DS Virgin: the play by play (part 2)

part 1 is here but for the most important bit: I'm running the game for the first time with as close to no spoilers as I can. So please, avoid spoilers in the comments or flag them out properly so that only people really wanting to see them can do so, cheers. :)

Last time I dropped out, I had begun exploring the Darkroot Garden section above the Basin. A group of hostile human and ghost NPCs was however blocking my progress through the area. Checking out my current stats and gear, I notice I can now wield the Black Knight Sword which is a big improvement in damage, although being excruciatingly slow to wield. Getting used to it will massively pay off though, cutting down the tree men in the new area in just a couple slices.

I get back up the Garden a good few more times and use the Bow of Pharis to pull the priest alone and take him down by himself. It's generally working fine, and for some reason the ghost thief doesn't show up anymore. However I keep having trouble with the axe warrior and, worse, the ghost knight has reappeared. A later attempt, having taken down the priest, I find that no ghost is around, and the axe warrior has moved out. Frustrated by running to this place for what feels like ages now, I decide to run along the cliff and see if I can skip whatever is left of that group, and hope there's a bonfire nearby as the one in the Basin feels too far to be the only one around. There are ruins on the right of the NPC camp that I can enter, and I get suprised by a 'Talk' option that has me chatting up some sort of giant wild cat. It bigs up a dangerous place, the Tomb of Astorias, and asks me if that's really what I want. Or something. I'm not too sure as all along I'm anxiously watching outside to see if the axe warrior isn't coming back. Being unsure, I answer no, which means the big cat won't talk to me anymore. I might have screwed up there, but then I'm sick of 'yes' being the right answer to everything so... I go through the ruins and explore the area beyond. Woods, friendly mushroom people, some giant mushroom people that aggro if I get too close. I just get away as I'm just exploring and don't want to risk my accumulated souls in an area I might fail to reach safely on the corpse run. I see light in the distance, and find a giant fog light door. Again, I have souls to redeem so it's not the time to attempt that fight. More exploration finds a few corpses with souls, as well as an overhang above the 3 giant cats area. That's great, I know where I am. I jump down in the cat arena and dash to the familiar safe bridge side. From there I chance it and some careful pulling, dodging, hitting and disengaging sees me take down the 3 cats. Happy with that run, I head back to the safety of the bonfire.

Looking at my souls, I'm thinking about my next move. I'm almost at the 20k mark that would get me the Crest of Astorias, opening up the locked section of the Garden. Or I could level up and try the boss. I hesitate a bit and decide in favour of exploration, so I head to the crystal golems a bit more and close up the 20k souls. Then back to the smith to purchase the crest, and off to the light gate. Talk about a shock when I realise it leads to the NPC camp with the axe guy that has been my bane for a while now... Ah well, at least it's a shorter run in now, so I can start practicing. There's a human caster everytime that never proves a problem and is worth 2k(!) souls, sometimes the ghost knight, and sometimes the ghost thief. Often there's no ghost at all. I therefore get to practice against the axe warrior, and end up getting the timing right on parrying him and countering. By the time I can take him down regularly, I have taken up a few more levels, invested in vitality and endurance.

Time for that boss, whose arena is a pretty scenic graveyard. I don't get too close to the giant stone in the centre, assuming it might trigger the boss, and circle around instead. Behind the stone, there's an item waiting to be picked up. I can't resist and collect a ring boosting crit damage. Seeing nothing else, I head to the front of the stone, and the Giant Greatwolf Sif appears, pulling out a giant sword from the ground. I try blocking, but the sword hits like a truck and I die. I head back and decide to get under it. It works and I get Sif down to maybe 25% health but then it jumps away from me and I die not long after. And again, and again...

