You Have Died - Lets Play Dark Souls

That is really cool-looking. What does it do?

It's the same model as the moonlight butterfly boss I fought a while back. In the Crystal cave they just flutter in place a bit. I've never tried attacking one there, but I'd assume it shoots magic bolts and explosions at you.

I'm so glad you have the opportunity to save SunBro now!

I also do not kill the butterflies in the cave. I did kill one, and it wasn't worth it. The area is treacherous enough as it is to navigate; additional combat is difficult.

Heh... Seath gave you almost as much trouble as he did me... when he was the final boss of King's Field 2.

Yes, much like the Moonlight Greatsword, Seath's a reference to King's Field, one of From Software's first games.

...I want another King's Field game, dammit.

So I head back to the Demon Ruins.



I come across this collection of appendages living in the lava.



I get right in front of it, but it doesn't attack.



Nearby is a corpse.



On it is the gold-hemmed set. It has really good fire resistance. Picking it up angers the big, fiery creature behind me.



It's called the Ceaseless Discharge, and all it does is slam one arm at me, leave it there until I can hit it, retract it, and slam it again.



I think it has other moves, but that's all it does to me. So I back off, wait for him to swing, step forward, whack his arm, repeat.



Easy breezy. Apparently the Ceaseless Discharge was keeping the lava flowing.



It cools a bit with him dead.



It leaves behind a bunch of mini-Taurus demons.



I go back to the bonfire and level up endurance some more.



I head out over the newly-hardened lava.



There's a whole army of mini-Taurus demons.



I head the other way and fight a mini-Capra demon.



He goes down easily enough, and I turn to face the mini-Taurus demons.



Fortunately, I'm able to pull them one at a time, and they aren't too bad that way.

I pull two once, but some sweet moves take care of them.



There's a corpse with some treasure floating on the lava.



Can I grab it and make it back if I wear all my fire resistance gear?



I grab the Chaos Flame Ember (let's me upgrade flame weapons to Chaos weapons, which do more damage the more humanity you have) and try drinking a potion...



...but it's too late.

You Died 130 times.

No matter. The game is nice for a change and the mini-Taurus demons don't respawn and my corpse appears on shore.

I head the other way and see an army of mini-Capra demons.



They're also nice enough to come at me one at a time, particularly when I shoot them with the crossbow first. I continue on and see a glowing portal in the distance.



I also see little moving statue things...



...that breathe fire.



They're pretty harmless alone, but like to show up in large groups. I continue on, and a giant worm is sticking out of the rock wall.



It spits something hazardous and flails around if you get close. I rush in and kill it, and find a bonfire behind it.



Another day, another giant worm. This one I leave alone.



I think the Taurus demons in this area are larger, but it could just feel that way because the ledge is so narrow. I almost fall off here while fighting one of the demons, but I manage to avoid death.



A weird graphical glitch makes an arrow permanently float near my head.



I head to the end of the hall, and four worms pop out from the ceiling.



At the end of the hall is a chest with a Large Flame Ember. This will let me upgrade fire weapons to +15.



I sprint past the worms, and head into the glowing doorway.



It's Demon Firesage. He's basically Asylum Demon with a glowing fire aura (which seems to be purely cosmetic). He hops around a lot more, so I get caught in his blasts more than for Asylum Demon. They don't do that much damage, though.



He has a giant staff, but I think blocking it works okay, and if you stay close to his body, he can't hit you with the tip.



Here's his jumping attack, where he tries to do a butt slam.



I use the same strategy as Asylum Demon – stay behind him, wait for him to use a blast, and then rush in – and he goes down quickly.



I find a bonfire right after him and light it.

I find an elevator that I think goes back to the second bell near Blighttown, but I don't take it.



I go into a long hall with some tree roots around.



Immediately following the last boss fight is...



…another boss fight! This time, it's centipede demon.



He has a bunch of centipede appendages that he likes to flail at you. Also, he can jump up and screw up the camera control. If he lands on you, I think it's bad. The fight starts in an area without much room to work with, so I run to a back corner with a little more room.



Here's me getting slammed by his centipede tail. Blocking and whacking his legs works well for the most part.



At some point I chop off his tail and it makes a little second centipede appear and run around, attacking me. That doesn't help.



I kill the baby centipede and it drops a Charred Orange Ring.



Papa centipede dies shortly after.



The Charred Orange Ring lets me walk on lava, taking minimal damage. Should be useful here.



