Jarl Idgrod looked up sharply as Ter'im opened the door. She motioned her guards to bar the door behind him and Ter'im felt his hackles rise at the look in her eyes.
"Well, stranger. What have you found?" She questioned sharply, giving Ter'im no doubt that she was the perfect candidate for Jarl of Morthal.
Ter'im took in a deep breath and answered, "Ter'im has found Alva to be behind the entire mess. She was sent by a Master Vampire to enslave all of Morthal, and in her plans she captured Laelette in her grasp. She turned Laelette into a vampire and Laelette became obsessed with Hroggar's child. After failing to turn the child, Laelette burned Hroggar's house and took Hroggar to be Alva's thrall. They were planning to use all of Morthal as cattle."
"Those are some strong accusations, stranger. Have you any proof?"
Ter'im handed Idgrod the journal and stepped back, watching the expressions flit across her face.
"If what you say is true, stranger, then Movarth must be dealt with. If you hurry now, you can reach his lair before the townspeople catch wind of the culprit."
Ter'im pulled his map out and marked the cave down. He noticed a guard whispering intently to another and grimaced, hurrying now to reach the cave before the people went crazy and started a mob.
As it turned out, Ter'im needn't have bothered trying to avoid the mob, as he found them gathered outside the cave. Ter'im rolled his eyes under his mask when he saw the people weren't going to do anything, pushed through the crowd and entered the cave alone.
Ter'im crouched down and pulled out his bow, notching a steel arrow back. He heard the creepy slimy noise of frostbite spiders and reacted too slowly, allowing one of the spiders time enough to poison him. He threw his bow to the side, deeming it useless for now and hacked away at the second spider. When it rattled in death, Ter'im picked his bow back up and continued on.
Deciding to take his chances with the higher path he crept along, his arm straining from the force he had on his bow. Ter'im finally came upon a ledge that overlooked a quasi throne room and spotted his first victim. He sighted and fired an arrow straight into the heart of the vampire sitting on the throne, then quickly moved out of the line of sight when the other vampires jumped to attention. Ter'im took his time in picking off the vampires, preferring to bait them into his arrows.
Once the vampires lay still in death for the second time Ter'im jumped off of the ledge and looted their bodies, vaguely feeling impressed when he noticed that he'd picked off Movarth with his first shot. He continued on into the lair, picking up anything of any remote kind of value. He turned a corner and saw a vampire and her fledgling feeding on a bandit. Ter'im waited until they had finished the poor soul off before killing the fledgling with an arrow between the eyes. The creator instantly looked up, alerted by the noise and advanced toward Ter'im's hiding spot.
Ter'im reached for another arrow to fire, but his hand grasped air and he cursed quietly when he realized his quiver was empty. Ter'im braced himself and cast a conjured bow spell, notching one of the arrows and firing as soon as it materialized in his hands. The arrow caught the vampire in her side, wounding her and Ter'im hurriedly fired another one into her eye socket. The arrow lodged in her brain and her dying struggled produced a spray of congealed, clotted blood.
Ter'im sat back to allow his heart to calm down and soon pushed back to his feet, avoiding the mess the vampire had made in dying. He spotted a chest lying innocently glinting in the light and quickly picked it open. In the midst of his looting, a blow landed across his side and threw him nearly across the cave.
Ter'im scrambled to his feet, words of power tingling on his lips in fright. Ter'im saw two vampires approaching and let loose with the shout, feeling the immense power reverberate through the room. Seconds after he let the shout go, Ter'im realized his mistake and threw himself under one of the beds the vampires had set up, barely missing being crushed by falling rock.
Hours later, he jogged back into town a hero, receiving a pretty chunk of gold from the Jarl. Ter'im gave into Benor's suggestion of staying one more night at the inn and Jonna accepted his gold greedily as she showed him to his room. All the while that dry cruel voice whispered in Ter'im's ears about fulfilling his contract and he waited until he could take the words no longer. Ter'im laid down that night, still fully armored and settled in to wait until Jonna was asleep. Around midnight, Ter'im heard her putter off downstairs and he heard Lurbuk muttering to himself in his room, trying desperately to rhyme up new ballads.
Ter'im unsheathed his trusty elven dagger he kept at his hip and snuck quietly across the broad main room, picking his path carefully on the old creaky boards by the dying firelight. He gently poked his head into Lurbuk's room and saw the orc had settled into bed and was on his way to sleep.
Ter'im held his breath as he crept ever closer, twitching every time he heard a noise from the inn. The voice in his head had grown steadily louder and it was all but screaming in his ears now, not even drowned out by the pounding heartbeat Ter'im was sure even Jonna heard downstairs.
Finally taking the plunge, Ter'im brought his blade along the orc's neck quietly and quickly. Lurbuk died with a gurgle and Ter'im made sure to paint the black hand mark on the wall above the rapidly cooling body. With regret in his eyes he headed out of the city and once he was quite a bit away, he imagined that he could hear the shrill screams of Jonna when she discovered Lurbuk's dead body.