Azen looks around more carefully now that Kalaman has declared this to be a bandit base.
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Recently is a relative term, based on the state of the food bits, it may have last been used during the Stag Lord's reign.
Azen's careful search of the building yields a coin pouch containing forty-five gold pieces tucked away in a concealed hole in one of the interior walls.
Celebeth inspects the raft or keelboat or whatever it is, especially looking for parts that have splintered or broken off that could be repaired with a simple mending cantrip (which she has).
"Y'know, I've always wanted to try boating; no time like the present, I guess."
Coming back from finding a nice stash of gold, she is distracted from telling the others about it by her sister, who seems to want to go boating.
Azen looks at the questionably functional raft, wondering if it is seaworthy... or riverworthy, whatever.
She joins Celebeth at the raft, also casting mending and touching different parts of it to improve them as much as possible.
Okay, if you're going, I'm going too.
"First we should slide it into the water and make sure it doesn't sink. And don't we need an oar or a pole or something?"
"That part I can handle." Rhiannon says putting away her sword. "I can get it into the water, anyone want to look around for a pole or something?"
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The hunter will put his keen elven sense to work in search of... a stick.
Azen sees if her traveler's any tool can turn into an oar.
Garethane searches the area for a stick or downed limb of sufficient length and girth to guide the raft across one of the two rivers. It isn't particularly difficult for him to find something suitable, but gods only know how deep the rivers are at the confluence.
Fortunately, Azen has an anytool, that by itself would not be particularly useful to the situation, but when affixed the make-shift pole found by Garethane, would make a fine oar.
While the oar is being sourced and built, Rhiannon drags the raft to the river, getting it mostly into the water. Getting it the rest of the way into either the Shrike or the Little Sellen won't be difficult once the party is ready to make use of the raft.
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With no real motivation to pick one direction over the other, the party boards the raft and crosses the Little Sellen to its eastern banks. Standing there is another structure not dissimilar to the one you have just investigated.
A careful look around and inside the building reveals that it too was a ferry station, although this one does not appear to have been frequented by bandits, or if it had been, not particularly recently.
Azen checks out the little building a little more carefully.
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Making sure to drag the raft up enough to sit securely on the bank, Rhiannon joins the investigation of the ferry station and the surrounding area.
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A more thorough investigation of the building and the surrounding grounds reveals little, beyond an old ledger tucked away in an old, nearly collapsed desk in the corner of one of the rooms.
The pages of the ledger are moldy and brittle. What little you can make out from the writings on the pages, it was a simple accounting ledger from roughly thirty years ago, when this was an operational ferry.
One entry does catch your eye - a deduction in the amount of fifty gold to Nugrah. Apparently, the Stag Lord's father had a bit of a protection racket going back then.
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"Shall we keep going East? Seems as good a direction as any, and still a good stretch of daylight left." Rhiannon asks her companions.
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"East sounds good to me"
Having decided to continue on eastward rather than cross the river north and head back in the direction of Elkmark, the party slowly moves through the low rolling hills that make up the terrain south of the Little Sellen for the remainder of the afternoon and early evening.
Little else is seen of note as nightfall approaches, nor any signs of any crossable points in the Little Sellen.
"We may as well set up camp here, then decide if we want to explore further east or work back to the crossing." Rhiannon says as the sun sets.
"Yeah, let's get some rest away from banditville and then we can keep going. I don't fancy having to double back," says Celebeth agreeably. "I'll go grab some firewood."
Garathane spends an hour our spiraling out from the campsite checking for any threats or signs of bandit activity prior to returning with some firewood.
As the others scout the area and gather firewood, Rhiannon begins setting up camp and getting an area cleared for the campfire.
Azen shrugs her shoulders and says
"I could rest, sure."
She starts fishing around in her pack for something to make a decent meal out of.
Each member of the party sets out about their given task for making camp. Garethane and Celebeth, scouting and gathering firewood - and seeing no recent signs of humanoid activity, let alone bandits, Rhiannon general area clearance a camp set up while Tove and Kalaman assist, and Azen begins preparations for the evening's meal.
The evening is pleasant enough, if a bit buggy - but nothing that maintaining a relatively close proximity to the campfire can't remedy.
The next morning arrives with a light mist that ends before you are done with breakfast. Packing up the camp you are ready to carry on for the day.
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After a decent breakfast and packing up camp, Rhiannon welcomes the light mist, she always preferred this kind of weather. "We might as well explore some more since it's still so early in the day."
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Deciding to continue eastward you ride along the Little Sellen's southern bank through the low rolling hills.
Mid-day arrives with little change in the terrain as you continue to follow the Little Sellen upriver. Finally in the mid-afternoon, there is something of note. The river takes a decided turn northward. On the far side of the river you see what appears to be a cave mouth in the side of a large, rocky hillock on the far side of the river.
