Chapter 1: One of Our Students is Missing

[Mr. Handy]

Alice has seen much worse, but the sight of the corpse being eaten still disturbs her a little.

OOC, I had lost 2 Sanity points in The Bosworth House so far. Do those events still count as having happened, or do I get them back?

[Starspawn338]

Harrison was not prepared to find a corpse. As the body is uncovered, he stumbles back toward the main camp and retches.

[HoneyDog]

Mr. Handy, This continues from A Little Knowledge, so The Bosworth House never happened.

Henry, Henry can see that the skull has been severely damaged, probably from being impacted by something hard.

[Silver Priest]

"Look here." Henry points at the head. "The skull damage suggests something impacted it hard. That's likely what killed them."

[Philulhu]

Bruce rinsed out his mouth with a mouthful of water from his water bottle, coughed and spat on the ground. Holding the collar of his shirt up over his nose to try to block out the smell, he carefully approached the body.

“Is that Cardigan?” he asked, voice muffled by his shirt.

[aine]

“Ur, I could run down and tell that policeman.”
It seems a marvellous idea to Fort; anything to get away for a moment into some fresh air and normality.

[SunlessNick]

"Can I come with you?" Emily asks weakly.

[Mr. Handy]

"That's a good idea," says Alice, who remains near the body.

[HoneyDog]

The others stay with the body as Fort and Emily go to fetch the police. A short time later they return with a few officers in tow, including Harden.

Harden looks over the corpse.

“Picked a spot too close to the river” says one of the uniformed officers. “Rising water must have uncovered it. S’why we didn’t see it before.”

“Would have washed away most of any physical evidence too” says Harden, not looking up from the corpse. He instructs one of the cops to fetch a camera from his car, and to radio for an ambulance. After he returns, Harden instructs him to take photographs of the site.

“I’m going to left the body up a little, to try and get an I.D.” he says. He raises the head, looking at the face closely, comparing it with a photo from his pocket.

“Yes, this is Cardigan” he eventually says.

[Philulhu]

“That doesn’t look a lot like a lightning strike to me, Detective,” said Bruce quietly, as he watched from nearby.

[HoneyDog]

“No” says Harden quietly. “I never heard of someone being buried by lightning.”

After the photos are complete, a shovel is provided by one of the officers, and they begin to carefully dig Cardigan out. Flies buzz around, adding to the general discomfort. Some of the investigators, especially those who knew Cardigan, may feel a bit overwhelmed by these events.

[aine]

Fort sits on a nearish log, facing the other direction and smoking a quality cigarette. He offers one to anyone who wants one.
“Beats me why anyone would go camping in that rain anyhow. Has he still got a haversack lying around about?”

[Silver Priest]

"He was a good fellow," Henry says, the closest to sentimentally he gets.

He refuses the cigarette,a frown on his face. Things did not add up here, and it bothers him. All he knew was that lightning did not kill this man.

"We may need to speak with Atwater and try to get sense out of him. He's the only one who knows what happened here."

[Philulhu]

“Not necessarily,” replied Bruce. ”He was with Cardigan but that doesn’t mean that he was the only one there.”

[SunlessNick]

Emily accepts a cigarette, grateful for the smell and taste to cover up that of the body. She's used to using a camera, but didn't think to bring one on this expedition - still she offers her services if it would help. Otherwise she casts about on the ground around the burial site, looking for any sign of either student's belongings.

[HoneyDog]

OOC, The police would have taken away the belongings.

Henry & Bruce & Alice & Harrison, As the policemen begin to lift the body out of the shallow grave, a filthy, wizened hand suddenly shoots out from underneath the body, accompanied by a hideous, sanity splitting wail. It grabs the arm of one of the police officers, who cries out in surprise and fear. The men drop the body an instinctively back away. [ooc]All roll SAN to witness this. Success equals 1 loss, failure – roll 1d6+2[/ooc]

Emily & Fort, Both investigators hear a horrible, insane shriek from the direction of the grave, and the policemen crying out in surprise and fear.

[Silver Priest]

Henry takes a step backwards, his eyes wide in alarm. Thankfully he is more intrigued than scared by the sight, however. As the policeman backs away he leans forward to study the hand.

San roll pass, [url=https://orokos.com/roll/882408]San 75[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]14[/b]

[Mr. Handy]

Alice is almost unaffected. Perhaps her frequent exposure to horror has inured her. While Henry steps away, she moves forward. "There's someone alive down there!" she calls, trying to assist the police to move the body. "We have to help!"

[Starspawn338]

Harrison is wiping his mouth when he hears the wailing. Looking over to what is causing it, he immediately wishes he hadn't. The sight of the hand reaching up combined with the horrid scream causes him to retch again.

[Philulhu]

OOC, SAN roll: 8/53 - https://www.dholeshouse.org/Tools/DiceVerifier?RID=a12b8162-c9c5-4267-9ed7-000921851b80 SAN loss: 1

Alarmed, Bruce staggered back. “What in God’s name was that?!”