A/N: Annnnnnnnd we're back! I never expected I would come back to this story (or this site, honestly) but the other day I was looking over my old works and was inspired to continue Dark Seas, my conceptual Souls-game flick. Luckily for me, I still remember a lot of my ideas (and have come up with some new ones too!) so strap yourselves in - or don't, totally up to you. This ship is going to sail again.
Returning to the cliff-set fortress, you walk up the narrow, crumbling pathway to a crevass in the wall of the imposing, grey-stoned structure and enter. You are greeted by a new area title, as well as an NPC leaning against the wall.
- Barren Sea Keep -
The NPC is dressed in the Cursewarder set that you can buy from Samuel with the blue leather and fox helmet, although he currently has the helmet held to his side, revealing his glorious face and mop of blonde hair. Upon seeing you approach, he looks up, and does a gesture called the 'Solemn Bow', where he crosses both arms across his chest and bows forwards.
Of course, he also has dialogue.
"Oh my. Another human being... after all this time. You have no idea how pleased I am to see you. Why, I could kiss you! Ahahaha."
As tempting as his offer sounds, you press onward.
"My name is Arell. I was part of a troupe of elite warriors called the Cursewarders, sent here by our lord the king Podrice to wipe out the filth of the Barren Sea, Wovern's wolves. But... we underestimated them. They are not flesh and blood like you or I... Not any longer. Steel parts their skin, yes, but like the shadows from which they are born, their wounds sew themselves up... Only a special weapon can permanently dispatch them. A blade forged under the light of the Glass Tower of Podrice, bearing holy light... A blade like this."
Arell gives you the Divine Longsword, a weapon similar in appearance to the Silver Knight Sword from DaS1 but with a special glow that emanates when swinging.
"Keep it, its yours. It belonged to a dear friend of mine. Use it to cast those wretched deathwalkers back to the shadows."
"Me? My fight is over. I need to rest. Perhaps we will meet again, far from this despicable place."
This dialogue loops. Next time you zone in Arell will be gone.
The Divine Longsword has the following description: "Sword forged using glass from the Tower of Podrice, a holy monument unearthed beneath Grassun Keep. This blade, which shines with the refracted light of the new moon, can slay any creature of shadow, no matter the strength of the incantation."
So yeah, this is your Stormruler, and you get to use it for a whole level. Outside of the Barren Sea Keep the sword is only average, very much like the Drake Sword in comparable damage, so it only really has a use here. Should you, for some reason, strike Arell, get ready for the fight of your life.
"Curses! No. Not you, too. So be it! I will dispatch you, creature of the night, like so many others!"
Arell is no ordinary combatant. He has around triple the health you have at this point in the game, even with maximum Resilience investment, and his attacks deal inordinate amounts of damage. He fights using a Divine Longsword and a special double-shot crossbow with an ebony, wood-like appearance. Suffice to say, he will tear inexperienced fools a new asshole. If he kills you, he will be gone when you return. If, by some miracle of skill, you defeat him, he offers the following dialogue before dropping dead.
"I'm sorry my brothers... I have failed you..."
He drops the Ring of Conviction, 5'000 doubloons and the Divine Longsword, if he did not already give it to you.
Ring of Conviction: Ring bestowed upon the Cursewarders, Podrice's elite band of warriors. The Cursewarders were split into two factions with the coming of Wovern's shadows, with one half embarking on a voyage to slay the invasive threat to their homes, and the other remaining to defend their king. The former group never returned. Grants hugely-increased stamina regeneration, as well as the rare chance to knock enemies into an executable state with a single hit." This chance to counter is roughly 1/20, so its not SUPER-overpowered, but still a pretty great ring. Still, shame on you for killing a harmless NPC.
At any rate, the room in which Arell was stood has two paths. One is currently gated off to you, so you must ascend the stairs to begin the level proper.
Imagine Sen's Fortress crossed with Chasm of the Abyss, and you got the Barren Sea Keep. Its dark, decrepit and coated with moudling seaweed and algae, wet sand strewn across the ground by hard footfalls. If you could smell the area, you would expect it to stink of stagnant water and congealed blood. The first room you reach at the top of the stairs has one enemy in it, a Rugged Hoarder. These humanoid enemies with crab pincers clutch a treasure chest to their stomachs, and when provoked, use it as a slamming weapon, which can be deceptively dangerous. They are like magpies, and only death will part them from their treasures. When killed they drop their chests, but sadly they only ever contain Dayle Rum, Brandy or Bags of Salt. There are rare varients of the enemy with black chests instead of brown ones, and they will always drop 2x Mystic Shards, so they are good to farm.
