Play@YSDC

Montrose note,Can be read here: [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=472&t=7217#p244634[/url]

Keeper,Does he recognise the beings Montrose described?

Virgil,[i]'creatures, big, bigger than men, six limbed, beak-mouthed'[/i] is very familiar to Virgil

OOC,I'm going to NPC Nicole for a while as I'm not sure when Raiko will be back

Kiara,There are terminals in the medical centre or she can use a datapad. If you tell me what you're trying to do I can tell you if you can/how difficult

Keeper,She’ll use the terminal in the medical centre rather than connect up her datapad. She’ll try to blind and deafen CENTRAL, in that room at least.

Kiara,That's a hard Computer Use

Computer use 65 extreme success,0

OOC,Virgil shows this map to Sergei: [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=472&t=7144#p238916[/url]. Sergei indicates the shore to the top left of the map.

Keeper,So Waystation and Pumping Station 6 are in the same place/ are the same thing?

OOC,Don't want to railroad anyone but it looks to me like we've stalled a bit. Maybe by next week we can make plans to change the scene unless everyone still has more conversation they want to have

Keeper,Virgil will actually go to Kingsley’s office to organise transport of the package.

OOC,So Virgil is going to do some paperwork, do Sam and Keira want to look at what Jojo's found or go straight to Jack's Play looking for Isabella? What will Jojo do in the meantime? I presume you'll all reconvene later (maybe tomorrow since it must be 11pm or so) to visit Waystation.

Anyone looking at the body,Although only part of his body is visible, you can see that the whole top of [b]Montrose[/b]'s head has been blasted off, leaving a ragged bloody hole. [b]Montrose[/b] appears wasted, there are some red sores on his skin, but his face, arms, and upper chest, basically all of his skin that you can see is almost completely covered with blotches of an olive green powdery substance with a slightly filamentous surface, like microscopic hairs. [ooc]If you saw him alive, it is clear this has progressed markedly since then.[/ooc] You have never seen anything like this infection, you're not even sure what kind of thing it is. [ooc]SAN check 1/1d4 for seeing Montrose[/ooc] Looking at the body it seems like a surface examination or imaging would be fairly easy but an internal examination (postmortem) with a macroscopic review of organs and histopathology would need wearing a full biohazard getup and take some time. Blood studies (biochemistry, microscopy, and toxicology), or further examination of skin scrapings, including the powdery, filamentous substance would be more feasible.

OOC,Anyone who wants to investigate the material further can roll 1d100 once and then should compare that to their Medicine, Biology, and Chemistry skills and tell me what they've passed

OOC,Sanity roll (current level 65) for seeing the corpse: 0 Sanity loss: 2 Science(Chemistry) roll (26% skill) examining the material: 1

SAN 65 success so -1 SAN,0

Potential loss,1

D100 roll Fail,2

Sanity,501 San loss:1

Science,1% 0

Ooc,Did Sergei come with us? It’s probably not safe to leave him loitering about.

Sam,It is difficult to analyse the material within the biological containment box and with the limited instruments in the Medical Centre but [b]Sam[/b] is fairly certain she has detected carbon-based compounds, organic chemistry, and she suspects this is a terrestrial pathogen of some kind, maybe a mold or other fungus.

Kiara,Within the constraints of the biological containment box and with the limited instruments available in the Medical Centre she doesn't learn anything more. What she does know is that this is weird.

Virgil,[b]Virgil[/b] has no idea what he's looking at, but neither does it seem anyone else has either. When [b]Virgil[/b]'s done here he can go to this thread: [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?uid=6749&f=472&t=7363&start=0#p247464[/url]

OOC,Obviously you can spend Luck. I'm not going to offer pushing the roll but I'll give you some options. With Dr Johnson's permission you could either take the existing samples out of the Level 2 containment box and into the fume hood to take a closer look in the Medical Centre, take them to use on some instruments in the Engineering Centre, or get some more samples from Montrose's body (blood, skin scrapings) - that would involve opening the mortuary trolley. This would allow another 1d100 roll for Medicine/Chemistry/Biology for anyone looking, including Jojo. Depending on which option you take (if any) you might get a bonus die, and each poses different biohazard risks. Since it isn't a pushed roll nothing catastrophic will necessarily happen with a fail - a fumble however... You can also put the body through the scanner. And finally Dr Johnson and Nurse Richards could conduct a full blown autopsy on Montrose, that'd need a few hours and a full biohazard getup. Finally, a reminder, it is 11.30pm after arriving 12hrs ago following a 72hr flight.

OOC,If I can do a full post mortem while in hazard gear, I'll do that. Medicine 80 0 1 point off an Extreme Success. I feel lucky?

Jojo,The quality of the imaging is very poor with strange artefacts and distortions on both magnetic resonance and x-ray scans. It looks as if there is some dense material in the body, particularly around the skin and subcutaneous tissue, too dense to be natural, more like the interference you see with metal implants. From what [b]Jojo[/b] can ascertain there has been significant trauma to the chest wall, possibly even a penetrating injury. The resolution is not good given the signal degradation but he thinks he can see evidence of atrophy of internal organs including the heart, liver, and brain. The powdery substance on the skin is visible on the imaging, like the material in the subcutaneous tissue it seems surprisingly dense and in the areas where it is particularly visible it seems to be present quite deeply, like it is either infecting downwards from the skin or erupting from within subcutaneous tissues where the other widespread dense material is located. It goes without saying that he has never seen anything like this before.

