2021.06.06:La Balloon Rouge

La Balloon Rouge
A tainted balloon is found in the forest on patrol.
IC Date	2021.06.06.
IC Time	Day.
Players	Bryan, Li Wei, Jason Rogers
Location	Gaian Forest
Prp/Tp	La Balloon Rouge
Spheres	Gaian
Theme Song	Luftballoons

It's afternoon on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Many of the heavier patrols are lighter today for the garou to spend with families. One garou stands with a clipboard next to the sign up board and is handing out assignments. There's a few others gathered looking to volunteer for other routes, but one in particular gets announced.

	 Walks-The-Earth, a Fostern Uktena reads off, "Okay. Next on the list is the Northweastern trail from here. About a six mile run to make sure all is clear. Any volunteers?" He's looking to see who is left who hasn't accepted a path.

Jason Rogers puts his hand up, doing his duty like a good Bone Gnawer.

Li Wei walks over to Walks and nods, saying in a fairly thick Chinese accent, "I've been that way before, I'll be happy to take a little walk." She looks around as another volunteer puts himself forward as well and smiles, "Well, looks like there's at least two of us."

Jason Rogers offers his hand to Li Wei and says 'Jason Rogers, called Red-Doll. Cliath, Bone Gnawer and Theurge. Am I pleased to meetcha ?'

Li Wei takes the offered hand lightly and replies, "I am Xiao Li Wei, Yakan Shinju Eji of the Kitsune, known as Wu Wei among my people. And I certainly hope you are." She smiles, then glances to Walks and asks, "Any special activity we're watching for, or just a normal patrol?"

	 Walks-The-Earth nods to confirm Jason and Li Wei volunteering. "I don't recognize either of you. Names?" He needs to write them down on his clip board. He scribbles something down with a checkmark going next to the route. "Aha, thank you. I'm Walks-The-Earth, Fostern of the Uktena. I'm one of the newer people helping out with the patrol assignments. The regular gal took the day off." He looks content to have volunteers. "When you get back there's a kinfolk over there..." he points to the campfire, "looks like she's serving soup and sandwhiches. Can get a bite to eat before kicking off home. But we ask you to work before eating. Some volunteers took a longer route. It's a resting spot in between." 
	 Walks the Earth replies to Li Wei's question, "Just a normal run. Spot something you can't handle, one of you can howl. But it's been dead quiet. No jinx. Do the run and report back when finished."

Jason Rogers tries to not get caught looking curiously at the Kitsune, having understood almost none of her introduction. She's the first Fera he's knowingly met.

Li Wei nods and grins, "Well, I'll leave the howling to Jason. It's not really my sort of thing." Looking over to the Bone Gnawer, she waves and says, "Comon, this shouldn't take all that long." Heading towards the exit to the forest, she flows down into the form of a fox, ears perked for any unusual noise, and trots out into the woods, heading toward the northeast.

	 Walks-The-Earth points the two to the Northeastern trail. It's a bit easy to follow since it's been run quite a bit. It may seem a shorter path as it is meant for other Cliaths that are lower ranking, and learning the ropes. He gives both a thumbs up, and veers his thumb in the right direction. "See you after you make the run." He does say one last thing, "Also glad to see a kitsune. It's been awhile for most of us." He chuckles, and goes back to the board to hang his clipboard. They can see him walking over to the kinfolk fire to get some soup.

Li Wei flows smoothly into the form of a fox.

Jason Rogers follows the fox northeast, staying in homid for now.

	 Along the path they go. The sun is streaking through the trees and the breeze is easily felt on the fur while running. The leaves above shift whenever the wind blows through but it is the most perfect day for a run. The trail seems clear as the move along for the first mile, and also the second. One rabbit does scurry by in the distance but they must have caught it unawares. 
	 But further ahead on the trail they might just see something...

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Wu Wei rolls Perception + Alertness vs 6 for 2 successes. 2 3 4 4 4 +7 +8 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============-------------> <---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Red-doll rolls Perception vs 6 for 2 successes. 4 5 +7 +10 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============-------------> <OOC> Red-doll says, "also, Danger Sense merit here"

	 Something red. Yes, something red spotted between the branches of one large tree in the distance. As they both continue to run and peer through the foliage of the forest, they will notice a red balloon bobbing in the wind as its string was caught on one dead branch of a tree. It's snagged real good too. The helium within looks to be intact because its upright and not sagging that much.

Red-doll whines, and briefly stops and points to the tree with his nose, then lopes off towards the balloon.

Wu Wei moves in to check it out as well, moving quietly through the underbrush as her kind tend to do.

Red-doll gets to the tree, and figures he'll need hands to climb effectively ... time to lose the paws.

	 As they get to the base of the tree they will see most of the entire tree looks healthy. It has one dead branch that the string is snagged up in. It does appear like it drifted in on the wind to get lost here. As the red balloon bobs around it is rather quiet but beautiful to look at. Red is a shocking color in the green landscape of the canopy.

Jason Rogers says, "I'm going to check the Other Side to make sure this isnt just a fallen weather balloon that was measuring methane on Venus or something. Can you keep an eye on my back ?"

Jason Rogers bites his lip, not liking the branch the balloon is attached to is dead, but starts to climb the tree.

The red balloon itself is about the size of a Disney balloon from a park. It's a bit larger than your average party store balloons.

Wu Wei nods, looking around alertly and cocks an ear as well while Jason looks into the balloon situation.

	 No sounds come in on the periphery of the lower ground that would be alerting. As far as one could tell by listening, it is only them out this way on the path. They are veered off the actual path a little bit, but not far to get to the tree.

Jason Rogers says, "Smells like a fucking stupid Raccoon trap."

Jason Rogers unhooks the balloon with a hand.

	 Once the balloon is taken in hand, one up close will see there's a thin liquid layer inside the balloon itself. It's about a quarter of an inch if held upright.

Jason Rogers says, "Theres some shit inside this. I dont fucking like it. Whats your nose like, Ms Wei ?"

Jason Rogers loops the string around his wrist and climbs down, being careful not to let the balloon pop.

Wu Wei flows back into her human form to answer, "About the same as yours, I would say. You might have a little advantage there, wolves are more scent based than foxes."

Jason Rogers says, "You can see the shit inside it yeah ? Its like the inside is coated."

	 The red color of the balloon makes it hard to distinguish what color the liquid is inside. But it isn't black. It isn't dark brown either. It's more of an amber liquid from the color of the balloon tinting it.

Jason Rogers says, "Want to bet this shit is agent some color ?"

Jason Rogers says, "So, this shit is contained in the balloon, and I want it to stay there until we can get someone who knwos their shit to look at it"

	 The wind blows through over the path and the balloon sways as it remains tied to Jason.

Wu Wei nods, "Probably a good idea. Could be just about anything in there. Let's take it back, then we can do the rest of the patrol, I don't think we should chance breaking it by dragging it all through the woods with us."

Jason Rogers says, "Ayup. I want to stay on two legs, so can you keep your paws to the ground for me and make sure nothing's following ? If I talk loudly, get into the brush yeah" Jason Rogers starts to head back down the path, intending to stop short of the caern and see if someone can figure what the crap inside the balloon is without damaging the bawn.

Wu Wei nods, "Yes, I make a better scout than warrior in general, so that's not a problem." She flows back down into her fox form and heads back down the trail they had just taken to move back towards the caern.

	 Anyone with the red balloon is going to be a natural target. Luckily for them, the two mile walk back on the path goes rather uneventful. For now. 

	 Walks-The-Earth will see them coming and carrying the happy looking (yet sinister) balloon before they even hit the Caern's edge. 

"Alright," Walks-The-Earth gives both an odd look. "What did you find? No way did you finish that run this quickly." He's got his clipboard in hand once more and he scratches his chin.

Jason Rogers shakes his head. 'Friend, have a look inside this thing I carry. It is not going further or closer'

Wu Wei shifts back to human, nodding to what Jason says and adds, "Neither of us has yet learned to sense the corruption of the Wyrm, but something about this seems off, so we wanted to have it checked out before we finished the patrol."

Jason Rogers points to the sinister liquid, just visible through the translucent balloon.

