9. Ikana Canyon
Table of Contents
Ikana Graveyard
The last direction that you haven’t been is to the east, and that’s where you’re going now. Make sure to get some arrows before you head out. Once you’re ready, depart of Clock Town via the eastern gate in East Clock Town, and once you’re outside the city walls, summon Epona via Epona’s Song, and ride off towards the sunrise by following the guiding pillars. As you ride eastward, you’ll encounter a string of Real Bombchus as well as several fences blocking the way. Epona, thankfully, is invulnerable to the Bombchus’ explosions, so just plow right through them as you jump over the fences. When you get to a fork in the road, turn northward to head to Ikana Graveyard.
Head all the way as far north as you can in this area. You’ll eventually find Dampé’s house as well as a large skull that’s blocking your way through an archway of stone. Stand in front of the skeleton’s head and play the Sonata of Awakening. This will cause a gigantic skeleton named Captain Keeta to rise up and start to run away. You will need to give chase. The long-term goal is to strike him with your sword exactly once, but he will be too fast for you, especially with all of the traps along the way. You can slow him down by firing regular arrows at him, so target him as soon as you can and fire away. As you’re giving chase, you will see small colorful stone structures on either side of the path. This will create a wall of fire that will block you from going forward until you kill the two Stalchildren that rise up from the ground just before them. Kill the Stalchildren, wait for the wall of fire to dissipate, target Keeta, fire an arrow while advancing, and repeat. Should you fail to strike him before he reaches the top, you will need to leave the area and come back to retry.
Once you reach Captain Keeta and strike him once, then the real fight will begin. Continue striking at your sword with his legs. Every now and again he will jump up; moments before he lands, his shadow will appear, so get out of the way. Continue striking at him until he’s defeated. He’ll tell you that he used to be the commander of an army until he was defeated so long ago. For you putting his soul to rest, he will give you the Captain’s Hat, which he will instruct you to use to tell those loyal to him that the war is over.
The Song of Storms
With that, you now need to use the Ocarina to play the Song of Double Time to fast forward to nighttime if it already isn’t so. Equip the Captain’s Hat and head south into the graveyard proper. During the evening hours, you will find Stalchildren circling about one of the graves. With the Captain’s Hat on, you should have the option to talk to these Stalchildren, and they will believe that you are Captain Keeta himself. Order the Stalchildren to open the grave so that they’ll tear the gravestone down and provide a hole into the underground. Note that it is imperative that you do this on Night One because the Stalchildren circle different gravestones each night, and none of the others will get you where you want to go.
Jump down into the hole where the grave used to be, and then jump over the pits to reach the tunnel leading onward. There will be a flock of Keese in the next room; defeating them all will not only make your task easier, but it will also drop a chest containing 50 rupees. This room also contains three unlit torches; use Fire Arrows to light them all to open the sealed door at the far end of the room. Go through that door.
The next room will contain a motionless Iron Knuckle, which you will need to defeat. Strike it once in order to bring him to life, and then immediately back away because it will open with an attack with its ax. Once he swings his ax, move in tentatively and strike with your sword, but immediately back away. Occasionally the Iron Knuckle will swing his ax into the ground, and it will stun him momentarily as he tries to pull the ax out; this should give you the opportunity for two sword hits instead of the usual one. After several attacks, part of Iron Knuckle’s armor will come off, and at this point, he will become much more agile. Continue to dart in quickly and then backflip away after your window of opportunity disappears, and it’ll be dead before too awful long.
Defeating him will unseal the door you came in from and also raise a curtain to reveal a secret grave in this mausoleum. The ghost of the soul of this grave will appear, and his name is Flat. He mentions that his brother and he were composers for the Royal Family of Ikana, but his brother Sharp betrayed Flat’s trust and sealed him in this tomb. He offers to teach you an Ocarina melody with the promise that if you ever meet Sharp in the flesh (or is it, in the spirit?) he is eternally disappointed in him. Wow, brotherly love.
Climb up to the gravestone and target it in order to trigger the cutscene. The camera will pan down to a musical staff, and you will then learn the Song of Storms, the song needed to cleanse the black soul of Flat’s brother. With that done, you can leave this place and head back to Ikana Graveyard.
The Garo Mask
From Ikana Graveyard, head back south to the fork in the road that led here. The Real Bombchus will be replaced by Blue Bubbles if it’s still nighttime outside. If they damage you, they will jinx you for several seconds, which means you won’t have the ability to use your sword. If you turn left towards the east, you will see a Garo sitting up upon a large ledge. Take off the Captain’s Hat, target him, and walk towards him. He will eventually speak to you. Unfortunately, he’s not going to allow you entry because you need a specific mask that will be able to heal the spirits that lay beyond. That mask, unfortunately, is all the way back at the ranch.
Either use Epona or play the Song of Soaring to return to Milk Road, near Romani Ranch. Use the Song of Double Time to fast forward until the Dawn of the Second Day if it isn’t daytime yet, and then make sure you have Epona with you. Note that you can’t do this on the Final Day; it has to be one of the first two. Head south along the eastern road heading southward, and you will arrive at the Gorman brothers’ ranch. Speak to them while on Epona, and they will pretty much insult your horse as some pathetic thing. However, for 10 rupees, they’ll offer you to prove your worth. Accept their offer and force them to put some money where their mouths are.
