led the whole group to explore the far door. Pooky appraised all the dusty silverware. . . it had become overgrown with dust and tarnish. He found it a waste to try to collect it all. Even Eve, who might have wanted the relics for her housewares, was turned away by the grime. She wasn't keen on looting something that looked like someone's home either.

The group pushed open the next set of doors, revealing what looked like a chapel. The unexpected place of worship confounded the group. Peering down to the other end of the chapel, there appeared to be a proper alter. Aside from that, some more Chilfos patrolled near the alter. Atop the alter was also something fascinating. There, floating unsettlingly in the distance was a large Poe's lantern. The probably hostile Poe reacted to the group entering, going from a peaceful float to a shaky aggressive flight path. What sounded like a cackle filled with menace came from the other end of the chamber. It was possible they would have to fight, as another door existed on the western exit beside the alter.

"I'd like to think we could take them!" Gyoma reacted, energetically. "If not I have a secret way to stop a poe! Just let me know ahead of time."

Gyoma forced his way to the alter, having been asked to deal with the Poe. He did his best to examine the area, as any interference with his exorcism would nullify his every attempt for it to work. He kept his distance from the jingling lantern, the Poe threatening to lunge at any moment. With the area clear of Chilfos, Gyoma made his announcement.

"I will will need everyone to get to the other end of the room. This technique is extremely dangerous to anyone who hears it!" he demanded. "I make no exceptions, you'll need to flee as quickly as possible from what I'm about to do!"

As soon as, and only when everyone was entirely out of the way, he began. Removing his Eagle Bone Flute from his cargo wear, he set the instrument to his lips. Wasting no time, the sound of Sharp's Song began to come from his person. The creature floating there suddenly but slowly began to take damage. Soon, the visible form of a Poe appeared over the lantern holding a translucent shovel. Its head and limbs twisted as it continued to take the painful brunt of the song. Becoming limp, its form eventually dropped to the ground. The creature's lantern shattered as it dropped, a contained spirit lifting out of the wreckage and hovering off to some unknown location.

Seeing the area become clear of danger, Eve approached the alter. She was then followed by Briggson and Pooky. Extremely curious about what they had stumbled upon, Briggson shoved open the small exit door on his own. What appeared was a swirling gust of snow as castle battlements appeared just outside. The tall stone walls were adorned with barred doors. What appeared through the bars was a large snowy courtyard. Aside the door was some odd slot-device that seemed to be to transfer large objects through the wall while the sliding bars were shut. For their own purposes, they'd probably have a better time hauling objects through the doors on their own without the device. The stone wall formed a perfect little walkway to and from different sections of the manor. Without a key for the bars, they would have to explore from within to get to the courtyard. Pooky could scale the wall, but he would be by himself within. The Miniblin chose to stay with the group, assuming they were getting close to their bounty.

The group spread out into the snow-blazed courtyard. Every single one of them took attack stances. Howling could be heard from every corner of the foggy clearing. Out of the thick stream of snowfall came a White Wolfos on all fours, snapping its jaw at them. Seeing a group of people, it backed off to alert its whole pack to the intrusion.

"Keep your eyes open! They're coming from every angle!" the Kokiri girl shouted to keep everyone alert.

Pooky extended his trident. Wolfos were nothing for him to cheerfully ignore. The Miniblin stood alongside the steadfast Lizalfos, whose shield was held high. A full pack of seven Wolfos appeared from the distant structures. At once Pooky drew a circle in the snow, activating another trap of Mush-Mushsproing. Gyoma pulled out a handful of Mini-Bombs, Eve following suit by grabbing Deku Nuts out of her pack. They tossed their projectiles, cutting a rift between the line of Wolfos. One foe took the brunt of a Deku Nut and rolled over, stunned.

Briggson pushed his way into the crowd of monstrous beasts. He finally for once let loose the full might of his Goron Punch. The leading creature took the fist to its jaw, flopping over and out of commission. As many fangs and claws shot out of the line to threaten him, the Goron took a step back into his line of comrades.

Another Wolfos snapped at Pooky. His trap sprung on the aggressive creature and covered it in slightly heavy mushrooms. The lupine creature took a stab from the imp's trident, and then another hit from the Kokiri girl's long dagger. As the remaining five came back, the group tightened their formation for the next wave of blows. The wind died down, and the stone structures could be clearly seen. There was some sort of big platform with pillars, and many mysterious openings and doors in the distance. Immediately apparent on the other side of the courtyard was a looming blue statue of a dragon or something to that effect. It was certainly ominous among the brutal fight scene taking place.

