So after being chased off the Plain of Cairns by lots of shambling zombies and skeletons (not to mention the henge with the wicked demonic glow), we decided to head to Oxcross to pay our respects to the Baron. It was one of those human things that we "just had to do" seeing as how we were building an inn right down the road from him (you can see what's what on the map above). I was not happy about it, but I thought maybe we could check on the Plain of Cairns in a library or ask a pointy-headed sage-type about it.
So we go to Oxcross and find out that the circus is in town. Well, not really a circus, it was more of a carnival. It was run by the Beggars. I like the Beggars. As far as humans go, they are okay in my book. Any humans that can spook other humans the way that they do has got to have something going for them.
Anyway, we decide to splurge and buy the Baron a bigass horse. Oh, he was a pretty one and I could see the draw, despite my affinity for a closer-to-the-ground pony. We set up a time to see the Baron and he was suitably impressed by our gift. We were all set to talk business when a group of people rushed in, yelling about a murder.
Well, everyone was beside themselves, like they had never seen a dead body. It wasn't like it was a murdered dwarf; just a human. No biggie as far as I was concerned. However, the murder victim was a young woman, a girl, really. That's always sad.
So we set out to solve the murder for the baron. When you ride into town for the first time and a murder just happens to occur about the same time, it is always good form to solve the murder before it gets pinned on you. So, after questioning, tracking, examining the evidence, more questioning, and following the money, we decided that the two most likely perps were part of the Beggers' carnival: The knife thrower and the animal tamer.
We went with a few of the Baron's men to arrest them and, to no one's surprise, they were waiting for us. It was a short, messy battle with knives flying through the air and an unpleasant attack by a pack of dogs and a bear. I felt real bad about killing the dogs and I took out my bad feelings on the back the animal trainer's head with the flat of my battle axe. We took both scoundrels alive.
The Baron rewarded us and I asked if his library contained any information about the Plain of Cairns. Lo and behold, we hit the jackpot. A scroll written by a Thothian mage told of a battle on the Plain and how the elves placed a protective tree of great power in the middle of a large henge. The same place that we had seen lighting up the sky with an evil glow. Apparently, the protection of the tree didn't quite work. The Baron encouraged us to check in with the Thothian mages to get more information. The closest Thothians were in Dorn, just a day's journey.
So off we went to Dorn. We made our visit to the Thothian mages and it didn't go so well. Instead of being helpful, they were furious that we possessed this information and demanded to know the source of our knowledge. We were a bit evasive, sensing possible danger for the Baron. They put more pressure on us and...
...we found ourselves drinking at the local tavern. How did we get there? What happened with the Thothians? What did they do to us? Did they learn that the Baron and his library was our source? We did a quick check and discovered that the Thothians had swiped the information we had copied from the Baron's library. Fortunately, we had made two copies.
We went to the Temple of Mitra and they discovered that our minds had been tampered with. They also explained just how illegal the Thothians' actions against were and offered to help us report it. We agreed to this but also decided that we needed to head back to Oxcross to warn the Baron that the Thothians might come poking around.