24th of Heartfire, 4E201
We got up and skipped breakfast for now, and went out to watch Alva's house. The plan was to wait until Hroggar left for work, then Marcurio would stand guard outside and keep anyone from going in while I searched the house. After what seemed like ages, Hroggar finally left. I waited for him to get out of sight, then asked Marcurio to wait outside while I went in to search the house.

The door's lock was slightly difficult to pick, but I managed. I quietly searched the main room, and didn't find anything. Then, I noticed a door at the bottom of a stairwell. I crept down the stairs, and quietly opened the door before shutting it behind me. Inside, Alva was in the middle of the room, sleeping in a coffin with no lid on it. There was blood on the floor in places, but no sign of a journal or a letter or anything. I slowly walked over to her coffin, and looked inside. There, under one of her shoulders, was the corner of a leather bound book. I slowly reached inside and took hold of it, then managed to remove it without waking her. Then I went over to the shadows to place it in my bag. She suddenly sat up, as if someone had called her name from upstairs, and ran out the door. The journal was still in my hand, so I stayed in the shadows and read through it in the dim light. She really was a vampire! And she was planning to enslave all of Morthal to use as vampire food! I had to get this journal to the Jarl. I didn't  hear Alva returning so I ran outside to get Marcurio. I ran over to tell him the news, then a dragon landed on top of the Jarl's longhouse. The journal could wait. We fought the beast, and managed to defeat it with the help of the guards. I left Marcurio near its remains to get his gold, and went to look for anyone in need of healing. Everyone was fine, but a few of the guards had gotten burned. I ran to the inn to get them one of my jars of burn salve, and passed the jar around to them. I would have healed them with a spell, but after their reactions to the wizard moving to town I didn't risk it. I let them keep the salve in case they'd need it, and went to find Marcurio.

I found him in the middle of town, and told him the good news. He was burned and asked if I had any more salve, so I took him back to the inn to get another of my jars. I helped him out by applying the salve while he ordered us a rather large breakfast. As we waited for the food to be done, I  told him about what had happened in Alva's house, and he asked about the journal. I wiped off my hands to keep from getting any salve on it, then handed it over to him to read. He laughed at one point, which I thought was strange. I was going to ask him what was so funny about vampires planning to enslave the town, but Jonna walked up with our breakfast. I cleaned off my hands and started to eat, while Marcurio finished reading. He ate some of his food between pages, and I watched his face develop more and more of a scowl. At last, when he finished, he handed the journal back with a grumble and focused on his breakfast. I put the journal away again, and finished my food.

After breakfast, I asked Marcurio if he wanted to come with me to see the Jarl. He seemed upset, and said he just wanted to stay at the inn. I reminded him about the reward in an attempt to cheer him up, but that didn't even work. I sighed and told him I'd be back soon, and made my way to the Jarl's longhouse.

The Jarl was pleased at my evidence, although the mention of Movarth had her worried. She called Alva a traitorous bitch, and said that Morthal owed me a debt. She then told me that Movarth was the name of a Master vampire that she thought had been destroyed a century ago. She made  mention of my reward for solving the crime, but asked that I do her another favor. I agreed, since this town had already seen much hardship. She said that she was going to gather together some able bodied men in town, and wanted me to lead them to Movarth's lair and clear it out. I assured her that I would, and hurried back to the inn to get my gear and to see if Marcurio would come with me.

He would, thankfully. We hurried to get our gear together and our armor on, and we went out to lead the men the Jarl had gotten together. Though, outside, we found out that she'd been a tad misleading about the able bodied part. She'd gotten the townsfolk in town together to help us. I sighed, since I didn't have armor or decent weapons for any of them to borrow. We all went out to the vampires' lair, which turned out to be the cave I'd seen on the way back from the marshes. No wonder there was blood outside. When they saw this, they all got scared and wanted me to go in first. Only Thonnir offered to go in with us. I thanked him for his bravery, but told him that we could handle it. I didn't want him getting killed too. He thanked me, and wished us luck, and asked us to avenge his Laelette. I promised that I would, and we waved goodbye to the retreating townspeople and crept into the cave.

In the first area, we had to fight two spiders. I wondered why they hadn't attacked the vampires. The smell in this place was terrible. A few of the thralls were processing the dead, and one was looting their bodies for spare septims. It was terrible. There were ribcages, and arms, and legs, and skulls everywhere. And so much blood. Compared to all this, my time in the shack had been clean and fresh. We found Movarth, and more thralls and vampires, around a feast table feasting. There were not very happy to see us. We managed to kill him, and one of the vampires and a few thralls, but a one of the vampires fled. We went after her, and Alva was there. I yelled with rage and attacked her for everything she'd done to Morthal. Then she and the other vampire attacked back, casting their draining spells on me in between dagger strikes from Alva, and a mace knocking into me from the other vampire. I fell to the ground, and would have been dead if not for Marcurio. He cast turn undead on them, making them run away, then hurled lighting at them until the fell. He helped me up and got me some healing potions out of my bag. I drank a few, then regained enough strength to fully heal myself. I still felt a little weak, but otherwise I was fine. I'd need to get my armor fixed soon though. Marcurio wanted to explore and look for treasure, so we did. We managed to find a rather large and ornate chest near the main room, but it was guarded by a vampire's thrall. And he was armed with a very powerful staff that hurled ice storms at us. My life was again saved my Marcurio, and I threw atronachs at the thrall until we managed to kill him. He searched his pockets, and I looked in the chest. Inside were a few septims, a beautiful silver and ruby ring, some elven weaponry, one of which was an enchanted bow, and a giant gem the size of my fist. When I picked it up, a voice came out of nowhere. It said something about a new hand touching the beacon, and that I must take it to Mount Kilkreath. There was a temple that had been defiled, and I would become the voice's champion if I cleansed it of evil Marcurio was staring at the gem like he wanted to marry it. I gave him the gold, and the ring, and the weapons. Then we went through the rest of the ruin, taking gold from the pockets of the vampires and thralls we'd killed as we went. I also took Alva's clothes, since they were very nice and I'd never seen any like them. We eventually found what seemed to be Movarth's room, and I took a book and some enchanted boots from it. At last, when we had gotten every septim and bit of loot that we could find, we made our way back to Morthal to tell the Jarl of Movarth's death.
The Jarl was asleep when we got back to Morthal, so we went ahead to the inn. Marcurio helped me out of my armor, and got my journal for me. I smiled as he went to help Jonna cook food to celebrate our defeat of the vampires. Before I knew it, my writing was mostly done, and I had some of Marcurio's cooking to enjoy. He really could cook, which made me wonder why he became a wizard instead of a chef. Everyone in town bought us drinks, but I didn't feel like waking up with a headache so I gave mine to Marcurio. When I went to bed, he asked if I was alright. I told him that I was, and told him to go and enjoy the celebrating. He could get the attention tonight all he wanted to. I just wanted to enjoy some nice sleep. Tomorrow, I was going to wash Alva's clothes and try them on. Hopefully they wouldn't look terrible on me. As I heard the celebrating in the next room, I wondered how many buckets of water it was going to take to wake Marcurio up.