This folks, is the first (and last, so far) point where I found myself calling BS. I soon identified that what was giving me trouble was Sif's spinning attack which hits far, and hits twice, very hard. From full health and endurance, if I block, it takes me down to just a sliver of health. So I decided to look around and see if there wasn't any environmental advantage to be gained anywhere. And I saw that big wall in the middle. And I know that swords hit walls. I've learned it by dying, before using it to my advantage in stairs fights against Balder knights. So I pull Sif to the middle, with the wall on my left, so it covers me from the spinning attack. Which comes. And goes through the wall, ignoring all the previous mechanics of the game. Pure BS. I'm not happy about that one. At all. But... there's nothing to do about it, so I keep going. In the end, it'll take me maybe 40 attempts and a mix of armour under 25% of encumbrance to finally master the attack patterns and be able to run to Sif safely on double/triple slashes for a few hits each time. Finally, after so much pain, the Greatwolf falls, and I feel the thrill of victory. I get plenty of souls as a reward, as well as a ring allowing me to travel through the Abyss. Not sure where/when to use it but it'll probably be obvious.

And then, I'm stumped. There's no other way out of the Sif area. Dead end. So I head back, and use my souls to pimp my equipment with a bit of farming of the forest NPCs. The Black Knight sword gets upgraded twice to +2, and the full Elite Knight armour to +3. I get rid of my Tiny Being ring in favour of the Havel ring so as to enjoy my heavy sword and armour with normal dodge rolls. I also head back to the Sif-area of the forest to have a go at the giant mushrooms. They drop the gold pine resin for lightning damage (good to know), and a chest gives me an Enchanted Ember that the smith won't be able to use. Now where to go? Sen's Fortress that the smith is telling me about, is still closed, still closed, hmmmmm, says the Onion Knight. I head back to undead burg and take a few steps towards the dragon. The fire is intense and tells me I'm still not ready yet. So I head to the merchant, and explore the corridor past it, which is just a small loot loop, nothing more. Weird, I've been told about a Capra demon that was around here together with the Taurus, but no sign of the Capra yet... Valley of Drakes and New Londo still seem beyond me, so I head back to Firelink Shrine to see if there's something new there, or something I missed. Not long after that, I find the graveyard, dispatch the skeletons easily, and discover the entrance to the Catacombs.

First surprise in the Catacombs: the skeletons respawn by themselves, ugh. I have an idea though, and I head back to the bonfire to get a morningstar out of storage, and upgrade it to +1 because I have one small shard on me. I'm thinking that blades are innefective and crushing damage is required to break skellies for good. And I'm disappointed soon after as it's obviously not the case. Meh. I get back to the Black Knight sword and dive in. One-shot skellie and run past is my new strategy. Oh, there are some flying heads that explode, lovely. They're easy to dodge thankfully. I run down, find more skellies, and a broken opening in the wall on my left. I head in, and find a bonfire, as well as a sorcerer which I get to kill before the skeletons join in and finish me before the bonfire is lit. I run back in, and can light the bonfire this time, the skeletons haven't followed. I head back up, and dive further in the catacombs. More skeletons, most of which actually stay dead. A spiked bridge blocks me, but a side path leads me to some sort of switch that frees up the bridge. Right. I see another switch with a NPC on the other side of an impassable rock. Wonder who he is...

Time to cross the bridge, and I find stairs heading down, full of respawning skellies. I also spot a sorcerer in a side corridor and decide I don't want to get there. I run down, and when the stairs end, I jump down to a ledge below that an orange message highlighted for me. Another ledge further with some loot, and a final dive onto a corridor with a broken ceiling I can jump through. To a boss. Some sort of big dwarf looking skeleton that... ends up opening a wall for me and leaving. Oh. I barely have time to breathe though as 3 or 4 skeletons that had fallen down with me are cornering me and I die. I run back down to keep exploring, in the hope that there's a bonfire nearby, but back into the hole, I find myself running straight forward to a dead end where the dwarf skeleton appears to be smithing. Turning back, I have to deal with the skeletons that followed me and quickly sip Estus to cover my fall and combat damage. With no time as the skellies are about to regenerate, I run out the hole in the wall and find myself in a large cave. Some floating heads are visible in the distance, but more importantly a rolling thing charges me and I barely have the time to raise my shield to watch my endurance melt. I drink my last Estus and I run through the cave, picking the right as there are no floating heads in this direction. Some loot shows up on the right cave wall but out of reach, and there are more of those wheels. I run madly into a corridor take more damage, and despair as I hit a fog gate... My last bonfire is far away, I have a quarter of my health left and no Estus. I'm not ready for this. Still, the wheel skellies are after me and if I'm to die, I might as well have a peek at the new boss...

