Chapter 5 - Herbstburg
Travel a little ways east from Providence, then take the dirt path as it travels north. Continue past the Three Brothers Waterfall until you reach a broken bridge. Tiny requests that you bring 20 Material Stone, 4 Square Lumber, and 8 Bronze to repair the crossing.
After the bridge repair, cross into the Three-Pronged River area and continue along the path as it travels northeast through the Golden Hill area until you come across another bridge repair. This one requires 12 Board Lumber, 8 Square Lumber, and 16 Material Stone. Fix the bridge and continue east into the Fall Foliage Walkway until you reach the great wall of Herbstburg.
The road signs by Lilikala indicate that there's an alternative way to reach Herbstburg, but that way is BLOCKED at this point in the story. The alternative route takes you through the Foot of the Volcano path northeast of Lilikala. You'll need to eat a cooling affect meal, such as Coconut Drink, to survive the volcanic heat while you travel the lava path through the volcano. Then travel north through the Shooting Star Shore and into the Rocky Backroad to reach the Herbstburg back entrance. Tiny will NOT detect any Harvest Sprite spirit at the back entrance, and a portion of the Herbstburg great wall will block the road from the back entrance to the town's main entrance.
You finally reach the great wall protecting Herbstburg village. A good wallop of Doc Jr's Wall Wacker awakens Autumnus, the Harvest Sprite guardian of the town. After explaining your adventure, Autumnus tries to clear the great wall. He only manages to clear a small path through! Alas, he doesn't have the strength to make the whole wall disappear. If he felt better, that wall would be as good as gone! Autumnus explains that upbeat music moves his spirit, especially the Harvest Melody that the villagers of Herbstburg play. You offer to get the groovy music for Autumnus.
Herbstburg looks to be in a-okay shape, though a few places could use some repair. As you explore the village, Tiny notices a stage in the middle of town with several broken instruments. A gentle tune turns your attention to the end of the stage, where a young man is playing a tune. He freaks out and runs away once he realizes someone has been listening to his music.
Let's chase after the musician! He heads across the bridge to the south, around the path past the tool shop and animal shop, across the bridge to the north, and then in front of the house directly across from the stage. Oof, that was a long way around to avoid you and Tiny!
The young man is exhausted from running and finally stops. He introduces himself as Arnold. He's skeptical that you've come through the wall that protected the town from the volcano's eruption, but giving him Aunt Andrea's letter convinced him you're genuine. Arnold explains that he ran because he was supposed to be working, not playing music. His dad, Otto, is the town leader. Because of that, Arnold is under much pressure to help his dad with the town's development. Please don't tell the others that he was playing music when he should have been working, okay?
The tune he was playing is the Harvest Melody you're looking for, though it is meant to be played with multiple instruments. Arnold explains that all the other instruments are broken, and nobody in town can fix them. Besides, the villagers have all been busy since the eruption, and there's no time for music anymore. Arnold feels guilty for playing music when everyone else is busy with their town tasks. He would love to play music instead!
Unknown to Arnold, his dad had been listening to Arnold describe his guilty conscience. Otto welcomes you to the town and asks Arnold to get a space ready to play the Harvest Melody you're asking about. Though Arnold objects because of more important chores, Otto assures him that his brothers can handle his workload. Besides, it is a Herbstburg tradition to welcome visitors with the town's special music! Arnold is delighted to have a music-related project.
Over at the broken stage, Arnold concludes that his instrument seems to be the only one that's usable. The others all need repair. Plus, the stage itself needs reinforcement. You volunteer to collect the materials for repairing the stage. Bring him 8 Lumber, 10 Board Lumber, and 4 Square Lumber.
You can now purchase Board Lumber and Square Lumber at the Herbstburg Tool Shop for 150 G each.
Bring the materials back to Arnold. He'll call over his fellow villagers to help with the repairs of both the stage and the instruments. While the repairs won't take long, Arnold wants time to practice their instruments before they play the Harvest Melody for you. He asks that you return in 7 days.
Once the week is up, head back to Herbstburg. Arnold has reserved the best seat in the house for the quartet concert. Everyone on stage plays the Harvest Melody, but something isn't quite right; the tune sounds a little sad. Even Arnold detects that something is going on.
Ella has been listening to the concert and introduces herself. She explained that right away, she could tell the issue was with the repaired instruments. They need to be tuned, and only one tuner is left in the village!
She takes you back to her grandma's house, who explains she used to be an instrument tuner. Agnes tells the story of how the village was full of music long ago. The townsfolk would gather by the stage and play their instruments every evening. Her spouse was the best musician in the whole village! Agnes learned how to tune instruments to help the musicians. After the volcanic eruption, the number of musicians (and villagers) decreased. With nobody around who played music, Agnes' tuning skills became obsolete.
Agnes points to an old tuning fork on the table that she keeps to remind her of the better times. She never could bring herself to throw it away. Agnes did hear the somber Harvest Melody and thanks you for getting the villagers to play their instruments again, even if they are out of tune. Though, if she had the right tools... Agnes knows her old tuning fork is too rusty to be usable, but maybe it could be repaired? Tiny remembers that Andrea mentioned working as a crafter in Herbstburg before she was separated from her home by Autumnus' wall.
