It's time and the Wandering Rangers tidy themselves up before making the short walk through the bustling camp to the tent of the Prairie Thunder Khan. They're accompanied by many of the bachelors and married men of the clan, all eager to hear what they found on their trip.

As they enter they see that all of the elders are sat waiting for them, in their centre the huge man that is the chieftain of the Bison clan, Nausyas the Iron Bull. Behind him is his magical saddle and spread out in all it's glory is the magical star hide, midnight black with the constellations of another age splayed across it's ancient skin.

The priest of Waha beckons the Rangers to come forward. On either side of him sit Darnik Sharp Lance: Rune Lord of Waha and father of Fireborn, Barrak Earth Shaker: chieftain of the Skywatchers, his wife Angelika Snowspear: Vingan priestess and foreigner from over the mountains to the West.

A stranger is with them, but it is obvious who he is, Wiley Ko, Chieftain of the Black Shields. His two sons are behind him, fierce looks upon their scarred faces.

Kobal can see his father Colnar Three Steps amongst those sitting, though his grandfather is nowhere to be seen.

Beneath each of the four massive tent poles sits one of the clan's shamans...

Near invisible in his magical darkness sits Feather Wait, the Raven shaman, and opposite him sits his arch nemesis and best friend Smokey Jojo, who is somewhere in the cloud of smoke hanging about that pole. On the other side of the tent Cloud Walker is sat ramrod straight, his rotund body covered in shifting clouds and with eyes that flash with inner lightning... And finally Long Grass, his face as stern as ever and totally unlike his louche fetch who had been a good friend of the party previously....
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:27, Sat 01 Oct 2016.

The remains of an evening meal lie scattered about the ground with slaves scurrying back and forth as they clear spaces for the new arrivals and pass out fresh kumiss.

Conversations come to a halt and all eyes turn to watch the Rangers...

Amara stepped forward, her eyes scanning those gathered in the tent, she acknowledged all of the Khans present before speaking, bowing her head respectfully before the Khans "We have journeyed to look for the path for the clan to the great river and find a safe way for our clans. We have returned and are ready to stand before you and tell you the story of our journey." Amara took a deep breath. "I wish we had better news for you, but our journey was a hard one. We made it to the great river Zola Fel, but only due to our Gods and our spirits being with us. Food and water was not easy to find. We were all hungry by the time we arrived at the river....and that's not the worst of the news we have to share. We found that the rumours of the building of a town by the followers of the blood moon are true. They have a town by the name of Corflu and there are many soldiers present. More than that, the followers of the blood moon have set up a temple there and have made friends of the locals, as have we."

Amara paused for a moment so the bad news could take a moment to sink in. "We arrived at the river and found some children being attacked by mudsharks. We intervened to rescue the children and made some friends with a family of riverfolk. We agreed to rid the local area of a mudshark nest for them in return for their help in getting into the town and some news of the local area." Amara winced as she looked at her hand "Our attack on the nest went well, although I was injured and lost my hand."

She glanced towards Barrack "The only healer nearby was one of the followers of the Red Moon and she agreed to heal me, in return for some favours. The healer had many of the tribes of Prax following her. They all seemed struck by some form of glamour." Amara looked to the ground, lost in sadness "Zara was among their number. We killed a number of trappers and hunters that had been preying on the riverfolks and newtling population and the priestess healed me."

She looked back at the Khans "I know our words may have no bearing on your decision, but I believe Corflu and its surrounding area to be lost to us, for the time being. I would urge you to choose somewhere else for the clans to move to. They are determined and have enough numbers to make any move to that area a big problem....and they travel by boat on the river." she turned to the others in the band "I have spoken of my shame it is to one of you to continue the story of our journey"

He smiles at all who are there and bows with reverence at the Khans. When he hears Amaras last words, he turns to her and gently shakes his head, "There is no shame in using an enemies kindness to your advantage." Melock takes a small step forward as he faces the Khans, "We also encountered a powerful Basmoli spirit, which killed several of our number and  tried to kill the rest of us," He tilts his head to expose the four scars on the left side of his neck, "we thought we had driven it away, only to find out later that it had possessed Harett Goldhand, it then escaped in his body. So it is with a heavy heart that I say that if he is seen again, he must be treated as an enemy." He takes a quick gulp of kumiss to wet his throat, "After we left the moon lovers behind, we traveled up river," he shudders at the thought of being on a boat, "with a strange Agamori, who was different from any other Agomori I've ever seen. We went as far as an old tower with him, where we killed chaos and left the strange tall man there. We continued north by land following the river to speak to a spirit." He pauses again and takes a bigger gulp of kumiss, "I think it would be a good place for Ohanzee to take over the telling of our tale." he steps back in to the group.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:52, Tue 04 Oct 2016.