I decide to take a break here. I'm feeling pretty confident, having died only once in the Demon Ruins – and that was just grabbing an item – but will it last?

24 Hours 44 Minutes Played.
You Died 130 times.
One Death Per 11 Minutes.

Just the tip?

Hey, I don't mean to be selfish, but the pictures are really messing with my computer, and it just breaks my browser. I can't even view the previous page because of this. Is there some way to fix that? I still want to keep reading. :(

Definitely don't feel bad. I've never done one of these, and I thought my pictures might be too big, but the forum was auto-resizing them and nobody was complaining so I figured it was okay. They do take a little while to load, though, so maybe I should make them smaller. What is the standard? 800x600 or something? I'm not sure if there's a way to resize them at this point, but I can look into it.

As far as I know, I haven't done anything differently, though, so if it was working before, I'm not sure why it would have changed.

It's probably the amount of large images that is the problem; the pages load quite slowly for me too, but I have a good browser so it's not really a problem for me.

The forum doesn't actually auto-resize them; I can see that they're awfully large if I click on them. And yes, 800x600 tends to be a good size.

I noticed you are using imgur, so you can use the auto-resize option when you upload to make them that size easily. :)

What Umazes said. Also, some pages were better than others, and it was just the last page where my browser (and I) just couldn't handle it, probably due to a suddenly large amount of pictures.

Okay, I tried shrinking the images from the last page and a half a bit (I couldn't find a way to batch resize them with Imgur. If anyone knows how, I could do that). Clear your cache for this page and let me know if it helps.

I'm not really noticing any difference. But I do know that if you click on the 'images' tab of imgur, where all your images are actually stored, the sidebar has an auto-resize option that'll work for batches.

Ugh, when you edit an image, it slightly renames the file. It should be fixed on my last post now, and you won't even need to clear your cache.

I know Imgur has an auto-resize option for uploading files, but is there a way to do it for editing them?

Okay, let's try again. These pictures should be a bit smaller, so let me know if there are still issues.

I walk across the lava to leave the Centipede Demon's room and come across Solaire.



He's really depressed that he can't find his sun. I turn around and head back to the Demon Firesage room. There's a big hall full of tree branches and roots off to the side.



I jump down to the ground, and there are little Chaos bugs running around.



I come across a big door.



Thanks to donating 30 humanity to the Chaos Witch, it opens. Inside, I kill more chaos bugs, and one drops a Sunlight Maggot helm.



Wearing this is one of the better ways to provide light inside the Tomb of Giants. I continue down the hall and enter Lost Izalith.



Down the way, I see a titanite demon.



Down below, I see a horde of one of the laziest monster designs I've ever come across in a game.



It's the lower half of an undead dragon. They jump around a lot. By going through that hall just now, we've managed to skip them. I turn back and deal with the titanite demon.



He has a lot of health, but my shield blocks most of his attacks.



Unlike all the other titanite demons, this one respawns and can be farmed for demon titanite.

I'm so glad I don't have to deal with these guys.



I continue into the Lost Izalith ruins. It's full of fire-breathing statues (it doesn't look like it, but they hide and I killed some).



I walk along, minding my own business, and fall through the floor. Siegmeyer is down here too.



There are weird vacuum-cleaner robot looking things that damage your equipment, but this guy is too far away to bother me.

I approach Seigmeyer, and see 4 monsters down below that are all legs, mouth, and sharp teeth.



I kill three with a crossbow and talk to Seigmeyer.



He says he owes me, so he will jump down to fight them, letting me escape. He gets ready to jump.



He's totally ready now.



I think I encounter a bug, but it's an oddly fitting one. Seigmeyer takes a step forward, but refuses to jump in. I give him a couple kicks and he falls in. By the time I get down there, he's killed the last monster. He thanks me.



Nah, that was all you, buddy.

He promptly falls asleep.



The floor is poisonous, but it doesn't seem to bother him. I explore and come across a pit. Jumping down is death (yeah, I've done that before), so I walk along the edge.



I find a red titanite slab which lets me upgrade fire weapons to +10, the highest level for fire weapons.



I warp back and level up.



Right after the shortcut door, I find Solaire.



He's even more depressed that he can't find his sun. He starts babbling My sun, my dear, dear sun, and I leave him. I become human, head back to the ruins, and find a pyromancer.



She throws some fireballs and doesn't do anything too dangerous, but then a dark spirit shows up.



He rolls around a lot, and she finally does something scary.



