Statement 1: Morning at the Morgue

[jp1885]

Following a call from Dr. Abdul Walid, you find yourselves at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, asking directions to the morgue. After a few flashes of your ID, you are shown to a changing room to change into sterile scrubs and PPE. Following the signs you walk through a number of security doors and down increasingly quiet corridors. By the time you reach the entrance to the mortuary, all is silent.

When the door opens, however, a sonorous baritone fills the air. In the room beyond, a large bald man hums tunelessly to himself while pulling a white sheet over a pale corpse. As you enter the lab he looks up - a wide, friendly smile visible behind the perspex shield that covers his broad face.

“Ah, you must be the special police!” he rumbles. “My friend Dr. Walid said you’d be coming. He was very cagey about what you do exactly… so many questions... but not today alas! I am Dr. Aaron Friedman, this poor fellow is Karl Chichester and this…” he moves aside to reveal a blue-grey blob lying on a clinical trolley, “...is his brain.”

If you've never attended a post mortem before, please make a CON roll.

[Trivun]

Guildford. Not a place Izzy has had much reason to visit in the past, but not quite so far from London this time, compared to the case of the possessed skittles team. As soon as the call comes in to meet at the morgue, she's filled with a very strange mix of relief and sorrow. On the one hand, she's back doing what she was trained for - after all, she started out at Belgravia, with Seawoll's lot, so murder is nothing new to her. On the other, it's never nice when someone dies, regardless of the cause, suspicious or not. Although she's never been religious, Izzy maintains a respectful silence as the team head on down to the chilly rooms that serve as a waystation between life and death for these poor unfortunate souls.

On meeting Dr. Friedman, Izzy gives a quick smile of greeting, and introduces herself. The sight of a disembodied brain is hardly the worst thing she's seen in her short time on the police force thus far. She remembers the body that brought her into the Folly's periphery to begin with - drained of all fluids, like a sick reversal of the salt vampires from Star Trek. Besides, she'd dissected a frog and even an ox heart at school. Her classmates had been somewhat... put off, by her apparent glee, in fact...

[Philulhu]

CON (70%) 1d100

The smell hit Des before the sight of the brain. Tired after her studies and already feeling rough, she staggered to the sink and threw up!

[Mr. Handy]

"Dr. Jordan Schneider," says Jordan, shaking his hand with a firm grip. "I'm a medical examiner from London." As such, he takes the remains in stride, having not just attended but performed post mortems countless times. He peers at the brain with interest.

[Snapper]

1d%55%

Fail.

Skipper takes a look, goes grey, turns around and leans against a wall with one hand for a few minutes, trying not to faint. He can see black dots before his eyes, hear a ringing in his ears, and is conscious of Des being gross too.

He is beginning to regret the several Guinnesses, whiskys, and the kebab from last night.

"Sorry," Skipper wheezes, not turning around, "I think my bowl of Frosties this morning might have been off."

[jp1885]

"Uh-oh, here we go..." chuckles Dr. Friedman; obviously used to rookies having a funny turn in the morgue. Humming the same tuneless music, he quickly cleans up after a queasy Des and drags out a stool for a shaky Skipper.

Des and Skipper, you are now Impaired, so fumble on a 90+, rather than a 95+

The distraction gives Jordan a chance to cast a professional eye over the brain, which is discoloured, shrivelled and not at all how a healthy brain should look. Dr. Friedman gives an approving nod, from one medical professional to another.

“You will note the poor state of his brain. I was conducting the post mortem and when I saw it, I remembered Abdul’s interest in such cases. Hyperthaumaturgical Degradation I believe he calls it?”

“I gather this sort of thing is in the remit of you Special Assessment Unit people. All very mysterious! Still, I – and the late Mr. Chichester here – are at your disposal.”

[Trivun]

Izzy can't avoid a smirk as she sees her colleagues' discomfort, though it's not unkind. She looks over at Des as the girl is retching.

