[IC - SAVANNAH] Joy Grove Sanitarium (Holly,Father Flanagan)

[Overlord87]

In the morning, after a good breakfast, you separate from the others and head towards the Sanitarium. You leave the historic district and climb a little hill, and after less than ten minutes you reach your destination. Joy Grove Sanitarium is a massive red-brick Victorian building with tall, narrow windows and Gothic details. Kudzu grows over half the building, choking out windows and holding the place like a green fist, pulling it down to earth.

The front office is empty except for a nurse, that greets you as soon as you enter. She's in her early thirties, long black hair, big brown eyes, small nose and big mouth. Cute, but not adorable.

"Good mornin'. How can I help y'all?", she says, smiling a lopsided smile.

[TheLibrarian]

"Good morning, ma'am," says Father Flanagan, affecting his best 'kindly old priest' smile. "We called ahead yesterday and arranged to meet with Dr. Keaton? Regarding Douglas Henslowe. Is Dr. Keaton in?"

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm Dr. Holly Chastain, from Boston," says Holly iwth a smile of her own, " and this is Father Flanagan."

[Overlord87]

"Yes, yes, let me call him. Wait heeyur please." The nurse disappears in an adjacent room, then returns a few seconds later with a man wearing a white coat. He seems to be in his mid-forties, slender, bookish, with salt-and-pepper hair. His southern accent is much less noticeable.



"Good mornin', good mornin', I'm Jonathan Keaton, I'm the doctor who's followin' Mr. Henslowe. I'm really happy to have you here, Mr. Henslowe has not received any visit since he was first hospitalized, in 1924. Well, excludin' his mother, I mean any visit from someone that is not family. I only know one person from his past, Edgar Job, another survivor of the incident with Henslowe in 1924... he is also a resident here." He puts a finger to his mouth for a second. "So, you want to meet with Mr. Henslowe. Piece of cake. I think it might even help him. Can I ask how do you know him? If he asks about you, before accepting the visit, what should I tell him?"

Spoiler:

OOC:   Let's start introducing drives. Holly's drive pushes her towards inquiring about this Edgar Job and asking if there's the possibility of meeting him,too.

[Mr. Handy]

"Pleased to meet you, Dr. Keaton," says Holly, shaking his hand. "It's a shame that Mr. Henslowe hasn't had visitors other than his family for all these years, and I hope that we can be of help to him. We'd also like to visit Edgar Job if we can. We've been able to find out very little about the incident in August 1924 so far, so anything you could tell us about it before we speak to them would be helpful. We've never met Mr. Henslowe personally before. There's a limit to what we can tell you due to confidentiality, as I'm sure you understand, but I'm sure I can count on your discretion. We are friends of the family of his longtime friend, the late Walter Winston, and we are here on their behalf."

[Overlord87]

"Mr. Winston, yes... Mr. Henslowe sent many letters to him. I'm glad to see he finally got some kind of answer. He'll be delighted to see you, I'm sure. I wasn't aware that Mr. Winston had died, and perhaps that is better kept secret to Mr. Henslowe. I wouldn't want to upset him". Dr. Keaton puts a finger to his mouth, pausing for a few seconds. "Mr. Henslowe and Mr. Job were involved in a great incident happened in Los Angeles, back in 1924. I don't know all the details, but there was a big fight, involving gunfight and explosives. Mr. Henslowe was hunting a group of criminals. Perhaps one could say it was a group of criminals that has evolved into a sort of cult. There were rituals involved in their activities, you see. Cult of personality, as well. Edgar Job was part of this cult. Brainwashed, as probably many others who died in the incident. Anyway, I can set up a short meeting with both. Not together, obviously. They tend to get... violent, when put together in the same room. Understandable, considering their shared past. He heads towards the nurse and exchanges a few quick words. Then he gets back to you. "There will be a little to wait as we make the necessary preparations. Why don't I show you around Joy Grove in the meantime?"

[Mr. Handy]

"Thank you, Doctor," says Holly. "I'd be delighted. It's always good when visiting a different institution to see how things are done. I can always learn something new that will help me in my own practice. Have you been at Joy Grove for a long time?"