The two of them get me before I can finish off either one.



You Died 131 times.

I head back, and while Kirk distracts me she summons about a thousand lava pools.



You Died 132 times.

I'm out of humanity, so when I head back I don't run into Kirk. Without the distraction, the pyromancer goes down. I turn to the boss door.



I lighten my load to get down below 25% equipment load to be able to move fast. I won't need a big weapon for this.



Look, it's a super slide!



Wheeeee!



At the bottom is the Bed of Chaos. It does not look like a comfortable place to sleep.



I head over to the left glowing bubble. The Bed swipes at me a couple times, but I easily block them.



I head into the bubble and smash a glowing orb inside. The tree catches on fire.



This makes the Bed angry.



She now has glowing swings that I can still block, but hurt more when I don't.



Also, the floor starts falling in right in front of where I run, but you can't tell from the pictures yet. By far the nastiest thing about Bed of Chaos is its tendency to swipe you into these holes.



I head to the right bubble, smash another orb, and there's more fire.



Now the Bed is really mad.



This is going really well. All I have to do is jump down into the middle and smash one more orb. I might actually one-shot the Bed of Chaos. Who says she's so hard?



Right as I'm thinking this, the Bed smashes me with a glowing fist, and then smashes me again before I can heal.

You Died 133 times.

?

The one nice thing about Bed of Chaos is that you don't have to smash the left or right orbs again if you managed to do it before you die. The super slide does become a bit scarier, though.



So, when I approach the Bed, the floor falls out in the middle. I need to run and jump onto that branch sticking out in the middle of the hole to get to the Bed's heart.



I hurriedly try to make the jump straight-on.



I fall in the hole.

You Died 134 times.

I try it straight-on again.



You Died 135 times.

This time I slow down a bit and realize I have to come at it slightly from the right.



I make the jump, bust through some branches, and arrive at the heart of the Bed of Chaos.



There's a flaming bug here. I tried to take a better picture, but then a glowing thing poked through the ceiling and stabbed me, so I just whacked it to get it over with.



And that's the Bed of Chaos. Supposedly that flaming bug was the Witch of Izalith, who seriously fucked things up trying to harness Chaos Magic.



I stick another point in Endurance and go to look at what remains of the Bed.



Just trees now.

25 Hours 42 Minutes Played.
You Died 135 times.
One Death Per 11 Minutes.

So all the Great Lords are dead and I have their souls. I could go to the last area of the game, but I haven't touched the DLC that comes included on PC and separate on Xbox or PS3. So I'll tie up a couple loose ends, and then go explore that. Unlike almost everything up until now, the DLC area is totally new to me, so I have no idea how it's going to go.

Similar idea, I think, except that it's deep under the ground and looks nothing like a bed. But it probably enjoys eating people.

Yeah, the page loads a lot quicker for me now. I don't know how to edit images that were already posted though, sorry.

Yeah, I had to stop following this LP because of the sheer quantity of images on page four, paired with their size - it was just impossible to read. Now, though, for some reason, they're all showing as broken - or, rather, 'this image cannot display, because it contains errors.' Hopefully it's just a transient imgur issue.

My last post should just be standard unedited images that I shrunk down before uploading, so if those aren't showing up it's probably a transient Imgur thing.

So to access the DLC content, I need to find the Gold Crystal Golem that was missing from Darkroot Basin. I head there, fall off a cliff, and die.



You Died 136 times.

Probably my most embarrassing death yet. In my defense, the glare from the sun was making it really hard to see, and everything is murky green in the Basin.

So I head back, and there's the golem.



I kill him and Dusk of Oolacile pops out.



So, it is thou who rescueth me?
Most graciuous. I am deeply obliged.
I am Dusk of Oolacile.
I cometh from an age long before thine… I can not stay here for long.
So, before i disappear, allow me to ask one thing.
My home, Oolacile, is the home of ancient sorceries.
My hope is to pass this profound knowledge to thee, with thine approval.
Would this be of assistance to thee?

I say it would.

My heartfelt thanks. I am pleased beyond words.
Then, I shalt engrave my signature.
If you art in need, pray summon me from my signature.
It seems that my time is done. May the great flame guide thee.

I find her summon sign near the former hydra.



She pops up.



Here's a close-up. The pinkish-orange eye shadow is a little weird.



She says Oolacile was burned down ages ago, and she's been trapped inside the crystal since. I head back to the golem location and find her armor.



The dusk crown boosts your spell damage, but lowers you magic resistance. Great for some builds.



Oh, I try on the Symbol of Avarice I picked up a while back. It slowly drains your health, but increases your chance to find items and souls.



And it looks... interesting. I head back to the Duke's Archives and kill the golem near the entrance. He drops a broken pendant.



While I'm here, I go back to the room where I first met Seath.



It's empty except for a chest.



The Large Magic Ember lets me make stronger magic weapons.

I head back to Firelink Shrine and Sieglinde is there.



She says she's located her father, but then drops one of the more puzzling lines in the game.



Again? Why would she have killed him before? As far as I know, going Hollow is a one-way trip and death there is final. Siegmeyer certainly doesn't seem hollow yet. I don't really trust her anymore, but we never find out the details of her previous murder. When I head to Ash Lake...



I see the outcome of her latest murder. Siegmeyer lies dead, with his supposed daughter standing over the corpse.



She claims he went hollow and she had no choice but to kill him. She seems remorseful, but is it all an act?



If you buy her story, it's one of the sadder moments in the game. A daughter forced to kill her father after he goes insane and poses a threat to the rest of the world. There's just something that seems a bit off to me, though.



She does reward me with a titanite slab, so I let her go.

I level up. I'm getting close to essentially maxing endurance at 40.



I take the broken pendant back to the Darkroot Basin and there's a black portal.



I examine it, and some black tendrils grab me.



This doesn't seem good.



They set me down in a place called the Sanctuary Garden.



I was excited to explore these areas, so I forgot to check the time played for a while. It's probably about 26-ish hours now.

26 Hours 20 Minutes Played.
You Died 136 times.
One Death Per 12 Minutes.

Huh, with that little break for some walking around, my deaths per minute has fallen to 12. I doubt it will last, though.

Immediately inside the Sanctuary Garden is a bonfire.



I walk through a tunnel of tree roots and come out into a clearing.



They're not waiting with the bosses. This one is the Sanctuary Guardian.



It looks like a winged bull with a spiky tail, and maybe a wolf body? It shoots 5 quick shots of lightning or one big blast that stuns you. My shield blocks most of the damage, but it can slowly whittle me down. It can also fly up and swoop down, and it has a double swipe/headbutt combo. I chop off its tail.



The main problem I'm having is that when I take a bit of lightning damage, or mistime my attack and eat a hit, it's really hard to heal. This thing is really fast and loves to come at me while I'm drinking a potion.



You Died 137 times.

I die two more times (You Died 139 times) and then I get him.



Good job, me.



I exit the clearing, and enter the Oolacile Sanctuary.



I meet Elizabeth the giant mushroom.



She knows I saved Dusk of Oolacile before and thanks me. She says Dusk has been kidnapped by a human, and Elizabeth wants me to save her again.



She also tells me that there is an Abyss below Oolacile. The knight Artorias went to stop it, but he will not be successful.

I head on into the Royal Wood.

This is the same area as Darkroot Basin, only in the past. I step out into the area near where Sif was, not far from the Cat Covenant and the giant wolf things.



There are three types of enemies here – gardeners with rakes.



Gardeners with shears.



And big armored guys with giant clubs.



They all basically do about what you'd think they would. The big club guys have a nasty move where they slam their club into the ground, wait a second, and then pull it up out of the ground causing a big explosion in the area. There's some cool architecture nearby that I don't remember being there in the future.



I almost pass by this pond because it's surrounded by enemies, but then I pull out the binoculars and see a chest behind a bush.



I pull them one or two at a time and make my way to the chest. Inside is a blue titanite slab.



I think it's the final upgrade material for magic weapons.

I'm happily wandering around and a scary black dragon plops down on the path in front of me.



Fortunately, he flies off.

I climb up on a rock and hop down.



...right into the middle of two rake guys, who poke me to death.



You Died 140 times.

They have pretty cool magical elevators here.



Here's me dying from one of the giant clubs explosion attacks. I blocked the initial attack, figured I was safe, put down my shield, and got exploded by the guy pulling his club out of the ground.



You Died 141 times.

I find something called “Elizabeth's Mushroom.” Which is weird, because Elizabeth is a mushroom. If there were an item called “Hanacker's human”, it would sound an awful lot like I were keeping slaves. Or that I have a really weird way to refer to my child. Anyway, it's supposed to regenerate health if I eat it.



Here's a giant smashing me to death again.



You Died 142 times.

I head down a path that leads to a narrow canyon. There are dogs inside.



They're about as dangerous as the dogs from the undead burg.

At the end of the canyon, is a nice view of a town.



There's also a small waterfall overlooking a big, open area.



In this game, big, open areas usually are inhabited by big monsters. But there's some treasure and a crystal gecko.



I'll come back. Near the top of the path is this guy.



He seems to have arrived here the same way I did. He wants to know if I've seen the Abysswalker Artorias. He must be around somewhere. The guy never gives his name, but he does sell consumables.

I head back to the waterfall and jump down to the ledge with the crystal gecko.



Then I jump down to the bottom of the valley.



There's that black dragon again.



He breathes a black, shadowy fire. It doesn't seem to show up well in screenshots. It can be blocked, but if I'm not facing the right way it hurts a lot.



You Died 143 times.

I go back, and pick up all the treasure in the area.



At the end of the valley is just the edge of a cliff. That appears to be it, so I head back to the ladder up. On the way there, I take shadow fire in the back.



You Died 144 times.

Not far from the merchant guy, is a glowing fog door. I go through and a cutscene plays.



Is that the boss?



No, that's the boss.



He killed the poor Juggalo thing that was just here. Now he turns toward me.



It's Knight Artorias. I think the idea is that he's been corrupted by the Abyss.



He fights a lot like the wolf Sif, except he's smaller and it's a lot harder to get between his legs. He has some quick slashes, a double spin, some leap attacks, and a quick leap away after an attack. All his attacks appear to do pure physical damage. He can also do this.



He summons spirit power and his attacks do way more damage. It took me a while to figure out what was going on with that. Thanks to my Shield of Artorias, nothing really gets by if I block. But he hits me sometimes when I go in to attack. And he's really quick, so it can be hard to heal.

First try I get him down to about 15% life. Then he does a triple jumping overhead slash while under spirit power. If he lands the first one, you don't have a chance to get up during the second and third.



I'm not happy.



You Died 145 times.

On the way back, I walk off a cliff near the beginning of the Royal Wood.



My second most embarrassing death so far.

You Died 146 times.

I go back and get him down to about 15% life again.



I'm doing so well and getting so close that I don't feel a need to reevaluate the fight.



You Died 147 times.

I die two more times (You Died 149 times) and it's almost always the triple ovrehead jumping slash while under spirit power. One time was because he casts an explosion at the end of summoning spirit power, and I wanted to see if that really hurts. Turns out it does.

I notice that spirit power eventually wears off and then he has to recast it. It takes me about 4 deaths to come up with the incredibly-obvious-in-retrospect strategy of just waiting out his spirit power. He can't break my guard with the Shield of Artorias up, and his attacks don't do that much damage without spirit power, so there's little risk to it this way.



Victory.



I'm not sure why the exit has weird blue splotches along the path, but I go that way anyway.



I arrive in the Oolacile Township that I could see from the waterfall.



28 Hours 5 Minutes Played.
You Died 149 times.
One Death Per 11 Minutes.

Your death count is off. You reset back to 137 deaths when the two rake guys poked you to death, but you were at 139 at the end of the previous update. You've actually died 149 times now, you should make the next one special :)

So I head into Oolacile Township. It's full of these goofy guys.



Their attack is swinging their arms. Not nearly as scary as they look. Even in groups of four.



The goofy-looking sorcerers are more of a problem, though.



They fire black magic that really hurts, even if I block it.



I come across an elevator that doesn't work. This will probably be a shortcut later.



I see a chest off in the distance. It sure looks like a trap.



It's a mimic, but I was expecting more.



I find a Very good! Carving.



What?



That explanation still doesn't help much. I continue on and find a Dark Orb spell.



Oolacile has magic that does half physical damage. Too bad I don't use magic. I come across an I'm sorry Carving.



Okay. I continue on, and find a Let there be light... developer message. In retrospect (and after checking the Wiki), it's obvious what this means, but at the time I can't figure it out and leave.



I continue deeper and now the goofy monsters have red glowing eyes. I guess because it's darker down here?



I get sloppy and one of them kills me.



You Died 150 times.

That 150th death wasn't special at all. I'll try to make it up somewhere.

I continue back and I'm in a building. I see a monster up on a ledge I can't get to.



And a bunch of them downstairs.



There's a sorcerer up above near a body hanging from a chain.



I go to leave the room and he shoots me in the back. I didn't realize he'd seen me.



You Died 151 times.