Jason Rogers says, "The branch this was snagged on was dead as a stick, but the rest of the tree was healthy. I would not lick the liquid in the balloon for a signed copy of the Silver Record."

Wu Wei shifts back to human, nodding to what Jason says and adds, "I cannot sense the corruption of the Wyrm, but something about this seems off, so we wanted to have it checked out before we finished the patrol." (modify pose)

	 Walks the Earth leans in and examins the liquid in the balloon. "Wise assessment. Corruption can often look innocent as it tries to hide." He peers at Wu Wie, then over to Jason as he mentions the branch. The corner of his lip curls up when the other garou mentions licking the Silver Record. "Nope. Don't recommend licking this at all." He lifts one hand to gently, not touch, but move a few inches around the balloon and his nose begins to wrinkle. "There's corruption on it alright. Do either of you know the rite of cleansing?"

Jason Rogers nods. 'Id like to borrow a saw as well'.

Wu Wei shakes her head, "My training was in other directions." Wu Wei flows smoothly into the form of a young woman.

Walks-The-Earth looks to the two. He asks Wu Wei, "Did you touch the balloon or the tree?" He nods to Jason, "I'll get you one from the shed near the lean-to. Wait here. I don't want that balloon or its corruption near our heart."

Jason Rogers says, "Can you grab a couple of sandwiches as well ? It's going to be a long evening."

Jason Rogers looks at Wu Wei 'You got plans for the next couple of hours, sister ?'

Li Wei shakes her head, "I stood lookout while Jason collected the balloon. It was caught on a branch in a tree."

	 Walks-The-Earth calls over to one of their kin to put together a bag of food for the two. But before the kin can walk over and deliver it personally, he puts up a hand to stop them. "Let me do it. Stay away from these two until they get back." He warns, as he disappears into a lean-to to get the saw requested. 
	 A few minutes later, he's back with it and handing it over to Wu Wei. "Jason will still need you for the ritual if he's carrying that balloon." He sends them back to it. "Report back when done so I can sign you two off."

Jason Rogers says, "I dont have the skills or the knowledge to analyse this crap. Do you know Journey ?" Jason Rogers says, "Moon willing, I can cleanse it. It doesnt look like it's Bane-host. But I think the Nation needs to know more of this crap."

Li Wei nods, "Yes, I do. He or any of the honorable Elders should be able to gain information from it. No doubt some of the others here can examine it as well."

	 Walks-The-Earth informs them, "Shaderunner doesn't get involved as long as some of the lower ranked garou can handle it. Get the balloon and the tree figured out and cleansed. Then you can figure out what's inside the balloon once we know it's not going to make people sick. I don't want to jump to conclusions what the liquid is yet, do you?" He looks up into the air, "Was the balloon tied or caught?"

Jason Rogers says, "Get me a fucking big cardboard box, three pastic garbage bags, two rolls of duct tape and a bottle of hand sanitiser. And a magic marker." Jason Rogers says, "Caught. I want to make a container for it, so we can move it away from here to somewhere it can stay put"

Li Wei nods and awaits the preparations for safe storage of the balloon before heading back out on the trail. "Good thought, don't want it getting popped by accident."

Jason Rogers starts work on a variant of the Rite of the Cardboard Box. Hope it keeps wyrm-tainted balloons warm, safe and dry. spends a gnosis

Jason Rogers marks the box with big 'DANGER !!! KEEP OUT !!!' and multiple skulls and crossbones

	 Walks-the-Earth leans a touch in Jason's direction. "We're in the middle of the forest. You got your saw. Ain't a shopping mart inside that lean-to. An just a warning, I wouldn't speak that direct to someone of higher rank. I may be Fostern, but speak that way to someone like an Adren on up? You might be getting a salty snarl." He looks to Wu Wei. "You have to use the forest for what it has. Water. Sticks. Wood." His direction goes back to Jason, "Unless one of these kin has a paper bag. Doubt it though. Not with all the recycling and using re-usuable bags these days." 
	 He whistles to one of the kin and shouts for a container. The only thing one kin has is a big tupperware bowl for party salads. It's held up to see if the two want it.

Jason Rogers looks at Ms Wei. Lets head this way.

Jason Rogers says, "Thank you for your assistance, Honoured Fostern. I will now go solve this issue of taint, without endangering you and yours."