[TheLibrarian]

"So at least two men involved with the Los Angeles incident have ended up here at Joy Grove. Are they the only ones here? Do you know of anyone else who was involved with the incident? We would like to get the clearest possible picture of what happened, and the more people we can ask about it the better, you see.", Father Flanagan says.

[Overlord87]

"This way, please." He walks you around the ground floor first, where the offices and the areas dedicated to the staff are located. "I've been here since 1921, Dr. Chastain. Mr. Henslowe was one of the first patients I followed at the end of my training period, and he immediately got my attention. A very complex story. The most interestin' thing, from a medical point of view, it's his shared psychosis with Mr. Job. Somethin' quite rare. That's why i had Mr. Job brought here from California... to treat them both here. This is a break room for the staff, and there's the kitchen." He points towards a couple of rooms as you pass. Like the building, the furniture is clearly of good quality, but hasn't aged particularly well. You approach a locked gate, leading to the back section of the ground floor. "I don't know of any other survivor from that incident. The police hasn't arrested any, as far as my knowledge goes. Beyond the gate there is the area where the patients live. Before entering there, I have to ask you to sign these waivers. In case the patients, you know, act out. " He hands each of you a short document, densely written, of three pages.

Spoiler:

Holly recognizes these are standard waivers for this kind of institution.

[TheLibrarian]

Father Flanagan signs the waiver presented to him. "Are they likely to act out? Have they shown violent tendencies in the past?"

[Overlord87]

"The more... risky patients are sedated, the others are tranquil. Incidents don't happen often, but of course there is always a risk. Mr. Henslowe and Mr. Job should be fine, though. In all these years I've seen only one outburst of violence from them, it was when we tried a common session with both of them in the same room. Let's just say it did not go well. We had to separate them, and we've never tried that again."

[Mr. Handy]

"I've actually studied folie à deux extensively," says Holly, signing the waiver after a glance to verify that it was standard boilerplate. "It was the topic of my dissertation, in fact. This case is even more interesting than I had thought at first. What about Mrs. Virginia Henslowe? Does she visit her husband often? Have you had occasion to speak to her about his treatment?"

[Overlord87]

Dr. Keaton chuckles: "Mrs. Henslowe is Mr. Henslowe's mother, not his wife. She used to come every week, but now she's getting old and I haven't seen her in the last couple of months." You pass through the gates and continue the visit of Joy Grove. The back half of the ground floor consists of a cafeteria, common rooms, a game room, the dispensary, two interview rooms, and exam rooms, all separated from the front of the building by locked and barred gates. You count more than a dozen patients here, someone playing, the rest waiting calmly in the common room, a few half-asleep from the effect of medications. A couple of them is waggling fingers at each other. Considering it's a sanatorium, things seem to be running smoothly. Dr. Keaton speaks enthusiastically as you walk around, pointing things here and there.
The building itself is well-past his prime. The fine tile work in the corridors is undermined by years of water damage and patient abuse. Elaborate skylights are filled by years of grime and soot. As Holly knows well, changing medical practices in the last few decades have forced many hospitals to renovate and retrofit themselves, while at the same time there has been a sensible reduction of grants and donations.
"These are the new exam rooms, recently renovated." He briefly shows you inside, a white ambient with soft padded walls. "Nice, eh? It's hard to keep this place going, with the limited resources we have, but we do our best. Let me show you briefly the second floor, then I'll check if Mr. Henslowe is ready for the interview". He leads you to the stairs leading up. "Where do you practice in Boston, Dr. Chastain?"

[Mr. Handy]

Holly blushes at her erroneous assumption. Freud would have a field day with that one! she thinks. "Primarily at Metropolitan State Hospital," she answers. "It's very modern, just opened seven years ago. It's actually in Waltham, a short drive from Boston. It looks like you've done a good job with what you have. I understand that Mr. Henslowe wasn't committed here for the entire time since 1924. What were the circumstances of his release and readmittance?"

