Trident of Ankohl

The Trident of Ankohl (as an item, it is referred to simply as the Trident) is a truly unique piece of Equipment found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. It is needed to break Poseidon's protective barrier and allow Felix's party to battle the entity outright. It must be forged from its three prongs, which are convienently named the Left, Center, and Right Prongs.

The Trident of Ankohl can be equipped (overlapping nothing else) to raise the wielder's Mercury resistance by 20, and when used in battle, it attacks with 120% the user's attack rating as well as converting all damage to Jupiter damage (it does not need to be equipped in order to be used for attacking). When battling Poseidon, the Trident destroys Poseidon's force field the first time it is used. Unless the force field is destroyed, Poseidon will be invulnerable to all attacks.

Forging the Trident
In order to create (or perhaps recreate) the Trident of Ankohl, the player must first complete Briggs' subplot. Afterwards, speaking to Obaba with any of the three pieces of the Trident will encourage her to help Felix put the pieces back together. In fact, she'll even hold on to any pieces the player has collected, freeing up valuable inventory space. After all three pieces have been given to Obaba, she'll throw them into her forge and the Trident of Ankohl will pop out...and float in midair. At this point, retrieving the Trident is as simple as using Reveal.

The hard part is actually getting the prongs.

Right Prong
The Right Prong is the first piece of the Trident available to players, and may be the easiest to obtain. It is located in the Shrine of the Sea God, which many players will probably have already explored to get their hands on the Jupiter Djinni Breath. Although most of the shrine can be explored with the Lash Psynergy, the Right Prong remains beyond the player's range until he/she returns from Daila with the Sea God's Tear. Using the Sea God's Tear on the large lady-like statue in the shrine will cause the water level to rise (the platform the statue is on rises along with it), giving players access to the prong.

Center Prong
The Center Prong can be found in Tundaria Tower. Perhaps somewhat mockingly, the prong is located near the entrance, almost within the player's grasp but still just oh-so-far out of reach. The prong is sealed within a block of ice which can only be destroyed with the Burst Psynergy. Fortunately, the Burst Brooch can be found at the top of the tower, meaning players can kill two birds with one stone. The bad news is that scaling the tower is impossible without the Parch Psynergy, so Aqua Rock must be cleared before either the prong or the brooch can be obtained.

Left Prong
The Left Prong can be found a lot closer to home than the other two. This piece of the Trident of Ankohl is resting in the Ankohl Ruins, just east of Champa. It can be aquired with a little help from the Sand Psynergy, which can be learned at the (relatively) nearby Gaia Rock.

Plot Notes
Interestingly, unless you have played The Lost Age before or have a strategy guide handy, there are no plot points that point you in the direction of the trident, so there is no way of knowing that this artifact is the key to beating Poseidon, or even where to find the pieces. However, if a player explores everywhere he or she can in the Eastern Sea, they will eventually figure it out.

What follows is an attempt to explain -- out of game -- the series of events that occured when Felix and the others come to find out about the existance of the trident and where to find the pieces. This in no way reflects the plot of Golden Sun: The Lost Age nor does it reflect the opinions of Nintendo or Camelot. It is merely one possible explanation as to this plot line:

Sometime after obtaining Piers's ship (at this point Aqua Rock could have been scaled and the Parch psynergy obtained, if not, the Apojii Islands could be visited after obtaining the Right Prong), Felix and the group attempt to reach Lemuria, but can't navigate through the fog or the rough currents. Determined to return home, Piers encourages the others to speak to the villagers in the surrounding islands for any clues about how to navigate the waters. After traveling a bit they come upon a large landmass, but the only area where they might find a place to dock is a lagoon surrounded by large rocks. The party sails to the south where they backtrack their way to the town of Yallam. Here, they meet Sunshine the Blacksmith and learn about a famous boatsman named Yepp who was able to successfully navigate the Sea of Time. When Felix and the others inquire about how Yepp navigated the waters, they unfortunately learn that he never told the townsfolk how to sail there. The group was about to leave disheartened when they learn that Yepp had taught some very unusual songs to the childen and set up some tree stumps and rocks on the east side of town. After hearing the songs, the group realizes that they are actually the instructions on how to navigate the Sea of Time. The group then quickly returns to their boat and heads back to the Sea of Time.

