Elder Blood Witcher 185 Busting A Ghost's Neck

After dropping Solaire and Priscilla off at the Chaos Covenant Reima quickly leaves for New Londo, partly to avoid Quelaag and partly to speed up the gathering of Gwyn's soul shard. The new information that he had heard about the Lord of Cinder makes him all the more eager to sheath his blade in his guts. The journey to New Londo isn't a long one as an elevator that leads to the ruins is directly under Firelink shrine, it quickly descends downwards and Reima is curious at how the mechanism even works, he can't see any cables holding the thing up or any mechanical components in the walls... In the end he just chalks it up to "magic" and leaves it at that.

The first thing he notices as he steps into the huge underground cavern housing the ruined city is the smell of the place, it smells of damp, old rotten meat combined with every kind of mould you can conceive of. He glances down the tower he's stood on and sees a vast ocean with many rotting corpses barely floating above the water, even from here he can spot the glowing white forms of the spectral ghosts that inhabit New Londo ruins. Walking down the steps of the tower he sees many emaciated hollow undead's banging their heads against walls or sitting completely comatose nearby, ignoring them Reima takes a right and goes down some steps that are quickly cut off as the rest had collapsed into the sea below... This doesn't surprise him though as he finds what he was looking for, sitting behind some bars in the stone wall is a man in fine clothing that seems to have been blackened by soot from the forge behind him.

Reima raps his knuckles on the metal bars, "h.e.l.lo?" the man quickly twists around and eyes him, he has short black hair and equally as black eyes.

Rickert "Sorry, I must've been day-dreaming again... My name is Rickert of Vinheim, I'm a Magic-Blacksmith if you can't tell by my attire."

Reima nods, "Reima Ludivg, Witcher... Say, what are you doing imprisoned in there?" he asks curiously.

Rickert, "Ah, this wonderful abode? Well, when those dreadful Dark Wraiths start appearing the common people were itching to find the cause, obviously it was those vile rituals conducted by the four kings but thoughts along those lines were treasonous so they had to turn their anger elsewhere... It was decided all Sorcerers were the problem and so they started burning them alive, impaling them and every other unsavoury punishment you can imagine..."

Reima "Why are you imprisoned and not a burned husk then?"

Rickert shrugs, "I argued my innocence as I'm a blacksmith who adds magic to my creations, it seems my explanation of not directly using magic was enough to save me from such a fate."

Reima "So you're not a Sorcerer?"

Rickert shrugs, "I know a few spells but like I was going to say that to the angry mob... Anyway, did you want something made? Blacksmithing is all I've had to prevent me going hollow as of late."

Reima crosses his arms, "Not right now, I actually came to give you an offer..." He goes on to explain how the worlds ending and that he's the only one who can save him.

Rickert "... That's quite the tale I have to say, though it doesn't surprise me given the state of New Londo itself. Can I ask who else you've given this ultimatum to?"
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Reima nods and lists everyone, their t.i.tles and lineage included as well as the people who've already accepted.

The man seems impressed at the people he easily lists off as if who they are is of no consequence, "I must say, knowing that Big Hat Logan has also been asked as well honours me greatly. Maybe in the annals of history my name will be a footnote beside his, what a dream that'd be... Alright, I accept your proposal, I'll keep an eye out for this.. "Green Summoning Sign" that you mentioned."

Reima nods and starts walking away, "Make sure you do, if you miss it I will a.s.sume you went hollow or something of the sort."

After leaving the grateful Magic Blacksmith he wanders down to the rotten wooden bridge leading to the depths of New Londo. He prepares a Transient Curse that he'd bought from the Female Merchant in the Undead Burg but doesn't use it yet as he wishes to experiment with something. Cautiously making his way across the bridge he reaches the end and is almost immediately a.s.saulted by a white translucent woman wielding two sickles in each hand, she throws them at him but skilfully pulls a chain connected them causing their trajectory to change, he dodges it despite the difficult angle of the strike and reaches for the ghostly woman's neck while channelling Armament Haki into his hand. It works! He grips the shocked ghosts neck firmly and tenses his muscles briefly, crushing it's neck and causing it to dissipate. It seems Armament Haki can affect Ghosts as well as Magic... Good to know.