Sitting up straighter, Melock coughs to get everyone's attention, "I have a story to tell, those of us who have been together from the start already know it, but our merry band has grown," a fleeting look of sadness crosses his face, "and we have lost friends as well, maybe on a night like tonight they are listening as well." He raises his mug of kumis in a silent toast to those who have died. After a moment of silence he continues, "This is the tale of how we became who we are now. We join ourselves," he points to Amara, Kobal and himself, " on an overcast Godsday at the beginning of Sea Season. There are many other present some of who have gone to the Happy hunting ground and others who have stayed at the Earth Temple to help strengthen it, if you would know more than their names, just ask."

2 Bright Treasure, a ritual and a journey.....


We'd spent the pervious night drinking and killing hyenas, so we were tired, cold and some of us had hangovers. though you'd think that old Tokar had had a full nights sleep the way he was bellowing.  Just as we were ready to leave, we got soaked by a sudden shower, not a good sign for our first journey away from the clan, but it past and there we were, alone in the Wastes.

Still in sight of where we'd left, we found a shrine to the Herd Mother that had been desecrated by some low life. A few hours later we saw some vultures circling, so we headed towards them to see why, before we got to their lunch, we came across a watering hole amongst a cluster of rocks with tracks from a Leaping Bear appearing by the base of one boulder. Eager to kill such a foe, we split in to three groups to track it. We all found a different cave entrance and Kobal is the first to rush in and so is the first to be attacked by the leaping bear, while Fireborn is starting a fire to smoke it out, I run in to help Kobal as does Hacha Lor, we manage to drive it off, but not before one of Kobal's legs is almost ripped off. The leaping bear ran out of the cave and straight towards Amara and Greeshar, who were both still mounted on their rhinos. Needless to say not even a leaping bear can survive being charged by two rhino riders.

After we healed Kobal with help from Aksuwhetu, the spirit of the Tamarisk tree, we found a dead body in the cave, who's ghost possessed me, but luckily for me, he just wanted his body dealt with in accordance with his beliefs. Once the others burnt his body, his spirit departed and I was free. We found a dead bison where the vultures were feeding, obviously one of leaping bears kills. When Aksuwhetu was helping us, he mentioned we should go to a place called the Singing Safe Spot, so when we were all ready, we headed westward.

3 Singing Safe Place

The day passes quickly and quietly. Just as Bright Treasure is entering the Gates of Dusk, we get near to the Singing safe place and hear drumming which stops when they hear us. To our relief it's a friendly troop of baboons. We spend the evening feasting and telling stories. Bonds were formed that night though in the end it did the Walkabout troop no favours, but I get ahead of my self. As the drink flows  people and baboons dance and wrestle, but soon the talk turns serious as we try to answer the question of who set Tripanandar on our tribe and how to put him in his place. The former is unknown, but for the latter we come up with a crazy plan to become Tada when he beat up Tripanandar, it will be dangerous and involve a minor hero quest, but if we can work together it might just work.

4 Red skies.....And Tada fights Tripanandar

In the morning with the help of the Baboon elders we paint ourselves with blessed paint and call upon the Gods to aid us against Tripanandar. When we leave the baboons, we are all Tada. On our journey to find Tada's foe, we come across a fallen giant make of stone and mud called Red Sky, thanks to the Walkabout troop we know how to deal with him and gain a boon for our lances. We make friends with another spirit, called Saxaul who's trees carry the same name, by killing a rock lizard.
We journey onwards, though our time spent helping Saxaul was worth it, it meant we came to Tripanandar's lair as it was getting dark. He'd made his home in a hilly area full of stone spires and boulder choked ravines, lots of places for him to hide and ambush us. When we had travelled in to the deep dark ravines, Amara lead the call in shouting out our challenge to lure the beast out. A roar from the darkness is our only answer, for now. We rush forward into the darkness, spreading out. Hacha Lor and me, the two Ravens are swallowed by the darkness, while Fireborn's torch pushes it away. Suddenly a female leaping bear attacks Kobal and Kaonu, but between them they mortally wound it. Then another one attacks Amara, but dies as the Vingan proves to everyone how deadly she is with a javelin. Hacha Lor and Fireborn find the female's cubs and injure both of them before chasing them down and finishing them off. More of us were injured than not. Greeshar sees movement further down the ravine, but its too late. Out of the darkness Tripanandar leaps on to Hacha Lor and kills him. In a surge of rage we all charge at the foul beast and in a flurry of hits manage to kill him. We forced his spirit to talk to us and found out it was a shaman from the Red Thorn clan who had set him on our tribe.

