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Description
“ The fallen leafs tell a story” those are the first words that we hear in our journey through the lands between, uttered by a mysterious omniscient narrator that has probably read the calling of grace to the Six tarnished champions onto such fallen leafs.
Naturally I didn’t want to include this mysterious narrator in the hypothetical DLC I had in mind, but the concept of storytellers telling stories through fallen leafs fascinated me.
For more context: www.deviantart.com/logbot03/ar…

Roadrick is a young and frail omen that the player can encounter on the ship that takes them through their adventures.
In order to find him and start his quest the player needs to follow a trail of leaves that lead to the lower deck, where Roadrick is secretly listening to the passengers stories and writing them in a book of sorts.

“Mmmm, no that’s not it, perhaps something more hyperbolic would work better, or perhaps…..”

“Ah! Who….Who are you, how did you…. Oh a trail of leaves, ah ah, silly me, always leaving things behind”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lose my composure like that good sir, I simply didn’t expect anyone to find me down here and I also didn’t expect to be treated so respectfully like you’re doing right now”

“The name’s Roadrick, I’m a storyteller of sorts, I keep track of important events and people so that they’re memory won’t be lost and perhaps future generations may learn something from them”

“When I heard that legendary heroes from and beyond the lands between were coming into this archipelago to claim the shards of a new Elden Ring, oh my curiosity got the best of me, how could I not write the great adventures of Jar-Bairn Hoslow or the intrepid quest of Camilla the Blessed or the return of the Lord of the Storm, and so much more”

“Forgive me good sir, I didn’t mean to overwhelm you with my blabbering, say tho, you seem like a good listener, will it bother you if I ask you if I could come along with you?”

“You see, unlike all of the passengers of this ship, you don’t seem to have any fame following your name, or at least that I know off, so it would be a pleasure to be the first one to ever report your deeds”

If the player says no Roadrick can still be found in various places by following the trails of leaves that he leaves behind, but if the player says yes he can be summoned at certain sites of lost grace to give some exposition, much like Melina, although he can also decipher the inscription on various special leaves that the player can find throughout their journey. Roadrick always appears in a blast of red leafs.

The leafs that the player finds have stories written in them that relates to Roadrick’s personal experiences

“This…this leaf you just found, it tells a tale that, unfortunately, I’m very familiar with”

“The Eternal Queen gave birth to a curse, a curse that has spread across the ones whose veins run with gold.
Cursed and malformed their children were slaughtered
but some were hidden through waste and through mold
Among the poor souls that resides deep below two children will rise, one of blood and one of gold”

“You see Tarnished, despite my appearance, I was actually born during those weary times, but while the others compensated by growing big and strong, I remained small and frail, a freak among freak, fortunately I was kept under the wing of the oldest of us, a pair of twins of royal descendants. I deeply admired what they did for all of us, just imagine growing up managing a crowd of hungry and thirsty children, all while moving around in heavy shackles.”

“What happened to my kin you ask? Well one of the brothers tried to reunite with his royal lineage, hoping to give the omens a chance of redemption, but the other twin tried to convince us to escape to the outside world, I was the only one who followed him, while all who remained down there, got consumed by the curse.”

“I’m sorry, I got a bit too carried away, you know, this leaf… it brings back, many memories to me, ranging to pleasant to horrifying. I…I believe I’ll need some time alone.

Other leafs aren’t particularly important for understanding his quest, or he isn’t really able to interpretate some them ( others however are clues to find interesting items) ,but this one is still relevant as is the last leaf that the player gets before reaching the important part of Roadrick’s quest line.

