A grizzly situation

Upon hearing the enraged bears roar, Janin is the first to react. He draws his mace, equips his shield, peers into the dark cave entrance and prepares to defend himself.

Moments later Hawk comes flying out of the cave, a look of fear on his face. "Bears! Big ones!!" He exclaims as he runs past everyone. Moments later, two large brown bears lumber out of the cave entrance and start taking swipes at D-Ablow, the first opponent that they meet.

The bears paws are as large as a good-sized dinner plate, and with the claws on the end and pure strength behind each blow, everybody winces each time the bears manage to hit something.

Seeing his companions bravely fighting, Hawk turns on the spot and heads straight back to the bears. He swings his long sword, with the flat of the blade facing the bears, and lands a solid blow on one of the bears head. There is a loud 'clang' and one of the bears visibly staggers and appears momentarily dazed by the blow.

Dua tries to join Hawks efforts in subduing the animals, by calling upon his innate powers to send the bears to sleep. He immediately realises though that the bears are simply too big and powerful to have their life force suppressed. Instead he summons a celestial dog.

"Come forth celestial dog, from the outer planes!" He wails, and a divine canine immediately appears and bites one of the bears on the rear.

D-Ablow slashes his talons at a bear, snaps his jaws at it and then staggers under a savage blow. Avalon, fearing for his steeds safety pulls the dinosaur away from the fight and moves to tether him a short distance away.

Hoping to give them a momentary respite, Janin invokes the name of the Silver Flame and causes a divine burst of sound near the bears. The celestial fanfare blasts through the air and tiny trickles of blood dribble from the bears ears, they maintain their attack at full fury though.

The bears of course do not seem to have any thoughts of taking prisoners, so Hawks attempt to subdue them is seen as nothing but an attack. As such one bear soon manages a couple of nasty slashes on Hawk and he crumples under the onslaught.

With bolts of magical energy from Dua, crossbow bolts from Dirk and short-sword stabs from Avalon, one of the bears eventually heaves and collapses. The second bear achieves retaliation though by bowling Avalon to the floor with a single solid swipe. The tiny Halfling falls and his dinosaur mount charges back over to protect his master.

With the pool of blood in the canyon quickly growing, the situation looks dire for both sides. Each know though that the other will fight to the death. The bear manages to get a meaty bite on D-Ablow, and the feisty reptile lets out a wild yelp before collapsing near his master.

A lucky shot from Dirk finally manages to hit the bear and bring the furious onslaught to a halt. The canyon falls eerily quite as the survivors survey the carnage and take a couple of breaths to steady themselves.

Healing potions are quickly retrieved, divine miracles from the Silver Flame are performed and Avalons Dragonmark gets used too. The heroes are soon back on their feet, but with most of their most potent healing supplies consumed.

It is soon apparent that Hawk seems to have suffered more than just physically during the fight. He states that he needs a few moments alone and heads off for a few moments of solace. When alone he feels awkward and unsure what to do, but finds himself down on one knee, offering a prayer to Balinor.

"Great Hunter, guide the spirits of these bears to their rest. They fought valiantly and bravely to the death. It should not even have been necessary had my clumsy actions not first angered them. The shame is two-fold, for not only did they die needlessly, but they beat me in fair combat and yet I live while they do not. Hear my plea for their souls and my forgiveness and I shall do my best to justify your will in future!"

Hawk then spends ten minutes of reverie, replaying the fight in his mind and admiring the pure natural strength of the bears and the ferocity with which they fought.

Back at the cave, the other heroes commence on a search. They soon find a spear, buckler, hunting knife and a magical ring that Dua declares emanates an aura of Transmutation magic. They also find a small carved passage way, about a foot wide and two foot high. The passage spirals round, upwards into the cliff above.

"Shall I head up and explore?" Enquires Gargamadua, tapping a scaly Kobold foot on the cave floor. "It seems designed for someone of my stature after all."

"Goblin-carved" remarks Dirk, and as an almost natural reflex-action turns to spit on the cave floor.

Dua, followed by Avalon ascend the stairs in the spiralling tunnel. They spot daylight after climbing only half a dozen feet, and are soon stood in a second cave, above the one that the bears inhabited.

"Looks safe!" Calls down Dua to the others gathered below. "We're in another cave; it looks to be naturally-carved, twenty foot wide, thirty-five foot long. There are three narrow cracks in the cave wall, they look eastwards out of the cliff face and you can see back along the canyon for a good way."

"Any sign of anything unusual, or something that might constitute the next symbol on the map?" Replies Janin. Dua and Avalon start to search the cave for anything that might relate. Avalon soon grows bored though and resorts to throwing stones out of the cracks in the wall, and trying to hit Hawk on the ground outside the lower cave. Hawk stops skinning the dead bears for a moment, turns and snarls at him.

"Nothing obvious here represents the next symbol on the map that I can see." Comments Dua, "unless the cave itself is supposed to be the next symbol? It's kind of similar, but I'm not totally convinced. If the cave is the next symbol, then what could the next collection of three symbols be?"

Avalon looks around himself for a moment. "Well, the only thing that I can see three of in here is the cracks in the cave wall, looking out over the canyon. Maybe you can see three of something specific, one through each slit?" Avalon then spends a while gazing out of each slit in the cave wall and tries to spot something that might represent the next symbol.