With a push of the pressure plate, the lift begins its ascent. As it travels, you notice the abundance of wooden scaffolding throughout the elevator shaft. Were they working on this place before something happened? How old is this stuff anyway...?
"So, you said you were from Catarina?" Hawkwood asks.
"Yes, that's correct, although I spent much of my time traveling. I hadn't seen my homeland in many years by the time I tried to link the flame, and I haven't exactly had an opportunity to stop by since."
Hawkwood simply gives a short nod in understanding.
The lift comes to a stop in a dark, grey room, covered in weeds sprouting from cracks in the stone The light from outside illuminates the area enough to see, but not enough to be particularly bright
In the corner of the room you notice a staircase, marked by the presence of a torch that is easily the brightest thing in the room, especially when compared to the drab gray stone
"Well, how have you found this place in comparison?"
"You mean Lothric? Ah, it's nowhere near as nice, but it's hard to compete with the land of Catarina. There are only smiles in every town, city and hamlet."
"That nice, huh?" You ask.
"I miss it dearly, but such is life... or, well, such is unlife, I suppose." Siegward says. You half-expect a sigh, but thankfully that's more of a Hawkwood thing than something everyone around here does.
You continue on, climbing up four short sets of stairs, before emerging back out into the daylight, or rather what little of it that isn't being blocked by the absolutely massive figure in front of you. The figure is covered in rusted old chains looped around its body. Their skin is more like stone, gray, bumpy, and covered in clumps of moss. On their face is a rather crude helmet that covers their face with metal strips that have been attached to one another, blocking any possible sight they might have, oddly enough.
You quickly assume this to be the giant, which is confirmed by the massive bow resting against the wall right next to it, along with countless arrows bigger than you are. Below the bow, a bunch of random pieces of junk are scattered about, which you assume to be the Giant's... stuff.
As you walk into view, the GIant's head turns to face you. They slowly move their gaze along the three of you, seemingly examining each of you. When he reaches you, their head seems to tilt, but whether that's out of confusion or curiosity you can't tell with their face covered by that helmet.
"WHO ARE YOU?" The Giant's voice echoes out around you, despite the question being directed at Siegward who has already stepped forward.
"I am Siegward of Catarina, Warrior of Sunlight and bearer of the Stormruler."
The Giant seems to flinch at the mention of whatever this Stormruler thing is,
"WHAT YOU WANT?"
Siegward coughs to clear his throat, before opening up with a fiery, rapid fire, but clearly pre-prepared speech.
"Now listen here! You, sir, cannot simply fire upon any and all passerbyers you come across! It's not only morally reprehensible, but a danger to each and everyone that may happen to be unfortunate to be present at the site of an impact! With such force, the odds of survival are next to impossible!"
The Giant remains silent, head turned toward Siegward, before they begin to speak again.
"I NOT UNDERSTAND SMALL ONES' LANGUAGE." The giant grunts out, scratching their chin with a massive, meaty finger.
"Why is that?" Hawkwood.asks, curiosity piqued.
"IT NOT LIKE MINE. MINE LIKE GROAN OF EARTH AND GROWTH OF WOOD. YOURS ALL SOUND AND NOISE. MOST NOT ABLE TO USE SMALL ONES' LANGUAGE."
Okay, you're starting to get the picture. The Giant isn't stupid, which would explain how they can fire those massive arrows with rather notable accuracy, but rather that they seem to communicate in some other way? So using simpler language would probably be-
"Could you stop firing arrows at us?" Hawkwood shouts out, beating you to the punch.
You're not mad. You're perfectly fine with this. You didn't want to feel smart or anything. That's why you don't definitely aren't shooting a very confused Hawkwood a glare. That'd be petty, and you're not petty. And you are most certainly not pouting.
"OH." The Giant seems surprised by this at first. "SORRY, MOST THINGS BAD HERE. NOT USED TO GOOD THINGS." The Giant says, voice laden with a surprising amount of guilt.
Well, they don't seem to be wrong on that account.
"BUT HOW TO TELL GOOD THING FROM BAD THING...?" The Giant murmurs to themselves.
The Giant reaches down near their bow, the various chains hanging from their body jangling as they do so, and starts to sort through the pile of junk.
"What is it doing?" Hawkwood whispers to Siegward.
"I believe looking for something."
"AH." The Giant grunts out after a few seconds, seeming to have found what they were looking for. In their hand is three perfectly white tree branches, which they offer, one to each of you. The three of you share confused glances, before you each take one of the branches.
"NOW I KNOW." The Giant says with a nod.
"How can something like a branch let you determine whether you're firing at us or not?" Hawkwood asks.
The Giant seems to sigh a little, before they raise one of their huge hands to the strange masked helmet on their face. With a grunt of effort, the helmet comes loose, revealing... nothing. Where you'd expect a face to be, there is nothing but a hole.
It takes you a moment to realize, but with the hole in their face, the Giant looks a lot like that tree back at the shrine. Guess they really do turn into trees after all.
While you and Hawkwood seem surprised, Siegward doesn't react to the sight of the Giant's... face? Lack of face? You're not even sure how to describe it.
"I NOT NEED TO SEE. JUST NEED TO KNOW." The Giant explains, as if that actually were the answer.
"I... see." Hawkwood says, and you can't tell if he's being serious or just being polite right now.
"And you swear to not let any innocents be placed in harm's way?" Siegward asks with a pointed finger.
"NONE LEFT." The Giant says sadly. Their voice echoes out of the hole, as if having a hole for a face wasn't creepy enough...
As the Giant reattaches their weird helmet, Siegward turns to the two of you and nods.
"Well, I do believe that this has been sorted out."
"So it would seem." Hawkwood says with a sigh. "I hope
Before you can leave his presence, the Giant's voice booms out.
"MAY I ASK QUESTION?" The Giant calls out to your small group.
You all turn back to face them, and the Giant seems to take that as a yes.
"WHAT YOUR NAME SMALLER ONE?" The Giant says, pointing at you.
"Me?" You ask, surprised to be singled out.
The Giant slowly nods.
"I'm Sayaka Miki." You say, confused about the sudden questioning.
The giant seems disappointed by your response, as their hulking form seems to droop a little, before they seem to realize their own reaction, and scratch their head in confusion.
"Are you waiting for someone specific?" Hawkwood asks.
"NO, JUST FEELING. HAD FOR LONG TIME."
"A feeling?" Hawkwood asks.
The Giant merely nods, before it picks up and its bow and nocks an arrow, turning back to face the Settlement.
"IF YOU IN DANGER, I SHOOT DANGER."
"So you're willing to help us?"
"I HELP ANYTIME." The Giant responds before, with a loud twang another enormous arrow is sent flying at a hollow who made the mistake of trying to walk through the Giant's line of sight... or however the Giant is able to see.
"A much nicer chap than I'd expected." Hawkwood idly comments.
"You'd be surprised how kind Giants can be. Not that it's stopped others from treating them as lesser." Siegward says with a hint of melancholy in his voice.
"You know any Giants?" You ask.
"Aye, I do suppose you could say that." He says, not elaborating further.
Before you descend down the lift once more, you take the opportunity to take a look at your surroundings from the higher vantage point the tower offers you. Starting from the left of the Giant, you first see the entirety of the Undead Settlement that you've passed, and from this scale, the distance seems almost mind boggling. Especially when you look up and see what must be Lothric right behind it. Raised up on a mysteriously out of place plateau, the High Wall looks more like one massive fortress than a capital city. At least, you assume it'd be the capital. The country seems to be called Lothric, but that's also the name of the place, so that would normally make it the capital right? You're just going to assume so.
"Hard to believe we've gotten this far." Hawkwood says with the slightest of smiles. "But let's not get too ahead of ourselves. We still have a lot to go through before we can even say we've gotten anywhere meaningful."
"Oh come on, lighten up a little." You say with a roll of your eyes.
"I'm being serious right now. We haven't even reached a single Lord of Cinder, let alone taken one down."
