The fire-scorched remains were pulled from the burnt smithy, charred and blackened. The townsfolk had rushed to put out the fire once it had been discovered but they were far too late. Axel had struggled through the thick smoke to see if there were any survivors but he only found the corpses of an elf and dwarf curled up on the bed together. The extremely tall, muscular human adventurer had carried them out of the skeletal remains of the building with ease.

The Mayor of the town, Tarry Golden, had identified them as Laf’aera and Jasper, two upstanding citizens of the town. He seemed troubled by something, and Axel questioned him as to what was bothering him.

“I’m concerned because Jasper was a retired adventurer. I don’t think one with his skills would die so easily to a fire. He would have sensed it, at the very least before he died, and gotten them out of the building.”

Hearing the Mayor’s words encouraged Axel to go and examine the bodies more closely. He carefully went over them, and under the layers of charred and blackened skin he found wounds that were more consistent with murder than a fire. His bushy red eyebrows furrowed in concentration as his mind moved to quickly put the facts together.

Axel waved a beefy hand to bring the mayor over, and showed him the throat wound on Jasper, and the bashed in temple on the elf. “I think these two met a violent end. Then the murderer burnt the smithy to try and hide the evidence. Do you know if they had any enemies?”

“I don’t know of any in particular, but an old adventurer like Jasper, who knows who he ran up against in his time. The only new person I have noticed around town was a young elven boy that Laf’aera had taken in yesterday. I doubt that he had a past with them though, as young as he was.”

Axel nodded as if he agreed, but he spoke with the Mayor for a while getting a clear description of the elven boy. If he should run across him on his journey, he would find out what had happened here. They had already checked out Laf’aera’s house and it was empty, no sign of the lad.

“Well, if you should find anything out, I can take a look at it. My name is Axel, and I am an adventurer. Newly arrived in this area, and going to be hunting around here for a bit. I don’t like murderers running around my new home.”

The Mayor promised that he would update the adventurer, seeing an easy person he could unload the investigation on, if it came to that. Small towns could be poisonous, but murder was rare. It was good to leave these things in the hands of someone capable, like Axel. In his shiny plate armor, he was surely a force for good in their community.