The ruins beneath Londor are perhaps one of the most frightening, hostile environments in the Souls series. Luminescent fungus and nearly extinguished torches along the cramped, winding walls are the only source of light, if you didn't bring a torch. The water is murky and black, with green algae and fungus floating around the corridors. Shambling hollows, bleached white with the lack of light, are covered with plants and decay, dragging themselves along the maze and letting out deathly moans.
The Grotto is extremely easy to get lost in, as there are multiple branching paths and corridors, and there is this element of claustrophobia as enemies often flank either side of a tunnel, or emerge from the water, which conceals numerous fatal drops if you are not cautious.
One of the most dangerous enemies are large, shiny black blobs with great gaping maws, massive, deformed leeches, nearly bursting with the devoured flesh in their guts, lashing out with clawed hands, and occasionally attempting to grab you and stuff you in its maw, swallowing you whole and almost certainly resulting in an instant death. Killing them will drop Bleed Stones rarely.
Jellyfish float around a few ponds and rivers, stabbing you will sharp barbs if you get too close and rapidly building up toxin. Killing them will rarely net you a Poison Stone.
In one room filled with these jellyfish, you can find a large, crude spear with a sharp bone at one end:
Jellyfish Quill Spear: "The Barb of an abyssal jellyfish, the poison sack is still attached. All manner of vile creature lurks in the depths below Londor, finding a home where there is no light. Only the most wretched, desperate Hollows call the depths their home, and fashion such crude weapons to protect themselves.
Weapon Skill: Toxify. Aim carefully, and drive the spear forward, twisting the barb deep into the flesh of victims, draining a larger dose of toxin into them."
The spear acts like the partizan, with both slashing and thrusting attacks. The normal attacks use only poison, but the heavy attacks and weapon art cause toxin, as well as poison. It has poor scaling, but with high luck, the poison builds up very fast on successful hits, and it is one of the only weapons that can both poison and toxin.
Towards the middle, there is a thick crust of coral-like substance, which breaks open into a mass of grasping hands, the walls bleeding puss as they reveal the hollows caked into the wall. This crust is all over, and restricts you from standing too close to the wall, as the puss almost immediately triggers the Toxic effect and the hands can stun you, making you vulnerable to the other enemies still looming in the dark.
Behind an illusory wall, and in the gut of a waiting leech behind several layers of hollow coral, is a ring relevant to an NPC you met earlier:
Pale Bloodgem: "A steel ring, now covered with rust and filth, with a brilliant, deep crimson gemstone that has since lost its luster.
Once belonged to Ednatiel, a legendary warrior assassin whose unparalleled skills with a blade struck terror into the hearts of her adversaries. When the curse claimed her, she was undone, and her ring vanished along with her.
Wearing this ring channels the desire for blood and violence, inducing frenzied euphoria, at the cost of lowered defenses."
Wearing has no obvious effect at first, until you start swinging your weapons around a bit. You take 20% more damage from physical attacks, but your stamina consumption and recovery speed are reduced significantly, allowing you to attack faster and more often, and you roll further and faster than usual. This is especially noticeable on slower weapons, or when comboing R1s and R2s that wouldn't usually combo, as it just erases that down time between swings, though it will not make the actual swing faster. But, as it suggests, this boost in aggression will also make you vulnerable to damage, so it's very risky to use.
That is not the only secret place, looking around the area near the boss, there is a very risky jumping section that, if done right, will land you on an outcropping, where you can simply walk into a hidden chamber. At the center is a broken platform, the black marble shattered, with several pillars that have since been smashed and toppled.
At the back of the room, you will be met with a familiar face, a robed figure in a wheelchair, only, the man in the black cloak is nothing but a long, long decayed skeleton, the wheels on his chair nearly completely broken off and the wood rotten and bleached. His face is nothing but a white beard and two empty, black sockets set on stretched skin.
If you stand near for too long, he will silently raise a hand, shaking a bell, unleashing a deadly Wrath of the Gods that will heavily injure you if you do not escape.
Striking the wheelchair bound, immobile hollow will immediately kill him, dropping yet another familiar item:
Dragon Chime: "Large silver bell with a noble dragon carving. Boasts an extraordinary boost to lightning damage.
This holy bell was found deep within the Abyss by an old sage seeking the elucidation of the Dark, and remained by his side until he too was rotted and hollow. Even surrounded by Darkness, the bell's toll calls forth furious torrents of lightning, a vestige of the Cleric who braved the Dark with this chime by his side.
