Previously on Dark Souls: Morgan left the sewers to explore the jungle, and slayed a gigantic magical butterfly.
The Watchtower Basement Key was an exciting find, but the Divine Ember was more immediately useful. On my way out of Darkroot Garden, Andrei noticed me lugging the thing around and told me that if I gave it to him, he could make divine weapons for me. I had no use for the thing, so I gave it to him, and had him forge my battle axe into a divine battle axe. It didn’t seem like a great tradeoff at the time, because divine weapons draw power from the Faith stat, of which Morgan was lacking. However, a few updates later, it would prove incredibly useful.
Back to the Watchtwoer Key, I paraded all over the damn place looking for the locked door that it belonged to. Eventually I found it, at the bottom of the Taurus Demon’s tower. It led down into the basement (just like it said it would), and at the bottom I met a big, mean knight. His name was Havel and he wielded a massive Dragon’s Tooth as a weapon. Also he could kill me in one hit if my guard was down. You Died.
Havel was one tough cookie, and the key to beating him was definitely to try to roll away from his attacks rather than blocking them. This caused trouble for me in three ways. 1. I was pretty accustomed to blocking, and hadn’t really bother learning how to dodge when blocking was working so well. 2. I was wearing armor a little above my weight threshold, and as such it slowed my movements enough that dodging his attacks was hard. 3. He hit so hard that even a successful block would still result in me losing a chunk of my health. It was also hard to get a swig of Estus in without him noticing the huge opening. You Died.
This was the point where I had to finally switch out my +7 chain mail armor and Fang Boar Helm for lighter equipment. The speed penatly had been offset by a strong defense until now, but that wasn’t working here. Fortunately, gaining the ability to roll properl helped out a lot against Havel. It wasn’t quite enough on its own though. You Died.
In the end, I triumphed over Havel by chucking firebombs and magical fire orbs at him while he plodded up the stairs towards me. I ran out of stock before he died, but he’d been weakened enough that I was able to finish him before he killed me again. My reward was a ring that allowed me to increase my weight burden, allowing me to wear heavier gear without the speed penalty. I would never equip this ring.
I was much more excited to see what was on the other side of the door at the bottom of the tower. As it turned out, it was Darkroot Basin. Hooray. I decided I might as well explore a little, since I wasn’t quite sure where I came out. But as I walked into a nearby clearing, I heard the sound of watery doom heading my way, and I had just enough time to slide behind a boudler as the water shots crashed all around me. I ran back to the door as fast as I could.
Out of other ideas, I worked my way back through Lower Undead Burg and the Depths until I’d reached the bonfire there. I rested up a bit and then went back in as deep as I’d been before. The huge gate was still locked, and I proceeded into the courtyard blocked by a Fog Gate. The area just screamed “boss fight” but it was unusually quiet. I meandered around a bit, but nothing happened and there was nothing to find. Until I got closer to the far ledge…
Suddenly, a grotesque lizard-looking creature peered over the side, and I backed away slowly. But as the creature rose into view, it began to take much bigger, more fearsome appearance. The Gaping Dragon was a massive six-legged abomination whose entire torso was a giant mouth filled with gnashing teeth. I did not want to be anywhere near it, but the Fog Gate kept me from running away with my tail between my legs.
I tried my best to keep my distance from the creature as best I could, getting in a few hits here and there when it would charge past me. The monster was far quicker than its size suggested, and I was only able to maintain my distance from the beast as it ambled towards me. I ducked away from swipes of its lengthy claws, and just barely avoided being sucked into the whirling mass of teeth. The fight was going well until the dragon leapt into the air. It hovered there for a moment, and I dashed away, hoping to find cover from whatever was about to happen. Then the beast slammed down on me hard and squashed my body like a tube of yogurt. You Died.
I went back right away for a second round with the Gaping Dragon, and it didn’t go nearly as well as the first. While I did manage to avoid a dive-bomb this time around, I didn’t inflict nearly as much damage on it before it grabbed me and thust me into its horrifying maw. You Died.
Taking a cue from the fight with the Bell Gargoyles, I decided to turn human before round three. Not relishing the idea of grinding for it, I used up one of my humanity items and became human again. As luck would have it, Solaire had posted a summon sign right in front of the Fog Gate, and I called on his help for the fight. It was all for naught though, as the Gaping Dragon tore Solaire to pieces before he could turn the tide in our favour.
I was stunned by Solaire’s death, and before I came back to my senses, the dragon scuttled over to me and barfed all over me, which heavily damaged any of my equipment that it didn’t instantly break. I didn’t have much of a leg to stand on after that, and the dragon gleefully finished me off. You Died.
Tune in next week for Part 13: Deeper and Deeper: