I continue exploring the Shaded Ruins, meet with the wheelchair man and Weaponsmith Ornifax, and kill a headless man to be praised by his head.

The invader, Forlorn, shows up in the Shaded Forest again and I head off to Brightstone Cove Tseldora, land of awful things.

I finish up in Harvest Valley and the Earthen Peak before heading back to the Shaded Ruins and having a chat with Manscorpion Tark. And then we murder his wife! Good times.

I fool around in the Shaded Ruins for a time afterwards before heading into the next area to Brightstone Cove Tseldora and backtracking to a PvP area.

I head into the Shaded Woods, fight a bunch of invisible people, and panic after getting shouted at by a tree and run out the other side.

Then, I muck about in the Shaded Ruins beyond for a bit and return to Majula, Harvest Valley, and the Forest of the Fallen Giants for some items I’d missed.

Trying to get back into the swing of things, not that it particularly matters. I finish up the Iron Keep, missing a bonfire and a switch to turn off the fire jets, by killing the Old Iron King and being alarmed by the entrance to one of the DLC areas.

I continue exploring the Iron Keep and it’s many corridors and pathways. And I also just kinda backhand Oliver the Collector off of a ledge into the lava.

I cheat on my build real briefly for the fight against the Smelter Demon and use the Blacksteel Katana because it appears to be resistant to fist?

As I head back into the Iron Keep after burning myself alive, Armorer Dennis from the Forest of Fallen Giants makes his return!

I still hate him.

I also make my way to the Smelter Demon near the end, after clearing out all the obstacles in this first area.

For some reason, one of the windmills attached to the Earthen Peak is what is maintaining many of the poison pools in the structure and setting it ON FIRE somehow drains the poison.

Then, a clown beats up a headless Nāga and I head into the Iron Keep, home of Samurai and lava.

I encounter the boss of the Earthen Peak, a Nāga that throws her severed head at you as a bomb, and meander about aimlessly while I try to get rid of the poison.

The Mimics in Dark Souls II are just an extra level of horrific over the originals, eh? Also, in what world would ANYONE build a place like this? There’s no reason for ANY of it.