Having gone to find said hammer, Melock taps the wall, though the heavy bronze head is unwieldy and chips the rock. It sounds hollow behind, but as much as he looks he can't find any way to open it.

As they move deeper into the grasslands Iye points out a small flock of birds that swoop this way and that in the distance.

"Horn peckers" he shouts, his sharp eyes picking out the breed of birds that are known to sit atop Rhinos and keep them free of mites.

"It would be good to get some for our mounts" he suggests.

He's right as it had been many weeks since any had graced the Ranger's beasts.

Skywalker, beloved of the Morning star and Bright treasure, pulled the reigns of his war ostrich so that it came to an abrupt halt. His red feathered cloak fluttered in the late morning breeze.

To his family’s horror he had decided to see the land of his birth once more, forbidden to him since the defeat at Moonbroth those few years past. From the Wastes he had trekked, then snuck across the low ford and after a week of travel he was nearing his goal.

"Bastard Sables….Moon shaggin’ a’holes, the lot of ‘em….nearly as bad as them frigging ‘airy baboons…..bluuurg….Hey! Wass at?’

His flock continued feeding amongst the high cactus, as he shielded his eyes and peered at the fast approaching black cloud…

‘Mutha Ostrich…..wot the feck is that?’

In reply to GM (msg # 963):

he comes to the conclusion that he needs help, so he heads back to the edge of the ravine and waits until he sees that Amara has finished talking to the spirit then shouts down to her "Amara, could you bring Emesh-Ga up here, I need some help"

Looking down Melock can't see anything, for some reason the reed beds where Amara and Ohanzee had vanished into, look empty.

Both Amara and Ohanzee hear Melock calling, and looking up they see him standing up above them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:26, Sun 20 July 2014.

Amara turned to Ohanzee and the Crane Man. "If you could forgive me and with your leave, I must depart to help my fellow brother brave. Thank you for the gift of your words."

The Crane spirit dips his head in acknowledgement to both the sacrifice and request to depart.

Weayaya comes with Amara, helping her on the edge of the water to remove the many leeches with a deft flick of a long thumb nail.

"There you go pet, now don't be causing anymore trouble up in that tomb" and then she trundles off back towards the overhang, leaving Ohanzee with his mother and Huuruahu.

"Is that all you wish to know?" he asks of the Raven brave.

"It's good know about frog spirit, how can it be summoned? And have you heard of bronze spirit, he is a spirit of those I want to win friends, maybe I can do so through him?"

"Frog Woman is a powerful spirit and takes a shaman to summon....But it seems that you and you friends have the gift."

He stabs another Frog.

"She would come here I'm sure if you tried, but do not expect success the first time. She is powerful in the Zola Fel. Great leaps she enables her followers to make and gifts them with the use of her children. Promises must be made that when butchering her frogs and others of her kind you will use the Peaceful cut."

"Bronze treasure?" Here the Crane looks up to the sky, shielding his eyes with a wing.

"A spirit of War that one is. Beyond my ken and one to call before you ride into battle. The colour of Bronze he is and easiest to call when visible. But I avoid him for he is the carrier of death..."

Melock and Amara are soon back in the tomb of the Mostali, with the Raven brave explaining why he had found to his friend. Copperman isn't anywhere to be seen.

"Melock, what exactly have you found? Anything interesting?" her voice showed she was curious in the exploration of the tomb. "Niemba isn't here...is she?" Amara looked around more than a little concerned the eight legged hairy monster would be nearby.

In reply to Amara Brightsky (msg # 973):

"No, she's not, she didn't survive the fall to the pool" he says with sadness "I think I've found a hidden door, but cant work out how to open it, I was hoping Emesh-Ga could tell me if there is anything behind what I think is the door" he looks up at the lights "and I found a button to turn off the trap in here"

Peering out in the direction Iye pointed, Hoskar nods appreciatively. You've got good eyes - I'd not spotted them. You're right too: can't have the rhinos losing condition.

He stands up on Kor's back briefly to look for trouble, but can see nothing else out of the ordinary anywhere.