Weapon Art: Heavenly Thunder. Raise this chime above one's head and call down furious lightning bolts to incinerate nearby targets, with increased poise immediately afterward. While Faith is associated with healing and prayer, the fury of the Sunlight Warriors is a thing even the Dark fears."
With the highest possible S Scale and a 30% boost to lightning damage, this is the absolute best chime for combat miracles. The weapon art, while costly, will greatly damage nearby opponents, as it triggers an explosion of lightning that surrounds your body and deals heavy damage, followed by lightning strikes that target nearby enemies (it places lightning bolts where they are standing at the time of casting. If they move, it will miss). Increased poise for further miracle casting lasts 10 seconds.
However, using it requires 50 Faith, and it can only cast Lightning based miracles, Dark Miracles will prompt the "scratch head" animation, as well as healing miracles. This chime is only for people who want to be battle clerics.
With the secrets out of the way, there is only the optional boss left:
At the end of the Grotto, one starts to notice that, aside from the dank corals and mosses, there are shattered tower walls, with soot scorched stone and iron pillars marking the distinctive architecture of Brume Tower, as though a part of the structure was smashed into the ground and broke apart as it descended. This is not coincidental, due to the item you find near the center of the area, by a twisted mass of scrap metal.
The name appears only briefly, but you know what it is when the cutscene begins. Your character stoops down low, the camera panning over the very surface of the water as he pulls something from the mire, bringing it up.
You see the spiny, charred Iron Helm, covered with muck, cradled in your hands, your character wiping the mud off the brilliant ruby in the center.
The room shakes, your character looking around in confusion, seeing the tendrils of dark sweeping forward, gathering at the rubble before you. The twisted mass of iron starts to grind and churn, water spewing up as the mass rises, chains rattling as you see the iron plates stretch and shutter, rattling unsteadily as the creature pulls itself upright.
As it comes together, you finally make it out: a half completed, deformed dragon made of Iron, bits and pieces broken off, half his skull completely missing, with a full lower jaw and upper jaw, but no orbital socket, horn, or temple on the left. Ancient mechanisms and gears grind and twist, hissing as it drags itself up, roaring at you, only it is choked and repressed.
The Smelter Dragon lumbers unsteadily, his theme a sad canter as the great, artificial monster attempts to attack you, though he strains against the chains and malformed, half molten iron strapped into his sides, as though the scaffolding used in its construction was never fully removed (/watch?v=Q9yg8eyrfp4, first half).
He uses his head to ram you and front claws to sweep at you, though he is pretty easy to evade. He will occasionally spew napalm over the environment, the oil floating on the water and continuing to burn for a fairly long period, though you have ample space to move.
He will thrash as well, shaking the chains and possibly dealing damage if one of the many pieces of scrap metal hit you as he is moving.
He has unbelievably high HP, beyond any hope of damaging him in a meaningful way, so you have to find and attack his weak points to cripple him. These take the form of various nodes on his body, where you can see steam hissing out. Hitting these nodes enough times causes them to burst, releasing a spray of burning oil into the water, steam hissing from the wound as it smolders red.
It becomes progressively harder to get close to him without the burning oil floating on the water hitting you, so it takes patience and care, but it is perfectly possible to catch him during his recovery and damage him without having to stand on the burning points.
After bursting five nodes, equal to about 100,000 damage, or 5/6 of his health, he will emit a pained roar and hunker down, the sound of screeching metal filling the air as he pushes the chains to the point of exploding off him, the Dragon breaking all the spare pieces away and leaving him with far less metal, but slimmer.
His wings burst open, unfurling, skeletal with no tarp between them, but nonetheless imposing as his dark, cold metal body bursts into a blindingly hot fire as he lets out a far more powerful roar.
His theme becomes far more regal and proud, the masterpiece his creator never got to see (see Yhorm's stage 2 theme).
This is where the real battle begins, since he still has about 20,000 HP, but you cannot burst anymore points. He is easily one of the hardest bosses in the DLC, and will swiftly kill you his with both his extreme attack power, as well as his speed.
He uses tactics from every dragon you've fought in the series thus far. He will sprint forward, throwing his body into a powerful, serpentine lunge forward with his head out, use his front claws to lash out and stomp you, as well as try to bite you.