Melock stops speaking and raises his drink, "To Hacha Lor, the first of us to die!" after a moments silence, he continues.

We found more cubs, younger than the others, we killed them and later I had their skins made in to puppets. He holds them for all to see.

Mid morning the next day as we are heading south west, we encounter The Big Pecker Mob, Ostrich riders, eating one of our bison, though strong they didn't kill it, it was another senseless kill by Tripanandar. Their Khan, Sky Bone Blue heard the wisdom in Kobal's words and instead of fleeing, they stayed and talked. Turns out that Sky Bone Blue knows Amara and Greeshar's uncle, a Storm Khan. They fought together at Moonbroth. Food is eaten, tales told and a few quiet trades, then it is time to leave, we part as friends and with a possible hiding place for the Red Thorn shaman.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:34, Fri 10 Aug 2018.

5 Bison Khan and Rain Man Grasslands

As the afternoon passes we enter the Bison Khan and the Rainman grasslands and  grass gets greener much to our mounts delight. This is where our clan was heading and as the light starts to fade we see their campfires. We are met by friends and family, though the joy in our returning was lessened by our loss. We were ushered in front of  the Elders and told them all we had seen and done, well most of it. By the end of our tale most of the tribe was trying to hear us. When we told them of the Red Thorn and where he might be, we were told we couldn't go. The rest of the night we talked to our shamans and the elders, telling and retelling what we had done.

8 The Wicked Writher

The heavy rain had by dawn become a light drizzle, the skies a dark grey except for where the sun now rose in the East. There everything was golden pink, a good sign or so the Shaman's said.
Their dead companion lay on his funeral pyre, dressed in armour and with all his weapons, surrounded by friends and family.
Their High Priest, Nausyas The Iron Bull, reciting the words of Waha, helping the soul on towards it's final resting place.
At last he's finished and Darnik Sharp Lance calls down the divine power, taken by Waha from Oakfed during the Darkness. And there from out of the gloom appear bright flames, their cores as hot as Yelm himself. Called from the spirit plane they drift onto the  pyre, which despite the rain ignites in a massive whoosh.
The funeral ululations increase and horns blow, joining the Bull roarers swung by all able men. Those close to the man shout his praises…….

Then it's done and the calls begin

"The Wicked Writher!….It comes" and all can hear the roar of water in the distance…..

Our khan and other priests fought the Wicked Writher whilst we kept away our enemies, in the confusion we barely noticed that Salen, our first Condor, had returned with his Shaman, Long Grass. The Rhino Khan summoned their Air god who helped us drive off our enemies, but not before Long Grass was grabbed by a flying man riding a bison. Then our Khan, Nausyas the Iron Bull, who now is my brother in law, made his move and pulls the Wicked Writher apart defeating him and ensuring the grasslands will be green for another year. Much to our surprise the Walkabout troop appear after the Storm Khan arrives, they had helped the Storm bulls kill chaos. The rest of the day is filled with celebrations and catching up with old friends.

An early start the next day and we are all head to the river and meet our Shamans. We are all taken away by our own Shaman to meet our Feathered Rival and we all returned. That's all I'm able to say about what we went through
This message was last edited by the player at 19:36, Fri 10 Aug 2018.

11 Before the Storm

After we all pass our initiation, we all meet up to discuss what visions we were given. Surprisingly Long Grass was there, how he escaped the Red Thorn shaman, for it was he we saw flying, I do not know, but it became apparent that Long Grass's spirit had been stolen by the Red Thorn and it was his Fetch that controlled his body. By listening to everyone's visions and with the help of our shamans, we worked out that the evil shaman was hiding at the Giant Finger holes, a place full of spirits. Our shamans told us that under no circumstances were we to go there.
Once they had left we managed to come up with a plan to get away from the tribe and travel there. We told them that Amara and Greeshar wanted to visit the Rhino Rock land's and of course the rest of us would go with them. We each spend time with family apart from Fireborn who decides to patrol the herds so that he didn't have to speak the truth if anyone asks him about our plans, then we all meet up and party with the tribe.

12 We're off to see the Shaman, the wonderful Shaman of….

The dawn seems to come too soon, but despite more hangovers we all manage to get our act together and our group has grown by two. Long Grass is coming with us as our guide and we have another rhino rider with us, Whispers from the Sky, she has recently become a shaman and for reasons unknown decided she wanted to come with us. About lunch time we arrive at the place we met the Big Pecker mob, though this time we found a group of unfriendly Morokanth lead by that bastard Zakeen Two Thumb.

Melock pauses to wet his throat and comments angrily, "You'll hear why he's a bastard later."

The rest of the day was a windy and dusty one and we were glad to make camp in the wind shadow of a large dune. The night passes quietly, but in the morning we have an unexpected visitor, an ostrich with an empty saddle runs in to our camp. Momentarily we discover why it was running as five broo come charging over the dune. Two of them are killed with in seconds, the others turn and flee, but a javelin from Salen stops one of them from getting far. We chased the last two to their stinking hole of a hide out, but we only find one of them and a rubble runner broo who has a whole group of rubble runners with him. It takes some doing but we manage to kill them all. While some of us had run after the chaos without a second thought, those with calmer heads had stayed behind to guard Whisper from the Sky and Long Grass. They had then been surprised to meet two scouts from the shaman killing party, who came and helped us out of the chaos hole. I had been cursed by Malia and it was only with Whisper's help that I did not die that day. The scouts carried the good news that their party had killed the rouge shaman. We rest until after lunch then push onwards through the sand storm, we kept to the low routes, trying to keep out of the incessant wind. That night we discovered that the Red Thorn Shaman has a way to come back from the dead and so we made plans on how to kill him again.

In the morning the storm had passed, which according to Whispers from the Sky and Long Grass meant that the Red Thorn Shaman was back in the land of the living. We were lucky to have another quiet day of travel only interrupted by hunting some wild impalas. With Salen's reading Waha's ropes, we found a good campsite, a jumble of rocks surrounded by a lot of cactus with a clearing hidden at the centre, it looked well used and in the centre of the clearing stood a massive cactus. Greeshar thought he smelt chaos, but we didn't see anything while we hunted rabbits and jerboa for dinner.

Shaking his head,  "We should have searched better."

