Morning folks, Ohanzee's player signing in for the first time here
This is his telling of their adventures since leaving on the Earth Witch's quest against the harpies, as told to the Red Thorn Sept they've met between Rhino Gorge and the Giant's Finger Holes...
Tales by the camp fire
Ohanzee takes a seat by the fire and charges his pipe with the last of his supply of tobacco taking a stick from the edge of the fire and using the burning end to light the weed in the bowl. "Well as you know I'm sure" suck, suck, suck "we were tasked by the Earth Witch" suck, suck "to deal with the Harpies who were plaguing the herds here about and spreading their filth and disease." suck, suck, suck
The pipe is at last properly lit and the surface of the weed glowing with each draw so the Raven brave throws the stick onto the fire and takes a deep draw before passing it on to Hatha first."Well the first thing that we realised shortly after leaving was that Banyak Bulu had sent some of his personal braves ahead of us, no doubt to steal our thunder as it were." He sighs deeply shaking his head for effect "This was a mistake, a miscalculation on his part of their abilities I'm afraid, or perhaps on his preparations for them."Ohanzee smiles "But in a round about way he did aid our quest through this action" and he places a hand on the bull-roarer about his neck "Though I'm sure it was not his intent and I'm afraid to say it ended badly for his braves." Now he looks at Hatha and the gathered from his sept "I hope that there were none of yours in their number for we were only able to rescue one of their number and I believe that the rest have all perished."
Turning to look about he asks the Sky Watcher children "Bring the man-gern forward" then he turns back to the Red Thorns "Is he from your sept? If so you may have him and I'm sorry for his state, though rest assured that is nothing to do with us, but I will come to that in due time."
"We travelled with the Morokanth to Hoof Crack via the Rhino Rocklands and it is there that we met more Morokanth seeking to join with the Mud Claw clan because they had been burned out by a raging wildfire down by the great serpent." he glances at Tarnessh with a wry smile "Most unfortunate. There too that we were attacked by the foul Chaos Harpies. They almost took one or two of us, but we prevailed, taking them from the sky with missile and spell and then destroying the corrupt things."
"It was there too that we met more of our clan, Sky Watchers." he indicates the Rhino Riders "On we went with little further incident save witnessing the passing of a number of Ostrich Riders on their return from a quest there to best Mallia. That was unfortunate, for I got too close and lost my sight for a night and a day though I was not sure whether it would ever return!"
"Anyway it did. At Hoof Crack we traded with their shaman, the white skinned Broken Claw for items that might help our task and he gifted us with fetishes to ward against Mallia's displeasure when we faced the Harpies."
"From there we travelled on to the hills and our Seza remained behind to help Broken Claw deal with the wrath of the bested Mallia, her and one of our number as a protector. And this was a good job too because whilst we were gone their khan Zakeen Two Thumb returned with his braves. There is bad blood between many Rangers and him and he took this out on the Seza and her guardian. There is bad blood between him and Broken Claw too now." He looks about and leans forward speaking quieter, conspiratorially "Broken Claw has separated himself and his followers from the clan and goes to the Earth Temple seeking refuge. He says there is disagreement between him and this khan but you should know, their whole clan is gathering there, braves in numbers. Broken Claw says it is just to choose a new khan of khans, but that is surely not enough to cause such a rift between the two to drive off the shaman?"
He sits up again "But I'm telling it out of order. Where is that pipe, that's the last of my smoking weed and I'd like another go before that is gone!" he chides in a friendly manner."It was on our way to the hills that we witnessed the first pure, clean Harpy, a beautiful white feathered creature left dead in a tree. No sign of disease nor dirt upon her."
"Then, as Hoskar has said, we headed into the hills with one of their own, Dark Claw and soon after entering them we were set upon by the Jack-O-Bears. They came at us in the dark and picked us out one at a time with their control of the mind. Thus they sought to separate us and draw out our numbers to pick off easily. Thanks to the Sun Hawks though we were able to drive them back with the light and regroup and once prepared they were no match for us. We took the fight to their den and I myself killed the mother with a crossbow bolt in its arse!"
"It was in amongst the remains of the victims that we found this" he pats the bull-roarer again "that would prove so vital to our quest and perhaps came from Banyak Bulu"
"It was also with them that we found the poor wretch." he nods towards the crazed brave "They had him dancing like a puppet to try to distract us. I guess that they kept him alive so that his flesh was fresh, but his mind couldn't stay as fresh."
"There were giant ants too, but we managed to avoid them, and on into the hills our journey took us. As we went we were faced with the prospect of climbing the exposed cliff face to reach the Harpy lair, not a task to take lightly at the best of times, but even more so with the prospect of harpies picking us off the cliff side as we climbed!"
