Bloodborne - 133 Hypogean Gaol

“Madmen toil surreptitiously in rituals to beckon the moon. Uncover their secrets.” Surgit found this note on one of the corpses of countless hunters that had been kidnapped and thrown in the underground jail. In fact the cathedral to which he teleported in Yahar’gul had two floors underneath it. Both floors were jails in which prisoners were kept.

Surgit had given up on going outside. Instead he opted for the underground floors first. He didn’t want to get lost exploring the streets and miss important things inside the building. He was right to do so since he had already found two notes worthy of his careful attention.

The first one was the engraving he had found next to the dream lantern and the giant creepy statue. “Nightmarish rituals crave a newborn. Find one, and silence its harrowing cry.” The second one was underneath the cathedral in the jail and in a dead hunter’s corpse.

What puzzled Surgit was that some bodies had decomposed until their skeletons were the only thing left of them. Other corpses didn’t even decompose. “Not only this place has otherworldly beings, but time also seems to move in a weird pattern here.” Surgit started noticing that time flowed differently than usual.

He didn’t know how long he’d been in Yharnam for. Since his blood ministration, Surgit didn’t need to eat to replenish his energy, all he needed was blood. If he ever got tired, he had the dream to rest in. He didn’t need to sleep like he used to though. Because of that, he never really noticed that time had been slowly advancing. He was stuck in the same day even though it felt like he’d been in Yharnam for at least a month.

A voice in the distance brought him back from his ruminations. “Oh merciful gods, help me. In the name of the Healing Church, cleanse us of this horrible dream.” It was a woman absorbed in some prayer. Her voice trembled as she repeated those words. Surgit was on his guard so he approached the source of the noise silently. After his experience with Vicar Amelia, he didn’t trust talking people anymore, especially the ones repeating prayers.

As he approached, he discovered that there was yet a third floor underneath the Cathedral. ‘This place is bigger than I gave it credit for,’ Surgit thought as he silently walked towards the praying lady. There were many mirrors scattered on this floor. All of them were covered with large cloth that was surrounded with big chains and closed tight. ‘Talk about superstition…’

Surgit approached the woman while using the big mirrors as cover. As soon as he got close, the woman heard his footstep and started begging for her life. “Please, leave me be. Don’t take me please. Please, oh Gods.”

– “Calm down woman I’m not here to take you anywhere,” Surgit had to calm her down to get something out of her.

– “By your garb… The Healing Church!” The woman happily exclaimed.

– “And it appeared you’re part of the church as well. What brought you here?” Surgit was wearing Gascoigne’s set. He didn’t think the garb would come in handy in this situation.

– “You’ve come to save me. Ahh Thank you dear saint! I have no words to express my relief.” The woman was apparently very pleased to see a member of the church. She didn’t show any sign of transformation so Surgit relaxed a bit.

– “I heard that some members of the healing church had been missing, so I came to investigate,” Surgit lied. After all, he was quite certain that there were no living members of the healing church anymore. “So what happened to you?”

– “I was seized on the street by a hulking brute in the Cathedral Ward. They’ve been others but they’ve either been taken away or left to find a way out of here. I’ve heard moans echoing in the distance, I was too scared to investigate.”

– “You were the wisest one among them all. There are powerful beast upstairs and even more terrifying ones outside,” Surgit felt that this woman, despite being a low member of the church, could provide him with some information about her organization.

– “So the hunt is on tonight? Then the streets are perilous…” The woman seemed scared of the prospect of going outside by herself.

“Then every door in the city must shut tight.” She looked at Surgit with pleading eyes then said: “Perhaps it isn’t my place to ask but, do you know of any safe place that could take me in?”

Surgit pondered for a moment then decided to send her to Oedon Chapel. “I’ll go upstairs and clean the place from the beasts that roam around. After that, you head on to Oedon Chapel in the Cathedral Ward.” The woman gave Surgit her biggest smile then said: “I’m Adella by the way, pleased to meet such an upstanding member of the church as yourself.”

“I’m Surgit, do not do anything stupid. Don’t go out until I’ve cleaned up the streets.” Adella nodded at Surgit. “Thank you so much kind hunter. I pray for success on your hunt.” She fumbled in her pocket then handed two items to Surgit. “I have no need for this. An upstanding member of the Healing Church such as you would love it I presume.”

Surgit inspected the object. It was indeed a valuable item. ‘Moon: A secret symbol left by Caryll, runesmith of Byrgenwerth. A transcription of “moon”, as spoken by the Great Ones inhabiting the nightmare. Gain more Blood Echoes. The Great Ones that inhabit the nightmare are sympathetic in spirit, and often answer when called upon.’

Surgit thanked Adella then again asked her to wait for him to clear the streets. He didn’t want her to meet the little girl’s fate. The item she had given him was very valuable. Surgit wanted to hunt more beasts to gather more echoes. He needed to upgrade his skill as well to the next rank.

He had no interest in Bloodtinge but Arcane still intrigued him. However, he hadn’t found any concrete information on how to use the arcane arts yet. So he didn’t upgrade it at all. The rune he received could be also equipped using the tool Francis had given him.

The beast rune was useful against Vicar Amelia but he unequipped it as soon as he got back to the dream. “I have an idea on how to get more echoes from this place, but first I need to explore this whole area before putting my plan in motion.”

Surgit came back to the upper floor where he found the note on the dead hunter. He was then as the second floor underground. He had one more floor to explore before going outside. What he found in that floor was both horrifying and deeply mindboggling.

As soon as he approached the door that gave access to that floor, Surgit saw a shadow run fast past it. He was on guard as he got inside. A split second was all he needed to grasp the situation. He had been ambushed so many times by the beasts of Yharnam to prepare himself for one. The shadow that ran past the door was to lure him inside with no regards to his surroundings.

However Surgit had tasted horrible deaths because of his carelessness before. He jumped forward as soon as he heard a step. A hunchbacked woman tried to grab him and slit his throat. Surgit was too fast for her however. When he jumped to avoid the attack earlier, he swung his elongated axe in the direction of his attacker.

His swing was so strong and fast that he threw the woman’s upper body several feet further. Her lower body stayed in place and fell motionless. The other woman who ran before to lure him in saw the scene that unfolded before her and ran towards a dark room deeper inside the floor.

Surgit didn’t follow her. Instead he took his time to observe his surroundings. “Shit just got weirder in here. Why are you collecting eyes and putting them on your back woman?” There were eyeballs rolling down the ground and mixing with all the blood that seeped from the hunchbacked woman.

Surgit turned to look around him. That floor also contained some cages whose metallic bars were so old that they had already broken. In the cages, unarmed huntsmen were lying on the ground. There were no wound marks on them. ‘They can’t be dead. These things don’t seem to die a normal death.’ Surgit approached the huntsmen carefully.

When he got inside the cages, one of the huntsmen stood up and looked at Surgit. Their garb was different from the ones he saw in Central Yharnam. These had simple civilian clothes on. They didn’t attack either. They just stood there and watched Surgit. With a vertical swing of his axe, Surgit cut the poor beast in half and advanced towards the others.

The cage he was in led to another room. From the open door, the hunchbacked woman appeared once more. She showed Surgit her black crooked teeth. “Sorry madam, not my type.” Surgit retracted his axe to hold it in one hand and took the cleaver on his left.

Two kidnappers appeared behind the old woman and growled while pointing at Surgit. The latter clenched his weapons and shouted at them: “Time to start a massacre!”