As usual we settled round the fire to tell tales and eat, then as we got ready to sleep, Whispers from the Sky went on first watch, moments later we heard her scream, by the time we got to her she was unconscious, with no sign of her attackers. Something made Amara attack Salen, but with Greeshar's help the two of them subdued her. Mean while I had found some strange tracks in the ground, big round ones, about the size and shape of my old shield, suddenly it clicked, it was the giant cactus. So I made it look like I was following some tracks that went past it, then, when I got near it, I stabbed it. When I pulled my sword out, a vile green liquid sprayed over me and the giant cactus started to move. Even though I was expecting it to move, it still shocked me which is why it managed to hit me and Fireborn, who was fairly close by, sending us both flying. My left arm and Fireborn's right arm were both crushed to a bloody pulp. Luckily for me Long Grass come running to my aid. While Kaonu chucked his javelin, Salen attacked it with a flaming torch and Greeshar, jumping back upon the mighty Stoneskin, the only mount who hadn't run away, charged the monster. Kaonu's javelin barely scratched it, Salen's torch got ripped out of his hand by a massive arm as it narrowly missed his head. Stoneskin zigged when he should of zagged and ended up missing, which caused Greeshar's lance to dig in to the ground almost unseating him.
Just as it is looking like we are about to be flattened like that jerboa, a javelin burst out of the monsters chest, killing it instantly. As it fell it revealed a very smug looking Kaonu, which he had every right to be, as he had just killed a giant walking cactus with one shot. Our joy at besting the chaos thing was short lived as we realised that Whispers from the Sky was dead. Again we called on the spirits that lived around us, Grandfather Jerboa and Tak Eeela, to help us bring back a friend. Tak Eeela answered us and helped us bring Whispers back from the dead. Amara suggests we go to the Rhino Rockland's first so Whispers from the Sky can regain some of spirits before we fight the evil shaman.
Two days pass quietly, but on the second afternoon we find ostrich tracks, possibly from our friends the Big Pecker mob, unfortunately we also find signs of broo following them and after Salen spoke to a few vultures we found out that the vultures were heading to a feast a few days travel away. We come to the conclusion that the feast is probably the remains of the Ostrich clan and there's nothing we can do to help. That evening we enter a lush ravine known as Rhino gouge, it has plenty of game and fresh water and a few caves on either side. We met some friendly spirits, in fact Greeshar met a very friendly spirit and a weird Mostali thing that gave us strong spirits to drink.
We anoint and paint each other in the morning so that when we enter the Rockland's we are ready to talk to the great rhino spirit. As we approach we see smoke rising from where the head should be. Around the fire we see three people and seven rhinos, one of the people runs to his mount and rides towards us.

Grinning Melock takes a sip of his drink, " Do you remember our first meeting Hoskar?"

Of all the riders we could meet in the wastes, we meet a friend of Amara and Greeshar's.

His smile vanishes, " He was with that treacherous bastard Krakka Rumble," anger drips from Melock's voice, "yes he was friendly in the beginning, but it's his later actions that he'll die for." Taking a breath to relax before speaking again, "sorry, I'm jumping a head again, you'll hear soon enough what he did to earn our hatred."

Krakka's wife met us by the fire, a follower of the Earth, Gronya Rumble, a good lady, shame about her husband. The Rhino riders caught each other up in regard to how they have survived since Moonbroth. The talk turns to one of gaining blessings, Whispers goes off in to the earth with Gronya. While the other rhino riders tether the ostrich and trample it to death in sacrifice to the Great Rhino. The rhino's are blessed by their founding spirit. Just as things are settling down, tempers flair between Amara and Krakka and we're just about to get thrown out of his camp when we are attacked by some Morokanth, no doubt attracted by the ritual we had just completed. They are lead by one we met before, Zakeen Two thumb's. The fight is quick and brutal, Two thumbs followers are killed or badly injured, while a few of us are hurt. Amara, Fireborn and me chase three Morokanth in to the sacred caves. At the fire Zakeen surrenders and Krakka tells the others that they can go help those in the cave, but asks for Kaonu to stay and help keep an eye on the morokanth. As they enter the cave a running and panicked morokanth runs past them.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:27, Sun 26 Aug 2018.

13 We're off to see the Shaman, the wonderful Shaman of…

The caves are dark and our torches do not stay lit, it is then that I discovered another gift from Raven, I could see in the dark. What I saw made me briefly wish I couldn't as I saw some dark shape drag one of the morokanth in to the walls. As we went deeper still Amara said it must be the earth guardians of the temple that I had seen. Just as we were about to turn and leave Gronya appears and leads us to the Earth Witch, Noita. She has been expecting us and knows of our visions and our desire to kill the Red Thorn shaman. We are question about our motives and told about Gadesha who guards the abandoned Earth Temple, which is home to the tomb of her dead husband Emesh-Ga. We must have impressed her as she offered to help us, if we free Gadesha and awaken the Earth Temple, but her aid comes at a cost, payable when we have done as we promised. An earth ritual follows where we all gain a little bit of the power of the earth.

Just as we are congratulating are ourselves, Whispers from the Sky asks where Kaonu is. We decide we should head back to the surface, as we emerge in to the light all we see is an empty camp, all our mounts gone.

