3B - One flew over the cuckoo hut

You all pack up your gear and take the train down the mountain as some of you did once before. Much of the trip is uneventful with the exception of the Kita Barrens, which the train does not stop at, as usual. As you are passing through the crumbling section of town, you notice armored police vehicles moving through the streets, which is quite unusual for this part of town. You do not see very much of what they are doing as your train speeds past but you do see the vehicles firing some gas canisters into an old, reinforced concrete building. The building itself is covered in graffiti and looks like it could probably withstand a nuclear attack. As the scene quickly moves out of sight, you hear a massive explosion coming from the area that is powerful enough to shake the train. If you press your face to the glass, you can even see smoke rising back there. Luckily whatever it was does not appear to have been aimed at the train and service continues uninterrupted.

The train eventually comes to the end of the line and you all emerge to the stench of the nearby garbage treatment center. A jeep is waiting for you near the station with one of Harumi's people at the wheel. He waves you over and says, "Hey! Thanks for coming. I'm your ride for today. Did you want to stop by the farm first or just go straight to the hut?"

Unless there is more to add at your village we can go straight to the hut. I don't mind a good visit but let's take care of the danger first.

The driver nods and you head off down the remains of what was once a road. The trip is uneventful in that nothing attempts to kill you along the way, but you do see some local fauna. Bears, deer, and the occasional bird go about their business. You even spot another trio of kamitachi, but the jeep is going too fast for them to bother you.

Eventually you pull up to a thick collection of thorn bushes. From the ground it is hard to see what is on the other side of them, but you can make out the top of a smoking chimney. The guy in the jeep says, "If you can get past the bushes, that's the place. I was here with Grant and Krista when they were taken. They were trying to cut through the bushes and suddenly the witch flew in and got em. They're good people, so please bring them back alive if you can."

"Right dont chop the vines noted!! Do you know if the vines goes all the way around by any chance?"

The guy says, "Yep. They go all the way around, like some big thorny fence."

Sam inspects the bushes. I don't think he has any relevant knowledge skill, so he snaps a picture and does an image matrix search to see if he can find any information about these plants.
Sam Dekker carried out 12 launched of one d6 :

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Sato calls Sam’s Satphone. His voice is crackly from interference.

“Hey Sam, is Ichigo with you? We are seeing lots of signs of a pretty severe crackdown on the ghouls and I can’t reach Carl. Can you have Ichigo call me back when he can? I think we need to do something about this quickly, especially since we have a chance to really help some people.”

Sam looks at the bushes and finds nothing of interest on the matrix through his satellite linkup. They look just like one of a million other species of bushes to him.

Sam follows up with a search about anything to do with Baba Yaga and bushes or plants.
((I think this might be a little redundant... If we've gotten all the Baba Yaga specific info we're likely to get from the world out of WuJen's magical background check, then feel free to give a sort of "no new info" response))

Sam Dekker carried out 12 launched of one d6 :

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"Ok, so let's try this..."

Sorcery, Levitate force 1
WuJen carried out 12 launched of one d6 :

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Drain
WuJen carried out 11 launched of one d6 :

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Sam doesn't find any more info on the matrix than he already has about Baba Yaga or thorn bushes related to her.

Wujen starts floating ((presumably he cast on himself?)). Once he gets a few meters up he can see a large straw hut standing on chicken legs and around the hut itself is a fence made of bones with skulls mounted atop it. The eyes in the skulls appear to glow.

(ooc: yeah, on myself)

WuJen takes a close look at the scene with his astral perception.

Assensing:
WuJen carried out 8 launched of one d6 :

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Wujen can easily tell that the hut is magical (and alive), as are the skulls (which are 'alive'). The thorn bush is the result of a manipulation spell. He does not get much other info than that however.

Sam hands his commlink to Ichigo.
"Sato wants to talk to you."

Ichigo will take the comm and say "this is ichigo"

WuJen floats back down "Right, I can get us over the hedge. There is a fence around the hut topped with skulls with glowing eye sockets...the skulls seem 'alive' in some way, as does the hut itself. This hedge is the result of a spell, which means I can try to get rid of it.".

"Getting over it seems safer than trying to get rid of it. Grant and Krista were trying to get rid of it."

Valacan wrote:Ichigo will take the comm and say "this is ichigo"

Sato switches the connection to DNI to the entire team.

"Hey Ichigo, I don't know if you've seen any signs of it where you are, but it looks like the police are taking their crackdown on ghouls very seriously and using increasingly brutal tactics.  Carl is missing and I am worried about him."

"I was thinking we could save a lot of lives if we performed a PR counter-offensive against the cops cruelty.  Can you help me with this?  Some ideas:
(1) Get the formula for the cure to someone with the resources to produce it - how about Mikuzume?  WuJen and I know him and I suspect this would make a fascinating academic paper - no doubt he would credit you...and his resources could probably expand the formula to other strains.  
(2) Get the press in to observe the cure in progress.  Humanizing the victims of the crackdown publicly could cause the cops to reconsider their tactics.  Someone could call the reporter who interviewed them at the end of our first mission ((Sato will avoid press coverage but no doubt Chougou, WuJen or Sam would be happy to get some more time in the sun))"

"What do you think?  I can make the connection to Mikuzme."

Um I can't think about this right now. We can talk about it when I get back!

Valacan wrote:Um I can't think about this right now. We can talk about it when I get back!

We don't have time - people will die if we delay.  
I only have a small amount of time today to help you.
I'm going to Carl's - please connect with Mikuzume before you get into it down there.

"Um I really dont like being put on the spot like this. Umm I don't even know this person is this someone who can be trusted. Um we got a lot to do over here and we haven't even started yet. And my focus cant be split!"

Sun looks around the bushes, seeing if he can find any way to get to the other side. ((Outdoors check))
RafV carried out 7 launched of one d6 :

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((@All: If any need help with a roll, got the leadership skill. You can just say I'm yelling: "GO GO {your name here}! YOU CAN DO IT! WE BELIEVE IN YOU!" or similar, and do the roll along with it (3d6) ))

((To be clear, leadership adds the hits you get in the check as extra dice to the secondary roll, not the straight leadership dice))

Sun takes a look around the bush and sees that it goes all the way around. The only ways through are going over or hacking your way through with a machete or something.