Eh, it's always hit-or-miss with fire and slimy things: they tend to be either extremely flamable, or fire retardant. Still, worth a shot, right?
Okay, so we now have its attention. We can work with that: [X] Signal Oscar to attack while we keep its attention.
-[X] if it starts focusing on Oscar again, take another slash at its wounded limb. [X] Keep dodging! we can't afford any serious injuries.
[X] Signal Oscar to attack while we keep its attention.
-[X] if it starts focusing on Oscar again, take another slash at its wounded limb. [X] Keep dodging! we can't afford any serious injuries.
Adhoc vote count started by AClassyBunny on May 3, 2021 at 9:59 PM, finished with 4 posts and 2 votes.
[X] Signal Oscar to attack while we keep its attention. -[X] if it starts focusing on Oscar again, take another slash at its wounded limb. [X] Keep dodging! we can't afford any serious injuries.
[X] Signal Oscar to attack while we keep its attention.
-[X] if it starts focusing on Oscar again, take another slash at its wounded limb.
[X] Keep dodging! we can't afford any serious injuries.
"Hey Oscar, it's your turn!"
After calling out to Oscar, you take another firebomb out of your bag and, without bothering to aim, lob it at the Witch. The little black ball shatters on one side of the thing's tentacle hair and doesn't seem to have much effect beyond pissing it off even more.
Luckily, that was the exact effect you were hoping for.
The witch lets out a shrill shriek and lunges at you with its full body mass. Its arms thrust out first, which you just barely roll out of the way of as they slam down with more speed than you'd expect from a big dumb squid-face. The tentacles of said face follow after as the body itself is thrown forward after you. The slimy appendages reach out and flail about, trying to catch or hit you.
You continue backing up and the witch keeps dragging itself after you. You slash your claws back and forth as you go, slicing off a few tenacles with every pass, but more just keep coming. You take another step back and feel the wall against your back. At the same time, a few tenacles flinch back when your claw passes before shooting out and wrap around it. You try to pull the claw free, but even more tentacles start creeping up around it and a few start reaching out for your arm.
You don't have enough room to get your other claw around to cut the tentacles off, and are just starting to think you're in a bad situation when the witch reels with loud shriek. It follows with an angry chittering and turns along with a wide sweep of its undamaged arm. You hear the thump of the arm hitting something and Oscar grunt in pain.
The tentacles around your claw either slip free or are sliced on the blades as the witch turns, so you use the chance to dash into a side area leading into a room with two big glassless windows. From here, you can spot Oscar pulling himself up off the ground by the opposite wall. The witch chitters as it approaches him, tentacles twitching and snapping about angrily.
You rush forward, aiming to cleave the witch's spine in half, if it has one. The witch is too distracted by Oscar you see your coming and you cover the short distance in no time at all. You leap over one of its legs, slicing through it with your claw as you go. You roll as you touch down behind the witch, then slash your other claw across the witch's back, right where a deep gasp has already been carved.
The witch howls in agony, but doesn't drop. Instead, it turns on you the same way it turned on Oscar, sweeping its arms out in a full-body spin. You just barely manage to jump over and away from such a confined position, but the witch seems furious. The monster digs its talon-like fingers into the floor and pulls itself after you with enough speed to send you flying when it body slams into you.
It doesn't give you any time to recover, rushing forward and pinning you against the wall. You get your claws up in time to be between you and the mass of tentacles, but you can't move under the weight of the witch and the tenacles are both thin and numerous enough that a few are managing to slip through.
Suddenly, you hear a loud warcry from behind the witch, and the tip of a sword appears from beneath the mass of tentacles. The tenacles twitch and stiffen, then the witch drops to your feet. Oscar pulls his sword out from the witch's neck with heavy breaths and the two of you share a nod.
*Unknown Pisaca Witch defeated*
Your companion takes an alert step back when the witch starts to bubble, but instead of getting back up, the witch melts, leaving only a big puddle of blue-ish goop.
Heaving a relieved sigh, you lean back against the wall for a moment. That witch wasn't very clever, but it sure was a pain to fight without being able to use magic. You definitely got into a few situations that you usually would've had no trouble avoiding. So, does that mean you're losing your edge or that you have an overreliance on your time-slowing magic?
You shake your head at the thought. Hopefully it's neither and you're just having a bad day. Anyway, you just beat a witch, so you can clean your soul gem.
You pause as you crouch down to collect the grief seed. The goop has evaporated just like witches' remains usually do, but all you can see is small black stone spike-like thing. Okay, so maybe grief seeds look different in this world? Not thinking about it too much, you pick the little spike up and summon your soul gem to your hand.
