The stars shone like glittering gems in the blackness of the night sky. A pleasant backdrop for the half-moon above. The party sat round a campfire; their bodies illuminated by the flickering orange light of the flames. As they quietly ate at their rations, Alydrezea gazed up at the stars and Boris focused on his meal. Grukk, however, kept stealing glances at Kara. The only human of the group was barely eating, and she hadn’t spoken a word since passing by that Rajan caravan yesterday. The half orc kept his gaze upon her, light blue eyes reflecting the flames of their camp.

“You’re staring.” Kara stated flatly, not even looking back at her companion. That kind of perception was a bit unnerving for most. Grukk tensed up a bit from embarrassment. “I-I apologize. It’s just…well, you seem a bit off today. Is everything alright?”
“Sure.” The thief kept up her flat tone, no inflections in her words. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
Grukk could not help but notice; something was off. Kara was never this quiet with them, even though they had only known each other for ten and a half days. The fighter’s baritone voice spoke softly, as if consoling a child. “You are acting different. I’m simply curious about what’s on your mind.”
The thief finally turned her figure to face the warrior’s, her hazel eyes as sharp as the bolts of her crossbow. “And what do you think is on my mind?”
“That’s an odd question….”
“Stop beating around the bush, solider boy. You want to know what’s on my mind, but you think you already know. Right?” The insight she possessed was doubly unnerving. Still, Grukk felt he should give her an answer.
“You avoided those Rajan sell-swords on the road like your life depended on it. Are you a wanted woman in that desert land?”
Kara was silent for three beats of a heart, “What if I am? Does that trouble you?”
“Well, not exactly. Technically we are all criminals here.”
“Not me!” Alydrezea piped up. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Jailbreaking is a crime, bright eyes.” Kara sighed, and the drow frowned. “I was rescuing my friend.”
The Rajan woman was about to clarify, but she stopped as she spied Boris lightly shaking his bull head. Kara relented, she had known dwarves less stubborn than that little druid. She turned her attentions back to Grukk. “I just have some small debts back there, that’s all.”
That answer only made the half orc more confused. “If that is all, then why were you so nervous around that caravan from yesterday?”
“Because…because debts are taken very seriously in Raja. Have you ever been there?” The solider shook his head, and Kara continued, “Then you have no idea what it’s like. Sending out debt collectors isn’t uncommon.”
“You think you’re being hunted?” Grukk asked, wanting to know more. He had no proof, but he could not shake the feeling that Kara was hiding something.
“Truthfully? I have no idea. But, I would rather not take any chances.” Her story made sense, and though that feeling of suspicion still nagged at Grukk, the rune knight relented.
Kara rubbed a gold coin with her thumb

Alydrezea’s frown grew longer, “Well, you can always count on our protection! You’ve got me, Grukk, and Boris! Not to mention the Stars are always watching over us.” The dark elf beamed with confidence.
The Rajan woman looked up into the night sky, “Any chance they can send down a bunch of gold? That would clear up my problems just fine.”
“That’s not how the stars work, stupid!” The druid pouted in frustration, crossing her arms and leaning her back against her large minotaur friend as if he were a tree to rest against. Grukk smiled at the display. “Boris.” The buffalo brute lifted up his head from the fire to meet Grukk’s eyes. “What would you do, if you knew you were being hunted?”
“….Hunt them back.” Kara shook her head at her brutish companion’s gruff response. “Somehow I knew you would say something like that.”

As Grukk and Alydrezea laughed at the exchange, Kara held up her hand. Everyone went quiet and perked their heads up. Their eyes all scanned the red and dusty flatlands around them. The only ones who could see well in the dark were Alydrezea and Grukk, and the dark elf spotted something move in the shadows west of their camp. “Over there!” The party quickly moved to the west side of camp, with weapons at the ready. Kara stayed back, the only one remaining on the eastern side of the campfire. The druid moved closer to inspect the creature, it was only about forty feet from camp. Boris went with her, much to Kara’s hissing protests.
“What are you two doing?!”
“It’s just an animal. I think it’s a bear.” The drow made a gesture for everyone to wait for her to move. “I can take care of this; we don’t have to kill it.” Kara grumbled at the druid’s insistence, and she could barely see the figures of her two companions as they were just on the edge of the campfire’s light.
Now closer to the large creatures, the druid reached out her soft hands to touch it. “High there big buy. Easy now…I’m not going to hurt you. Are you alright? Let me-“ she stopped, and her body tensed up.
Grukk and Kara could see it, the creature was standing up. Up and up it went, standing on hind legs like a bear. It’s body thick and powerfully built, with long arms that ended in razor sharp claws. It stood so tall, that it’s head and neck were visible over the horned head of Boris. This made the monstrosity an easy nine and half feet tall. The creature had a round face, covered in thick layers of feathers with a pale face and huge round eyes. The center of the circular face ended in a sharp, curved beak. It gazed at minotaur and dark elf with hostile, hungry eyes.

