Vampires

Oh, my Princess! Oh, my Queen! What trouble you get us into!
 
We had heard rumors in Starlium of a new breed of creature-- vile things that only come out at night and feed on the blood of the living. They can make more of their kind through their bite. The temples had only just begun to explore this new disease. It takes time for the change to happen, so if they catch it in its earliest stages, they can often stop it. But for most of us, they were only rumors.
 
"Ruby", our dear red-haired friend, led us into a cave outside Lionsfall where they was the rumor of a necromancer controlling the undead, and possibly a chimera. It was unclear if the two were connected. After a... interesting night on the beach during which we were attacked by pirates and demons, and learned more about Ari than we ever wanted, we headed into the caves. A few more battles with pirates led us to a buried shileen city, where the residents are all adventurers, pirates, and ghosts.
 
We made our way further in to the necromancer's lair. Turns out, he wasn't a necromancer, he was a vampire! We run into the first of his followers, a fairly powerful vampire with mindless minions under his control. They attacked. Ari transformed, which only made the vampire more excited, stating his master has not eaten one of "her kind" in a long time. At first, the vampires overwhelmed us. They didn't take damage the way we expected, and several of us were bitten. We quickly discovered that magic doesn't work well on them, but fire does. I called fire to my sword and laid into them. Pretty soon, the minions were down. Ari tore the arm off the big one and ate in front of him. That terrified him! He turned into a pack of bats and flew away. The remaining minions turned into mist to follow. Continuing on, we found a room with a "scientist" and a man being trained of blood. Ari got pissed and tore the head off the scientist. We found a door, which we suspected led to the chimera. The group cannot agree on whether to go through or look for the necromancer. The debated was cut short when the necromancer/vampire showed up! She seemed dismissive of Ari, focusing instead on all the mages of the group. He pointed at me and tried to cast a spell, but Ari jumped in the way, vanishing. Her husband became enraged. The necromancer then cast something on Ash, causing her to attack Ruby. He focused on my, dismissing Cate and Oakmane completely. He asked me if I wanted to dance before attacking. A heavy battle followed, during which he used his magic to draw the blood from all of us. Oakmane turned his attention to healing spells. The vampire rushed me, blinking behind me at the last second. I summoned fire to my blade and thrust it behind me, catching him. He screamed and bit my shoulder. The effect was immediate and so much worse than the bite from the other one. I pulled away and attacked for all I was worth. It didn't do much good. Realizing that Ash still had not killed Ruby, the vampire told her to do "that one spell"-- the last resort fire-wall that all wizards learn to do. I spun away from the vampire to knock Ash into the wall before she could cast. Ruby followed it up and knocked her out. She spun toward the vampire and cut herself, summoning the magic in her blood. He got excited until he realized that gave her the upper hand. She cast...something. He exploded! We eventually found Ari, who had been teleported to another room with a partially completed chimera based on a black mane werewolf-- the bane of Ari's existence. She killed and ate it easily.
 
As we made our way out, I started feeling odd-- sick, pale, thirsty. My teeth ached. Several of the others felt off as well, but not as bad. We traveled back to Lionsfall and headed for the temple. It turned out we had been infected with vampirism. The others could be cured with the known methods. My case was more advanced. The priests put me in a room with light therapy and the usual treatment, hoping for the best. I settled myself into a meditation while I waited. I-- I can't really go into what happened next. But I woke up healed, feeling amazing, and with a new spell in my mind. A Sun Rune. The next time I meet a vampire, the fight should be quite different!