Message #1096665

[ganonfloyd]

So yesterday I made some significant progress into the game. The newest area was the underground cave segments of the Brightstone Cove. In addition to the spiders I had seen earlier in the cave, there are these weird hunchback mage things that are my nightmare. You see, my build doesn't have much in the way of range or magic defense, and these guys have homing spells that have a ton of range. And if you get close, they have a multi-shot version that can really destroy you. They made the next section a bit of a hassle, as well as the zipline things that make getting around tough.

Anyway, at the bottom of the cove I finally found Ornifex, the crow lady. She takes higher level boss souls and makes weapons and spells from them. At the time I only had one viable soul, so I withheld for the time being. I also found Straid at some point, the other boss soul trader, and got some stuff that I'm not capable of using yet but they look neat. Next was several attempts and getting through the spiders and spider people and basilisks and such. It didn't take too long, but eventually I made it to my goal; another one of the big four bosses, The Duke's Dear Freyja. And the first few attempts at defeating it were nothing short of embarrassing.

The deal with Freyja is that its a giant spider with two heads, one on each end. It can fire massive lasers that require your full attention or else you'll get destroyed. However, there's also spiders in the room as well, and you need to take of them before you can engage Freyja. However again, they also respawn throughout the fight, usually when you've got a good rhythm against Freyja, and thus you need to manage your range and dealing with the spiders and Freyja. Its super tough and for awhile I wasn't doing so hot. But the true Dark Souls experience happened. Bit by bit I fought and got farther each time, and finally I crushed the beast and obtained my first Great Soul.

A nice path opened up do an area called the Lord's Private Chamber, which only had one violent NPC guy that I destroyed, and then Vengral's body who was a bit tough, but I returned victorious to Majula. Also, the Private Chamber is straight up Duke's Archives in style. My next idea was to explore Earthen Peak more, since I only got to the very beginning of it before. Its filled with poison still, but by this point most of the enemies weren't too difficult. Carving my way through the knights and pale desert sorceress chicks I came up to the boss, Mytha the Baneful Queen. The environment of the fight basically makes it impossible, unless you figure out a little secret. Spoilers bellow.

So in order to remove the poison from the room, you have to burn down the windmill. Basically, at one bonfire you light a torch, go to the windmill near by and light it on fire. This removes the poison from the room, which means you don't die from poison and Mytha doesn't heal. After this, the fight ends up being much more manageable and even fun. The design is also cool, not too complex but its neat. After beating this, I got a bonfire for the Iron Keep, then did some co-op against the boss again because it was fun and I liked helping people. However, one thing still troubled me.

And that thing was The Lost Sinner. I still needed to defeat it somehow. I made up my mind; I wouldn't be going to bed until it was dead. I cleared out the area a few times, died a few times getting the hang of it, and then summoned Lucatiel and went out to destroy my foe. Lucatiel was vanquished in the fight, sadly (I imagine she'll be okay later) but this gave me the opportunity to finally bring down my foe. All was right with the world, and two Great Ones have been slain. My next stop, after meeting a guy with a ladder, is The Gutter. The area reminds me of Blighttown; I am not fully prepared for this reality.