Betrayal, as some of us look for signs of what happened, Amara finds Yellow Wing, Kaonu's mount, dead. Salen talks to Fireborn's hawk and we find out that Krakka took the rhinos and two thumbs took the bison and Kaonu. Gronya wasn't happy with Krakka so we know she is blameless. We decide to split up, Salen heads off after the morokanth and the rest of us hunt for Krakka.

Hoskar and Long Grass lead us along the path left by our stolen mounts. After a long day of tracking we catch up with them, Krakka has met up with some of his clan, all Storm Bulls, all getting ready for his holy day in the morrow. It's decided that as the Bulls get very drunk on their holy days, we'll strike then.

We watch them from cover until most of them leave, the only ones guarding the camp are so drunk they can barely stand and a cat, Krakka's allied spirit. I sneak up on the cat and manage to bag it before it knows I'm there. It yowls and alerts the guards, I run away and dump the cat behind some rocks. In the confusion the others grab their rhinos and a few others, while stampeding the others to cover our escape. We manage to steal 5 of their rhinos and  there is no sign of them following us.

We ride for the whole of the next day listening to Fireborn complaining about how uncomfortable riding a rhino is. As dusk darkens the sky, we spy a stand of trees with the glow of a fire visible, we approach carefully and are first greeted by the grunt of Fireborn's bison Cloud Killer, then Salen steps in to view with sadness in his eyes. Once camp is made, Salen tells us how he caught up with the morokanth at the ravine we used and with the help of the mostail drink thing and the spirits of the place he rescued our mounts and then attacked the morokanth and killed half of them, but 2 thumbs allied spirit, which was in a gern, had a knife to Kaonu's throat and instead of parleying, killed him, while 2 thumbs used magic to run away. The gern died and so did the other morokanth. More oaths of vengeance were sworn that night.

The night is quiet and the day pass quickly as we approach the hiding place of the Red Thorn shaman, the Giant Finger Holes, but we arrive at dusk, not the best time to attack. A quick scout around revels lots of ghosts and burning Tamarisk trees and 1 weird pygmy. After a quick discussion we decide to climb down in to the biggest hole, hoping it is the least guarded, though there is a good reason for that, as it's at least 50 meters deep. All of us made it down safely and found ourselves in the ruined entrance to the Earth Temple. The shaman might not know we were there, but we could feel in our bones that Gadesha did, just as the earth rumbled. Whispers and Greeshar manage to open a magical door and we race through it to avoid the ghosts that had spotted us.

We found ourselves in a flooded and defiled part of the Earth Temple. A set of bronze doors have been broken open and another exit carries a scent of carrion. The bronze doors have images of an armoured man engraved on them and solid darkness fills the corridor behind them, from the darkness come the rage filled voice of Gadesha calling for her dead husband, Emesh-Ga.

15 Tip toe, through the forest

Using some of the magic given to us by the Earth Witch, I slipped through the bronze doors to see what was hidden. I followed the passage way and soon came to a room with an earthen pillar standing near it's entrance and the pillar wept. This was the first time I saw Gadesha, thankfully the magic meant she did not see me, else I would not be here to tell this tale. As I looked closer I realise that the pillar looked like a voluptuous woman with a square block for a head. I quickly return to the others before that magic faded.

"As for what happened to the others while I wasn't there, I only know what they told me."

13 We're off to see the Shaman, the wonderful Shaman of…

Moments after I disappeared, the others were attacked by pygmy ghouls, it was a close thing but they killed all bar two, who ran away, though for some reason Long Grass was unconscious and took his time coming round. I arrived back just as they were patching themselves up. We could smell fresh burning and started to worry that the shaman was about to do something nasty. It was decided that I would go and talk to Gadesha in the hope she could help us against the shaman, while the others would hunt him down.

16 Broken hearted

To give myself the air of authority I use the gift of illusion from the Earth Witch to make myself look like Tada. Doing what a Raven does best, I played the part of Tada flawlessly and not only convinced Gadesha to let the others enter safely, but I also spoke to Emesh-Ga and told him we were there to reawaken him. Once safe passage was assured I left to help the others.

