4 Yarthmont - Well owlbear darned!

 Broneslav had four options. He could return the way he had come, or he could leave via one of the three other doors. With nothing to choose between them, he opted for the door on the north-west side of the chapel. The corridor beyond led to a dead end with a door on one side or down a side corridor. Broneslav chose to follow the side corridor first.

It led to a room filled with a noxious, bubbling liquid. In the centre of the room, on a pedestal that stood just a foot above the liquid was a chest. Broneslav looked at the liquid, considered his options, which amounted to little more than trying to leap across the room and grab the chest. He did not rate his chances, and cursed the luck that found him without anything but a bare minimum of weapons and no equipment.

"Well, that's that then," he muttered to himself as he discarded the idea of doing that. With no other immediate options, he returned to the main corridor and the door at the end. It opened into a wine cellar. Rows of casks and barrels filled the room, while bottles and jugs were stored on tables. The floor was covered in wine and splinters of barrels. The reason for this was immediately obvious. A large bear-like creature with the head of a giant owl was guzzling the wine. It responded to Broneslav's incursion by roaring drunkenly at him and staggering towards the boy, obviously intent on adding some meat to its diet.

Broneslav whipped his mace up and clubbed at the creature's face. It batted the weapon away with little effort, but Broneslav's powerful thews redirected the mace towards the creature's body and smashed it hard enough that he could hear the crushed ribs breaking even through its thick hide. Using his shield, Broneslav blocked the monster's attempts to maul him and launched a new offensive. The owlbear knocked him back and he failed to hurt it at all. Fortunately, he was able to get his shield between him and the creature once more and it's attempts to eat him were thwarted although the claw marks on his shield told the tale of what could have happened to him instead. the ferocious back and forth continued. Both combatants were bloodied and the drunken owlbear showed no signs of giving up, but then Broneslav got his mace through its defences. Stepping into its grasp, he swung upwards, breaking the creature's beak and followed up with a hard blow to the side of the head. He stepped back quickly to avoid retaliation. He need not have feared. The blow was fatal and the creature collapsed almost immediately.

Breathing hard, Broneslav grabbed one of the bottles of wine from the store and opened it. He deserved a drink after dealing with this creature. Seconds later, he spat the wine out again. It was corked and tasted foul. No wonder the owlbear was in such a terrible mood.