Magus Rowena hails from the fertile river valley to the west of Kaiju Bay. As a young wizard she was ambitious and full of thirst for knowledge and power. All the people of the valley told stories of the deceitful and dangerous creatures that lived within Shapeshifter Woods. They warned both children and newcomers never to venture inside. This just made Rowena even more curious.

Rowena began exploring the woods and encountered all manner of strange creatures and plants. There was quite a bit of power in those woods, Rowena could feel it. Everybody else was too afraid to go in, the power was hers for the taking.

Every once in a while she did encounter a dangerous creature yes, but she was a strong wizard, extremely in tune and connected to her innate magical gifts. She was always able to repel the attacks or escape. But one day, she encountered a rather innocuous looking creature. It was an orange fox.

It was also the first intelligent creature she met in the woods.

“Hi there, you’re a wizard aren’t you?” purred the fox as it weaved between her legs.

“I may be,” replied Rowena, “and what manner of fox are you?”

“One who can talk,” it said with a smile, “what brings you to this neck of this woods?”

“Curiosity,” said Rowena.

“Well, if you’re curious I can show you something cool,” said the fox, who introduced himself as Noxivar.

“It gets so boring in these woods.”

Rowena didn’t trust the fox fully, but she was confident in her abilities to defend herself if he tried anything funny. And Noxivar seemed friendly enough. So she let him lead her through brambles and thickets until they came upon a grove of mushrooms with caps that appeared bright red on the outside, but which were full of thick crimson gills on the inside.

“What are they?” asked Rowena.

“Blood mushrooms,” replied Noxivar.

“And what do they do?” inquired Rowena, her curiosity piqued.

“They’re very powerful,” said Noxivar, “I’ve never ate one, because I’m not a wizard. But word around the forest is that they contain the secrets of blood magic, and let you add it to your spells.” Noxivar ran in circles excitedly around the mushrooms.

“Are you gonna eat one?”

Rowena considered it. It was common sense not to eat strange mushrooms deep in the forest on the recommendation of a fox. But, standing before the mushrooms, she was becoming seduced by their power. She could sense it.

“Are they safe?” she asked.

“I can’t say! You’re the wizard afterall, not me. But I’m really curious about what they do, aren’t you? Nobody ever became the best wizard in the runiverse playing it safe!”

He was right. If Rowena wanted to reach the potential of her powers, she’d have to take risks. And she’d always had a strong affinity for things of a crimson variety. It seemed like these mushrooms were here for a reason. For her.

“No more hesitation” Rowena told herself.

She cast a protection spell on herself to reduce the potential effect of any toxins, plucked a mushroom and bit into it.

It was delicious. She scarfed down the first mushroom and found herself on her knees in the dirt, brought there by some force she couldn’t quite control. As she gorged herself on the mushrooms she noticed that it’s juices were spilling from her mouth. It’s juices looked exactly like blood.

And then it dawned on her that maybe the name “Blood Mushroom” was more than a coincidence. But, before she could ponder the implications of that, she felt a terrible pain stab her heart and ripple through her entire body. She crumpled and grabbed her stomach, which felt like it were about to burst. Blood spewed from her mouth and she vomited violently for a few minutes as her body shook. Then, she lost consciousness.

When she awoke it was dark, but strangely, she could see as if it were day. Everything was illuminated by some type of strange light.

“Well, that was surprising,” said Noxivar, “Are you ok?”

“What… what happened?” asked Rowena.

“I’m not sure, but uhm you might want to look at your hands. You’ve changed a bit.”

Rowena looked down to find her hands had a dark shade of blueish-green. She screamed. Noxivar dashed behind a tree. Rowena rummaged in her satchel and brought forth a small mirror in which she tried to see her reflection. She could see just fine in the dark, but there was no reflection to see.

“Where am I? Oh god, where am I?” she screamed in panic.

“My god,” she said to herself in horror, “I’ve become one… a vampire”

—--------------------------------------------------------------------- From that fateful day, Rowena was changed forever. She was no longer a normal wizard, but rather a creature of the night, a vampire wizard.

Noxivar claimed that he didn’t know what would happen if Rowena ate the blood mushrooms, but he was a fox afterall. Foxes are often tricksters. With that said, he didn’t lie. The mushrooms were very powerful, and Rowena did unlock the secrets and power of blood magic. But, blood magic always has a cost. The cost was Rowena’s humanity.

Because of her magical nature, Rowena can still survive under the light of the sun, but her magic is severely diminished. On the other hand, her magic is extremely strong when the moon and stars take dominion over the sky.

She does thirst for the blood of living beings, but she also thirsts for more blood mushrooms, which fuel and power her magic. By eating the mushrooms she can also sate her thirst for blood, which can be useful, because the locals and authorities generally don’t take kindly to being fed upon.

Luckily, or perhaps not so luckily for her - Noxivar has a keen nose for blood mushrooms and is happy to keep his new companion fed… so long as she does him some favors from time to time. A wizard vampire is a powerful companion to have leverage over. The fates of Rowena and Noxivar are now bound together, for better or worse.

Rowena also has one more ace up her sleeve to help her cope with her new condition. That asset is the rune of Cinnabar, which allows her to temporarily regain her former appearance and hide her vampiric condition.

But though she has the tools to cope with and hide her condition, the curse of blood magic remains. Will she succumb to it’s call to give into her thirst and embrace the dark limits of her new power? Or will she fight against these urges and find a way to rid herself of her curse. Only time will tell.

One thing is for certain, Rowena and Noxivar are a force to be reckoned with.

Entered by: 0x00C4…40F1 and preserved on chain (see transaction)