I cross the gate and find myself above an open crypt. It's full of books, hanging skeletons, and at the end of it some sort of ugly multi-armed undead creature with masks for a face: Pinwheel. Having no time to play games, I raise my shield, charge, and swing the Black Knight sword around, taking a massive chunk of his health. Hmmmm? Galvanised by the damage, I keep sticking to him as he moves through the crypt and spawns more of him. I follow the one that I've started hitting on, and keep striking. Hilariously, as I dish out the killing blow, a fireball (I think) kills me, and the 'You Died' message is instantly followed by 'Victory Achieved'. But I find myself back at the bonfire. I'm delighted at taking him down on my first attempt from such weak starting conditions and wonder how much of it is me being overleveled/overgeared for the area, and how much is luck with the patterns. Still, I'm annoyed at having missed out on the souls and potentially some drops. I try and run back, but my overconfidence gets the better of me and I die falling from the downstairs while trying to run past a skeleton on the way to the smith. Those souls are gone for good now... A couple more runs finally get me down to Pinwheel's empty room again, but there's no additional loot around. I try breaking down all the hanging skeletons, but nothing happens either. I then climb out of the crypt to find two paths. One lit by distant lights, and a dark one that seems hidden and which I explore first. It turns out that it just brings one back to the wheelie skeletons area, so I come back to the coloured lights place. Proceeding cautiously because it's super dark, I find that it's ledges and bridges and a fall would be easy. The area name pops and I know I'm not in the Tomb of the Giants. I hope for a bonfire nearby, but I'm only greeted in the dark by a giant skeleton who proceeds to pummel me to death. So much for a safe resting place then...

I then decide to finish exploring the catacombs before getting back down, starting from the upper levels. From the bridge leading to the downstairs well, I decide to jump down to a path below. I'm happy to find it leads me to a ladder and the switch I had spotted before. The NPC isn't there though. Weird. At the bottom of the stairs, the statue along the dead end wall looks suspicious. Sure enough: it's trapped. More importantly, the wall was illusory and it's a more convenient bonfire. I wish I'd found it earlier, as it'd have made for some much shorter runs down. From there on, it's just exploring the nooks and crannies of the Catacombs, and slowly increasing my faith with a view to reach 14 for the two healing miracles (small one at 12, big one at 14) as my limited Estus supply feels very short at times. I then start with exploring the corridors around the downstairs well, kill a caster, score some loot, fall on crumbling floors, and discover another miniboss like the one gating the Darkroot area. He'll kill me once, but a second more prudent go will see me take him down and collect something behind him, maybe the ring providing an extra attunement slot. More exploring has me falling by a knight that I'll evade only to fall into the wheel skellies area and die. I'll deal with him later and first explore a tower across the chasm where the bonfire lies containing skeletons and a caster that I'll take down with arrows, and I'll fail to find a way to his body. Meh. At the bottom of this tower, a wall proves destructible and leads me to a good few skeletons, some of them archers, and some loot further up, guarded by a giant skeleton. I die unprepared, but the next attempt is fine. Finding nothing more, I dive down to the smith and realise that the skeletons don't regenerate anymore on the way. Not sure why but I won't complain.

I'm now at the Catacombs smith, and he doesn't prove very talkative. However, he offers Fire upgrades for weapons and I love the idea of it, as it means potentially bringing back my old +5 Longsword back in contention. I use all my green shards to make it a +2 Fire Longsword before almost crying when I notice on the stats that the Fire upgrade removed the str/dex scaling... I can now deal fire damage which will be neat if I come across creatures weak to it, but in the meantime, my Black Knight Sword, which I can upgrade to +3, is still a much better proposition.

