Dark Souls III: Marathon Man

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

While at Firelink Shrine I purchase a sewer key being sold by the hag. Makes me wonder if she goes around locking all these doors just to make a profit. Anyway, after slaying the mandatory rats (same ones from before since it's the same sewer) I unlock a side grate and find the nun prisoner Irina, who offers to train miracles in exchange for freedom. Sure! This makes her guard, the gargoyle helm guy named Eygon, a bit annoyed but he suggests he will be an ally as long as I keep Irina safe. Safe like... keeping her locked up somewhere you psycho?

Anyway, the path forward was then to go to the tunnel under the sniper cathedral - guarded by a scary frost knight. Since he was too dangerous I lured him into an adjoining room and just ran past into the nearby forest, which turns out to be the home to a huge flock of wereharpy hollows. Not so bad if you kill them before they grow their wings but when they are "flight-enabled" they are quite annoying. I also put down a madwoman with a giant knife in the area.

Anri and Horace. You never see their faces.

In the bonfire clearing just past that I meet the knights Horace and Anri who apparently are on the same quest I am - to return the Lords of Cinder to their thrones. Good to know I'm not the only one! They offer me to join the Blue Sentinels but I decline, preferring to be protected rather than be the one doing the protecting. They are gone after I rest at the bonfire, so I continue alone into the next area - a swamp. At least it's not poisonous, it's just inhabited by crabs. The small ones are ok, but the giant ones I soon learn to avoid.

I also encounter a lone, sword wielding, Anor Londo Knight in one of the ruins - and knowing my parrying skill (as a player) is long gone I opt to flee to another set of ruins which is home to more hollows, and on the path beyond I find a Crystal Sage. This magic based boss relies on teleportation for movement which leaves him open for a lot of attacks, but once I got him to 50% he began using mirror images too and that proved to be my undoing. Sigh.

That's a pretty big hat. I wonder if this was Grigg's master?

Dark Souls: Covenant of Hollows

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

While farming some giant leeches in the swamp (yes, eww) I revisited a great tree that sat there and thanks to signs left by other players, found two secret passages leading to a drop called the Great Hollow. Because we weren't low enough yet? So I traversed the vertical maze of winding branches (inside the tree), slew more cute froggies, ran passed a colony of shroom people and finally at the very bottom, got out onto beautiful beach with a bonfire at the serene Ash Lake. Man, such a Warriors of the Wind moment.

It's so beautiful down here.

On the opposite bank was a hydra and due to it's close proximity to the bonfire I figured now was the time to learn how to fight it. Getting up close was the simplest - made easier as more and more heads were removed. Still a long fight, but not very difficult now. Hidden further along the shore was an even bigger surprise: a black dragon. Wordlessly he asked that I join his covenant. I said yes! Of course, I found out later that this was a more PvP one. Oops!

I speak only with my mind.

Anyway, the lake was a dead end so I had to climb all the way back up the tree and back up through Blighttown to get back to Firelink Shrine. This journey was getting a lot easier. Laurentius and Griggs, the two I had rescued before, were now here. Griggs offered to teach me magic (but my INT was too low) while Laurentius offered lessons in Pyromancy. Since that school of magic had no requirements, I learned as much as I could!

I also spoke to Petrus to rejoin the Way of the White Covenant (since you can only be a member of one at a time, it deactivated the PvP one) and learned his buddies had come and gone, and he was now quite worried about their fate. Unlike most normal quest givers in other games though, he drops absolutely zero hints on who they were or where they were headed.

Dark Souls: Back to the Great Swamp

Tales from Dark Souls - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

With the backing of a stronger bonfire I decided to return to Undead Berg to check on the doors I couldn't open before. I also tried fighting the red dragon again and just got roasted. Lol. I did find a path leading to "Lower Undead Berg" though, which I had completely missed before. It was populated mostly by hounds and assassin hollows who were at this point no match for me. It also had a hag who sold handy posion coated stuff!

This is one of the few games where you can literally buy shit.

After rescuing a novice mage named Griggs (apprentice of the Big Hat guy) and defeating a bigger twin weilding demon I found a door to the sewers which was inhabited by undead rats, yucky slimes, and cute, big-eyed frogs. I also rescued a pyromancer named Laurentius "of the great swamp" who had somehow gotten stuck in an urn. Towards the bottom of the whole place was a big arena, and unsurprisingly home to the resident boss critter the Gaping Dragon. Fortunately Solaire had also returned from Anor Londo and was present to assist!

Poking from the back: the "go to" method for most of these bosses.

While the dragon did thrash my ally who I suppose had to go back to a bonfire to recover, I got to see its very limited move set which rendered the rest of the fight very simple. Beyond him was a deep well leading to... Blighttown. Again? Since I hadn't been on this side yet I figured I'd clear it all the way down to the swamp. Those poison dart guys are annoying. Interestingly, once I got to the bottom, Shiva was no longer there. Ser Chubby was though, and was in dire need of anti-poison moss. Lucky for him I had a few spares.