Research

[Yawgmoth]

With few hours remaining before daylight, Dr. Ith Lazarus concludes that perhaps such extensive occult research is premature. The remainder of the evening would be done examining the amputated heart and surrounding arteries/veins for any more medical or scientific data. He returns to the surgical table with the dessicated heart in hand. The eariler observation of the heart's irregular, misshapen, needle-like holes were a point of interest now.

What would cause such small precise holes?

And so the final tests of the night begin. Biopsies of the heart muscle are examined under powerful microscopes with the additional help of heightened senses. Furthermore, a handful of other forensic-style medical procedures were preformed; dye tests, chemical reactivity, and so on. Specifically Lazarus was looking for a medical or scientific answer to the riddle of what caused these holes, or better yet what caused such complex compounds to form -- but at this point any enlightening discovery was welcome.

Spoiler

Extended Roll Between Medicine and Science (Subtraced 1 die from last roll for the Medicine Failure)
2009-06-17 21:58:56 Dr. Lazarus rolls 7 to Medicine (10 Again) 10, 1, 3, 4, 2, 2, 5, 4 1 success
2009-06-17 21:58:19 Dr. Lazarus rolls 8 to Medicine (10 Again) 4, 6, 7, 7, 3, 7, 7, 1 failure
2009-06-17 21:58:08 Dr. Lazarus rolls 7 to Science (10 Again) 4, 10, 2, 5, 7, 2, 1, 6 1 success

[DaevaDude]

Narration:

Examination of the holes under a microscope and with Dr. Lazarus' own enhanced senses shows they are not even in width and don't show the degree of smoothness one would expect of a needle or other instrument. In fact, they are so uneven as to suggest they were formed not by one action, but rather by small bits of tissue being damaged or removed bit by bit.

Turning back to the chemical compound, Dr. Lazarus continues to have no luck identifying the specific compound, but he does find something similar enough to suggest some interesting, if unexpected, possibilities.

Structurally, the closest compounds Lazarus can find to the crystals he's found in the ghoul cadaver are those sometimes found in, of all things, urine - both human and animal - and kidney stones. Reading, Lazarus recalls that humans sometimes expel excess minerals or impurities as crystals within urine, and that sometimes these crystals build up in large deposits, forming kidney stones. Reading further, he reads about how some desert animals - gerbils, as just one example - expel very little in the way of liquid urine, and how as a result their urine deposits tend to be crystaline.

Neither of these examples precisely matches the unusual crystals, but it is nonetheless interesting that the thing he's so far identified which most closely matches this strange substance is the result of not just biological processes, but eliminative ones. This suggests the crystals may not be the result of something acting directly upon the bodies of the affected ghouls and vampires, but rather something produced by some other organism within said bodies.