MMOexp: The hub area has a ton of amenities

Elden Ring, like many Souls games before it, can be slightly shady when it provides important information. For instance that you may have noticed an odd icon beneath your health stamina, magic and health bars, which shows the red square with an down arrow. "Where is that? Where did it originate?" you may be wondering, to which I say, "Have you hugged any unusual women recently?"

When you reach a certain level in the game's beginning--which is 100% when you defeat the game's first big boss Margit who is the Fell Omen although some people are reporting it happening prior to that as well--you'll be invited to The Roundtable Hold. The hub area has a ton of amenities, like merchants and a blacksmith who improves your equipment more than you could do on yourself, but the most intriguing NPC is the woman called Fia, introduced in the game's intense introduction in the form of "the Deathbed Companion."

It may at first appear that Fia performs much. She offers to hold you, a rare moment of warmth for the Souls genre. She then presents the Baldachin's Blessing, a unique item that enhances your poise the expense of some of your magical energy before sending you on your route. The whole thing, while touching, goes by without thinking about it. But , as it turns out, there's a price to pay for proving to Varre once and once and for all that you're as maidenless as he thinks.

Think back to how you first met Fia asks to hold you. Did you remember that part about giving some of your "lifely vitality" as well as "stout-hardedness" as a reward for an hug? It wasn't just a cute exchange of words on her part: Her hug literally reduces your maximum HP by 5%, a debuff indicated by the mysterious red square icon that I talked about in the past. It might not sound like a lot however, I guarantee you that it's likely that you'll wish you had the 5% back in the end of a difficult boss fight no matter what the reward she will give you occurs to be.

Fortunately, regaining that HP that was lost is as easy as using the Baldachin's Blessing in your inventory.

Does Fia's health-sapping, pseudosexually transmitted disease a hint of the Deathbed Companion hiding something more dangerous in Elden Ring's campaign? I'm not able to say for the moment, but over a decade of Souls experiences have taught me to take your chances with anyone you meet within these game worlds. I certainly wouldn't put it beyond FromSoftware to use something as innocent as giving free hugs at the end of the road to facilitate some sort of horrible plot twist.

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