"Can't you just take in the view for a little bit?"
"It is quite a sight, I must say." Siegward says, leaning against a wall as he surveys the horizon with you.
Hawkwood is silent for a moment, before he sighs, resigning himself to some measure of positivity.
"Maybe if the view of Farron weren't so hazy, I might be more amenable." He points out in the distance to your left, and far away, you spot the faint outline of a massive ringed area with three flaming towers.
"What is Farron like anyhow?" You ask. He seems so fond of the place, and you would like to know some more before you actually get there.
"It's, well, it's beautiful."
"That's... vague."
"It's a forest. There are lots of trees. I'm not a poet or something."
"You can't even try?"
"It's full of verdant plantlife and teeming with countless animals. Everywhere you look, all you can see is life, and in the center of it all is Farron proper, a mighty fortress in which the Undead Legion resides as guardians of the many hamlets and villages scattered throughout. There, are you happy?" Hawkwood grumbles.
"Huh, with your personality I'd have expected it to have been a swamp or something."
"I just wish we could head directly there." Hawkwood says, pointedly ignoring your snide comment.
"Why can't we? Is there something in the way?"
"That would be the Road of Sacrifices."
"The what?"
"It's the path by which sacrifices were brought to the Cathedral of the Deep to feed Saint Aldrich." Siegward explains.
"...Eh? Who?"
"Did you not inform the young lady about Aldrich?" Siegward says, turning to Hawkwood, accusation filling his voice.
"I was going to... eventually," Hawkwood seems to admit.
"Well, that certainly won't do. You have to be prepared before you set out on a journey!"
There's an awkward pause as the two men stare at one another.
"So were you going to elaborate, or did you want me to?" Hawkwood asks.
"Quite frankly, I don't know much about Aldrich beyond the very basics myself."
"That being?"
"His name is Aldrich, and he is a Lord of Cinder."
"Alright, guess it's on me." Hawkwood mumbles to himself. "I guess now's as good a time as any for storytime."
"So, here's what I know." Hawkwood begins. "Aldrich was once a right and proper Cleric, only, he developed a habit of devouring men. He ate so many that he bloated like a drowned pig, then softened into sludge, s-"
"Question!"
"Yes, Sayaka?"
"Does cannibalism really turn people into slime?"
Hawkwood shrugs. "I'm just repeating what I've heard. All I know for sure is that he was a cleric-turned-cannibal who melted into a pile of sludge."
"Alright, so we're settling on a maybe?"
"I believe we'll be settling for maybe." Siegward adds.
"ANYWAY, after Aldrich became a pile of sludge, they stuck him in the Cathedral of the Deep."
"Oh, the place where those fat ladies are from!"
"...Sure. So, when the time to link the fire came around, they settled on the living cesspool, and he was apparently human enough for the flame to accept without consequence."
"So can only humans link the fire, or whatever?"
"The flame is rather explicit in what it deems acceptable to be kindling. If anything else is offered, there tend to be... consequences." Siegward saves with gravitas.
Hawkwood stares at Siegward for a moment, wide-eyed. "What do you mean exactly?"
"It's rather specific to each case, but in the case I know of, to abbreviate a very long, complex and fascinating story, in order to seal away a great danger, the fire was linked by the leader of a city, only for the danger to suddenly destroy the city in its entirety."
"Huh. And you're sure this was caused by them linking the flame." You ask.
"It had been under control before then. Once the flame was linked, however, this quickly changed."
"You hear that Hawkwood?" You turn to look at the man, only to find him muttering to himself nervously. "Hawkwood?
"No, the Wolf's Blood had to have been enough...
"Hawkwoooooood?"
"Eh?" Hawkwood says, seeming to come out of whatever stupor. "Oh, sorry, just... was lost in thought."
"What about?"
"Indeed, you seemed rather tense there." Siegward says, concerned.
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Hawkwood says, trying to brush away what was very much not nothing. "Let's get back on topic about Aldrich..." he pauses. "Er, where was I?"
"They tossed him into the fire, or whatever."