Nothing happens when you hold the stone against your gem.
You frown and try again, but still nothing happens.
You look around, trying to spot something else. If this isn't the grief seed, then surely you just missed it, right? Witches almost always drop grief seeds, right? That thing WAS a witch, you could sense it! So where the hell is the grief seed?!
"Kirika, are you alright?" You must look just as frantic as you feel, because you can hear a hint of concern in Oscar's voice.
"It didn't drop a grief seed!" You reply, a bit more shouty than you meant to. "It was a witch, but it didn't drop one!"
Oscar crouches down in front of you and holds up his hand. "Hold on, Kirika, slow down. What are you talking about? What's a 'grief seed'?"
"It's the soul of a witch, or their heart or core, or something! I don't know, but I need one to clean my soul gem!" You exclaim, before thrusting the stupid little spike of stone in front of him. "And instead, all it dropped was this stupid fucking bit of rock!"
Oscar takes the stone and looks at it for a moment. "I'm still not too sure what you mean by a grief seed, but this little spike looks like it's made from the same material as a purging stone."
"Big fucking deal!" You snap. "I'm going to lose my mind and turn into a fucking monster if I don't cleanse my soul gem, but I'm glad you've found a nice little rock to keep you occupied!"
Oscar goes quiet at your outburst, then starts mumbling to himself. After a moment, he reaches into a small sack at his hip. He holds out what he takes from it and offers it to you. "Here, try this."
You take the offered item – a little black stone with a skull carved into it – and eye it cautiously. You've never heard of anything other than a grief seed working to clean a soul gem, but a quick look at how dark your gem is, you decide to give it a go anyway.
The gem glows faintly when you hold it up to your soul gem, then a sickly black mist rises from your soul and moves to the stone. The little rock sucks up every drop of taint from your gem and feels vaguely warm once it stops glowing.
"It… worked?" You mutter, surprised.
Oscar nods and takes the stone back from you. "You were a bit short on the details, but what you said didn't sound too different from the results of curse build-up."
You look down at your now brightly shining soul gem. Curse, huh? Thank does kind of fit, in a round-about way, you suppose. Not that you actually know too much about the whole soul corruption thing. Knowing things was Oriko's area.
Even so, if witches don't drop grief seeds here, you're going to need to find out what these little stone things are. "What is that little stone, anyway?" You ask, nodding at the rock in his hand.
"It's called a Purging Stone." Oscar replies, standing. "They draw out curses and take them onto themselves. I've heard rumours that they're made by condensing the souls of living beings, but, well… as abhorrent as they are, they're invaluable items." He holds the little spike from the witch besides the Purging Stone. "Strangely, this shard seems to be made of the same stone. It didn't absorb your curse, however, so I'm not too sure what it is."
"Right, well, that's a fun mystery for later I guess." You mutter, standing yourself. "But going back to these Purging Stones. Is there a way to get more of them? I'd be able to go all out if I had a bunch of them."
Oscar holds his chin in thought. "Hmm. I wouldn't exactly call them common, but their value means certain merchants sell them if they come across any. Other than that, I'm not certain about the process of creating them and don't particularly have any interest in finding out." He pockets both the shard and the Purging Stone in his bag before patting it gently. "I have another stone if you need one again in the future, but as I said: they're quite valuable. Best not to waste them if we can avoid it."
------------------
[] Talk to Oscar
-[] About the witch
-[] About his sudden charge at the Channeler
-[] Write in
[] Keep exploring the cathedral
-[] First floor
-[] Second floor
-[] Oscar spotted a ladder in one of the side rooms…
Well that didn't go quite perfectly, but good enough I'd say. Tag-teaming was clearly an effective way to handle this witch. Though I will confess that I wasn't sure that Oscar would be able to do much more than drag it's attention away from us while we piled on the damage, but I sure won't argue with the results. #OscarMVP
Now all we need to do is acquire all the purging stones so we never have to worry about Grief. Come to think of it, I wonder if the Cursebite ring would be of use to us? it does look like it's based around a purging stone.
[x] Talk to Oscar
-[x] About the witch
-[x] About his sudden charge at the Channeler
-[x] Ask if Oscar's okay, he did take a hit back there.
So, would Kirika have just been plain screwed if she didn't have Oscar with her? Or would you have come up with another way to do the Purging Stone reveal.
Also, yeah Kirika is cursed! That means she can punch ghosts!
[x] Talk to Oscar
-[x] About the witch
-[x] About his sudden charge at the Channeler
-[x] Ask if Oscar's okay, he did take a hit back there
"That's smart and all, I guess…" you say, leaning back against the wall, resting your arms behind your head "but there's no way I'm fighting another witch without using my magic."
The fight just then could've been a cakewalk with your magic, but instead you got beaten and bloodied nearly to the point of death. No way in hell are you doing that again.
"You mention a witch again…" Oscar mutters thoughtfully, looking down at where the witch evaporated. "You've called that creature a witch twice now, but you're clearly not referring to the term in relation to Pyromancy."
You stare at him for a moment, not knowing what he's going on about. Oh wait, that's right. 'Witch' is a word used for magic person in your world, so it makes sense it'd be used for something in this place too. It'd probably be just as weird for someone from where you're from to hear a monster being called a witch.
"Oh, right. That monster just then was something called a witch. It's 'an entity created from grief and suffering, which exists solely to spread its suffering to others…' or something like that." You reply, doing your best to remember what Kyubey said when he explained it to you. Of course, the little rat left out that magical girls can become witches too. "They usually hide out in their barriers and lure people in to chow down on, but I guess they don't have to in this world."
"And these beasts are a common occurrence where you're from? These witches are natural fauna?"
You shake your head. "Nah, pretty much the only people who know about them are magical girls. It's your typical 'heroine fighting a secret battle against evil' thing that you see in every magical girl story. Even got a stupid little mascot and everything."
"I see… And these grief seeds you mentioned? You said they're something like the core of the creatures?" Oscar asks.
"Right, something like that." You reply with a nod. "Magical girls have to fight witches in return for a wish being granted. Our soul gems gets all murky when we use magic, so we have to use the grief seeds the witches drop to clean them." You summon your soul gem to your hand and watch it glow. "I don't know the specifics about grief seeds, I just beat the witches up."
Oscar watches your gem for a moment, then looks over to the dead channeler. "I had originally assumed the creature was just one of the nightmares created by Seath the Scaleless, due to its seeming alliance with channeler. It sounds like there's more to them than that, however."
"Speaking of the channeler," you say, also looking over at the corpse in question "what's his deal? I've seen someone controlling witches before, but Six-Eyes over there seemed kinda different. You went charging off at him earlier too, which was pretty much the exact opposite of what you've been lecturing me about this whole time."
Oscar stares silently at the corpse for a while, but eventually he clears his throat and looks back to you. "I apologies for my moment of thoughtlessness then. It is well known across the land the kind of vile experiments the Pale Dragon's servants conduct on young maidens, and I was… momentarily angered."
You snarl over at the dead channeler. "So, they're creepy pervs or something? I'm glad we kicked his ass then."
"I'm not sure they perform those kinds of experiments. At least, I hope not." Oscar replies, shaking his head "I do find the possible connection between such experiments and that witch to be worrying, however. The large crystals on its back suggest a link to the Duke, even discounting the channeler, and I believe it had a vaguely human shape beneath that mass of tentacles."
"Thing was definitely harder to kill than a person." You scoff, remembering the witch somehow swinging its near-severed arm about like it was nothing. "Oh, that reminds me. You took a pretty nasty hit back there. You alright?"
He chuckles and pats his stomach where the witch swatted him away. He grunts slightly at the movement. "I'm fine, for the most part. Some nasty bruising and a broken rib, perhaps, but nothing I can't endure. We don't have much Estus left, so I don't want to waste it on light injuries such as this."
You eye him up and down. He doesn't seem like he's lying, but it's not like he's a magical girl. Not only did he get swatted by the witch, but he hit the wall pretty hard afterwards. "You sure? It looked like you took a pretty heavy beating back there."
"Kirika, I'm an Undead. I've bled and died enough times to build up an awfully strong pain resistance. I may not be impervious to pain, but I'm not a frail lamp either."
----------------------
[] Keep talking to Oscar
-[] Write in
[] Go explore more of the cathedral
-[] First floor
-[] Second floor
-[] Oscar spotted a ladder in one of the side rooms…
hat monster just then was something called a witch. It's 'an entity created from grief and suffering, which exists solely to spread its suffering to others…' or something like that.
Hoo boy, she doesn't know. Thought, to be fair, I don't think it would bother her all that much, beside being extra careful to not witch-out. Can't help your waifu by being a witch, after all
[x] Go explore more of the cathedral
-[x] First floor
Hoo boy, she doesn't know. Thought, to be fair, I don't think it would bother her all that much, beside being extra careful to not witch-out. Can't help your waifu by being a witch, after all
If you're refering to the whole magical girls becoming witches thing, she does indeed know. The sentence directly after specifically mentions it.
This quest is after the end of the main Oriko Magica timeline, so she's experienced becoming a witch first-hand by doing it herself. Interestingly, she was atually able to remain somewhat in control of herself and help/protect Oriko.