I push forward, kill some wheelie skeletons, and go back to the Tomb of the Giants. The wheelies take their toll on me on the way though, and I arrive with a shorter supply of Estus than I'd like. This makes me wish I had invested a bit in healing miracles earlier in the game. I will then spend a lot of time fumbling in the dark, slowly going down, falling to my death and dying to giant skeletons. This starts getting annoying enough that I wonder if I didn't miss a bonfire somewhere. On a respawn, I spot some ledges on the outside of the Catacombs downstairs well, and jump from one to the other from the central bridge. A few more jumps and I find myself on the cliff above the wheelie skeletons room and score the loot spread around. My health has taken a hit and I'll need Estus, but it allows me a clear run to the Pinwheel room, avoiding most of the wheelies. This will become my favourite way to get back down on death.

Into the Tomb itself now, I get the hang of the first giant skeleton, but after a slide down there are two of them at the same time and I die/fall a few times trying to fight them. Fed up with it, on the next attempt I just run past, slide down some more, and find a NPC. I start chatting with him but scared of the skeletons behind me, I keep moving forward to a ledge marked by a light... and that bastard NPC pushes me down... Great. This proves a blessing though, as the room down there is clear, and I find a Skull Lantern that apparently doesn't work. The description says it lights up the place but I can't make it work. Maybe I need to get it lit at a bonfire. I soon find the way out, guarded by ridiculous looking skeleton totems. And I thought the wheelies were ridiculous already... They're easy to fight, and I soon find a ladder. I climb up and end up on a cliff, with below me the delightfully familiar greenish colour of an unlit bonfire. I think I can see enough ground around it and chance it by jumping down. I make it and I can finally breathe.

Being at the bonfire, I try to hit it with the lantern, but it doesn't work. I try strong attacks, two handed wielding, nothing works... Then, finally, it impacts me that I haven't tried the shield hand. Bingo. We have some light. Although it means very poor damage mitigation (20% I think? Way less than the 100% of my heater shield anyhow). I equip both lantern and shield so I can quick switch, and I climb up from the bonfire. And meet my NPC friend again, calling it all a good joke and aren't we good buddies. Being sick of saying yes all the time, I answer no and prepare for the fight. But instead he gifts me some humanity... Weird. As he doesn't attack, I let him leave and proceed forwards. Behind him is a path and an area again lit by some coloured lights. The lantern makes things much easier. I soon encounter a giant skeleton on all fours that I'll call a 'dog' from here onwards. That giant skellie dog hits like a truck and proves a challenge to fight reliably. I get it down, and proceed forwards, to a fog gate. Behind the gate, a giant skeleton archer shoots at me, but I deal with him quickly. Another dog shows up though and I die. Cue a good few more deaths reaching that place and dealing with the giant skeleton dogs. From this position, a cave leads down, and contains some loot on a side track. The main path keeps heading down, and leads to a room with a giant skeleton as well as a skeleton dog. I'll die a couple times but then will manage to clear the area and proceed onwards, finding another bonfire. Wow, didn't expect one that early but it feels great.

The path down leads to 3 more dogs and it'll take me a few attempts to pull/kill them reliably. Doing so allows me easy recovery of souls though, and my 14 Faith goal is finally reached. I can't wait to try miracles when I'm back up. For now though, I push further down, climb down a ladder, and reach what looks like the bottom of the Tomb. A ledge follows the side of the cave which oversees a giant foggy forest. More importantly, it leads to an orange fog gate that will have me meet the local boss. Only... that orange gate is sealed by the power of the "Great Lord" and I can't find a way through it. I try the lantern. I try the Abyss ring. I try exploring around. Nothing. I then come to the sad conclusion that I'm not supposed to be here. I'm missing something. And in the tradition of Metroidvanias that I hadn't really felt so far, I find myself having to backtrack heavily. But I have no idea how to climb back up. Not only do I lack a shortcut, I have no idea how to climb back up normally. This is going to be a painful slog, and I starting to feel a bit of despair...

