Rumble in the Capital: An Erdtree Rematch

 There's a trope that FromSoft has developed within a number of their titles. You've opened up some mysterious location, exploring down each corner, and suddenly, you find yourself somewhere familiar. It's not the same - the version of this location is a safe space filled with NPCs, or at least some degree of safety and comfort. But here, you find it weirdly abandoned, filled with lore-filled items that have bizarre implications.

Spoilers:

I found the "real" Roundtable Hold.

But that's not all.

It turns out that I had actually made it to the next site of grace within Leyndell a couple times without realizing it, and finally actually activated it, allowing me to progress further through what is effectively a legacy dungeon.

Here, I navigated elegant stone buildings and twisting Erdtree roots and more or less stumbled upon the midpoint boss - Godfrey, First Elden Lord. Once again, and maybe it's just that I'm playing a ranged class, but I've been shocked at how swiftly I've been able to dispatch major bosses. He went down on the second attempt, my Jellyfish spirit really helping to tank and distract him. Not long after taking him down, though, I found the actual boss.

And it turns out, we'd met (and fought) before. Yes, it seems that Margit the Fell Omen is actually Morgott, the Omen King. Thankfully, I had Melina as a free NPC summon for that fight, and she actually kicks a lot of ass (and can take a beating,) so again, it only took me two attempts.

However, I think we've more or less hit the midpoint of the game. Much like Dark Souls has us traveling to Anor Londo to fight Ornstein and Smough and in theory get to the bottom of everything, only to discover that there's a ton more to do (I'm told - I never took down O&S. Part of me thinks I should return to Dark Souls with my significantly greater experience with these games, but maybe I'm fine just looking forward).

Here, we find that even though we've made it to the Erdtree and the sort of royal throne before it, the tree is bound with briars that won't let anyone pass through, requiring us to now get the flames of the fire giants to burn the door (and maybe the whole tree?) down.

While the legacy dungeons are more linear than the rest of the open-world game, there's tons of places left to explore. There's even a hidden boss in Stomveil Castle I have yet to defeat (I've leveled up a lot since the last time I tried, though, so maybe it's time to return).

Now, the trick will be to leave the capital and head east to the lift I need to get into the mountains.

I've also gotten Radahn's rune to the Divine Tower in Caelid, though I still need to figure out how to get into the one in Liurnia. The Divine Bridge area - which I initially warped to but found a route to it in the city - goes to a divine tower, but the door is shut, and I don't know how to open it.

I am level 75 now, though Morgott gave me enough runes to level up three times, so I might be a little underleveled.