Alfira sat by the fire a silver chalace in hand as she looked over. "Never thought my adventure would start out getting bitten by a vampire." She said getting up. "But I'm not going to let that stop me. Not After what Durge did to save me and the rest of us."

Durge looked over his shoulder then went back to cleaning the blood trail.

"Well tomorrow new horrors await." Gale said clapping his hands. "Were not gonna let one mishap spoil all our fun. Afterall with my magic I located a source of infernal power."

"Karlach." Wyll said.

"Precisely. We find her tomorrow and The Blade's hunt is complete." Gale smiled.

Chapter 11 Lost Artifacts

Ruby helped the others search the abandoned village for anything useful. Starting in the basement of the village wind mill they found Barcus' pack filled with food and a tightly strung leather bag. "Smoke powder." Gale said stashing it in it's own bag. "Very dangerous stuff." In a heavy iron chest Ruby found a pair of steel boots. "I know that work, that's the work of Yrre spark struck, a very talented lightning mage." Ruby took of her boots and with a quick burst of her semblance lightning danced between her fingers.

"Wow." Heading back out of the cellar Ruby and Gale spotted Shadowheart overlooking a shattered selunite statue. A glow of purple flashed from a scar on her hand.

"We should get moving." she she after the pain on her face faded.

The search brought up some old wine bottles still sealed, old school books, weapons and tools. Alfira cracked the lock on the doors to the twon forge. Heading down into the dank basement they found more weapons, swords and axes. Some hammers and a few chests. "Wait... that chest is trapped." She said as Ruby went to open it.

"I got it." Wyll said as everyone stepped back. With a blast of his magic, he shattered the tram mechanism and lock. Inside was a masterfully crafted short sword which was handed to Alfira, who wore Astarion's magic padded armor, which she had dyed pink overnight. And some papers at the bottom of the chest. "What are these?"

"Weapon blueprints..." Ruby said, overlooking his shoulder. "Sussur bark... what's susser bark?"

"It's a massive subterranean tree known for it's anti-magic properties." Gale explained. "Really a beauty to behold. We should hold onto these."

"Hmm... these are for a sickle... a dagger and a great sword... I could adjust the designs for any weapon." Ruby said as she lifted the papers to find a large peice of Strange metal.

"Infernal iron... That's what Dammon needed for the deal you made with him.. well... lets finish getting everything from this village." Wyll said as Ruby placed the infernal metal in her sack.

In a few other rotted out buildings they found sealed glass water bottles, old wines and brandys and some weapons and coin. Heading into the Apothecary they found tons of old potions and medical supplies in bandages and even a rough set of surgical implement kept in a sealed case. "Hopefully we don't need use it." Shadowherat remarked.

Thalia found a hatch to the basement and down there the found medical books and records, logs of patients. "Wow this town Apothecary new what he was doing." Gale commented as he ran his fingers over copper distillers.

"Almost too good at it, this more reminds me of a wizards home then a humble town Apothecary." Wyll remarked. "Though where is his journal, a man this meticulous with his work would have kept a personal account."

"Perhaps he left with it." Shadowheart said.

As Ruby rummaged through a stack of crates she noticed a lever hidden from veiw. pulling the lever revealed a hidden door as a bookshelf moved. "Wow..." She said heading into a natural cave formation.

"Seems or humble Apothecary had some secrets." Alfira remarked.

"Indeed." Gale said following close behind.

Heading down the stone passage led to a lush cave with a table in the center and a few coffins strewn across the room. on the far wall of the chamber was more stone work, a wooden platform and a mirror.

Wyll knelt down and opened one pulling out a spell scroll. "A scroll to summon a quasit." He clossed the lid and held the scroll in his hands as it ignited and in a red flash of flame appeared a strange bug, lizard looking thing. "A strang little demon." He said kneeling down to it.

"Who are you? Your not master Illy?" The glittery thing said. "Don't smell like master, your a warlock. Are you Shovel's master now?"

"Warlock?" Alfira asked.

"Not important." Wyll said deflecting the question. "Yes, I'm your new master, can you tell me what your old master did here?"

"Shovel brought him bodies, for Illy to experiment with spells from the book, Always goes on about the book he did. In love with the book he was." Shovel said in response

"Seems this village had a necromancer among them..." Shadowheart remarked.

"Where is this book?" Thalia asked.

"Mirror hides lab. Remember Balsim oil good for burns. Master can you change Shovel's name?" Shovel asked Wyll.

"You don't like your name Shovel?" Wyll asked.

