3B - One flew over the cuckoo hut

The tiny, winged schoolmarm grumbles to herself then whispers, "You all have fun trying to talk to the hut or Baba Yaga," as she gestures to the pile of books on the table, "I have some cataloging to do. I'll be here if you need anything."

She then goes about dragging tomes that are easily as large as she is to the shelves around the room.

As discussed, you all end up heading towards the stables. With the map in hand, you find a route there that only requires you to go through one extra room to reach your destination. You step through the magic artifact storage room on your way.

Hundreds of led chests line the room. Each one appears to have no lock, though they look pretty secure none the less. The room is brightly illuminated by magical, heatless torches all around.

The next door leads to the stable. Though, perhaps a horse prison would be slightly more accurate as the stalls seem to be made to keep horses in with far more attention to security than the average stable. The stalls are each locked with bars to keep any potential escapes from the occupants, though a ring of keys on a hook one side of the room obviously provides a means of escape for the imprisoned equines.

A quick glance about the room shows that none of the stalls' occupants are what one would call standard horses. The 6 full stalls include:
- a black mare with a mane and tail of flames, and teeth that look like they were designed to tear through flesh
- a beautiful, white winged horse, whose great feathered wings appear to be losing their feathers
- white stallion with a single golden horn upon its forehead
- a powerful black stallion with the bare upper torso of a human
- a large, brown, horse-like creature with a hawk’s wings, talons, and hooked beak.
- a nude humanoid male with the horns of a ram and legs of a goat

The humanoid speaks in elven and gestures towards the keys.

For those of you who understand elven...:

As the humanoid urges you all towards the keys, the frog hops over to Sun's commlink sends another message to the group:
>>>>I went into the head room looking for the circlet. When I got in the room, the fake Sam head was there and it was trying to get me to open the jar to let it out. It said that it was me from a parallel timeline, and that Baba Yaga had put me in the jar and killed the rest of you. It said that if I let it out, it could prevent that from happening. I ignored it. I'm still pretty confident it was lying.
But, Baba Yaga did show up in the head room. And she transformed me into a frog.

"Wujen what is the goat looking guy saying"

Looking at WuJen, Sun completely ignores the goatguy. "Hey WuJen, you think you can do anything for Sam here?"

"He wants let out and thinks we will since we aren't one of Baba Yaga's goblins."

WuJen in elven to the Satyre "Sure. You don't happen to know a way back outside do you? This seemed like a good place to start. Does she ever ride these?"

WuJen moves toward the keys as he talks, to let it out.

To Sun and Ichigo "I might be able to research something later, but I don't know any magic that shapes hurts like that, and what I've heard of has to be maintained. It may just wear off when we leave."

The satyre thankfully speaks to Wujen in Elvish.

For those of you who speak elvish...:

In Elvish "Yeah. I'm hopeful, she has she far seemed reluctant to confront us as a group, though that is probably more to avoid any sort of hassle rather than a compliment on our strength. It's possible she will let us find a way out. In any case I'm not leaving anyone here to her mercy if I can leave. You are welcome to join, at least as far as out of the hut."

In Desian " Ok people, examine everything in here carefully, but be careful of yourselves as well. No one go anywhere alone. In fact, find a partner and hold hands or something to avoid getting separated. Look for anything unusual."

Ok ichigo will start looking for unusual things "So what is he saying wujen?"

Perception3 Logic3  Valacan carried out 6 launched of one d6 :

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"He says he's never seen her ride any of the animals, that it seems more like a Zoo. I suppose we should be grateful there aren't any tigers or something.

((The dice didn't come up. I don't know why. The forum just does that from time to time. Hasn't happened in a while. I'll roll for you))

There isn't really all that much to search in the room for Ichigo. The keys to the cells are hanging from a hook. As he gets close to the bars of the black mare, she snorts at him and releases a gout of flame from her mouth. He instinctively flinches at the incoming flames that would surely engulf him, but they appear to be stopped by some magic in the bars. Lucky for him.

The satyr chuckles and says something in Elven.

For those of you who speak elvish...:

Further search of the room reveals a pan flute hanging near the satyr's cage, and a pair of blackened gloves and shears laying in a corner of the room.

"He says the cages are enchanted, thankfully. Also, Kinsley there appears to really dislike company. Baba Yaga takes hair samples from her, apparently."

"I wish I could free her while we are at it. The longer I'm here, the more I really dislike everything about this place."

Inspecting the flute, Sun asks: "Why would she need hair from the mare?"

"So what are going to do about sam? Magic seems to be strong here."

"I can think of several potential uses for hair from the nightmare. None of them super given Baba Yaga's personality.

As for Sam, it's just a theory, but I have little else to go on... Magic in the Hut is strong, but in an odd way. Spells don't do more, but they don't appear to strain the body in the normal fashion. I *think* that when we leave then either whatever is keeping Sam in that state will revert to the normal rules and begin taking up the concentration of Baba Yaga or it will several the link and end the spell. I could try to dispel the effect now, but it's hard to see things astrally so I have not examined Sam or the effect, and have no real idea if it's ev n a spell at the moment.

What I do know is that to turn someone into a frog would normally require a spell that would then have to be sustained. You could do that with spirits or a focus, or just hold onto it yourself...all of which have downsides that would prevent most magicians from doing so long term. Quickening could do it more or less permanently, but it also has a cost that most magicians won't pay frivolously. Regardless, it may not be easy to do given Baba Yaga's power, but if it is a spell then it can be dispelled.

On the other hand, Reality is a bit different here, and it might be some warp of reality doing this...in which case I will also be willing to bet it won't hold out of this place."

"So basically I am going with a wait and see approach. It's not killing him or he would have ...croaked... by now, and it's not causing him any pain or I'm sure he would have said so.. At worst it's just an inconvenience for now. I'd rather not risk either of us trying to fix it here at this moment."

WuJen turns to the horse "I don't know if you can understand me. I'm fine with letting you out to find as much freedom as the rest of us, assuming you don't try to hurt us as soon as you are freed from that cage. I want to try and understand you, so I'm going to cast a spell to read your thoughts, please don't be alarmed."

Muttering to himself "Well, here goes nothing"

(Ooc still on my phone, can you give me a Mind Probe at force 6 on the Nightmare)

It seems that whatever magic is keeping the nightmare's magical flames from getting out of the stall is also preventing Wujen's spell from getting in. The door will have to be opened for the spell to work. The good news is that is just a simple matter of unlocking it with the nearby keys. The bad news is nothing will be protecting everyone from it once the door is open.

Meanwhile the satyr knocks on his door a few times and gestures to the keys, apparently wanting to be let out.

WuJen pockets the flute and puts the other tools for harvesting the Nightmare hair out of sight before approaching the Satyre cage.

WuJen looks the Satyre in the eye as he puts the key in the lock. "Trust is a precious gift, and I'm giving it to you. Keep that in mind if you think about betraying us."

Kinsley gives a thumbs up and happily steps out of the cage. Giving a sigh, he says something in elvish.

For those of you who speak elvish...: