After gaining the assistance of the giant archer that had killed Tirek, who seemed rather friendly despite what he had done to them, and helping Siegward with his problems in the tower, both in terms of the lift puzzle that had bothered him and the fiery beast that was outside the tower, Tirek and his companions headed back to the last bonfire they had rested at, the one that was near the arch the giant liked firing arrows at. Since they had cleared out the sewer that would allow them to reach the area in question, as there were no more rats in that area, it didn't take them all that long to reach their destination, and that was including the fact that they had killed all of the enemies that had been guarding the outside of the sewer, even if they would be coming back once one of them rested at the bonfire. Now that they had found out what was inside the tower, and had discovered a path that was being guarded by an icy knight that had killed them, they knew they had to prepare for a tough fight if they wanted to progress to where one of the Lords of Cinder rested, as those powerful beings were the goal of their quest, or at least they were the main targets of Tirek's personal quest. Still, he was eager to see if Yoel had regained enough power to draw out more of his strength, as the last time he did that he gained five percent of his true power and it was possible that doing it a few more times might be the key to gaining the power to take out everything in his path, to make everything that much easier for them.
When they arrived at the bonfire in question, however, Sarana and Martok sat down by the bonfire and Tirek quickly joined them, to which they focused their minds and headed back to the shrine that was their main base of operations, as it was time to visit the Fire Keeper again and empower themselves with the souls they had gathered, as well as visit Yoel and see if he was ready. Just like the last couple of times they visited the Fire Keeper the group crushed any of the lost souls that they picked up along their journey, while not touching the soul of the large guardian of the Great Gate, before they used those souls to empower themselves even more than they already were, though Tirek noted that this wasn't the same as what happened when Yoel assisted him. Once that was done Tirek stepped back and studied the area that they were in once more, just to see if there were any new arrivals in the shrine that he wanted to talk to before he sought out Yoel, where he found the lone figure standing near the highest throne again, so while Sarana and Martok were finishing their sessions with the Fire Keeper he walked up the steps and approached the figure. While he wasn't terribly interested in the various people of the shrine, or their histories, he knew that some of them might be useful in some manner, just like how useful Yoel turned out to be to his quest, so he figured he would check and see if his thoughts were correct, before he did anything else.
"Well, hasn't it been some time. I'm Leonhard, the Ringfinger." the man stated, showing that he knew Tirek had to be coming up the stairs to talk to him and that he was eager to talk to him for some reason, though that made things much easier for Tirek, since he didn't have to say anything this time around, before he tilted his head a little, "You do remember me, don't you? I slipped you those red eyes some time ago."
"Ah yes, the red orbs you gave me." Tirek remarked, recalling the cracked orbs that he had been given the last time the two of them had spoken to each other, which had been the last time they saw each other, though he still wasn't sure what the odd red orbs were supposed to do, since none of them had used the orbs since they had been handed over to him, but he decided not to mention that fact.
"You're making quite an effort of it." Leonhard replied, to which Tirek raised an eyebrow for a moment, making him wonder if the tongue they had picked up earlier was the cause for the man to say something like that, even if it might be wrong of him to say it, but Tirek said nothing as the man continued talking, "So I thought you might want to know a small bit of information that might be useful to someone like you. If you yearn for a proper red eye orb, one that is uncracked... then kill the Darkwraith, survivor of the land swallowed by darkness. He has been a prisoner, for many ages, and is currently resting in the deepest cell in all Lothric..."
Tirek had to admit that this seemed interesting, not that he planned on even heading back to the castle, but he did accept the key that Leonhard handed to him and pocketed it, where it appeared that this was the last thing the man had to say for the moment, to which he headed back down the steps and rejoined Sarana and Martok as they made their way over to the side passage that Yoel was resting in at the moment.
"Yoel, you seem to have recovered from our previous session." Tirek commented, because while he really couldn't see anything that would suggest that, due to all of the material that was covering the pilgrim's face, his movements did look like he had been able to gather his strength and had recovered from what he was talking about, though at the same time the pilgrim turned to face him for a few seconds.
"Oh, our Champion of Ash, you have returned." Yoel replied, showing that he must have been lost in thought for a few seconds and that Tirek's voice was the reason that he had snapped out of his thoughts, though even as that happened he seemed to consider what had been said for a couple of seconds, before even saying anything else, "And yes, my strength has returned to me, so I am now able to draw out more of your true strength, if you still desire such a thing."