13 We're off to see the Shaman, the wonderful Shaman of…

The others charged off through the other exit in to a massive cavern, where they are attack by the remaining ghouls and a couple of skeletons, but my friends make short work of them. The shadowy figure of the shaman watched the fight and faded away when his creatures lost. Hoskar, Whispers and Long Grass stay in the cavern while the others chase down the enemy, splitting up and running through tunnels hoping to corner him. Just as they find him, I ran in to Whispers, Hoskar and Long Grass, but this time it is the true Long Grass. He sends Hoskar and myself after the others while Whispers summons an ancestral rhino spirit. We all attack him at once and it's Greeshar who gets the killing blow in, using the power of death he got from the Earth Witch. Even with his body killed we can still hear the laughter of the shaman, but that ended abruptly when the rhino spirit came charging down on him. We waste no time burning his body to stop him coming back.

As we search for loot, Salen finds two Sable women who have been poisoned with ghoul venom. They need help and fast, but first we go to free Gadesha.

Nervously I lead the way to her, we enter the room I first met her, but she has disappeared. Emesh-Ga's voice is heard in our heads as he greets us, shortly afterwards Gadesha appears, flowing through the ground. We introduce ourselves and manage to open the tomb and make our way down to Emesh-Ga's final resting place. There are remains of the last people who entered, they have looted some of his treasures, but his helm and shield are still there. We swear an oath to Emesh-Ga and his spirit merges with his helm.

"The same one that Kobal carries, and his shield is carried by Hoskar"

Surprisingly the night is uneventful, maybe we scared everything away or perhaps it was the place it's self. In the morning we explored some more. Then those on lookout spied dust being kicked up as people approached from two directions and Kobal called out that the Earth Witch is in the Earth Temple.

The first group to approach us from the wastes are the Storm bulls who were with Krakka when we got our mounts back. Harsh words are exchanged as they wanted their mounts back, but their Storm Khan, Well 'ard 'arry issues a challenge to Amara, if she wins in a head butting contest with Stubby, a female Storm bull, we get to keep what we raided. The contest is about to begin when the other riders trot out of the scrub. It's Micklebran the Howler and our clans own Storm Bulls. The challenge stands and Amara gets the first butt, though it does her little good and she is felled by Stubby's first butt. So we loose, but after the Storm Khan has talked to Micklebran and Long Grass, he decides to only take one rhino from us as Stubby's prize. Making use of the Storm bulls skill in sensing chaos we checked the area for problems and then the Bulls depart, taking some of the treasure we found.

Emesh-Ga calls us to the Earth Temple to meet the Earth Witch. She greets us warmly and we answer her questions as she answers ours. She tells us if we want to heal the Sable women we need to head west to Grandmother Spider's sacred place and either kill her children for their venom or summon her and ask for help. We pledge ourselves to her for two weeks every Earth season as payment for past and future aid.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:25, Mon 27 Aug 2018.

19 Creepy Crawlies

Another morning, another early start. The party splits up with only Amara, Salen, Greeshar, Hoskar and myself heading off to visit the Spider, the others staying behind to help the Earth Witch. Storm Bull honours us with a display of his might and we cower in awe in a cave for half a day.
Arriving at a pillar of stone surrounded by webs an hour before dusk, we realise we have entered Grandmother of Spiders domain. Leaving the others on guard, I started singing and edged closer to the pillar, then as it got unbelievably cold, she spoke to me and we talked. In return for not only some venom, but a spider familiar for me, she wanted us to kill some scorpion men, we agree to her terms and set off to find a safer place to camp for the night. But this is the wastes and no where is truly safe, firstly out of the gathering darkness we got shot at by Impala's but it was too dark to chase them. Then after we made camp and Amara was on watch we were attacked by four monstrous scorpion men, they died after a quick fight, but Stoneskin, Greeshar's mount was pumped full of poison by two of the foul chaos beasts and even a rhino has it's limits and he died as Greeshar sung a funeral song.
When the morning came, we discovered that their cave was close by. As it had worked for us before, we started a fire and tried to smoke them out, it worked for one of them, as it got stuck trying to squeeze out of a small hole, Amara and I killed it from a distance. In the cave itself we found and killed some baby scorpion men, three dead Yelmalians seemed to have been their first meal. When darkness came again, we were in the spider lands and Grandmother of Spiders was happy with us for not only clearing out the chaos, but for bringing her the dead scorpion men and Yelmalians to eat. We manage to make it back to the cave where we sheltered from Storm Bull and had a quiet night.
As we broke our fast the next day, Kobal and Fireborn met with us and urged us to hurry, so we rushed back to the Finger Holes. We healed the Sable women and then talk turned to heading back to the tribe.

