Vermaloc Bear Storm
Fateful Event 9
You were transformed into a bear by mysterious magic, and lived for a year as an animal before you were saved by a druid. Magic still lingers within you, though, and you can cast speak with animals at will.
If a character landed on this Fateful Event from the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount Heroic Chronicle, the following dream provides a backstory explanation of how this may have happened to them. It is intended to be narrated to the player during a game session, preferably while they're sleeping in a place of magical resonance or historic significance.
Dream
Your dreams turn white and hazy and then take on a new shape. It's the day you became a bear. A storm separates you from your family as an angry cloud in the sky descends and surrounds you. It's a swirling mass of bear shapes in strange colors - deep red, orange, and maroon.
You're yelling, struggling, and then you are one with the cloud. You are a bear and also a thousand bears, but you are also a storm. And you are also a weapon.
Inside the cloud you are one of many wispy bears in maroon, orange, and dark red, together forming the shape of one gargantuan beast. The cloud travels around in the skies of Xhorhas and feels timeless to you, but it sometimes comes back to the the Vermaloc Woods to land.
After a few cycles of returning to the wood you felt you could leave the cloud and became a natural bear, and so you did. Some months after, a druid found you roaming as a dark orange bear and changed you back to your born form. They helped you get home to your family. This is what you remember.
But the land you sleep on has a resonance you've never experienced before. For the first time the memories of the bear storm itself wash over you, and your conscious mind is able to give them context.
On this plain the gods fought a mighty battle. You, the bear storm, were created by Melora the Wild Mother, a green-skinned voluptuous woman with long wavy red hair.
You see Melora as a titan hundreds of feet tall, looming over a battle-scarred land below. She fights along side the giant form of a human female wearing sturdy armor and hefting a double-headed axe. You know this to be her lover Erathis the Law Bearer, a popular deity outside of Xhorhas.
They are battling Zehir the Cloaked Serpent - an equally massive six-armed humanoid covered with scales and a giant cobra head. He is wreathed in long black hairs that come out between his scales, swirling and making it hard to see his location.
The earth trembles with each step and blow of these massive entities. Melora has just thrust out her hand and conjured you, the bear storm, to be her champion in this fight.
Zehir's whip lashes around Erathis' neck and he pulls her to her knees. He spits green venom toward her face but Erathis dodges. The venom falls below to the ground, becoming a swarm of giant emerald snakes that scatter into the terrain.
Melora calls on you to save her beloved, and roaring with rage you sink your thousands of teeth into the Cloaked Serpent's scaly arm until his bones crack. You fight endlessly to protect your mother.
The scene fades as you, in the present time, recall that the Prime Deities won these battles. There is comfort in that thought. But when you wake you keep the memory of the Vermaloc Bear Storm who was never a living thing, and can never rest or die.
Customization
This dream can be easily customized by changing the location of the battle, the colors of the bears, the deities involved, or the location of the woods.