[Overlord87]

"Well, he was getting better, so we decided to discharge him. It was in 1932. He was out for 2 years, but... he got worse. He became obsessive and violent towards himself and others." Dr. Keaton says as you climb the stairs to the second floor. "Now he isn't allowed out of Joy Grove by court order. He could be signed out on temporary leave only into the custody of his mother, but old as she is, I doubt that's gonna happen." He sighs. "Frankly speaking, Dr. Chastain, I doubt these two patients, Mr. Henslowe and Mr. Job, will ever recover completely. They're getting better, but they will never be right again"-

While Dr. Keaton and Holly discuss the medical situation of the patients, Father Flanagan follows them, listening to the conversation and observing the sanatorium with interest - it's not very often that you get to visit a place like this. They are now passing through a corridor on the first floor. There are mostly private rooms in this area, tiny rooms with a small glass window to look inside. His attention wanders around the area, and he notices a particularly nasty bit of water damage, near the ceiling. And while she's looking at it, a portion of the damaged wall splits into a mouth. It's a human sized mouth, with yellowish lips and brown, broken teeth. The lips are moving, as if speaking, but no word can be heard.

Spoiler:

OOC:   Father Flanagan needs to make a Stability check. Since this is the first time, I'll briefly remember how it works. You need to roll 1d6 against a difficulty of 4 (or 5 for Mythos-related shocks). If you fail, you will lose a certain number of Stability points from your pool. You can spend points from your Stability pool to get a bonus to your rolls, like any General ability (1 point for +1, 2 points for +2, and so on). Note that these points will be effectively removed from your Stability reserve, regardless of the success or failure of the test. If you fail the test after having spent points to boost your roll, you'll lose both the fixed value for the Stability shock and the points you spent to increase the chances of passing the test. While it is theoretically possible to pass all Stability checks by investing enough points to boost the tests, the points used to boost the tests will always be removed from the pool, meaning that you will go down anyway. The trick is estimating the possible loss you're facing and evaluate if it could be convenient or not to boost the roll (for example, against an estimated loss of 7 points, it could be advisable to invest some points to pass the test; much less so against an estimated loss of 3 points). Refer to the quickstart rules for a table of possible stability losses and for the complete rules. Remember that the stability rating is fixed (it can change only in extreme situations), it's the temporary pool that gets updated during the adventure (and is refreshed during pauses between one adventure and the following). You can either write a post describing the actions/reactions of your character and write the test result there as an OOC, or send me the test result via private message. In either case, if you fail the test, I'll communicate you the relative stability loss.

[TheLibrarian]

Father Flanagan steps back abruptly, clutching for the crucifix which habitually hangs from his neck. Without even thinking, he begins to speak softly but firmly, a favourite Bible passage that many of the men in his care during the war found comforting. "'When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust. I will not be afraid.'" Father Flanagan shuts his eyes against the vision, hoping that when he opens them it will be gone.

Spoiler:

OOC:   Here is my roll: http://orokos.com/roll/357358 Also, orokos is pretty simple. Good recommendation.

[Overlord87]

When Father Flanagan reopens the eyes, the mouth has disappeared. Did it simply close? Was it just an hallucination? He doesn't know.

Spoiler:

OOC:   Obviously, no stability lost here, since you rolled 6. If Holly turns around to check on Father Flanagan, she sees no mouth.

[Mr. Handy]

Holly glances back. "Are you all right, Father?" she asks with concern.

[TheLibrarian]

Father Flanagan tears his eyes from the spot of water damage to meet Holly's concerned gaze. "I'm... I'm fine, thank you. I must not have slept well last night. Is there a problem with the pipes, Dr. Keaton? There's a spot of water damage up there," Father Flanagan says, pointing, "I would have someone take a look at it."

[Overlord87]

Keaton seems a little embarassed: "Well, yes, unfortunately we tend to have some problems with water losses. The water system is quite old and sometimes we have troubles. I'll have someone look into that." He pauses for a second. "I think Mr. Henslowe should be ready for the interview by now. Let me go and check, then we'll move back downstairs. Wait for me here, it'll take just a minute". He walks away and disappears into another corridor.