Li Wei nods and trots off down the path in her homid form. It's a little less convenient, but hard to carry a saw as a fox.

Jason Rogers follows the fox, still with the balloon. Once we're out of earshot of the badly prepared jobsworth. 'Right. We need to find some trash. Theres always fucking trash'

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Jason Rogers rolls Rage vs 6 for -1 successes. -1 4 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

Li Wei looks around, "Probably not right around here. The Gar-rou tend to keep the area of the Caern pretty clean. We'll keep an eye out though."

Jason Rogers says, "There is never fucking trash around when you need it" Jason Rogers looks at Ms Wei. "You see anything, friend ?"

	 Walks-the-Earth says, "Not far from here is the cabins some of the new garou stay in while visiting. But I recommend getting that balloon and tree cleansed pronto. You don't want to traipse around sickness like a disease or nuthing."

Li Wei shakes her head, "No, but if you're going to cleanse it anyway, we don't really need to pack it away. Let's get there, then you can clean the balloon and tree all at once while I watch your back. Just avoid any branches on the way."

Jason Rogers says, "Yeah, but Im not going to cleanse this, not yet. If we're going to monkeywrench the fuckers doing this, we need to know what it is, not have inert cleaned by Luna and the fresh waters crap"

Jason Rogers says, "But the tree it was on - yeah. Yeah, thats getting brought back to the clean light of Gaia."

Li Wei hmms, "We should have left it back with Walks then, rather than dragging it through the woods. I thought we were going to take care of all of it at once."

	 The balloon goes wherever they take it. But the longer that string is tied to Bone Gnawer, it may start to itch.

Jason Rogers says, "He fucking didnt want it there, and I wasnt going to try and rip his throat out to make him. Nahh, we're going abck to the tree, then back to town."

Jason Rogers says, "Then Im probably going to need to spend a week in a fucking B-A-T-H"

Li Wei nods, "We probably need to have this looked at by someone with more experience. Though he was right, going straight for an Elder is probably overkill." She pauses, "I know, let's do it this way." She unties the shirt from her waist and buttons it closed, all the way up to the neckline. "Here, we'll put the balloon in this shirt, then we do not have to touch it directly. Perhaps that will help."

Going straight for an elder probably IS overkill, but when one just strolls up off patrol and gets nosy, what can you do? "Everything good, guys?" Bryan asks, swinging a machete up over his shoulder.

Jason Rogers says, "No. Not everything is good. Have you seen this ? *nods towards the balloon, cheerily hanging off his wrist* Or whats inside it"

	 There is a big red balloon about the size of a Disney balloon currently tied to the Bone Gnawer's wrist. Within, one can see 1/4th an inch of unknown liquid, amber colored, tinted by the red of the balloon to obscure its true color.

Li Wei nods her head respectfully to Bryan, "It appears to be tainted. We were going to cleanse the tree it was caught in, but were not sure how to safely carry it along without sharing it's corruption."

Bryan shakes his head, examining Jason's .. um.. bracelet.. "Looks like pee. Please tell me you're not being hazed by peeing in a balloon. Man, we did that YEARS ago when I was cliath. It's right on par with snipe hunting." He strolls closer, but doesn't touch. "You pee in the balloon and wear it.. somehow.. for a full week and then you pop it and it's supposed to reveal your future." But then when he gets closer, he squints a little and clears his throat. "Or.. no. That's... not.... a game. WHy are you wearing a tainted balloon around your wrist this close to the fucking caern?" Despite the cursing, Bryan doesn't seem angry, just confused.

Jason Rogers says, "Because Im taking it away from the Caern, and then to somewhere someone can tell what it was and where it came from" Jason Rogers thinks he is going to need more than a week in a B-A-T-H.

Li Wei nods, "We found it caught in a tree and took it back to have it checked, but they did not want it near the Caern, which I can understand, so we had no choice but to bring it with us as we went back to cleanse the tree."

Bryan looks back and forth and back and forth and back and forth again and holds out his hand. "Alright. One GOOD thing about being in the Umbra as long as I was is that I'm mostly immune to that shit. Or at least easier to cleanse. Give it here. I'll go with you. BACK where it came from. Anyone who doesn't know how to cleanse, I'll teach you." The Elder has volunteered to be the Wyrm Carrier.

