I've noticed that occasionally amidst my travels, I'll have a little glowy symbol trigger above my head, a noise accompanies it and I'll have gained a single Estus flask. Does anybody know why or what triggers this?

someone else has kindled a bonfire near you I think

@Animasta said:

someone else has kindled a bonfire near you I think

Yeah, I think it's something like this. Sometimes I also randomly receive Humanity.

@Animasta said:

someone else has kindled a bonfire near you I think

Pretty sure this is right...kinda crazy how there are so many mechanics in this game that nobody understands.

I'm also pretty sure that if someone positively rates one of your messages that you gain humanity. I also think that you'll sometimes gain some humanity after defeating a certain number of enemies.

If someone near you kindles a bonfire you gain one additional estus flask.
 
@Chaser324: 
The wiki says that some enemies can drop it, and that seems to be the case for me as well.

Man I want this game. It seems completely crazy, but I want it so bad.

I thought it comes from someone positively rating one of your messages.

I thought it comes from someone positively rating one of your messages.

@gla55jAw said:

I thought it comes from someone positively rating one of your messages.

I've gained plenty and I have never layed a message. Seems to me it's whenever someone kindles the fire in your area. Or maybe it's both, who knows.

None of my messages were rated and I wasn't especially near a bonfire >_>

I was around the halfway point between Asotras blacksmith and the 20k soul door in Darkroot Garden.

One of the Covenants has a bonus related to flasks.

@Animasta said:

someone else has kindled a bonfire near you I think

Yeah, I think it's something like this. Sometimes I also randomly receive Humanity.

@mwng said:

@gla55jAw said:

I thought it comes from someone positively rating one of your messages.

How many messages can you actually leave out of interest?

I think you can only have six out at a time

@mwng said:

@gla55jAw said:

I thought it comes from someone positively rating one of your messages.

How many messages can you actually leave out of interest?

I think you can only have six out at a time

@xxizzypop: You gain humanity for positively rated messages, not estus flask.

If someone kindles the fire that you are "bound" to, you will recieve an estus flask.

@Rockdalf: Actually I believe it is if someone kindles a fire you have kindled you get an extra flask.

@Chaser324: Certainly good to know. Wish more people would rate messages :|

@Rockdalf @MissionaryMarr: Both of those seem likely. I wish I knew which. After kindling the bonfire near the blacksmith, this seemed to happen a lot, and I was noticing a lot of phantom activity in the area at the time.

@MissionaryMarr said:

@Rockdalf: Actually I believe it is if someone kindles a fire you have kindled you get an extra flask.

That would seem much more likely, I just happened to kindle a lot of fires.

@MissionaryMarr said:

@Rockdalf: Actually I believe it is if someone kindles a fire you have kindled you get an extra flask.

This makes the most sense to me. I never got random ones until I started kindling fires, then I started to get them. However, I've only gotten two or maybe three.