I just finished the Laid to Rest quest in Morthal and found something very strange inside of the vampire cave. After killing the main vampire I explored the rest of the cave and came across a vampire enemy fighting Alva for some strange reason. It took a few tries (as she's very weak) but I managed to save her and she didn't seem to have anything special to say. At that point I tried killing her (as she wasn't aggressive) and it counted as murder despite how she's an evil vampire.

Is this just a strange bug or is it intended for some reason? I found it odd that after finding her journal no one seemed to be concerned about her (despite how she was still alive).

I dont know if this will help because i just recently got the journal then decided to just explore, but when I went in Alva's house to retrieve the journal she was in there. When I went in she attacked me so I killed her there... It did not count as a murder when i killed her in her house...

probably a bug. I killed her as part of the quest (she was sleeping and went hostile when I tried to get her journal) and she stayed dead.

If she catches you in her house when you take the journal she becomes hostile. If you take the journal without seeing her she flees to that vampire cave since the townsfolk would have killed her I guess. In that cave she's actually non-hostile to you, probably smart considering I massacred her entire vampire coven before I found her. Did you get a bounty for killing her? That sounds like it shouldn't happen, she should stop being flagged as part of Morthal once the diary is found. Maybe a patch will fix it who knows...

Can't remember if I got a bounty or not, I quickloaded after "murdering" her and let the vampire kill her instead. The strangest thing is that the other vampires were considered hostile to her, it has to be a bug.

I think it's a bug too.

I got her journal without waking her (did the quest twice, once she was there but I sneaked past, the next time she wasn't there and I just got the journal). Then in the cave she gets attacked by the master vampire.

Was quite disappointed when it happened, I thought there'd be more to the story like she somehow changed her mind or something, but then I realised it's a bug :/

Talking about bugs, I hope they look into the Sinding bug (Falkreath werewolf/Hircine quest) as well. I did the quest and skinned him and after a while he was walking around on a main road from Riverwood to Whiterun and saying generic NPC things... Not game breaking but kind of takes away from the immersion.

I had that problem with Alva too, after a while she even went back to Markath. I was pretty surprised when I went into the Inn later on and she was just there chilling in a chair with no dialogue option. Definetely a bug.

Any good tips for killing that main vampire? My level 7 mage has just been looking at loading screen five times - that red health drain spell he casts kills me in a few seconds, before neither me nor my Flame Atronach can manage to do much damage to him. And I'm only playing on medium difficulty.
Right now I'm tempted to just give up for now and come back much later.

Unfortunately I'm a level 30+ ranger, there's not much I can tell you that would be of use :/

I've temporarily benched my mage anyway - after dying one last time in about one second flat to that health drain spell - to try out a sneaky archer character. Either or both of them will eventually get their revenge on that damn vampire lord .

She was there for me too, I got her book and legged it out the town, then when I went to destroy the Master Vampire she was there so she helped me take him out.

I didn't know much about the quest or anything about the journal, went into her house figuring it was daytime and she should be out and about with the rest of the gentle towns folk. Might be a few coins or interesting things lying around that she is not terribly attached to. Went downstairs and before I could do or say anything, my follower rushes past me and gives Alva one good whack with her flaming battleaxe and that was the end of Alva.

Alva has to be one of my favorite characters in all of Skyrim. Why? Because she recognizes your race.

What do I mean? Well, take for example almost all of the other instances where race is questioned. Are you a redguard woman? The the alhikir will ignore you anyway asking if you've seen a redguard woman. That kind of thing.

Are you a vampire? Alva will come right out and say "I know what you are, and this town belongs to us." And I love that. Just had to throw that in there.

She was non-hostile to me in the vampire cave, too. I did get a bounty for killing her, but it went away when she was dead since she was the only witness. The perfect crime!

I loved this on my first playthrough. Second one I was using Dead Thrall, and she had absolutely zero unique dialogue throughout the entire quest. Only the usual 'get away from me' comments. Really ruins it. Sure, don't use dead thrall, but for people who don't know she has anything special to say, they miss out on something special. Design fail.

It's a known bug. Alva belongs to a 'neutral' faction so that when she's in town guards and the rest of the population will not attack her. Upon spawning in the dungeon, though, her faction is not changed so that vampires will treat her as an enemy.

as I understand it she's part of the quest chain for the town... maybe she just made herself a problem too early for you? this is a quest I haven't done on any characters yet, I guess I have a mission now.

thanks.