Crystal people-looking growths...

Do you guys know what I'm talking about when I say "crystal people-looking growths?" I first encountered them in the Depths, but since then they seemed to show up in, like, half of the areas. They don't do anything, but I've watched them randomly respawn when I hack them up. Does anybody know the story or purpose behind them? Initially I kept expecting them to attack me, but they never did...

I'm super into the lore, what little can be gleaned, so this has been bugging me.

They're people who died from being cursed.

How come they pop up around you the more you hack at them?

I believe those are the spots where other people have been cursed. Like a blood stain.

Cool. Thanks guys.

Anywhere the basilisks are around, you can almost bet you'll run into one of those. They can be especially inconvenient in the great hollow, if they block your path, forcing you to attack. Another neat little gameplay quirk they threw in for us!

I stood at the opening to Seath's arena in the Crystal Caves, before it was covered by fog, one evening and just watched them appear. It's crazy how many people get cursed in there. There was a new one appearing at least every 30 seconds or so.

Poor bastards..

LunarFog wrote:I believe those are the spots where other people have been cursed. Like a blood stain.

So many?!
I see several of them in every location, where you can get cursed. I refuse to believe so many players get cursed these days.
I alwyas thought they're either generated randomly by the game, or, if they really belong to some players, they stay there indefinitely, unlike bloodstains, which dissapear over time.

Oh, good point. I don't think I was cursed once during my first playthrough? I don't even know how that happens.

I got cursed several times, only to test it. Only time, when I got cursed unwillingly was when I was fighting Seath and got stuck between his attack, his tail and a wall. Silly of me, I know...

Curse was such a good idea, yet they nerfed it horribly. Not only you can buy Purging Stones at many locations, but the Curse itself doesn't stack anymore.

Originally, only way to remove Curse was to ask Ingward in New Londo, buy Purging Stones from him, or farm them from those giant clam enemies. Curse also stacked. You could get cursed up to four times I think, reducing your HP to roughly 6% of it's original value.

I also thought that crystal magic will inflict Curse. I'm kind of dissapointed we can't inflict Curse in PvP.

EDIT:
I was curious what it will do to me, so I let Basilisks in Depths Curse me several times, dropping my HP to a tiny bar.
Then I just sit on bonfire, thinking it will go away like a Posion does.
Nope.
"Oh sh*t! How am I supposed to get rid of this?!"
Wiki time!
You must visit New Londo and get the Curse removed by NPC.
"ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME?!"

I was considering deleting the character and start over, but in the end I grew some balls and went to New Londo. By accident, I found out I can block and attack those annoying ghosts now, even they can one shot me. Hell, with that HP, anything can one shot me.
After an hour, or so, I managed to reach Ingward. I had no idea where to go and wanted to avoind that ghost heavy area, so I explored pretty much the whole place three times, before going there.
I've even found the ring.
"Ring that raises my resistance to Curse?...WHAT IS THIS HORSESH*T?!"
It's like the game tells you:
"Here, have a ring you noob, so you don't have to go here again."

Ingward gladly removed my goddamn Curse and I swear if he would laugh at me, like most NPCs do at the end of their conversations, I would kill him. He didn't, he's the only decent guy in whole Lordran, he and Tarkus that is.

I was so glad that one of the clams at Seath's dropped Purging Stone when I got Cursed there. I thought I will go rip my hair out.

I like going back after killing Seath to watch them just fill the area.. also, why do they appear near the kalameet area? Can those dogs curse you?!

Shindori wrote:I like going back after killing Seath to watch them just fill the area.. also, why do they appear near the kalameet area? Can those dogs curse you?!

They do? I've never saw any there. Aren't you mistaking them for that disgusting, blue Abyss...erf...I have no idea how to call those spiky things.

Sentiel wrote:

Shindori wrote:I like going back after killing Seath to watch them just fill the area.. also, why do they appear near the kalameet area? Can those dogs curse you?!

They do? I've never saw any there. Aren't you mistaking them for that disgusting, blue Abyss...erf...I have no idea how to call those spiky things.

no no. the same things to appear in the depths are there. I usually see one or two.

