Entry 26: Heartfire 20, 3E433

Having recovered the Draconian Madstone, I returned to Bruma and checked into the Jerall View Inn. After much needed sleep, I returned to the castle. I must admit that I was tempted to keep the Draconian Madstone for myself, for the magical properties alone would aid me greatly in my crusade against the undead minions of the night.

But I am a man of my word so I turned over the amulet. Countess Carvain was thrilled to finally have the artifact in her hands. In return, the countess awarded me with a magical ring. Although it had some nice properties, the Madstone was far better. Although sacrifice is a way of life for heroes, I still felt cheated.

Afterwards, I overheard a rumor in one of Bruma’s shops that a vampire hunter had slain a vampire here within the city walls. As this matter demanded my attention, I decided to investigate this claim. My lingering hope was that somehow…someway…my sister might just be involved.

So, I went to the Lirrian home where I spoke with the lead investigator. I expressed my interest in the matter and slipped him a stipend of gold to gain his trust. He spoke quietly to me about the facts of the case, which sounded fairly convincing.

However, the widow was distraught over the loss of her husband and she vehemently refused to believe that the man she slept with was a vampire. I agreed to begin an independent investigation into the matter if only to ease the mind of the distraught widow.

And so I asked around town about this so called vampire hunter, Raynil Dralis, and I learned that he was lodging at the local tavern. With this new information in hand, I went to the tavern to speak with Raynil, but he wasn’t there. After slipping some gold to the proprietor of the tavern, Olav, he gave me the key to the room.

Inside, I found a journal with details of three men who had found an artifact together. Apparently, this artifact was too powerful for anyone of them to hold onto, so they locked it inside of a special chest that could only be opened with three keys. As each man hold onto a key, it suddenly became clear to me what had happened. Raynil had murdered his friends so that he could have their keys for himself.

With this new information in hand, I returned to the investigator and presented the new evidence to him. He was shocked to learn the truth behind this and he mustered the city guard to spread out and find Raynil. I knew that they would not find him, for he had probably already left town.

Within an hour, my prediction proved to be correct. Raynil was running. I quickly left the city in pursuit, finding him inside of a cave to the west of Bruma. I proceeded into the cave with a torch in hand. As the light glinted off of glass armor, I saw the face of Raynil Dralis.

Raynil was a Dark Elf. Leave it to a filthy Dunmer to commit such a heinous crime. As Raynil would not surrender, he attacked me and I was forced to kill him. With the three keys in hand, I opened the chest and retrieved a simple looking amulet.

Upon returning this amulet to the widow, she revealed what the amulet actually was. In reward for bringing her husband’s killer to justice, she gave me the magical amulet.