Behold the Bear

In the moment's respite provided by the shifting of the flow of the battle, Hildraft cast a Greater Restoration, replacing the life force drained from him by the terrible taint of the Curst. Surya released the Heal stored in his orbiting Ioun Stone to erase some of his wounds, stemming the flow of blood, and Sack scrabbled in the Bag of Holding to retrieve a spell scroll.

As Surya renewed his assault on their foes, the half-orc invoked the scroll, releasing a Web spell which dropped straight down the tree he was in onto the owlbears below. One managed to tear free before it was properly ensnared, but the other was completely trapped. Sack dropped out of the tree, ensured which way the free monster was moving, and then circumnavigated the web in the other direction to come up behind the trapped creature. Striking from behind, he caught it completely off guard, and killed it in one blow.

Hansen recognized that support was his best contribution here, and remained at the edge of the fight, still mounted, singing his uplifting song of encouragement, boosting everyone's morale with tales of their previous heroic endeavours. Moonflame, however, courage overcoming sense, plunged in, his enchanted glaive shedding slivers of ice as he hewed manfully but futilely at the terrible beasts.

His strength restored, Hildraft hefted his holy axe once more and waded into his enemies. Its' god-granted power vaporized two in close succession.

Across the clearing, Sack used his last Teleport of the day to flip himself across and behind his second owlbear, which he slew with a similar backstab to the first. A few seconds later, Surya cut down the last one, and the battle was over.

Sack secured a claw from one as a souvenir, and then the remaining bodies were burned. The ones killed by the Axe of Glass had left no remains, only small heaps of dust, and Hildraft was duly impressed; this must be one of the powers Kord had unleashed in the Axe after the Hallows. He unpacked one of his precious amphorae of Prince Crixus' finest wine, and toasted their victory.

Hansen went back to retrieve the remaining horses, while the others searched the ruins of Lómioldor for signs of the Redeemers. They found a simple grave, topped with a cairn, near the edge of the ruins. After a while, Sack noticed a small set of fresh-looking scratches on the crumbling wall, and recognized them as the eymbol of Aderra, sponsoring goddess of the Redeemers. With considerable caution, he extracted the brick, and discovered a small, hastily-drawn map behind it.

This showed a location about three miles away, and seemed to indicate caves of some sort. It was their only lead, so, after replacing it behind the brick, Sack took point as the party's wilderness expert and led them into the forest.

An hour later, they realized they'd gone completely the wrong way, and Hildraft nearly got lynched for saying he'd thought it was the wrong way at the time.. A bit more discussion, and they worked out where they'd gone wrong and retraced their steps. Finally, they reached the bottom of a low hill on the edge of the forest and saw the caves in question above them.

As they approached, sentries became apparent, two in cover along the approach, and one above the cave mouth. One of these came to meet them, and after ascertaining they were not monsters brought them into the cave to meet the Redeemer field team.

There were three full members of the Redeemers present; Blaunchard, a druid and group leader, an older, wiser man with a deep empathy for the natural world; Sigvaldi, the wilderness expert, a weatherbeaten and experienced ranger without whom they would not have survived the owlbear attack; and Yakov, a short, wiry dark man, with a haunted expression, never quite still, a specialist in the dark magic used by the Dragon to create the Desolation. They had five guards with them; the sixth was slain when the owlbears attacked and was buried at Lómioldor.

Once introductions were over, Sack - with help from his friends - explained what he wanted from the druid, and mentioned his personal involvement in the cleansing of the River Vileflow, as well as the party's despatching of the owlbears. Blaunchard took him and Billy aside, and - using Speak with Animals - spoke to the bear, asking him whether he was in agreement with the gift of awareness that Sack wished him to receive, and whether the half-orc had been a true friend to him. The answers were satisfactory, and Blaunchard announced that he would hold the ritual that night at midnight.

While this was happening, Surya and Hildraft went to speak to Yakov, who was at first disbelieving and then awestruck that they were the Dragonslayers. He questioned them intensely about Varkar's use of magig during the climactic battle, and seemed rather disapointed that the Dark Beast had died without showing them any of his arcane powers. "Everyone remembers the Dragon for his size and might and fire and cunning," he said, "but his power as a mage is always underestimated. How much power did it take to create this?" he concluded, a wave of one thin arm encompassing the Desolation. Hildraft and Surya were left with the distinct impression that this man was deeply fascinated by the dark arts of the Dragon's magic, and had to remind himself from time to time that it was the enemy.

With great ceremony and dignity, Blaunchard invoked the ritual of Awakening, weaving Sack into the magical flows so that he could himself grant the gift of awareness to his friend. With a peculiar internal surge it was done, and Billy lifted his head to look at the half-orc for the first time with the light of intelligence in his eyes.

With awareness came language, and Billy was able to speak now, although with a slightly strange phrasing due to his jaws and fangs. The success of the ritual was the signal for celebration, and a party commenced that lasted well into the night.