Play@YSDC

Balzac is trying to look messily inconspicuous in a corner of the storage/autopsy room. He has his café in one hand, a notebook in the other and a pencil tucked above an ear, and is ready to note observations.

OOC:   One after the other I would suggest.

Diana observes the autopsies, hoping to notice some details that others might have overlooked. While she tries to stay clinically detached, she cannot help but feel sorrow for the two human beings whose lives were snuffed out by an unknown beast. I hope what we do here will give us some answers and possibly prevent further deaths, she thinks.

OOC,Yes, I don't think we're in any particular rush. Are we allowed to read the other thread?

The room is stuffy and oppressive, and once ready, the autopsy begins.

OOC:   The following is taken from the notes made on the scene. Starting with a clinical description of the first body's description followed by the clothing, and it's condition - namely ragged, torn and blood soaked, the doctors methodically describe each article as it is gently removed. Eventually the first body lies naked on the makeshift dissecting table and the doctors discuss the state of the body.

"An Inuit male, aged about 20-25 at a rough estimate. Severe lacerations cover the body from the neck down to the upper legs on the front and to the ankles on the rear. This may be indicitive of his being attacked from behind first, but there is no way to be certain. The distance between the claw marks would indicate a paw far in excess of any known species, Would you agree Diana?

"The male specimen has what appears to be at least six attacks on his front which has led to his stomach and intestines being released from their customary location. Unfortunately this has led to us not being able to determine exactly what has killed this man, though I suspect that he would have bled out from the wounds on his stomach in a matter of minutes, had the cold not got to him first. Then there is the singular series of gashes across his chest that literally destroyed his ribcage and removed most of his lungs and other organs, including the front sections of his heart. However, by the way the lower body was covered in blood, at least moreso than the top half, this would suggest that he was already departed from this vale.

"Examining his back reveals that he was likely hamstrung first, then as he lay on his back, losing his lifeblood to the snow and ice, the creature ... or whatever it was made sport with his body. What part the other person played in this grim tableau we perhaps will never fully know, but he did succumb to a similar fate.

"Are there any other observations that anyone present would make before the medical staff take care of trying to make him as presentable as we may for his tribe?"

"Yes, I concur, Doctor" says Diana, repressing a shiver. "I've never heard of anything with claws that big." Though she's frightened at the prospect of running into a creature that could cause this carnage, she is resolved not to let her fear show. She knows the men only wish to protect her, but she doesn't want them to think of her as a terrified woman - even if she is one.

Balzac is taking careful notes, drawing neat diagrams and slurping coffee noisily. He looks up from his notes.

"Is there any indication any organs were eaten, or at least removed by the creature to keep and eat later?" Balzac asks with his distinct French accent. He seems unperturbed by the gory tableau.

OOC:   Let me know if you'd prefer my secondary PC to stay more in the shadows.

"Although the organs have been bitten into and parts of them missing, for example about two thirds of his liver is missing, and the rest of his organs have been damaged, possibly consumed by the creature, but if the eating of the organs were the reasoning - why not take all of his organs, like the remainder of his liver for example.

"Note the marks made by the beast's teeth on his liver here ... a lot of very sharp teeth and the 'shape' of the bite, much like our teeth would make in an apple gives an idea of our size ... I would estimate the creature's jaw must be over twenty inches across. Couple that with the size of the claw marks and it gives us a creature of some considerable size possibly as much as three to four times the size of any of us."

OOC:   No your Character is yours to do with as you please - just don#'t get them both killed at the same time

"Perhaps the creature simply used its teeth to tear him open," speculates Diana. "It may just have happened to bite him where his vitals were. Or it could have targeted his vitals in order to kill him quickly."

"It is like ze cat playing with a mouse for ze sport."

"Has ze animal left any hairs or nails for us, I wonder?"

Balzac makes sure his notes and diagrams are up to date then takes a precautionary slurp of coffee. Reaching into a pocket, he pulls out a jeweller's loupe and starts carefully searching the body for fur or other animal residue.

"I would suggest the former over the latter Diana as that would involve a level of intelligence that may. or may not, be above what this creature is capable of, whatever it may be. The ferocity of the other attacks, both on this body and the other poor unfortunate, suggest, to me at least, that it is more natural aggression as opposed to targeted attacks."

From the other thread:

dustakr wrote:

OOC,I want to be with expedition team, though I am not sure how should I catch up with Patrick and Jesse.

For the sake of the game we can assume that as soon as the other party return to camp they quickly debrief everyone on what they found and anyone who wishes can set out in search of Patrick. Let me know who else wants to go so that I can adjust the thread as needed

"Actually that seems a good analogy Balzac - please look for signs, though I found none."

"Actually that seems a good analogy Balzac - please look for signs, though I found none."

Quietly uttering vile oaths in French, Balzac pours over the body with his jeweller's loupe.

Balzac's Spot Hidden skill is 50%

[dice]0[/dice]

Balzac's Biology skill is 76%

[dice]1[/dice]

Dr. Newton will assist Balzac in the combing of the body for such signs. While not his specialty, maybe what he learned from his hunting hobby can be of help.

Diana also inspects the body for traces of the creature.

