Story Post: Richardo’s Fifteenth Expedition
After a few days discussing strategies with Koda, Richardo decided that it was once again time for him to face the Crypt. He took up the von Nestor whip and shield and ventured through the night towards the Cathedral, from whence the eerie sounds of the organ could be heard drifting over the rooftops.
Disdaining Koda’s sewer ingress, Richardo opted for what he knew: the mosaic hall of the grand Cathedral entrance. Once inside he found that the north exit had been tightly sealed, so, despite feeling like he knew what he would be getting, he moved towards the south and the Entrance Vestibule.
Indeed, the Entrance Vestibule was unchanged. Richardo ignored the average chest and made his way east.
The Blood Pit felt very unfamiliar to Richardo. He could discern the remains of the Infinite Stairway, here, a geometric impossibility that had caused him not a few injuries. He noted that it was now a bubbling cauldron of gore, and yet somehow he still felt that it was an improvement. He noticed a Dimensional Jellyfish phasing in and out of the room; Koda had told him about it so he took no chances and sunk the flanged head of the von Nestor whip into its soft, transluscent dome, killing it instantly. He continued east.
The Prison Cells were another new addition that Koda had told him about but which he hadn’t seen for himself. He paced cautiously through the room, alert for more monsters, but not - alas - alert to the possibility of one of the cell doors slamming itself closed on his arm, eliciting a howl of pain and a Grievous Injury. The massive glyph of the Vampire Lord Kevan pulsed greedily on the wall, mocking von Nestor with its obviousness. The east exit was blocked so Richardo had no choice but to return the way he came,
He passed back through the Blood Pit, this time to the south.
He sighed with exhaustion at the threshold to the Gravity Room; was he up for this? Then an eddy of gravitational malarky whipped at him, pulling him into the chaotic maelstrom. Somehow he pulled himself towards the fine chest; opening it, he found a Secret Passage Map and a Silver-Tipped Stake. Quickly referring to the map, he ducked down into the gravitational pathway and…
...found himself spat out in the Shattered Stairway, right at the feet of the vast, ghastly visage of the Stair Muncher. Both he and Koda had witnessed shadows of this beast flitting about, but up close it was too hideous to behold, its fangs each as wide as a human arm and impacted by all of the stairs it had munched. Richardo raised his shield weakly but the Muncher punched straight through it with one mighty swing, causing nine Light Injuries to accrue to Richardo and nine Influence to accrue to the dark lord of the Stair Muncher, who at this point in time happened to be the Vampire Lord Brendan. Battered and bruised, Richardo clutched at the shield and muttered the incantation that would take him out of the crypt and back towards his home…
He paused to stash the Silver-Tipped Stake in the Cathedral on his way out.
Stat changes:
Vampire Lord - Puissance - Influence
ais523 - 12 - 0
Brendan - 1 - 10
Chiiika - 14 - 1
Clucky - 13 - 1
Jumble - 12 - 1
Kevan - 15 - 8
lemonfanta - 15 - 1
Raven1207 - 0 - 0
lemon: she/her
hey clucky, can u enthrall me? i’m tired of being dust