Tirek didn't have to hear that twice, as the moment Yoel said that he could draw out more of his true strength Tirek had him do so, where the pilgrim gathered his power and focused it on his body, where Tirek watched as more of his old youth was returned to his arms and legs, along with the rest of his body that he couldn't see thanks to his robes, before he felt his power rise once more, just like the last time. Based on his estimates he had to assume that Yoel had granted him the ability to use ten percent of his total power, still nowhere near what he was shooting for, but this would make many of their fights in the Undead Settlement that much easier, especially against the evangelists that seemed to be the problem at the moment. The other thing he determined was that he had to be around a seventy year old person, even if that might be wrong since he hadn't seen any old people like that in this world, due to it being hard to tell old people from hollows and the fact that most of the people that actually talked to them seemed to be covering their faces in some sort of armor, except for a rare few. Either way, he was on the right track to recovering his power and his former body, even if he was stuck in this new form of his, though he would have to wait for Yoel to recover some more, due to the fact that this took a lot of energy on his part, especially with how vast his former powers had been, so when the pilgrim stopped what he was doing Tirek simply nodded his head as he stood up, the only sign of thanks anyone would get out of him.
Once Yoel was done drawing out his strength, and huffed for a moment to indicate that he needed some time before they could do this again, Tirek and his companions headed back to the bonfire and used it to teleport back to the area that was just before the resting place of the white tree, as there were some items he knew they needed to collect before they even attempted to enter the church or face the icy knight again.
"Now that the giant is on our side, we can focus on clearing out this area, and then, once that's done, we can head for the side of the church that someone locked the entrance to." Tirek remarked, because getting a new level of power meant he would be able to hold his own for a time, at least against the foes they were currently facing, and knew that it was only a matter of time until they encountered a foe that would replace the evangelists and the icy knight, to which he stepped forward and headed into the area in question.
"And we don't have to worry about the hollows." Martok added, though as he and Sarana followed Tirek into the area that was beyond the ruined building, and the arch that rested next to it, they watched as the giant loosed an arrow into the air and smashed the hollows that were standing near the tree, proving that both he and Tirek were correct, though while their new ally focused on the enemies they turned their attention to the items that were around them.
Tirek didn't much care for the couple of branches that had fallen from the tree, and neither did his companions from what he saw a few seconds after he spotted the items in question, though he did find a weakened lost soul, one of the odd embers they kept finding, and a larger lost soul, but as he pocketed those items Sarana jumped over to the broken part of the ground, that one that was separated from the rest of the area, and actually found something of use, which Tirek found out was a bone shard of some kind, when she returned to him.
"I think its an Undead Bone Shard," Sarana informed him, knowing that Tirek would be interested in the shard, since she did risk falling into the gaping hole between this area and the rest of the settlement, before she stored the bone shard away as she started to move away from where they had been standing, "supposedly if we burn this at the bonfire at the shrine we'll be able to increase the power of our Estus Flasks, meaning they'll be able to heal more when we use them, which might come in handy at some point in the future."
That, in Tirek's mind, was definitely something to keep an eye out for, because as far as he was concerned anything that was connected to the Estus Flasks was important, as the bottle shards allowed them to add another bottle to each of their piles, meaning they could last longer in battle, and increasing the potency of each bottle meant they wouldn't have to use them as often, making him wonder how many more shards they could pick up in the future. After he considered that he noticed that Martok found a club of some kind, one that seemed reinforced despite the fact that none of them were going to use a weapon like that, before they headed up into the area that the graves were in and kept an eye out for any items that might be useful to them and their quest. It wasn't long before Martok found a group of items that made them pause for a few seconds, a set of cloth armor that looked like it had belonged to a cleric at some point and a wooden shield that had blue paint on part of it, though as he stored those items inside his pack Sarana jumped into the air and stabbed the thrall that tried to jump down and impale the large warrior, who Tirek was convinced was starting to act like he might have lost his mind, since he should have heard that coming sooner. Fortunately it didn't take Sarana that long to cut down the lone thrall, allowing them to explore the rest of the gravestones for any additional loot they might be able to use in the future, even if Tirek was starting to think that their luck was horrible when they did this, and all they found in the last reaches of the area were some ashes, which Sarana collected since she determined that they were different from the rest of the ashes they had seen so far.