Ohanzee listens to Amara raising a brow as she mentions her seeking the aid of the Red Moon Priestess. As she falls silent he waits a moment to see if any others speak and is about to when Melock ofers his words.

When Melock finishes he speaks in a matter of fact way "As Amara and Melock say, our adventures have been many and strange, but I will get straight to the facts that relate to our mission."

"Between here and the Great Serpent if you head West is the Red Thorn clan who have camped about the Giants' Finger Holes and claim it as theirs, though you know this much I'm certain."

"North of there about the oasis of Hoof Crack the Morokanth Black Mud clan reside, though there are many more going there, they are gathering for some reason. And the remains of White Ash clan who were about the Great Serpent were burnt out by a wild fire along this side of the serpent have joined the Black Mud."

"Along the Serpent banks, maybe half way between the Walled place and the island in the mouth the Serpent the Arinstoli Sable Clan, the whole clan and perhaps others joining them."

He scratches his scarred face as he thinks and then adds "Other than that there were just a few hunting parties or septs, Zebra around their grazing between here and the mouth of the Serpent, Cannibal Cult in the Bleak Hills but we routed them."

He looks about at the elders "If you wish to hear of our adventures too then I'll happily continue?"

Amara's announcement that the Rangers had dealings with the Lunars brings gasps from the crowd and an angry look from her khan, though her queen gives her one of sympathy. Several elders begin to speak at once, but the Vingan priestess shushes them so that the young brave can continue.

Melock's kind words to her bring several heckles from angry listeners, but hey too soon quieten down as they listen to what he has to say.

Luckily Ohanzee tells them what they're waiting to hear and for the moment the Rangers are forgotten about as everyone talks at once.

Questions then begin to fly...

"How many Lunar soldiers?"

"You found river folk willing to deal with us, after all the hatred they feel?"

"What are the Red Thorns planning? Do they want the Grasslands too?"

"Are the Morokanths friendly? Perhaps they will ally with us?"

"See they bring no gifts..."

"Someone must tell Goldhand's family of this tragedy. His father is still away..."

"What chaos did you meet?"

"Is there enough food for our beasts?"

"Damn those Sables. If only we had some bargaining chip."

"Why is there an Ostrich rider in here?"

Ohanzee tries to keep a track of the questions and as the buzz lessens he speaks again describing the numbers of Lunars he observed in Corflu, both soldiers and the personal guards and civilaians who could fight.

"And the river folk who will deal with us, they are the ones who have been improved with the blood our people. That saving one of their children helped still the waters of that introduction" and he goes on to speak of the High Llama blood that runs through them. For his part, having spent time amongst the river folk and time as a slave he doesn't care much for the supposed destinctions, but doesn't show this in his voice.

"The Red Thorns claim all they can hold though are not so bold as to claim the Earth temple. They may well try to stop folk getting there if they think they can. They took me as a slave when I travelled there alone. Their shaman is the worst, deals with the foreigners who claim part of our land as their own Sun County."

"Their Khan was more inclined to deal with us, though that may be harder now after recent events." He looks at Kobal to finish that.

"The Morokanth may ally, but that depends on who is sent to parlay and who they parlay with. There is bad feeling between some of us Rangers and one of their Warriors, one who would be their Khan of Khans I think given the chance" and again he looks to the Rangers who were there for the murder.

He lists the broo, scorpionmen, Jack-o-bears, gorp and harpies that they destroyed and the locations of these, though keeps it to that rather than the where and why of their being in those places.

"We took the daughter of the Queen of the Sable clan prisoner when they tried to raid us. She is at the Earth Temple now, an axe maiden there and we were in no position to keep her slave when they called her to that. Before she innitiated there we were to take her to the walled city to ransom for thirty sable. I don't know if she could be a bargaining tool given that she is now with the temple, you elders are better placed and experienced to ponder such things."

He describes the grazing they found in their travels and the extent that the green has spread from the GFH and also the limit of the available water there and how that more than anything might force the Red Thorns to move on.

Finally, the comment of one not going unnoticed he cuts the twine holding a gathered up skin and it falls away to reveal a selection of treasures "And of course we bring gifts for you."

Henal continues from Ohanzee "This was my first journey with the Rangers so I have not so much knowledge of how green it was round the Giant Finger Holes, but even in the times between our visits there I could see it growing. The Red Thorns could be a problem by trying to claim it as their right now."

