Owlbear

The Owlbear is indeed another fantasy gaming staple tracing its lineage back to very early versions of the game. Pathfinder 2e presents us a slightly more interesting version of the creature, as it has some special abilities to set it apart from your standard bear-affair. The bestiary itself provides a compelling variant owlbear, one that can glide a great distance almost silently to descend on prey. 

Interesting and powerful abilities aside, I think the owlbear (and other monstrous creatures like it) reminds us that the fantastical is in some ways mundane—at least in the context of the game. The owlbear is an Avatar: The Last Airbender-like hybrid animal, but is not a magical creature and does not have any supernatural abilities; it's intimidating and brutally violent with prey. Consider how an owlbear's habits and behaviors might differ from that of both a bear and an owl, and how both of those things might influence said creature. Should you be lacking in understanding, I can think of a certain Paizo editor that can tell you all about bear behavior.

At level four, any encounter with an owlbear will be an early endeavor. As animals (not ravenous beasts) consider how a nature-attuned PC like a druid or ranger may be able to circumvent a combat with such a creature entirely. Such an occurrence can provide an interesting character moment and remind the players that there is more than one way to play PF2 than just beating everything you run into to death.

- Reece

Hook 1 (Nemanja) - Barnaby The Barn

When the hunters heard of the "barn-like owlbear" from the local populace speaking in broken common, they expected to find a barn-owl-featured owlbear. Not a barn-sized, horned-owl-featured one. Unfortunately, they are duty-bound not to back away from the fight—and even if they weren't, the local villages surely can't hope to stand against something like this.

Hook 2 (Max) - The Hoot

Niners is a peaceful town, all things considered. Do your job, don't get into any trouble with the law, and you'll do fine. Most of all, never, under any circumstances, go into the woods surrounding it after nightfall.

There is a story in the Niners. People say that should you venture into the dark forest after the sun goes down, you will face a horror that will turn your blood to ice. No one has ever seen in it, only the aftermath of its rage, a trail of bodies disfigured beyond recognition as if by the claws of a giant beast, many of the organs missing entirely.

The people of Niners know when the beast finds its next victim—a loud hoot, as if that of an owl, can be heard over the town. Without fail, every time it sounds, a new body is found in the wood.

So take heed, lest you want to fall prey to the terror stalking the night.

Hook 3 (Reece) - Tangle in Titansfield

The Titansfield Players are a circus that has moved away, at least as much as possible, from the use of animals during their shows. Magic illusions and druids capable of changing their own forms makes performances much easier and—in Thelia's estimation—more ethical. The petting zoo has remained, as the children frequent it in between the major shows. Goats cheese and wool also help subsidize some of the operating costs of the traveling circus.

At a stop outside a triumvirate of small villages, a local farmer brings an enormous egg to the Circusmaster, leaving her to decide what exactly to do with it. When one of the elderly griffons takes to brooding the egg, it hatches not long after arrival, revealing it to be an owlbear cubling. This in and of itself wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, the owlbear broodmother has come looking for its spawn in the middle of the biggest show for this area, when all the strongest and most capable performers are preoccupied and unaware...