“This leaf…. it reminds me of something…. yes that’s certainly the argument of this tale”

“ When the god returned to be one it split into two
but as it split the ring claimed his price once more
as one was cursed to forever rot and one was cursed to forever watch”

“How could I ever forget…. the Twin prodigies, Miquella the unalloyed and Malenia the severed, two sides of the same coin”

“ Calling them prodigies however would be quite incorrect, as they were both tremendously cursed”

“When I heard that Miquella was accursed with a illness similar to mine I wanted to know more about him, and soon I found myself part of a long march of outcasts: misbegottens, shamed gladiators, albinaurics…. I felt welcomed around them like I was in Leyndell sewers many years before, I still hold dear the tales that they told me, mostly because, none of them truly came back”

“When we finally reached Miquella’s Haligtree, it was….beautiful, indescribably beautiful and as he came towards us, I thought that perhaps the curse was merciful towards me, but as he opened his mouth, I understood what they meant as they described him as the most fearsome of empireans”

“When he spoke I felt a powerful feeling reveling in my very soul, as it compelled me to give my everything to him, I felled on my knees, looking down hoping that losing sight of him would have at least mildly faded that feeling, but his words were like melting gold flowing in my ears, I still don’t know how I survived that pain, but in the end I was the only one who still had his mind intact.”

“A normal person would have fled in fear, but my curiosity kept pushing me forward, I wanted to know more, like a moth attracted to a flame, and so I ended up in something way bigger than me…..”

“I….I think I said enough, perhaps I’ll tell you more another time friend.”

Roadrick’s quest ends at the fourth island: The island of Saint Trina.
It might be obvious that this part of the quest was heavily inspired by Rico’s, that very interesting NPC that got cut from the game whose quest would have had something to do with dreams and probably Miquella.

Here Roadrick waits for the player at the shrine of Saint Trina.

“Hey there friend, sorry if I left you behind, but I have unfinished business to take care off, and this shrine might be the solution”

“I’ll admit it, I lied when I told you I came here because of my curiosity, I started this journey because of what I took part off at the Haligtree: Miquella’s kidnapping”

“When I was in Elphael, at the feet of the Haligtree, I came in contact with a man named Varrè, who told me he served an old friend of mine, yes the twin with whom I escaped the sewer, the one to whom I owed my life and my sanity, was asking my help, I couldn’t comply.”

“I became a spy, giving Mohg’s bloody fingers information to aid their plan, once the deed was done, we managed to escape through a gateway and reached Mohgwyn palace, by the gods….I barely have any words to describe what I saw: it was the opposite of what the Haligtree was, an horrid place full of blood and waste, but at the same time, I felt truly welcomed there, there were no tricks no obligations, and even those who got kidnapped to be there seemed…. happy, and among all that filth, a glorious ruin stood, a monument of long lost glory that was being rebuilt into something entirely new, and at the very top, I met who was now the lord of blood”

“Oh that poor delusional soul, that thing that gave him his powers the “Formless Mother” had twisted him to his liking to the point that his own body was starting to twisting against itself, but deep down he was still that child who wanted to take revenge against the golden order and its meaningless persecution”

“ He thought that Miquella would have helped him achieve his goal, by winning the shattering without bloodshed, he wanted an age where all were equal and nobody was above or below, but in the end, the same being that he saw as his mother turned against him and made him a puppet, as it did to all of those who followed him”

“If only I didn’t helped him…… perhaps Radhan and Malenia would have never fought, perhaps Sellia and Caelid would have still be intact! Don’t you understand?! All that blood…. is on my hands”

“The Formless Mother, the being that started all of this, runs through Miquella as he slumbers away, I want to defeat that disgusting parasite so that Miquella and Mohg can finally be freed from its control”

“Yes I know, they both might have done questionable deeds, especially Mohg, but it’s the least I can do for all the damage I’ve done! Will you help me, friend?”

The next part was made after the speculation that perhaps Mohg is still alive inside the Formless Mother, as unlike his twin, his body doesn’t lie on the ground once defeated, and because he came out of Miquella’s blood, who we can assume is actually the Formless Mother’s blood, as if he was made of it.

Inside the Nightmare the player can open a secret door if they find a key item in Roderika’s Nighmare: Margot’s gift

When entering this door the player walks throughout Leyndell’s sewer, Liurnia’s swamp and finally to the underground ruins of the Nox, all while hearing various voices. As you would guess this are Mohg’s memories, oppressed by the Formless mother influence. After we reach a recreation of Mohg’s boss room, the illusion ends and we are left on a bloody platform, floating in the dreamworld with an amorphous black mass in the center, two crooked black wings and a huge amount of twisted horns emerge from it alongside a leg and an arm: this is what’s left of the lord of blood.

