PrinceWatercress plays Brave Fencer Musashi - Part 9 of 33

In this entry, we climb up Twinpeak Mountain, beat Rootrick at his own game again, and get the Earth Scroll.

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Head back to the beginning of the path up Twinpeak Mountain. When you cross the river with the poles, head left instead of right. You'll reach the dead end that we've seen before, but if you go here after saving Steamwood, you'll meet Rootrick. He'll start trying to climb the wall in revenge of destroying the Steam Knight. He won't tell you where the Princess where, and he accidentally lets it slip that there's a scroll near this area. You'll have to climb on the reddish-brown wall nearby and use the Legendary Brace to climb to the top before Rootrick. As long as you can keep a steady rhythm, though, you should be able to make it up there long before Rootrick does. Just watch out for the panels that pop in and out of the wall.

When you reach the top, Musashi will trick Rootrick into going back to the bottom for his cape...and whack him in the back with Lumina, taking him out of the picture. We won't be seeing him again. (If you have a huge lead on him when you get to the top, Musashi will crush him with a rock instead. Either way, Rootrick's gone and he's not coming back. Not until the end of the game anyway. Spoiler alert. The game surprised me there.)

At the top is a monolith with a strange symbol. Strike it with Lumina, and the Earth Scroll will be yours. By using this Scroll, you can stun enemies with powerful tremors and cause boulders to fall. Afterwards, Lumina will talk to you via telepathy. Yes, Lumina is sentient, but only for this one part in the game. Lumina tells you to destroy the Crest Guardian. Sadly, Lumina shuts up for the rest of the game. I wish they did this more.

It's pretty obvious that Musashi is based on the legendary Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, but the Five Scrolls are based on the Five Rings from The Book of Five Rings, which he wrote after he walked away from the life of a swordsman. The Earth Scroll is based on The Book of Earth, which serves as the introductory chapter to The Book of Five Rings and provides a foundation for the skills to be learned while comparing martial arts, leadership and training to building a house. It describes what situations in which certain weapons can be useful or useless, explains the importance of timing, and ends with the nine basic principles upon which samurai must rely.

There will be a boulder blocking a nearby path. Pause the game, then go to the Sword menu and switch from "Norm" (Normal) to "Earth." Perform the Lumina Rotation move as normal. This time, though, you'll use the Earth Scroll. The tremors will cause the rock to fall down, and you'll get another shortcut down the mountain. You'll need to do this in order to leave the area where you found the Scroll.

From here, I head back to the top of the mountain and use the Earth Scroll to get the rock blocking the poles I can swing on. The rock falls, and I can jump off that to jump into and swing on the poles. This leads to the top of the mountain, and while you can easily get there by climbing up the pole afterwards, you'll want to jump from one platform to the next to the right of that pole. This leads to the chest, and inside the chest is a Rock. The Rock is really a Crytsal, which pays out 2500 Drans when appraised.

When you come back from Twinpeak Mountain after getting the Earth Scroll, you'll meet Jon. He'll tell you to arm yourself with the Legendary Armor, and to find the five Scrolls and free them from their proper Crest Guardians. The Guardian for the Earth Scroll is in Hell's Valley. You'll have to head to the castle and ask Steward Ribson for permission to enter Hell's Valley. Jon will run off with Leno to find the next treasure.

When you ask Steward Ribson, you'll need four people to press four switches simultaneously in order to open the gate to Hell's Valley. You'll need Soldier Lardwick, Mercenary Meitlofe, Carpenter Carvey and Knight Lardwick. Once you've rescued them, you can head down there. Of course, you should have everybody rescued by this point. Thankfully, I did.