Rock Worm Study, Red as a vamp? and Philip not the same?

[Thaliur]

Spoiler below!

All your suggestions sound quite logical, and I can't find anything substantial against them.
I think it's perfectly ok to assume that the person who wrote that he'd kill himself was not Red, since Red wouldn't really have a reason to go back deeper into the mines again.
Though Red might have descended again... The door leading from the mine entrance to the deeper areas was locked from the outside, so maybe Red went up, got to that door, gave up and went back down, and maybe everything started to really go downhills when he arrived upstairs. After all, he must have left the note at the cave-in some time.
so maybe he encountered the worms and other beasts on his way down, and then decided to create the noose

I don't know if he might be a vampire. I can't find anything that really would disprove it, but it would be weird.
As far as I know, Vampires are believed to be killed by fire as well as the usual means.
I can't recall the crosses, but I believe that they're there (Now that I think about it... some of them were scattered about the floor in the incineration chamber, weren'T they?)
He might have been a vampire, but the wooden crosses might also have had another functiuon, maybe before Red arrived there (Blocking passages maybe).
Red being a vampire would explain how he survived that long, and how he managed to catch this dog creature.
The fact that there are 7 crosses might have a serious meaning. Seven is a kind of "magical" number.


I think your last statement doesn't need any discussion. Such events that Philip experienced would undoubtedly change a human being