"Don't hesitate!" Eve shouted. She knew the Wolfos had formed a pack because they would do anything to pick the group apart. "Goron guy!"

Eve heaved her giant hammer into Briggson's arms. He took the handle and took a wide swing at the snapping group of creatures. The hammer flew past two that had evaded, but smashed into the central Wolfos. The beast took its last breath as it flopped to the ground. It was not Goron-made but it was an impressive piece of weaponry in Briggson's eyes. He was surprised the girl had not sought out something made of Goron Iron, something that would resist all strain.

"A sturdy weapon, I like it." the Goron quipped. "Also Briggson. . . my name is Briggson."

Gyoma angled his shield so the oncoming swipes wouldn't reach Pooky. With two Wolfos left, the Lizalfos swapped out his handful of Mini-Bombs for his Lizal Kukri. He swung his blade as one would a club, clashing against the tough claws of the oncoming Wolfos. His parry would not go to waste as Pooky forced the monster back with some trident jabs. He retrieved his Gnat Hat, and when the creature went in for a wide bite on the Miniblin he shrunk out of the way with his magic hat. With another opening, Gyoma crunched down on the beast with his kukri.

The final active Wolfos kited the group. Eve threw a Deku Nut and left it stunned with the resulting flash. She collected her hammer from the Goron as the whole group converged on the last enemy.

Eve looked one more time into the distance. Cold sprays of dusty frost lay on the wind, but in between the visual haze she could see the other side. The many imposing doors, including that one creaking blue thing in the distance told her one thing: they should backtrack and seek the herb before doing anything reckless.

"Let's go back." Eve insisted. "I feel like we missed something."

The smaller group that she had collected all followed her to the stone hallway between battlements. This crease in the wall seemed to continue around the front, dividing the mansion section with the military base concealed in the back. When circling around the angled corner, they came around the large corridor leading to the front of the base. In the center of this hall was a short stairway leading back to the first floor. It was slightly toward the western side of the structure.

Barging her way down, Eve passed far ahead of the others and forced the door open herself. Unsurprisingly, the room was furnished like a real dwelling in turn with the rest of the opening area. The accursed Kokiri's already wild eyes darted around the room. There was immediately to her eyes, the sight of a royal sofa tipped over to act like a futon.

"What the fuck is this." Eve blurted out.

There was a fireplace with a roaring fire on the backside wall where she had entered from. The dimly lit room had red carpeting and paintings adorning the walls. Lovely silver candlesticks surrounded the walls too, apparently recently polished. Eve waddled over and sat on a loose cushion in bewilderment. Upon the sofa was a Yeti, chewing on a long piece of some kind of glistening plant. She had a thin frame and long arms that reached the floor, her hands actually touching the floor underneath a massive quilted blanket. Eve sighed and looked at the creature. Her heart sank knowing they would have to interrogate every stalk of that plant out of this innocent and dopey looking creature.

"Yes, has herbs." The Yeti replied. "Zzeta is sick, has to eat a lot of these."

Looking at the chewed piece of herb, Briggson compared it to the one in his notes. Its iridescent purple color seemed to be a dead giveaway, in any case. If what she was saying was true, they had probably picked all of them to extinction on the outcropping peak above themselves. It was probably true that chewing all of them would make her better faster, but the Yeti clearly didn't have the deadly condition that had spread all over Darunia. Briggson's head went low, he knew what they had to do here.

"Miss yeti, I can't lie. Zzeta, was it? There's a whole town of dying children and we will need every one of your herbs. I may even need extra to make certain we can keep planting these." he was solemn, knowing the woman-like creature would remain sick if they took all of the herbs.

"No be sad, stone man." she replied, looking at him with jewel-like eyes. "Husband is making soup, Zzeta will get better too."

"What is this about soup?" Eve asked, looking up at the sofa.

"Husband Yetter needs to make soup yes. Needs help getting all ingredients though." she added, explaining it for everyone.

"Well kid." the astute Goron observed. "You're gonna need to take this like Sandal says. If we're going to explore this whole place you will need to be strong. I can grind it to be more palatable here though, just practice your magic on that fire while you wait."

The group had crowded the room, but Eve knew it would be helpful to use that fire right now. Remembering all the little details she had learned about using Fire Control all the way up to this place, she started practicing. The flames certainly had a will of their own, she still couldn't tell if she was the one making them bend or not. The whole group conversed as Briggson ground the slimey herb on a pestle. He. . . wasn't sure if Yeti slobber had medicinal or magical properties but for her sake he hoped so.