OOC,Does this mean we're allowed to read the other thread? Biology roll (61% skill): [dice]0[/dice] Spot Hidden roll (55% skill): [dice]1[/dice]

Finding no real traces, other than the physical damage the creature caused, it is decided to examine the second body.

After the first cadaver is roughly stitched back up ... in case it needs be opened again - there is always time for the niceties later, it is removed and the second body carried in and laid out on the examination table.

"Following the same procedure, we will be working from the outside inward. Firstly, it can be noted that this body, of a male Inuit aged about thirty, seems at first glance to have been impaled by something approximately six inches across at the entry wound on the left side of the sternum tapering down to little more than half that at the point where it exited the body, shattering the scapula on the way. Several ribs are all but destroyed by the force of the trauma. Added to this are similar frenzied attacks witnessed on the first cadaver.

"The right hand is missing ... looking as though it was torn from his arm. The hand found at the site, on the rifle, seems to be a good match for the missing extremity, does everyone agree? I can see some off-white fibres in the left hand, which are also present on the matted clothing." Removing several hairs the Doctor inspects them, before raising them to his nose.

"The coarse hair is repugnant to the nose and somewhat oily to the touch. Can you please look at these hairs, or fibres for me please Diana? The results might cast some light on what we are facing here.

"This body seems to have undergone a near total evisceration, presumably post-mortem if we assume the impaling blow was the fatal one. Did you say there had been several shots fired before the weapon was destroyed? What does this indicate I wonder?"

"That either he was a poor shot, possibly due to panic, or the creature is extremely tough, moreso than a bear," says Diana. "There may have been more than one of them, but if he'd killed any there would have been remains. Even if they eat their own dead, they couldn't eat the bones. I suppose he could have started firing when the beast was too far away to hit and exhausted his magazine. I agree that the hand on the rifle is most likely the dead man's missing hand. I find it highly unlikely that there's someone else out there who just happens to have lost the same hand and somehow survived. Let me see those fibers." She collects samples of them with a pair of tweezers to study in more detail, including under a microscope.

Balzac diligently notes the wreckage of the second corpsicle, including sketches and diagrams.

"Diana, may I borrow one of those hairs for a moment to describe in the notes?"

Balzac will whip out his jeweller's loupe, ready to examine a hair up close.

"Of course, Doctor," says Diana. She provides Balzac with one of the hairs.

The hair is semi translucent with a pearlescent sheen to it. It feels oily to the touch and smells of fish, rotten meat and salt combined, more strongly of the decaying flesh than aught else. Even after the samples are removed from the bag - the odour still lingers. Where there are roots on the end of the hairs it shows that the follicles to be about twice the size of a normal human hair. Balzac's notes will reflect this, (assume he gets a hair with a follicle attached).

OOC:   Luck roll please Diana - to see if you can manage to get a small blood sample suitable for microscopic examination. Failure means that it is too decayed by time and the weather or you have a case of sausage-finger.

Diana is in luck. The sample she has retrieved is adequate for analysis.

OOC,[b]Diana[/b]'s Luck roll (55% stat) to get a good sample. [dice]0[/dice]

"Merci Madame." Balzac wrinkles the large Gallic noise at the smell of the hair but draws and annotates diligently with the aid of the little magnifying loupe.

"Ugh. This reminds me why I prefer le botanie. I shall need a fresh pot of café after this."

"Your quite welcome," says Diana, "and I empathize completely. I would much rather smell flowers any day. There are some plants that are malodorous, but nothing like this! How can these creatures stand being around each other, let alone themselves?"

Examining the small sample you have managed to extract from the follicles you are struck by the fact that the blood is not at all similar to human blood. Instead of the flat plates, normally associated with blood, these were rough tetrahedrons.

"Curious," says Diana as she peers into the microscope with her other eye shut. "This blood isn't like human blood, or the blood of any known animal for that matter. The red cells aren't flat plates, they look more like tetrahedra."

"Merde!"

"Hairy, smelly, violent and with blood comprised four sided cells. Reminds me of a young lady of my - ah - acquaintance back in my days at the Universitie."

Once his notes are finished, Balzac heads off to make more coffee then find somewhere to practise jazz on his trumpet. Somewhere that won't drive his colleagues insane.

"The first three, perhaps, Doctor," says Diana, "but I seriously doubt the mademoiselle had blood like this. Nothing else does, that I know of at least. This is a tremendous find! Someone should do a chemical analysis of it."

"Diana is correct." says Dr. Newton, "I could check my books but I am very sure blood cells with this configuration are unknown to current medical science. Of the top of my head I cannot recall any Phylum that even remotely resembles this. Whatever we have here points to a development that went a different way from all other Fauna on Earth that has been catalogued...maybe a living fossil? An old branch from the Tree of Life that has endured only here for ages_ Or that only developed here in the first place? We should certainly see what chemistry can tell us about these cells, but that area is not my forte. I believe our geologists are the most proficient chemists available at the moment."

"Yes, Mr. Fyll would be well suited to the task," says Diana.

The post-mortem on the second body yields similar results to the first other than the torn off hand, the hole through the chest cavity and the increased level of violence used on the body being the only differing factors along with the fibrous material currently being analysed by Balzac and Diana.

Diana tries examining one of the fibrous hairs, if that's what they are, under the microscope to get more detail.