Bears

1. Occurrences
   1. Phase 1: The beginning (summer 2022) to Cricket’s Death (December 2023) The adventurers have found numerous imagery and lore related to a giant sleeping bear:

• A kindly woman says this to Silas in his dream at Tawesek, referring to a cottage on the shore of The Eye of Night:> “It’s been a long while since he’s met with a bear.  Perhaps you should visit…”- The same woman appears in Silas’ dream at The Abbot’s hut, saying:> *“You have much to learn, and to see Little Bear before you make your choice.  Do you hear his whispers?  He crawled down into the ground long ago, and he sleeps on the edge of thought and dream.  We all thought that we understood him, but the Bear is clever, and deep, and it is hard to tell if his sleep is troubled.”*She departs, and adds ethereally:> “They’ll wish to return to the Elder Lands even if they don’t know, and if you look, he’s there too.  And perhaps that’s where you are, as well.”- Silas’s runic message> A bear knows where honey lives for both mind and body.

Secretive lest others find his stores.

He crawls into his cave and dreams until his time.

He hardly knows his strength.

But the stars see all he does.- Silas’ seems to have encountered a slumbering, underground bear in his vision at The Ancient Tree. In that vision, Silas soothed the fitfully sleeping bear, allowing it to turn over and dream of something beautiful.

• In the shared dream back at the stone circle (just before we fight the stone giant), Silas senses a “giant, ancient, moss-covered bear in the roots” of The Ancient Tree.

• Looking up into the night sky once, Silas saw, among other images, “a Great Bear, and a Bear Cub with a dragon curling between them.”

• What the people of Din Menydh say:

• They are self-proclaimed servants of the Great Bear and they “have tried to keep the faith”

• No one has seen the bear since he went to sleep long, long ago” and pray for his awakening

• The Great Bear is “giant, old and strong beyond reckoning” In the bear village, they talk of a hill site outside of the village, visible from the village, where they have buried two old bears that had died.

• Logan’s (caretaker at Celliwig) bits

• “The great bear is asleep and has been for a long time. He became reliant on people to keep him away, so when the people moved on he fell asleep. Some of us are listening and trying to find him.”

  • If we spread the word will that help?
  • “He may just need an audience.”

• They’re all trying to find the bear, but none of them know how it works. It’s when humans get arrogant and try to say, control and dictate rather than letting the bear do his work is when things go wrong.

• He doesn’t always know what the elders talk about, but in the context of the us discussing the tree at the monestary, he says: “the mother tree, the bees and the great bear are all part of one thing.”

• An interesting exchange at the well in Celliwig, where we see Crone, Woman and Child again:> S asks how he can wake the great bear.

Women: Are you looking for the child?

B: We are. Who is this child?

Women: We brought the two of them forth long ago, they have disappeared form my sight long ago, but we still hear them.

B: Who is them?

Women: Our son and daughter.

B: Is the bear the son and the missing child is the daughter?

Women: <They won’t clarify.>- An excerpt from a message in the trees read by Cricket, and intended for Balthazar seems to hint at the bear:> A hearty friend awaits

At the gateway, heart

Deep within the earth- In The Waterfall City, there was a fountain of a tree in the square, with the face of a bear underneath.

• An exchange with the crowd at the festival:> You bring the other twin to the festival?

Silas, putting on airs: I do indeed. Where be the other?

[They look confused and start questioning Silas.] Who are you? Where are you from?

Silas: We are travelers and we’ve heard of this festival.

Do you understand the significance of the presence of the twins?

Silas: Of course I do. Do you??- Questions put to The Oracle> S: What do you know of the bear.

O: The sleeper? He sleeps and some hear him. And you are marked by him.

S: How does one wake the bear?

O: First you may need to find him.

S: Where is the bear?

O: Do you not feel him everywhere?

S: YesThe Boatman seems to suggest that Silas is the bear, one of the twins:> B: This festival celebrates a young girl and an ancient tree who are the protectors of those who listen.

C: Are those the twins?

B: They are one of the twins.

S: Who are the other twins?

B: I thought you were told you brought him with you?

S: Arthen?

Boatman makes a face.

  1. Phase 2: The jail to the waterfall plunge

There’s not a lot of great bear activity until we get to The Tree Island in Nyth. Notably absent of mentions is when we met the stone statues in the jail.

• In Meander, the fishing village in Nyth, the innkeeper when asked about a sleeping bear, says: “Sometimes hear about a sleeping bear. It growls and rumbles and rolls in his sleep, and the wind blows and the earth shakes.”

• At the tree island in Nyth, the tree reminds us of the story of Gwedhen, the girl who gave herself to a tree to save it, and the bear that she befriended. We read the story and dissect it (more notes following in the Ruminations section.) At the old woman’s homestead on the way to the tower:> Branwen: I’m new. Can you tell us more about the twins.

She nods over in Silas and Arthen’s direction. “There’s one.” And she looks over to a tree to the north of the plot, and says, “There’s another.”