Shindori wrote:

Sentiel wrote:

Shindori wrote:I like going back after killing Seath to watch them just fill the area.. also, why do they appear near the kalameet area? Can those dogs curse you?!

They do? I've never saw any there. Aren't you mistaking them for that disgusting, blue Abyss...erf...I have no idea how to call those spiky things.

no no. the same things to appear in the depths are there. I usually see one or two.

Strange. I never met any. There shouldn't be any enemies that inflict Curse...

I know of four places to get Purging Stones. Trade a Cracked Red Eye Orb (four available under the elevator to Undead Parish) with Sparkly the Crow (you get two Purging Stones); Oswald sells it for 3,000; Filthy Woman Merchant sells it for 6,000; the Oysters sometimes drop one or Twinkling titanite.

Oh, man! The only time I was cursed was a nightmare. Trying to collect 3,000 souls to pay off Oswald was a chore; if only I had checked the wiki for help!

Green__Eagle wrote:I know of four places to get Purging Stones. Trade a Cracked Red Eye Orb (four available under the elevator to Undead Parish) with Sparkly the Crow (you get two Purging Stones); Oswald sells it for 3,000; Filthy Woman Merchant sells it for 6,000; the Oysters sometimes drop one or Twinkling titanite.

Oh, man! The only time I was cursed was a nightmare. Trying to collect 3,000 souls to pay off Oswald was a chore; if only I had checked the wiki for help!

First time I've played the game was completely offline, not even any patch downloaded.

I had no idea about CREO trade as I didn't want to spoil anything to me and it certainly doesn't hit me as warm and soft. It still doesn't. :|

Oswald and Female Undead Merchant didn't sell Purging Stones by then, it was added in one of the patches. Clams are in Ash Lake, which I haven't got acces to, nor knew it exists and in Crystal Cave, same problem as Ash Lake.

So I had no choice but to go to New Londo.

It's a very strong and unrepeatable experience for me, thus I kind of hate that they removed stacking of Curse and made it much easier to deal with.

Not to mention, that early travel to New Londo can lead unexpecting players to fight Four Kings and find Kaathe, which is now next to impossible, as you have no reason to go there at that point of the game. Most will go there after Frampt tells them to, so they will miss Kaathe and thus they might only find him in NG+, when they will just try to run at Four Kings sooner, still, no real reason to do it, so most players will completely miss Kaathe.

^ Speaking about players that don't use wiki.

Yeah, it seems they're trying to make the game EASIER, when we want them to make the game HARDER.

Getting cursed, while I hated it when it happened, was a great experience and just made the game harder.

So... I find myself a bit of a hypocrite. I'm sitting here thinking it would sure be nice if you buy chunks of ore from someone... :-)

Green__Eagle wrote:So... I find myself a bit of a hypocrite. I'm sitting here thinking it would sure be nice if you buy chunks of ore from someone... :-)

Chunks and Slabs are obtainable easily enough for PvE purposes. You can find enough materials to make up to two +15 and max Int weapons and one of Faith and Fire types, one Dragon and two boss weapons, without having to farm at all, or just a little bit (there's luck involved with Crystal Lizards drops after all).

So their primary use is in PvP, or so it seems to me.

As such I would allow NPCs to sell Chunks, not Slabs. However I would make their price extremely high, let's say 100 000 per one. So that people can't cheese PvE and in PvP this amount of souls is nothing, since you're bathing in millions after a few hours.

I mean, it's logical conclusion, especially when they allowed Giant Blacksmith to sell Twinkling titanite, which he couldn't pre-one of the-patches. You upgrade a lot of stuff to max with it and all you need is souls, no need to farm goddamn Clams anymore.

I've always thought those spikey statues of cursed people look a lot like you do when you use the Havel shield poise buff effect. No idea if there's any real connection or significance.

Havel curses them, the fiend!!

I saw a ton of them in Seath's chamber too. Way more than just 2.

I take back what I said. Just got double-cursed on my second play-through D': In my first, I totally didn't even notice the "curse metre." I just chilled in their black spray and was lucky?

EDIT: But still only half health... so maybe it doesn't accumulate anymore?