Once that was done they headed over to the building that had a number of arrows sticking out of it, meaning that the giant must have been attacking someone before they even came to the settlement, and inside they found a lone peasant hollow that happened to have red eyes, but, as it turned out, it didn't take the three of them long to take the hollow down so they could walk up the ruined stairs he had been guarding. What they discovered was a path that would take them right to the side of the church, meaning they could get around the locked door with ease, though before they did that Sarana jumped over to another part of the building that they could access, where she quickly returned with a scythe, a weapon that was a pole with a curved blade at the top of it, but Tirek did notice that the pole was curved in some spots, making it a dangerous weapon to leave laying around. If Tirek was anywhere near his younger form, and didn't have the old and frail body that he was stuck with at the moment, he would have taken that weapon and let the heads roll, but for now he had Sarana put it with the rest of their gear as they headed through the side passage and finally entered the church, meaning they would be able to see if there was a Lord of Cinder here or if there was another powerful creature for them to take out and acquire the soul of. As they reached the area that the locked door was in, however, Martok stepped to the right and proceeded to open the door, just in the off chance they died during their visit to the church, as it would mean they could switch bonfires and take a shorter route to get back to their souls, before the three of them turned around and faced the area that was in front of them.
What they discovered was a massive courtyard that rested between where they were standing and the other side of the church, though the major thing that caught their attention was the large ugly tree that happened to be growing in the far left corner of the courtyard, which just so happened to be where a number of hollows were praying and worshipping the tree, but that didn't stop them from entering the area with their weapons at the ready. As they entered the area they discovered a few more trees that lined the other corners of the courtyard and a number of flowers that rested in the middle of the area, but Tirek knew that it was strange for all of this to be happening and readied himself, as he knew there was going to be an ambush of some kind happening soon enough. When they approached the halfway point of the area some of the hollows stopped praying and charged at them, intending to take them out before they could even approach the tree, or at least that was what the trio thought for a few seconds, hence why they engaged the incoming hollows and defended themselves, cutting down the couple of attackers that happened to be coming their way. What caught them by surprise for a moment was when the large tree started to move, revealing arms and legs like what a person had, along with some odd colored spherical objects in the groin area, but it seemed to turn and focus on them, indicating that they had found a powerful creature to take on, even if it wasn't a Lord of Cinder.
As it turned out the creature wasn't all that affected by Tirek's empowered Soul Arrows, as he struck the beast in the chest area and his spell seemed to break upon the bark that was protecting the creature, while at the same time Martok's blade bit into the wood that made up their foe's limps and seemed to do nothing, save for leaving a mark where he had struck the beast. The creature, in turn, had a few surprises for them, as it lashed out at them with its feet, intending to hit one of them and knock them through the air so they would collide with one of the walls in this area, and it even tried rolling at whoever it was targeting, something that Tirek wasn't about to question since he had no idea if the creature even had any eyes to begin with, and that wasn't the end of what this beast could do. Apparently there were even more hollows than what they had originally saw when they first entered this courtyard, as now that the creature was fighting them the rest of the guardian hollows rushed out to engage the trio as they worked to figure out a way to actually damage this foe, to which Tirek decided to leave that up to Sarana and Martok, the former dodging the incoming attacks as she studied the massive tree while the latter continued his pointless assault, even if that meant killing more of the peasant hollows that happened to reach him. What Tirek did was pull out the scythe they had picked up and focused some of his available magic into powering a telekinesis spell, where he made sure the weapon was moving through the air as he targeted the rest of the invading hollows, cutting the peasants down before they could reach him for his companions, thus allowing Sarana and Martok to focus on figuring out their foe's weakness, if he even had one.
