Just witnessed first hand why people are so mad about the random vampire attacks in cities. I was at dragonsreach, clearing out my old saves, and then headed over to warmaiden's to upgrade some swords. Lo and behold, vampires had slaughtered belethor, the two owners of warmaiden's, and several locals, all with no earning to the player. Since I had no earlier saves, I desperately tried reloading and sprinting to save them, but, alas, whiterun lost half its purpose in 40 seconds. There was nothing I could do. The only positive thing I could take away was that it strengthened my character's (I'm actually RP for the first time) hate of the vampires. [censored] random attacks, [censored] vampires

I'm trying to cut down on this by traveling to the stables or other nearby locations, and then waiting until morning before going in cities. I've only lost an Orc chieftain so far, I plan on keeping it that way.