Drangleic Castle #1

The castle is an imposing sight as you first ascend the lengthy stairway to its entrance. At this stage I'm fairly fearless as I'm kitted out to take and deal large amounts of punishment. The two mastodons who come to life as I went up posed no problem as did the army of Royal Soldiers guarding the entrance. I somehow managed to activate a statue on one side of the entrance and realised I needed to do the same with the one on the opposite side to gain entry. I couldn't for the life of me figure it out.

I had to resort to watching ENB's video which shows that you need to kill an enemy close to the golem so that their soul is absorbed by it and it springs to life. No wonder the soldiers keep respawning, I broke 2 weapons on my first visit smacking them about.

Inside is as palacial as Souls gets. The resident knights were again just fodder despite possessing great shields. Then I came to a real stinker of a room full of statues that awaken and then doors that open to reveal Ruin Sentinels! The whole coming-to-life thing and souls of departed enemies fueling golems seems to be a major theme of the castle.

Past that nasty room was an area with corrosive acid (which only yielded an Elizabeth's Mushroom for venturing into the acid) and a room full of poison-arrow spitting masks. Another path lead to the NPC I found in the Gulch who prattles on about the Dark, apparently I need to meet him one more time before something happens. Following those two dead-ends I returned to the main stairway to find the ghost of the chancellor, who seemed a bit erratic but dished out the lore (which was very welcome). Apparently the king is missing, the queen is a Lady MacBeth manipulating type and the Dark (read Abyss) is hinted at being involved.