"So, what now?" Tirek asked, waiting for him, Sarana, and Martok to return to the shrine before he asked the question, as he had been under the impression that Aldrich, the first Lord of Cinder they were supposed to find, was going to be resting in the Cathedral of the Deep, but all they had found was a group of his Deacons and took them down, gaining the soul of yet another powerful creature for them to use in Ludleth's kiln.
"First, we empower ourselves." Sarana replied, as she knew that Tirek was annoyed by what they had discovered, and truth be told she was also annoyed by that information, because she was also expecting Aldrich to be inside the Cathedral of the Deep, but, at the same time, she had noticed something that would interest her companion, since Martok was the one that was speaking to the Fire Keeper right now, "While we're doing that, you can walk over to the thrones and talk to Anri, as it seems like she's returned to the shrine as well, meaning she might have some information for you to think about, though I'll also be thinking of where our target could have gone."
Tirek raised an eyebrow for a moment and found that Anri was definitely standing near Ludleth's throne, which was interesting since he wasn't expecting to see her again, along with the fact that Horace was positioned near her, no doubt to make sure she remained safe and sound until whatever quest they were on was brought to an end, to which he left Sarana and Martok to what they were doing and approached the lady that had told them about the cathedral.
"Anri, it seems that you're doing well." Tirek commented, making sure that the lady heard him and that she turned her head to face him, or at least the face of her helmet was shifted to look in his direction, while at the same time Horace took a moment to make sure he didn't mean her any harm before allowing him to approach his companion, even though Tirek was tempted to set the knight on fire for that glance.
"Oh, Tirek, we meet again." Anri said, showing that she did remember him, which wasn't hard to do since he was one of the more unique people in this world by the looks of things, but at the same time he could tell that she was preoccupied by something, as she glanced over at the throne that had to be Aldrich's for a few seconds, "I am pleased to see that you and your companions are safe. Horace and I reached the Cathedral of the Deep, just as we planned, and we had to fight our way to the final chamber, but unfortunately Aldrich's coffin was empty and was guarded by his Deacons. That means the man-eater must have left for his true home... the little doll that we discovered told me what we needed to know, even if we wish he had been inside his coffin."
"His true home?" Tirek inquired, though he supposed that such a thing made sense as he thought about it, that one of the first places anyone would think to look would be the place where something or someone was buried, while leaving the place the target in question came from to be one of the last places anyone would think to look, if the target didn't leave an item like the doll behind to let hunters figure out where they had gone.
"Yes, Aldrich is said to hail from Irithyll in the Boreal Valley, an ancient fabled city..." Anri replied, where she considered what she was saying for a moment, almost as if someone had told her that piece of information and she was having some trouble trying to figure out if that information was correct, before she tilted her head for a moment, "A pilgrim told me that the city lies beyond Farron Keep, where the Abyss Watchers rest, which becomes our next destination."
Tirek raised an eyebrow to that, as he wasn't expecting that information to be given to him, before he bid Anri farewell for now and headed for the area that Yoel had claimed as his home, because the mention of a pilgrim made him wonder if one of the other pilgrims had a hand in what was happening and figured that Yoel would know something... but when he arrived in the area that Yoel lived in he found the pilgrim laying on the ground, dead from exhausting his life force, and found a lady, who was wearing all black armor and a beak-like helm, standing nearby.
"...Oh, tell me... are you good Yoel's master?" the lady asked, her tone revealing that, while she was expecting one of the others to come and check on the pilgrim at some point, she wasn't expecting to be discovered so soon, and judging by how Yoel's body looked Tirek had to assume he had died shortly after his power had been raised to twenty-five percent, and that the lady must have arrived some time ago.
"I am the one that Yoel called Lord for some time, before his demise." Tirek answered, though even as he said that he had the feeling that this lady was important in some manner, hence the reason that he was even answering her question, as he suspected she wasn't the one behind what happened to Yoel, before be beckoned to himself, "I am Tirek, soon to be Lord of this world."
"I am Yuria of Londor, a close friend of his. Thanks to thee, Yoel's soul is redeemed." the lady, Yuria, replied, where she bowed her head a little, as if she was trying to show that she was grateful for what he had done, in allowing Yoel to use his power to awaken the true strength of one of the Unkindled that wandered the land, "Allow me to express my gratitude, in his stead. There is another matter, if you are willing to talk. You said that you are a Lord, correct? And, as it turns out, you bare the Dark Sigil, meaning that you might be our Lord of Hollows. For the time that you remain our Lord, we of Londor shall serve you, and I, of course, am also yours."
Tirek chuckled a little at that, as he wasn't expecting that he would gain some allies by allowing Yoel to draw out his true strength, but he informed Yuria that he would be back in the future and that they would talk about other things when he did that, to which he headed back to the bonfire and found that his companions were done with the Fire Keeper and were waiting for him to arrive, and Martok had a key to something they would check out later, where he used the souls he had gained and empowered himself even more, before they used the bonfire to return to the woods that they had been in earlier that day.
"Okay, according to Anri, the road to Aldrich lies through Farron Keep, which means we have to find and take out the Abyss Watchers first." Tirek stated, though at the same time they moved away from the bonfire that they had appeared at and walked down the path that lead to the water, letting Sarana and Martok deal with the undead dog and the pair of pike hollows that were nearby, only to pause as he felt something in the air, "But now we pay the price for entering this area in an embered state again, as we've got three more Invaders trespassing in our world... though this time around we're much stronger than we used to be and can handle what's coming our way."
Sarana sighed for a moment, as this wasn't what they needed at the moment, before they headed into the ruins that were behind them, since she had the feeling that any Invaders would arrive by the passage that would allow them to head into Farron Keep or the ramp that lead back to the Road of Sacrifices, basically trapping them in one area and preventing them from moving forward, but this time around she had a different plan than what happened the last time they had to deal with some Invaders. What she wanted to do was make sure the Invaders knew the area that the three of them were in, by leaving a trail of corpses for them to follow, so they could lead their unwanted guests to their deaths, allowing them to gain some souls for their efforts and then move towards the area that would allow them to move into Farron Keep, so they could find the Abyss Watchers. The area of the ruins that they would be drawing their foes to was the area that was right before the path that lead to the sage they had destroyed, especially the pit that the cross hollow was in, something Martok had to kill since Invaders were ignored by the enemies of their worlds, before Tirek jumped down there, as that was what Sarana recommended he do, before they took their positions behind some of the pillars and waited for their guests to arrive. Tirek knew that this was a good idea, as a trail of corpses would tell the Invaders where their targets might be and force them to walk into a trap that they wouldn't see coming, to which he remained silent as Sarana and Martok did the same, where they patiently waited to see if the plan was going to be a success or if the Invaders would catch on to what they were doing and turn the tables.
A few minutes later, just as Tirek was wondering if the Invaders might have left the area, he heard the heavy sound of someone walking into the area that they were hiding in, where he glanced up at the level that was above him and found that one of the Invaders had found them, as someone wearing metal armor, not like the Lothric knights, though Martok made sure to take him down in a matter of seconds, or her, as Tirek determined the first Invader was female. As it turned out all Martok had to do was walk out from behind the pillar that he was standing behind and swung his greatsword into his foe, doing a great deal of damage in the process, and while he did that a male wearing leather armor walked into the room as well, no doubt rushing to his ally's aid, only for Sarana to step out and run her blade over his throat, killing him before he even had the chance to fight back. He had to admit that his companions were quite skilled at what they were doing, which did make him take a moment to wonder how they had failed whatever quest they had been on before becoming Unkindled, and it wasn't long before their foes were slain, which was when Sarana beckoned for him to hide as she and Martok did the same, where he moved until he couldn't be seen if someone looked through the hole between the floors. It only took a few seconds for a female sorcerer to fall through the opening, or more like Martok had pushed her through the hole in question, and she crashed into the pile of stone that was right in front of Tirek, who grinned as he grabbed onto the back of her neck and raised her into the air, preventing his foe from even casting a spell at him since she couldn't see him, before he absorbed all the power that was inside her body and drained all the souls that she had on her, before dropping her now frail and old body to the ground.
In that moment the defeated sorceress tried to move, where she was totally caught off guard by what her body looked like now, before Tirek raised his hand and blasted her with a Fire Orb, blowing her frail body to ash that scattered around the water that was around him, which disappeared after a few seconds to show that she had been defeated and that she was being sent back to her world, something that, as Sarana described, would no doubt be ruined thanks to what he had just done, but that would be the lady's problem and not something he had to worry about.
"That's an interesting way to finish a foe off," Martok commented, though even as he said that both he and Sarana jumped down into the area that Tirek was in, who was in the middle of flexing the fingers that had been wrapped around the sorceress' neck a few seconds ago, even if he seemed more interested in something else at the moment, but that was all he said right now, since he was sure their leader had something to tell them.
"In the grand scheme of things, she was essentially a light snack." Tirek replied, though he knew that if he had been able to get his hands on someone like her earlier, at the beginning of this quest to be exact, a decent chunk of his power would have been returned to him, maybe five percent, which would have helped against Vordt and the foes leading up to that creature, before he turned towards his companions, "But the invaders have been defeated and returned to their own worlds, meaning we can now move forward and see what Farron Keep has to throw at us."
Sarana and Martok nodded as the three of them walked out of the area that they were in and headed over to the area that the first Great Crab was in, though instead of fighting it they moved towards the location of the passage that would take them into the next area they had to explore, where it didn't take the three of them long to locate the ruined part of the wall that they had seen earlier. As they approached the area in question Tirek found that there were two humanoid beings standing guard over the area, both wearing identical black armor and helmets, though one of them was wielding a large club and the other had a large sword, a greatsword to be exact, but even as he saw them he knew that both of his companions were ready for the fight that was about to happen. Martok rushed forward and focused on the foe that was wielding the greatsword, so he could parry the incoming attack that was coming their way, allowing Sarana and Tirek to face the club knight, even though they did have to jump backwards to avoid his first attack and then ready themselves for what they were going to do next. Tirek found that, while the club knight didn't have the withering reaction to fire that the slimes from the cathedral had when they were hit with fire, he still took damage from the Fire Orb that he tossed at him, and, despite the fact that the knight should have been heading after him, he was able to focus on throwing a couple more spells at their foe as Sarana dodged the incoming attacks and slashed at the knight a few times.
As it turned out the club knight and the greatsword knight were rather easy for them to deal with, as Martok was able to cut down his foe, even if he took a few hits and had to heal himself once his opponent was defeated, leading to Sarana and Tirek taking down their own opponent, before Martok collected the pair of weapons that were left behind and they used the nearby ladder to reach the chamber that was below them so they could activate the bonfire they discovered, but, in that moment, Tirek looked out of the doorway and frowned for a moment.
"So, this is Farron Keep," Tirek commented, taking a few seconds to stare at the area that the three of them would be walking through next, where he noticed the darkened coloration of the water, a vast number of rotting trees, bits of ruins scattered everywhere, and even a few fires that happened to be able the treeline, "Great, a poisonous swamp area that no doubt has a number of dangers and hazards for us to worry about, especially since we have to find our way to the three flames and put them out, especially since this water is going to mess with us in some way."
"And yet we need to get through here to find the Abyss Watchers," Sarana replied, as she knew that the only way for them to proceed was to make their way through this area and find the flames that the one knight had told Tirek about, but even she disliked heading through an area like this in the first place and would have preferred having another route to get to their destination, before she sighed as she and Martok stood beside Tirek, "Let's just get this over with and hope that we can get to the flames without dying to the poison... and hope that we avoid the Elder Ghru's, as those beings will be the death of us if they see us."
"Is it safe to assume that you'll tell me what they are when we see it?" Tirek inquired, because so far he knew that the information that Sarana had to share was valuable for their survival in an area like this, especially given the previous areas they had gone through so far, since they started this quest, though instead of saying anything to that Sarana stared out at the area that was in front of them, no doubt looking for the beings in question.
"Giant beasts with many horns, who live in the swamp and are immune to poison, and crush everyone that tries to locate the Abyss Watchers," Martok stated, as that was what he knew about the creatures in question and knew that what little he had said wasn't enough to really tell Tirek about them, but that information had allowed him to spot the creatures in question and he never tried to learn more about the beasts.
Tirek sighed as he heard that, because that didn't sound like something he wanted to mess with, before they stepped out into the darkened water and started to move towards the ruined stone wall that was some distance in front of them, or the land that was near it to be exact, and as they did that Tirek could feel the poisonous nature of the water seeping into his ankles and hooves. In that moment he quickly determined that it was an accumulation type of thing, that it took a few moments for the poison to really set in and for them to suffer from the effects, but for now they did the smart thing and only walked in the water when there were no other options for them to use, which would allow them to avoid being poisoned by the swamp. Sarana, despite her personal dislike for this area, lead the way along the path that was in front of them and then, instead of heading up the ramp that would allow them to leave the swamp for a time, headed to the left and quickly made her way through the murky water, where Martok followed after her and forced Tirek to do the same, as he wasn't about to remain alone in an area like this, with whatever enemies called this place home. All he had seen so far were some slugs that seemed to be minding their own business, so the three of them hadn't bothered the creatures as they moved through the area, though that changed when he spotted a ruined structure that was in front of them, one that had a humanoid being, wearing dark armor that make it look like a wraith, standing guard over the structure, meaning it needed to be taken down to see what was inside the small area that was behind it.
The being, despite what Tirek thought, didn't wither in pain when he was hit by a Fireball, and the same thing was true when a Soul Arrow hit him in the back, so while his spells didn't seem to be having that much of an impact on the being he could tell that Sarana and Martok were having better luck, and soon the three of them were able to bring down the warrior that was blocking their way, before they found that he was guarding a blue coal, something that they could give to Andre when they returned to the shrine.
With the coal in hand they returned to the previous structure that they had been walking towards, the one that would allow them to leave the swamp for a moment, and found that there was an item near the structure in question, which was an Estus Shard, something they needed to stay alive, so they pocketed it and headed up the curved path that would allow them to get above the swamp for a time. Unfortunately, thanks to the number of steps that they had been walking in the murky water, all three of them were poisoned by the nature of the swamp and that, in Tirek's eyes, seemed to annoy both of his companions, not that he could blame them since he was starting to hate this area already, despite the fact that they had only been here for a few minutes. At the top of the path Tirek found a pair of satyr-like beings, with a couple of avian features, making them look like goat-like humanoid creatures with fur, horns on their head, and a goat tail, though while one of them was wearing a cloth cape, while carrying a primitive spear and shield, the other had no clothing to speak of and held a curved sword of some kind in one hand. The first one they fought was the one with the sword, as it rushed over to where they were standing once it noticed them standing there, though while Martok parried the incoming attack, which let Sarana slice into the creature's side, Tirek noticed that they had discovered one of the areas that the flames seemed to be attached to, as there was an altar of some kind that had a basin with a lit flame, where he had to assume that if one of them were to mess with the flame they might mess with the larger flame that was above them.
Before they messed with the altar, however, Tirek summoned a Fire Orb and blasted the other foe in the back, which caused it to wither in pain for a couple of moments, showing him that fire magic was effective against them, and that brief opening was what Sarana used to cut him down as well, dropping both of their foes in seconds, before Tirek approached the altar and grasped the flame, snuffing it out... though as he did that both he and his companions glanced up at the tops of the trees and watched as the larger flame went out, bringing a smile to his face.
"So, Hawkwood was telling the truth," Tirek remarked, because while he was willing to listen to what the residents of this world had to tell him, about the areas and enemies that they would be facing, the only one that he was going to listen to and believe right away was Sarana, since she had a wealth of information for him to learn from and had been right on many topics they had talked about since this quest started, but it was good to see that no one else had lied to him so far, otherwise he would have been annoyed with the person in question, "Well then, that means we need to find the other two flames and put them out, and then locate the way to the Abyss Watchers... this just might be much easier than what we originally thought it would be."
Sarana and Martok glanced at each other for a moment, knowing that it would be best not to say anything in response to what Tirek had just said, before deciding that it was time to move forward once more, because now that the poison was eating at their health they could walk through the swamp without having to worry about it coming back to bite them, for a while anyway, since it always came back in time. Of course they would rather not be poisoned, since that weakened them as they walked through the rest of the swamp and located the areas that the remaining two flames were in, but this was the way that things were and there was nothing they could do at the moment, hence the reason they started moving and left the area of the first flame. What they did was head through the archway that was near the altar and found that there was a path to their left, one that would take them back down into the swamp, along with some resin that was sitting up on top of a small hill that was right behind the structure that the altar was attached to, though as Sarana collected the resin, to add them to their collection, Tirek loosed a Fire Orb at the satyr foe that was off to the right and set it on fire, where he watched it run around in pain for a few moments before Martok put the creature out of its misery. Upon seeing that short display, especially since it removed an enemy that would hunt them down later, Sarana let Tirek know that the enemies they were now facing were Ghru, and while these were the lesser ones it left him wondering what the larger ones were like, especially based on how his companions reacted upon hearing about them.
Once that was done, and Tirek had a name for the odd creatures they were facing, the group headed down the path that was to the left of the archway and followed it down to the swamp, where they sighed for a moment as they stepped into the murky water once more and quickly headed for the bits of land that were heading right for another path that, by the looks of it, would allow them to leave the swamp again. For a moment Tirek glanced to the area that was to their right and found a large creature, about half as tall as the trees that were around them, wandering around off in the distance, one that looked like the various Ghrus they had seen so far, and it was carrying a tree that had been uprooted, meaning it was dangerous and that they couldn't underestimate it, but that wasn't the direction they were heading in. Rather they made their way over the bits of ground that weren't covered by the murky water and headed for the other path that was opposite of the downwards path they had just walked down, where they found a weaponless Ghru standing upright near the curved path they needed to use. What interested Tirek was the fact that Martok let the beast jump towards him, like he was going to grab onto Martok's head and try to tear through the helmet that his companion was wearing, but what really happened was that he raised his greatsword and cleaved the Ghru in half, killing it before it could even reach him, which also let them continue up the path that it had been guarding. It wasn't long before they found a second altar for them to mess with, where Tirek grinned again as he grasped the flame and snuffed it out, breaking the connection between it and the tower that it was attached to, before they found a bridge that connected this area to another piece of ground, where a structure rested with a bonfire in the middle of it.
Resting on the bridge were three more Ghru, two that happened to be holding spears and shields while the other one looked like a ranged foe of some kind, so what they did was have Sarana pull the melee enemies to them, allowing her and Martok to fight them, while Tirek used another Fire Orb on the ranged Ghru, who was set on fire and fell into the murky water that was below them, so once those three enemies were taken care of they walked over to where the bonfire was located and lit it, before heading through the other opening the structure had... only for the three of them to quickly spot a massive stone door off in the distance.
"So, that's the door into the area that the Abyss Watchers are in," Tirek commented, where he came to that conclusion thanks to the three braziers that were near the door, as two of them happened to be lit and one of them wasn't, which was opposite of the two flame they had put out and one that hadn't been snuffed out yet, meaning that once the three flames were extinguished they would be able to move on, just like Hawkwood had told him earlier, before he glanced over to the area that was on their right, "and I'm willing to bet that the other fire is over there somewhere, we just have to traverse a bit more of the swamp to figure out where the flame is located."
