He shrugs at Ohanzee's outburst, "He sounds like he's got a lot in common with how others see us." Melock listens to the others and when Ohanzee tells them of his vision, he feels the spirits pain.



He looks over to Henal, "Just what I was thinking. If he is, and I know this makes me sound like Greeshar, then why are we sitting here instead of killing it? " Melock pauses long enough to gulp down some more kumiss, "Instead of drinking all day before Kobal's wedding, we should kill that beast, not only will it show Kobal's new family that he is a mighty warrior, but it will also help clean the temple."

"He is" Ohanzee replies to Henal and as he stands "Sure he must be dealt with, but as Ashfoot Earth Healer said, are we ready for that?"

Heading out towards the pool "But I am ready to try at least to see if we can contact Bisud'dha Pani. Coming?" and he heads for the pool.

Amara looked a touch concerned "If you feel that you're well enough to talk to her, I will accompany you."

Sehana thinks, The truth surely is a sharp blade. She wonders how the Black Shield clan will react to news that Kobal is already married, this very season, to a Red Thorn.


Sehana decides to invite herself along. Setting down the skin of kumiss, she follows the others who are leaving the cave.

Ohanzee notes the look of concern on Amara's ace and smiles as he responds to her "I don't know if we'll be able to break through to her, perhaps the gem needs to be attuned to a person's soul to work, but if it is a failure then at least we'll have tried."

"She's been trapped so long, as long as Gadesha at least, I have to try."

"We could do both together, while you try to contact the spirit the rest of us could flush the toad out and kill it." He stands and pats his pockets looking for something, "Doesn't one of you Sun Hawks know how to make a wall of light? If its made to face down in to the pool it'll light up any beasts and make them easier to kill. As there's not enough room if we're all by the pool, I'll go up top."

"I don't think we are ready to deal with old Croak yet, there is only so much we can do about such a huge creature and if one of us got swallowed and spat out under the water they'd surely die. Let us be more cunning than that, though that makes me sound like a Raven wanting to find tricks to win rather than just overcoming the enemy like a Thunderbird".

Amara pressed a small fish made of silver into Ohanzee's hand. "I think this might help you reach her more safely. I think my presence might disturb her, tied to the Earth as I am. I'll keep out of the water. Place it in your mouth and it will help you breathe...for a time. You do not have long to persuade her."

The pool is at the other end of the room where they now were, so it takes mere moments before the Rangers stand around the shimmering water. It's barely two metres across and under the light of the torches looks to be the same in depth. There are several leather buckets lying next to it and despite daily use it has never lessened in quantity.

Ohanzee takes the item with a smile "Thank you. I don't think I'll need it with the poolthe size it is, but thank you."

"She knew the Copper Warriors who lived here. Emesh-Ga might have known her."

The scarred young brave walks forward into the water, the gem clutched in his left hand a chant already on his lips.

Bisud'dha Pani, spirit of the oasis.
Bisud'dha Pani, who was always here.
Bisud'dha Pani, who is not forgotten.
Bisud'dha Pani, for you we're here.

You were here in the Green
You were here from the first
You were filled with Life
You quench all thirst.

Bisud'dha Pani, spirit of the oasis.
Bisud'dha Pani, who was always here.
Bisud'dha Pani, who is not forgotten.
Bisud'dha Pani, for you we're here.

Chaos came, you endured
Friends destroyed, you endured
Friend corrupted, you endured
Friend betrayed, you endured.

Bisud'dha Pani, spirit of the oasis.
Bisud'dha Pani, who was always here.
Bisud'dha Pani, who is not forgotten.
Bisud'dha Pani, for you we're here.

Deep you went, trapped away
Friends you took, hid away
Drowned but saved, taken away
Their souls you keep safe always.

Bisud'dha Pani, spirit of the oasis.
Bisud'dha Pani, who was always here.
Bisud'dha Pani, who is not forgotten.
Bisud'dha Pani, for you we're here.

Henal advances to the edge of the water but does not follow Ohanzee in. The diminutive brave joins in the chant and prepares himself to reach out to the spirit if it replies.