Return to Providence village and talk to Andrea. She can repair the tuning fork at her workshop in Herbstburg, but the building has naturally decayed due to lack of use. Andrea mentions that across-the-path neighbor Tori is also from Herbstburg and needs her house repaired, too! Andrea asks you to talk to her sister about fixing up the workshop while Otto has the details on fixing Tori's house.
- Andrea's sister, Julie, runs the animal shop in Herbstburg. She's glad to have help fixing up the old workshop. She wants you to bring her 4 Board Lumber, 2 Iron, and 3 Bronze.
- Otto lives directly west of the music stage. He requests that you bring him 12 Lumber and 2 Material Stone.
Bring the materials back to Julie and Otto, then return to Herbstburg the next day. After confirming you repaired the houses via a cut scene, return to Providence to let Andrea and Tori know they can return home. As thanks, Andrea offers to repair the tuning fork at her workshop in Herbstburg. You'll need to bring her 2 Damascus Steel, 2 Silver, and 3 Board Lumber.
Damascas Steel Ore is in the Herbstburg mine. Take the south exit out of town and keep traveling south, past the Herbstburg farm space, until you reach the tip of that map section. You can find the mine and a warp statue there. I found Damascus Steel Ore in the ground starting on floor 14.
If you have the Providence North Mine unlocked, you can find Damascus Steel Ore as early as floor 2.
Have a Crafter or Doc Jr. process the ores into the metal and bring everything back to Andrea in Herbstburg, and she'll fix the rusty tuning fork. Bring the repaired item back to Ella and Agnes. The instrument tuner is excited to get started practicing her craft once again.
After you leave the house to let Agnes get to work, Ella asks for a favor. Tuning a musical instrument properly is difficult, and she wants to thank her grandma for taking on that chore. Ella explains that when her grandpa was alive, he and Agnes would take scenic walks together. Now that Agnes is older and can't go on volkswalks like she used to, Emma wants to give her a photograph of Agnes' favorite place to visit. Since your DocPad has a camera, can you take the picture for her? The other issue is Ella doesn't know where her grandma's favorite spot is and suggests you can ask the other villagers for advice.
You'll need to visit each shop marked on your mini-map as a point of interest. Eventually, you'll learn that the hill northwest of the Music Square is the special spot. The tricky part is that the picture needs to be captured at the right time of day. Follow the dirt path out of town and up the hill; reaching the top of the hill between 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm should be okay. Tiny will mention what a lovely location it is, and you'll capture the scene with a Memorable View photograph.
If you reach the top-of-the-hill spot marked on the mini-map and Tiny doesn't pop up, you might be too early or too late. Try again later.
When you return to her house, Agnes has just finished tuning the instruments. You hand her the photograph, which brings back wonderful memories for Agnes. That location is where her late spouse used to play music for her. Anges hopes that all of Herbstburg will be full of music and songs again. As you help Ella with the tuned instruments, she asks Agnes about a strange thing she found in the shed. Agnes explains it is the instrument her grandfather used to play. Suddenly, an envelope falls out of the instrument! It is a letter written by Grandpa. Agnes reads the letter and reveals that it was written by her late spouse, tucked into his old instrument, because he knew in his heart that someday Agnes would tune it again. She thanks you and Ella for motivating her to tune the town's instruments; if you hadn't, Agnes might have never seen this letter.
Now that all the instruments are in tune, it's time to try the Harvest Melody again. Tiny suggests that you try to help the villagers with their problems so that they can take the time to go to the concert instead of working.
- Go to the flower shop to hear Iris explain she's run out of materials to fix up her shop. She needs 16 Lumber, 3 Material Stone, and 10 Walnut. A quick spot to locate Walnut trees is back at the Three-Pronged River warp point, where you constructed the first bridge on your way to Herbstburg. Walk west from the warp point to find a grove of 4 Walnut Trees by the river.
- Dirk wants to repair the boarded-up inn and restaurant. He needs 12 Lumber, 3 Iron, and 2 Matsutake Mushroom. If you haven't found this rare mushroom yet, the closest Matsutake spot is in the wilderness area northwest of Autumnus' great wall. Go to the Fall Foliage Walkway warp point and head northeast up the hill until you find 1 Matsutake Mushroom. You can then use the Item Search function of the DocPad to locate other foraging spots.
Continue up to the top of the hill past that Matsutake spot to find a large boulder that holds a hidden Power Wisp.
Bring the materials back to Dirk and Iris so they can repair their shops, then talk to Arnold, who didn't realize that the out-of-tune instruments were the problem. With those things squared away, now everyone can come to the concert!
The new rendition of the Harvest Melody sounds much better! The song is livelier and makes the villagers smile. This is how the song should sound! Autumnus also feels the new groove of the tune and has enough spirit to dissolve the wall surrounding Herbstburg.
Suddenly, the ground starts to rumble... earthquake?! The shaking land confuses Tiny, as earthquakes don't occur in this region. Wonder what is going on?
Talk to Tori to help her create a Mining Meet contest. Bring her 5 Board Lumber, 8 Square Lumber, and 12 Material Stone. The Mining Meet will then take place on Summer 19 and Winter 19. You'll also find a Power Wisp next to the stage in the Music Square.