I retrieve my corpse and continue on. In front of me is a bridge and in back of me is an elevator back up to Oolacile Township.



I head back and level up endurance. That's essentially maxed out at 40 now too.



I upgrade my elite knight gauntlets (good poise) and my painting guardian armor.



I become human to kindle the bonfire and head back into the town. I've been having a string of embarrassing deaths. This one is just me walking off the path and falling to my death.



You Died 152 times.

Chester had nothing to do with it. But I blame him and now he needs to die. I become human again and he shows up at the top of some stairs.



He doesn't pursue me so I have to go get him.



He throws knives and has a crossbow.



When I get in close he tries to sweep the leg (Johnny). He's not very tough. The only danger is getting knocked off of the stairs, and when I get up to steady ground he goes down easily.



The bastard doesn't drop anything, but he does give me enough souls to start leveling up dexterity. I want to get to 18 to open up some weapon options.

I head back down the elevator and go across the bridge. The two sorcerers are a bit of a pain. They have a poison cloud spell I hadn't seen before.



I kill them and head into a hall with a bunch of statues.



At the end of the hall is this thing.



It's big, metal, covered in chains, and has a pointy tip. It also has a ball on a chain it likes to swing at me.



It's fairly resistant to damage, but I whittle it down.



It really liked chains.

I head down further into some kind of dungeon. It's really dark, but I see a bonfire off in the distance.



I light it.



I head forward and enter a really dark cavern.



I put on my sunlight maggot hat but I'm not sure it helps.



Not long after, the horrible demon Bootyscoot invades me.



Okay, it's just some kid with a stupid name. I hide in a corner.



He runs past.



He runs back and forth a couple times and I wonder if he'll get bored and leave. After he's been gone for a while I head back to the bonfire, but it isn't active. I guess he isn't bored yet. I hide behind a wall and see that someone activated the elevator.



I'm hoping one two-handed axe swing will end him.

It doesn't. The axe ineffectually deflects off the roof. I hate the greataxe so much for PvP. I really need to finish upgrading a secondary weapon.



Anyway, I die without landing a hit.



I'm not sure if the ride your greatsword in a very phallic style is an intentional pose, but it sure looks like one.



You Died 153 times.


I revive and enter the Chasm of the Abyss.

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll reach your next death milestone quite soon.

I was going to say that I'm almost done with the game so probably not, but there are 2 or 3 bosses left I've never fought, one of which is supposed to be among the hardest in the game, so maybe I will. And I might as well finish off the Hellkite dragon, and that hasn't been going well. So thinking about it, yeah, 50 more deaths is well within the realm of possibility.

So I'm starting to think about everything I want to wrap up before I beat the game and head to New Game +. None of the NPCs are very critical anymore. Are there any that anyone feels really needs to die for whatever reason? I have one or two in mind, but pretty much anyone is fair game at this point. It does feel very videogamey that the only non-scripted interactions I can have with NPCs are to steal their humanity, kill them, or steal their humanity and then kill them.

More falling deaths, please...

I've had three really careless falling deaths in the last few updates. It sure felt like a lot. Maybe I'll get pushed off a ledge in the Kiln of the First Flame by a black knight just for you.

Sorry for the lack of updates for a while - I'm really bad at finishing stuff when I'm really close to the end. Anyway, here we go...

Like the Tomb of Giants, the Chasm of the Abyss has these glowing crystals to light the way.



This nook has a bunch of the giant armed guys, but I pull them one by one and they go down easily.



They were guarding the dark bead spell. I think it shoots out a little dark bolt.



Down below I see a lot of ghosts.



Scary.



I get close to one of the ghosts.



Either they're immune to physical damage, or I keep missing with my great axe. If I get too close they do constant damage (they don't have any other attacks, so all I have to do is keep my distance), so it's possible that my swing keeps getting interrupted by that. I kill the ghost with pyromancy.

Off in the distance I see the ghost of some kind of animal, but it disappears as I approach.



I find an elevator back to the surface and take it up. It lets me off near this guy.



He's angry now for some reason. He does tell me that the Abyss was created when one of the serpents (Kaathe, presumably) tricked humans into unleashing the ornery wrath of Primaeval man. Presumably by trying to use the Dark Soul that was buried with him.



I go back to where Artorias was, and this woman is here.



She's created a little grave for him and asks for his soul. I give it to her and she gives me some swords I can't use unless I get more dexterity. They sound cool, though.



I leave her and head back to the Abyss.