Chan ran his hands over the cracked stone exterior of the mysterious mausoleum and tried to get a feel the for magic in and around it. "Its been magically cloaked," he said conclusively. "I can't tell how long its been kept hidden, but the magic faded away or was stripped very recently."

"Maybe whoever is casting this spell simply hasn’t gotten around to refreshing the spell again. People hardly ever come in here so it probably didn’t feel very risky to let it go for a bit," Jun offered.

It was possible. "Perhaps," you stated.

"We should check it out," Kijung said, reaching for the handle.

"Wait!" Marco grabbed Kijung's hand before he could touch the door. "Not so fast."

He carefully looked over the door, squinting through the darkness. Jun played a note and summoned a ball of light to aid Marco. Marco made a sound of confirmation and reached into a pocket in his leather pants to pull out a rolled pack of tools. He removed several and held them between his teeth. The rest of you were silent while he got to work on the door. After a few minutes, he wiped a bead of sweat from his temple and turned the knob of the metal grated door. His other hand caught the dart that fell out of the key slot between this thumb and pointer finger, careful not to touch the tip.

"This likely would have killed you," Marco said to Kijung. He tossed the poisoned dart in the bushes and opened the door. "You should probably sick behind me so I can make sure the path is safe." You all nodded and followed suit behind Marco.

That turned out to be a very wise decision as the inside of the tomb was littered with traps, all of which Marco was able to disarm with little trouble.

You came to a wide flight of stairs dimly lit by torches on both sides. Very faintly, you could make out sound ahead. Marco motioned for everyone to stay behind except for you, whom he pointed at and swept his hand in the air to tell you to follow.

Jun raised his arms in a shrug and shook his head to ask why. Marco pointed at you again and put his finger to his lips. Then he pointed at Jun, Chan, and Kijung. He cupped his hands to his ears, opened his mouth in a silent scream, and thrashed his body around as if he was hearing something painfully loud. You stifled your laughter. The other three, mildly offended, looked like they wanted to say something but kept their mouths shut, as they knew it was true.

The two of you proceeded down the stairs, near invisible even to a scrutinizing eye. You reached the bottom to find yourself in a large room. Something about the room made the hair on your arms rise. It was a throne room. The room was covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs stuck to every cornered surface of the gothic architecture. The sparse décor only consisted of a long, thin carpet laid before a velvet backed throne, and a pile of humanoid skulls piled in the corner of the room. The air felt colder here and the shadows thicker. The way they hovered close to the candles that faintly illuminated the room felt unnatural and made you incredibly uneasy.

Inhabiting the room were three ghasts standing guard around two other figures. One was wearing a very low cut black dress, barely holding her chest in with the lacing across the front. Slits up the side of either leg revealed her smooth greyish-white skin. A red cloak flowed magnificently from her shoulders. She was conversing with a figure cloaked in black, completely hidden from view. The woman was handing a vial of dark fluid to the cloaked figure.

A gloved hand reached out and wrapped around her hand, closing it back around the vial. “Hold onto it,” a gravelly voice said. “I still have a few things to take care of. I will contact you when I need it.”

“As you wish,” she stated. She placed the vial on her person and they nodded a goodbye. The hidden person waved their hands in the air and a shimmering doorway of pure white light formed in front of them. The mysterious person stepped through it, and the portal vanished.

Keeping your eyes on the woman, you and Marco crept back to your friends. “Four of them,” you whispered to them. “Three ghasts and one woman, likely a vampire from what I could see.”

Chan grinned a wide smile. “Preemptive strike?” He trust his hands forward and a ball of fire shot out of his hands and barreled down the stairs, into the throne room. The heat fanned your face and you heard the shrieks from inside the room as it erupted inside.

“I guess that was the signal.” Jun said while he began playing his lute. The music flowed through you and you felt inspired, stronger than before.

The rest of you rushed forwards while the two spell casters kept the security of distance. The ghasts came rushing forward and met you at the bottom of the stairwell. “I’ll take care of them. You two handle the vampire.” Marco said to you and Kijung.

You reached her first and were about to attack. You stopped dead in your tracks when she ran her slender fingers through your hair and looked alluringly into your eyes. Her full, red lips murmured words you couldn’t quite make out, but they made you lean in closer to her; you desired to hear every word she uttered. Your hostility towards her washed away and was replaced by feelings of companionship and attraction. “Protect me, my sweet,” her velvety voice pleaded.

You turned to Kijung who was swinging his flail towards her. How could he attempt to hurt such a lovely creature? Your sword parried his blow.

“(Y/N), what are you doing?” He questioned.