“Owlbear!” Alydrezea called out, alerting the rest of the camp. The hungry hybrid monster was bearing down on the druid, but Boris acted faster. He shouldered checked his druidic companion out of harm’s way, taking the owlbear’s claws in his right shoulder. In a flash his arms were forced against the sides of his body, his cloven hooves left the ground as he was lifted. The monster had him in a crushing bear hug. He tried to break free, but the monster was stronger than him, and Boris was trapped. The owlbear began to squeeze tighter and sank its large, sharp beak into the minotaur’s shoulder. Boris let out a scream, part anger and part pain as blood squirted out from the fresh wound. Kara acted quickly, loading a bolt into her crossboy and firing off. Humans can’t see too well in the dark, and the bolt went flying passed her intended target. “Shit!” She cursed under her breath, and her target was illuminated by soft starlight. A constellation formed on Alydrezea’s skin and shadow. The drow’s pale eyes were glaring angrily at the owlbear. The stars on and above her formed a simple looking chalice. He moved her hands and spoke the elvish words for fire and moon. Silvery magic flowed around her hands, and several seeds of some unknown plant glowed with this eldritch light. “Let go of him!” She shouted, and the seeds stuck into the ground around the owlbear’s large feet. A beam of bright moonlight shined down on the monstrosity, engulfing its bulky form in ghostly white flames. The creature screeched in pain as parts of its feathery body burned, but still, it did not release Boris. Grukk moved to get closer, but he wouldn’t make it in time. The owlbear took another bite at Boris, tearing more flesh from the minotaur’s bulk even as the ghostly white flames still burned its own body. Boris felt the rage bubbling up within him once more. His whole body ached and throbbed, his muscles seemed to grow larger and with all of his might he broke free of the owlbear’s grasp. Fueld by his barbarian rage, he swung his iron glaive to the right, cutting into the large monster’s exposed underbelly. The creature’s body was protected by powerful muscle, but something about the cut felt strange to Boris.
“Boris! Are you alright?!” Alydrezea asked, her anger replaced with worry. She lowered her hands, and the beam of magical moonlight faded away into the dark of night. She placed her hands upon the bleeding wounds of her large friend, and spoke a soft elvish chant. The starlight from her Chalice constellation poured out along her arms and into Boris. His bleeding stopped, and the two wounds he received at the end of the owlbear’s sharp beak closed. As the ghostly fire receded, the owlbear chirped and screeched from the pain. It let out a fresh cry of pain, as Grukk sank the blade of his claymore into the creature’s flesh. The rune-knight’s blue eyes narrowed as he felt something strange from the cut. The owlbear turned to swipe at Grukk. His armor of overlapping steel scales protected him from the rending tear of the monster’s claws, but the sheer force of the blow to his chest still caused some damage. The owlbear reared up and let out a powerful shriek, it was so loud and painful that the three adventurers around it dropped their weapons, covered their ears and gritted their teeth in pain. The supersonic scream of this brutish beast was cut short as a bolt from a crossbow sank into its left eye. With a heavy thud, it fell back onto all four paws, screeching and pawing at its face to get the bolt out of its eyes as blood streamed down the left side of its face, dripping crimson from its beak. Before the beast could turn to run away, Boris sank the biting edge of his glaive into the top of the creature’s head, cracking its skull. It stumbled for a moment, and fell lifeless to the ground with a heavy thud.

