OB

Okay, adventure summary. The long and short of it is, a little ways from town, a cave is discovered. We all know what happens when anything like that comes to like in 4C, right? The ponies get geared up and go all murderhobo, looking for excitement and loot. Most of the time they find some timberwolves, or a few firefoxes, and feel like great heroes when they return to town.

But what if they find something... bigger? Badder? Something Much more dangerous that can kill players? Well, here it is. Deep in the cave lies a sleeping monster that could potentially tear PCs apart if they're foolish enough to attack it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Owlbear.
Standing up to 8 ft. tall and weighing up to 1500 lbs., the owlbear is a monster of horrifying proportions. Its body resembles that of a bear with brow-black or yellowish-brown fur, and a horrifying owl head crowns its upper body, its beak a dull ivory and razor sharp. In its red-rimmed eyes there is nothing but a madness that can horrify even the most hardy of ponies. With its razor sharp claws, this magical beast can tear apart its prey, also known as "anything larger than a mouse."

Stats:
HP: 70
AC: 14
Attack: +7 to hit with 1d6+5 claw attack. Upon hitting, it can start a grapple with its victim. While grappling, it can auto-hit with its claw and attempt a bite (at +10) dealing 1d4+2 damage.
Init: +1
Perception: +8
This thing will fight until death, or until the intruders in its lair are all beaten or flee.
Grapple: +7 Upon hitting, the owlbear can start a grapple. Both it and the target roll a d20, and the higher roll wins. For now, we can say that a character's "to hit" modifier can act as its grappling modifier. Or, you can change it, I'm open to ideas. Regardless, if the roll succeeds, the victim is grappled and cannot make any actions other than trying to escape. To do so, on the victim's turn, they again roll off; if the victim wins, the grapple ends, and if the owlbear wins, the grapple continues. Simple enough, yes?

Okay, so you may be wondering "well why haven't we encountered this thing before?" Well... that's actually a good question. We can say that it's smart enough to avoid large, populated areas. We can say with all the ponies the smell kept it away. Or we can say we're just lucky. Honestly, I'm open for anything at this point.

Now, I understand that this thing seems dangerous, potentially lethal. In fact, very, VERY lethal! But, and here's the thing... that's the point. This isn't something you're supposed to fight, this is something you're supposed to run away from. You're supposed to say "GG NOPE" and hull ass out of there. For the purpose of this adventure, those that flee won't be chased; the beast is hibernating, and just wants to be left alone. If you run, it simply goes back to sleep. If the players don't? Well... they'll be warned that that if they die, they're done. People need a reminder that there is lethality in this game.

Okay, so, for the rest of the adventure it's pretty straightforward. Cave crawl with a few pockets of lesser enemies (some fruit bats, a pair of timber wolves that know to avoid the owlbear) and a single stash of "loot." This loot contains:

-Several pieces of rusted, broken, and damaged spears and shields.
-Three torn saddlebags
-Shards of broken glass
-A single, intact mason jar
-A single, intact bottle of aged wine
-Owlbear feces
-Assorted bones of deer, ponies, rabbits, squirrels, and other past meals
-A torn leather pouch containing 11 bits, and another 7 bits scattered in the cavern

And, the big one...
-A single tattered, torn, barely together spell book with the following pages still intact and readable (when we learn arcane)
   -Water freezing (a simple spell to turn water to ice)
   -Floating lights (A simple spell that creates three orbs of light that float around the caster)
   -A light version of the horn blase used by Twilight in the show

Now, because we're still a ways away from actually being able to read/understand this, it gives us time to work whatever magic system we're planning into play, and when we have it done, a few light spells to test with. Because of the time it will take, we need not stick to these particular spells; with none of us able to read it, it can easily be reworked or changed to better fit whatever system we're using.

Now, there is also a small cave of quarts in this cave. There's nothing special or valuable about it, just some generic shiny rocks that aren't worth anything. The cave is very dark, with only a few patches of glow-moss to provide natural light; the players will need their own unicorn horns or torches to be effective.

Below I have drawn up a map of this cave, and have numbered it to show the path the PCs would take. Please note that the map is not to scale.
http://i.imgur.com/glHUMjX.jpg

1) Cave entrance.
2) Bat cavern: encounter with fruit bats. Treasure: NONE
3) Bare cavern. Nothing there.
4) Main area: Encounter with 2 timber wolves. Treasure: NONE
5) Crystal cavern. Pretty rocks, but otherwise worthless.
6) Excrement cavern: old owlbear feces is in the room. Animals don't eat or sleep where they crap, especially in winter.
7) Bone Cavern: this cave is filled with the bones of past meals. This is where the old adventurers lay, gobbled by the owlbear. Their treasure is here as well
8) Cavern water supply: even owlbears need water to survive. This small pond has fresh water that the creature drinks from.
9) The Owlbear's Lair: Sleeping on a bed of moss is the owl bear. As the party fights the wolves in room 4, or digs through the bones in room 7, or makes noise in room 8, or enters room 9, the creature has a chance to awaken and advance to the party.

This of course means that there is a chance that the party won't wind up with any treasure should they owlbear. Well... that's too bad for them. This is supposed to be a lesson on how not to be stupid, and to punish anyone who thinks they can be all bad ass and take this thing on.

Now, it is possible for the PCs to kill the thing without anyone dying. And if that happens... well good for them! The lesson is probably missed, but hey, any GM knows that this can happen. I guess next time it will have to be deadlier. Still, if the PCs are smart this could be fun, and some of the the newer crew could do something good for the town.

So, tell me... what do you think?