"Not particularly." Shovel said. "Master used Shovel like a shovel so Shovel was named Shovel."

"Well I as the Blade of Frontiers, your new master, name you Dagger."

"Bit too on brand?" Alfira asked.

"Dagger is Dagger then. Shall we go burn a village in master's honor?" Dagger asked.

"No, I save villages." Wyll said somewhat annoyed.

"Master is no fun." Dagger pouted

"I feel like we should be concerned about that." Ruby said.

"Ah little bugger's under Wylls control, warlocks are exceptional at controlling the lesser denizens of the hells. It'll be fine." Gale waved of the girls concern. "I've summoned a few quasits, imps and Mephets myself and so long as you take the required precautions these weaker entities are quite useful."

Durge who had been silent as he was over by the table. "Found one of the man's journals. Seems he became more desperate the more his experiments failed."

"Fascinating." Thalia said as the group made their way to the mirror, As the young Teifling approached the mirror a porcelain like mask face appeared in the glass.

"What is your name?" It asked.

"Ah... Willow... Oakhorn..." Thalia made up a name on the spot.

"I do not know this name, are you an ally of my master?" The mirror asked.

"Yes." Thalia said.

"What think you of the Zulkier Zass Tam." The mirror asked.

"Zulkier? That's Thayan." Alfira said a little surprised.

"Not just any Thayan, It's the Lich king that rules over that nation with an iron grip. A foul thing of unnatural magic." Gale said a bit surprised as well.

"A foul creature indeed." Thalia said.

"Correct..."

"Seems this village was home to a runaway Thayan Necromancer..." Wyll said.

"What is the use of Balsam oil?"

"To clean wounds." Thalia said.

"Final question, what do you seek?"

"I seek a way to cure my friends of their ailment." Thalia said.

"You seek power. Be welcome." The mirror faded away revealing a hidden chamber... within the already hidden chamber.

"But Dagger said..." Ruby started.

"Never trust a demon." Gale said patting her on the head. "Even the ones you summon. Especially not the the ones you summon."

Heading into the hidden laboratory revealed a few things, massive animal skeleton half hung from the ceiling, over a central work table with a skeleton and blood stains, and a peice of paper with bloody finger prints. parts of the walls have collapsed with time. a dest in a corner of the room was covered in notes and books next to a chest. another chest sat up in a reading nook next to a iron grate door with stone braziers flanking it.

Past the iron gate was a stone pedestals flanked by gargoyle statues. Sitting on a stone plate was a book that had a strange leather cover streched over what looked like a human skull with dark glowing amethyst eyes. As Thalia approached the braziers lit up. "Door and books trapped." She said.

Alfira approached the door and took out Astarions theives tools and quickly opened the door with a surprising ease. "What?" The purple teifling. "Me and my sister fell on hard times, we had to learn some tricks to get by."

Thalia and Alfira entered the books small chamber and Alfira disarmed the trap. Thalia picked up the strange book. "It's a necromantic tome... it holds secrets of death and rot." She said running hee fingers over the cover, her eyes almost trance like before she blinked. "I'll hold onto it. It's sealed but books like these often hold hidden secrets, possibly a way to remove the tadpoles."

"Well, it's obviously cursed so you can keep it." Shadowheart remarked.

"We surely weren't going to leave it here for some errant goblin to find and return to his masters." Wyll said.

"Knowledge is power, regardless of the source." Gale said patting her on the back.

Durge grunted as he moved to the chest opening it. "Gale catch." He said tossing a pair of bracers to the wizard.

"Wizards defense bracers. Incredibly rare. Why this Illy..." Gale started

"Illin Toth was his name." Durge said sitting to read through another journal. "He was a political opponent to Zass Tam when the Lich came to power, feld to this village with the remains of his beloved but despite his skills as a necromancer he couldn't bring her back from death. Seems he had an apprentice that went missing... Something about a cave system connecting to the village well."

Going through the rest of the books and notes the group found rare spell scrolls and potions as well as a large amount of coin. Gale pocketed as many books as he could. "Can't leave these here to rot, these are covering many things from mathematics, biology, anatomy, medical research, history and theology. Necromancers are some of the most advanced wizards, for they leave out nothing in their pursuits, sacrificing so much for any advances in their research. Of course many look down upon this feild of study, but many of our greatest breakthroughs in medical advances are because of the feild of necromancy."

"Gale for every one morally upstanding necromancer there are dozens building small armies, seeking immortality or work alongside dark forces." Wyll interjected.

