Dropping Bodies: The Morgue

[Seryna]

As you follow Dr. Cesmat, she leads you to a large set of doors. There is a black sensor beside the door that she submits her ID badge to. It blinks green, and the doors swing open. She walks through briskly, trusting the two consultants will keep up.
She pauses at an open area with a long steel sink with touchless faucets and several bins of different sized jumpsuits, gloves and booties.

" Stop at the scrub in sink to scrub your hands and don gloves." The doctor waits while you do so, flipping open the report and reading while you suit up to her satisfaction. When she is content you are washed and gloved correctly, she steps closer to you. She is an athletic older woman. She wears authority like a presence about her person. She speaks with intelligence and thought behind her words.

Once Alexander and anyone who accompanied him do so, she hands Dr. Moore the reports on Riggan and Harper. The two reports look like what Dr. Ward was filing. Both are thick with different colored tabs to indicate different sections. As Alexander turns to the first section, he sees photographs of the body where it was found. Riggan was laying flat on a grassy flat field.
Harper was found slumped on his side within a bathroom stall. There is a sheet with each folder detailing where the bodies are found, who reported the body and how long before police secured the scene. Does Alexander read this?
The next page has a diagram of the human body. Areas are marked where any injuries or abrasions occurred. Alexander notes that there are no arrows or written details by the neck, femoral artery or wrist. There are a few notes on each body, if Alexander takes the time to read. Does he do this?

Dr. Cesmat waits only a few minutes in comfortable silence to allow Alexander to look through the files in a quick look. Not quite enough time to get all of the details.
Dr. Cesmat backs through a swinging door into a room lined with refrigerated drawers. A man in blue scrubs is standing over a dead body on one of three large steel rolling tables. The chest of the dead man as been peeled back and the man is peering into the cavity with two instruments in his hand.

"Dr. Tener, can you pull out Mr. Riggan for me?" She requests with authority, but also a polite tone. The doctor quickly places a sheet over the cadaver and moves to the drawers, checking labels before finding the correct one. He and Dr. Cesmat move the dead body with coordinated lifts between them to a second steel table. Dr. Cesmat locked the wheels in place and looked at the men with her in the morgue expectantly.
What do you do?

[Edward Heinrich]

Edward was just along for the ride. Riding shotgun, in the old meaning, following where Alexander steered them.

Edward scrubs his hands and suits up; it was a bit fun, all told. He'd never been in something like this before.

[Alexander Moore]

Alexander follows Dr. Cesmat, careful that he doesn’t overtake her with his stride. He immediately goes to prepare himself to enter the room, hesitating when he remembers that this isn’t his theater. At Dr. Cesmat’s behest he washes his hands and stretches the gloves over his bulky hands.


The doctor reminds Alexander of many others he once worked with, the strong hard working type who was well equipped for the busyness surrounding the human body. He is glad for her brisk professionalism, but can’t help but wonder if that will make things difficult for them later on.

Alexander takes the reports, quickly leafing through them. The information regarding the location and time of police arrival he barely skims, it isn’t what’s important right now. Finding the diagrams and their notes, Alexander carefully reads over them and compares the two diagrams, rereading the notes to be sure he knows their contents.

Once Dr. Cesmat begins to move, Alexander tentatively follows, taking small steps and occasionally pausing to glance about the room, and to see if the doctor has anything else for him. He watches as she and the other doctor, Dr. Tener, move the corpse of Mr. Riggan to a table. He looks over the body quickly, and turns to Dr. Cesmat.

“May I take a closer look? And perhaps you could tell me any observations you’ve had about the body? Anything will help.” He is hesitant to immediately investigate the body, so he’ll get the doctor’s opinion now while he has her full attention.

[Seryna]

Mr. Tener complied with preparing the late Mr. Riggan. He respectfully pulled down the white covering to the waist. He indicated the Y incision with a glance.
“You have the report, so let me know if there are any questions.” Dr. Tener assures in a friendly voice, glancing between Edward and Alexander. “I’d hate to go over anything you already know.”

Dr. Cesmat nodded to Alexander. “Feel free to take a closer look. We’ve completed a standard autopsy. We would rule it cause of death by exsanguination without need for an autopsy, were there the standard scene you’d expect to find. An exit wound, for example.” She gestured to the body. “You can consult the diagram. He has a slight bruising on the upper arm, very recent. Perhaps caused by falling in the lavatory when he passed out. Yet we don’t have any exterior cuts.
We’re assuming it could have been hemorrhage, yet we examined for signs of that carefully and found nothing. So, we have this and Harper where two dead bodies by exsanguination, and no wounds.” She made a one shoulder shrug.
"Harper was claimed quickly. This one we kept. We’re running slides through for any disease that could account for it. It is the only idea I had. How did you hear about this, Doctor?” She looks to Alexander with a keen intelligence.

