Category: Video Games

Previously on Dark Souls: Morgan descended into the Catacombs, where necromancers and traps aplenty waited for her. Also a titanite demon ruined her day over and over again.

I made my way back down from the Catacombs’ bonfire to the mausoleum where the titanite demon lurked. Ignoring the statuesque monster, I made a quick right turn into the small room revealed by a broken wall. Upon stepping into the empty room, though, the weak floor collapsed and I fell into another dark room below.

Before I realized what had happened, I felt the sting of a blade tearing across my back. I was thrown forward by the blow, and summoning up what little strength I had left, I turned to face my attacker. A black knight towered above me, and between the impact of the fall and his first strike, I was too weak to do anything as he brought down his weapon to finish the job. You Died.

The second time in the room with the crumbly floor, I took things a little slower. I couldn’t find anything interesting, so I peered into the hole I’d made previously to see if I could get the drop on the black knight. I couldn’t see him, so I carefully hopped down into the room below. This time, it was curiously empty. I kept my guard up.

Given the time to assess my situation, I was able to notice this time that one of the walls in this room was missing, leading into the bottom of the giant chasm that made up the central feature of the Catacombs. It was covered in bones and gore from one end to the other, with a shallow stream running down the middle. I could make out a bunch of weird creatures moving about in the distance.  I let an arrow loose in their direction, which got their attention pretty handily.

The odd monsters turned out to be skeleton wheels. They were much like normal skeletons, but with a massive, spiked, wooden wheel fused to them. The skeletons rode around on these wheels at an alarming speed, so I stood on the edge of the room and lobbed fireballs at them when they got close until they were all dead.

Exploring the chasm floor slowly and quietly, I found a fog wall on the opposite end, which I elected to ignore for the moment. On a nearby ledge, I could see a corpse dangling just out of reach, with the telltale glimmer of an item to be pilfered. It didn’t look like there was any way up there, so I’d have to have a look around at the higher levels to see if maybe there was a way down.

As I bumbled around in the mess of bones, I could hear a faint “tink tink tink” coming from somewhere nearby, but I wasn’t able to locate the source of the noise. Whether that was for better or for worse, I had no idea.

I rounded a corner that led into a narrow passage, and out of nowhere came that black knight who accosted me before. I fought with all my courage and strength, but the black knights are tough customers. It certainly didn’t help that he got an easy free strike by surprising me. You Died.

Heading back to the bottom, I decided this time to just clear out the skeleton wheels the normal way – with my axe. That didn’t go so well. You might not imagine that a pile of bones attached to an oversized wagon wheel would be so dangerous, but they are! They’re fast and hit like a truck. You Died.

Before entering the titanite demon’s mausoleum, I peered down into the chasm. It was too dark to make out anything from than height, but I could barely make out a small ledge quite a ways below me. I wasn’t going to try making such a long leap, but one of those damned exploding skulls had somehow avoided my blade, and spooked me from behind, sending me tumbling down into the darkness.

I landed on the ledge below with a sickening thud. Getting up slowly and having a look around, I saw that the small ledge with the corpse that I’d spied earlier was just a short hop down from the ledge I’d landed on. I climbed down and gathered a mace and some equipment that would better fit a priest. A summoning sign also made its home on this ledge, so I made use of it and called up a phantom named Paladin Leeroy.

Leeroy immediately jumped down and started tearing apart the skeletons wheels. With such a capable ally, I figured now would be a good time to see what was on the other side of that fog wall.

We passed through and jumped down into a small chamber than looked like some sort of experimentation room. It was covered in skeletons, and at the far end was a robe-covered figure hunched over an altar of some sort. The figure turned around, revealing a collection of three masks where its face should have been. Six lanterns on sticks sprouted from its back like spindly arms. The monster cast a spell and suddenly two copies of it appeared from out of thin air.

Leeroy ran at the monster with a fierce battle cry, while I desperately tried to fend off one of the copies. All at once though, the copies vanished and I turned to watch the monster wail in defeat and crumple to the ground. Leeroy looked proud of himself for besting it so quickly as he disappeared in a flash of light, as phantoms do.

I investigated the now lonely room and found a small tome on the altar called the “Rite of Kindling.” In it, I learned that I could kindle a bonfire up to three times, which would fill my Estus Flask with 20 charges as opposed to the basic 5. This would be my most valuable discovery yet.

