Morthal is a miserable little town. It’s like a poor-man’s rendition of Riften, in that it’s built quite predominantly on water. The water, though, is a shallow, frosty bog full of rotting weeds and stumps. On top of that, when I arrived in town a Frostbite Spider was assailing a guard, and evidently one of the homes in town had recently burned down. After Meeko and I helped put the spider down, the Guard directed us to speak to the local Jarl, a “mystical” old bag named Idgrod Ravencrone. She wasn’t terribly polite, nor was she pleasant company, but I got the gist of the local situation and found out I might have luck in finding work locally.

In particular, the house that had burned down seemed to be of some import. A local fellow named Hroggar had lost his wife and daughter in the fire, but had somewhat suspiciously betrothed himself to a local woman named Alva in no time at all. The first step was to speak to Alva and Hroggar themselves.

Unfortunately Alva was nowhere to be found while I searched the town and asked around, but luckily for me Hroggar was near his home. Upon speaking with him I found him chillingly indifferent to the death of his family, and couldn’t help but agree with the local feeling that he must have had something to do with it. The next step was to search the ruins of the burned house.

It turned out to be somewhat more illuminating, and unsettling, than expected. Searching the cold ruins of the home, I had the strange experience of actually seeing and speaking to the ghost of his daughter, Helgi. She told me of her death, but proved difficult to keep on track due to child-like whimsy.

She made me promise to play hide and seek with her after sun down, and then she would tell me whatever I wanted to know. I couldn’t very well refuse, given the circumstances, so I went to the local inn and settled in for a few hours of sleep. The road had been wearisome, to say the least.

Waking after nightfall I set to searching for the ghostly child. It took me far longer than I’d like to admit, but only because she wasn’t hiding IN the town of Morthal, but rather beyond the edge of town…In her own grave. Unfortunately, she wasn’t alone, as there was a Breton woman there with a shovel. And a sword, for that matter. Meeko immediately began to snarl and bark, hackles rising. It wasn’t until the woman raised a hand and began to approach that I noticed her strange eyes and deathly pallor.

I’d never seen a Vampire before, but I had heard of them. Heard enough to know that I didn’t need to feel bad about putting an arrow in the undead bitch’s heart, and another in her head to make sure she was down. They claim Vampires can rise from the dead, but I’d like to see her try that trick with cold steel and solid oak in her. Either way, Helgi’s spirit revealed herself and explained what had happened.

The woman was Laelette, the wife of a local man who had supposedly vanished, abandoned the town to join the Stormcloak rebellion some time ago. It seems she had instead been turned by someone, somewhere. She had been trying to turn Helgi, and in an effort to cover her tracks she had burned down their home and killed Helgi and her Mother. On top of that, further digging and a talk with Laelette’s poor husband Thonnir indicated that she had been spending an awful lot of time with a local woman…Alva.

Things were starting to come together, but it wasn’t until I managed to sneak into Alva’s home unnoticed that I was able to verify my suspicions. Alva had a basement with a coffin, and a blood-stained journal that revealed all the truth I needed. She was a vampire, and had wanted to have Hroggar’s family murdered so she could have him for herself. Laelette had been her servant, a slave who had evidently lost her mind after being turned. She had failed to do as she was instructed, starting the fire rather than handling matters as desired, and as a result Alva had retreated to the swamp. In particular, to a hidden lair of what she called her master, a powerful vampire named Movarth.

This job has suddenly become very complicated… The Jarl is amassing a group of strong warriors to stand with me and assault the vampire lair. I’m barely away from home and I’m already hunting the Undead and solving murder mysteries…This is NOT what I had anticipated, but it truly is thrilling. I’ll join them at dawn, when we know the bloodsuckers will be contained.

I picked up a set of throwing spears and some good torches to take with. We'll burn them out if we have to, but one way or another Morthal's going to see a severe decline in neighboring Vampires from this point on...