"So we followed a serpent, Nathair Sliabh the Mountain Serpent, deeper into the hills for the path along its banks was flat enough to bring the mounts. And it was as we passed along this river filled as it is with the filth of the place that it constantly must wash away that I had an idea. It has been there so long, perhaps it new a path that it had cut into the hills that travelled up high from a different time, something we could use to get closer to the lair undetected."
He snorts "It new such a way, but not what I was expecting. I summoned him and we spoke. We explained that our quest would aid him in lessening the filth by what the Harpies dropped at least and he agreed telling us to keep along our course. We found the place he spoke of, an ancient temple to the joining of Water and Earth to bring Fertility."
"There was a bit of an... erm accident and the ancient spirits of the place were awoke, the spirit of the River Priest and Earth Priestess. Feathers were soothed and offers made and accepted and the Wandering Rangers re-enacted the long since forgotten marriage of the River and the Earth. I was the River and Amara the Earth" he gestures at the redhead and smiles warmly."The waters of the river rose up into the cave temple, then up still through a great circular chimney. Up we went, husband and wife, wedding guests, Wandering Rangers carried upon a great plug of life bringing river silt and water. We passed up and through the Hero world where we bettered Daga the drought and imprisoned him for a year."
The Raven brave coughs "Pass the kumiss, my throat is dry from this telling and there's a way to go!" He takes a deep drink before continuing. "Not all of us travelled on, some remained to guard the mounts and destroy more broo, but that is their tale to tell. Ours continues when we burst from the Hero World back into our own and erupted from the top of the shaft in a great spewing of watery mud."
He pauses a moment "It was good for us to have found this path, but not good perhaps for those of Banyak Bulu's braves who made it that far. We did not know, but we discovered that they were above where the shaft opened. If they were alive when we started the ceremony then they were not after our emergence, they were buried by the mud and water and we only discovered their remains by accident."
"We also discovered a great and ancient Whitewood tree, or rather the ceremony and the life giving that it brought awoke the tree. We spoke to the spirit of the tree, an ancient Aldryami and she wished us well on our task and bid us return to her when our task was complete."
"On we travelled, through the body, turned to stone by the Bull himself perhaps, of a gigantic Harpy! We thought it to be a statue only and a way to their lair at the top of the cliff unseen. It wasn't until we were inside what was likely once its belly that we discovered that it was still seeping its digestive juices!"
"Amara slipped there and quite literally fell from its arse!" he sniggers at the thought "And Tarosh followed. We carried on and climbed to its head where we smashed our way out the back of its skull and they climbed the cliff face. It was the Bull's day and his winds kept the creatures penned in. We fought them there and they captures Tarosh and withdrew into their tunnels."
"At this point we split, I called to the Bull and he answered, picking me up and hurling me to the top of the cliff. It was then that Gloaming apparently threw himself from the cliff, offering himself to the Bull in sacrifice for a successful mission. Anyway I lowered a rope so that Amara and Henal could climb up."
"We blocked they escape holes with nets whilst the others entered through the main tunnel and we all fought our way to the nest proper. Above we found the roost of their elders and I leapt in from above to dispatch them whilst the other two fired upon them and then climbed down the rope we brought."
"We rejoined in the others and prepared for the final push. But we had now discovered another beautiful pure breed Harpy and she told us of their queen, Hilimaz Mushen who their shaman was soon to sacrifice to their foul mother."
"We entered their inner sanctum and this is where the fight was hardest. Hoskar fell to a poisoned missile and started his journey toCondor's nest. Amara was greatly injured too. Their shaman began its evil rituals and summoned forth a great swarm of diseased spirits as well as an ancient ancestor spirit and I began spinning the bull-roarer. It drew all of these spirits to me and left the others free to deal with the living."
"With Raven's support, the power of the bull-roarer, my own innate link to the Spirit rune and a spirit arrow that I'd found at Hoof Crack I fought and destroyed those dozen or so things and the dozen more that came from the Harpy mother they summoned from the pit. Henal ran when it appeared, but the Bull entered him and he ran back all the faster!"
"The others together destroyed all those that remained, though a couple fled with eggs. We freed the queen and she brought back not just Hoskar, but Gloaming too."
"The day won we burnt the place and returned, first to the hidden valley of the dryad where she gifted us with knowledge and more, and then back via the River and Earth temple. Back to Hoof Crack which I have spoken of already and then via Rhino Gouge where tricks were played much to the amusement of and ancient Spider and an ancient Lizard and to here."
