Dampyr #172 (2014) pages 22-23: Professor Exposition speaks

Occasionally Harlan embarks upon a vampire hunt without any on-page exposition to give him the assignment. More commonly he's informed of some situation by the angel Caleb Lost, or by Professor Hans Milius. This time Hans has sent Harlan to the hospital bed of a convalescing Italian historian who serves the expository role:

“Please, gentlemen. You cannot stay more than a quarter of an hour. The professor must avoid any kind of exertion.”

“Okay, doctor. Thank you.” (Doctors don't generally show visitors to a hospital room. That would be a nurse's duty, or self-service. But maybe the doctor already happened to be there, checking on his patient.)

“Good old Hans... I knew I could count on him. You must be Harlan, right?”

“Yes, and this is Kurjak. You can trust us implicitly, Professor Palmieri.”

“Good! Besides, I have no other choice.”

“If you feel up to it, tell us precisely what happened to you. We don't have much time.”

“Yes, agreed.”

“One night about a year ago, I went to San Martino al Cimino, a village about ten kilometers from here. As you know, I am a university history professor. I am writing a book on Olimpia Maidalchini, an important figure in Rome in the seventeenth century. Together with two assistants I was there to analyze her estates... in secret, I must admit. But it had been impossible for me to obtain the necessary permits, and a true scholar does not back down from anything. The aim was to clarify some events in her life which remain obscure. Studying her estates, I immediately found something rather interesting…”

San Martino al Cimino is a mountaintop walled village in the province of Viterbo. Olimpia Maidalchini's palace there was formerly a monastery and more recently an orphanage.