Session 6

> "*Man, fuck bears. Now I know what I'm afraid of..."* - **Vay after nearly dying**
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## Oh It's Unbearable

### Location(s)

* Val Royeaux
* Forests near Val Foret

### Characters

BalbusCaspar

Kynedrin

Saidra

Vay

**After a tense and madness-filled day, the group relaxes upon reuniting with Balbus and going to sleep. The next day, they begin to chase down leads on the Great White Bear they had read about in the Chantry Board. Talking to Lady Sennoya once more, they find the locations of the Grey Warden, the Elven musician as well as the story behind the Bear attacks. Seeing an old figure being escorted to the White Spire, they begin to ask around town, eventually learning of a survivor of a caravan attack. Hoping for a nice easy kill, as well as earning favour in the capital, it is anything but as the next two days prove tumultuous and chaotic.**

## Session

### The Bear Hunt

Setting out in the afternoon, now understanding the threat that these bears represent to travellers, they make solid headway for the next few hours before making camp. Setting up shop in the trees that line the highway, not wanting to be an obvious target, they settle down with some food and put up tents. Vay takes point up in the treeline, scouting out ahead, though he eventually falls asleep. Caspar takes watch, then Saidra, before Balbus detects something in the treeline: a pair of eyes that were bright even from this distance. Waking up Vay to have him look, he lights a stick and begins to slowly approach whatever it is. Soon very aware of how far away from the camp he would be, he calls out to everybody to wake up. As he does, the visage disappears out of sight into the treeline. Informing the rest of what they had seen, they leave Kynedrin to take watch before morning comes.

Unsettled by this fact, they continue on their path towards Val Foret. Vay stays on the other side of the trees, being more keen than ever to keep a good eye out.

The morning carries on, with it taking until the early afternoon for them to see something out of the ordinary. While the road itself seems to be pretty uneventful, a few traders and travelling parties, the distinct grooves off of the side drew their attention. As Caspar and Vay form a perimeter, the other members begin to follow the track, finding the tattered remains of a caravan wagon dashed on the ground. Any trace of items have been picked clean, and the fact it had been removed from the road concerns a few of them.

Seeing some tracks on the ground, it begins to settle in just how large the creature they were hunting appears to be. While a normal person would be able to stand in a bears paw print, the size of the prints dwarf even those. A keen eye and check from Balbus notes that they aren't alone - there are other tracks among those of the bear. Whether it was a regular hunting path, there were other bears, or the bear was part of something larger, they didn't know.

They continue to follow up the path, and after some time come across a clearing into an area of rough plains woodlands, dotted by rocky outcroppings amongst some hills. Already unsure of where to go next, as the tracks began to lose their obviousness due to the presumably often travelled new terrain, they notice a huge rocky area formed from presumably landslides over the years from the hills. Hearing a large, threatening roar from somewhere in the area, they imagine it already knows they are there, and so decide to set up a defensive position within the rocks. With large boulders to their back, Kynedrin and Caspar cut down some small trees to form rough barricades, to at least bottleneck their attacker. Sticking his beloved spear into the ground as a further deterrent, Caspar takes point as the rest prepare behind him. Saidra wanders forth over the course of the next hour, noting the various forms of wildlife around, and tries, and fails, to befriend a group of Nugs.

As the evening sun begins to colour the sky, the group hear very powerful steps coming in their direction, and dread begins to set in as they hear another pair of steps accompanying it. Cresting around the rocky perimeter, they see a pair of Great Bears, the largest one white, another black, that are significantly taller than Caspar, dwarfing the rest of the party by comparison. They sniff the air, before locking eyes with the group, letting out another territorial roar.

The group looses attacks in the direction of the Great White, Balbus managing to land a Winters Grasp, and Vay sinking a pair of arrows into it, before the pair moved in unison, charging towards the Party. Not seeing the spear, the Black Bear charges into it, growling in pain as it embeds itself, before it smashes a paw into it, shattering it into various bits of wood, though the blade still remained.

The Great White made a beeline for Caspar, and over the course of a few minutes managed to deal several nasty blows to the warrior, clawing huge wounds across his front and biting into his side. The Black Bear at one point sinks its teeth into Caspar's arm, before focusing instead on Vay when he dropped from his precipice.

Saidra took up a support line, desperately attempting to keep Caspar alive as the White proceeded to more or less maul him, Kynedrin hacking away at the legs of the beast to hopefully aid the endeavour. At one point, the Nevarran cut a deep gash on the underbelly of the beast, which then reared up before attempting to crush him beneath its paws. As this goes on, Balbus is able to catch the Black Bear by surprise with a burning blast as Vay sinks a dagger into it. As he darts back, he sees the now-singed Bear focus in on him and bellow. Striking out several times as Vay tries to fell it, the Black Bear lands several horrific blows, bringing him to his knees before sinking a bite into his shoulder. Saidra rushes over and heals him, as Kynedrin throws Caspar a potion for his own wounds. Just managing to stay alive, Vay drives his blade into the creatures neck, which releases.

As this was going on, Caspar is eventually able to, after several near death situations and crippling blows, carves into the neck of the Great White, trying his best to behead the best but struggling to due to the sheer amount of muscle present. It roars out in agony, frantically trying to tear the blade away, before the life seems to sap away and it collapses. Seeing and sensing this, the Black Bear roars in an bestial rage, and mauls Vay to the ground. Nearly claiming his life, the elven rogue begins to fear this was the end before a glint out of the corner of his eye signalled his salvation. The throwing axe of Kynedrin sings through the air and buries itself into the right side of the bears skull. Howling in its own agony now, it staggers, then collapses on top of Vay.

With that, what was meant to be a simple bear hunt turned into a nearly fatal encounter. Vay lies unconscious and bleeding, Caspar just barely making it through the fight as well.