So I've been playing the fuck out of Dark Souls 3 and it got me thinking...

>The paranoia angle comes from tried and true methods of detecting evil no longer working

Yeah but the PCs have no real way of knowing that.

Which one is that? I'm only halfway through the game, but I haven't run into any anthropomorphic ducks.

Unless they're idiots they figure it out pretty quick. But quite frankly gaming with idiots seems to be an active problem amongst folks on Veeky Forums so that might indeed be problematic.

No Ducks, but.
near Farron Keep you run into these creatures called the Ghru, who are a race of degenerate goat-people who attack with poisoned weapons. Now if you are familiar with Runequest, you may recall some creatures called the Broo who are a degenerate race of goat people who attack with poisoned weapons. They also reproduce by raping human women and having their offspring burst out like a chestburster but we don't talk about that part.

>ANYONE could in theory be the domain's Dark Lord, though unfortunately fans all have who is in charge of what completely memorized.
I find this annoying too, if I ever run Ravenloft I'm just gonna make up my own domain.

>Okay, so you as you arrive, you spot the cultist sacrifying a baby to the dark god
>"I cast detect evil"
>You don't have that spell, remember?
>"Then I call them out."
>They all take out their knives and start running toward you.
>"I'm not sure if they're hostile or not."
>They yell "Blood for the god of the Flesh!"
>"Mmm, they might not be friendly."

>I find this annoying too, if I ever run Ravenloft I'm just gonna make up my own domain.

I do that all the time, and frequently use monsters that have nothing to do with the local Darklord and his domain and instead treat the setting as a Horror Fantasy farm I can use with lots of horrible little bits I can choose and puck from.
Delightfully, my current 5e group is quite good at running with the Gothic themes and generally being into the scary shit and thus all wanted me to GM Ravenloft.

Watch the Jacob's Ladder and House on Haunted Hill for inspiration.

Seen both, don't need too.
I've actually GMed Ravenloft before, just not with this group and this edition and certainly not with a group this new to D&D, but I'll be damned if they aren't good at getting into the right mindset.

>don't need too
Bullshit, you always need to watch scary movies.

Well I don't have either.
Besides we're doing werewolf stuff right now...kinda.

Then you need to watch An American Werewolf in London.

And maybe play Skyrim. The game is overall average, but playing a werewolf in it is so awesome.

Seen it, played it. And like I said, it's not that kind of werewolf story. At the risk of spoiling it for my players who come in here sometimes I'll elaborate;
While there ARE werewolves and the party has faced at least one, they aren't actually the problem or main villain of this particular adventure. The villain is a helpful chirurgist who is actually actively taking the natural-born werewolves children from their den in the forest and draining them of blood after forcing them to transform and doing horrific experiments on them to help them understand the "scientific process of the change" that he might use their improved vitality to cure disease and illnesses. He's experimenting on homeless people, the mad, and volunteers coming in for "experimsntal new treatments" to see which of his diluted blood-chemical formulas will work and it's turning most of them into bestial half-werewolf freaks that aren't properly werewolves or people, sorta akin to the classic wolf-man. He views these as "acceptable failures in the name of science" and refuses to believe that the magical nature of the lycanthropy curse isn't going to be fixed by some blood-therapy. Meanwhile the natural-born werewolves are killing across town trying to find him and their stolen children and confusing the matter for the party. I got the idea reading about "cutting edge" 19th century medical treatments for the insane that by today's standards are awfully horrific and inhumane.

>I got the idea reading about "cutting edge" 19th century medical treatments
Hahaha you poor fucker.
>treatment by temperature
>basically giving a feverish patient a ice bath
Enjoy your fucking nightmares you poor fucker. And that's the mild one.

The fuck do those prefixes mean in this context?

Yeah, I got the idea of the plot when some fucking quack basically thought that by replacing the "diseased" blood of a mentally ill patient who recently became symptomatic of his mental illness would remove the "inflammation of the brain" because obviously something bar got into their system to make them change, right?

Basically just 19th century leeching but if you attach big words to it suddenly it's all better!

Wasn't there a cutting-edge Sherlock Holmes story where a scientist devolved into a monkey man because he gave himself a transfusion from one?
Fucking A, that's also Bloodborne.

>replacing the "diseased" blood of a mentally ill patient who recently became symptomatic of his mental illness would remove the "inflammation of the brain" because obviously something bar got into their system to make them change
Well, to be optimistic, at least they improve since the Middle Ages.
Back then they used to take your blood off, but they didn't replaced it.

Give or take a helpful but misguided Elder God Thing that just wants to help humans but keeps accidentally driving them crazy with knowledge they can't handle, sure.

Technically speaking it was an important step in learning blood transfusion and compatible blood types and shit like that, but basically it was us assuming that they could fix psychological problems through judicious application needles and tubes and misguided optimism.

>people worshipping Kos have eyes everywhere
>DLC reveals that Kos, or some say Kosm, doesn't have eyes at all and thus has no idea where they should be
I like the idea of a friendly elder god who tries to help but is completely misunderstood.

Yeah, that was "throw things at the wall and see what sticks" kind of science.

>Yeah, that was "throw things at the wall and see what sticks" kind of science.
The only real kind of science. The "scientific method" that they teach you in HS is even just a formalized version of that.

So, having played the game twice.. I still have no idea what is with those tree people and I guess those flying tree root insects they become towards the end of the game? What the heck is that about?

People with the dark sigil turning into new archtrees imo.

At least the scientific method doesn't rely on painful and horrible experiments.
I could babble about how lobotomies were handled during the Cold War for a while before people figured out it was a terrible idea.

Play Bloodborne.

Well Kos (or some say Kosm) has also been dead for decades and her child was taken and likely dissected by the Byrgenworth scholars to gain eldritch knowledge, so she likely isn't granting anyone shit.
And even if she IS responsible granting Vacuous Rom eyes and turning him into...that thing, he was awfully helpful about being a freaky elder god and tried to keep the Nightmare and the Hunter's Moon from making everything worse.

I though it was the Moon Presence who decided everything Hunter-related?

Oh, it has werewolves?
All I hear about is elder god shit.

The normal humans affected by the blood either turn into wendigos or into werewolves.

A Hunter's Moon is just want you call a big orange enlarged moon like that, also called (appropriately) a Blood Moon.
And it seems that aside from Gerhman there's only ever one Hunter in the Dream at any given time given how many ex-Hunter's we meet talk about how "they used to dream too" in reference to Hunting.
If you mean about Rom protecting Yharnam from the affects of the Blood Moon and the Nightmare of Mensis, I don't believe she is working with Hunters or the Moon Presence/Flora to prevent that shit from happening, I think she does it on her own because the Great Ones are generally helpful in a fumbling way that doesn't account for or doesn't understand our human frailties.

Not sure what the Moon Presence's game is, but I think of think it might have to do with killing every single one of the remaining Great Ones considering that is basically what you spend the rest of the game doing anyway.

Huh.
I just saw crazy psychos with axes who kinda reminded me of the RE4 Ganados, lots of mumbling to themselves and screaming in tongues as they zombie-walked at you before going all axe-city.

These are amateurs hunters, they don't care about the blood, they just want to clean the city. And they think you're a monster too.
There are several kind of enemies, you see :
>the mob, who wants to clean the city, they's basically humans and outclassed by all the abominations
>the infected, basically turned monsters, the Cleric Beast is one, the Vicar is another,
>the hunters, they act like you. Gascoigne is one, Gehrman is another
>the varied cultists and scholars factions who have their own goal and will try to stop you. Micolash is one of these, and your original plan is to stop them,

I've never actually played the game much, I'm not guy and don't know what all you're even talking about.
I don't really have the money for a $40-odd dollar videogame these days.

That's why I tried to explain. There are many kind of enemies.

And I'm saying you're using all these names and shit I have zero context for.
Gascione, Micolash, Gerhman, Vicar, I don't know what any of that means.
I don't even know what the relevance of blood is in the game itself aside from (presumably) falling out of guys when you kill them.

This is the whole game, senpai. Thank me later.
youtube.com/watch?v=zWHsP9XWXHE

Jesus that's a disturbing sound.
Is it angry or is it in pain, I genuinely can't tell.

>Gascione
It's Gascoigne.
>Vicar
It's a title, not a name.

>don't even know what the relevance of blood is in the game itself
Everything in this game is about blood.
If I got the plot right, humans use the elder god's blood to transform themselves into ascended being.
They also water it down a LOT and use it to cure and enhance themselves. That's why the Player Character can't die, he has the blood of the Moon Presence (a very huge thing) and is in some sort of covenant with it.
Everything boils down to blood in Bloodborne. It's the money, the estus, the titanite, and the incensitive to keep going.

This all sounds very complicated, and I'm guessing I should just save up the game instead of trying to figure out what the hell you're talking about piece by piece. No offense but without context it's all kinda gibberish.
Also
>humans use the elder god's blood
That sounds like a tremendously bad idea and I cannot imagine any scenario where that shit was ever gonna work out.

>That sounds like a tremendously bad idea and I cannot imagine any scenario where that shit was ever gonna work out.
Turns out it doesn't, pic related.
They ripped audio from the game and matched it to the dog's mouth, I think.

That's the Vicar Amelia.

>This all sounds very complicated
Like all Dark Souls games, nothing is said straight.
>That sounds like a tremendously bad idea
Well, it works fine for the Player Character, that makes him stronger, faster, and unable to die.
NPCs suggest that you can't stay a hunter for long, it drains your sanity or changes you.

But basically, what happens is that when you become a Hunter, you receive special blood, which allows you to access a pocket dimension called the Hunter's Dream (like the Nexus in Demon's Souls).
As long as you can access the Hunter's Dream, you can't really die. Once you stop "dreaming" (accessing the Hunter Dream's) you're vulnerable to death.
It's suggested in the game that only one hunter at once can access it, therefore all the other characters you meet can die for real.

And the game setting (the town of Yharnam) is directed (more or less) by the Healing Church, who uses the blood to heal people of all sicknesses.
Problem is that it doesn't always work and some people turn into monsters (namely werewolves).
Depending from one's exposition to the blood, the transformation changes, which is why the Cleric Beast are stronger than the werewolf and why the Vicar Amelia is a one of a kind wendigo.
Supposely, the higher you are in the Healing Church, the stronger is the blood you receive, so the more powerful you become once you transform.

why the dark sigil? Isn't that a niche Londor thing? Why is the general populace of Lothric doing this? Why do you become a flying tree root insect not rooted to the ground, rather than progress like a tree?

>If I got the plot right, humans use the elder god's blood to transform themselves into ascended being.

You basically got it right.
It's a bit more complex then that; everyone turning into Beasts was clearly not a desirable side effect and it's not clear how much Yharnam ACTUALLY knew about and was in on what the Choir was actually up to, which seemed by necessity to exclude pretty much the whole city from their Ascension and leave the rest to become Beasts.
Laurence probably wanted just to help people using the healing properties of the Old Blood, but according to Miyazaki he was dead when the Healing Church really got underway and as a rule saints and religious figures don't get to decide how other people interpret the meanings of what they say.

Laurence is a real saint. Just like Ludwig, he only wanted to help.

>Supposely, the higher you are in the Healing Church, the stronger is the blood you receive, so the more powerful you become once you transform.

There might also be a psychological element to it we're not really putting together; it IS weird physics-defying hell-ichor shit after all.
But yeah, the more blood you use the quicker you change most probably and since while on the Hunt you are likely to use LOTS of healing blood so Hunter's probably change a lot faster and a lot more dramatically when they aren't being sustained by the Dream like a rare few lucky (or unlucky) Hunters are, though according to one item proper professional Hunters have great willpower and physical endurance and thus resist changing, though in the end it might just be prolonging the process.
There's also a lot of implication in the Old Hunters that the inherent violence humanity is capable of is responsible for how quickly you do or do not change and if you don't give in your urge to just be a savage beast you don't change as fast.

Which is honestly a pretty Gothic theme for a game with so many Lovecraftian elements.

DaS1 happens just before a predicted apocalypse
DaS2 happens when there's no apocalypse due for a long time
DaS3 happens during an apocalypse

Thanks senpai.

The badge that gives you access to Ludwig's Holy Blade, I think, outright states that the more you resist becoming blood-drunk the more monstrous you become when you transform. I think it has nothing to do with the source or quantity of blood, throughout the game you can see that the more people can resist the violent urges, the more fucked up they turn. Regular people become wolves, a holy saint turns into fucking rapehorse.

That explains why the Hunter becomes...

The Radiant Sword Badge doesn't really say that or talk about the blood in any sense at all.
Also, it never occurred to me that Ludwig basically just became a really ugly-ass version of Rapehorse but he kinda does, doesn't he?

There was a game about the Hell coming to Earth in the 1000 AC.
Only read some mentions about it online though.

bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Sword Hunter Badge
I knew it was the one dropped by Cleric Beast, I just didn't know what it was,

Use wikidot. It's +20% cooler.

That's interesting, because Micolash seems to think that only surpassing the "beastly idiocy" will allow him to become an god.

IMO. not sure if other people think the same way.

Dark Souls as a whole would profit from a little more consistency and an overall more thightly connected plot

during every game I more or less reach the conclusion that there's no point or urgency in really doing anything, Bloodborne was a nice wind with the whole town dying around you, but in the end it becomes an abstract dreamworld clusterfuck.

Much like Dark Souls, where you don't really do anything useful, or achieve anything useful, none of the enemies have any motivation to stop you from actually linking the fire, and you end up punching big dudes for the sake of it

>no point or urgency in really doing anything
Yes. You can just sit down and wait until you become just like all other Hollows or die.
But you keep going despite all senselessness and despair.

Because the world is already over in Dark Souls. You walk through cities, but everyone is just standing around. No bakers, no kids running down the streets, not a single sign of life.
Bloodborn had people staying at home and being visibly scared.