“Is it dead?” Kara asked, cautiously approaching the corpse. Boris took several deep breaths, his rage fading. “Yes. Another good kill.”
“Are you alright?” Alydrezea asked once more, watching her companion roll each thick shoulder to test the injuries. “I’m fine. Thank you, you stopped the worst of it.” The drow let out a relieved sigh, and hugged Boris’ larger frame. “I’ve had enough hugs for one night.” The minotaur grunted.
“Don’t care!” The drow retorted, she did not let go until Boris pushed her aside by the top of her head and inspected the owlbear corpse with Grukk.
The half orc seemed troubled, “You noticed it too?” Grukk nodded at Boris’ question.
“The cuts didn’t feel right. Something this big should be harder to cut through, even with a sharp blade.”
Boris nodded in agreement with Grukk, and their inspection was interrupted by Kara. “What the hell is this thing?”
“An Owlbear.” The druid answered, “They’re….well, part bear and part owl. Really nasty predators.”
“Are they always that aggressive?” Kara asked, looking the body over but not wanting to get close to it.
“They can be, but this one was weird. It acted almost like pain didn’t bother it. At least, not as much as it should have. Can I see the body?”
“Hey, I wanna get a good look at it too. Bring it to the fire, boys.” As Kara requested, Boris and Grukk dragged the bulk of the dead owlbear to the campfire. Now well illuminated, they examined the corpse. The druid frowned at what she saw.
“This thing looks small…”
“Small?” Kara repeated in astonishment. “That thing was almost as tall as the ogres!”
“Not what I meant. Look, it’s too scrawny. It must have been starving.” The druid’s words had hints of confusion in them.
“That explains why my strikes felt off. This creature doesn’t have nearly as much fat on it as it should.” Grukk thought out loud. “But don’t animals starve all the time?”
“Well, yeah…” Alydrezea’s tone was still one of confusion. “But owlbears are really good hunters and scavengers. I haven’t seen many but none of them looked like this one.”
“It’s wounded.” The deep gruffness of Boris’ voice cut the conversation. Kara scoffed with a smirk, “Well, you did light it on fire and shove a blade through its head.”
The minotaur shook his head. “Not that. Look.” His rough and calloused hand brushed aside black fur and spotted feathers to reveal the skin underneath had dozens of scars. All over the back and haunches of the owlbear. Boris ran his fingers over the scars and spied some light liquid blood glisten on his fingertips. “Some of these are still fresh. But they’re not very deep.”
Kara looked over the strange scars and spoke with confidence. “They look like flogging marks. It was whipped and whipped often.”
“How can you tell?” Grukk asked, and Kara just shrugged. “I’ve seen a lot.”
“Look at the neck.” Grukk continued. “The feathers on the center of the neck are all faded or gone. Like it was wearing a collar.”
“Are you saying this was somebodies’ pet?!” The thief asked in disbelief.
“I can’t tell for sure, but that is what it looks like.” The rune knight stated, and Boris used a hatchet to hack off an owlbear claw and used a knife to gouge out an owlbear eye. His large fingers were surprisingly dexterous when stripping an animal carcass.
Kara dry heaved. “Why are you doing that?”
“The claw is a trophy. Drezea says that owlbear eyes are used in potions. I would take more, but there isn’t much good meat on this beast.”
“And we can always sell it.” Grukk added on as Kara retreated to her new tent. “I’m going to bed.”

The next morning, after camp was packed up, Grukk looked over the map. He was leading the march down the road today. “We should reach the gates of the Obsidian Pass by mid-day tomorrow.” He called out to the rest of the party. “We should be crossing the Dawi River soon.” As they marched further south, the sound of running water could easily be heard and the river was within sight. It was a river that flowed into the sea, but the water this far inland was fresh. The riverbed was fifteen feet wide and over ten feet deep, the rushing faint roar was a nice backdrop to the usual silence. The river had thick riparian vegetation; large shrubs and cattails growing thick along its banks. There was a stone bridge that crossed over the river, and as the others headed to the bridge, Kara stopped. She was looking down on the dirt roads. She spied a set of boot-prints she did not recognize. They weren’t hers or Grukk’s. Alydrezea wore no shoes and Boris had cloven hooves. Her attention was snatched up off the ground as she heard a loud splash from the river. Grukk had fallen into the running waters.