"Sounds like a plan." Martok stated, his tone revealing that he would rather finish what they were doing and get out of this area, so they could hunt down and defeat the Abyss Watchers, though even as he said that the three of them headed over to the structure that was to their right and found that a number of slugs were gathered around the center of it, as if they were guardians of the treasure.
Tirek, seeing the slugs again, raised his hand and loosed a Fire Orb into the middle of the group, where he burned all of them at the same time, to which he and his companions watched as the slugs burned for a time, and Tirek made sure to use a second Fire Orb on them to put them all down, where Sarana found a Undead Bone Shard in the middle of their now dead foes, something they would use at the shrine later. Once that was done they moved out of the ruined structure and started to look for the final flame that needed to be snuffed out, though at the same time Tirek noticed a few slugs resting near a long ladder that would allow one to reach part of the massive bridge that used to connect Lothric to the Undead Settlement, an area he assumed was a resting place of some kind. Even Sarana seemed interested in the area in question, as she glanced up there a few times, as if she was trying to hear something that he had missed, which told Tirek that they needed to explore that area as well, just to see what was up there, before hunting down the Abyss Watchers, hence the reason they headed away from the ladder and kept an eye out for the final flame. From there they made their way over to the raised area that was off in the distance, where they had to deal with a few slugs that were in their way, something that didn't slow them down thanks to the weakness Tirek had discovered, but as they did that Tirek discovered a problem, one of the Elder Ghru was blocking the way forward, as it was standing near the curved walkway that would allow them to reach the area that the third flame was in.
What Tirek discovered was that the massive creature was much faster than what he was expecting it to be and that they had to separate from each other to avoid being crushed at the same time, as well as avoid the incoming red spheres that were released whenever it cast magic, if that was what it was doing, not to mention they had to move when it swung the large uprooted tree it was holding, as it seemed to be the beast's weapon of choice. It wasn't an easy battle for them to go through, not with the range of attacks that the beast could go through and the number of times that they had to dodge the incoming attacks that were designed to hurt them, and even the weakness that Tirek quickly discovered, fire thanks to one of the Fire Orbs he threw that actually struck their foe, only slowed it down enough so that Sarana and Martok could get a few attacks in before they had to back off. That became their plan of attack, he would loose a Fire Orb or two when a chance presented itself, setting the creature on fire and caused it to wither in pain like all of the other creatures he had set on fire, allowing his companions to move in and deal damage to the beast before it regained its senses, which was when they reset to waiting for Tirek to make a move. That plan allowed them to bring down the beast and open the way to the third and final flame, though the downside to fighting where they did was the fact that all of them were poisoned and that they had to use their flasks to deal with the fact that part of their overall health was missing, but at the very least they were able to walk up to the area that the final flame was in, allowing Tirek to snuff it out as well.
"There, the final flame is snuffed out," Tirek said, to which the three of them turned back and headed down the path that they had used to get up to the structure the final flame had been connected to, though as they headed back towards the bonfire that was close to the stone door, which was the path forward, he frowned at the murky water that they had to walk through and knew that his companions had to hate this area.
As he said that, however, all of them were affected by a new bout of poison that quickly came as soon as the last one was finished, something that was annoying him more than he was willing to admit and he was sorely tempted to unleash his power on this area and just blow it to pieces, regardless of the consequences, though he had to stop for a moment as he glanced at his companions.
"This fucking swamp... I absolutely hate it!" Sarana exclaimed, showing Tirek that she really disliked Farron Keep and that, for the first time since he had met her, she was actually pissed off about something, and even Martok seemed a little surprised by this turn of events, but he kept quiet as he listened to his companion, "I wish this whole bloody damn place would burn like the First Flame until it was nothing but a dry, cracked wasteland of ash and bone!"
Tirek chuckled for a moment, because he was of the same opinion and that he wished that this place would burn, but he filed that information away and focused on what they were doing next, which was heading back to the bonfire that was near the stone door, because once they rested, and made a trip to the shrine to turn in a few things, they would return to this place and either head up the long ladder or continue towards the Abyss Watchers, but he was pleased to see that they were making progress at long last.