One Elden Ring player's quest line experience ends in disaster thanks to a Giant Caelid Dog coming in and ruining it. When it comes to FromSoftware games, its way of doing quest lines is not at all like most other action RPGs. Whereas most games often let the player know exactly where to go via a quest marker on the map, games such as Elden Ring don't do that. In addition to this, Elden Ring and its predecessors allowed any NPC in the quest line to be killed, which could make the quest line fail at any time if the player isn't careful enough.
One of Elden Ring's more prominent character quest lines is that of the young woman Millicent, who is struck with the Scarlet Rot. Much like Ranni's questline, where the player will be fighting loads of enemies such as the gravity-defying Radahn, this one requires plenty of traveling The Lands Between and fighting a multitude of special enemies. However, the beginning of Millicent's quest line involves an NPC known as Gowry, who enlists you to find an unalloyed gold needle. It is broken upon finding it, but it can be repaired by Gowry, making him a fairly important part of the quest line.
Unfortunately for one Elden Ring player, Gowry will not be repairing the Unalloyed Golden Needle for them. Posting to r/Eldenring, user Alexisvf uploaded a clip of them in conversation with Gowry. When Gowry was mid-sentence, a Giant Caelid Dog, one of the beasts known to clip through walls in Elden Ring, reached through the wall and attacked him, killing him and seemingly ending the Millicent quest line there. Elden Ring autosaves constantly, so any attempt to reload a save or go back is not possible.
This is sadly a common occurrence, as Ulcerated Tree Spirits have also been known to reach through walls and grab players. However, this death may not actually be the end of the quest, as some users in the comments say that Gowry will actually return at some point, some even saying he just respawns. They do recommend the player kill the dog in the future, before talking to Gowry so that this does not happen again.
Elden Ring is a game that usually isn't forgiving to the players, even when it's a mistake on the game's part. Whether it's an Elden Ring enemy pushing a player to their death or the game ruining a quest line due to an enemy killing an NPC, players should always be careful of the surroundings, as while this quest NPC can come back, most cannot.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.