You didn’t respond as you blocked another one of his attacks at the vampire. You didn’t want to hurt Kijung but you couldn’t let him lay a finger on your mistress. You focused on defense, keeping Kijung at bay while she beckoned her hands, glancing towards the holes the walls. Swarms of rat skittered out, chirping and whipping their tails as they spread across the floor. Avoiding you and the vampire, they gathered around Jun, Chan, and Marco and began gnawing at their ankles.

Jun and Chan focused their attacks at the rats at their feet. Marco, losing support from them, began to struggle with the ghasts. One of them got their claws into him and another took a bite out of his arm.

The vampire sauntered towards Kijung and placed her hands on his shoulders with a surprisingly strong grip. She leaned into his neck; her sharp fangs grazed his fair skin.

Jun saw the situation you were in. He gritted his teeth and played his lute while the rats continued to sink their teeth into his legs.

You faintly heard the music in your ear. You focused on it, lulled by it’s melody. It was muffled, as if you were hearing it through a wall. You mentally reached out for it and as you touched it, the thrall over you shattered like glass.

You came to and found yourself furious at the manipulation. You summed your shadow behind the ghasts, and it turned to get rid of the rats around Marco. Jun began tearing the rats off of his legs.

Meanwhile, you stepped behind the vampire who was too focused on the blood rushing through Kijung’s veins to notice you until you sliced your blade across the small of her back, drawing a deep wound.

She released Kijung, who stumbled forward and wiped the blood from the two small scrapes her teeth had made against his neck. She hissed at you and swung at you with her sharp claws. You were able to avoid the first attack but her second claw bit into your waist.

Kijung held up his holy symbol and spoke words of faith. The air next to the vampire shimmered and rippled with light. Space shifted and came together to form a sword braced against a shield emblazoned with the symbol of Lathander. It began pulsing and a wave of light shot out. As the light touched the vampire, her skin boiled like she had been splashed with acid. She screamed in pain.

“Chan!” You yelled, getting his attention. Chan waved his fingers in the air. The vampire’s yells ceased and her body froze, bound by Chan’s magic. She was left at the mercy of Kijung’s guardian, which continued to pulse and build energy. You and Kijung abandoned the vampire to focus on the rats and ghasts while Chan blasted her with spells and Jun began pelting her with crossbow bolts.

You bounced through the shadows in the room, keeping the ghasts distracted and picking them off when the opportunity struck. After three charges from the guardian, it crumbled to the ground. All three ghasts had been cleared, and most of the rats had been killed, all except for one. While you were taking advantage of the vampire’s frozen state and attacking her with all you had, the rat crept up behind Chan and pounced onto his calf, clamping its teeth into his leg. The wave of pain disrupted Chan’s concentration. The vampire broke free.

She bore her fangs at you and charged forward. Kijung interrupted her path and blocked one claw. You ran forward and blocked the other. Marco squeezed both daggers and slid them into her stomach. She stumbled back and pressed her hands against the wound.

Panic flitting in her eyes, she turned around and sprinted for the wall. You watched as she gripped the stone, effortlessly scaled it, and disappeared into the shadows that hung from where the light didn’t reach the tall ceiling.

Chan shook his hands but the fireball he tried to conjure fizzled into embers. “Out of spells.”

Jun squinted into the dark and dropped his crossbow helplessly. “I can’t see anything anyway.” Kijung nodded.

The darkness wasn’t a problem for you but the shadows were too unnaturally thick. You would need to be closer to see her and you barely had the energy to shadow jump far enough to get that high.

You decisively sheathed your saber and drew your dagger. You pushed your teleportation made it into the shadows around the ceiling. There she was, clinging onto the ceiling like a spider.

You launched your dagger and it whizzed through the air and buried deep into her chest. The both of you plummeted to the ground. You closed your eyes as your body met the hard stone.

You peaked an eye open to see her dead across the room. "Got her!" You exclaimed proudly.

Chan glared at you. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to do that? I would have caught you!"

You snorted. "Please, with those twig arms?"

Jun burst out laughing and Chan looked like he was ready to fight you but he was interrupted by Marco's voice. "Blood?" He was standing over the vampire's body holding the vial she had tried to give the cloaked figure. "It's a vial of blood! This is not the treasure I was hoping for."

Kijung wandered into an adjacent room, pulling a flint and steel from his pack.

"Well it should probably be taken to the paladins. It's way weird that this tomb was hidden in the city's graveyard and they're probably going to want to investivate." Jun said, still tickled over your jab at Chan.

You heard a strike and soon after the smell of smoke. Kijung emerged out of the room. "I burned her coffin. She won't be rising again.  And I can take it to the paladins."

"Let's get out of here, then," you said.

You all walked, or limped, back to town.

(Chapter art by Mike McCarthy)