Obligatory Chase Sequence

The party fled from the Owlbear. Wounded and drained, they spent the night resting once they felt they were safe enough. Luka, however, was too wounded to participate in any fighting for a while. They spent some time healing themselves, then went back to exploring. They noticed a group of half-collapsed, rotting buildings on a river crossing across the Shrike river, and deduced that this was likely once a ferry crossing of some kind. They then kept exploring. On Desnus 9th, they found a foul-smelling mud bowl heated by a geothermal pool where large fungi were growing. Vizma identified them as Black Rattlecaps, and also noticed a Tendriculos, a giant mushroom monster, hiding in the mud. Vizma spoke to it, securing an alliance with it where Vizma would bring it meat in exchange for its eggs.

The next day, they kept exploring and encountered a Hill Giant sadly shaking an empty jug of (what was probably) booze. The party, knowing that Giants were usually evil, decided to kill it by luring it back to the Tendriculos. Artesia and Nisha caught its aggro, and the Giant tried lobbing a rock at Artesia but missed and obliterated a tree instead. The party then rode away, leading the Giant on a chase where it kept throwing (and missing) rocks at them and being pelted with arrows, bolts and magic in return. They managed to lead it quite far, but a thrown boulder eventually took out Nisha's horse, forcing the party to stop and engage the Giant in close quarters. They defeated it quite easily, and fed its body (and the dead horse) to their new Tendriculos friend. They took the giant's possessions and discovered a crudely drawn map with writing in Giant on it, which they sent back to Garrett's Rest using a Poppet. They returned to the Giant's original location and set up camp for the night.