The group fearlessly brave the waters of the sea and believe they're in the clear, until the sea god, Poseidon, enraged from being awoken by the lighting of Venus Lighthouse, attacks. When Felix and the others try to fight back, they realize that none of their attacks are getting through to Poseidon -- he is protected by some kind of force field. Somehow, the group is able to escape the wrath of the maddened god, but know that unless they can get past him, there is no hope in reaching Lemuria.

Desperate to find a way to defeat Poseidon; Felix, Jenna, and Sheba recall where they had rescued the two boys, Riki and Tavi, during their earlier visit to Daila: the Shrine of the Sea God. If Poseidon was the sea god, there might be a clue there on how to defeat him. Returning to Indra, the group explores the shrine when they come upon a statue that looks exactly like the statue in Daila's sanctum. They return to Daila to ask the scholar about the shrine, but all the scholar can say is that the Sea God's Tear, the jewel (stolen from the shrine by pirates and hidden in the sanctum) that lies on the statue in the back of the sanctum, is the only clue to the secrets of the shrine. The party acquires the gem and returns to the shrine, placing the Sea God's Tear on the pedestal of the statue. The cave suddenly floods, lifting Felix and the others near the top of the shrine. They all head to the top of the shrine where they find a prong of some kind of weapon (the Right Prong). Excited and puzzled by their find, they return to Daila to the scholar to inquire about the prong, but the scholar can't help and suggests they look elsewhere.

--At this point, if Aqua Rock hasn't yet been scaled, this is the other most likely time that the group would visit the Apojii Islands, the first being when the party initially acquires Piers's ship and explores the sea thouroughly. Regardless of when it happens, the group explores the island, finds the secret of entering Aqua Rock, and obtains the Parch psynergy.

After the party asks around the islands about the prong to no avail, and after obtaining the Parch psynergy, they proceed south, possibly to the only person that knows anything about weapons, Sunshine in Yallam. On their way, however, they end up at a frozen island, the East Tundaria Islet, where the scholar there talks about a tower on the large landmass to the south. Felix and the others explore the tower, acquire the Burst broach, and find the center prong of the trident. With a new found surge of excitement, the party heads to Yallam to see if Sunshine can help. Alas, not only can Sunshine not give any new details about the trident, he tells the group that even he can fix it. The party would need a great forge for this job, and he isn't up to making one. He suggested they try to find a master forge he once heard of on the somewhere in a place called Champa.

Champa!? That name sounded familiar. Felix and the others remember that Champa was where Briggs the pirate said he was from. Quickly, the party returns to Alhafra to find Briggs, but he is in no mood to talk. Felix and the others return to the broken ship to ask Chaucha, but they realize that they can now remove the pesky boulder on the ship's mast with the Burst broach. Before Felix can speak with Chaucha, the mayor, realizing that the party had removed the boulder, invites the group to his house for tea. This is when Briggs steals the ship. (This path explains why Felix persued Briggs, and why the group says they've come to Champa for a reason other than to recapture Briggs.)

Felix pursues Briggs to Champa to find the great forge. After all the hub-bub with Briggs and Obaba, Felix shows Obaba the pieces of the trident. Obaba can't believe her eyes! Could it really be....the Trident of Ankohl?! (This is the first time we hear the weapon's proper name.) Obaba realizes that there is still one piece missing, but suggests that Felix see if he can find anything in the Ankohl Ruins to the east.

--This is where the plotline can once again arc if the party hasn't obtainted the Sand psynergy from Gaia Rock.

The party explores the ruins and locates the final piece of the trident and return to the forge. Once the Trident of Ankohl is complete the group heads off to the Sea of Time to defeat Poseidon once and for all!