“Yup. This is a bear cave,” Cleatus said. His voice echoing through the dark empty cave. “No one’s home though.” The party walked into the cave slowly,, wary of anything that might be hiding. Inside the cave were numerous carcasses in various states of decay. Right in the center of the cave was the very fresh body of an elven druid.

“Obviously the work of the bear,” Cleatus said..

“No drag marks, he came into the cave on his own.” Shaynen pointed.

“Missing weapon,” Odelia grabbed the empty scabbard.

“Explains the sound we heard last night.” Haagut said. Once again assuming the Halfling appearance.

“What was he doing in the cave?” Shaynen wondered.

“Nevermind that. This is a good place to set up and wait for the bear to return.” Cleatus said. He crawled away and up a little ledge. Shaynen and Haagut followed behind him up onto the ledge. Odelia sneered and rolled her eyes at the party on the ledge and disappeared around the corner of the cave mouth instead.

The party waited for hours., killing time until Haagut gave the sign that something was coming. They all drew their weapons and waited.

Into the cave waddled a giant shaggy black bear, in its side was a glowing sword. It sniffed the air and looked straight to Shaynen atop the ledge. He smiled awkwardly and waved. The bear roared and stood up on its back legs. Cleatus yanked an arrow back and shot it into the bears thick fur. Shaynen slid down the dirt ledge, and brought down his quarterstaff hard as he could onto the bears head. Odelia came barreling around the corner with her own staff.. Haagut cast a spell over his party to protect them, but as the bear swung at Shaynen and missed it turned to Odelia and sunk its jaws into her.

Shaynen reacted quickly, seeing the blood oozing from the blade still stuck in it’s side. He swung his blade, smashing it in further and making the bear roar louder. Odelia limped backward as Cleatus and Haagut ran up, the claws of the bear swiping across her back. Cleatus shot the bear and Haagut rang his invisible bell. Odelia turned to the bear only for it to swing it’s giant paw and smacked her back into the wall unconscious..

Shaynen smacked the blade deep enough that the hilt disappeared into the fur. Haagut ran to Odelia and knelt beside her. Cleatus pulled back another arrow, he shot right through the bear’s eye. The arrowhead pierced out through the otherside.

The bear dropped and the fight was over. Haagut and Cleatus both knelt beside Odelia, Shaynen started over but stopped as his eye caught on the hilt of the blade still half stuck in the bear’s fur. He grabbed the wooden blood covered hilt and pulled it out.. The blade was illuminated as if made of glass.

Shaynen grimaced at the fresh and coagulated blood covering the blade. He cleaned it off the best he could as he walked to the elven corpse. With a murmur of apology he took the blade’s sheath off of him and put the blade back where it belonged. He approached the party as Odelia was coming around again.

“Here, you could probably make the most use of this.” Shaynen offered her the balde. She snatched it from his hands with a dirty look, though it disappeared as she looked at the blade itself.

“Thanks.” She coughed hard to cover up the word. Shaynen nodded, he turned to the bear.

“So how do we get the bear back? Do we need all the blood and do we have enough containers to carry so much blood?” He asked.

“No idea.” Odelia said as she got to her feet.

“Okay, well. We could put all the fabric and rope we have together to make a tarp like thing and drag it.” Shaynen suggested.

“Works for me.” Odelia said She dug through her bag and tossed out a bedroll and rope. Haagut donated his and Shaynen pulled his own out as well as the bloody scraps that had been his shirt.. Using a bear’s tooth for a needle he hemmed together the rolls and rags. Looping the rope around the edges until he’s created a nice enough looking tarp that together the party was able to roll the carcass onto.

“A’ight let’s move out.” Odelia said. She stopped at the cave mouth, it was pitch black outside. “Or not. It’s night now.” She turned swiftly and walked back into the cave.

“I’ll take first watch,” Cleatus said as he pulled out a shovel,

“”I’ll do both first and second.” Shaynen said.

“Third.” Haagut called.

“Whatever” Odelia fell to the ground. Haagut made a little hole to sleep in. Shaynen turned to Cleatus who was already out the opening. He caught up to where Cleatus was digging a little grave at the base of the tree. Shaynen didn’t say anything, Instead he disappeared into the cave again. When Cleatus finished and stepped out of the grave he looked up to the cave where Shaynen came out again, holding the dead elf.

“Are you okay?” Cleatus asked. Shaynen shrugged.

“ ‘s a little awkward,” he said quietly. Cleatus stepped aside and Shaynen lowered the body into the grave. Cleatus filled it in and Shaynen vanished into the trees. Returning with his bag full of smooth round stones and a little flowering plant in his hands..

“We better hurry this up,” Haagut said. Shaynen looked up from beside him. The two of them were pushing the bear while Cleatus and Odelia pulled.

“Scavengers,” Haagut jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.

“What?” Yelled Cleatus, he looked back and saw the trail of scavenging predators that were following. “Can ya’ll do something about that?” Haagut stopped pushing, falling slightly behind as the parties pace didn’t change. He was barely able to lift his arms from moving the bear for nearly a full day. Still he brought up his hands as a pack of wolves began advancing. He conjured a burst of fire that drove them back. He went back to the bear and helped push.

Together the party dragged the bear back to the man with the map. When he saw them he stood up in shock.

“I thought you guys weren’t coming back!” He called. “You’ve been gone for days! Oh shit, that is a huge bear.”

“Yeah. This is what took us so long.” Odelia snapped. She dragged it to the edge of the map and stumbled to the side holding the small of her back. Her joints popped loudly as she stood straight.

“This is great! Uh. Can you get it into the center?” The man asked. The party walked around the bear and looked at the map. Odelia dropped to the ground and rested against a tree with a heavy groan. Cleatus walked around the bear and Haagut just threw up his hands and stepped back. Shaynen rested his fists on his hips. Cleatus stood on the opposite side of the bear, stroking the fur of his face.

“Odelia,” He said as he turned around. Odelia groaned again. Shaynen shifted to cross his arms and paused. Little disjointed memories of how much harder he’d been able to hit with the astral arms he’d manifested which stood to reason that they would be stronger.

Shaynen stepped closer to the bear carcass as Cleatus tried to direct Odelia how to lift the bear up and into the center of the map. He moved to pantomime picking the bear up. His head started to feel flighty, like he was half-asleep. The golden outlined arms reached out and appeared underneath the bear. Shaynen lifted the bear up over his head without touching it at all. While he felt no tension in his physical muscles, he did feel the strain in his temples. He crept to the edge of the map and threw the bear to the circle’s center.

It landed with a thud loud enough to draw the party’s attention to Shaynen as he stumbled backwards. A pounding migraine in his head and his heart vibrating instead of beating.

“Oh, damn Shaynen!” Cleatus snapped.

“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” Odelia yelled. Shaynen sat up, seeing double and swaying.

“The world is spinning,” He said simply.

“Why don’t you lay down?” Haagut suggested. “Why don’t we all take a minute to relax while…” Haagut held out his hand to the man realizing they hadn’t ever gotten his name.

“Edwin,” The man filled in the gap.

“Right. Edwin does his ritual.” Haagut nodded. The party didn’t need more persuasion then that and settled in while Edwin performed magic.