I think it'll be alright to head over there and see if they want to clean things up. Can't see anything moving out there that might be trouble. Don't want to run into anything unexpected, though. Let me just check something out before we take a closer look.

He mutters his now-familiar charm to check for hostiles.

Amara's features softened "I'm sorry Melock. I was not aware you lost your spirit friend too." She looked towards the wall, asking for Emesh Ga's help in telling her what might be behind it and how it might be opened, looking for some way into the room.

In reply to Amara Brightsky (msg # 976):

"that's ok. While I do miss her, having just lost another close friend, makes loosing her seem not that important." he sighs wearily. "If you go exploring in the other rooms, I think the traps are still active, but with a bit of looking we might be able to turn them off as well"

Amara who was about to start walking into the other chambers paused for a moment. "Uh...why don't you lead the way then." her forehead crinkled, expressing her desire for Melock to take the lead in showing her around.

The charm comes back negative, though the birds are far out of the range of the charm. Hoskar and Iye head over to see if they can gather some of the helpful birds, leaving Maska and Salen to watch over the rest of the herd.

Ten minutes later the two Rhino braves, moving through chest high grass, arrive close enough to observe that the flock of birds have discovered a handy place to rest.

Scattered about like immovable rocks, just their backs visible above the grass, are around a half dozen wild Rhinos.

Both Hoskar and Iye's mounts snort, matching their riders' own amazement.

A snort matched by what can only be the small herd's dominant male. Of course he's massive and ornery.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:47, Tue 22 July 2014.

On the two braves return to the tomb, Emesh-Ga helps Amara to discern what may be behind the not so secret door.

Barefoot and resting both hands on the wall Amara concentrates, feeling the power of the ancient warrior fill her and then project outwards and through the rock.

His charm spreading out across the grassland and coming back reassuringly blank, Hoskar relaxes just a shade. So far so good, cousin Iye. Take pride in your alertness, but never lose your caution. There's not many of us out here - think I'll take steps so we can both see further. Oh, actually, do you know any good bird calls too?

Still alert, but happier for their safety now, he mumbles a second charm twice over to enhance their vision ; scanning the plains for signs of anything untoward while absently scratching Four-Paws' head in that hard-to-reach place between the ears she seems to enjoy. Cat, tell Mordy we're heading for the birds. Practice your slinking down in the grasses now as well - birds don't like cats much, and these ones are not food.

Smiling with quiet pride at his cousin's acumen, he turns Kor to lead the rhinos towards a potential source of health; searching his memory all the while for anything that might help attract the 'peckers.

The farsee picks up nothing suspicious, though it looks like the birds have settled on some rocks.....

Amara tilted her head to Melock  "You're right. There's definitely something there. Now the only question is.....how do we open it? Do you think there'd be anything inside?"

In reply to Amara Brightsky (msg # 983):

he smiles back at her, "if I knew how to open it, I wouldn't have disturbed what every you were doing. What were you doing with Huuruahu, I couldn't see any of you from where I was standing" he looks back at the door "well, I thought maybe I was seeing a door that wasn't there, but now you've seen it, it could be where he" he points to the plinth with the carved Mostali on it "is buried, and that carving is just to confuse people like us. It could be a final trap to kill anyone who gets this far. To be honest, I've no idea, the only other tomb I've seen is Emesh-Ga's and that was so different its no help"

The guardian's deep bass voice rings clearly in both braves' ears

"There is a space beyond the door, not empty, but not full either. The door....It is bared with powerful magic that I do not understand. It requires a key of some sort. Though not necessarily a physical one."

He sounds confused.

"Stasis...This is the magic of those that live under the Earth. Mostali they are called. I can not open the way, and caution breaking it for I think it is trapped."

The massive Rhino puts back it's head, eyes rolling and then stamps it's forelegs, the noise alerting it's feeding family.

On mass they gather behind their leader, with movement in the the long grass suggesting that there might be several young Rhinos too small to see.

Horn Peckers rise and fall, several alighting on the mounts of Iye and Hoskar.

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