The goal is simple; you need to beat them to the finish line in a simple and surprisingly clean race. Use your carrots to make Epona dash faster as you go around the track, though be careful never to use your last carrot. Using the first five will allow them to be restored fairly quickly, but using the last one will make it so that they don’t restore themselves for a long while. As carrots get restored, wait until they’re mostly—if not all the way—refilled before using them again, and you should be able to stay close to the brothers. As you go around the track, you’ll see a few obstacles. First there’ll be a small forest; make sure you keep a steady line between the trees. There’ll be fences just up ahead beyond that. You can gain some time by jumping the fences, but only if you have carrots handy. Finally, there’s a second forest up ahead, but this one has a few mud pits in it that will slow you down incredibly; dodge those like the plague itself. The last bits will have fences on the inside track with mud off in the middle. If you have the carrots to spare, jump the fences, and this should give you a considerable lead. If you have to duck outside, try to weave your way so that you don’t hit the mud.
If you’re successful, they will give you the Garo’s Mask. Clearly, there’s something about it that worries even them, but they figure you won’t be up to any horrible deeds, and they did make the bet, so take it and get out of their ranch.
Releasing Sharp’s Curse
With the Garo’s Mask, you should be able to actually enter Ikana Valley now. Return through Termina Field all the way back into the eastern part of Termina in order to talk to the Garo again, this time wearing the Garo Mask. This time he’ll let you through. He’ll cause a stump of a tree to rise up from the ground before he disappears. With the trunk of the tree, you should be able to Hookshot up to it and properly continue your journey forward.
As you proceed, you’ll see rolling boulders heading towards you. Make sure to dodge them as they come down. However, worse yet is that Nejirons will start to spawn from the ground. They look something like extremely round Gorons; these enemies will explode when hit, so don’t use your sword to defeat them. Instead, just feel free to ignore them and keep on running until you get to the end of the section.
Ikana Canyon awaits and now begins your trek upward. If you leave the Garo’s Mask on whilst traveling through this area, you will occasionally run into encounters with the Garo, the ninja-like warriors of Ikana. To defeat them, target them and keep your shield raised until they attack you. Once they attack and are blocked, their swords will fall to their sides; use this opportunity to attack them. Repeat this process until they are defeated. Once defeated, they will give you hints about the area, revealing what intelligence they have found.
Sharp’s lair is high up on the cliff, and so you’ll need to climb up. Begin by going over to the pier at the river to find two Octoroks. Freeze them both with Ice Arrows so that you can cross the river, and then when on the opposite side, look up and to the left to find a stump. Use to Hookshot up to ascend up to it. Once you arrive at that platform, there’s another stump up and to the left again; use the Hookshot there. The third stump is located up and behind you; repeat this process one more time, and now you will be atop the plateau above the canyon’s bottom. Be wary as you ascend as some birds will attempt to attack you as you climb.
Atop the plateau, you will first find the Owl Statue right next to the stump; hit it with your sword before proceeding onward. You can find also Tingle by heading up the ramps along the left-hand wall. You can buy a map of Ikana from him there for 20 rupees if you wish. From Tingle, turn back the way you came, but instead of descending back down, stay up and continue moving forward. You will eventually see what appears to be a dried-up riverbed whose source seems to come from a cave in the wall. Enter that cave, and you will meet the other composer brother.
Deep within, you will see a rather small, poisonous pool of water in the center of the room. Head towards it, and eventually Sharp will interrupt you. He will tell you to turn back or, if you wish, to become one of the dead that haunt the realm of Ikana. You wish to do neither, and you have the power to choose neither. Once he stops rambling, he will create a curse on the area, eventually draining you of hearts.
Play the Song of Storms on your Ocarina as soon as you can, and this will cleanse Sharp’s soul. The water in the pool will rise up, and the river will flow once again, eventually turning the waterwheel on the house in the center of the area. And the most wretched music will begin to play. Perhaps you won’t like the song, but the Gibdos haunting Ikana Valley will really not like the song, and they’ll decide that being buried and truly dead is well worth not having to listen to it. Doing so will cause the inhabitants of that house to unlock the door, and this is to your advantage as you need to get inside that house. But before you go there, Sharp offers to help you find passage to the way into the next temple. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know the song to get you in, but he knows how to get you to him.
But first, you’ll want to go inside the Music Box House. Go back outside.
The Gibdo Mask
A little girl will be wandering tentatively outside the house. You do not want her to see you or else she’ll run back inside for a few moments and lock the door, causing you to have to wait for her to be brave enough to venture outside again. Head counterclockwise around the Music Box House, heading back towards Tingle, while keeping it in sight. The girl eventually will be walking in your direction, but when she comes near, double back for a little way and then jump off of the cliff behind her, making a break for her house while she’s still venturing out.
you scare her first time
Once you’re inside the house, head downstairs, turn around, and make for a closet at the back of the room. You will see a man who is halfway bandaged up emerging from the closet. He’s not actually a Gibdo but in the process of becoming one. Don’t try to kill him; instead, play for him the Song of Healing to restore him to his former self. The daughter Pamela, who was venturing outside for that moment, will come back into the room and hug her father. Let them have their moment, and in the meantime, pick up the Gibdo Mask which was dropped. This will be the ticket that allows you to enter the Ancient Castle of Ikana as it allows you to be mistaken for a Gibdo when surrounded by Gibdos and Redeads. And you’re about to be entering a place that’s chock full of them.
