Rhune splashes to the surface underneath the dock, not alerting the bear to her presence. Rhune quickly and without alerting the bear struggles to get the woman's body to the surface. She has no hopes that the woman is alive, but she tries anyway.

Rhune is sadly unable to drag the body upward, not being strong enough to pull against the heavy stones holding her down. However, she solves that easily enough by pulling one of the innumerable daggers she has collected out and cutting the ropes. After a few brief dives, she has managed to free her and pull her up. Once she has the woman's head above water she waits for the bear to leave before calling out.

The bear looks longingly at Marika, then howls once more and charges at the cabin door, clawing it angrily. It then turns to the windows, clawing at them as well. For some fifteen minutes this goes on, with Marika trying to calm the beast while Rhune just tries to avoid him. Finally, the creature apparently tires of the effort and looks once at Marika. Then, it turns and shambles off into the woods.

When the bear leaves, "Marika, Jacobus. Over here, hurry. I need your help." she pushes the woman to the shore line. When the others join her, "I think that this is what the bear was trying to get you to see." she says to Marika, as they pull the woman's body up and out of the water. Rhune then clambers to the land and tenderly touches her side. She winces a little as she hits a tender spot.

Asif quite tender with his injuries eases himself outside to see what all the commotion is all about. His arm in a sling he walks over to the crowd to see the ghastly sight of the drowned women. He whispers..

"Ma yin Fash, Efendi! Ma yin Fash. She is dead" Occ - Its too late friends, its too late!

Marika had been hesitating, wondering whether she should follow the bear into the woods. Clearly, something had befallen Misha, and she might be injured and in need of help, somewhere in the forest. At the sound of Rhune's call, Marika drops this plan for now, and hurries to the water's edge to make sure her friend is all right.

"Oh merciful goddess..." The priestess groans at the grisly sight of what can only be Misha's remains. This was far too much death for one day. She helps Rhune pull the body onto dry land, and feels with no real hope for a pulse.

When the bear moves away and at Rhune's suggestion he moves over with Marika helping them to drag the body from the water. Jacobus also helps Rhune out and begins to examine the body, to discern the exact cause of death. "Hmm, this is bad, someone must of knew we were heading here." Jacobus moves away from the body and begins to look around for any clues as to the perpertrators of the attack. He will move into the woods to search for clues.

It is uncertain whether the middle-aged woman was slain by the numerous small wounds at various points on her body, drowning, or some sort of disease, as she looks terribly pale and thin. Looking closely, he sees that there are a couple of broken boards near the end of the dock, and some specks of blood. However, no footprints of any type anywhere near the dock or cabin other than your own. As the ground is soft, this seems somewhat strange.

"Hmmm. . . but how? we didn't even know we were coming here until the Captain mentioned." Rhune then strikes her thigh, "Man that got away. He must have followed along with the boat. It certain was traveling slow enough for him to do that." she looks around at the darkening wood. "Wait Jacobus. I will go with you. I am no ranger, but the woods are my home I might be able to help." she quickly crosses over to get her bow, feeling a bit more secure with it in her hands and her quiver and still dripping river water goes to join Jaobus. Just before they slip into the woods she motions for Jocobus to follow her and she goes back to Marika leaning close to her hear and whispering, "We will be gone for 1 hour and make a circle of the cabin. When we return I will say something that only you know." voice gets even lower so that the two have to listen very closly, "I will tell about the shaman groping us in the cavern. If we are not back in 1 hour then leave as quickly as you can." she says in a low voice, her tone and facical expression grim. Her deep purple eyes are fairly glowing in the fading light.

"I'll answer you by talking like Silus," says Marika. She's tempted to come along on the search for the bear, but with her injured leg -- which aches badly now from chasing the bear back and forth without her staff -- she would only slow Rhune and Ullar down.

"If the cabin door is closed when you get back, something's wrong; don't enter the clearing. If we fail to meet up for any reason, we'll meet you at Sukiskayn...or failing that, at the next new moon, on the coast five miles south of Ravenna."

Turning to Jacobus, Rhune speaks again, "Come, my friend. Let's go see what we can find out." she then heads for the woods.

Rhune nods at Marika as she heads off into the woods with Jacobus. She is not sure where Ravenna is but if necessary she will find it. Hopefully they will only be gone for the hour and no longer. She does not relish the idea of traveling with only one other person given everything that has happened so far.