Jason Rogers unties the string and hands over the box of wyrm-tainted liquid explosives. Jason Rogers says, "My guess is someone is trying to bomb the caern with these."

Li Wei gestures up the path, "The tree is up this way. We have a saw to remove the limb the balloon was caught on, and I believe Jason knows the Rite of Cleansing, so I was going to watch his back while he did it." She puts the saw down for a moment to tie the shirt back around her waist, then recovers it and heads down the patrh.

	 The balloon sloshes once it is passed over. It remains looking completely innocent. It still floats, but once they begin their walk, it will start to droop toward gravity slowly. 
	 It is a two mile walk on the Northeastern path back to the tree. It is a large tree a few meters off the path to the right. The base of the tree looks healthy all the way up until one large branch it was tangled in before appears dead.

Jason Rogers says, "Kindly toss me the saw once I climb up. I think we need to start by apologising to the tree for lopping it's dead limb."

Li Wei nods and moves to the base of the tree, waiting for Jason to take the steps he needs to before passing the saw up to him. "It will probably be relieved to be rid of the tainted limb, I would imagine." She looks around, seeing if she overlooked any clue to the balloon being here in case it was placed rather than drifted in.

"Did no one think of NOT bringing it to the caern?" Once they get there, he watches Jason climb, then just floats upward to sit on the far end of the branch as he watches, still holding the balloon in his hand. No, he isn't helping, other than MAYBE to add some weight to this situation, so to speak. "Never bring anything TO the caern. You leave it there, and bring people to it." Still doesn't seem mad. He's explaining

Jason Rogersbites off "It was brought to the edge of the bawn, not to the caern itself"

Li Wei shrugs a little, "I did not think of that. It might have been no more than a balloon with water in it, we just wanted to see if someone could see if there was anything more to it. I will make certain to prepare for this situation in the future though. When I get home, I will make the proper sacrifices to the spirits and petition them to teach me to sense such things so that I may know for certain in the future."

Jason Rogersholds the main section of the tree and says, in a low voice 'Sister of the Forest, we Garou are called the Warriors of Gaia, but today it is you who needs be brave and take a battle scar. Will you assent to this, freind under the moon ?'

Bryan nods. "Oh, I figured that. Still generally a bad idea. If there was an absolute emergency, then sure. But this wasn't a 911. Did no one tell you to howl if you ran into something? You're a Cliath and the equivalent of a Cliath." He STILL isn't mad. He isn't the patrol master. He just happened to walk up

Li Wei looks a little embarrassed, "I thought that was meant for emergencies, like discovering an enemy. This did not seem so urgent." She bows, "Please forgive my ignorance, I did not mean to endanger the purity of your Caern."

	 The red balloon floating on the Elder in his grasp looks innocent. A lovely trojan treasure of Wyrm taint.

Jason Rogers kisses the tree gently, like a mother kissing the forehead of a child, and then says 'The saw, thank you'

Li Wei passes the saw up to Jason as requested, "Here you go."

Bryan motions toward the balloon that he has dangling in the air. "Is this not an enemy?" He shakes his head at Li Wei. "No harm this time and as you can see, I'm not mad. You'd know absolutely for sure if I was. We have pretty good security. It wouldn't have gotten far." Jason Rogers marks a hand-breadth between the dead wood and the living and begins to cut.

	 It doesn't take long to cut the branch as the wood is rotted dead. Once it's loose enough, any weight pressed on by the saw itself causes the branch to tumble down to the ground. Ploomphf.

Jason Rogers loses one Magical Essence Jason Rogers says, "Thank you, sister. There is a little more to do, but I hope you appreciate us keeping you safe." Jason Rogers walks around the tree, pausing to touch the earth at several points, making a rough circle. He takes some sage and makes a little fire, letting fire and air do it's work to remove residual wyrm-taint.

Li Wei backs up to make room for Jason to do his ritual, watching as it is performed. She, like all her kind, has an interest in all types of magic.

