In an unreleased version of Elden Ring you could give characters alcohol to get them to share secrets with you.
Modder Lance McDonald found the cut content while digging into the Elden Ring November 2021 network test. In that older version of the game, an NPC called Jiko had instructions on how to create 'dreambrew', a kind of alcohol that was once forbidden to mortals, and offers a quest to gather the materials.
Refusing the quest leads him to suggest that it could even be used to "uncover someone's deepest, darkest secrets". Accepting his quest would prompt you to scour Elden Ring's world to capture a new item, the 'Dense Fog of Sleep', from sleeping creatures. If you give that to Jiko he'd whip you up some dreambrew to give to characters in the Lands Between.
McDonald was able to offer the dreambrew to the merchant Kalé, who was present in the network test version, with a special dialogue option. He promptly falls asleep and reveals a bit of lore about himself.
You can see the quest in action below:
McDonald also finds several other creatures sleeping spread around the areas near the network test, suggesting the feature was cut just months before release. Apparently, there are other hints in the network test that Jiko was quite a substantial character, part of a larger series of quests that would see you seeking out mist-covered sleepers to harvest their fog as a kind of exploration minigame.
If FromSoftware hid these creatures all over the Lands Between it would be a great way to keep you crawling over all the nooks and crannies of Elden Ring. There's no telling why it got cut in the end.
Come to think of it, harvesting additional lore about the game world by hunting sleeping creatures to steal their dreams and turning them into potent psychoactive liquor may be the most FromSoftware approach to storytelling I can imagine.
It's too bad we didn't get the chance to try to use it on some of Elden Ring's favorite NPC's, but maybe cut content like this is part of what Pat felt Elden Ring was missing compared to Bloodborne.