It took them a minute or two to discover anything, but it was thanks to Sarana that they knew what sort of spot they should be focusing on, as she dodged one of the incoming attacks and decided to strike the balls that they had spotted when the tree started moving, which seemed to be the weak spot based on how the creature moved when she sliced into them the first time. Tirek nodded his head as both of his companions went to town on the area that Sarana had attacked, weakening the creature in the process while he used his magic and their new weapon to cut down any hollows that tried to interfere with what was going on, though that was soon followed by the sack exploding and the creature being forced to fall to one knee for a moment, showing that they had been successful. That was, however, when their foe pressed its arms and legs against the stone floor that they were standing on and pushed itself high into the air, though not a few seconds later it let go and crashed its rear into the floor, where they watched as the entire floor buckled and collapsed under them, dropping them down into a massive hole in the ground that seemed to be a second fighting area of some kind, though they didn't have the time to look at the area in question as each of them somehow survived the fall and landed a short distance from where their foe fell. That told Tirek that they weren't done, that there were more spots that they needed to destroy in order to bring the tree down and leave this area, to which he slipped the scythe back into his pack and focused on turning all of his magic into arrows, normal sized and Heavy sized, so he could help his companions, especially since he now knew how to damage the beast they were fighting.
Of course that was when they watched as the beast's chest area seemed to open and it produced a white arm, but in the process of doing that it also exposed another set of eggs for them to target, meaning they had three egg areas to pick from, the new ones on its chest, the ones on its back, and the ones on the elbow, which would be the harder ones to hit, and there was also the arm itself if they got desperate. As Sarana and Martok separated from where Tirek was standing, so they could target some of the other pods that would damage their opponent, Tirek made sure to blast the tree's chest and hit the pods that were below the white arm, as he was sure that hitting that area would deal great damage to their foe and make this fight end that much faster. In fact what happened next, just as his companions took their positions and waited for an opening to show up so they could lash out at the pods, the tree's white hand lashed out and grabbed onto Tirek before he could even move out of the way, where it lifted him up into the air and then slammed him down into the floor, smashing his face into the water in the process, before releasing him and pulled back, which was the moment that it came back down as if it was swatting a fly, crushing him into the watery floor they were standing on. Tirek, despite the fact that he was now one of the land's cursed undead, something he was still curious about, he could feel the pain his body was in from that beating, making him wonder if letting Yoel draw out his true strength might be nullifying part of the curse that everyone else in this land seemed to be afflicted with, save for some people based on what he had seen so far.
Once he recovered from the tree's attack, as it ignored him for a few moments, Tirek got up and gathered his magic for a moment, where he blasted their foe whenever he showed off the weaknesses that would do massive damage to it when one of them took significant damage to explode, but as he did that, however, the tree grabbed him once more and proceeded to smash him into the ground again, this time causing him to black out... where he reappeared at the bonfire with a frown on his face, mostly due to this getting annoying.
"Back here again... great, just great." Tirek commented, mostly because he was talking to himself at the moment and would have to wait and see if Sarana and Martok returned to his side or if they succeeded in taking down the tree without him, and if it was the latter it would make it seem like he was the weakest link of the group, once more making him focus on recovering his full power so he could dominate their enemies.
As he sat there, thinking about how useless his body was when it came to fighting the faster enemies of this land, the ones like the tree and the large ice knight they fought back in the castle, or even the Dancer for that matter, the air around the bonfire shimmered for a moment as both Sarana and Martok eventually returned to his side, where he glared at them for a few seconds, mostly because he hoped they had beaten the tree so they could move forward... though that was when he noticed that neither of them had the ember state, telling him what happened.
"I hope you didn't die because you pitied me," Tirek remarked, because he could handle if the tree had killed his two companions after he was slain in battle, as it made sense when he considered the power the tree held, but if they died to rejoin him, so they could tackle it again, he was going to be annoyed with them and would have some words for them if that was the case.
"No, the tree crushed Martok with its back and smashed me into the ground soon after that." Sarana replied, telling him that they had died in battle, just like how he had been slain by the tree after they fell into the open chamber that was below where their foe had been located the first time around, though at the very least they had survived a bit longer in the fight and knew more about the creature than he did.
"I see. Then I guess we had better get back to the tree and wreck it," Tirek said, to which he picked himself up from where he was sitting and headed back towards the path that would take them right back to the location of the church the tree was located in, as he mostly wanted his souls back and knew that would require waking the tree up, especially if their souls were in the bottom area they had fallen into, but time would tell.