They're called Pilgrim Butterflies, according to the Dragonslayer Armour's soul. My guess was they hatch from the corpses of the Londor pilgrims, that's why those were mass-suiciding into Lothric.

maybe urgency was the wrong word.

There is no rush to do anything. I see the Pilgrim Flies crowding the castle, and the Dragonslayer Armor waiting for me, but I just sit down and go cooking because there's literally no hurry, everythings fucked, and when I'm done unfucking it, it will eventually be fucked again, so the faster I solve it, the sooner I have to fix it again.

Gwyn was a moron, he should have just let the dragons be dragons.

That's just Lordran, to be fair. There are plenty of signs that things elsewhere are in some kind of state of functioning.

Kill yourself.

>ignore Nameless King posts

>Gwyn was a moron
Don't make me take off my belt, Gwyndolin.

He's just Aldritch's sock puppet now.

So, I have a question and an idea to run by you guys to see how good it is. It has to do with the Usurpation ending (the only one I've gotten yet), so I'll spoiler it in case anyone doesn't wanna see it.
So, what exactly is the result of the ending?
My idea on it is that the people of Londor are seeking a way to stop the maddening effects of hollowing, and they use the fire to attain this. This is mostly based on two things: the weaker one being Yuria's response when you attack her. She states that "a hollow need not be mad", pointing to the idea that the maddening aspect of hollowing are not something smiled upon in Londor.
The second of which is what that voice - I assume it's a pilgrim - says during the ending: "Make us whole". I believe that this refers to the fire, as you wrested it from the First Fire and let it sputter before your subjects approached. You would use what remains of the fire to cure the madness of the Hollows, allowing them to rule in the wake of the gods and fulfilling the prophecy of the Sable Church. By the actions of the Sable Church and Londor, we also get a peek at Kaathe's true intention: malicious, but caring of the hollows.

Also, for any of you that were confused about Anri's Marriage, you were marrying your DARK SIGILS, not yourselves. Anri was just a vessel that the assassin (another pilgrim like Yoel) was cultivating in her through drawing out Anri's true strength; this explains why Yuria said the pilgrim was accompanying Anri. Finally, Horace only needed to be disposed of so the assassin could prepare the transition of the sigils from Anri's perceived worthless vessel to your own, so you could usurp the fire.

>can't kill the tree
JUST

If Symbaroum hasn't been mentioned there's always Symbaroum which is pretty similar to the Souls style settings. Plus the art is fucking fantastic.

Do you need advice or help? Because you can only hurt him wherever you can see his big old cysts. In second phase you can also hurt its third arm.

Friendly reminder that despite being a massive retard, DSP killed the tree in one try. You are literally worse than DSP.

it's a real dog howl. my dogs sound just like that at times. in bloodborne they just distorted it I guess.

It must be fun when you're having guests home and the dog screams like that in the middle of the night.

Invite some /x/philes, just for the fun.

If you're talking about the thing in DS3 in the undead settlement I can't think of any advice here that isn't insulting. I know that's pretty normal for Dark Souls, but that's normally by choice. Just summon someone and they'll probably do most of the work for you

Though it does mean you should join the mound maker covenant if you haven't yet. A lot of people miss that the first time and you can't after that boss

nah, they only howl in a bloodcurling manner when I leave for an extended amount of time (I guess they sense it) or in the occasions where they hear a howl from the tv or something. then it might turn into a 15-minute chorus though.

>it might turn into a 15-minute chorus though
Like the barbershop quartet?

is that a bloodborne reference? I haven't played it.

The cycle begins anew, back to the grayness and everlasting dragons.

It's funny how when you raise your insight you hear children cry and all reality distorts.

That's a Bioshock Infinite one.

Yeah you can, Sirris' questline gets you the opportunity to join it again.

I accidentally joined the fingers and had to wait for NG+, I was so pissed

the greyness wasn't part of a cycle. It was an unchanging stagnant state, which out of pure coincidence sparked a flame, which started the cycle of light and dark. A return to greyness would be the end of the cycle.

What if the cycle was just the stone archtrees' method of reproduction?

A E S T H E T I C

Just did it
I was hitting the leg sac wrong

That is fucking beautiful. It's like those trees over in the Americas that need fire for their seeds to germinate.

Micolash didn't partake in the blood at all. Just like Father Willem. Ludwig went crazy with that shit.

Micolash didn't?
But yet he managed to create a dream on his own and even went toe-to-toe with a hunter.

Then again
>Micolash succeeded
>the 53 other people next to him failed

Darkest Dungeon is very much like Mordheim to me.

Summon help. If not for DPS, then for someone else for the tree to wail on. The tree's so fucking slow that you can cast Heal in between strikes if you're a cleric. Just dodge the arm and hit, then get out of range. Rinse and repeat until dead.

Took me about 5 tries desu.