OOC,Science(Chemistry) roll (26% skill) analyzing the material with the fume hood: 0

Science chemistry 50 pass,0

Anyone watching the postmortem can see this,[b]Jojo[/b] and [b]Richards[/b] start the postmortem by removing [b]Montrose[/b]'s body from the mortuary trolley. A surface examination confirms the findings from the imaging and what [b]Jojo[/b] saw earlier in [b]Montrose[/b]'s apartment. He is emaciated, pallid, his eyes sunken pits. There are red patches on the skin, welts and sores, at the base of these there is an almost mineral-like scaling. The top of his skull has been blasted open and much of the intracranial contents are missing, presumably splattered over the ceiling in his apartment. There are ragged bloody edges of bone. A matching entry wound is at the base of his neck. Viewing his whole body, it is clear the olive green powdery substance has covered most of his skin now. However, in the centre of his chest is a livid spot that does not bleed and from which emanates a network of red lines across his chest. [b]Jojo[/b] and [b]Richards[/b] start attending to the body with a series of knives and saws, a mechanical buzzing sound mingling with crunches and splatters that are the reality of cutting open the human body. [ooc]If you didn't already test SAN for seeing him roll, 1/1d4 loss[/ooc]

Jojo,After ten minutes of work Jojo is able to look inside the thoracic cavity. The internal organs, heart, lungs, liver and so on seem grossly normal but atrophied, smaller than would be expected for a man of [b]Montrose[/b]'s size and age. As [b]Jojo[/b] removes them for further examination he notes that they feel less compliant, stiffer than usual, perhaps indicating fibrous growth or scar tissue. Exploring the livid spot on his chest reveals what looks like large puncture wound, smashing through the sternum and into the mediastinum. The tissue around the wound is particularly stiff, hard even. He scoops out what remains of [b]Montrose[/b]'s brain. From the size of the brainstem and other identifiable parts he can see that [b]Montrose[/b]'s brain also appears smaller than he would expect. [b]Richards[/b] takes makes some cross sectional slices of the heart and liver and [b]Jojo[/b] examines them with a low power microscope. Apart from the atrophy he finds nothing unusual and takes some samples for more detailed microscopic analysis. [b]Richards[/b] obtains some further samples of the green powdery material and draws some blood for analysis. [b]Jojo[/b] looks closer at the odd scaling on [b]Montrose[/b]'s skin. Looking at it up close and using a scalpel to prod it he finds that this thick, scaled material seems to be present throughout the subcutaneous tissue and he takes some samples to analyse.

Sam and Kiara,Taking the powdery scrapings out of the containment box into the fume hood, [b]Sam[/b] and [b]Kiara[/b] are able to get a better look at them under the microscope and also to run some basic tests. Most obviously, despite the hair-like filaments this isn't organic. There is no cellular structure evident. Both the soft dust and the filaments have a crystalline structure under sufficient magnification. Initial tests using the limited laboratory facilities in the Medical Centre suggest the material is mostly silicate and carbonate, some traces of metals, and a few chlorine, fluorine, and sulphur compounds. While not clearly related to the organic chemistry of Earth this doesn't seem like something that would arise in the icy conditions on Titan either. [ooc]You both passed Chemistry and Planetary Science[/ooc]

Jojo,Most obviously, despite the hair-like filaments, the green powdery substance isn't organic. There is no cellular structure evident. This isn't any kind of terrestrial pathogen and it is not clear how it would have formed on [b]Montrose[/b]. Both the soft dust and the filaments have a crystalline structure under sufficient magnification. Running them through chemical analysis shows carbon and silicon, some residual sulphuric acid, and trace metals.

Jojo,[b]Montrose[/b]'s skin and tissue samples are unremarkable at low magnification except for the strange scaly subcutaneous tissue which has a mineral-like consistency. At higher magnification the cells look very odd indeed. Some, mainly in the skin and subcutaneous tissue, remind him of grasses, where silica phytoliths are deposited within the cell body, making it tough and inflexible. Other cells, mainly in the internal and subcutaneous tissues, are reminiscent of algal diatoms, where the cell wall itself is made of silica. This probably explains the odd artefacts on the imaging, dense inorganic material in the tissue interfering with the x-ray and magnetic resonance. [b]Jojo[/b] also makes the surprising discovery that the grass-like cells are photosensitive, extruding inorganic material when exposed to high intensity visible and ultraviolet spectrums. This extruded inorganic material looks very much like the green powdery substance and [b]Jojo[/b] suspects it is probably related. It does, however, differ from the scaly material in the subcutaneous tissue which seems to be more due to the diatom-like silica-walled cells. [b]Jojo[/b] extracts some DNA from the cells and finds no evidence of abnormal sequences or methylation comparing it to the samples he has on file for [b]Montrose[/b]. He is it at all sure what is going on but [b]Jojo[/b] knows that this is not a terrestrial pathogen, this is extraterrestrial, it didn't come from Earth but whether it could be native to Titan he's not sure. Something else occurs to him, this particular chemistry, it isn't purely carbon-based, it is conceivable, if not perhaps likely, that non-organic materials could be susceptible to infection, perhaps computers like [b]CENTRAL[/b], or maybe other synthetic organisms... [ooc]Jojo passes Biology, Medicine, and Chemistry[/ooc]

OOC,Just a reminder it is now the middle of the night - say 3am

Computer use 65,0

Kiara,Kiara got an extreme success to disable CENTRAL's sensors, I think she can reactivate them again

OOC,Moving to this thread: [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=472&t=7380[/url]. If Jojo wants to do anything before going back to his quarters just let me know and I'll retcon

OOC,I'm good to go. Just wanted to know when and where we were meeting in the morning but I'll figure it out.

OOC,You're all staying in the Corporate Suites so you could arrange to meet up there in the morning since you'll all be there anyway