Tune in next week for Part 24: Killer Forest

Previously on Dark Souls: Morgan ran away from Anor Londo because it as too hard, and met a giant snake monster that told her about her destiny.

I meandered around the Firelink Shrine graveyard, busting skeletons to pieces as they came, until I was fairly sure that I’d found any noteworthy bits of equipment and items that I’d missed during my previous expedition here. The skeletons were still fearsome foes, but my skills with a sword -as well as the sword itself- had improved since last time.

Unfortunately, my sword wasn’t going to be of much use where I was going. I needed the Divine Battle Axe that I’d had forged so long a go. A little birdie told me that divine weapons could put down the regenerating skeletons in the Catacombs for good, so I was going to have to learn how to use something other than my beloved Drake Sword.

The axe was unwieldy, but powerful. It was slow to swing, but a strong hit could temporarily shatter the top half of a skeleton to bits, leaving its lower half defenseless and open to attack for a few seconds. It took a bit of practice with the weapon before I felt confident taking it down with me into the depths of the Catacombs, but I had to press forward, and the only other option I knew of at the time was Anor Londo.

I was not going back to Anor Londo.

Creeping down the shadowy staircase, I kept my guard up, knowing that a skeleton and the screeching explody things were waiting in the darkness ahead. The first skeleton came at me, as if out of nowhere. I parried its attack and countered with a mighty blow from my shimmering axe. The divine weapon sent bones flying in every direction. I waited, keeping my shield at the ready. The bones didn’t move. I waited a little longer, nothing happened, and I moved on.

Inside the entrance to the Catacombs, I saw the faint lights floating around above the bottomless hole. They seemed a bit father than usual, which was a boon because they didn’t appear to notice me from that distance. I was curious to find out exactly what they were, but decided not to risk it. I continued down around the edge of the pit and busted up the skeleton that was waiting to ambush me at the bottom.

When I had come down here the first time, I was beset by immortal skeletons and inexplicable explosions, so I didn’t really have time to notice that the cliff at the end of the path did not lead to yet another bottomless pit. No, there was a floor below, maybe a ten-foot drop down. It was hard to see in the darkness, no wonder I’d missed it before.

I hopped down and was immediately attacked by a troop of skeletons, commanded by an undead man who confidently whipped fireballs at me from afar while his minions engaged me in close combat. I rolled away from the skeletons, and went after the necromancer. He ran, but there wasn’t anywhere to go. I struck him down, hoping his death would extinguish the force animating his bony buddies, but they continued to charge me.

I came out of the darkness of the crypt into a valley bathed in sunlight and prowling with skeletons and necromancers. The Catacombs were a massive, winding mess of tunnels, shafts, and catwalks. It was also full of statues, some of which would fire out spikes if someone stepped too close. Finding a bonfire in this place was a welcome reprieve, and getting to the bottom wasn’t nearly as difficult as surviving at the bottom was.

At the end of the main path was a long, narrow mausoleum build into the side of the valley. Waiting at the far end of this mausoleum was another titanite demon. This fight was much tougher than the first one, as the narrow hall made it difficult to get around to the back of the demon where it was relatively save. The big guy softened me up with a few blows of his staff, and then skewered me with a diving strike. You Died.

I worked my way back to the titanite demon, this time attempting to defeat it with a mix of fireballs and arrows. The strategy seemed airtight, until he reminded me that he could fling lightning bolts at me from his staff. Also, he has a pretty amazing range on that jumping attack. You Died.

A flat-out assault didn’t really work either. You Died.

Annoyed, my next plan for dealing with the titanite demon was to simply run past him. It worked like a charm, except that behind him was just a dead end. Oh sure, I found a few Eyes of Death back there, but those were absolutely useless to me. The demon wasn’t too happy about me taking its baubles, so it killed me again. You Died.

A couple attempts later, I was running away from an encounter with the demon that went bad very quickly, and as I dove to avoid a lightning bolt, I discovered another path off to the side, well out of the demon’s initial field of vision. I stopped to lament how stupid I’d been for not noticing it earlier, and that was just enough time for the demon to catch up with me. You Died.

Tune in next week for Part 23: Spooky