Thankfully, the climb up proves relatively tame. I quickly get good enough at sprinting through the dogs and make my way back to the previous bonfire. From there, I can't climb back the stone I slid down from, but exploring its side leads me to a new area that has me climb back up to the entrance of the Tomb. I head back to the wheelie skeletons room, and at its other end, the cave thankfully contains ladders climbing back up the Catacombs. I finally make it out back to Firelink Shrine. Somewhere along the way too, I've found a square room with a pit containing skeletons and (I think) a Large Ember. I upgrade my Black Knight sword to +4, and purchase the small healing miracle. And can't equip it. I investigate the status screen explanations and find that my Attunement is too low for a slot... Ugh, didn't know about this. I might have to waste a few levels rising it up then. Still, in the meantime, I equip the Darkmoon (?) ring that grants me an extra attunement slot, and I fumble around until I find that the bonfire allows me to set spells in slots. I still can't seem to cast it, and will need to use google, feeling a bit dirty for it. Oh, I just need to use a Talisman. I've got on in my bottomless box, and after picking it up, I equip it in place of the lantern as my shield alternative. It works, yay!

So. Back to square one now, and it's New Londo or the Valley of Drakes. Unless... I'm still annoyed at this missing Capra Demon. I decide to do another thorough exploration of Undead Burg, and what do you know, the tower nearby Solaire contains a locked door that my Watchtower Basement Key unlocks... It leads down to street level, and hopefully isn't just a shortcut. New creatures show up here, with demonic dogs and sort of hollow thieves. I find out that the dogs cause bleeding, but at this point, I feel over-levelled and over-equipped for the area. I soon find a fog gate, and right on: it leads to the Capra demon. The fight will be underwhelming, as simple dodging, blocking and striking with the +4 Black Knight Sword will kill it and its dogs quickly enough. I think I drank Estus at some point, but there was no real feeling of impending doom. From there, some stairs lead down to an alley with two interesting doors. One leads up a tower back to the aqueduct that I can finally unlock, as well as another undead merchant who sells exotic but prohibitive items. One of them removes curses, which I take a note of for my later explorations of New Londo. The other door leads to a new area called the Depths.

I therefore head down the Depths, and breeze through it for a while. Weak undeads, a Butcher that hits hard but is easy to dodge and kill, more demon dogs. I could drop down a hole behind the butcher, but I'd rather find a bonfire before dropping down without a way back. Further, I find a knight stuck in a barrel that I roll into to break. He thanks me and tells me that "she" was going to eat him, but neglects to tell me who "she" is... Meh. Further down, a giant slime falls onto my head for plenty of damage. Ewww. Worse, the corridor after has 5 or 6 of these slimes stuck on the ceiling... It takes me a while but I get them to fall with arrows, then melee them. As well as the torch bearing undead at the end. There's a locked door, which annoys me, and the corridor goes further down. I'll find lots of rats who drop Humanity like it's candy, as well as see a Giant Rat behind iron bars. I proceed onwards until my path finally leads me to the Giant Rat room. I still haven't found a bonfire and don't want to fight him like that. I have, though, found a key, and backtrack to try that locked door. Bingo, and it leads to a bonfire. Great.

Depths part 2 then. I head back down and confront the Giant Rat, which dies easily. As I head further, though, I meet a sort of lizard/frog hybrid with giant eyes that spits some gas. I stay out of it, and charge after. Another one shows up, and before I know, I'm dead and cursed. Like, from 100% health to 0. Wow. And as I respawn, I get a text explaining me that the curse has me at 50% health until I cure it. Great. Just great... I slowly go down again, retrieve my souls, and avoid the lizards. I find more of them further though, but this time I run and kill them before they can react, just like I learned to do with the treemen. Finding a sliding water path down, I backtrack and level up before. Then, I go back up to try the butcher's hole. It ends up dropping me above the Giant Rat room, and I loot a Spider Shield that apparently resists poison. Right, let's head further down. More lizards are dealt with, and I finally come out on a balcony overlooking a very large room that looks like the obvious next boss arena. Rats and a Priest like the one in the Parish show up and I deal with them before gazing a bit at the room. It's wet, some areas don't look clean, and I shudder at the thought of a giant slime boss. I push on, and end up at a giant gate. This feels like it... A merchant sells some nice shards (white?) but only 3 of them, and some armour that I'm not interested in. I explore around and find a shortcut back up to the bonfire. Cool. I backtrack a lot more, and go up to the aqueduct merchant to buy (at the ripoff price of 6k souls) the cure to my curse. Then back down. But the giant gate is locked. Uh oh, don't tell me I have to backtrack yet again?

