"Well, we won't be drinking rhino kumiss.  Have you smelled it?  It smells like piss!  Actual piss!  And we'd still sober, haha!"



"Aye, I agree," he nods.  "That's why it has to be done some other way.  Look at me."  He stands up, and spreads his arms in exhibition, towering above most of the those assembled, though Greeshar and Akala are close in height.  "I can't just walk up and expect those Red Thorn women not to notice me.  That's why I need the Ravens to help me get close.  They're sneaky.  They think sneaky.  They might have some way."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:35, Fri 04 Mar 2016.

Ohanzee much improved, but is still scarred with rough skin all over but his blue arm. It gets second, even third looks from all all who are not used to it, a good thing for a shaman in the making. There is a concern that he has not voiced to any though, how will Tella react if, no when he sees her again? From his own people the young Raven brave's scars bring respect, but she is a foreigner used to their soft life and their strange ways.

Looking up from the skin he says to Kobal "You should have asked a few days ago. That sort of thing would have been far easier on Raven's night." before falling silent again as he takes another drink.

"Ah."  Disappointed.  "How am I supposed to know when Raven's night is?" he mumbles to himself.

He looks to the Red Thorn brothers to see if they can at least give him intelligence about the chieftain's daughter.

His voice carries a note of smugness when he replies, "Yes she is, but we chose each other and I know what she looks like," he laughs, "One of the few advantages of not being high up in the clan. It'd be easier to get her to come to you than getting you to see her," He mulls it over, "I'd be willing to try, as long as when I need rescuing, Amara doesn't beat me up."

"She's...You know...A girl" answers Sand Fox, looking to his brother for support.....

"Yeah...Um, nice personality....Sense of humour..."

Nixa is struggling by the looks of it.

"You're a lucky man."

Ohanzee listens to Nixa and Sand Fox struggling and makes up his own story between the lines "Sounds like you've struck lucky Kobal, great personality, great sense of humour, face like a bison's arse."

"No, she's not like that. She's just...The Chieftain's daughter and all that entails....*Laugh* Bison's arse....She's aloof and well kinda clumsy. But she's fun and nice and will just love Kobal, she always went for the big dumb ones..."

Having nodded assent to Melock, murmuring something quietly to him aside , it looks as if Hoskar might be going to rise to the bait about rhino kumiss: he takes a breath and opens his mouth, but then seems to think better of it, preferring to just listen...until the banter over Kobal's bride sounds a little sour.

He smiles an agreement to Sand Fox, and observes rather pointedly she sounds sweet, and a real keeper: it's joy and affection that count when you're sixty.

"And of course we're all likely to reach sixty then, Hoskar" Henal laughs.

 He stretch's and then reach's for another skin. "Its just bad luck for you Kobal that your not getting married to Shade, Brinna's daughter, cause she is very sweet and easy on the eyes." After a couple of swigs of kumiss, "Haven't we got some wine, and I'm sure we can acquire a good selection of drinks from the many clans that are here."

Sehana maneuvers into the cave to the sound of laughter.

She is dressed in the robes of a shaman's apprentice, white trimmed in yellow, with neither armor nor weapons.

She picks up a container of kumiss and pronounces loudly, "A toast to Kobal, on his first marriage. May his second be as blissful."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:05, Fri 04 Mar 2016.

Sand Fox and Nixa glad for the diversion quickly stand to return the toast.

In reply to Sehana (msg # 25):

He raises his skin of kumiss and joins in the toast, "To Kobal!" He looks Sehana up and down, "Just a suggestion, but you might want to make sure you have at least one weapon with you at all times. You never know when you'll need to rescue Ohanzee." he burps loudly, "I've normally got my sling and sword with me." he touch's his left wrist and pats his sword.

Sehana cannot help but grimace at the mention of Ohanzee. Were it not for her own pride, he would not be so horribly scarred. Still, she glances at Melock and says, "You are right, I should have brought a few javelins. Just in case."

In reply to Sehana (msg # 28):

"That'll be helpful if anyone else gets swallowed by that toad, though if we could get it on our side we wouldn't need to worry about it." he chuckles in the shadows, "Lets hope it doesn't try and join the wedding."

A darkness come quickly over Ohanzee's mood as he was about to rise and toast Kobal too. He sits forward and locks Melock with a stare "Be careful what you wish for, what forces you would call upon. Croak has tasted Chaos. He has turned on his oldest friend and tasted her."

"He is a greedy creature with no thought for anything but himself!"

He raises his skin to Kobal "To you and your bride to be." then sits back against the wall.

Pursing his lips momentarily at Henal's retort, Hoskar quickly resumes his habitual smile; casually responding well, we can hope; and why not: the tricky bit around here seems to be staying dead before joining in the toast to the upcoming nuptials.