"There's always one. After we're done I'll have to take you to St. Bart's Pathology Museum. It's not usually open to the public but I'm sure we can sort out an appointment."

She glances at Jordan, wondering if he has that kind of clout, or maybe she could ask Dr. Walid or Dr. Vaughn. She remembers going herself when training at Hendon, after informing old Inspector Neblett that she was interested in MIT. Belgravia had been kind enough to arrange a visit for herself and a few like-minded trainees. Sadly she doesn't know any medical students as friends, despite knowing a number of students, Alice being a post-grad biochemist at Queen Mary's UoL herself...

As the group's attention is drawn to the disembodied brain, Izzy clearly sees the tell tale signs of HTD, as previously seen on a number of slides thoughtfully provided by Dr. Walid during her initial Folly briefing.

"So, he was a practitioner then, or standing very close to one when something big happened." She's not quite as careful as she would normally be around members of the public in talking about magic - obviously Dr. Friedman is already familiar with the strangeness of the situation, to have brought in the Folly in the first place.

"I take it the cause of death wasn't you removing his brain? What exactly happened, as far as you know? Post mortem results, crime scene location, witnesses?"

Izzy takes great care to hide her mild annoyance at not having a proper briefing to go on, but back in her MIT days she was usually called to the scene of the crime along with the DS, as opposed to only turning up at the morgue...

[Philulhu]

Feeling embarrassed by her reaction, Des tried desperately to look anywhere at the cadaver or the brain. ‘How do they do this?’ she asked herself.

[Snapper]

Skipper collapses onto the stool with a grateful wave to Dr Friedman. Without getting up, he slides the stool back to a wall and rests his head, letting the cool touch chill his own brain for a minute.

Waving a slightly unsteady hand at Des, he says, "Maybe they're all vampires, that's why they like this stuff? Anyway, I'm still blaming the dodgy Frosties."

Attempting to concentrate (on anything else), Skipper pulls out his phone and starts internet-stalking the deceased. "Ah, Doc, does the late Mr Karl Chichester have a date of birth?"

Research Roll? Stalking the deceased on social media, looking for media articles etc.

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, we refer to it informally as 'cauliflower brain,'" says Jordan. "I'll want to examine the rest of him too. Where was he found?"

[jp1885]

Skipper - yes, by all means make a Research roll.

Dr. Friedman frowns, unfamiliar with the term 'practitioner'.

"Um, medical practitioner? Legal? Not that I'm aware. Sorry - I'm not very familiar with the terms of... whatever it is you do."

You may make a Read Person roll if you wish.

He pulls back the sheet, to reveal the corpse of a middle-aged white male.

"Mr. Karl Chichester, aged 53. He was found at 5:30am yesterday morning in the ladies' changing area of Godalming Leisure Centre - only about 5 miles away. Found by the cleaners. As for the circumstances of his death; you'll have to ask Sergeant Dhillon about that; she's acting as liaison. I have her contact details - you should probably check in with her anyway."

"As for the cause of death... well, very odd. Physically he was fit and healthy - no traces of alcohol or narcotics. But his brain - I’ve never seen anything like it. He appears to have suffered a massive and very sudden cerebral atrophy. It’s as if his brain deflated like a leaky balloon – without the amusing raspberry noises, one assumes.”

"By all means take a look at the poor chap - I'll pop his brain in and sew him up later."

If you're taking a look at the body, please make a Medicine roll. If you want to do anything else - go for it.

[Mr. Handy]

"A ladies' changing area?" says Jordan as he examines the body. "Does he have a history of entering them? That's not the sort of place a self-respecting man would be caught dead...so to speak."

Read Person roll (60% skill) about Dr. Friedman:
d%
Medicine roll (70% skill) examining the body:
d%
Spending 9 Luck to make that a success.

[Snapper]

1d%H60%

Yowza! Critical Success!

