The Lost Bastille #3

Surprisingly there's still a fair amount to the Lost Bastille after you defeat the boss. I moved from the servants quarters to more holding areas before on to a final tower. It's an area riddled with false walls (where would you be without Orange Soapstone messages?!) and little secrets. It's also patrolled by gangs of exploding zombie inmates who can send you into panic as they're either sneakily hidden or come in a horde (they remind me of those guys form Serious Sam with the bombs for hands who just scream and leg it at you!). This combination makes for some real Souls moments as you're switching from curious explorer to wary combatant punctuated by a few surprises.

Of note I found the Large Club (my favourite STR weapon from DS1 but which is now lacking its R2 charge attack unfortunately), a ring which eases weapon degradation (handy now that weapons erode away like chalk between bonfires) and a Bonfire Ascetic (which makes the game harder).

There were 3 jumps that needed to made to rescue out-of-reach goodies and I took my armour off for one only to notice my character was wearing a bra! and was now female?! A quick post to boards.ie revealed that this was because I got into the coffin in Things Betwixt!

I eventually ended up in a new area which again seems a straight-forward mix of battlements and keeps (I should really be careful what I wished for as I've been longing for more Boletaria like castles but now it's starting to get repetitive) which is called Sinner's Rise