The session begins with the party in a clearing following a battle with three direwolves. Exhausted and damaged, they decide to return to Lobo Village for a long rest rather than immediately pursuing the “big bad werewolf” they believe is nearby. Grundel, a goliath barbarian, decides to lug one of the six-hundred-pound direwolf carcasses back to the village to show the locals and eventually skin it for a new garment.

Upon arriving back at the village, the party conducts an investigation to determine whether the wolves they killed were responsible for the death of a resident named Raze.

• Track Comparison: They compare the direwolf's massive paws (roughly the size of a human head) to the prints found near the attack site. The tracks are incomplete, leaving them unable to definitively confirm a match.
• Fur Analysis: Fur taken from the original crime scene is compared with the direwolf carcass. While the coloration differs slightly, the texture is identical, confirming a wolfish attacker.
• Wound Discrepancy: The village elder, Ozzy, shows them Raze’s body. The party notices a chunk of flesh missing from the wound that is significantly smaller than what a direwolf's massive snout would produce. This leads to the realization that their work is not finished and that a different creature—possibly a smaller wolf or a humanoid lycanthrope—is still at large.

The party spends the night and early morning in the village performing various tasks.

• Gunsmithing: Bludarious uses his dagger and the village’s blacksmithing tools to attempt to modify a revolver into a long-range rifle using musket components. The village blacksmith, Tilda (a tabaxi), informs him that high-quality steel will be required to make the weapon durable and functional.
• Tanning: Grundel skins the direwolf and begins tanning the hide using the wolf’s basketball-sized brain to create the traditional tanning slurry.
• Negotiating Payment: Nebish speaks with the village elder, Remus, regarding compensation for their help. Remus explains that the village possesses no gold or silver but offers the party life-long friendship and access to their resources. Captain Barnaby ultimately accepts the offer as fair given their current circumstances.

At dawn, the party heads back into the mountains, following a trail of blood from the clearing where the remaining wolf carcasses had been left. Something had dragged the heavy bodies through the snow toward a small cavern high on the mountainside.

Inside the cave they discover a direwolf sleeping near the entrance. To avoid a loud confrontation, the party coordinates a silent execution. Grundel sneaks up to the beast and delivers a coup de grace, driving a dagger through its ear canal and into the brain.

While searching the immediate area they discover three high-quality leather leashes and a bugbear hide coat, which Grundel claims for himself.

Deeper within the cavern the party encounters a thirty-foot-wide chasm crossed by a rickety, two-foot-wide stone bridge. Looking down, they see the pit below is filled with massive carrion worms resembling giant centipedes.

The crossing proves extremely dangerous.

• The party ties the recovered leather leashes together to form a sixty-foot safety line.
• Bludarious attempts to sprint across the bridge but trips, ending up dangling over the pit before being hauled back up by the others.
• Using the leash rope as a guide line, the rest of the party—including a very fortunate Vladimir Vladislav—successfully crosses the bridge.

Beyond the bridge lies a chamber containing two doors: a stone door radiating unnatural cold and a wooden door radiating intense heat. After deducing that the doors react to opposing temperatures, Vladimir casts Sacred Flame on the frozen stone door, causing it to slide open.

Inside is a chamber completely coated in clear ice, inhabited by a hairy Ice Troll.

• Combat: The troll is caught off guard but attacks immediately. Bludarious fires multiple gunshots while Grundel charges into battle with longsword and quarterstaff.
• Regeneration: The party quickly notices the troll’s wounds seal themselves mid-fight, its flesh regenerating even as bullets tear through it.
• Defeat: Realizing that fire is required to stop the creature’s regeneration, Vladimir uses Sacred Flame to ignite the troll after it is knocked down. The creature burns, carbonizes, and finally dies.

As the party recovers from the brutal fight, they hear heavy boot steps approaching from the far side of the chamber.

Suddenly, the wooden door explodes inward, blasting into splinters and filling the icy room with smoke and debris as a new threat enters.