Around the cave mouth are the tell-tale signs of some sort of large predator or scavenger - bones strew here and there and significant ruts in the earth.
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"Garathane, any idea what might be living in that cave?" Rhiannon asks as they look across the river. The bones definitely indicated some kind of apex predator.
Celebeth glances to her sister and says, "Garethane's hesitant, you want maybe I should sneak up and back?"
Yeah, good idea. Do you want me to cast invisibility on you, or come with? Both? We should be careful anyway though, since it might be able to smell us. Got anything that would help with that?
"Don't have any alchemical scent block on me, sorry sis," says Celebeth apologetically. "I can cast an invisibility spell too, though. We could both sneak up that way."
That's okay. The swim will get rid of most of the smell anyway.
Azen makes sure all of her perishables are in waterproof bags, then she swims across the river, waiting for her sister to join her for their scouting trip.
Celebeth swims in tandem with her sister across the river, then climbs out on the far side a little behind and squeezes out her hair before she says, "All right, ready when you are."
"Though the wet footprints might give us away, if there's light."
As the sisters prepare for the swim across the river, Rhiannon keeps a keen eye on them, covering them with her longbow. Should things go badly, she knew that Garethane could quickly transform and fly across in support.
Azen nods and then uses Prestidigitation to dry off, drying off her sister as well, before casting invisibility and moving forward to enter the cave.
(invisibility bonus)
The sisters swim across the Little Sellen under the watchful eye of of Rhiannon. Azen makes it across with relative ease, but Celebeth has a bit more difficulty, but makes it across none-the-less.
Approaching the cave-mouth you see strewn carcasses littering the area around the cave.
A dark, gaping hole yawns in the side of a large, rocky hillock. The earth in front of the cave has been trampled flat, and shattered trees and stumps bear the marks of powerful claws. Tufts of dark fur are snagged in branches, and huge feathers litter the ground.
Invisible, Azen quietly casts message and points at her friends across the river.
Owlbear she whispers.
A really big one. We are probably going to need some backup.
Then she asks Celebeth if she still wants to go forward, pulling out her bow and getting ready for an attack. Owlbears were bad news.
Might be better to get its attention from out here and not walk into the den till after it is dead. That way Rhiannon can help shoot it from where she is.
Krezzik slides quietly into the water and joins the pair on the far side, though he waits near the bank when Celebeth gestures for him to stay back.
"Big 'un," says Celebeth to Azen. "I bet this one has no trouble crossing the river. Not... sure I wanna start something with it, it could catch us trying to swim, chase down the folks on the other side before they can kill it with arrows. Definitely not just something for the two of us." She glances back at Krezzik. "Three, I guess."
Azen laughs.
Wait, wait... so we're backing down? Are you my sister, or a doppelganger? I usually have to pry you away from danger. You sure? We just walk away? ... Er, swim away?
"Look at the size of those feathers, and how high up those claw marks go on the trees," says Celebeth. "This thing is bigger than you standing on my shoulders. I think that a couple of arrows will count as a minor annoyance right before it bites our heads off!"
"We might be able to get away with sneaking in to see if we can spot it. But kill? The size of this thing... just from those tracks and claw prints... those claws are as long as my sword!"
"Besides, I could never live it down if I got you killed."
Knowing that the sisters are invisible somewhere near the cave entrance, Rhiannon keeps her bow trained on the area, concerned whether they were prepared for whatever they might face.
Azen smiles at her sister.
I love you too.
She whispers to the group
So, we vote just leave the owlbear alone. What does everyone else think? Do we think it threatens the colony or anything?
Tove glances across at Rhiannon, then back to the cave. He’s jaw tenses as she peers across the river in the midday sun. ”I don’t like this…” she whispers to the other Ulfen woman.
As Azen’s message comes through she pauses to consider. ”How much do you know about owlbears, how far do they typically roam from their nest? It might be that we can leave the creature undisturbed, at least for now, and simply make it known that our citizens need be wary of the area.”
Well, I don't know how far their range extends, and it depends on what type it is, or if it is a mated pair, perhaps with young. What I do know is that owlbears have very short tempers and are notoriously savage and aggressive.
It's a toss up. We could live and let live... if we advise people to avoid this stretch of forest, maybe there won't be any problem. If it is mated though and their numbers multiply, we might wish we had chosen differently. It's your call. Do you want us to take a look inside? There is still a risk... they might be able to smell us, although the water probably helped. But that would at least get you more information.
"Other than they're massive, and vicious as the nine hells, not much." Rhiannon replies, keeping her bowstring drawn. "But I doubt we want to leave an apex predator roaming around for too long. If the bones we can see from here is any indication, that thing is deadly."
Deciding discretion is the better part of valor, the sisters retreat from the assumed owlbear cave and return to the group.
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"Now that we know where the lair is, we can always come back later. It's not like the owlbear is just going to up and move, fitting caves like this aren't exactly a silver piece a dozen in these parts."