To Kobal he intones formally Khan-son and helm-bearer; protector of the earth and staunch comrade. And to your wife-to-be: may you be joy and help to one another for and in the greening while life lasts.

Something stirs in the Condor brave's subconscious state, and he blinks his eyes and is suddenly fully alert and attentive.

"Always went for the big dumb ones?!" This time it is Salen's turn to roar with laughter. "Sounds like she's been around the oasis a few times! I guess it'd be fine if she was from an Impala tribe, but I can't say I'd noticed that the Red Thorns were all midgets! Here's to ya, Kobal!"

Salen raised a skin in toast to the groom-to-be, though he didn't bother standing up. After a healthy swig he turned to Ohanzee.

"So, this blue gem you found...inside Croak...what's up with that? What's our next move?"

"If it's the big dumb ones she prefers, you could try to get her married to Greeshar." Amara said with a grin towards her brother.

Ohanzee holds up the gem that he's been absent-mindedly holding in his left hand, as indeed he's been doing most of the time since retrieving it when his hands have been idle.

He looks into it as he speaks, any slight glow that it might give off lost in the flickering light of the many fat lamps "I was at the point of death when Eyota showed me this. It glowed ever so faintly, but in the darkness of Croak's belly it was enough for me to notice."

He looks from the gem to each of the Rangers there in turn as he continues "It was pretty and it didn't belong to me so I took it, as is Raven's way. And as I took it from Croak I ripped it from his belly where it had been sitting since that time so long ago when he took it."

"So long had it been sitting there that his guts had grown around it and the act of my ripping it from him caused him enough pain that he vomited me."

His gaze come back to the gem as he goes on "As I was laying there between this life and the next with this, a portion of her, clutched in my hands we were one and the same for a time. I was here just when the Chaos came for the first time, I endured it and I... I mean she endures it still."

Ohanzee tells them of the vision.

Amara spoke softly, hoping Ohanzee would see she was sorry for what she'd done to him. "I don't know what you've been through, or the significance of the jewel. Just tell me what you need and I'll do everything I can to help."

The Copper Man has not come to speak with me for a long time. He said he must go away to fight a great evil. He tried to tell me of this evil but his words were lost, what do I know of such things, what do I know of going away, I am here, I have always been here, I will always be here.

Screams! The frantic beat of wings and the legs carrying the shadow vanish into the element above. Beasts, humans, birds, I hear panicked cries! What is happening, why do they flee? My surface is shattered in a hundred places as the hooves and feet of the running try to make a run from one side of me to another. No, not through the middle little ones, I'm too deep there, too deep and too wide you are not strong enough swimmers, why do you throw your lives away?

ARGH! What is this feeling along my bank? It is... all possibilities and no future... it is change without no purpose but change itself... it is all corrupting... is this the evil the Copper one spoke of?

It infects those it touches, spreads through them if they give over to it, destroys them if they resist. Run, fly swim, get away all of you! I cannot run nor swim, nor fly, I have always been here I will always be here, I will endure.

ARGH! Deep, I will go deep, too deep for the corruption to follow. Come friends, come with me come deep. I will protect you all, come with me. My surface is touched not by the light of the Bright Treasure now it is covering with the smear of corruption and death. The young ones are trapped now, no where to swim to, the corruption comes from all sides and is nearly upon them. I must save their souls, I must swallow them and keep their souls clean within me to save them.

Come little ones, do not be afraid, swim deep with me and we shall endure together. Deeper, deeper, that's it, do not worry about the air, I will fill your lungs and you can stay safe with me, pure, clean, endure.

No Croak always the greedy one this you cannot eat come deep with me. No! Damn you you foolish creature I told you could not eat that, now it consumes you! ARGH! My old friend is no more, but what he has become even eats me! Deeper, I must go deeper with those I keep safe, deeper, keep clean, keep pure, keep them clean.

...



...



"You're one to talk, Scarface," Ohanzee's comment sending Kobal over the edge.  Kobal looks like he might take things further, when Sehana offers a toast.



Great, first less than stellar news.  Now I'm reminded of another marriage to another woman I haven't met...

He forces a smile to the Black Shield brave and returns the toast.



Kobal clenches and unclenches his fists.  Torn between punching Salen, and trying to restrain himself in the presence of the new recruits to the Wandering Rangers.

Instead to forces himself to listen to the now serious Ohanzee, and his story about the gem.

"So... we have to go deep into the water to bring back the spirit...?  Or maybe there are caves we can follow deeper below to find the source of the water...?"

Henal about to join in the ribaldry aimed at Kobal stops as he hears Ohanzee start speaking.

"So old Croak is touched by chaos then? But more important how do we go down to show the spirit that the waters are growing clean again and the chaos is being driven out?"