Amara listened carefully to Ohanzee's song, waiting until he was finished "If that does not stir her, then you may need to go fetch her. She has hidden herself for many years. Perhaps she fears coming back. Where she is, she is safe...perhaps she needs someone daring enough to try to reach her." Amara shrugged, not sure how she might react if she were in the oasis spirits place.

Sehana, bound only to speak the truth, knew that this spirit's liberation was the proper thing. In her passing Spiritspeech, she repeated the chorus.

Hanging back in the shadows, Melock just looks on in silence, his eyes darting around the group.

Voras is content to watch the proceedings and learn from them.  Things seem to go wrong very quickly around the Rangers and it's best to be on his toes.

Initially, Hoskar hangs back with Melock; drawing comfort from the closeness of an old friend with joined experiences as yet untold but as Ohanzee chants he finds his legs move him unbidden to stand beside, and slightly behind in token of support, another Raven; his lips taking the words and form of the chant...in unison at first, but then a harmony conterpointing with words beneath words; offered quietly so as not to overwhelm the main theme.

Bisud'dha Pani, spirit of the oasis.
Bisud'dha Pani, who was always here.
Bisud'dha Pani, who is not forgotten.
Bisud'dha Pani, for you we're here.

Deep we seek, bringing home
Friends returning to the day
Drowned but saved, come back in day
Their souls you keep safe alway.

Bisud'dha Pani, spirit of the oasis.
Bisud'dha Pani, who was always here.
Bisud'dha Pani, who is not forgotten.
Bisud'dha Pani, for you we're here.

Copper cometh, be renewed
Friends quest on, be renewed
Friend be cleansed, be renewed
Friend re-friended, be renewed.

Two-Feather seems more impressionable than he had been before. Again, tears course his face in joy; falling to the pool to mingle their hope with its sweet waters.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:04, Mon 07 Mar 2016.

Tarosh, his water runes glowing brightly joins Ohanzee in the water, his voice mixing in with the others.

It's a powerful moment and the water positively glows from the spiritual energy flowing into it.

But nothing happens, apart from everyone present feeling the faintest of faintest connections with something far, far away.

Ohanzee leaves the water, a slight quizzical look on his face as he approaches Amara first handing her back the small metal fish she fave him. He then addresses the others "We cannot break through. Not yet, but I felt the slightest of links perhaps, nothing more tangible than a wisp of smoke."

"There is much to do before we should even try again though. I sense that a proper link cannot be made until the other waters here are cleansed and even then not without forming a stronger link with Bisud'dha Pani first."

"The gem is a part of Bisud'dha Pani taken by Croak but even within the belly of that corrupt beast after all this time he could not destroy nor corrupt even such a small part of Bisud'dha Pani."

"This part of Bisud'dha Pani solidified within his belly after so long and I hope at least gave him bellyache!"

"I think attuning the gem might form enough of a link with Bisud'dha Pani to break through after the waters are cleaned, but I'm not certain."

"You must of been close to contacting Bisud'dha Pani because even I felt some sort of presence. Maybe the cleansing should start with the smallest pool and work upwards?" He looks unnerved when he hears about the two possessed Red Thorns,"I wonder if there is any connection to what we have been doing? "

In reply to Melock (msg # 57):

We did feel close to something for a moment, didn't we? Something old, very old and powerful and benign.

His wistful smile remaining, he raises an eyebrow. Wouldn't surprise me if things are the result of our work: we'll surely have caused a few ripples. Just hope the one who ran off isn't looking for that damnable Basmoli spirit.

When he hears of the possessed Red Thorns he is intrigued, especially by the one running off into the desert speaking of golden gods "There is too much here for it all to be coincidence. Our shared visions of the golden disk, the golden warriors from down by the Zola Fel who stole the disk from us. The talk of a fallen star from old spirits. And now this."

"I will speak to the possessed one who remains if I am permitted. Perhaps the Seza can help me make a deal with the possessing spirit, something to the benefit of it and the girl?"

