Elden Ring: Could this be a friend? Therefore enemy

[Part of my Elden Ring journal]

It seems the Godskins are haunting me as I explore some towers I previously missed, which proves great practice as they fight individually in these instances and I can beat them. I also come across my buddy Blackguard deceased at the capital moat, and must fight his murderer - Dung Eater! I probably would have lost but a giant crab decided to help and kill the Dung which worked out nicely for me.

Speaking of deceased allies I also find Seluvis and Iji slain by the angry halfwolf Blaidd who I put down again in our rematch, and free hugs Fia is killed by hobo D while I deal with a lich dragon. As I opt not to slay the hobo, he returns all the equipment and wanders off to return to his hoboism. D's beast clergyman friend also goes berserk when I visit him again but he manages to calm down mid-fight, and I locate sorceress Sellen as a prisoner in another basement but am unable to set her free.

Bad dog!

With more level and upgraded weapons I return to face the Godskin Duo with Volcano Knight Bernahl and win! All focusing on one is the winning strategy. Afterwards, I have to fight and slay Bernahl because "there can be only one" I guess and then find the main boss of this floating place is the freaking beast clergyman!? Pillars help escape his robed form but when he dons his armor and hops around like a jumping jiggowat he becomes a real pain! Getting close and clubbing him to death is the only solution, and not as hard as I initially thought.

Elden Ring: Seek hole, and then edge

[Part of my Elden Ring journal]

Of course I hop into the coffin which turns out to be a magical lift (wut) that takes me to the roots of the giant tree and is home to giant flying ants and headless ghost knights. I also find free hug Fia here who makes me slay five other warriors including a mage friend of D and a fat armored fencer who helped me against Radahn! After I win she begs for death but since she's technically helping me remove the competition to become and Elden lord I spare her.

As that's a dead end I check in with Iji who drops a hint about where Ranni has gone to - a tower near her own. Inside I find a lift deep down into an ant hive where I find Ranni discarded among some garbage. I pick her up and defeat the traitorous half-wolf Blaidd then continue down past a "drow" city complete with BS sentient boulders then through a lake of rot (no horse this time - yuck!) past an ancient temple of bug men and defeat a horrid giant skull-faced dragonfly.

Beyond that is a lift to a plateau where I get a rematch against magic dragon Adula, killing it this time, and then finding a more appropriate doll for Ranni to inhabit. She is super greatful and recognizes me as her lord. I like the sound of that! Using this inspiration I return to the capital and defeat Volcano Manor targets Wilhelm and Vagran with the help of Volcano Knight Bernahl, and then crush King Morgott with Melina and my mimic!

She's a creepy doll.

Elden Ring: Reinforcements required ahead

[Part of my Elden Ring journal]

Lady Tanith runs Volcano Manor and her bodyguard is... Crucible Knight? Anyway, this group are basically killers of Roundtable Hold people which works fine with me since technically they are all competition seeking to become an Elden Lord. After slaying inquisitor Ghiza, who had infiltrated the manor, I'm tasked with hunting Old Knight Istvan near the starting area. First I stop by the cliffside magma wyrm and beat it with the help of Tragoth, Blackguard and ghost viking though then I enter the magic academy from the backside... which doesn't really help strategically apparently as both entrances lead to the same foyer landing.

Still, the living mages are easier to deal with than the spirit variety and other than a surprisingly magically gifted wolf its a pretty easy place for me to explore now and defeat magic woman Rennala who presides there. I then continue the hunt for Istvan, finding the banished sorceress Sellen in a cellar first before finding my mark in a dark cave full of monkeys. After we team up to beat the monkeys, we duel ala double dragon and I defeat him.

Beating up crippled women, just another day in Elden Ring.

Since I've been leveling up my magic ability I can now summon a headless warrior who I picked up long ago and decide to warp back to the South castle for a rematch with Crucible Knight but instead find Blaidd and other warriors here for the Radahn festival which basically involves slaying Starscourge Radahn, a massive warrior on a tiny horse. This is a terrifying battle at first, until I realize there's a literal endless supply of ally summons (the warriors that gathered) that can be called to assist in this fight. Basically I never hit Radahn myself, but defeat him anyway. When he falls the stars begin to move once more and one even crashes over the horizon.