Thankfully, better exploration of the nearby area soon has me on a balcony above the giant water room, and a few flights of stairs lead down to the floor and a fog gate. I cross it, and am welcomed to the apparition of the Gaping Dragon. I had spotted the big towers and hide behind one as the dragon charges me. The tower crumbles, which isn't great, but the dragon looks like he's recovering, and I get to his side, wield the BK sword with two-hands, and take down massive chunks of his health. I'll keep doing this, with some easy dodging then hitting while the dragon takes, like, ages to recover, and like the Capra demon, the Gaping Dragon goes down on the first attempt.

Having received the Key to Blighttown on the kill, I suspect that's where the locked double doors lead to. Having found that the water room doesn't have any other exits, I head back to the double doors, and indeed, they open up and I'm off to Blighttown. Just as I suspect I'm going to find shambling rotting toxic monsters, I get welcomed instead by an ogre that hits like a truck and has tons of HP. The large HP pool combined to my slow BK sword means that I time myself badly and die a couple times before getting it right. Another ogre further out, and then a sneaky blowdart user that causes a toxic condition on me. I take him down then scramble in my inventory for the condition removal flowers I've accumulated in Darkroot Garden. I have almost 10 of the blooming ones that remove toxins, and use one to clear the condition. I loot up the area and proceed ahead, and encounter a pinkish snake looking creature. I raise the shield and wait for an attack and to my dismay it proceeds to eat up my head, or at least bite it a lot. I don't die, but now I know better than blocking against these. I mark these down for the treeman treatment: two handed run and strike. A linear-ish succession of platform and ladders soon bring me to a stone wall and a most welcome early bonfire.

From there, I get to explore the upper level rather safely. I first go left, but it proves a dead end, although it rewards me with some loot. The right side has a poison shooter and to my dismay the poison goes through the shield, and I waste more blooming flowers. I soon find the shooter though and kill him. I'll notice later that these guys don't respawn on bonfires, which is great. I find the Eagle shield nearby. A path seems blocked by a giant octopus stuck to the wall, but random exploration has me walk into the tunnel it was stuck to, and hitting it in the mouth make it go away, clearing the way out. The precarious platforms then slowly take me down to the bottom of the giant cave Blighttown is built into. I meet ugly giant insects that my BK sword can one-shot, and small flying ones that are annoying to hit, although target lock helps with them. It's a very rare case where I actually find it useful. At the bottom, I'm at the edge of a swamp. In front of me there's a bright soul and I head towards it, and discover that I get poisoned by walking through the swamp... After looting and healing the poison (I have over 30 regular poison healing flowers), I look around. On my left, it's dark and there are slimes. I shudder. The right side looks brighter. I make it back to the shore and head right. Something like a sewer opening appears on the wall of the cave, and inside: another bonfire.

