With all our Fighters healthy and alert, Guern + dog watching outside and no sign of opposition so far, Ulf thinks it’s great if we have the two spells from Ivar and use Owlbear senses from Osvald.
As a matter of fact there is a fox lurking in the bushes - it’s been keeping a wary eye on Guern and Hamilka for a few minutes, the hunter informs you with a chuckle. The dog is loftily paying it no heed; Guern doesn’t encourage his dog to chase foxes. Ivar casts his Speak With Animals and finds the creature quite chatty:
"Oh. What? You can understand me? I didn’t think men could do that! Excuse me, but can I have a share of those after you’ve finished with them? What? You’re not going to eat them? Good. All the more for me, and I need it. There’s been not much round here to eat for a while - those things eat everything they can get at, and they can dig a whole coney-warren out of the ground if they like. I’ve seen them do it. Mind you, I took good care to get out of there when it looked like they’d scented me!
"Yes, there was a man who used to come and visit them. Sometimes they would all go off together for a sun or two, all the funnybears I mean, but they always came back. He was a thin man, he didn’t have a hard-skin like you and the other one there. Where? Oh, from further up the hill. There’s a path through the trees. Sometimes there was a funny smell from that direction if the wind was blowing right.
“Anyway, I’d like something to eat now. They’re not really ready yet, but I’m hungry enough to try!”
Toss the fox a scrap of meat if I’m carrying a lunch, thank him, and apologize but explain that we’ve left the owlbears in town. (We have, right?)
Yes, you have. “Actually, if you could just cut me a bit off one of these… you do have one of those cutting things men use, don’t you?”
(Assuming Ivar passes on the fox conversation:)
- we left the living Owlbears in Town, but the dead ones are still present :eek:
- the thin man could be the missing Wizard
- does the path lead towards where the light was seen? Would the fox show us, or has he not been up that way?
- once fed, could he describe the smell in more detail?
(Before we follow the path, we could still do a Detect Magic in the cave. However, if we’re going to look around this area, it may be better to hold the daily Owlbear transformation in case of combat…)
“Funny,” says the fox, “there *was * a bright light the other night, while the moon was out. It was only for a little while. You’ll find the path if you go up into the trees - it’s the kind that deer make. I use it sometimes. The smell was a bit like what you get after a fire, but not quite the same.”
And yes, the dead owlbears are still here - they’re far too heavy to move without a few teams of draught oxen.
(I think Osvald has offered to use one of his Detect Magic s in the cave.
Once the cave has been checked, Ulf is looking forward to going up the path. |It shouldn’t take long and since we are already here… 
He ponders the bright light and smell, then asks Ivar to describe Jorund’s Lightning* to the fox.
(*DM, I know Jorund hasn’t used his full Lightning in the adventure, but presumably we’ve all been friends long enough to have seen it…)
Okay. You Detect nothing in the cave. You probably have seen Jorund in action before the campaign started, but the most the fox can manage is “No, not like that” when you describe it. If the others agree, you can now toddle up the path.
Ulf heard about a famous Hnefetafl player who, in the middle of a game, started thinking about how to get a huge animal out of a swamp.
He ponders how to fit an Owlbear into the party…
“Where does the owlbear go in the marching order?”
“ANYWHERE IT LIKES!” 
Dave, get the Owlbear in the corner a drink, quick! 
What about the body? The owlbear that was wearing the amulet. Surely that one isn’t a normal owlbear.
Given Detect Magic didn’t reveal anything (and time has passed since the Amulet was removed), it seems impossible that it’s not just an Owlbear now.
So there are several possibilities - for example:
- some strange effect is persisting (surely only the Gods could do this)
- the Owlbear had the Amulet put on its neck for some reason and promptly killed the person who used to own it
- the owner needed to hide the Amulet, and stuck it on the Owlbear
- the Amulet is cursed (sorry, Osvald! :eek: :smack: ) and turns the wearer into an Owlbear
Ulf asks if anyone can think of anything else to do in the Cave, otherwise how about we follow the path the fox described?
We can offer Guern either a place in the marching order (he doesn’t have to fight), or he can hang back and run if trouble starts.
“We go follow Guern he lead trail . . . we fight he no need . . . Fox nice we leave him to grub.” Jorund gets out two of his hammers just in case and starts looking up to where the trail presumably starts.
Well then, at the very least we should cut out its heart and feed it to the Fox or something. I don’t want any surprises.
You would be unable to cut out the heart of something this size without access to some hefty butchering tools. You probably know how to do that kind of thing from prior experience at your settlement, though you may well have someone permanently on hand or visiting in season to cut up big carcasses like cows. But as a guess, it looks thoroughly dead and has no magic effects still running (if ever it did).
Guern prefers hanging back. The fox, now that the spell has expired, is peacefully getting on with its meal. The trail is easily found and winds through a belt of trees to an upper slope of the hill. There you find a small thatched house with a surprisingly large window built into what looks from the outside like an attic bedroom. To one side of the house there is a well.
“Maybe there be door behind . . . I look, no sneaky away from us” Jorund takes a jaunt around the house looke for possible alternative access if he finds one he’s going to call out that it is there and stand by to make sure that no one sneaks out the back when we go in through the front.
Yes, there is the usual kind of back door you’d expect. The house isn’t huge, but it’s not a hovel either. The back door is now officially staked out.
“Cursed, you say?” Osvald looks down at the necklace he’s wearing and gulps. “Delightful…” His face is now a bit paler than before.
Though I think my Detect Magic back in the Cave would HOPEFULLY have picked up the magic on myself at least. Did it? Or is the amulet itself nonmagical?
“As for the Home… Perhaps there is a key under a doormat? Oh wait! Perhaps we should try OUR Key that we found in the caves? Does that work? But what about traps! We don’t need cursed’ed things coming down on top of us.”
((As for the Owlbear Transform Ability, Osvald will save it for a dire time, as he likes being human right now. Maybe if he was surrounded or out of magic or something, but not right now.))
Osvald goes over to the Well, and looks down it, does he see anything interesting?
Note He still has an unlit lantern, and Henrik still has his pot of oil, and unlit lantern as well. Did Hendrik find any ranged weapons though in the last 24 hours in town?