Documentation of "stray" item in my world. A prism stone that appeared from nowhere.

https://imgur.com/a/gNr72/

There was a recent thread here about random items showing up in players' worlds without explanation. They sometimes wind up in offline locations (Firelink Shrine, New Londo without the water drained, etc), so items being dropped by phantoms and missed can be ruled out with 100% certainty.

It's unknown if this is a glitch, or if it is some obscure mechanic pertaining to item-spawned vagrants.

I did take one trip down into New Londo Ruins prior to finding this item. I went through and killed some ghosts and picked up some items, but then returned to Firelink Shrine without warping. I let the game sit for at least 10 minutes, then went back down and happened to find this item waiting there. I'm certain I did not somehow drop it there and forget about it. This is a fresh character. I never purchased nor used any prism stones. I did pick up the batch of 20 from the Duke's Archives, and picking this one up brought my collection up to 21.

I posted it on r/darksouls yesterday, and found lots of comments of people finding the same thing. One player claims to have found a prism stone in the exact same spot as me, even.

-I have had this happen once, except it was in the middle of the elevator shaft on the way down to New Londo and it was Rubbish, I was really confused.

-I got a Lloyd's Talisman where Lautrec sits in Firelink Shrine.

-I found a prism stone once in the forest. I was invading people and suddenly there was a prism stone in my world as I respawned on my invasion point after winning.

-I found a prism stone in the exact same location not long ago too, creeped me the *** out.

-I found one in darkroot before even getting invaded.

-I got a 'rubbish' at firelink shrine once.

-I found one in front of the firekeeper in firelink when i first started NG+

-I just had this happen, an item showed up in front of the firekeeper at firelink shrine. I was farming titanite from the darkwraiths in New Londo Ruins.

-The same exact thing happened to me. It was a Prism stone in the Undead burg. I still don't know where it came from

-I've had one (Prism Stone) appear in the spot where Lautrec was sat at Firelink...first thought "I've been invaded here ?!" but then the stupidity was overcome by bemusement.

-I similarly picked up a Rubbish in the Burg.

I was happy to be able to get a picture of it before I picked it up. If anyone else finds a mysterious, out-of-place looking item they're sure wasn't dropped by a phantom, try your best to get a picture before and after picking it up! I would love to know more about this.

If I remember correctly this once happened to me when a Vagrant was in my world then I quit out. When I returned to my world the Vagrant was gone but there was just an item left behind. It could just be my foggy memory though since this happened quite a while ago.

Is that a vagrant spawn location?

Tolvo wrote:If I remember correctly this once happened to me when a Vagrant was in my world then I quit out. When I returned to my world the Vagrant was gone but there was just an item left behind. It could just be my foggy memory though since this happened quite a while ago.

So it's possible I could've missed a good vagrant, and was maybe given a 'downgraded' item? Neat hypothesis. I haven't heard that suggested before, I'll keep that in mind.

WhatDoesThePendantDo? wrote:Is that a vagrant spawn location?

It is not currently known to be a vagrant location.

I had this happen down in the depths once, I was fighting in an event and I invaded and died to the host. So I spawned at the bonfire and when I came running back down the stairs there was an item on the ground, rubbish.

I had a good chuckle, I think the game was trying to tell me something about my PVP skills.

Pretty sure I've picked up a lonely Lloyds too. But I can't remember where I was.

I've found so many Lloyd's Talismans in Kiln that it's unbelievable.
Definitely not other players cause I was invading as a hollowed DM.
They're usually scattered around the entrance to the Kiln.

I found a Lloyd't talisman in the small room just before the dreaded ghost pit. This was just after i had drained new londo and i was walking through to buy more transient curses to co-cop four kings later on. Prior to this, my friend had been talking about finding lloyds in a lot of random places, one of which i think he snagged a picture of in capra demons room in the lower burg.

Perhaps it could be a consolation prize if you missed the rare drop of something that died? I recently found out that Capra Demon can in fact drop his machete, it just takes awhile to actually drop. As for the ghost pit, maybe the ghost blade was finally dropped and i missed it...man i hope thats not it, only item in the game i still don't have!

i have picked up 1 loydes talisman right in front of the first necromancer in the catacombs before.

I've also picked up a twin humanity right inbetween the two archers.

Interesting!

This whole thing has turned out to be a little more common than I thought. It makes me lean towards believing that it is some obscure, intentional mechanic and not a bug. The 'consolation prize' idea is one I hadn't thought of and sounds like a real possibility.

Others have suggested that maybe it's a failed item-spawned vagrant. There are two different ideas I've seen proposed under this main idea:

1. The wrong items or not enough of the right items were dropped.

It may be be an indication that you failed to send a vagrant - that you had dropped items and they went through the "proper" process of abandonment, but the game could be telling you "nope" and gives you back these lesser-items.

or,

2. Before the item-vagrant "matures" and turns into a vagrant, it gets sent to another player or players' worlds first as one of these items. We may be intercepting vagrants before they have a chance to spawn for someone else. Missing these items when they're in our world and letting them pass "again" to someone else may be what spawns good vagrants.

Or course these are also just pure speculation.

I wonder if this will ever be figured out. This long past the game's release, I'm a little doubtful. Perhaps one day From will explain all the weird details. Doesn't sound like something they'd do, but you never know if they might be generous with this sort of thing sometime closer to the end of Dark Souls' online lifespan.

Interesting thing happened the other day in the roulette fights. We had two items on the ground left over from the fighters picks when we were invaded by a hostile and I bit the dust. I respawned at the bonfire and went back down to resummon the fighters and right where the two lost items should have been were two item bags, both were rubbish. Interestingly only I could see them, the red phantoms I summoned could not.

This could mean the items are testable, I believe they have to be unique items, that are made from souls or dropped by enemies. I can't remember what weapons they were but I think it was a spiked shield +14 and a great lord sword.

Yukon wrote:Interestingly only I could see them, the red phantoms I summoned could not.

Interesting indeed.
The bags I have come across will also stay at the location they spawned after I die or warp (if I don't pick them up).

You know, a Vagrant does say it travels through -many- worlds. If the item just laid there and passed through several worlds before vagrantizing, a lotta sense would be made.