From here I can now keep exploring the swamp. I start by heading right, as walking along the edge of the cave reduces poison buildup. I arrive at a giant waterwheel that I can climb onto. More insects, more poison darts. After wasting more blooming flowers, I remember my spider shield and try it out. Not only is it also 100% mitigation against physical damage, it also blocks the entire poison effect from darts, yay. With this in hand, I push into the high sewer opening and kill more poison darters, but still get poisoned as there are too many of them. I will then climb down a ladder and die stupidly to fire-breathing dogs. Since I didn't have many souls by then, I decide against going back now and opt to keep exploring the cave instead. Past the water wheel, I reach the end of the cave, and cross to the other side. I cure the swamp poison, use my miracle to top up health, and start exploring. Only to be squashed by a giant rock. The same ogres as I met before, only with giant boulders... I run back from the bonfire and carefully pull them one at a time with the bow. They're ok once you get them one at a time. I then look up the hill to my right and notice the ground is different here. I climb up a bit and recognise what I'm walking on... This is a giant spider nest. Ewwww. Please, not spiders... There's some light across the swamp though, and I opt to avoid the spiders while I can, by going there to collect the loot. It's guarded by more ogres, but I collect it easily. Ah well. Spider time I guess...

I go back to the spider nest and enter it. I then learn that I'm now in Quelaag's Domain. Oh. So Quelaag is probably a giant spider boss... And I'll have to get past her to reach the second Bell I've been told about... Can't say I'm thrilled as insects and arachnids tend to creep me out big time, but I have to go through this. The path brings me to what looks like 3 humanoids with outgrowths on their back. I strike one and I get totally creeped out as 5 or 6 maggots/leeches/whatever jump out of it and I struggle to take them down until I think of target lock. Wow. I leave the other two bodies well alone, and find a fog gate. Probably just the kind of gate that unlocks an area. I go through, and Quelaag appears. Turns out, for some reason, the half human part makes the creature slightly less creepy to me. It only feels half alien. Anyhow, I get on with it, and easily avoids its front fire. I go by its tail and start hitting for big damage. Then I die. Riiiiiight. I run back and try again. And die again. And again, but this time I notice that as I hit the tail, she strikes it to the ground to spread fire/lava around, which is why I die. On the next attempt, I make a point of hitting from the side and a bit further out than the tail. It works well, and the fight is a bit longer. My dodges aren't perfect though, and I run out of heals, and die. Back at the bonfire, I suddenly consider all the humanity I've got on me from rats, and think about kindling the bonfire. I've never done this, but if I understand correctly, this will allow me to boost a bonfire so it provides me with 10 Estus instead of 5, like that of Firelink Shrine. That should help. Not sure if it's temporary or not though. I consume humanity, and find out that I need to reverse hollowing before kindling. I do so, and am human for the first time since I started the game. I remove the helmet to gaze upon my face. Then I put it back on and kindle the bonfire. 10 Estus. Yay! Wait the option is still there? More kindling: 15 Estus. More kindling: 20 Estus. Wow! That should be enough and I stop there.

As I head back to Quelaag, a red invader shows up, that hits hard, but that I dispatch easily. Not sure what I looted from him but he was worth a good few souls. Back at the entrance of Quelaag, I see some new stuff on the ground and realise it's summon signs. I've never seen them until now since I've never been human... Still, I don't want any help and ignore the sign to go and confront Quelaag again. I'll die and it'll take me another two attempts, but she finally falls to my sword and I'm free to march on. Or well, actually, to run back to the Blighttown bonfire to level up as I don't want to risk losing up all those souls. I then get back to Quelaag's domain. Further up, the bell stands, in a tower that oversees lakes of lava. I ring the bell, and am treated to a cutscene showing me that a giant creature has opened Sen's Fortress, the one way to Anor Londo (or so says the smith...). It looks obvious I'm supposed to go there next. But there are stairs going down and... And well, I can't resist so I head down. Another spider-den like room, and a wall that looks the Dark Souls kind of suspicious. I strike it and it reveals a corridor with a bonfire, yay! But a maggot-ridden creature blocks the way and asks me if I'm here to serve "her". I don't know if he means Quelaag or another she, but seeing the look of the place, I decline his offer. He then won't let me pass, so I slice him down to reach that bonfire. Before noticing a Quelaag looking creature on my right, except she's pale as death, and possibly stuck in the wall. I come close and can talk to her. But she won't speak to me. However, she allows me to improve my Estus flasks and I do so. Since this is a dead end, I go back to the bell tower basement and use the other spider path. It leads me out to the lava area, and the game tells me I'm now in the Demon Ruins.