"By vanquishing a great deal of chaos we have been able to gain these items that we bring as gifts though they are no compensation for those we have lost."

"You took the daughter of the Queen or Arinstoli?" bellows Darnik "And you let her go?" He looks mightily confused at that.

Ignoring his top warrior Nausyas begins to speak

"Well it seemed you did your job, we'll need to talk more about this over the next few days."

His eyes fall on the gifts, spotting the Iron helmet almost immediately.

"Amara come here my child" beckons Angelika Snowspear. "Sit and tell me everything. You look quite worn out."

She moves over to allow the young brave to sit by her.

The four shamans have approached, spirits flitting between the tent poles and spectators.

Circling the Rangers they begin to shake their rattles and dance their dances.....

Amara felt offended and found it hard to hide as Durnik spoke. "Yes, we took her prisoner. Our goal is to unite the tribes in one Prax, and we'd never be able to do that by killing a Sable princess." Amara sighed, trying to sound more reasonable "It was plains he was very dissatisfied with her life and position in the Aristoli. I tried to show her a new path, and she picked one. Sadly not with Vinga, but with Babeester Gor. She's...not an enemy of ours any more. I wouldn't precisely say she's on friendly terms either, but she would at least listen to us. The thing you must remember...is that she is princess now. She will be Queen. We thought it more useful to have a Queen that we can talk to, as opposed to having the rabid hatred of every sable rider dogging our paths."

Amara tried to not let the Khan get her down as she moved to sit by Angelika. She sat down trying to make herself comfortable. "I am tired, mother of my heart. This journey has been taxing."

He nods at Amara's words, "She would have been hostile, but she was persuaded to give up her claim of kin slayer on all of us for the death of her brother." He watches Feather Wait dancing with a mixture of happiness and an undercurrent of worry.

The elders accept their gifts whilst the shamans dance. It's obvious that all are pleased. For the moment remain quite as they wait to see what the four spirit talkers are up to.

As one they stop and Cloud  Walker steps forward

"You have bested Daga and carry his spirit within a copper pot. Tell us how this was achieved?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:20, Fri 07 Oct 2016.

Amara looked at Ohanzee. "That happened later in our journey. Ohanzee and I have changed. You can see if you look deep enough. He is the River King and I the Earth Queen." she shrugged as she rested her head on Agelikas lap. "I'll leave it to Ohanzee to explain."

Ohanzee sits, cross legged between the four shamen and takes a moment to compose his thoughts and sort the relevant memories into the correct order. His hands idly run over his lead pipe as he considers, then realising what he's doing he asks "May I cadge some weed. my supplies have run dry?"

He starts at the GFH "We were tasked by the priestesses at the Earth Temple to sort out a problem, Harpies plaguing the area and the area about Hoof Crack and no doubt other places within flying distance of the hills North East of there."

"The Morokanth of Hoof Crack had asked them for their aid, on account of the thumbless wonders mot being able to climb!" He laughs. "So we headed there first, picked up a 'volunteer' from their people and headed into the hills."

"On our way up we killed the Jack-o-Bears and eventually found a soiled river, Nathair Sliabh, 'The mountain serpent' who carries the filth from the Krjalki Bog to which was more recently added the filth of the Harpies nesting high up."

"I summoned him with the aid of the others. I thought he might know a hidden way up since we did not want to have to climb the rocks in plain view and get plucked from them and dashed below!"

"He told us to follow his course to a place and look there, which is just what we did. There was an ancient place built into the rock of the hills, a place from the Green age, on one side of Nathair a place that we still do not understand and on the other a place where two ancient spirits rested, a holy place to mark the union between River and Earth."

"And the Spirits were a holy woman of the Earth and a holy man of the Serpent who in times forgotten till we resurrected the memories, would each turning year marry and bring life giving Water laden with fertile silt, Earth up through a shaft in the hills to spread fertility to the land above."

"We resurrected that ritual, I taking the part of the River King and Amara that of the Earth Queen and the other Wandering Rangers who ascended with us the parts of wedding guests."

"At the height of the ceremony the waters of the serpent rose and carried us upon a plug of Earth up the shaft and into the spirit place of the Green Age. There the spirit Daga sought to disrupt the ceremony and bring his drought to the land instead, but we remembered the stories of Little Brother and how he bested Daga before and kept him in a copper pot in his tent."

"So this is what we did" he looks about at the Rangers <blue>"All of us together there. We enacted that myth too and bested him again and sealed him in the pot with a plug of Earth from that time and place."

He smiles at the memory "The ritual not only took us up through the hills to within a short climb of the Harpy nest, but awoke long dormant spirits above and greened an area at least of those hills."