After killing the first Rugged Hoarder, the next room as two of them, as well as a new enemy, a Bloodless Wolf. Their name is misleading, as they are humanoid in nature, however they fight with the ferocity of their namesake, swinging a deadly jagged cutlass in one hand, and blasting you with a rusted flintlock pistol in the other. They appear like a generic pirate enemy, with some having wooden legs and eyepatchs. However, their torsos are entirely replaced with a shifting, starry mass of shadow, just like the Surges of Darkness from the last level. As you may have guessed, these enemies cannot be put down with a normal weapon, and require the use of the Divine Longsword. Killing them frequently nets you a Crystallised Shadow, a consumable that you can crush to temporarily (45 seconds) gain the ability to kill the enemies with a regular weapon.
The map is constructed vertically, so you have to go from Top to bottom and then to middle again to complete the level. There are numerous Rugged Hoarders and Bloodless Wolves to dispatch, and the difficulty for this point in the game is comparable to Farron Keep in DaS3. There are a few other enemies. At the top of the fort, there is no roof, allowing you to look out over the murky waters of the titular Barren Sea and the rolling hillsides of the surrounding lands of Dayle. There is a flagpole at the evry top, allowing you to check your progress, but to activate it, you must first kill a special Bloodless Wolf variant who carries an enormous hiltless axe, which he holds in both hands and uses to smash the shit out of your face. He has aroud twice the health of the normal version, and requires the Divine Longsword/Crystallised Shadow effect to kill. When he drops, he'll give you an another Wovern Idol, the effigy of the pirate captain whose keep you are currently raiding.
Descending into the basement you discover a dungeon area which is sp00py out of 10, with little to no light at all, making the use of a torch splint highly-advantageous. Lurking in the dark is a pair of Surges of Darkness, the terrifying mass of child spirits from the Forest, and they will delight in killing you over and over as you are snuck up on by them time and time again. They are only visible by their twinkling overcoat, so watch out for that and use fire as much as possible to prevail. Inside a few of the cells are giant maggot creatures called Fleshlickers, that screech an unholy amount just to give you even more jumpscares. They are fairly weak but can deal out a ton of damage as well as inflict Pestilence, so watch out. You will find a lever that opens the gate back to the beginning, as well as a cannon which pokes through the side of the fort. Firing it starts a special cutscene where you watch the cannon shot streak across the sea like a flare. In the distance, weathered, decaying pirate sails flap in the wind. A single ship drifts over the horizon, headed towards the shore at the foot of the fort.
The items you can find in this area are as follows:
- 2 x Bags of Salt
- 4 x Crystallised Shadows
- 1 x Torch (full edition, rather than a splint; lasts for twenty minutes, growing dimmer with time)
- 3 x Blood of a Starved Puffin
- Overcast Skull: Headpiece constructed of the hollowed-out skull of a magus from the previous level. Description reads: "Skull helmet made from one of the dead magus' in the Overcast Forest. When Wovern's men raided the forest, they found more than enough blood to sacrifice to their god, the Abysmal Angel, but also something more pure: a dark, unlike anything they had ever seen. Grants a 50% increase to all forms of arcane damage: Tidal Divinations, Hexes and New Age Charms."
- Wolf Set: Armour of the Bloodless Wolves, complete with a cloaked garb which was previously concealed by the shadows clinging to the enemies. Visually the set is a lot like Vendrick's in DaS2, except with a pirate hat and less metal. "Hat/Garb/Gloves/Boots belonging to the shadowy light armour worn by Wovern's wolves, the scourges of the Barren Sea. When Wovern became consumed by the tendrils of his beloved god, he instructed his men to reap havoc upon the surrounding lands. He knew only death would satiate the Angel."
- Splitting Knife (Only with 24 Cartography and over): Dagger-class weapon with a long, thin shaft and a shadowy tip. Somewhat visually-comparable to an ice pick. Description: "Fearsome knife wielded by Wovern's White Wolves, his most highly-trained warriors. This weapon would shock most blacksmiths, for it draws most of its lethality from the souls of its victims, still clinging to its tip." This weapon deals fiercesome bleed, and getting backstabbed by it has a special animation where the player snakes their arm around you and slits your throat (which somehow doesn't always kill you but whatever).
From here, you can progress through the middle of the keep down into a cavern leading down to the shore. The cavern is full of giant rats (because of course this game has them, this is Souls after all) and a few Bloodless Wolves, and its pretty dark so be careful to avoid their swings and not to be greedy in inflicting damage. Finally, you emerge on the beach. A cutscene plays.