The nice thing about it is that there's an immediate bonfire. Not needed since I've got the one by the creature I'll call Quelaag's sister for now, but still welcome. The only monsters are the maggot riddens, and I just avoid them. I head down to the lava lake to soak i the view, before climbing up to cross a bridge. In the distance, a fog gate, and far behind it, some giant lava-looking tendrils in the air. The bridge takes me across, and to the fog gate. Hmmm. I check my souls tally and it's nothing I can't afford to lose as I have leveled up so I brace myself and cross the gate. Turns out this was a boss gate. It's still there blocking the path behind me now. I then follow the ledge up to the lava tendrils, and find out it's a huge demon in the lava. His face is humongous and while he seems to be looking at me, he's not attacking. Good thing because he's out of sword reach... Further up, an altar with loot on which I find a suit of armour. And then the demon attacks...

Ceaseless Discharge is its name apparently. Running on the ledge in the direction of the fog gate (to try and get my souls in an easy-to-recover location if I die), a sound cue seems to indicate he's about to strike and I dodge forward. Looking back, one of his arms/tendrils/tentacles is on the path. Hmmm. I can't resist and I run back to strike it. One hit, then I switch to two-handed, another hit, and it goes away. I run again, dodge again, and same story: arm on the ground and I get a few hits. I'll do this 2 or 3 more times and he goes down, draining the lava lake upon his death. Wow. Didn't expect to take this one on the first go.

The demon having drained the lake at the bottom, I presume that this is where the path forward is. But... I don't feel like I belong here. Not yet at least. I've been underground for too long and I crave for the surface. So I leave the place for another time and climb back to Blighttown. After resting at the bonfire, I decide to go back up the waterwheel for unfinished business. This time I have no difficulty finishing the poison darters and the dogs, but the loot is poor and it's a dead end. From the water-wheel platform though, a precarious tree branch leads to another section, but again it's a dead end. At some point, I have collected a Firekeeper soul though, and I make a tedious run to Quelaag's sister to boost my Estus to +2. Back to the wheel, and up this time. This leads to a chest containing a Key to New Londo, and a tunnel full of easily dispatched ogres. When I finally emerge outside, I'm in the Valley of Drakes. Hmmm. I'm not sure I feel like doing this place now, but a dead body with a large soul attracts me, and then I spot a tower with a door. A locked door that the Key to New Londo opens. Inside: a lift, that takes me to the entrance of New Londo, and, delighted, I take the lift back up to Firelink Shrine

Back to Firelink Shrine then, and to my surprise on my way up to the bonfire, the NPC that was below the fire appears to have died, and I get to loot his equipment. I had been thinking of going back to talk to him too. Too late for that I guess... Another bigger surprise awaits me upstairs though: the bonfire is extinguished. The NPC there tells me the Firekeeper died (the guy below, I presume), but that we've got a problem that needs dealt with, and by the way he talks about it, my impression is that he means the Dragon in Undead Burg. But this only barely registers as I watch with sorrow the extinguished bonfire of Firelink Shrine. This was a safe haven... It felt a bit like home. No longer...

And that's the end so far, with about 35h clocked in. My main impression is that I've massively overreached by taking on Sif that early. My damage was poor, my stamina not enough to survive the spinning slash, and my skills needed honing... Still, having gone through it, the rest hasn't felt that bad afterwards, with nothing requiring that much effort afterwards. The Tomb of the Giants was tedious though, due to the lack of visibility and lack of space due to deadly falls. I presume the "kill the dogs first" tip was for the Capra demon fight? I didn't really need to strategise there being (imho) overequipped by then, but I can see how the bleeding and obstruction would be a horrible addition to the fight in such a small area. :)

Anyhow, the game feels like it has massively opened up now. My list of places to visit now has New Londo, Valley of Drakes, Sen's Fortress, Undead Burg past the Dragon, and the slime side of the Blighttown swamp. Oh and the Undead Asylum is still on my list if I ever find my way back there!