[IC Thread] Delving the Mists

[Cerebus13]

Madeline looks up quickly from her papers and says in a flustered voice, "Oh yes he sent this note by way of a messenger about an hour before you came in. It has his seal on it and it is addressed to all of you so I haven't opened it." She hands the letter to you to be read.

Breaking open the seal those present crowd around to read the letter,

Investigators,

I have arranged a time to meet with a trusted individual over the matter we discussed before. Meet him in the agreed upon place two hours after sundown.

Signed,
Arthur Pettigrew

[OOC: You believe it is a bit under an hour after sundown at this point, so there is still some time for Alyson to show up before she is late.]

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Alyson and Kalri will take note of everything that they can, and ask if anyone would give a description of the man that used to accompany Mr. Rummit home. If anyone would know his name also, that owuld be nice. Afterwards, they will head back to the office, arriving a little after an hour past sunset.


Walking into the office, they spot everyone reading a letter that Anton is holding. "Anything interesting there?"


Upon reading the letter, she begins to gather her tools, in case she may need them and instruct Kalri to begin getting ready. "I would also like to see another body there, as this suicide still has some holes that needs to be filled."

She will then inform the others of the marking in the window sill, the locket of hair that seems to be missing, and the other gentleman that accompanied Mr. Rummit.
OOC - Not using Spoiler, as she would inform everyone of her actions now.

 

[Pyrex]

Once Alyson has returned and everyone has had a chance to read the note from Mr. Pettigrew, "It's getting late, we'd best be going or we'll be late. Is everyone ready to go?"

 

[Salzorin]

After hearing the others investigations and having read the letter, Quilan rises from his seat and places the dagger he was balancing on his finger back in its quiver, "Hopefully these corpses are more interesting than the people walking the streets this afternoon. I've got a building to check out and a guy I'd like to know a little more about, but other than that the afternoon was extremely uneventful."

Quilan walks to the door, opens it and does a short bow with a long arm gesture as if to usher everyone else outside."Patience was never one of my virtues, can we get a move on lads?... and lasses?"

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Glancing back over her shoulder, Alyson gives Quilan a cold stare. "Corpses are indeed interesting enough. More than I can say for some people." With that, she heads out the door, Kalri close behind. She now carries a bag with her tools of the trade slung over her shoulder.

 

[Cerebus13]

Fangor:

Alyson and Kalri will take note of everything that they can, and ask if anyone would give a description of the man that used to accompany Mr. Rummit home. If anyone would know his name also, that owuld be nice.

The best description people can provide is that he is of average height, rather slim, and went by the name "Lenny". They only briefly saw him in the dark of night helping Mr. Rumit stumble up to his room.

-----

[OOC: if there are no objections I'll assume that everyone walks to the morgue together now]

You walk briskly to the morgue using torches or lanterns to light the way. The streets are mostly deserted so you don't run into anyone on the way there.

You all eventually arrive at the front door to the large building. Before anyone can even raise a hand to knock the door opens slightly and a voices hisses, "Quickly come inside!" Quickly crowding into the entryway an older man with white hair sticks his head out of the door and glances around quickly. Satisfied with his look he shuts the door and bars it shut with a long piece of metal. "I don't think ye were followed, but you can't be too careful with such dark business. Come, follow me this way." He picks up a lantern from a nearby table and leads you deeper into the morgue.

As he leads you down a few twisting corridors he introduces himself, "My name is Qoildan, and I'm the mayor's private doctor. I've also got the unfortunate job of examining bodies that are deemed "too sensitive" to let the general public know of them." You soon arrive at a large door covered in steel bands with a large lock on it. "Beyond this here door is the storage and examination room of those "sensitive" bodies I was talking about earlier. Anyone who is squimish should wait outside here until we be done." He pulls out a ring of keys from his belt, picks out one of them, and then unlocks the door to let those who wanted a look into the room.

Eight large tables are in the room arranged in evenly spaced rows with plenty of walking room in between. Above each of them is a large hanging lantern. All of them stand a little below waist height on an average sized human, and look very sturdy with a large sheet of polished metal covering the top of all of them. The sheet is slightly concave in such a way that any liquid poured onto it would flow to a hole cut out on one end of the table.
Only one table is currently occupied, with the silouette of a body visible under a large sheet of cloth draped over it. Qoildan walks over to the body and uses a small stick to light the lantern above the body using his own lamp first. He then reaches under the table and gets a rolled up piece of parchment, unfolds it, and steps aside so you may look at the body.

