Drangleic Castle #2

Upon revisiting the room with the masks I noticed a door I'd previously missed. This led me up through the battlements and walkways of the towers adjoining the castle as I battled through more of the greatshield knights whilst being peppered by arrows from above. I was invaded by an NPC red phantom who was stupidly easy to defeat.

I eventually came to a room with the queen in it. As a previous room had held a portrait of her which inflicted curse I was wary to say the least but she was quite welcoming and basically told me to kill the king. Following that was a boss fog where I thought I was in for it as there hadn't been a bonfire for a while (by DS2 standards anyway). No need to fear as it was just 2 Dragonriders who didn't seem to have much HP and also telegraphed their slow attacks.

At the following bonfire was the Moonlight Greatsword guy who didn't say much of interest. The castle continued with another golem room which activates a lift and then a long jog back to the bonfire which opens up a shortcut. Nice level design complimented by the eerily serene atmosphere of the castle halls. The mix of mastodons, greatshield knights and archers from the Iron Keep seems a bit odd but gameplay-wise it's a good mix. I picked up the Firestorm pyromancy along the way which I'm looking forward to trying out in my next session.