Skipper happily focuses on internet research on his phone, humming to himself. Occasionally he mutters quiet comments to the effect of, "See, Harry Windsor? There are proper uses for these phone skills..."

(Skipper is humming "Orinoco Flow" by Enya, as it happens.)

He checks social media, any references in the real media, and business websites for any mention of or appearance by the deceased.

[jp1885]

Jordan - While the good doctor picks up and hums along to 'Orinoco Flow', you examine the corpse. While having never seen the effects of HTD up-close on a 'fresh' specimen before, you eventually find yourself concurring with Dr. Freidman's diagnosis.

Strange, but up close, the late Mr. Chichester emits a floral smell of some kind. Or is it a vestigia?

Dr. Freidman chuckles at your joke.

"Well, I can't say what he was doing in there - my job is to inspect them after they've died, not beforehand. Sergeant Dhillon might have the particulars."

Skipper - clearly your days of sleuthing for the gutter press are paying off. Chichester's social media profile is easy to find and, by gathering clues from it, you are also able to dig out a few forums that he has posted on too.

It is clear that the man had one obsession: sports cars. The guy was a massive petrol-head: he loved driving cars, looking at cars and watching TV shows and online videos about cars. On Youtube he commented positively on a video of someone roaring down the nearby Hindhead Tunnel with their windows down - something called 'engine note appreciation' apparently.

He also 'liked' a lot of car-related posts on the official Facebook page of some bloke called Will 'Grimesey' Grimes. Less positively, someone posting with a username the same as the one he used in a motor-racing forum also recently posted derogatory comments on the Twitter page of one 'Loz Drivez' - 'your sort don't deserve a decent car' and 'get back to the kitchen, or better still the bedroom!' and so on.

Dr. Freidman notices your scrolling and tuts.

"Don't you usually do background checks and the like? You can use the computer in my office if it helps, or the Surrey Police Communication Data specialists maybe?"

He turns to the rest of you.

"Would anyone else like to examine our friend here?"

[Philulhu]

”God naa!” Des blurted out. ”I’ll go an’ help wiv da computa!” She turned her back on the scene and headed for the office.

[jp1885]

Pray tell us what you’re looking for and then give us a Research roll.

[Philulhu]

Des plonked herself down in the seat in front of the computer. She fidgeted, reached down and adjusted the seat, then hit the space bar to bring the screen to life. ‘Karl Chichester’ she typed into the search field of the PNC, before hitting the Return key to see what came back.

Not Des’ best skill… (30) 1d100

[Trivun]

Izzy notes the doctor's apparent lack of recognition of the term 'practitioner', and reasons that perhaps he isn't as au fait as she suspected regarding magic and its general terminology. No matter - she decides not to draw any more attention to the subject as long as he seems to be ignorant of the topic.

"5.30am in a ladies' changing room... Hmm. Not sure what's worse - the fact that he was in there to begin with, or the fact that leisure centres aren't usually open that early in the morning." It's speculation on her part, but Izzy is pretty certain that most leisure centres don't open until perhaps 7am or 8am, certainly not as early as five thirty...

She has questions, of course, but ones that are most likely best suited to Sgt. Dhillon, and as such she takes the details of the sergeant from Dr. Friedman. Otherwise, for now, Izzy takes a closer look, and does her best to focus on the potential vestigia surrounding the late Mr. Chichester's brain...

Sense Vestigia: 60%

1d100

[Snapper]

Skipper is unexpectedly efficient at summarising his results and briefly summarise he does (he is quite happy to have contributed beyond skittle skills for once).

In conclusion, he points at the cadaver. "Old son here sounds like a very unpleasant, Jeremy Clarkson-style, rev-head fanboy. With girl issues. Which maybe they all have."

Assume Skipper has passed on everything he discovered. Including the names Will 'Grimesy' Grimes and Loz Drivez.

[Mr. Handy]

Jordan tries to look up Chichester's police record, if one exists, but he can't find anything.

Research roll (60% skill) searching for Chichester's police record:
d%