At Tarosh speaks, Hisser his Manul cat stalks in out of the darkness and plonks himself by the fire.

In reply to GM (msg # 97):

He looks at Hisser, "If I'd bound a spirit to you, you'd be able to earn your keep." He shrugs, "Even if Henal could get you to lead us back to Pallas, I don't know if I would trust you to do it."

Henal looks at the others "Yes, lets move before they try it on with an attack."

Responding to Tarosh he continues "I'd be able to lead us back to Pallas, but that might be a journey for another time."

In reply to Henal Longgrass (msg # 99):

"I don't suppose you gained the ability to see in the dark from your encounter with Pallas?" He looks nervously in to the darkness surrounding their camp, "Sounds like we're leaving now then?"

Ohanzee focuses on Whispers from some distant place unseen in the dearkness. He frowns "Well? Yes, well but different."

"We should leave now. The Morokanth will not expect us to do so, they think they have us trapped for want of water and do not realise that we have discovered a source on the edge of the rocklands within a day's ride."

"We have a while to put some space between us but when Hoskar does not return with Dark Claw for the bargaining then they will come looking."

He nods to himself "Yes, we should leave straight away."

He steps over to the gathered Harpies "My Queen, it is not safe to stay. We need to move on now. Can you and your flock fly in this darkness? Otherwise I'm afraid you will all need to walk, we haven't enough mounts and I don't even know if you all can ride."

Bowing he returns to his own mount and starts off "Come on, slow and steady is better than waiting around here."

"Why are so many gathering Seza?" he asks Whispers "Did they all look to be the same clan or a mixture of two?"

"Firestarter did burn out that lot by the river, maybe the clans have joined. It's either that or they're gathing for something big. And the closest something big that I can think of is the Earth Temple."

He stops his rhino "Gloaming, will you ride with me at the rear and protect their backs, Tarnessh can you go at the fore? That way we have the ability to light things up at the front and the rear."

"When we have some distance we can light torches, but not until we have enough distance."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 13:50, Sat 05 Dec 2015.

"The same clan as far as I can tell. There's at least five hundred of them all up. Not unlike the Prairie Thunder Clan" answers Whispers.

Gloaming and Tarnessh agree to Ohanzee's suggestion and quickly the Rangers mount up. The Queen and the Harpies unable to fly in the dark safely ask if they may sit behind the braves on their mounts?

Familiars that can see in the dark take their place at the front, with Mordy and Salen leading the way.

Tarosh mounts up, but then looks torn as to who should ride with him. With a defeated look on his face, he extends his arm to Kinamasi, who looks less than impressed with Tarosh's hesitation. Once she is behind him, she wraps her arms around him and whispers in his ear, despite the fact that no one else hears what she had to say, the effect on Tarosh is easily visible, he pales and gulps loudly, then nods. He whispers back to her, a look of pleading on his face, to which Kinamasi nods. Tarosh turns to the Queen, "My Queen," Kinamasi digs him in the ribs, he swallows loudly and his voice becomes a little less reverent, "I have a spare mount that you or your followers can use, I'll keep it tethered to Carross so that you won't have to do anything except sit on it." As he's talking, Hisser half jumps, half climbs up Carross's side and Tarosh briefly has his hands full trying to stop Carross bolting. Once Hisser is aboard, he curls up in front of Tarosh and ignores him.

Ohanzee agrees to the request for doubling up on the mounts and silently chides himself for not offering. He does though suggest "If there are sufficient mounts I'd not ride behind me, being at the rear is the most likely place for getting attacked.

As the others head out and Gloaming and he take up their positions to the rear he speaks quietly "I've an idea, something that might help in case there are any Morokanth think that they might jump us and with Broken Claw indisposed they perhaps aren't any to stop it."

He sighs "The others might not like it though. You might not like it and I think it almost certainly will not like you."

"Don't come too close but stay in warning distance."
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:43, Sat 05 Dec 2015.

"Tell me what you plan"

As the Harpies find their spots on the back of mounts, Salen finds that he is joined by Leaper at the front, the Pygmy Ranger sending a detection charm out into the darkness.

"Nothing living that way. I'll ride point with you if you don't mind."

Amara patted Thunderfoot behind her to indicate where her passenger should go. "We don't have time to dawdle. It's best if we leave before they work up the nerve to attack. Our time for revenge will wait. Kaonu shall not remain unavenged for long."