The ship you saw previously docks on the end of a short, decaying pier. Its Dark Souls II/10 as a gangplank drops, allowing you passage aboard. You can loot a couple of Remnants of a Beachlurker from malformed, squid-like creatures beached on the shore (Beachlurkers, presumably), but then its time to board the ship. Doing so begins a new cutscene, taking you out into the bay, before fading to black.
When you zone back in, you see your ship is surrounded by three others, identical in decaying, frightful appearance. They begin to open fire on your ship.
You begin your fight with the Wolves of the Barren Sea in a unique way, dodging cannonfire which slowly sinks your ship, until you are able to leap onto one of the passing ships. Once aboard that ship, you will fight up to five Bloodless Wolves, which will reduce the lifebar of the boss by a third. Once a second ship draws in, you repeat the process, this time fighting one of the axe-tip wielding Wolves, whose death will reduce the boss to one-third health. The final ship draws close, but instead of fighting enemies you've already seen, this time you fight several of the aforementioned White Wolves, who will utilise their Splitting Knives on you. This part of the fight is exceptionally hard if you allow the Wolves to overwhelm you, but they are pretty frail, going down in three-four hits with your Divine Longsword or Crystallised Shadow effect. As you reduce the Wolves' lifebar to zero, the screen fades to black. When you zone back in you see that the ship you fought the White Wolves on - and are currently standing on - has run aground on a shoreline. As your character staggers of the boat, you see another figure striding towards you across the sand, also having dived off of the ship. It is Wovern, and as he draws closer you see his furious expression, and his two massive machetes twirling in anticipation of ending your life. He wears a bloodied, tattered pirate uniform and hat.
Yep, its a two-phase boss fight, but there's a checkpoint in the middle just like in Bed of Chaos, so you dont need to do the pirate bit again. If you die, you will respawn on the wreck of the Darktreader on the shore, and you must then move through a fog wall to the beach again.
Captain Wovern is the toughest boss you've fought yet. His machetes are wicked fast and deal a smooth chunk of damage if they hit you, and he will attempt to combo you with slashing uppercuts and a slightly-delayed twirling attack using both blades. He also has a blunderbuss which he will occassionally take out, which can catch you off guard and leave you open for an attack. He is very good at reaching behind him so don't think you can just wail on his pirate booty. At 50% health he drops both of his machetes in the sand, and goes ape-shit, pounding you with his bare fists, which now glow with a shadowy power. He is much faster now, and can pummel you to a pulp in a successful combo. He is weak to weapons with long-reach, however, and you can use this to your advantage. As he hits 30%, he gains the ability to do an explosive dark AOE attack which will almost 100% one-shot you, but it has a long wind-up, so when you see him grabbing his ears and drop to his knees, run, as he will then scream to initiate the attack. Now for an interesting twist to the fight. Throughout the game you've been able to collect Wovern Idols (you can find a maximum of 3, although the third hasn't shown up in an area yet). Having these on you changes the fight in a similar fashion to the Vendrick fight from DaS2. Depending on how many you have, Wovern will have less damage resistance, but will be more aggressive in his attacks and will shift into his second and third phases faster.
Here's the breakdown of how it works:
1 Idol: 10% less damage resistance; shifts into 2nd phase at 60% health and third at 40%
2 Idols: 20% less damage resistance; shifts into 2nd phase at 70% health and third at 50%
3 Idols: 30% less damage resistance; shifts into 2nd phase at 80% health and third at 60%
When Wovern finally falls, you will get the special message - GREAT SOUL REAVED - 50'000 doubloons and the Wolf Ink. The description of the latter reads: Ink used to mark out members of Wovern's Wolves of the Barren Sea, fiercesome pirates with ties to the founding of the fabled city of Freegalia. Wovern was driven mad by the voices in his head, compelling himto lead his men to slaughter innocents as sacrifices to his god, the mysterious Abysmal Angel. Etching it on your body grants you the ability to steal health from parried enemies, BB-style.
You can also obtain his weapons and gear from Tobias after his defeat.
Wovern's Dual Machetes: Paired greatsword weapons that can unleash a wave of dark with R2, which then launches up into a geyser with a follow-up R2. Description: "Machetes wielded by the fierce Captain Wovern, one of the founding fathers of Freegalia. Wovern was renowned for his brutal reputation even before his meeting with the Abysmal Angel shattered his mind. Yet, he was always well-known for his ego, and many of his men carried effigies of him to hold favour."
Wovern's Bloody Hat/Coat/Gloves/Boots: Attire of the infamous pirate captain Wovern. With his bloodthirsty wolves at his heels, Wovern desecrated the villages of Dayle's archipelago, seeking out sacrifices for his beloved Abysmal Angel.
Wovern's boss arena on the shore is a dead end so to progress you must now return to the Winding Cliff Path and take one of the other two routes.