As the evening passes by the Ten Tall Men join the group and talk with Tarnessh the young Raven brave is intrigued again though remembering the way he upset the joint High Llama and Agamori camp he keeps his distance.

After some time though he approaches with a small hide wrapped package and sits with them "Tarnessh I said we should talk, but things have been hectic since."

He unwraps the package to reveal an exact copy of the golden disk but this one wrought of stone looking from the Sun Hawk to the Ten Tall Men "We lost the original to save me from slave bracelets. I sensed that this would happen though and had a friend make a copy before we handed it over."

"If I am right this is what the foreigners call a map, it tells a path to follow to the site where a star fell to the Earth in ancient times. The golden god the possessed brave cried of as he ran into the desert, the same thing the golden warriors seek and the same thing that was visited by the renegade shaman of the Red Thorn Clan."

"It is important to or spirits, the Rivals and at least part of the reason they work together I think, so it is important to us. We may not have the magics of the disk itself any more, but we still have the map... if we only knew how to read it."

"Perhaps I can borrow it during Sun Hawk's Holy day. I will ask for guidance. The use of Divination would be most useful now."

The Sun Hawk shows the stone disc to Voras and Sehana, explaining that the original gold one was found by the Rangers and has been hunted by Yelmalions and their Impala allies of the Fire Feather clan, as it supposedly refers to a site called Lasseter's Reef, a holy place and possibly a resting place for a fallen Sky god.

"The Golden Disc was take here at the Giant Finger Holes by a contingent of Yelmalions after they successfully negotiated for it by following a myth of their god. Perhaps he others can explain all that went before?"

The stone disc is as wide as Kobal's hand when his fingers are splayed out. One side is a representation of the sun, it's centre filled with what the braves now understand to be writing.  Turning it over those looking can see that it is filled with small pictures and script. It shows a man leaving a domed building by a river and going on a journey towards the East. Bits are too scratched to be readable, but it shows him discovering a large rock with the Sky rune on it. He seems to be praying. There's various creatures depicted of the nasty variety and finally it shows him going back to the domed building and talking to many people and pointing to the East. Finally he is shown being buried.

"Unfortunately Haratt was the only one who could read the text and even then he'd either not shared what he'd found or not really understood what it was all about."

The Ten Tall men are certainly excited, eventually explaining that they followed the Yelmalions and that they have retreated to their homeland.

"The secret to this disc lies there or other places of power."

"An interesting story, indeed.  I'd love to hear it in detail another time."

Voras examines the disk closely, attempting to understand the meaning of the symbols that have been scribed upon it.

"Though I don't know the meaning of everything on here, perhaps we should prepare for a journey.  If nothing else, we will be able to learn something."

Ohanzee's hands the disc over, but when Tarnessh and Voras speak of deciphering the meaning he remembers the initiation vision sent him by Raven and cautions "You are welcome to borrow it, but only if you promise to share all that you decipher or learn of it. We might already have lost some advantage because Harratt deemed it better to keep whatever secrets he was able to glean from it to himself."

Then addressing the Ten Tall Men he speaks "We are to head to the walled place with the stone tents. There are powers there, men of learning who might know what it all means, but I'm not sure about taking it there and showing to them."

"There is another though, one like you but from over the sea who wields foreign spiritless magics. He might know and he has been happy to share knowledge before. He is strange, he seems to collect knowledge as we would collect herd beasts."

The young brave is quiet for a moment but then speaks again "Melock and I are going to dedicate a shrine here to Raven. I think the place to do that is in our Oath taking room and I think that you others should dedicate shrines to your own Rival spirits, a shrine in each of the four corners of the room."

"The Rivals have shown each of us that we should work together as they are prepared to do, to work together for the Earth. After all they brought us each together here for this purpose."

"I think too that we should extend the ceremony if Emesh-Ga would permit it. If the Wandering Rangers are so important to the Rivals and without the Rivals our band would not have come together, then I think that the oath taking should also include Rival choosing. A Rival should be chosen"" he shrugs "or perhaps the Rivals will make an appearance and do the choosing."