Although momentarily taken aback by Gloaming's sudden appearance so close to him Salen does not flinch, and he pauses a moment while considering his response, his eyes looking off into the distance in the Condor way.

"Yes, yes we do. But...not now...this is not his time. His day will come though."


Atop Kohana with Mordy just in front, Salen does not mind Leaper joining him in the slightest.

"Sure - we'll need all the eyes we have in this darkness. I have no desire to fight a war this night."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:28, Sat 05 Dec 2015.

Kobal looks at Hoskar, listening to what he has to say.  The frown and dark look on his face don't change, though he does nod in acknowledgment of Hoskar's argument.  It's true that they were able to get the two rhinos returned, and a fight in those circumstances would've likely ended badly.  But groveling before Zakeen is always going to taste bad.



"I don't know whether they'll attack without warning.  But sooner or later they'll wonder whether Dark Claw hasn't returned to them, and then there'll be serious trouble.  Apart from being outnumbered, we've got to escort the Harpy Queen back to the Earth Temple.  Best to leave immediately."

Kobal starts to ready Black Hoof.  Haaro, let us know if you sense anything - gern, morokanth or spirit - approach us.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:39, Sun 06 Dec 2015.

The Rangers cover perhaps 5km after several hours of slow riding, with no sign of being followed, and find a easily defended piece of high ground that would make a good camp.

"Perhaps we should rest?" suggests Leaper "We could put some watchers  further back to keep watch for anyone following."

In reply to Leaper (msg # 110):

Stifling a yawn, Tarosh nods in agreement, "We've gone far enough I reckon, and its too far and too damn dark to carry on till we get to the Rhino Rocklands."

The scouts find that the area has been used as a camp before, with fire pits, piles of dried animal dung and several empty clay pots.

There's signs that Hyenas have visited recently and jammed in between two rocks a desiccated corpse of one is found.

"So we going to stay?" asks Akala

"If we can keep going, I think we should continue.  The more distance we can put between ourselves and the Black Mud clan, the better, and the closer we get to the Rhino Rocklands, the safer we will be," says Kobal from astride Black Hoof.  He looks to see what the other Rangers say.

"We're with you" announce Sand Fox and Nixa, neither brave wishing to stay around.

"I agree with my brother"

"Huh, scared of a fight if you ask me."

Amara glanced at her brother "Perhaps if you had been in a fit state to join us you might be less eager to fight. We've accomplished everything the Earth Witch has asked us to do. We can always fight morokanth another day....but after the Queen harpy is safe."

"And what is she to you? Are you her slave?" comes back the terse reply.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:50, Sun 06 Dec 2015.

Ohanzee speaks in hushed tones "Grandmother Spider."

"I have something for her, the item I traded for with Broken Claw. He hinted that it might annoy her somewhat since it harnesses her powers so I'm thinking rather than annoy her I'd take it to her and get into her good books."

"I planned on gifting it to her at Rhino Gouge but as it's her night tonight it should be possible to call her away from there."

He forestalls the obvious objection "Don't worry, I've learnt from Melock's mistake, and I was planning on using the amulet as the focus for calling her too so it wouldn't give her another foothold here, rather something mobile that could be taken to the cave."

"I reckon something of this power would please her and should buy us a guard to our backs or about our camp if we do decide to stop tonight."

"What is she to me, you ask? Take a look at her Greeshar. She is the living embodiment of our goal. She is the Green returned. Her existence is proof that what we are doing is having an effect. Those of her line that were corrupted by chaos are gone and no more. Instead her and her line, guardians of the Earth are restored and safe." she glanced at her eyes quick as she was about to say something that might hurt, but a quick glance towards Whispers and she kept her mouth quiet, sounding much more reasoned as she spoke "am I her slave? Do you see shackles, or collars or cuffs on me? I have free will, I choose to serve her."

Kobal looks around.  Not everyone has replied yet.  "We've only traveled about 5 kilometres.  If the morokanth see better in the dark, they will be able to catch up to us within an hour or less.  I think we should travel at least a bit more before we stop."



Kobal is about to reply to Greeshar when Amara cuts in first.  But he does add, "She is an ally of Emesh-Ga, whom we are sworn to follow.  We are taking her to the Earth Witch."