Previously on Dark Souls: Morgan ascended the gauntlet of traps and snake-men known as Sen’s Fortress, met a ghost, and prepared to fight another boss.
Tarkus and I stepped through the fog wall at the top of Sen’s Fortess, and braced ourselves for the worst. Towering in front of us was an enormous golem made of iron armor. We immediately rushed the giant, and it readied its massive axe. Tarkus drew the golem’s attention as I slipped behind it, where I began to hack away at its calves.
I continued to whittle away at the golem’s health as it tried to keep on top of Tarkus, but the monster couldn’t manage to land more than a couple of hits on my ally before it finally succumbed to its wounds. As the golem crashed to the ground, Tarkus vanished in a flash of light. Where he once stood was now a floating ring that emitted a gentle glow.
Approaching the ring, I heard a flapping of wings coming towards me from above. A trio of wiry demons descended upon me, grabbing my arms, and flew me into the air. Unable to free myself or attack, I had no choice but to let the demons do their thing, and they carried me towards the peak of the massive mountain that Sen’s Fortress was built into. As we crested the top of the mountain, I saw a majestic, sprawling city, bathed in a clody sunlight. This was the legendary city, Anor Londo.
The demons dropped me off on a plateau at the top of a long stone staircase. I followed the path downward, where I came to the entrance to a huge building, with a massive stone sentry standing before it. As I approacehd the doorway, the sentinel came to life and brought his halberd down on me, giving me barely enough time to recat and roll away. The impact of the giant’s weapon shook the ground, and I weighed my options. Running away seemd like the best survival strategy.
I booked it out of there, but inside the building were another two sentinels, so I turned and dashed out the opposite doorway. It led onto a large open area where I could see out over the city, the central castle in perfect focus dead ahead. I ducked into a small door to my left and descended another staircase. At the bottom was a small room that cointained a bonfire and an undead woman in brass armor who called herself the Lady of the Darklling. As a fire keeper, she could upgrade my estus flask, but didn’t have much else to say.
I turned back to the building housing the two sentinels and slowly crept in along the wall, with the intent of only drawing the attention of one of them. My plan worked, and I lured it far enough away from its partner so that I could fight it one-on-one. Everything was going smoothly until I learned that despite their massive stature, the sentinels were perfectly capable of quick jumping attacks. I cursed the sky as the giant’s massive halberd crushed me into the floor tiles. You Died.
The second time around, I messed up and they both attacked me at the same time. You Died.
It took a while, but I finally leaned the sentinels’ attack patterns, bested them, and took the treasure that they were guarding. Across the way was an identical building, only behind this buildings pair of sentinels were two treasure chests. The sentinels in here assured me that I was not quite a master at fighting them yet. You Died.
Awakening at the bonfire, I steeled myself and fought my way past the second set of sentinels. I greedily dashed towards one of the treasure chests, which sprang open, baring a horrifying set of razor teeth, and clamped shut mere inches from my head. I ran with all the quickness as far as I could, but as I turned to see if I’d eluded the Mimic, I saw that it was still chasing after me. Rolling underneath its spinning kicks and evading its fearsome jaws, I fought the beast and won. No treasure was worth these creatures made of pure fear.
Opposite the bonfire room stood a bell tower at the end of a ledge, and in that bell tower was a simple lift that brought me down to a massive bridge leading straight to the Anor Londo castle. Before I could assess my surroundings, a gargoyle swooped out of the sky, nearly impaling me on its spear. The monster was reminiscent of th gargoyles I’d fought against on top of the Undead Parish, and I was able to fight this one without much trouble, as he lacked the benefit of an ally.
The bridge, however, caused me much more of a headache. The center of the bridge was at the top of a pillar: a pillar that appeared to rotate, as the section of bridge attached to it was set in the wrong direction, leaving a gap that I couldn’t possibly hope to cross. Scannig the surrounding area, I noted that a lower section of the tower connected to a cathedral running parralel to the bridge. I inched my way across a conveniently-placed buttress and broke through a window leading onto a balcony high above the cathedral floor.
Of course, there were no stairs leading down from this balcony. I was forced to make my way across the cathedral’s rafters to the opposite end, where the staircase was. This trip was made even more perilous by the half-dozen weirdoes dressed all in white that were hanging around up there. They’d be throwing knives at me as I was trying to carefully make my way across, and I wasn’t exactly the most graceful while taking them out; during the fray I accidentally severed the chain holding a giant chandelier and sent it crashing to the ground. Oops.
I came out the opposite end of the cathedral onto the bottom section of the twisty bridge tower. I flipped a huge lever, which spun the tower around, and granted me access to a small room containing nothing but some inanimate statues and a bonfire. Not that I’d complain about a bonfire.
Tune in next week for Part 20: Boot Stamping on a Hollow Face – Forever