If you're refering to the whole magical girls becoming witches thing, she does indeed know. The sentence directly after specifically mentions it.
This quest is after the end of the main Oriko Magica timeline, so she's experienced becoming a witch first-hand by doing it herself. Interestingly, she was atually able to remain somewhat in control of herself and help/protect Oriko.
[X] Go explore more of the cathedral
-[X] First floor
It's not completely unprecedented. Megucas with strong obsessions retain part of their desire even after Witching.
Madoka's witch still wanted to help people (by mind controlling everyone and storing them in her barrier), Kirika's witch wanted nothing more than to be of use to Oriko.
I'm also of the opinion that Megucas who know the truth can, to a degree, influence how they behave as a witch. Like, specifically witch out for superpowers intentionally nets you a more stable transition, but that's just my opinion.
Particularly if said Meguca's wish was related to said obsession. I seem to recall there being a(n admittedly limited) degree of evidence that personality-changing wishes can have their effects persist even into witchdom.
Given that Kirika's wish was something in the vein of 'changing to suit Oriko' which seems to lack an end-clause, said wish could quite plausibly sill be in effect even after she's succumbed to grief. of course, it probably also means that Kirika is constantly warping to suit whatever Oriko needs/desires at the time, which is another reason we should really find her ASAP lest we discover what changing to suit an Oriko that has become a witch or gained first-hand experience of Seath's experiments looks like.
[x] Go explore more of the cathedral
-[x] First floor
You heave a sigh and shrug. "Fine, be that way. Come on, let's go have a look around." You add, heading back towards the stairs down to the first floor.
"Kirika, the Bell of awakening is almost certainly up, not down." Oscar says, following after you nonetheless. "We should try to find a way up to the belltower."
You give him a dismissive way. "Come on, Oscar, your bell isn't going anywhere. Everyone knows you get some cool loot after beating a boss in a video game, and I'd say that fight with the witch was absolutely enough to be called a boss." You catch yourself and make a face. "Oh wait, nevermind. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"
Oscar sighs. "I'm not too sure what kind of games you're familiar with, nor what you mean by 'video.' That said, A boss would generally be considered someone more important or higher up than the lackies. Such people are typically more likely to have more valuable items in their possession."
"Hmm, that's about right, I guess." You mumble, then stop and turn around to face him. You give him a big grin and pat him on the shoulder as best you can with your height difference. "Maybe you know what you're talking about after all!"
"I certainly hope so." He replies with a small chuckle. "Come one, let's go see if there's any 'loot,' shall we?"
It doesn't take long for something of interest to catch your eye. The moment you reach the final step to the first floor, you notice the statue and big knight corpse. You didn't get much of a chance to take a look when you first arrived, but the statue looks almost identical to the one back in Ada's shrine. There's no one worshiping this one (the witch and channeler might have something to do with that) but it almost seems like the giant knight died trying to protect it.
No, not the statue, necessarily, you note. Behind the knight and in front of the statue's altar is a stone slab. A shrivelled-up corpse cloaked in badly torn robe-like rags is curled up on it, its hands holding an almost flower-like wisp of a soul close to its chest.
Moving closer, you notice the giant knight is backed right up against the stone slab. His big tower shield is angled to the side slightly, just too far to fully cover himself. Enough, however, that it fully blocks view of the corpse from in front of him.
Was the corpse someone special to the knight, or was he just being a white (black) knight goodie-goodie by protecting the long dead maiden?
Either way, he's in the way of your curiosity. Planting your foot on the knight's side, you push as hard as you can. With your push disrupting the balance keeping him up against his shield, the big guy tumbles to the side. The loud clunk and rattle of his heavy armour hitting the ground echoes through the cathedral.
Oscar turns his head to look at you, and you can almost feel his eyebrow raised. You shrug. "What? He's already dead and was in the way."
He shakes his head and steps up to the corpse alongside you. He looks up at the statue for a moment, then crouches down to examine the body. After a moment, he gasps. "Gods, I think this is a Fire Keeper!"
"A whatnow?" You ask, leaning in to look too.
Oscar slowly, with a surprisingly gentle care, retrieves the soul from the corpse's hands and holds it out to show you. It seems frail and thin, while also flickering dimly like a flame. Tiny specks dance around the root-like arms of it like little insects.
"I believe this woman was once a Fire Keeper, one who attends the more official bonfires. You can still see the little wisps of humanity that cling to the soul. Something such as this is a rare sight indeed, and a clear sign of the state Lordran is in."
"O…kay? So, what do we do with it? Is it actually useful, or just the soul of some shrivelled up old corpse who died who-knows-how-long ago?"