"Jacobus, the bear had blood on its face. Let us see if we can find where it got that blood. If it was its dinner so much the better, but if it was something else then we best know about it." she will begin looking for tale tale signs of blood and attempt to following them.

Matteo (since he has been quiet lately) points out that the bear had blood about the ruff of it's neck, not around it's mouth. It looked much more like the creature was wounded than that it gave something else the wound.

Ullar comes out of the cabin to see what Rhune has discovered. He has seen gross sightings before, but the face of someone who has been drowned is definetly one of the most cruel ones.

"We have to get that bear here again. Without a proper farewell it might be angry for quite some time. Does anyone knows how it is called?"

Ullars face show no emotion. A cold look is in his eyes. His huge arms folded before his body he stands there, trying to keep his calm. His internal anger is rousing and should be controlled, for he can't assure the safety of anyone in his surroundings when this anger comes out.

"I'm going to search for that bear, the poor, poor creature." he says, while walking towards the place where the bear departed from view. Then he stands still, remembering something.

"Ok folks, get out of the way of that body. I'm going to call for the bear"

Ullar begins making very convincing bear noises, enough that some of you take a start, thinking the great creature has returned. He roars loudly into the forest.

Rhune is not a ranger, but she is an elf and knows how travel in the woods. She will all of her natural and learned abilities to move silently and with out being seen. She will look for anything unusual or out of the ordinary. As it gets darker she will switch to infravision, her purple eyes glowing in the darkness.

Ullar shakes his head at Rhune and Jacobus when they begin to walk past him. "I'm in no condition for chasing a bear, but perhaps you two could wait to see if it responds to my roaring before you head off...."

Rhune looks at Ullar and decides that maybe that might be best after all. Having a roaming bear that is distraught wondering the woods is not something she is prepared to deal with. "Alright, but we should do so as quickly as possible. Jacobus won't be able to see once it gets dark." she tells him

Ullar continues on for some minutes, but there is no response from the bear. Rhune and Jacobus turn and head off into the woods to check things out, remembering the code that Rhune and Marika discussed to get back in.

Jacobus looks at Rhune "I'm going for a quick scout around. I won't be long." Jacobus moves into the woods to search for anything out of the ordinary.

As several of the others head off in search of the bear, or of signs of Misha's killer, Marika turns to Urak. "You were right, my freind," she sighs. "We shouldn't have accepted Stephan's offer. We've done nothing but bring destruction crashing down on the heads of our allies. Still, we'd better continue on to Sukiskayn...if only to warn Stephan. I imagine that the killers already know our destination, and will turn up there whether or not we do."

She turns and limps toward the cabin. "Let's see what we can do for Xania," she suggests to the Urk. "It looks like she won't have much time to recuperate here."

Urak shrugs at the antics of the people and bear. Things certainly were different here than on the steppes. He returns to the cabin to cast his healing spell upon Xania. However, his relative confusion and Xania's fairly severe wounds limit the effects. She does not regain consciousness, nor do her wounds appear to improve their condition.

Meanwhile, Rhune and Jacobus head out into the woods. Though they find the bear's path easy enough to follow initally, it quickly becomes dark enough outside that their pace is terribly slow. The only sign they hear or see of the bear is a distant roar, quite some distance from here. The broken brush lead them to believe that he is making a very good pace. Seeing they will never be able to track him and catch him tonight, and being quite unsure what they would do in that case anyway, they turn back toward the cabin.

Once Rhune has satisfied her curiosity she heads back to the cabin. As neither she nor Jacobus have discovered anything within the hour limit, she tells him that is time to head back to the cabin. She asks for Marika and tells her the code phrase.

Once the group has spoken about the peculiar events of the night, they decide to rest in the deceased woman's home at least until morning. Those who are injured find comfortable places to rest and the others set up a guard rotation. The night passes uneventfully, though the group feels uncomfortable with the dead woman outside and the bear who so obviously also lived here roaming about bellowing in the woods so angrily.

After the night's rest, the group for the most part feels better. The spell-casters have regained their spells. Jacobus, Marika, and Rhune are full strength. Ullar and Xania are still severely wounded, though Ullar regains consciousness in the morning with only a bit of prodding. Asif is also very badly wounded, and Urak and Matteo carry significant wounds as well. The group is unable to find any food on the premises so must share their meager supply of dry rations for breakfast. From Kalanos' description, you estimate that it will take nearly a day or so to reach Sukiskayn, but are uncertain whether or not you should remain in an effort to regain more strength for the trip through these apparently hostile lands. However, it is also difficult to tell what might happen to you if you remain in one place too long.

