Dark Souls 3: Road of Sacrifices to Halfway Fortress
Battle a new enemy type, avoid falling into pits, generally have a good time.
Dark Souls 3: Road of Sacrifices to Halfway Fortress
Welcome to the Road of Sacrifices. It's got a few potholes.
From the bonfire, follow the path around the corner to spot a corvian. He won’t attack when he spots you, merely groaning and flailing, but get close enough and he transforms. These crow beasts attack by leaping at you, and often unleash a short flurry of blows - but they’re idle for a moment afterwards, giving you plenty of time to hit them back. You’ll need to go a few rounds unless you’ve been grinding, but they’re vulnerable to backstabs which can speed things up.
Rather than taking the path down, walk to the left of the tree the corvian was under and look down. Use a plunging attack on the second corvian, then pick up the Shriving Stone.
Before approaching the overturned carriages, take the ramp on the left and plunge attack another corvian to prevent a later ambush.
Sneak over and grab the Soul of a Deserted Corpse near the carriages; there’s a pair of corvians on the other side you can usually avoid aggroing. They’re not so tough on their own, although those scythes are nasty, but there's a shaman nearby who can cast a poison mist - and whose screams will summon other corvians within range. There’s at least two corvians who will answer the call, not counting the one we just murdered as a precaution, so if you’re not going to lure the two corvians by the carriage towards you one by one before going for the shaman, be very sure you can take them down fast.
When the two corvians and the shaman are down, walk to the edge of the ledge where the carriages are and look across the gap to spot another shaman. If you want to, you can stand by the tree closest to the other side and pick him off with arrows. Be careful of his screams aggroing nearby corvians if the other shaman didn’t manage to bring them in earlier.
Now head down the path where the first shaman was lurking, but pause to read ahead before dropping down any ledges. There may be another corvian patrolling the area below. here, if he didn’t respond to the shaman’s screams. More interestingly, there’s a cliff side path on the far side of the rocky outcrop near the tree, with a tempting item at the start – but don’t go that way without consideration. A very nasty player-style NPC is waiting to ruthlessly murder you.
You'll probably want to duel her when you're a bit stronger, but if you're impatient you can cheese her right now. Before dropping down the ledge to this area, chuck an Alluring Skull down on the ground beneath you, right above the path with the item glow on it leading down to the NPC. With luck, this will bring her out and you can murder her with ranged attacks. With even greater luck, she runs right off the ledge and dies all on her own. You’ll find a Brigand Axe and a full set of Brigand gear down the path when she’s gone. There’s a pair of Brigand Twinblades at the very end, too.
Whether you kill the NPC or not, your next step is to pass under the arch on the far side of the lower area, then walk over the top of it via the ramp on the left. Again, there’s a corvian here if you didn’t let the shaman get a scream off. There’s also a Titanite Shard.
Pass back over the arch and continue on to the bridge. Kill the corvian, then drop down to the ledge you can spot by peering over the right side before you cross. Advance warily; two dogs are waiting, and they have more health than the ones you’ve fought before. For your pains, you'll find Moren’s Ring and a Braille Divine Tome of Carim, which can be returned to Irina at Firelink Shrine to unlock more advanced miracles.
Carefully climb the narrow path out of this area and battle the corvian ahead; he’s a red-eyed variant, so it’s tough. It’s best to lure him back to where you fought the two dogs, as it’s too easy to roll off the cliff or down the ledge into the next area.
Speaking of which: three corvians and a shaman await you when you do drop down. They usually can’t figure out how to get to you if you want to snipe them, but do stand back from the ledge while they’re angry; those long scythes will hit you through the stone. Collect an Ember from the raised area behind where the shaman was when it’s safe.
Pass through the pillars. Do not attack the figures ahead and below. Activate the Halfway Fortress bonfire. Talk to the right hand figure (Horace) to receive the Blue Sentinels covenant sigil. If you equip this, you’re volunteering to be auto-summoned when other players are invaded. The figure on the left is Anri of Astoria. Have a chat with them both so we’ll see them again further on. (You can learn more about these two in the spoiler-filled NPC guide, but it's not necessary at this stage as long as you talk to them both.)
Well! We're done here, and we never need to go back that way ever again. It's a good feeling, isn't it? Next stop: Crucifixion Woods.