He won’t attack the player, it can barely feel it’s presence, it can barely feel anything at all, here the player can summon Roadrick

“Oh…..oh my….. what did that thing do to you!”
“I’m sorry…..it’s all my fault….. I should have done something… I ….I… I should have been there…”

The mass will simply respond with a slight moan.

“Thank you dear friend, now I know that Mohg can be saved as well, it’s time we put an end to this nightmare once and for all!”

Roadrick can now be summoned as an allay in the fight against the Avatar of the Formless Mother.

Once the Boss is defeated, the player interacts with Miquella and the dream ends.

The player will then wake up, hearing the sound of an infant crying, as the player looks by his side, Roadrick stands bewildered in front of something enveloped in a bloody cloth.

“Wha…what, how….. Oh! You’re awake, took you long enough. Oh this? I’m just as confused as you my friend, don’t worry though I…I’ll figure it out, hopefully”

“You have Miquella’s rune now right? Mmmm it’s inactive you say? Oh perhaps that tower up there could be of some help, I wonder how could one get up there though?”

“Friend, let me tell you one more thing before you leave, all of this mess started because of that artifact you are trying to rebuild, I’m not saying you should stop in your quest, it’s your choice only, but at least be aware of the consequences: a great curse will follow you and that heir that the scorched maiden cares so much about, just as it did for Marika, so please, be safe.”

The player won’t be able to summon Roadrick at the sites of grace anymore, but using the rule of the leafs trail the player can find him again, and sometimes it might even lead to Patches as well, who’ll sell new items, gifted to him by Roadrick

In the final island, where Agilulfus quests ends, the player can give the unborn fetus to Roadrick.

If the player didn’t entered Mohg’s memories, Roadrick won’t be found at the altar when him and the player have entered the nightmare.

Instead, the player will find his corpse in the final room before the last fight, besides Patches.

“Oi mate….. you finally made it….. poor lad here knew you’ll come, a shame you weren’t here to say goodbye”
“Here…. he wanted you to had this, his “masterpiece” as he called it”
Patches gives the player a key item: “tales from beyond the fog”
The description goes: a book decorated with golden leaves once belonging to the Erdtree, inside there’s a note directed towards you: “Dear friend, forgive me if I’m no longer here to watch you succeed in your quest, but there was no point in going forward for me, I have put an end to all that madness and that’s all that matter, what I’ve done deserves no redemption nor sympathy, thanks for giving this cursed freakshow the privilege of traveling alongside you, claim the Elden Ring, break its curse.”

Patches continues:

“Oh and one more thing…. I thought this was a bit grim, but…. who am I to desecrate the will of a dead man eh?”

The player obtains the medallion: purplish leaf
Which boosts all gravitational sorceries

The player however can not only skip his quest entirely, but they can also attack him and if that happens, he’ll become a boss: Roadrick the cursed twice

“What a shame, I was just starting to like you know?

“Oh, who am I kidding, I wasn’t expecting anything else from your ilk, you’re descendants of a bloodthirsty warrior after all”

Very well, if you persists in your violent attempt against my life, I won’t esitate to defend myself”

“Your story ends here.”

The player is then transported to a wide open area surrounded by trees with orange leaves and the fight begin

In phase one Roadrick attacks using gravity and night spells, typical of Sellia, and teleporting around the arena in an explosion of leafs

In phase two Roadrick becomes feral and moves much differently from the average Omen: he’s fast and agile now, causing bleed with every attack, but having very low poise, the leaves on the trees around him have now become red and the once shining blu sky is now replace with a heavy storm.

If the player dies here they’ll face Roadrick later on the island of Saint Trina right before the tower used to activate Miquella’s rune in the same illusion

Once defeated he drops the catalyst Omen’s Skull, which can be used to cast both incantations and sorceries but it also decrease the player’s mana.

