Continuing what’s basically my journal of my journey through the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, I’m now writing part nine. I may stop at ten or I may not. We shall see.
*SPOILER WARNING*
In the last post, I was talking about why I had been procrastinating on going into the Shadow Keep. Then, as is typical of me, I got sidetracked by other thoughts buzzing in my brain. Here’s the thing. I knew that Shadow Keep was part of the main storyline. Dunno how, but I realized without going into it that it was a legacy dungeon. That meant it was going to be hard as nails. Also, I just get sucked into exploring everything but the main path. That’s one of the lures of open world games–or should be. You should be drawn to things as you’re roaming around, but all too often, it’s more, “Well, I guess I have to go liberate this radio tower” or whatever. Ahem.
In Elden Ring, the environment is laid out so that your eye is constantly being drawn one way or the other. Many times, it’s done by having an item in a direction the devs want you to go. Sometimes, that’s a red herring, though, as it’s just drawing you into a group of enemies. FromSoft is great at breadcrumbing where to go, even if it’s too subtle at times.
Once I was finally in the Shadow Keep proper, I was hopelessly lost. It’s so windy and everything looks the same. It reminded me of Aldia’s Keep from the second Dark Souls game, but it also reminded me of the Duke’s Arcchives from the first and the Grand Archives from the third. Lots of rows of books and a lever that slides some books over so you have a shortcut. I’m sure I missed a bunch of stuff because I could not keep it all straight in my mind. By the time I got to the end of it, I just wanted to get out of it. Which means I missed the way to–I’ll get to that later. Or not.
I made my way to the boss door. I did not see a golden summon sign, which surprised me. I expected to be able to summon an NPC for the fight. I didn’t know who it was going to be, but I knew it would be a big fight. Oh, earlier, I ran into two summon signs that were side by side. One was red and it was Needle Knight Leda. The other was golden, and it was the Hornsent.
I had met both of them earlier. The hornsent hates everyone who doesn’t have horns because their kind have been persecuted for their horns. Did not blame them. I would hate everyone else in their position, too. They told me that we were buddies only as long as we both served Kind Miquella.
At some point, there was a message across the screen that the accord had been broken. I don’t know what procked it, but it meant that all the friends you thought you had made were no longer friends. Two of the main NPCs involved in this were Hornsent and Needle Knight Leda. In talking to them after, Hornsent was just hostile at Tarnished in general (which, again, I get. Their people were being tormented simply for having horns). Needle Knight Leda, on the other hand, was uncomfortably strident against the horned people. She was a zealot, and I do not like zealots. At all.
When I came across their duel/dual summoning signs, I was torn. Well, rather, I was frozen because I did not want to make the wrong choice. In From games, there are no good choices, really. There are only less-bad choices. Now. Given that Hornsent’s sign was in gold and Needle Knight Leda’s was in red, my immediate thought was that you’re supposed to side with Hornsent. But was that just because I liked them better, anyway? No. In the From games, golden summoning signs are from an elite class of summons. Solaire in the OG Dark Souls was the ultimate (and first) sunbro summon. Red summoning signs are for when you want to invade (and they invite you in).
In the main game, there are two times when you have a choice of a red summoning sign and a golden one. Both times are at the end of very elaborate and intricate questlines. The first is Sorceress Sellen’s quest, which sends you all over the map to get bits and pieces of her old masters. Witch-Hunter Jeren is chasing her down–as you can see early in the game in the Weeping Peninsula. If you stumble over the Witchbane Ruins, you’ll see Sellen’s body chained up. It’s clear she’s been tortured, and depending on when you end up here, you may see Jerren there as well.
Al this culminates in you going back to the Raya Lucaria Grand Parlor where you fought Rennala Queen of the Full Moon, probably dozens of hours ago. Outside the door, you will find Sellen’s summon sign in gold and Jerren’s in red. You get to choose who you want to assist in this long and twisty questline.
The other is Millicent and her sisters. This is a whole different but equally (if not more so) elaborate questline. You have to beat a boss just so you can even talk to Millicent for the first time (at the behest of Gowry, an NPC). Whether you do this or not, she will invade you at the Swamp of Aeonia (where the boss you have to kill resides). Once you talk to her, she departs on her journey. Then, you have to find and talk to her at different points on the map. You also have to go to an optional area to find a prosthetic to give to her. After that, you can summon her to help you with a few fights.
Keep talking to her and Gowry throughout the game and you will eventually end up having to choose between helping her and helping her sisters in a fight. Adopted sisters. Gowry is the father figure–and, honestly, a jerk. But he gives me great sorceries and incantations, so I forgive him somewhat.
Millicent is one of my favorite NPCs in the game. I really admire her desire to be her own woman, especially as it means going against her adoptive father–and her four adoptive sisters. Helping her against them was so fucking hard as a squishy mage. I had to cheese it by using Shabriri’s Woe (talisman) to draw the attackers’ attention to me (something I really don’t want to do on the regular) and then Hoarfrost Stomping them repeatedly. This was a tactic suggested online, and I don’t know if I could have done it otherwise.
Millicent has a lot of HP, but there are four sisters. If I tried to fight them legitimately, they killed her before I could kill more than one of the sisters. In addition, they all hit really hard. With my sliver of health, I could not withstand much hitting from them. And my lack of poise. In adidtion, you’re fighting in an area that is steeped in Scarlet Rot. Having to avoid that at the same time was annoying AF. And, of course, they were all immune to Scarlet Rot themselves, which meant one of my weapons was not useful at all in this fight.
That’s it for now. More tomorrow!