Alpha Company wakes at Norder’s Floor & Breakfast. Breakfast consists of buttered coffee, buttered tea, and buttered butter. The party feels unenslaved, fed, and rested for the hike north by northeast where Norder suggests they will find an owlbear den. Ssatschia, who sacrificed his evening to provide security for the party, crashes in Norder’s personal chair.
The path forces the party further east than optimal into a bright and sunny clearing that barely covers the rock formation forming hills to the east. In fact, it is difficult to walk through the clearing without stepping on the rocks as Moth does, inciting several gricks to pop out and tentacle slap the party. The gricks are unable to land any beak strikes. Nala and Moth control the grick faces while Tango sneaks lethally around their flanks. Scram grasps shockingly out of melee range to carefully firebolt without igniting the forest. Snory collects death tolls and transfers the balance to Tango. Nala runs down the fleeing last grick who dies tired.
Continuing north, the party enters a burnt-out forest. Scram looks around guiltily but realizes they have not previously visited this area. Snory reckons the blanket of smoky fog is at least in part an ancient unseelie fey curse, but also contributed by the fire elemental emerging from the foul haze to kill them. Scram rationalizes that fire won’t be extinguished by more fire and switches to witch bolt. Fire or not, Nala solves all problems with the greatsword. Snory has advanced right on top of a fire spirit and gets his legs ignited. He returns bad touch for bad touch and inflicts necrotic wounds back to the spirit. Tango and Moth rake through with short swords but get touched by a considerably larger fire elemental. Scram tosses in a vitriolic sphere that cooks off the smaller spirits and does no favors for the large elemental. Tango sneaks in for the offhand kill.
Continuing north, the party follows the whimsical sound of a flute to an impossibly blue pond concealed in an overgrown thicket. Qed, the smirky half man, half goat, half flutist, seems pleased when master emulator Scram joins him in the song’s chorus. Tango wonders if maybe Qed could direct them to the owlbear den they heard so much about recently? Sure, he could do that, but first a number! Tango produces a bell and tickles the clapper in a thrilling bell solo. Whatever Scram hears he plays back in a polyphonic round. Moth hikes up his jerkin and reveals a latent and hairy talent for belly dancing. Nala digs out a couple of pitons and improvises some washboard percussing on her armored washboard abs. Snory generously moistens his hand and makes rude flapping armpit noises. Qed, inexplicably pleased by this display, allows a short rest in his glen but with a solemn warning not to drink the water. Nala wonders what’s up with the water situation, and Qed explains that the pond is a gateway to his fey kingdom. Qed directs the party ¾ miles north by north by northeast if it’s owlbears they seek.
Continuing north, the party finds a crumbled altar of ancient elven use seemingly destroyed and displaced in conflict with the fey. Moth climbs what remains of the dais. An elvish specter welcomes Moth and inquires what brings him to this sacred ground? The specter knows exactly where to find some owlbears but would appreciate the kindness of some prayer offerings first. Snory relates a catchy little generic Kelemvoric prayer suitable for any occasion that seems to satisfy the specter. It unsurprisingly directs them north.
Continuing north, the party pushes into a clearing only a few yards from a cave entrance. Snory pokes his head in and greets the nearest owlbear to estimate whether the owlbear, as a species, will be intelligent enough to reason with. The ill-tempered and aggressive owlbear appears ready, willing, and able to remove Snory’s guts for him. Moth intercedes and attempts to sooth the beast with his knowledge of handling animals. Scram evokes a mizziumed halo of Melf’s minute meteors, and Nala gets ready to evade any attacks from those giant claws. The owlbear is having none of this and moves aggressively at Moth while his owlbear family moves out of the way. Death warded Tango takes the lead brandishing his chaos bolt ring which, as it turns out, empowers him speak with the owlbears instead. Two of them settle down when they realize that unarmed Tango grocks the owlbear scene, and those two talk down the big daddy owlbear from removing Moth’s face.
The owlbear family agrees to relocate to a life of relative luxury in the well-meaning hands of Witnesses of the Worm.