It didn't take the three of them long to take out the manservant that was in the way, allowing their giant ally to loose a few arrows and knock out all of the enemies that were near the birch tree he seemed to be targeting, before they made their way through the ruined building and entered the side passage that allowed them to enter the church, even though it was in that moment that Tirek realized they could have used the other bonfire to get here quicker, but in the end he did prefer the path they took to reach this point. What they found, as they returned to the courtyard, was that there was one of the Fog Doors, as Sarana called them earlier, resting over the entrance of the area that their souls were in, to which the three of them passed through the door and entered the chamber that the tree was in, and this time it was more active than what it had been like when they first entered this area. The first thing Tirek and his companions did was make their way to the areas their souls were located in, allowing them to pick them up, before they focused on the tree and not the peasant hollows that weren't even a threat to them, as they knew that once the first set of pods was destroyed the tree would force them to fall into the lower area and that would kill all of its allies in the process. This time around, thanks to the knowledge that they had on how their foe moved around this area and the attacks he had, it was rather easy for them to target the first group of pods and then, when they had taken enough damage, forced them to explode and cause the tree to stagger, before it raised itself and then slammed its rear into the floor.
Tirek, Sarana, and Martok were more than ready for the floor to shatter on them this time around, to which all three of them made sure they were ready to go the moment they landed on the watery floor, as Sarana headed to the back to focus on the pods that happened to be on the tree's back and Martok focused on distracting the white hand, where Tirek gathered his power and used his Heavy Soul Arrows on the pods near the white hand. That actually proved to be a rather effective strategy for this foe, as not a few moments after they started the second phase of the battle Sarana succeeded in breaking the weaker pods on the tree's back and caused it to stagger for a moment, though as that happened Tirek did notice that there were two smaller pods on the tree's left hand, something that Martok seemed to be waiting for because the moment the hand came down near him he lashed at it and shattered those pods, causing the tree to shift in pain as that happened. That, in turn, allowed Tirek to focus his efforts on the large set of pods that the white hand had revealed to him and his companions, blasting them with his Heavy Soul Arrows so he could do the maximum amount of damage he could possibly do to them, especially with how limited the spells seemed to be in this land, though what was interesting was that the tree moved a little and one of his spells struck the pod that was attached to the underside of their foe's right leg, causing further damage in the process, much to the surprise of the entire group. With the tree stunned for a second or two, and the white hand doing nothing for those seconds, Tirek, Sarana, and Martok lashed out at the main pod area that remained and caused the entire thing to explode within a matter of seconds, causing the tree to fall backwards the instant the pods were taken care of.
The three of them watched as the tree dissolved before their eyes, along with their ember states returning to them as a mass of soul energy flowed through each of them, giving all of them the soul of the powerful creature they had taken out as well, to which they started to walk over towards the shrine that was near the bonfire that revealed itself, but as they did that Tirek found an odd crystalline object and claimed it, figuring that it had to be important if a creature like the tree had been in possession of it.
"I wonder if that is what Ludleth wanted us to find for him," Sarana commented, as she noticed the item that Tirek had picked up and pocketed, even if she really had no idea if that was the Transposing Kiln the Lord of Cinder wanted them to get for him, but even as she said that she knew they would figure that out when they got back to the shrine, before even attempting to head out and face the icy knight again.
"We shall see." Tirek stated, to which he and his companions came to a stop at the bonfire and lit it, where they rested at it and proceeded to envision the area that they would be heading to next, as he figured that making a quick stop at the shrine was in order, to spend the souls they had picked up, before they headed back to where the last foe stood so they could move into the next part of this land.
It didn't take the group long to return to the shrine, which Tirek still didn't know if it had a name or not, and when the three of them appeared in their destination they stretched for a few moments as they started to move towards the Fire Keeper, mostly so they could spend their souls and empower themselves for the future, where Tirek did feel some of his former power returning, a small fraction of what Yoel could give him, before he stepped away from the Fire Keeper and walked over to Ludleth was sitting.
"Ah, Ashen One, I see that you and your allies have returned once more," Ludleth commented, where his tone seemed to suggest that he was thinking about what happened the last time they talked, as in the fact that he mentioned what he used to do before he became a Lord of Cinder and that he had asked them to seek an item for him to use, though this time around Tirek had good news for him, "So tell me, did you and your companions come across anything interesting in your latest travels?"
"Actually, we found a powerful being in the Undead Settlement and slew it," Tirek replied, to which he reached into his pack and withdrew the crystalline item that they had recovered from the massive tree that had tried to crush them, even if it had killed them once before, before he held his hand out and presented the kiln to the Lord that was on his throne, "and this is what we found after slaying the beast... am I correct in assuming that this is what you were asking for?"