Description
“ The fallen leafs tell a story” those are the first words that we hear in our journey through the lands between, uttered by a mysterious omniscient narrator that has probably read the calling of grace to the Six tarnished champions onto such fallen leafs.
Naturally I didn’t want to include this mysterious narrator in the hypothetical DLC I had in mind, but the concept of storytellers telling stories through fallen leafs fascinated me.
For more context: www.deviantart.com/logbot03/ar…

Roadrick is a young and frail omen that the player can encounter on the ship that takes them through their adventures.
In order to find him and start his quest the player needs to follow a trail of leaves that lead to the lower deck, where Roadrick is secretly listening to the passengers stories and writing them in a book of sorts.

“Mmmm, no that’s not it, perhaps something more hyperbolic would work better, or perhaps…..”

“Ah! Who….Who are you, how did you…. Oh a trail of leaves, ah ah, silly me, always leaving things behind”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to lose my composure like that good sir, I simply didn’t expect anyone to find me down here and I also didn’t expect to be treated so respectfully like you’re doing right now”

“The name’s Roadrick, I’m a storyteller of sorts, I keep track of important events and people so that they’re memory won’t be lost and perhaps future generations may learn something from them”

“When I heard that legendary heroes from and beyond the lands between were coming into this archipelago to claim the shards of a new Elden Ring, oh my curiosity got the best of me, how could I not write the great adventures of Jar-Bairn Hoslow or the intrepid quest of Camilla the Blessed or the return of the Lord of the Storm, and so much more”

“Forgive me good sir, I didn’t mean to overwhelm you with my blabbering, say tho, you seem like a good listener, will it bother you if I ask you if I could come along with you?”

“You see, unlike all of the passengers of this ship, you don’t seem to have any fame following your name, or at least that I know off, so it would be a pleasure to be the first one to ever report your deeds”

If the player says no Roadrick can still be found in various places by following the trails of leaves that he leaves behind, but if the player says yes he can be summoned at certain sites of lost grace to give some exposition, much like Melina, although he can also decipher the inscription on various special leaves that the player can find throughout their journey. Roadrick always appears in a blast of red leafs.

The leafs that the player finds have stories written in them that relates to Roadrick’s personal experiences

“This…this leaf you just found, it tells a tale that, unfortunately, I’m very familiar with”

“The Eternal Queen gave birth to a curse, a curse that has spread across the ones whose veins run with gold.
Cursed and malformed their children were slaughtered
but some were hidden through waste and through mold
Among the poor souls that resides deep below two children will rise, one of blood and one of gold”

“You see Tarnished, despite my appearance, I was actually born during those weary times, but while the others compensated by growing big and strong, I remained small and frail, a freak among freak, fortunately I was kept under the wing of the oldest of us, a pair of twins of royal descendants. I deeply admired what they did for all of us, just imagine growing up managing a crowd of hungry and thirsty children, all while moving around in heavy shackles.”

“What happened to my kin you ask? Well one of the brothers tried to reunite with his royal lineage, hoping to give the omens a chance of redemption, but the other twin tried to convince us to escape to the outside world, I was the only one who followed him, while all who remained down there, got consumed by the curse.”

“I’m sorry, I got a bit too carried away, you know, this leaf… it brings back, many memories to me, ranging to pleasant to horrifying. I…I believe I’ll need some time alone.

Other leafs aren’t particularly important for understanding his quest, or he isn’t really able to interpretate some them ( others however are clues to find interesting items) ,but this one is still relevant as is the last leaf that the player gets before reaching the important part of Roadrick’s quest line.