"Dagger would like if Master was working along side dark forces." Dagger remarked.

"No Dagger, you will help people." Wyll said.

Soon they finished gathering supplies and left the basement. Heading back into the sun. "We should sell what we got and drop stuff at the camp." Shadow heart said. "It's still early morning."

"So long as we find Karlach by evening light." Wyll said.

It didn't take them long to reach the grove. Gale went to drop the books at camp while Shadowheart and Alfira took to buying and trading for more supplies. Thalia, Wyll and Ruby made their way to Dammon. "Ah it's you lot, wasn't expecting you till this evening, did you find any infernal Iron?"

"Yes we did." Ruby said handing him the plates they had found.

"Wow... alright. Take the blades out of your scythe and If you can give me a hand... I should be finished by lunch so long as my anvil and hammer don't melt." Ruby took apart the blade of Crescent Rose. Dammon marked out the size and location of connection points. Then he instructed her on how to forge infernal iron. "It absorbs heat really well, so you want to swing hard and fast. The two of us working together should be enough to forge it."

They set about forging the pieces. Hours of striking the infernal material. Hammers turning red hot from the force of the blows on the metal. Sweat dripping down their faces evaporate before it hit the ground. One the grind wheel Dammon held the red hot metal with thick leather gloves that smoked as he spun the stone wheel as white sparks flew off.

By the time they had finished Ruby's old scythe silver steel blades had been replaced with black iron with red streaks. Dammon gathered up the blades and placed them in his crate. "Find me in Baldur's Gate, should the adventurer lifestyle not work out, You would be a perfect apprentice."

"Sure will." Ruby smiled as she shook his hand.

Ruby gave a test swing of the weapon. The edge lit up in bright red flames. "Wow..." Ruby was starry eyed.

"Infernal metals are perfect for armor and weapons, of course infernal machinery is powerful as well." Dammon explained.

"We'll bring you more if we find it."

The group went back to the village heading through a busted wall with a barn not far from it. Ruby approached the wooden door when she started to hear thumping and... was that moaning. Her face became bright red as she backed off from the barn door.

"Perhaps we should leave them to their privacy." Wyll said.

"Yeah..." Ruby said blushing.

As they headed down the road a flash of heat and the smell of sulfur alerted them to a man behind them. The group turned to face him. "My, my, what manner of place is this? A path to redemption... or a road to Damnnation?"

Hey sorry for the delay, was doing some job hunting and interviews these last few days. That and for the love of God, you know who you are, sending me death threats over the killing of a fictional vampire, really. Fucking really. Jesus Christ it's my 40k story all over again. If you can't handle character death without threatening the authors life, don't read my works.

Ruby Rose stats, class, and racial abilities

Class Fighter lv 4

Subclass Champion

Great weapon fighting style (rerolls one's and twos on damage)

Hp: 36 (3 d12 plus 0)

Strength: 18 (base 17)

Dexterity: 16 (base 15)

Constitution:10

Wisdom: 8

Intelligence:12

Charisma: 10

Race Human Variant (Remnant)

Feats:

Ability score improvement: plus 1 str plus 1 Dex

Savage Attacker : Reroll damage once take highest

Base Speed: 40 ft Total speed: 50 ft

Aura: 10 temp hit points per level (40 Thp) (resets on long rest)

Semblance: Petal Dash; Dash action is now a bonus action

Improved Critical: reduces critical requirements by 1 (18-20)

Action Surge: Gain an extra action

Gear:

Infernal Crescent Rose: plus 2 to damage and rolls to hit, 2 d 12 slashing and 1 d 6 fire damage plus strength. 2 d 8 Piercing plus Dex when firing.

Infernal Critical, Reduces critical by 1, and on a critical hit target auto fails save against burn condition.

Searing Petal Smite: While Dashing from at least 60 ft away, auto cast searing smite at lv 2. 2d6 fire damage. Once per short rest.

All but Ruby Rose have disadvantage with this weapon.

Elemental bullets: 2d4 elemental damage added to ranged attacks.

Two-handed, heavy, extra reach

Cleave lacerate trip enemies, peircing shot

1 Half plate armor: Ac 18 (16 plus 2 dex) Medium armor. Reduces piercing damage by 1.

Haste Helm: Plus 10 ft to movement first three turns of combat (Effectively just 10 ft because I'm not drawing out combat for more then 3 rounds except for major bosses) plus one dex save

Speedy Light Feet: Gain three lightning charges when Dashing. Lightning charges deal additional damage on weapon and spell attacks.