The victim is a middle aged woman with short black hair. She is slightly below average in height, a little over 5 feet tall, and looked to be slightly overweight when she was alive. Dark purple bruising around the entirety of her neck seems to indicate she may have been strangled. After pulling the sheet off to expose the entire body the disgusting nature of the crime is apparent. Her arms, legs, and some of her stomach have had large sections of flesh removed with very clean cuts. Flipping the body over shows that the buttocks and parts of the back have also been removed in the same fashion. The only other oddity on the body is the large Y shaped incision on the torso that has been sewn up as part of an autopsy performed on the corpse.

Qoildan gives you a bit of time before reading from the scroll he picked up. "We have yet to discover the identity of this woman because we've tried to be very discreet with our inqueries, but we know she was quite poor from what bits of clothing we discovered with the body. I performed the autopsy myself, after the body was properly preserved by our cleric, and I'm very certain that death was caused by strangulation. This fits with the killing method of all the other murders that have followed this pattern as they all involved either choking, smothering, drowning, or bludgeoning the victim. We have come to believe that the killer uses these more bloodless means of killing their victims because they may have harvested blood along with the flesh of these poor people, as there does not seem to be enough blood left at the crime scene to belong the victims.
So far there have been 16 killings in all over the past 8 months. They always occur about 2 weeks after each other, but this is not exact as the killer has varied a few days here and there. This recent murder was committed 3 nights ago in the poor district that spans southeast of your new office. She was found in an alley by a guardsman in the area, who quickly notified the proper people to clean up the incident quietly so there wasn't a panic.

The mayor has given you your jobs here primarily to solve this case. It is imperative that this is solved as quickly as possible, but please remain VERY discrete about the questions you ask. If it got out to the general public about the true nature of these murders there would be riots in the street."

"I would also like to see another body there, as this suicide still has some holes that needs to be filled."

"Hmm...I shall have to check the records here about the body of a Harold Rumit. Excuse me for a moment." He leaves the room for several minutes and returns with another piece of paper. "Yes in fact we do have his body stored here currently...apparently they have had some trouble locating any family for him and are planning to cremate the body soon if no one comes to claim it. I can lead you to it immediately." He leads Alyson, Kalri, and anyone else who wants to go with to another room that is full of large shelving housing many bodies of varying sizes. He leads you down one of the rows to where a large wheelbarrow is sitting next to a shelf. He indicates the body to be put into the wheelbarrow, and then walks ahead of you while you wheel it into another room that is a smaller version of the private autopsy room you were in before.

Alyson picks out a table suitable for her needs, makes sure a bucket is placed under the table's drainage hole, and begins disecting the body. [OOC: everyone besides Alyson and Kalri wait outside during the autopsy so they don't become ill when faced with a human corpse being cut up] The autopsy goes quickly and Alyson discovers the following:
- Bruising and damage to some tendons in the neck indicate a rope or similar object was used to strangle the victim
- Indications of decay on the body (bloating, discoloration, etc..) leads you to estimate the victim has been dead about 2 to 4 days
- Blood is gathered in higher volume in the low extremities, feet and the like, leading you to believe the victim died and decayed in an upright position
- Aside from the decay present on the body the victim's hands look to be very clean. There is no dirt under the nails whatsoever, and Qoildan says that the body was not touched other than to preserve it. The doctors here clearly believed it to be a suicide by hanging so did not bother making a mess of Mr. Rumit.

Alyson finishes with her examination and washes herself and cleans her tools using water the Qoildan provides. Kalri sews up the surgical cuts made during the operation, and Qoildan drapes a cloth over the body before you go outside of the room to rejoin the party.

Qoildan says, "Do ye have any other questions of me? If you do not I have a little bit of paperwork to do here before I lock up the building."

 

[Telsar]

Before the sheet is removed, revealing the middle-aged woman’s body, Natalie thinks this could be similar to what happened to Ms. Duffin, from today’s earlier investigation, a woman brutally assaulted. But the sight of the mutilated corpse makes it very clear the two have nothing to do with one another. She says quietly, “Quilan, is that, uh, interesting enough for you?”

After taking a moment to compose herself, Natalie says “16 murders in 8 months, roughly every 2 weeks, I assume all found in this same condition. Sounds like it’s linked to some kind of, um, biological function, to be so regular. Or a very precise ritual. But in 8 months, apparently not once did he, or they, or it, try to get rid of the body, successfully anyway. That’s very odd. With as many as 16, I might have expected a gap in there where a body wasn’t found, but apparently not.”

“We’ll need to know if there’s any commonality to the victims. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all relatively healthy. But perhaps they lived in the same area, or their bodies were found in the same area.”

She adds, “We need to solve this fast. Within a week and half, before the next victim is due. None of our other cases seem too beyond the norm, but this one… We should definitely all be there when we track down whoever or whatever is doing this.”

