Play@YSDC

The scream is sudden and unexpected. A female voice, screaming in absolute horror. It doesn't come from inside the room, but it's definitely from somewhere inside the house . For a second, everyone stands still, faces showing absolute surprise.

Jacques listens to try to determine from where the scream came, intent on rushing in that direction.

OOC,Would Sense Trouble help?

Jacques rushes for the red door to burst through it and help the screaming woman on the other side.

François hurredly places his glass down then follows the Colonel towards the door.

Andre looks over towards where the dashing gendarme, Jacques and François are heading. He places his glass down deliberately and mentally steeling himself he follows his new friend towards the red door as fast as decorum, and his game leg will allow.

Jean-Luc puts down his hat and follows the other men towards the door.

You open the door and head into a corridor leading inside the private section of the house. Behind you, you can hear people talking, some women screaming, and the voice of Julien: "Stay calm! Everybody stay calm and head to the exit. Thank you."

The corridor looks empty, but you can hear the sound of someone crying and sobbing from a while ahead, where the corridor turns to the right. Once you get past the corner, you see an old woman, dressed as a maid, in front of an open door. As soon as she sees you, she points to somethings inside the open door, without looking at it directly, as if looking is too much to bear. And when you enter the room, you realize why: there's a body on the floor, sprawled over an elegant carpet. It's a man, wearing an elegant black dress. He's missing his head, and looks covered in small wounds.

The room itself is about 4x4 meters, there's an elegant Louis XVI writing desk, a chair and a large library as the only pieces of furniture. You also see three paintings on the wall, the same art style of those you saw earlier in the party room. Excluding the door you came in from, there's another door, closed, and a large open window.

OOC:   Stability test: [dice]0[/dice]

Though he is used to the killing and butchering what he hunts the idea someone would kill am man is fairly abhorrent to François who turns his back on the body. "Sacré bleu!"

"Mon Dieu!" gasps Jacques, the sight too much for him. While he has seen plenty of the horrors of war, he wasn't expecting to find something so dreadful here in the heart of Paris.

OOC,Stability roll for seeing the headless corpse: [dice]0[/dice]

OOC:   Rolled a 2 on a 1d6 (can't use the internal dice roller, or don't know how to

Jean-Luc covers his face with a small handkerchief.

OOC:   Like krzyspmac, I cannot remember how to utilise the internal dice roller - I looked at my previous games but they seemed to be the now defunct Invisible Castle = Anywho - I rolled a 3 on 1D6

Andre screws his eyes tightly shut but cannot erase the after image left by horrendous scene left in his memory - an image that will never fade until his dying days.

Jacques takes a deep breath, summoning up his professionalism. He is still a gendarme, and he knows what to do in this situation. "Nobody touch anything," he says. "Leave it all exactly where it is. There may be important evidence left by whoever did this monstrous thing: fingerprints, cigarette ash, who knows?" Recalling the techniques he learned through decades on the job and from reading the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, he carefully examines the room and the body for clues.

OOC,I'd like to use Evidence Collection and Forensics. [url=http://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=318&t=5318]Here[/url] are carnage_lee's instructions for the dice roller.

Jacques examines the window and frame. "This is definitely the point of entry," he says, "and most likely the point of exit as well. The window was forced open from the outside." Then he turns his attention to the decapitated body. "His shoes have soil on them, as if he'd been walking a lot outside. I can't tell what kind of soil, though. Perhaps one of you would know better. And there's not as much blood as you'd think there would be if he was killed here. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say that he was killed somewhere outside and then deposited here. He's covered in bite marks. They look canine, but there's something...off about them. Something about the shape of the jaws. It looks like three or four of the beasts chewed on him. But was it before or after he was killed?"

OOC,I'll spend a point of Locksmith to examine the window further.

The bile rises up in Andre's throat and he struggles hard to keep his stomach contents exactly where they are. "Monsieur Jacques - wh ... when I was in Africa I saw one of the porters who had been savaged by an African Wild dog - vicious damned things. Without being too indelicate,has any flesh been removed as I believe animals will generally only attack if hungry or to protect themselves or their lair."

Jacques scratches his chin. "I'm not sure," he says, swallowing his disgust as he examines the body. "The animals may have just been chewing on the body after the poor fellow was already dead. And of course, I seriously doubt they removed the head. They certainly couldn't have deposited him here."

François turns his back on the corpse. "I'll look outside I may be able to find evidence of the assailants in the garden or the flowerbeds"

OOC:   As a dedicated hunter I'd expect François to have some chance of finding tracks or at least evidence of the assailants passing. But I'm not sure what skill would be appropriate. Stealth perhaps?

Francois, in the corridor outside the room



As Francois runs outside, headed for the garden, he meets Julien halfway down the corridor, running in the other direction, towards the room. "Francois! What happened? Who was screaming?"

François does not stop for his friend, but hurries past. calling back over his shoulder. "There has been a murder, there is is a body in the room back there. The study? Le Colonel is in there at the moment, but you should call the Police. Whoever it is, they have been decapitated. There is blood everywhere!