<---======##====================[ Dice Roll ]=====================##======---> Jason Rogers rolls Charisma + Rituals vs 6 for 2 successes. 2 4 +7 +10 <-------------=============++++++++++++++++++++++++=============------------->

Bryan slips back down, no longer floating, and sets the balloon at the base of the tree so it can be within the area of cleansing. Then he steps back and lets Jason take the lead with the cleansing and he just follows the circle and helps, yipping and howling at the tainted things. Jason Rogers tries not to think too much that the 'tainted things' probably includes him.

	 The ritual is performed by the Bone Gnawer Cliath. And the amount of gnosis poured into the area to cleanse everyone within the radius of that circle he makes just pours forth an intense cleanse to rid the taint. 
	 The red balloon starts to sag and the droopy string just looks sad until at the very end of the ritual the sinister balloon makes a loud *POP*!! 

	 	 Liquid explodes on Bryan (unless he dodges), and anything or anyone else standing down below him. The cleansed but torrent stench of piss resonates in the air like an eau de perfume of nastiness. Then it fades.

Li Wei wrinkles her nose, "Eww. That was weird, the cleansing shouldn't have made it explode. I wonder if it was set up that way as a trap for whoever cleanses it."

Bryan just stood there like an idiot and when the thing explodes, it splooshes all over his pants and one little sploot lands in his hair. He dodges back at the last second, but just a little too late. Some of it sploots right where his face WAS, and he is ever so grateful for the reflexes that he has. "Motherfucker..." he mutters, raking his hands through his hair, which just.. ya know.. spreads it around a little. "No, if it was tainted, the taint has to burn off. Have you ever interrogated a BSD with a mild cleansing rite? It's ugly. Things melt."

Jason Rogers finds a water canteen and tosses it to Bryan.

	 That ugly red balloon now starts to shrivel up and melt on the ground in a red puddle that is dissolving, and evaporating like the rest of the odor that was inside. Even the string starts to ravel upward into a shrinky dink coil and becomes liquid.

Jason Rogers says, "It would have been nice to have that in a lab, to see what it was really made of."

Li Wei shakes, "I never have, no. It sounds quite unpleasant." She watches the balloon dissolve, shaking her head. "I wonder if we will need to watch for more of these. Perhaps the word should go out that these things may be around." Jason Rogers moves to give the now-cleansed tree a hug, avoiding the residue for now.

Bryan shakes his head, dumping the canteen over the top of him, which just really kind of spreads it out a little. He leans forward and tries to wash his hair out a little, but it isn't doing much. "Would have been nice, but there are ways to track things. Let's get back to the caern and you guys can talk me through what happened and I'll see what kind of help I can offer you."

Jason Rogers nods to Li Wei's suggestion.

Jason Rogers makes sure that any bits of molten crap, string, and so on are policed up before heading back, copying whatever form Bryan picks us to move in.

Bryan ALSO nods to Li Wei's suggestion. "Not a bad idea. Whatever it is, I don't think it's THAT bad, and it can still be tracked, hopefully. Next time, leave it, call for someone

Jason Rogers says, "So, we were sent out on patrol. We found the balloon, hanging off a dead branch. There were no banes or similar, but the branch was dead. I made the decision to bring the balloon back to the edge of the Bawn and no further, and then was attempting to get it contained for study while we cleansed the area. Then you arrived."

Li Wei nods, "That sums it up fairly well. We still need to do the rest of our patrol, this was an anomaly we thought needed to be looked at."

Bryan nods. "Yup. Totally. I see where you were going with that, but never bring trouble TOWARD the caern. Let people come to you. As it happens, I have ... what I'm pretty sure is urine, all over my pants. There are ways to track the owner of this urine and I will give up my pants so ya'll can do just that."

Jason Rogers says, "Do you have a plastic bag we can put em in as well ?"

Bryan shakes his head. "Nope. But I have a shirt you can put them into. I'm personally just fine doing that." And he starts to disrobe. "I'll lupus it out to the caern and go soak in the springs fr a while."

Li Wei nods, "That works. We'll get this figured out."

Jason Rogers looks at Li Wei. You got a motorbike or something ?

Li Wei shakes her head, "No, I usually just run. Or ride with Nico when she's going somewhere."