#dungeon 4

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The Zora Earring, needed to navigate the Abandoned Ruin dungeon (Level 4) of my fic. Carved from a dragon scale by a member of a deep-dwelling race of marine Zoras, this piece of equipment allows the wearer to breathe underwater indefinitely, ignore the dangers of depth, and endure a certain amount of the temperature drop in deeper waters. There are no improvements made to mobility, swimming endurance, or visibility, so using it can be quite terrifying.

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The Abyssal Vase, found in the Abandoned Ruin dungeon (Level 4) of my fic. This vase was crafted by a race of marine Zoras specialized for living in the deep waters of the Great Sea. It allows the user to catch three of any projectile attack (magical or physical) and fire it back at combined strength, working as a kind of cannon. Downsides include: no suction to assist in catching projectiles and a recoil hard enough to crack ribs with more powerful reflected attacks (bracing one’s arms is important).

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A Zora Redead, the reanimated corpse of a deep-dwelling Abyssal Zora that haunts the waters in which they were murdered. Unlike standard ReDeads, these monsters are almost exclusively formed from corpses soaking in lingering evil magic or malcontent where they died, and are rarely created intentionally by enemies of Hyrule. Their wasted bodies make them slow swimmers, but their fins and jellyfish tendrils contain a neurotoxin that can paralyze a human at the slightest touch.

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A deep-dwelling marine variation of Zoras I’ve made up for my fic set a few thousand years after Wind Waker: Abyssal Zoras! These saltwater descendants of Zora’s Domain residents skipped going the Rito route and decided to just...never leave Old Hyrule after the Great Flood. Their glowy bits contain a neurotoxin that paralyzes their usual prey of “anything that swims” and kills humans on contact. They grow ever-larger as they age and migrate progressively deeper into the ocean until they die. Their maximum age is about 450 years, at which point most would have grown to 16-18 feet tall with a long train of deadly tentacles. They’re disdainful of most other races and are rarely seen even by other oceanic Zoras.

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Here’s a photodump of the Abandoned Ruin dungeon, the 4th level in my fanfic. It’s themed around a mix of water and electricity—always a winning combo—and formed from the spliced-together remains of an ancient Zora city. Shown here are the entrance exterior, entrance interior, an early room above and below water, and a room somewhere in the middle above and below water.

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The boss of the Abandoned Ruin dungeon in my fanfic, Silver Eel Argulla! (With pics in order of GBC graphics, the original design, and a final painting.) This giant eel/whale flings two kinds of electrified projectiles: fast and heavy and slow and deadly. That pouch on its throat lets it suck in a bunch of water, electrify it, and spit it at the players. It also has a mouth-laser that wipes most of the battlefield. The only way to beat it is to throw its electricity back into its mouth!

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A fairly true-to-writing map of the sea caves in chapters 40 and 41 of my fic. These caves lay under Outset Isle and are accessible by a sinkhole where Jabun was hiding in Wind Waker. In the 2,600 years between WW and my story’s setting, a Zora civilization rose there, then suddenly collapsed when the Yiga Clan poured poison into the caves to steal the kingdom’s treasures. Dregs of the poison and the ReDeads of its victims still lurk in the caverns, making the area a deadly dive for any would-be thieves.

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The exit to the Abandoned Ruin dungeon that begins in Chapter 42 of my fanfic! It’s in an underwater cliffside, shaded under a boat dock, which is why those pegs are around it. What lies within are the dimensionally displaced ruins of an ancient Zora city that had to be abandoned after thousands of its residents were murdered via waterborne poison.