Dark Souls: Third Session Report

 

This third session of Dark Souls went really well! We have:

• Hazbil the Knight. Starts at level 2, ends the session at level 4.
• Fizbun the Pyromancer. Starts at level 2, ends the session at level 3
• Onely the Deprived. Starts at level three, ends the session at level 3.

Throughout this session, Onely donates all of his souls to Hazbil, to try and get him to level 4, so that he can start wielding the Astora greatsword.

Also: my exact memory is fuzzy. It's been a long week. I remember what happened, but my connective tissue may be spotty.

The Adventure

At the end of last session they were all shredded by a mysterious red spirit, and reappeared at the second bonfire. The door right in front of them will lead back to that They go down the door to the right. A ghostly spirit stands there, and says "Tell me why you're worthy." They answer, and the spirit likes the answers. It vanishes into all three of them, and they have a bunch of souls now.

There's two doors, left and right. Fizbun goes right, finds an open portcullis, which leads out to a world of utter ice. Onely goes to the left door and finds a golden sign. Onely makes Arcana, and realizes gold is good. He touches it, and out comes a knight, who offers his service.

They go back to the room with the red sign, jump the red spirit that comes out, and chew right through him. The golden knight vanishes. Hazbil and Fizbun now have enough souls to level up, so they go back through the door and Fizbun is now level three. The tension of not being able to spend souls to level up is discussed.

They go back up to the door with the golden knight to see if the sign reset. It has. But standing there is a freakishly tall, gaunt figure, who smiles hungrily at Onely... who smiles back. They stare at each other a minute, and the tall figure introduces himself as Ghorm. He asks if they can look for someone whistling a tune, to a song he can't remember anymore. The players say they will.

They go where they saw Ghorm come from, and find a door to the right, and a staircase to the left. Fizbun checks the door, and when he finds that it's fine, he opens it up, to find the Pyromancy spell Fireburst: damage in a cone, no Position needs to be spent to activate it. He equips it immediately. He goes goes round the corner to find a huge door. He calls the others to him, and they just... open the door..

And freeze solid. The wind blows the door open, and they die instantly. Lose all their souls... and that hurts. They realize they never actually checked the door, they just opened it, without a second thought. I smile cruelly.

They go and close the door to keep the wind from getting into the rest of the complex, and succeed. There's a stair to the left, and they go up... and Hazbil starts hearing a voice to touch the purple summon sign up there. He doesn't. They go beyond it, and find another spirit who asks them to tell them why they're worthy. They give different answers, the spirit approves, and now they have a bunch more souls... and Hazbil goes and touches the purple sign. They kill the spirit who comes out, and now Hazbil has enough souls to get to level four, which would let him use the Astora greatsword they picked up for him in session two. They go and cash in. 

When they go back to the staircase with the purple sign, they find another stranger: Nebt, who wants to put a soul to rest with a  gift of his favorite whip. Which Fizbun happens to have. Fizbun gives it for a ton of souls.

They manage to keep Hazbil from touching the purple sign again, and go beyond it. There's another staircase to the left (leading back to where the red sign was) and two doors to the right. Fizbun checks the rightmost door: it's trapped, designed to put in more of that freezing cold air. The other-right door leads to a place where there's just a bunch of wreckage and a 60 foot chain. They manage to jam the trap on the rightmost door, and get through.

Sitting next to other side of the door, biting his nails, was Touless... who was looking for a flower. A rare rare flower. He thanked them for opening the door, because he didn't know how, and started to walk through. Onely tried to stop him. Touless drew a knife, and gently asked to be let loose.

Fizbun went beyond, and found a larger area, with three doors, one at the bottom of a flight of stairs. He opened that door.

Onto a crystal lizard's ass.

Fizbun gently closed the door.

He checked the other two doors, and found one had a purple sign right up against the door. Onely, wanting a fight, went and stepped on it, against everyone else's wishes.

The materializing spirit was hit with wave upon wave of steel and a newly discovered fire spray... which almost killed Onely. Fizbun told Onely he ever did that again he would kill him.

Takeways

Three sessions in, and they're learning the game. Fights are now heavily one-sided affairs when they're engaged in, and avoided at all costs otherwise.... except when Onely wants just a few more souls. The addition of the NPCs from the random rolls made the tone here a lot different, but it was a welcome break.

This game is showing depth. And we're having a blast.

The session ended with a clash of steel and ego. Against the party's wishes, Onely triggered a purple summon sign. The resulting spirit nearly claimed his life, leading to the first real crack in the party's facade: Fizbun’s fire-laced threat. The honeymoon phase of the campaign is officially over."