“I am keeping this as quiet as I can. Mayor doesn’t know. So far, its just my office. I recorded exsanguination for Harper and so far, no one has countered my claim. My thought is to call up the detective who was on Harper’s case to see if he had any ideas. Perhaps some new draining of the body through an orifice that we haven’t found signs of yet. If you have an idea, I would welcome it.”

[Edward Heinrich]

Edward remembered the first time he'd worked in a malware lab. It was exciting — an unmarked and air-gapped room with an RF scanner hidden inside a wall.

The novelty wore off after a couple months, then it was just annoying. No phone, no food, and having to make trips back and forth from an outside computer to research and print off documents to be carried back inside? It was a hassle.

Edward tried to cultivate that sense of post novelty boredom as he met Dr. Tener's glance. Just another day, Edward.

He did idly glance at Alexander, wondering what he would say.

[Alexander Moore]

He nodded to Dr. Tener, appreciative for the effect the friendly man was having on his nerves.


Alexander listened to Dr. Cesmat intently, but all that was said he already knew. The bruising could be something, but he had been hoping that Mable would have been there to help him investigate. Her knowledge of the world’s strangeness could have helped bridge the gap between the biological and the mythical.

Tentatively he approaches the body, taking care not to loom too inappropriately over the much smaller doctors. He waits until Dr. Cesmat stops speaking before taking a closer look, but she segues into asking him a question.

Alexander turns to her as his mind races, his answer would likely put a spotlight on one of his fellow Kindred, mark them as a meddler who knows too much by the police force. Mr. Northbridge might be able to deal with it, but it would be best to avoid any more mind twisting than was strictly necessary.

“I was called on to help with the investigation temporarily, and to offer my thoughts once I had taken a look. I have to say that I am quite stumped, but hopefully that will change once I take a closer look, if you’ll excuse me.” Shit. He had felt off, and he might be reading too much into things, jumping at shadows, but good Dr. Cesmat seemed a little too smart for her own good. The case was obviously strange, but she was taking steps to understand it, and that interest might lead into a peculiar subject. Hopefully nothing came of all this, a strange death in a cruel world, and all the doctors could move on peacefully, though some might have their brains scrambled lightly.


Oh well, Alexander leans over the body, habitually adjusting his gloves,time to get to work.

What should Alexander roll to investigate? I'm not too sure what would be appropriate

[Seryna]

Intelligence + Medicine extended roll. Your goal is 6 suxx.

The doctors in the room with Moore and Heinrich seem perfectly happy with the quiet as Moore performs his examination of the body. Dr. Cesmat stands about five feet from Moore, observing.
"Dr. Cesmat, Andrea brought over the results from the residue around the mouth." Dr. Tener walked over to a cabinent and removed a sealed folder. He walked it to Dr. Cesmat, who broke the seal and read the contents quickly.
"I thought it could be an abnormal animal leavings, but this doesn't show any animal DNA." She stated to the room, placing the report back within the folder.

Dr. Tener moved back to the body he had been examining when you walked in. He resumes his work. Dr. Cesmat remains watching over the body of the mysterious victim.

[Alexander Moore]

He couldn’t seem to find anything apart from what he’d found in the reports.

failure

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-05-19 20:16:24	Alexander Moore rolls 7 to Intelligence3 + Medicine4 (10 Again)	1, 2, 5, 7, 1, 1, 3	failure

[Seryna]

razzy , you can make an extended action roll for this examination. Extended action: one roll represents 10 minutes of activity) (p. 59 in world of darkness rulebook)On the die roller, theres a box with 2 drop down options. Extended:{drop down box reading one} So Alexander can choose to spent 40 minutes examining, you would add 3 more rolls. Let me know if you have further questions.

Dr. Tener continues his work on the other table, only glancing over occasionally at Alexander examining the body. Dr. Tener seems to look over at Alexander occasionally when Dr. Tener moves around his table. He mentions in a helpful tone to the doctor after he glances to the clock.
"One more hour, doctor."

"Thank you, Dr. Tener." The doctor responded politely. Dr. Cesmat leaves Alexander plenty of room so his giant bulk can move around the table. She casually walks closer to Edward Heinrich, standing about two feet to his left. She gives him a direct look and waits for her gaze to be responded to.
"Do you have any impressions?" She inquires of Edward. "Have you seen anything like this before in your patients?"

[Edward Heinrich]

Edward turns his eyes to Dr. Cesmat's, giving her an unspoken 'yes?'

"Yes, but I'd prefer to avoid polluting your thinking with my own, for now. As for similar cases, I'm afraid so." He had tagged along on a few investigations of neonates overfeeding before. After neglecting his own feeding once, Edward's Sire thought it appropriate to show him the consequences of losing control.

"Generally speaking, there were a few pints left behind, so I suppose this case is particularly unusual." It was hard to drain a Kine body as thoroughly as in these cases. Shock, pooling blood around central organs, and then heart failure, left blood in hard-to-reach places.

"Your thought of an abnormal animal intrigues me, Dr. Cesmat. Did you have something in mind?" Do you require handling?