"It's all ready. No capsule or anything, you'll just have to swallow the powder with something." Briggson described as he handed the Kokiri the little pile.

Eve took what was left in her waterskin and swallowed the water with the interesting tasting gooey powder. Still focused on the flames, she felt something turn in her when she swallowed. There was a green glowing light from her torso as some mechanical sounds came from the girl. Was this normal? There was no simply explaining what was happening to the group, anyway. A green aura appeared for a microsecond, surrounding her like a flame. Her focus on the fire paid off, as her arms appeared to be bone-like for a second. The fire roared and a great flaming hand rose out, seeking to grab at her. Flinching, the phenomena ended and her arms returned to normal. Without anything to sustain it, the flaming hand faded back into the fireplace.

"Whoa! I don't know if I did it right. . . but I think I'm not sick anymore." Eve reacted to that strange incident. She used a handkerchief to wipe one final string of snot away. The color on her face returned to normal. . . those who hadn't seen her before this would notice her become remarkably pale. That must have been what all the make-up was for.

"Yes! You did it! Whatever that was!" Gyoma hissed, throwing his fisted claws in the air in celebration. "I have to learn that! Wow!" he continued, sounding a little naive the whole time.

"Where is the herbs though? Is anyone paying attention?" Pooky complained, disinterested in the magical display.

The Miniblin climbed on the sofa and made a questioning pose next to the Yeti's head. He was even a little peeved he couldn't analyze the medicinal substance himself. He was already interested in turning this stuff into some kind of lozenge.

"Where are all the herbs! Pooky needs to know!" he bothered the innocent creature.

"Wait for soup! Zzeta keeps herbs in her bedroom, needs a key. Everyone helps make soup?" she insisted, derailing the Miniblin's hopes. It looked like they might have to humor the Yetis if they were to unlock the bedroom and get the medicine.

Yetter was attending a large cooking pot in the room over. He acknowledged Corbin, checking the quality of his ingredients. Yetter shook his head. The food items were appropriate for keeping up energy on a hike but not for the base quality of the great stew he was making.

"Uh. Sorry no. Yetter's gourmet Lon Lon goat cheese he needs. There's also uh, a big fortified pumpkin. Yetter carves up this fresh fish he just caught for the roux. He caught the mighty porgy and the hearty bass, makes you very strong!" he replied, tending the pot.

The man-like giant beast stayed close to the pot. His large, fluffy tail seemingly something semi-common for his kind. Atop Yetter's head was some sort of chest lid, perhaps a comfortable hat for a fluffy head like his. Gyoma appeared behind him, taking mental notes the whole time. Somewhere in the domestic side of this base lay the cheese and pumpkin, and the Yeti was being vague about it.

"Where are these items? Are they nearby, perhaps?" Gyoma contemplated with his talon atop his chin.

"Yetter was careless and left them in other rooms. Uh. Gives you some keys to his house if you help?" he added on, not letting his attention stray from the pot.

"Why not. My name's Gyoma! Don't you forget it!" the Lizalfos introduced. "Mister, Yetter was it? My companions are Corbin here, Sandal, and Casara. . . then the other three are Briggson the goron, Pooky the imp-thing, and the smaller one running around is Eve."

"Big group? Eight people huh. Yetter was making soup to last, should be enough for everyone." he responded, seemingly very proud of his concoction.

Pooky was nearby, on a path through the door. He had overheard everything. Disinterested in the soup, Pooky actually wanted to get to those herbs faster. Thinking about the recipe himself, Pooky already knew he couldn't market fresh soup as a product for his retailers. He'd pass the idea to some restauranteur if he needed to. He thought about who could use it. He knew a Lynel who was a good cook. Some Deku Scrubs he knew would likely bootleg and ruin the recipe, so not them.

"Hey uh, weird girl." Pooky said, going back in the living room and bothering Eve. "The chef du jour needs to get his big pumpkin and huge piece of cheese! Pooky thinks you can find it."

Pooky then lowered his voice to a whisper. "We actually want to break into that bedroom but if you can get those ingredients we get deh-neh keys."

"You're right about one thing Pooky. I'm fast enough to find those things. But you gotta promise me one thing! Those kids get all the medicine first, I'll only let you have what's left." she demanded of the creature. "The cheese is probably already nearby. If you're not going to look I will just grab everything."

Eve bolted away to try all the doors. Briggson, who was not part of the conversations, appeared to be chatting it up with Zzeta on the cushion. The Goron had lost track of time talking to her and enjoying the hearty warmth of the fire. Meanwhile, Pooky approached Casara.

"Hey Casara." Pooky sneered. "How many more walls can you move the bricks around on? We could scale this place in minutes if you rearranged the walls." he offered to the Fokka, aware of his abilities and demeanor.

Following Corbin's advice, Gyoma worked his way to the north of the kitchen and opened the door there. He felt the sudden chill of surrounding ice. The floor was completely slick with ice and there were several blocks of pure bluish ice scattered about. Most prominently in the room was a huge metal block. The massive block was related to a nearby push down switch, which likely required the weight of that block to stay down. Gyoma was not sure how he'd get the block over there with all the slick ice on the floor.

Meanwhile, Eve was exploring the area east of the living room. There was a simple open door which she peeked into. There was dreary grey wood everywhere composing shelves and crates. This appeared to be some sort of old pantry so it was likely the ingredients were lost in here somewhere. Shuffling through the mass of foodstuffs, Eve found a number of root vegetables. Potatoes, carrots, turnips. . . but nothing like a pumpkin anywhere. Making light on her feet she ran a pile of vegetables back through the living room. She felt significantly faster without all the congestion.

"No, uh. Not pumpkin." Yetter dismissed as he saw the pile. "Might use some of these though."

The Yeti picked up the massive pile in one of his massive palms and placed it onto his cutting board next to the huge mass of fish. Everything in this place was so huge, it was mind boggling. Eve was certain not to go back in that pantry, as many of the other foodstuffs weren't super different to what they had brought as trail food. Somewhere in this huge complex was a perfect big pumpkin and a big hunk of goat cheese. Eve turned her attention to Hanno and Sandal. If they were going to split up, the girl knew who she would be going with.

As this all took place, Pooky egged Casara on to breaking into new parts of the base. So many walls were made of stone there would be so many numerous places to create shortcuts. They worked their way back to the battlements, where grey stone went on as far as the eye could see. Through the iron slats of the base, they could see the courtyard again. A dragon-like giant Freezard was blocking one of the major doors in the back of the courtyard. This was probably the big blue thing they had seen earlier.

"You can move stone, yes?" Pooky continued addressing Casara. "Can you smash that big ice guy? We might need to kill it." he pointed a paw through the slats at the distant enemy.

Gyoma responded to the Zora, already checking his feet. "I don't have much in the way of traction. I think this was a slide puzzle but all three of us should be able to just push the block straight onto the switch. If I fall over, I guess that's on me."

The three started to push the huge block. Meanwhile, Pooky and Casara were snooping around the castle. There was a brief quiet as Pooky lifted himself down. He stuck to the walls as he lower himself in. He found himself in a musty wine cellar. There were barrels and bottles as far as the eye could see in this darkness. Nearby Pooky was a tall stack of wrapped cheeses. Many of them were ring shaped to match the horns of the Ordon Goat. Taking a stack of cheese, Pooky ascended out of the hole.

"Pooky finds cheese. At least that yeti will give us a key if we bring him this." Pooky fidgeted.

In that iced over chamber, the three heroes slipped the large block onto the switch. The weight of the block, and whatever safety measures had been taken to make sure it wasn't cheated, activated the switch. The far door made a snapping noise and swung open on greased hinges. Moving in cautiously, Gyoma craned his head to look around the new room. Immediately he noticed a large room above this room, its floorboards long since collapsed and creating some sort of balancing and jumping puzzle above. Gyoma sighed, creating a sort of hum from his lizard-like throat. Whatever disaster that had awaited them above was probably safely bypassed by now. He was sure if they worked with the Yetis that nobody would have to go up there. He already had compasses, maps, and rupees floating around his head as various things they were safe to avoid at this point.

"Yeah. We're not going up there." he reassured, arming himself of his kukri and shield.

Scanning the floor level with his eyes closely, Gyoma couldn't see more than rats in the way. There was a neat set of trunks overlayed with once-bright red sheets. To their sides were some great silver candle mounts, taller than a person and split into three candles each. Gyoma turned his head to the paintings on the walls. There were Keese in the top floor, and probably hostile ones to boot. The bat-like monsters weren't close enough to be disturbed. Examining the painting, it appeared to depict some kind of fairy-tale like clearing in the forest with surreal stone architecture all surrounding a beautiful sword embedded into a stone pedestal with a clean beam of light peering down upon it like a spotlight.

"Hey, nice sword." he observed, unable to take his eyes off it.

As all this occurred, Eve was off in the hallways still puzzling over food ingredients. She scuttled about with crates of various things, the wood practically splitting with age.