“This leaf…. it reminds me of something…. yes that’s certainly the argument of this tale”

“ When the god returned to be one it split into two
but as it split the ring claimed his price once more
as one was cursed to forever rot and one was cursed to forever watch”

“How could I ever forget…. the Twin prodigies, Miquella the unalloyed and Malenia the severed, two sides of the same coin”

“ Calling them prodigies however would be quite incorrect, as they were both tremendously cursed”

“When I heard that Miquella was accursed with a illness similar to mine I wanted to know more about him, and soon I found myself part of a long march of outcasts: misbegottens, shamed gladiators, albinaurics…. I felt welcomed around them like I was in Leyndell sewers many years before, I still hold dear the tales that they told me, mostly because, none of them truly came back”

“When we finally reached Miquella’s Haligtree, it was….beautiful, indescribably beautiful and as he came towards us, I thought that perhaps the curse was merciful towards me, but as he opened his mouth, I understood what they meant as they described him as the most fearsome of empireans”

“When he spoke I felt a powerful feeling reveling in my very soul, as it compelled me to give my everything to him, I felled on my knees, looking down hoping that losing sight of him would have at least mildly faded that feeling, but his words were like melting gold flowing in my ears, I still don’t know how I survived that pain, but in the end I was the only one who still had his mind intact.”

“A normal person would have fled in fear, but my curiosity kept pushing me forward, I wanted to know more, like a moth attracted to a flame, and so I ended up in something way bigger than me…..”

“I….I think I said enough, perhaps I’ll tell you more another time friend.”

Roadrick’s quest ends at the fourth island: The island of Saint Trina.
It might be obvious that this part of the quest was heavily inspired by Rico’s, that very interesting NPC that got cut from the game whose quest would have had something to do with dreams and probably Miquella.

Here Roadrick waits for the player at the shrine of Saint Trina.

“Hey there friend, sorry if I left you behind, but I have unfinished business to take care off, and this shrine might be the solution”

“I’ll admit it, I lied when I told you I came here because of my curiosity, I started this journey because of what I took part off at the Haligtree: Miquella’s kidnapping”

“When I was in Elphael, at the feet of the Haligtree, I came in contact with a man named Varrè, who told me he served an old friend of mine, yes the twin with whom I escaped the sewer, the one to whom I owed my life and my sanity, was asking my help, I couldn’t comply.”

“I became a spy, giving Mohg’s bloody fingers information to aid their plan, once the deed was done, we managed to escape through a gateway and reached Mohgwyn palace, by the gods….I barely have any words to describe what I saw: it was the opposite of what the Haligtree was, an horrid place full of blood and waste, but at the same time, I felt truly welcomed there, there were no tricks no obligations, and even those who got kidnapped to be there seemed…. happy, and among all that filth, a glorious ruin stood, a monument of long lost glory that was being rebuilt into something entirely new, and at the very top, I met who was now the lord of blood”

“Oh that poor delusional soul, that thing that gave him his powers the “Formless Mother” had twisted him to his liking to the point that his own body was starting to twisting against itself, but deep down he was still that child who wanted to take revenge against the golden order and its meaningless persecution”

“ He thought that Miquella would have helped him achieve his goal, by winning the shattering without bloodshed, he wanted an age where all were equal and nobody was above or below, but in the end, the same being that he saw as his mother turned against him and made him a puppet, as it did to all of those who followed him”

“If only I didn’t helped him…… perhaps Radhan and Malenia would have never fought, perhaps Sellia and Caelid would have still be intact! Don’t you understand?! All that blood…. is on my hands”

“The Formless Mother, the being that started all of this, runs through Miquella as he slumbers away, I want to defeat that disgusting parasite so that Miquella and Mohg can finally be freed from its control”

“Yes I know, they both might have done questionable deeds, especially Mohg, but it’s the least I can do for all the damage I’ve done! Will you help me, friend?”

The next part was made after the speculation that perhaps Mohg is still alive inside the Formless Mother, as unlike his twin, his body doesn’t lie on the ground once defeated, and because he came out of Miquella’s blood, who we can assume is actually the Formless Mother’s blood, as if he was made of it.

Inside the Nightmare the player can open a secret door if they find a key item in Roderika’s Nighmare: Margot’s gift

When entering this door the player walks throughout Leyndell’s sewer, Liurnia’s swamp and finally to the underground ruins of the Nox, all while hearing various voices. As you would guess this are Mohg’s memories, oppressed by the Formless mother influence. After we reach a recreation of Mohg’s boss room, the illusion ends and we are left on a bloody platform, floating in the dreamworld with an amorphous black mass in the center, two crooked black wings and a huge amount of twisted horns emerge from it alongside a leg and an arm: this is what’s left of the lord of blood.