20 Homeward bound

After we had woken up and had breakfast, we said our goodbyes to the Earth Witch and our group split up, the two shamans, Kobal and Greeshar heading back to the tribe with our extra beasts while the rest of us headed back to the gorge to talk to the spirits that helped Salen.
That night, we came across a small gully to camp in and I found a quiet area to sacrifice to Grandmother Spider. Maybe it was because of Grandmother Spider, but the only thing that disturbed our sleep that night was when a couple of snakes who spooked our mounts and were flattened for their trouble.

In the morning Hoskar and Salen lead the way to the gorge. Mid-afternoon we spotted tracks of a familiar bison, ridden by Haratt Goldhand leading us in to the gorge. He greeted us from under the overhang and we exchange welcomes and news.
The evening was spent catching up and drinking to dead friends, until it started raining baboons. They were the We seen the Sea mob lead by Ghost eye, being hunted by Basmoli. The baboons had stolen a sacred skin from the lion men, who had followed them to the gorge, we tried to talk them down, but they're not known for their patience and so attacked. We fought well and killed a lot of them, but their numbers were legion and they forced us back. Then their khan arrived dragging the body of Ghost eye. We offered them the skin so they'd leave us alive, which they did and then they left. There was no sign of any surviving baboons, but the Basmoli had left one of their own dead, which I offered up to Grandmother Spider.
Amara sent her familiar, Grimalkin, exploring the caves where the Mostali drink dispenser lived, but he triggered a trap and was killed.

When we awoke in the morning we found the overhang covered in webs and small spiders, it turns out that by summoning Grandmother Spider, I had called her children to the gorge. The morning was spent burning dead baboons and exploring the edge of the gorge looking for an entrance to where Grimalkin died. Salen swam with the water spirit. We found the entrance to the caves, blocked by closed doors with two dead people in front of it. While we were trying to work out what killed them and how to open the door without suffering the same fate, we hear a horn blast from the gorge. We rushed out side and saw that it is a group of rhino riders, more Sky Watchers with Ohanzee Shappa among them.
Again we spend the afternoon getting to know new people and old friends. Ohanzee told me that by summoning Granny, I had upset Oglod, who is a powerful lizard spirit, and if I didn't make it right, he'd eat me. It's decided that Ohanzee and Salen will talk to Oglod and suggest that he guards the gorge by day and Granny guards it by night. Each spirit is summoned and the deal is struck.

The next morning, Fireborn is eager to explore the caves from yesterday. We find an old tomb with a room that had a map on one wall, full of hidden draws and traps. We soon trigger a trap that opens the very floor beneath our feet and dumps those of us in the room in to the water in the gorge, the only one to die was Niemba. Just as we're regrouping, Salen gets attacked by Impala riders, but we kill some and capture 3. While we are interrogating them, Big Mouth, the guardian of the Mostali tomb appears to reclaim all that we stole, after a panicked fight, we managed to kill it, but it exploded when it died and killed Fireborn, Mina one of the children that was with Ohanzee and Tag-along one of the Impala braves.

We woke before dawn and spoke about our dead friends before we lit the funeral pyre.

28 Homeward Bound II

For the rest of the day some of us hunted, some of us explored the tomb and the others talked to spirits. We decided to spend the following week in the gorge as it's a good place to talk to spirits and train. While we are there, the Thunderbirds, Orlanthi's and Vingan's celebrated their holy days
This message was last edited by the player at 18:12, Thu 20 Sept 2018.