"Oh, let me see..." Ludleth said, where he picked up the item that Tirek was holding and studied it for a few moments, showing that he was interested in what they had found during their visit to the Undead Settlement, before he nodded his head for a few seconds as he focused on Tirek again, "Indeed, you and your companions have found a Transposing Kiln, one that has definitely seen better days, but... I think it shall suffice for our needs. Now that it is in our possession, you can bring me a twisted soul, found from the more powerful creatures of this land, like the one that was guarding the area that you found this in, and I can show you the art of Transposition."
"You mentioned earlier that Transposition is the art of extracting, and coalescing, the essence of a soul, right?" Tirek inquired, because that was what he recalled Ludleth telling him and his companions that piece of information some time ago, before he made the request for them to find one of the kilns that was now in his possession, though he had to admit that the art interested him a little and that he was curious as to what sort of things they could make.
"Indeed, though when transposing a twisted soul, much like the creature you fought, its true power is transferred into an item for you to use, be that item a weapon, a ring, or a spell." Ludleth confirmed, showing Tirek that he was correct in what he had said, even if he was just mimicking what he had been told earlier, before he considered something else as he gazed at his new kiln, "Your purpose is to seek the missing Lords of Cinder and slay them, so you can return them to their thrones. So, what is there to fear in a little Transposition?"
"Nothing, if it helps us out in our quest." Tirek stated, because he understood that if the various items a powerful soul could create were as powerful as Ludleth was making them out to be, even if he hadn't seen one of them yet, than having one or more of them in their possession might help him and his companions in their quest, though his statement seemed to appease the Lord of Cinder that was sitting in front of him.
Of course Tirek only had two powerful souls on him, the soul of the large knight from the castle, Vordt as Ludleth called him, and the soul of the Greatwood, the tree creature they had just beaten, where he had to assume that handing the souls over to Ludleth gave him an idea of who they belonged to some time ago, meaning that using his kiln was a good way to figure out the names of the foes they had slain. What he determined was that Vordt's soul gave him the ability to create a massive two-handed hammer, one that looked like the very weapon their foe had used against them when they tried to open the Great Gate, or he could create a ring with a black stone set inside it, while the Greatwood's soul could give him either a interesting looking spear or a greatsword, both of which looked rather interesting. In the end Tirek didn't transform the souls into something else, mostly because he didn't have the power to wield those weapons at the moment, and informed Ludleth that they would return once more twisted souls had been acquired, to which the Lord smiled as he returned the two twisted souls to him. With that done, and the pair of twisted souls were back where they belonged, he stepped down to where his companions were standing and then headed towards the area that the smith was in, as off to the right he spotted Cornyx sitting off to the side, to which he walked down to where the pyromancer was resting, mostly to see what he had to say now that he was in the shrine with the others they had recruited so far.
"Ah, there you are, Unkindled One." Cornyx said, informing Tirek that he must have been waiting for him to arrive at some point, especially after the pyromancer had agreed to teach him the knowledge of this world's fire magic, which could give him an edge in the future if they found an enemy that was weak to fire spells, "I wish to express my gratitude to you, for trusting a lowly pyromancer, and allowing me to gaze upon this majestic flame. As promised you earlier, I will impart my knowledge pyromancies to you, but first you will need a flame of your own."
"A flame?" Tirek inquired, though that was when Cornyx produced a red-orange flame from his hand, one that didn't look like an actual spell when he stared at it, and took it with his right hand when the man beckoned for him to take it, but as he did that he got the feeling that this item would allow him to access the fire spells that Cornyx had to offer him, which would help them in the future.
"Indeed, that is a Pyromancy Flame, the catalyst to use pyromancies." Cornyx replied, though at the same time he did smile as he watched Tirek look at the item he had given him, as it appeared that he might have been right about all of this being a fine chance meeting between the two of them, before he opened his mouth to say one more thing before Tirek and his companions, when they regrouped, left the shrine, "Just be careful... you don't burn yourself with it."
Tirek, upon finding that he didn't have any souls at the moment, realized that he wouldn't be able to use the flame at all right now, but that didn't stop him from nodding his head to Cornyx as he headed back to where his companions were waiting for him, as it was time for them to return to the Undead Settlement and make their way to the location of the icy knight, so they could progress towards a brand new area and, hopefully, eventually locate one of the three missing Lords of Cinder.