LogFAQs > #967708843

We face a new enemy in the cave, walking oysters. Coolest thing about these is instead of pearls they have a collection of skulls inside them. Then Seath shows up and we unexpectedly have to fight him here! I suppose he came over to stop us from breaking his regenerative crystal. But I soon realise the game, and then start hacking away at- oh there's a status bar filling up. Oh, I'm cursed now, whatever that means. Oh, I'm dead now. Oh, I'm still cursed. Oh, dear.

This is my first time being cursed, and I vaguely recall someone mentioning it being a pain with the frogs back in the Depths. The game tells me to use a certain item to heal or visit the healer in New Londo (the samurai guy? He's the only friendly NPC I remember over there, but I don't recall him specifically being a healer). I don't have whatever item is needed on me, and I don't fancy trying the boss again with half health, so I take the risk and warp out of the archives to look for a cure.

Before descending into Ghosttown I decide to try the friendly totally-not-hollow lady in the sewer by Undead Burg, she usually has important items we need for the story on her (moss, transient curse etc). And yep, wouldn't you know it she does have what we need! I grab an extra one just in case, and then gear up with the most anti-curse stuff I have. I get my curse resistance up to around 219 thanks to the Cursebite Ring and Dingy Armour I'm wearing. Our defences are lower now but that's the trade-off we have to take, so it's back to Seath! Thankfully we can warp straight back to the Archives.

OK, detour over, it's time to fight this dragon for real. The curse resistance works like a charm, I don't have to worry about that at all here. Seath takes me quite some time to defeat, but despite all the deaths it kinda feels good to be back into a solid boss rhythm after a few disappointing battles. For a while I'm stumbling pretty blindly being caught off guard by some of his attacks, I have a hard time figuring out what move Seath is going to use when. But with each attempt I learn a bit more and I eventually see/hear his tells. I keep the camera untargeted but tilted up so I can see his upper body and what his arms are doing, and he makes a distinctive sound when gearing up for the massive crystal attack that's a pain in the ass. No matter how safe I know I am, my heart starts racing whenever I have to sprint away from him before those crystals light me up.

The most frustrating part of this fight is the two minute run from the bonfire to the arena, but it does give me time to think. I'm not saying I get this fight nailed down, I still have a rough time telling when he's gonna breathe crystals directly on me and when he's not, but after one attempt where I die a tiny bit from the end, I get it done. I actually run out of potions on this final try, and in a risky move I run across the arena to buy myself time to open the menu and equip humanity to give me a HP boost >_> It works though! Another lord down. My armour is at risk but who cares, I doubt I'll be using it again any time soon. Why Seath didn't take me back to the prison after each death I do not know.

Grand_Kirby posted...

I don't know how well you explored the level, but there's a key item that explains what's going on here and... it's pretty interesting.

I read all the keys I've gotten, and learn some basic lore about the place, but what goes on in the basement remains a juicy secret. I then head back to the jail to use the last key, and realise that the crying woman I heard earlier was one of the snake creatures. Poor thing, I leave her be of course. There's a corpse with a fire keeper soul inside the cell. So Seath was capturing maidens for experiments and the 'mistakes' turn into those snake things, but what was the purpose of the experiment? I feel like there's important info I still don't have, but I think I've scoured this place pretty thoroughly. Should I keep looking around before bidding farewell to the archives?

Either way, I've had a great time with this level, solid stuff throughout.