32 Return to the Giant Finger Holes

After a week relaxing in the relative safety of the gorge, it was time to head back to the Giant Finger Holes, so with a final goodbye to our lost friends, we set out with our new ones. The day is spent enjoying traveling after so long in one place. We find our planned campsite is already occupied by spiders, it would appear that anywhere that Granny 8 legs is worshiped, her little friends move in. Hoskar and I stay with the spiders, while the others camp some distance away. The night is quiet and we regroup for breakfast.
Around midday we find a group of Red Thorns camped in a gully. Luckily for us they are friends, in fact one of them is Salen's uncle. We are invited to spend the afternoon with them and are introduced to Salen's aunt, Brinna, a priestess of Eiritha. We feel the full force of their hospitality while we are subtly mined for information about the Giant Finger Holes. While the bison riders are made to feel very welcome by the unmarried Red Thorn ladies, the rhino riders are treated as normal guests. Amara decides the air is a bit stuffy in the tent and goes to look after her mount and makes some new friends. They offer us a place to stay for the night, but we decline as we wish to get back to the Earth Temple as quickly as possible. Brinna, one of the young ladies, Shade, and a few of the young braves decide to come with us.
As we approach the Earth Temple, the wastes become visibly greener and full of food for all types of herd beasts. We decide to enter in style, as Tada and his followers. We are welcomed by the Earth Witch herself, Noita, and singing women. Defenders of the Earth appear and take up station to protect us all. Our magic combined with the power of the Earth Temple transports all present to the Golden age when the temple was at its best. The procession makes its way in to the temple where we are greeted by Gadesha.

Melock pauses the story with a sigh, "It was all going so smoothly" a grin surfaces, "too smoothly. Two Ravens, only one being watched", he chuckles and continues the story.

A massive feast awaited us and Emesh-Ga wanted his drinking horn. Ohanzee was given the key to the treasure room to get it. Haratt, being a paranoid Sun Hawk, thought I might be up to something, so he insisted I sat near to him. He was right this time, I had found some interesting mushrooms and was planning to add them to the food. There was a lot of small harmless animals running and hopping around, so I fed a jack rabbit a piece of mushroom, hoping it'll distract Haratt. Amara entertains everyone with her dancing and using her dance as cover for my deeds, I spice up the food. After her dance, Ohanzee returns and tells everyone the horn is missing, just as everyone starts feeling the effect of the mushrooms. It's mayhem within Emesh-Ga's reception hall, with all sorts of strangeness taking place. Rabbits sprout wings and benches begin to walk up walls as those sitting on them sing away on hanging vines to explode into showers of alternating flower petals and dung.
There's odd islands of calm, as those resisting the effects try to bring back some semblance of normality to the proceedings. One such island is centred on Tada himself, helped by Condor's occasional resistance to all things hallucinatory. Another is Emesh-Ga, who begins to look this way and that, bare feet braced on the earthen floor as if searching for something. At his side, eyes flashing red, is his wife Gadesha. she begins to sniff the air, fists clenching.

33 The Horn

Seeing Tada, Emesh-Ga and Gadesha getting angry, Melock and Ohanzee decide to look for the horn. When we get to the treasure room, we just can't help ourselves and start stuffing random bits of treasure in our pockets. Raven appears briefly with Tada's horn. While we are busy, Tada had had enough of our tricks and washed away all that was bad with his cleansing rain. Then he sent Gadesha after us and Raven promptly vanished. We emptied our pockets and tried to run away, unsurprisingly she managed to catch us and after a quick and brutal telling off, we were dragged back upstairs and out side.

32 Return to the Giant Finger Holes

 We were greeted by the Axe Maidens, who have been told to make sure we behave ourselves and had plenty of jobs to keep us too busy to create any more mischief for the rest of the day.
In the temple the others recover from their night and were introduced to some more people and for them it is an easy day. Plans are made to head back to the tribe the next day.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:46, Fri 03 May 2019.