Elden Ring: Let there be monarch

[Part of my Elden Ring journal]

Beyond that handsy manor is a cliff face that doesn't get me closer to where I was trying to go, but I do find the tower of doll witch Ranni who recruits me into her team investigating the treasure of Nokron City, which includes Iji, Blaidd and the sorcerer Seluvis. A quick warp back to ghost viking land lets me meet Blaidd there, but he has no idea how to get to the higher city. This time around I have stonesword keys though and I can activate the elevator to the North! This takes me up to...

What the hell, I'm back in plagueville? A narrow golem guarded valley only leads to the local PvP coliseum so I go the other way and find myself back in the horrible plaguelake. This time I fight a slow moving knight commander though, after I find out the nearby geysers can really damage him. Turns out to be a super easy job and I never even have to attack him directly! My reward for this a clue to the secret of ghost magician town: Lighting fires. Seems there's always fires to light...

Godrick the Grafted is good at lighting fires...

It's also worth noting that the soldiers here in plagueville actually have a base - a huge castle at the South most end. I opt not to raid that one though, as the "main quest" I'm supposed to be doing is raiding Stormveil Castle, which I've been so deftly avoiding until now. Using my mount to deftly skip the blockade defenses I beat up the towering gate guard with a rotten dog summon (my spare if I ran out of FP to summon ghost viking), and then sneak my way through most of the place until I find and slay the Grafted Lord who rules over it. My ghost viking was very helpful here! The Roundtable Hold members rejoice at this news and let me meet their "god", a literal silent two finger giant but basically I get "good job, now kill another lord". Lol.

Elden Ring: No joy ahead

[Part of my Elden Ring journal]

Feeling more courageous now after adventuring with Blaidd, I return to the well fortified stone bridge in the South and decide to rush it on horseback! Some how this works, and I come across the blind Irina who pleads with me to help her father at Castle Morne where their servants have rioted. I happily comply and ride right into a giant golem shooting missile sized arrows right outside the castle... WTF!?

Shooting right past that and into the castle itself I find the servants to be ugly harpy like things that are mostly too busy to see my crouch walking past them and up to the ramparts where Irina's dad Edgar is. He refuses to go however, because he's too worried the beast servants have made off with the castle's sword? Fine, so I traverse the rest of the castle and kill the boss-servant who wields said sword (aggression is better here) to convince him to finally go to Irina. We both travel to her and find her cleavered remains.

Home run!

While Edgar weeps I try hunt down the murderer by exploring the nearby surrounds but only find a tunnel filled with more servant things that I'm not keen on exploring just yet and a tower guarded by three spirit turtles who I slay to break the magic barrier, but am just rewarded with more treasure I'm not going to use. My bag is actually filling up with gear I can't use now as I'm only putting points into HP or Strength.

Elden Ring: Dog, O friend

[Part of my Elden Ring journal]

It's back to scouting mode in the opposite direction of disease land where I'm treated to some nice but very rainy scenery as I sneak past some soldiers and steal some armor pieces, get ambushed by ninja sky wolves, evade reanimating skeletons and defeat knight invader Henricus as I snake my way around the heavily fortified Stormveil Castle. This leads me down to a huge flooded zone inhabited by spider people and giant lobsters.

Here servant girl Rya gives me an invitation to Volcano Manor (wherever that is) after I retrieve her necklace from a lobster cooking Blackguard whom I befriend, and then proceed onto the sinking academy which again has magic seals blocking my progress. There is a narrow river that leads to a gigantic climb through a mine and giant bat nests (where I also learn bat queens sing in opera) but the top is guarded by a pretty tough magma wyrm so I decide to explore elsewhere, including a valley of living vikings and another well house that leads to a giant ant nest.

I don't get very far in any of those and decide to explore near the start again and come across a merchant who tells me about the werewolf who giga bear forest so I go to meet Blade, the half vampire daywalker Blaidd the half-wolf who is hunting some bloodhound knight whom I already found much earlier stuck in an "Evergaol". As Blaidd says "imprisonment isn't true punishment" so we go in there and wreck that creep easily with the power of team work!

He's a half giant, which tracks given the sizes of some of the wolves in this game.