Before you leave, however, Marika decides to check on the blue tube that Rhune holds with her. She utters an incantation and waves her hand about. The tube glows brightly, seeming layered with spells. Also, those magic weapons the group bought in town glow as well with a dim light. Surprisingly, one of the several daggers that Rhune retrieved from the boarders glows as well.

Rhune looks at her sword with a smile. Hopefully, it is real magic and not as Marika had thought only an illusion of magic. The dagger though surprises her, why would one of the Brandeds have a magic dagger. Her eyebrows knitted in puzzlement, "Marika you are sure that this dagger is magical?" she asks her.

On hearing that Rhune is worried about the properties of her newly acquired magic dagger, Matteo speaks. "I have some small skill in deciphering the workings of magic. It is something I was born with. May I take a look?"

"Thank you, Matteo." Rhune hands him the dagger so that he can look at it.

Matteo examines it closely before returning it to her. After studying the dagger for a while, Matteo shares what he has learned. "I have no idea what type of enchantment this dagger holds."

Once he answers her, "I wonder why one of the Brandeds would have a magic dagger? If they are as mindless as Kalanos said they were, they would have no use for magic weapons. I wonder. . . . " Looking up at Marika, "Do you have some sort of identifing magic?

"It's got some type of enchantment on it, but I can't tell you much about its nature right now," Marika answers. "I do have spells that might tell us more, but I'd need to get a hold of some expensive materials first...probably in a city. And even then, the result would be far from certain."

Someone had said that Ullar's weapons may have been tampered with while he was prisoner. Perhaps this dagger is what has been tampered with, though that would mean that the ambush on the river was meant to fail. Or am I being paranoid?" Rhune says with rueful smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. She tucks this dagger into her belt on the right side to keep it seperate from the others.

"Even the paranoid have enemies," the priestess says, returning Rhune's slight smile. "And we've got more than most. I can easily imagine some clever bastard in the Church placing a trace spell on this weapon, as a backup plan in case the ambush failed. I'm inclined to suggest we bury it, and see if it's been disturbed next time we pass this way. But I understand the need for good weapons. You might try cutting something with it, or practicing a few throws, to see if the enchantment seems useful."

After Matteo has examined the dagger and since he can not add to her knowledge of it Rhune does as Marika has suggested. She goes outside and tries throwing it at a target set at different distances and tries cutting things with it.

Once Rhune takes it outside and begins working with it, she finds it fine of balance and it seems to very slightly alter its path to hit the target when thrown. It also seems unnaturally sharp when cutting branches and such, and does not lose it's edge.

Rhune keeps the dagger with her. She is still curious as to why a branded would have such a dagger but will argue with the gods for letting it 'land' in her lap.

Upon seeing Rhune working with the dagger, Ullar recognizes it as the one that the false oarsman threw at him before he took a dive, as it is a fairly distinctive, nasty looking weapon.

Matteo then expends his healing spells upon Ullar and Xania, hoping to edge them both past the critical stages of health.

Matteo casts a spell upon Xania, whose wounds seem to be healed up completely, leaving only a nice scar along her temple to remember. His spell upon Ullar is not so spectacular, though, leaving him in practically the same condition.

Marika rises early, and spends an hour or so in quiet prayer and study. After closing her books and stowing them away, she joins Matteo and Urak in trying to bring the injured party members back to full health. She examines Misha's bookshelf, and spends some time browsing through a volume of poetry, nodding appreciatively.

Marika casts an additional healing spell upon Ullar, who remains the most seriously wounded. Her spell is slightly more effective, but the stubborn ex-gladiator seems to be as resistant to healing as he is to getting taken out by arrows and daggers. Marika puts her other spell upon Asif, who is also very badly wounded. He takes much better to it, as his various arrow wounds heal up almost completely, leaving him in excellent shape.

Urak, after briefly checking on Xania, determines that magical healing will not help her any at this point. Apparently just waiting for the shock of a near-death experience is all that you can do. That understood, Urak lends his healing touch to Ullar, hoping that the Five will grant him better luck than the more civilized gods of Matteo and Marika. Once again, Urak's healing skill shows through, as his magic flows throughout Ullar's body. His various small wounds vanish, and the more serious ones close up and almost completely fade. He feels tremendously improved and appears to be in very good condition.