Hour 24: The Vampire's Den

Ralsa directs me to see Seridur, who says he is the leader of a group of vampire-hunters called the Order of Virtuous Blood. I have a hunch he's.not all he seems to be, though, so after he asks me to kill a vampire for him I sneak back and break into his room to snoop around. I find no proof of anything untoward, except for some spell scrolls on his desk that appear to be for damaging spells, and a book about Daedra - perhaps a bit odd. However, he bursts into the room and whines at me "YOU'RE not supposed to BE in here!" in a very aggressive manner, which makes me even more suspicious.

Upon reaching my mark, the hapless fellow (it's Roland Jenseric! I broke into his cabin in Hour 3!) explains to me that he is a victim of Seridur's, who is actually a vampire using vampire-hunting as a cover, and who murdered his lover. The fiend! Seridur and his stupid hair will pay dearly.

After gathering some clues. I head to a cave where I believe Seridur to be hiding.

I don't like the look of it one bit. It seems to be full of an eerie glowing mist. It's also infested with vampires. They are powerful adversaries and I die at one point in the cave. However, with careful progression I manage to avoid taking on more than one vampire at a time, and one-on-one they're not much of a threat. Some of the more powerful vampires cast multiple spells, including heal, lightning, and summon ghost, which makes them quite a pain to destroy. For the most part, though, the 'zombie + cold touch' method works well against them. Being able to summon creatures themselves, you would think they'd know to ignore my zombie and go straight for me, but no. Their idiocy is a bit annoying, really.

At one point in he cave I encounter a Timber Wolf. Unlike the normal wolves in Oblivion, these things are large and actually look ferocious. I wish all the wolves looked like them.

Just before I reach Seridur, there is a disturbing fenced-off area with corpses suspended from the ceiling and on the floor:

It's especially noticeable because as you go up to it there is an increasingly loud buzzing of flies noise, which makes it all the more horrible. I haven't noticed anything like this is any caves before, so if it's just added for this side-quest that's a nice touch.

Seridur falls easily, and I return to the Imperial City to sell off my looted items, making a tidy profit.