"Right. He was asked to be a Lord of Cinder, something which he should have refused. Instead, he accepted the request."
"They asked a slime man to be a Lord of Cinder?"
"If only we could have been there to see it happen. Must've been a rather interesting conversation." Seigward says with a nod.
"And that about sums up Aldrich. If he's anywhere, he'll likely be there." Hawkwood gestures further left, and you turn to behold one of the most ridiculous things you've seen yet. A massive church, far bigger than it has any right to be. The thing's probably the same size as the High Wall in and of itself. It's probably as big as that one place where the Pope lives. V...something city? Except it's all literally one Church. "The Cathedral of the Deep itself."
"I thought you said this was, like, a small cult or something?" You say, mouth agape.
"It was an obscure cult. Aldrich, however, legitimized it somewhat when he was raised to Sainthood. Probably. I'm just guessing at this point, though it really is hard to believe they were once that weird group of isolationist priests."
After the Cathedral you spot a part of the Settlement you haven't seen before. It looks different from the other parts, mostly due to the fact that a good portion of it is currently on fire, and there's a massive creature patrolling around it."
"What is that?" You shout out.
"That seems to be a fire demon." Siegward says, voice suddenly serious.
"A WHAT?!"
"Demons are the creatures of chaos, born long ago, although they're rather rare nowadays."
Wait, didn't Andre mention demons way back? Maybe you'd be able to get another fire gem out of this, this time without any potential guilt from using it.
"So wait, why are they so rare nowadays?"
"They were born from the flame of Chaos, like mockeries of life, but that flame has long since been extinguished." Siegward explains. "All that's left of it are the embers that still burn within the Demons themselves."
"Now hold on a minute," Hawkwood says, "before we do anything too drastic, let's think about this for a moment. Do you really think we should be attacking it?"
"What?" Siegward turns to Hawkwood.
"Yeah, what are you saying?" You add in.
"Look, the Demon is stuck in a small corner of the settlement, where there's no way for it to hurt anyone. Would it be worth the risk to bother with it, when we have no real reason to do so?"
"Hawkwood, it's literally a Demon."
"So? Demons are living, breathing, thinking" he stresses the word, "creatures. We could just continue on our way, rather than attack something that is of little threat to anyone."
"Perhaps if the creature weren't so... overheated, I would agree with you, Hawkwood, but alas, it seems that there'd be no reasoning with it in its current state."
"We don't need to reason with, we can just leave."
"And just leave such a danger to anyone who may happen by?"
"There's nobody around for it to be a danger to!"
"It's the principle of the matter."
Hawkwood lets out a sigh as Siegward turns to you. "Now, I wouldn't recommend attacking such a beast without a plan."
"I favor the plan where we don't fight it." Hawkwood calls out from behind him.
Well, looks like you're going to have to serve as a tie-breaking vote here.
[] Attack the Demon.
It's a Demon. Like, you're pretty much legally required to attack Demons. Just ignoring one, even if it is just minding its own business, is just passing the responsibility on to the next person who comes by, and they might not be able to stand a chance against the monster.
-[] Propose a plan or strategy. Otherwise you'll probably just run straight at it, since that's solved most of your problems so far.
[] Just leave the Demon alone.
It's just pacing around an abandoned area of the Settlement, minding its own business. Plus, if they really are endangered or whatever, would it really be okay killing one of the last few of them, even if they tend to be menaces to whatever they encounter. It might have, like, bad ecological effects or something.
-[] Continue on to the Path of Sacrifices
-[] Go back and finally check out that part of the Settlement you missed.
-[] Hey, the Giant won't shoot you now. Go see where that path leads!
-[] Write in
[] Try and talk to the Demon, maybe?
You'll probably fail and it'll just end up attacking you, but it's worth a shot, right? You'd be giving up a chance for a surprise attack, but who knows, maybe you'll get lucky and it'll be a friendly demon? You're sure this is a REALLY GOOD IDEA.
[] Write In
Corruption: 518/2250
"I should go back to shorter updates." he said.
"It'll be easier and go faster!" he said.