 

[Pyrex]

Anton nods as Natalie finishes, "Whoever did this very efficiently removed all the major muscle groups, very much as if they'd been slaughtered for their meat. Qoildan, have the bodies been examined magically?.

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Looking at the pieces of the woman that have been removed, Alyson wonders what kind of device could have cut such a large piece with such ease. (Some kind of check with medical tools if possible to determine if the murderer used a scalpel or other form of medical tool)

"What kind of creature of the night would have need of this much meat? You say this happened 3 nights ago? I would like to know what phase the moon was in on that night, and who the guard was that found this woman. And the other bodies, have they all been a little overweight as well? And the loss of blood, is it from the removal of the sections, or are there any puncture wounds on the bodies?"

Being a bit fascinated with the cleanliness of the cuts and the specific location of the major muscles, her head is spinning with wild ideas.

I can see that someone or something has a proudness about them, with their apparent knowledge of the major muscles of the body. They may have been an apprentice, doctor, surgeon or some other worker in the medical field. Since these were all done locally, I am sure that they are native to this town, knowing where to go to harvest for meat and bodies. Oblivious to what others think of their actions, it appears that it is a ritual, following some sort of pattern. A true mystery, and one that will be solved in due time.

After disecting Mr Rummit, Alyson washes up and speaks with Kalri. "So tell me what you saw. I would like to see your progress."

Kalri, a little startled by the sudden question thinks and speaks slowly, almost as if reciting an old manuscript in her head. "The neck was bruised and some tendons were damaged. Obviously he was strangled or similar device. Discoloration shows he has been dead for 2-4 days, while the blood gathered at the feet shows he was upright for a long time, sure to be from him hanging from his room. I believe that is it." Looking a bit pleased at her recollections, she waits for Alyson to reply.

"Not bad. But there are a few things that get to me. One is that the neck was bruised and tendons damaged. But with a hanging, the neck should have snapped, and not only been bruised. Second is the fact that his hands are clean. A little too clean for my likes. The only reason I can think of for that is that someone must have cleaned them up, for fear of something that he may have clued us in on. Like as if he had scratched the murderer and had proof of the murderers blood and skin. Leads me to believe its a murder covered up as a suicide. Lastly, in the apartment, the deep gouge in the window sill. Looks like that was the entrance. Perhaps a grappling hook was used to climb up to his room, and then back down. But that would mean that the attacker knew exactly which window was Mr. Rummit's. And obviously, the only person that would know a drunks windows is someone who has been there a few times. Only Lenny seems to have known Mr. Rummit. He needs to be found and questioned. The missing lock of hair is also missing, and if we find that, we found the killer. I wouldn't even be surprised to find this Lenny with a fresh scratch or scar on him." As she is talking, sshe begins by telling the facts, but as she progresses into the details more and more, her mannerism changes to that of one thinking aloud, trying to figure out a complex puzzle. And once she ends, she feels as though there is much more to this suicide than was found. With a newfound purpose, she now has two mysteries to worry about.

Kalri, seemingly a little perturbed by not realizing the hands were too clean for some reason only nods her head in agreement. As she hears Alyson portray her version of events, she sees the mind of Alyson working.

She sure is a very optimistic person! That's a bunch of 'IF'S' in there. But what if she is on to something? She has been at this longer than I have, and I am supposed to learn form her.

Thinking on her words, and walking through the scene in her mind, she grins.

You know, this might actually make sense. It seems to all fit perfectly, but then again, it's just speculation. But it appears that she is following her instincts. Very rare for one so caught up in the science of calculating the functions of the body. There is more to this woman than I know. And there is more to me than she knows...

Seeing that Kalri is a little questionable, Alyson stares at her. "Besides, if it was a murder, it has to be someone that he knows. What other reason is there for no struggle or brken furniture. It had to be someone he trusted and knew. Lenny is the only one I know of that knew Rummit well enough to think him not a threat. Come, let us go talk with the others and let them dwell on this."

Walking out the door, Alyson tells them of the facts, and then of her speculations. "I know it sounds a little far fetched, but there are too many holes here and I am just filling them in. I think it best to at least make sure that there was no foul play here."

 

[Salzorin]

Quilan pulls out a small dagger and motions with the blade following the delicate cuts the artist took upon the canvas in front of him, tilting his head from side to side to observe the angle of the incisions.

"Well I don't know about rituals and the occult and such, but I do know about precision cuts... and that there are people in this world that pay a pretty penny to have access to various parts of the body. The man took enough care that he seems more like a collector or tradesman to me than some sort of religious fanatic. Anton, think you could find somebody that knows something of the trade of the human anatomy? Maybe you and I can figure out who in the area has shown an interest in either buying or selling parts recently while the others track down some of the more specifics on the nature of the murder..."