Oscar shakes his head at your question and carefully places it in his bag. "It isn't just something to be used or discarded, Kirika. But… I believe, on the rare occasion that a Fire Keeper dies, it is customary to bestow her soul upon her successor. It doesn't seem like there's a new Keeper here, but I think there was one down in the shrine where we began. It may be best to take it to her."
You roll your eyes and groan. "Great, and do we get anything out of it, or is this just some act of kindness?"
He shakes his head again. "I imagine taking on her peer's soul would affect her in a similar manner taking on normal souls affects others. A Keeper is a manifestation of her bonfire, and I've heard the Estus retrieved from a strengthened fire is more potent."
"Right, so we take it back to Miss Fire Keeper and get an upgrade, then?" You say, nodding along. You drop your fist into your other hand with a smile. "Got it. Let's find a way back, then!"
"Hold on, what about the Bell of Awakening? And didn't you say you wanted to look around the cathedral?"
You shrug and turn around. "Eh, we found something interesting, so I'm happy. And like I said before: your bell isn't going anywhere. Oh, what's this?" You say, approaching a pair of doorways next to the stairs. One of them is closed off by a shoddy-looking metal fence, but the other is open.
"Looks like an elevator." Oscar replies, stepping up beside you and examining what looks like a pressure plate in the small area beyond the doorway. He peaks inside, looking up and then down through a thin crack between the floor and the platform inside. "Leading down somewhere, by the looks. Likely somewhere important, if it's connected directly to a large place of worship such as this."
You stare at the knight blankly for a moment, then look between him and the elevator. "Did you just say an elevator? Like, the ones that go up and down?"
"Uh, yes…? I presume there were such contraptions where you're from?" Oscar replies, turning his helmet back to you.
You hold up your hand, trying to figure out how there's an elevator in a medieval fantasy world. "Yes, there is. But… with electricity and automation and fancy modern stuff like that. Are you telling me this place has actual working elevators? Does it work on magic or something?"
He makes an odd sound and steps inside. "No magic. I'm not familiar with how it works exactly, but it uses some kind of rope and pully system. Well, chains, in this case."
"Huh…" You mutter, following him inside. Are you just stupid? Did they actually have this kind of thing back in ye oldie times? Then why did they make all those pointlessly long staircases then?
As you're thinking this, you hear a faint click and feel the ground under your foot give slightly. Another of those metal fences moves to block the doorway and you start descending. Whether they had elevators back then or not in your world, apparently they do here.
After a moment, the wall behind you opens to reveal a familiar looking overgrown ruin centred around a big tree. It takes you a few seconds to realise it's the ruins where you were dropped off by the big crow at. You spot said crow perched up in the tree, watching you come down the elevator.
"Well, that's awfully convenient." Oscar comments when you stop moving. You both step out into a small room with two sets of stairs, leading up and down respectively.
You follow the stairs leading down until you reach a big open room full of tall pots. A rather chubby guy (though that could just be his armour) with a big nose and a blonde bowel cut looks over at you. He raises an eyebrow.
Oscar greets him with a nod. "Good day, sir cleric. Kirika, this is Petrus of Thorolund, the cleric I mentioned when I took a look around. Sir Petrus, this is my companion, Kirika Kure."
Did Oscar ever mention a cleric back then? That kind of rings a bell, but you also remember him saying they were less than friendly.
"Hmm, and good day to you as well, Sir Oscar." The man replies, returning the nod of greetings. "I realise I requested we retain our distance when we first spoke, but I hope you understand I meant to ill-will." He smiles, looking between the two of you. "But it seems you haven't taken it to heart, so no hard feelings, hmm? I presume you've been busy, seeing as you've uncovered the other end of that elevator up there?"
Oscar nods. "Indeed. We've been through quite an ordeal just this morning alone."
Petrus chuckles. "Ah, well perhaps you should get some rest, no? you seem somewhat battered, so it wouldn't be unreasonable to stop at the bonfire for a few moments."
"Indeed, we'll do that." Oscar replies, turning to leave.
----------------
[] While at Firelink…
-[] Continue talking to Petrus for a while
-[] Go rest at the bonfire with Oscar
-[] Go see this "Fire Keeper" person
-[] Go talk to the crows
[] Afterwards…
-[] Head back up to the cathedral
--[] Explore the second floor
--[] Look for a way up to the bell tower
--[] Go look for the blacksmith Ada mentioned
-[] Go take a look at that graveyard behind the ruins
-[] Go take a look at that ghost city Oscar mentioned before
[] Write in
Sorry this post is so late, everyone. I totally didn't get preoccupied when I went to write it originally and totally didn't completely forget about it until today.