He won’t attack the player, it can barely feel it’s presence, it can barely feel anything at all, here the player can summon Roadrick

“Oh…..oh my….. what did that thing do to you!”
“I’m sorry…..it’s all my fault….. I should have done something… I ….I… I should have been there…”

The mass will simply respond with a slight moan.

“Thank you dear friend, now I know that Mohg can be saved as well, it’s time we put an end to this nightmare once and for all!”

Roadrick can now be summoned as an allay in the fight against the Avatar of the Formless Mother.

Once the Boss is defeated, the player interacts with Miquella and the dream ends.

The player will then wake up, hearing the sound of an infant crying, as the player looks by his side, Roadrick stands bewildered in front of something enveloped in a bloody cloth.

“Wha…what, how….. Oh! You’re awake, took you long enough. Oh this? I’m just as confused as you my friend, don’t worry though I…I’ll figure it out, hopefully”

“You have Miquella’s rune now right? Mmmm it’s inactive you say? Oh perhaps that tower up there could be of some help, I wonder how could one get up there though?”

“Friend, let me tell you one more thing before you leave, all of this mess started because of that artifact you are trying to rebuild, I’m not saying you should stop in your quest, it’s your choice only, but at least be aware of the consequences: a great curse will follow you and that heir that the scorched maiden cares so much about, just as it did for Marika, so please, be safe.”

The player won’t be able to summon Roadrick at the sites of grace anymore, but using the rule of the leafs trail the player can find him again, and sometimes it might even lead to Patches as well, who’ll sell new items, gifted to him by Roadrick

In the final island, where Agilulfus quests ends, the player can give the unborn fetus to Roadrick.

If the player didn’t entered Mohg’s memories, Roadrick won’t be found at the altar when him and the player have entered the nightmare.

Instead, the player will find his corpse in the final room before the last fight, besides Patches.

“Oi mate….. you finally made it….. poor lad here knew you’ll come, a shame you weren’t here to say goodbye”
“Here…. he wanted you to had this, his “masterpiece” as he called it”
Patches gives the player a key item: “tales from beyond the fog”
The description goes: a book decorated with golden leaves once belonging to the Erdtree, inside there’s a note directed towards you: “Dear friend, forgive me if I’m no longer here to watch you succeed in your quest, but there was no point in going forward for me, I have put an end to all that madness and that’s all that matter, what I’ve done deserves no redemption nor sympathy, thanks for giving this cursed freakshow the privilege of traveling alongside you, claim the Elden Ring, break its curse.”

Patches continues:

“Oh and one more thing…. I thought this was a bit grim, but…. who am I to desecrate the will of a dead man eh?”

The player obtains the medallion: purplish leaf
Which boosts all gravitational sorceries

The player however can not only skip his quest entirely, but they can also attack him and if that happens, he’ll become a boss: Roadrick the cursed twice

“What a shame, I was just starting to like you know?

“Oh, who am I kidding, I wasn’t expecting anything else from your ilk, you’re descendants of a bloodthirsty warrior after all”

Very well, if you persists in your violent attempt against my life, I won’t esitate to defend myself”

“Your story ends here.”

The player is then transported to a wide open area surrounded by trees with orange leaves and the fight begin

In phase one Roadrick attacks using gravity and night spells, typical of Sellia, and teleporting around the arena in an explosion of leafs

In phase two Roadrick becomes feral and moves much differently from the average Omen: he’s fast and agile now, causing bleed with every attack, but having very low poise, the leaves on the trees around him have now become red and the once shining blu sky is now replace with a heavy storm.

If the player dies here they’ll face Roadrick later on the island of Saint Trina right before the tower used to activate Miquella’s rune in the same illusion

Once defeated he drops the catalyst Omen’s Skull, which can be used to cast both incantations and sorceries but it also decrease the player’s mana.