The boys were pretty well beat up after going out to explore the Plain of Cairns without me. That’s what they get for insisting I go with the master mason to protect him as he scouted for possible quarry sites. Sure, send the dwarf to look for building stone. Where is the cliche in that?
In turns out that the Plain of Cairns is filled with all sorts of nastiness. Barrows sprouting up all over the place like pretty flowers growing out an elf's wazoo. We debated whether we should go make the rounds with the local rulers to the towns to the north, something we’ll need to do sooner or later. Lords, barons, counts, and what-have-you. All sorts of ranks and protocols…we dwarves just have a king and a queen and the rest of us are their drinking buddies. No need for courtesies and protocols and fancy speech, just beer me.
So, in the end we decided to head back out to the Plain of Cairns. Our goal was to check out the big henge in the middle, but we thought we’d check out the barrows along the way. The first barrow was empty but we did find some really old obsidian daggers in a pile of debris. Six daggers, in fact.
Right after that, we encountered five zombies shambling around on the plain. There were four of us. Given that our group is a mixed bag when it comes to fighting, I was none-too-giddy about being outnumbered. Durgo and the new guy, Brom, fought two of the zombies to no great effect on either side. The zombies were knocked down and the boys were trying to stomp on them with their horses. I went after the two most distant zombies and cleaved them handily, pressing home the attack as fast as I could and not worrying about defending myself.
In the meantime, Aeryon was hard-pressed to defend himself against a particularly aggressive zombie. I wheeled my pony around, headed over his way, and then split the zombie from head to crotch. While I was saving Aeryon, Durgo and Brom finally took out their zombies. Fun skirmish! Better than sitting around bowing and mindlessly saying “Yes, my lord” and “No, my lord.” Blah blah blah.
Getting my dwarven rage on, I was ready for more. Everyone else was a bit shaken and were thinking about heading back to the inn construction site. We did decide to head out to that big henge but as we approached, we could see a wicked malevolent purple glow from within the henge. The rest of the guys stopped and even I could see the foolishness of going on without knowing what we were up against. Lest you think me a wuss, I am sure that your average elf would have wet himself and fainted at the thought of it all.
We headed back to the inn, exploring another barrow along the way. This one was occupied with two human skeletons laid out on stone slabs decorated in an ancient style that had been influenced by the elves. Now, riddle me this? If you humans don’t want zombies, skeletons and all sorts of other creepy guys milling about and causing a ruckus, you should probably do a more thorough job of disposing of your dead. Ever think of adopting cremation as a regular habit?
As we arrived back to the inn construction site, we decided that we needed to head into the nearest town to find out more about the Plain of Cairns. The history of this place might provide a clue to the demonic power at the henge and all those undead ambling about.