The tree is a derwen.In Silas’ Twrseren dream: Seren tells him that she’s has traveled far among branches and stars:> And now we are here again, high amongst the branches in the nest of a giant she-bird. I want you to know that I climbed to the highest branches, and I leapt up amongst the stars. I’ve traveled far and wide, preparing a way for you. But I’m content now, and the task falls to you.She continues:> Almost no one hears him now. … He’ll not awaken, but you hear him, and perhaps that’s enough. [You start to speak, but she holds up her hand to gently stop you.] Silas, she says, I won’t answer your questions. Much of this you simply have to see on your own. You’ve always learned by making your own mistakes. But perhaps I can point you in a direction, or two.At the waterfall fortress, conferring the Black Willem and Lady Fiona:> BW: Are you finished? Can we offer you wine or song?

Balz: “One more thing,” and lowers his hood. “I’ve gotten some looks about my decorative apendages since I’ve been here. Do they mean anything to you?”

BW: My you are an intriguing group of individuals, quite a collection of oddities. Glance at Balz with horns, a pale woman with hair like a night wind, traveling in the company of a small and great bear.

Bran: What do you know of the bear?

They gesture to Silas and say “He may be small but he has a bear’s shape.” And that is all that can be said about that.”

1. Ruminations

• The woman from Silas’ Tawesek and Abbot hut dreams is very likely his sister.
• In the Abbot’s Hut dream, she said: “…it is hard to tell if [the bear’s] sleep is troubled.” It seems likely that it is (or was), because in Silas’ ancient tree vision, he soothes the bear who is restless in his sleep.
• Was the bear banished or went to sleep? The dream woman and the bear people (Logan also) talk as though he went somewhere and slept, but the ancient turtle talks about the bear being banished by his children.
  • In the well in the tree fort, the three women talk about the child and the bear as their children. This smacks of the turtle talking about the bear’s father, and no one knowing who he is. Apparently the bear also has children, according to the turtle.
• When we had asked about the bear to the women at the tree fort well, they deflected and asked us if we’re looking for the child (which child? The missing one? The girl in the tree?.) Perhaps this child is key somehow to finding the bear (As of 8/18/25, we left the missing one at the farm with Seren.)
• In the bear village, they talk of a hill site outside of the village, visible from the village, where they have buried two old bears that had died. This might be worth revisiting.
• Silas seems to have failed to ask the village Elders specifically anything more about the Great Bear in his talk with them. This seems like a missed opportunity.
• Twin Talk
  • The boatman suggested that a girl and the bear are “twins”. We’ve heard/seen/felt imagery of both a girl and a bear separately being in the roots of a tree.
  • The Boatman also suggests that Silas is the bear and not Arthen.
  • The festival folk at the fountain asked us: “You bring the other twin to the festival?”
  • Logan: “the mother tree, the bees and the great bear are all part of one thing.”
  • Old woman’s homestead in Nyth: [Regarding the twins, she nods over in Silas and Arthen’s direction.] “There’s one.” And she looks over to a tree to the north of the plot [a derwen], and says, “There’s another.”
  • Black Willem refers to Silas as a “great bear”
• We speculated early on that the “hearty friend” from Balz’s message could be the bear, especially if it’s deep within the earth. But what is the gateway? A gateway to Nyth? We’ve been through one, but not the way Musk came. He came through a cave. Perhaps that’s worth checking out on the other side.
• Gwedhen and the bear: This was a story told by Silas’ druid folk and passed down. The brother in the story is potentially the patriarch of the druid folk, and speaks of bear riding and having respect for the beasts like bear village folk.
• Bears, bees, battlestar galactica (and mother trees)
  • At the tree in Nyth, we ruminate on the “two times” or man, that of physicality and that of consciousness. In these ideas, the bear is the keeper of man’s experiences and thoughts that the bees collect and keep in honeycombs. This seems to support what Logan said about the tree, the bear and the bees are all part of one thing.
  • This seems related to Silas’ runic message: “A bear knows where honey lives for both mind and body.”
• The “one of two directions” Seren spoke of, if they were hints just there, in the following sessions, or have yet to be revealed.
  • DM (paraphrasing): Her saying this as you leave the farm in that moment: if you’re telling her, this is where I want us to go, then she can say, “this is where I can tell you to go.” She can help in our next direction. We can also send her a note or ask a question. Storr could have told us: Storr had been following her into the woods by a pool and the tree, she does so on a regular basis, and so can receive and reply to messages via waterways fairly quickly.
  • We have a vial of the traveling water that we’ve forgotten about. This should be one of the items we keep with us after the waterfall. Asked about messaging via Derwen Trees as well. DM: “You could certainly try. Try the water first though.”
• Asking around about the bear has only gotten so far. How can I take a more active role in discovering these things? What can I actually do?
• Still grappling with the idea of identity: that there are these twins, and apparently I am one, but there’s also a separate bear entity that’s asleep and won’t ever wake up (according to Seren) that is also the same twin? And the other twin is the girl-derwen, and they’re all connected?
• Seren told us that we were in the Elder Lands. She also told me in the hut dream that “they’ll wish to go to the Elder Lands, and if you look, he’s there too.” I feel like if we were in fact there, I failed to look adequately enough and missed the opportunity, though apparently, we do have the abailaity to travel back to Nyth if we wish. I worry though that that may be a tall order trying to get everyone on board with going back to Nyth.