Not sure which summons you are talking about but I didn't mean I had that guy as a summons - he's just sitting in my Roundtable Hold not wanting to talk to me

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I did get my first "special" ashes and it was the Albinauric woman archer one. I powered it up thinking it would be better than my others. Haven't used it much yet though What is the name of the one you keep talking about?
I got a little further with that boss last night. But, man, the summons don't do much to him. I had one run that must have lasted 10 minutes and I still barely got him down 1/3. For one thing, I didn't realize until like 10 tries in that you could use your damn horse. I was running on foot to the summons at first. I just assumed it was like every other boss and no horse was allowed. Once on my horse I went in a huge circle and as long as you can keep the summons going at him he mostly leaves you alone after the initial part. But eventually there comes a time when the summons aren't on him or you just can't find one quick enough and he gets you. I may have to look into the scarlet rot thing though I didn't have that as an option to buy yet from the dragon thing last time I was there.
As for the medallion, I figured that was a required story thing. I did find the woman Ofnir was talking about and she's just telling me to do something in the capitol city I think, and I haven't even got there yet.
I got this and I think it also scales to Int, doesn't it? It was nice because it has both magic and fire damage by default, so it would be cool to use. Or maybe it was just the Int requirement to use it was high and I would need to meet that first. (Edit: I looked it up, it scales to *both* Int and Fai, but does require 24 in both. My Int is at 12. That's a lot of levels to put into a stat I wasn't planning to use, but maybe it's worth it? I guess I can do that and then respec if needed.)
I was also so pissed about that boss fight that I had my son look up the bird rune farming area. I got there and leveled up my Vigor from 25 to 30. But, man, that area is super tough otherwise. The invasions were actually kind of fun, though it was clear that people were sitting there waiting for them. One guy had an OP helper that was just all over me (and teabagged me to let me know about it). I did at least kill one guy's helper one time. And I didn't realize there could be multiple invaders - one time another guy was with me but I could target him. Thought that was weird.