He also borrows a few moves from Sinh, breathing fire down his side if you linger too long, as well as spinning multiple times on the spot, causing heavy damage if you come into contact with all the flying chains and metal stirred from the violent motion.
He also has a few new moves. If you stand beneath or behind him, he will lean upright and breathe torrents of napalm into the water, creating a great plume of fire that will spread out over the water. He will roar to knock you off your feet, setting you up for a follow up as you stand up, requiring extremely fast reflexes on wakeup.
His deadliest new move is to use his wings like giant scythes, as they are very long and cover a massive area, and he loves to use them im combination with other moves to keep you disoriented.
It's a battle of patience and fast reaction speed as you wear down his HP, though he is very weak to lightning, and evade the lingering torrents of flaming oil on the water until they go out, though the damage is very light if you have to stand in the fire to damage the boss.
Since I died like a bitch the first try, I got a chance to look at the crown on my way back:
Iron Crown: "Crown that once belonged to the Old Iron King, Lord of a great fortress of iron, which sunk to the depths of the earth under the weight of his sins. Still retains an echo of the immense flame in his soul, which fueled his great aptitude with pyromancy.
Many monarchs have come and gone, and every one failed to take the true throne, the Iron King no exception.
In time, a true monarch made four kings one, and united their crowns, only to abandon them along with the rest of the realm."
So the Bearer of the Curse is known of, and relics of Drangleic have found their way to Lothric, and now New Londo. Is this possible foreshadowing for the next DLC? Maybe.
Wearing the crown, like in Dark Souls 2, will restore your Focus points, regenerating at a rate of 1 per second, with 20% burst every one minute, which is marked by the "warmth" heal sound. Interestingly, it will not stop you from hollowing on death, which means Vendrick's blessing is absent. Or perhaps, it was never the crown to begin with…
Going back for a rematch with Smelter Dragon, I found a Sunbro sign, which summoned an NPC called "Abbot Lue."
He's very useful for the fight, as he uses a greatshield to soak damage from the dragon, and launches very powerful sunlight spears from a Dragon Chime when at a safe distance, using "My Thanks!" upon successfully defeating the boss.
After beating the Smelter Dragon, you have his Soul and a few items that you can transpose:
"Soul of the Smelter Dragon, a failed creation of the Old Iron King.
The Old Iron King had power over flame, so much so he could grant life to the lifeless, binding cold metal to the will of the flames. But, even he could not capture the might and nobility of dragons, and he eventually cast his failed creation into the depths of one of his towers, condemned and forgotten.
The Smelter Dragon never flew, as the sky seems forever out of the reach of man."
Smelter Axe: "A massive greathammer with many serrated heads, bringing it closer to resembling a mace. These were fashioned for the great iron goliaths that stomped around the grand tower of Brume, and were never intended for a human to wield.
Such immense armaments perfectly reflect the inhuman strength and crushing will of the Iron King, whose ambition condemned his iron kingdom to the depths.
Weapon Art: Whirligig Strike. Draw the hammer back, and throw full weight into a series of spins, followed by a lunge forward using the sheer momentum of such a massive body in motion. Surely, only the dangerously mad would dedicate themselves to such an outlandish tactic."
Requires 60 strength to wield, and it weighs a metric ton, but it has the classic Dark Souls 2 greathammer moveset, complete with the spin 2 win, though the axe heads drag the floor with sparks flying, to signify the drag as it rotates. Also, Superman Dive, because it's just too fun to not use, though it will take away a massive amount of focus and stamina to use the L2.
At the cost of being slow and clumsy, it has absurd striking power, and actually deals both strike AND slash damage.
Dance of Fire (Pyromancy): "Raise a powerful blast of flame, which will then sweep back and forth midair, as though excited to be unleashed and dancing with glee. The flame provides warmth and comfort, but also ample power of destruction when allowed to run wild.
The Iron King, whose towering forges could be seen in the blackest night, was closer to the Abyss than he would ever know."
Like Dark Souls 2, it will cause a dark red flame to appear to the side, sweeping around, only this time it will not vanish, and instead erratically dance side to side, tracing up, down, forward, and backward over a semicircle, providing an area denial as well as a smoke screen for further attacks. Lingers for about 5 seconds before vanishing
Requires 35 intelligence and 20 faith to cast, and is very damaging on top of being unpredictable, with makes it very dangerous in the proper hands.
With that, you are able to warp back to Old Londor to continue the DLC.