Fairfax OSR - IC Thread

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
"Gotcha. Let's look at the morgue first, that way we'll know better what to ask to locals."

EDIT: "The tourists must be in season," he replies to Hew's question. Silverlion Silverlion
 
"Wonderful!" Winters replies and puts down the phone.

Voros Voros
"Some hashbrowns sound good Leslie, I'm sure we can convince Drumsetter that they were a necessary expense!" he replies laughing a bit to Leslie and then lets his arm hang out the window and enjoys the sunny drive through town.
 
OK, so after dodging some tourist traffic, you pull up to a low strip mall kind of building just off the main drag. The sign at one end says Landry Coroner's Office, Dr. Shelly, Coroner, and the sign at the other end says Landry Medical, Drs. Shelly and Cooper. Coroner-ing obviously isn't a full time job. There are no cars in the lot, so parking isn't an issue, and the faded orange sign in the door of the Coroner's says Open, C'mon In! which is pretty perky for a place with dead people. Your info has this Dr. Shelly as Geraldine Shelly, age 42. She's been Coroner in Landry for 5 or 6 years and has a very solid medical degree.
 
Leslie stuffs the last hashbrown in his mouth and washes it down with black coffee as he exits the car and enters the coroners with the half empty cup of coffee in his hand.

'Howdy,' he says to the receptionist or whoever he first encounters. 'How are you doing today?'
 
Last edited:
Winters will stand back and let Leslie do the talking until they meet the actual coroner. If anybody prior to the coroner requires ID or verification, he will step in with official OSR identifying material.
 
The secretary is a middle aged woman, Leslie by her name tag, who barely looks up from her magazine as you enter. "Doc's in the back," she says, "end of the hall." With that she disappears back into whatever fantasy world world one experiences when engrossed in People magazine.

You walk down the hallway, past a couple of doors, and through a double door labelled Morgue. Inside is a clean and surprisingly well-equipped lab. Two bodies lie under sheets on the two available slabs, and a middle aged woman in full scrubs stands between them, staring at a clip board and rubbing her temple. She glances up as you enter. "Ahh, you must be the gentlemen from the FBI, Sherriff said you might be by, welcome to my little corner of the world." She's a middle aged woman with auburn hair tied back in a tight bun, and pretty, in a sharp, angular sort of way. "What can I do for you?" she asks.
 
"We would like to examine the dead, and make sure they are properly sanctified for cremation," Hew says before anyone else responds.
"If we may?"
 
Dr. Shelly does a bit of a double take. "I'm sorry, you want to do what...?"
 
'Eh, he's kidding,' I drawl. 'We're OSR, here to inspect the bodies.' I present our credentials with Winter.
 
Dr. Shelly looks somewhat dubiously at the lot of you. "Ok, fair enough," say says" lets start with the Vic, Ron Howard". She whips back the sheet on one of the corpses. The corpse is, well, fucking big. Dude is probably 6'4 and built like a brick shit house. He's got bruises all up and down his arms and torso, very consistent with an extended fight. Shattered knuckles, lots of defensive wounds. You can see a USMC tattoo on his right bicep.
 
"So, what did you determine was the cause of death?" Adam immediately steps forward and begins closely inspecting the corpse, especially the neck, eyes, and extremities.
 
"There's a lot of trauma generally, but it seems like a blow to the back of the neck was what did him in." She gestures up and down the corpse, " you can see extensive trauma consistent with an extended fight, " bruises, cuts, scrapes etc. "From the forensic evidence, and where the body was found, it seems like he fell backward onto the coffee table and hit it wrong, snapped his neck like a twig."

She picks up one the corpses canned ham sized hands. "You can see from the damage to his fists that he fought back extensively."
 
"Well, you wouldn't expect a Marine to go quietly," Adam murmured in reply, jotting down a note to get Howard's service record.
 
"It's this other fellow that's causing us some trouble," she says, pulling back the second sheet. The second corpse is that of a fit male in his mid-twenties with no distinguishing marks. He has a scruffy beard, but it's tough to tell exactly what he looked like due to the massive crushing wound to the left temple. Dr. Shelly points to the massive wound, "That's the obvious cause of death right there, and the weapon has been identified as a bowling trophy from the victim's house." She's points to the rest of the wounds on the body, "As you can see, the perp also has the kind of physical damage you'd expect from an extended fight. "After that things get a little weird," she adds "so to start, we aren't seeing the kind of post-mortem lividity we'd expect, but that's the least of my worries. The body is also far cooler than it should be given the estimated time of death. If I were using body temp to judge time of death I'd say he's been dead more like a day or two, depending on conditions." She sighs, "There's no good explanation for the difference in temperature between the two bodies."

"There's more though. Here, pass my those forceps," she says to Winters. She peels back the chest derma and you can see that the ribs have been removed as part of the autopsy. She points to the area around the lungs. "There's the real mystery right there." You can see a fine white tracery of lines all over the lungs and some of the other organs. It looks a little bit like a net, but it's obviously organic. "We have no idea what this is. Samples have been sent off to the lab for analysis of course, but it'll probably be a couple of days before we hear back. My best guess is that it's some kind of fungal infection, or something like that, but I've never seen anything like it."

What do you do?
 
After shakily handing over the forceps, Winters goes weak at the knees as the chest cavity is opened up and can barely stomach looking at the netting over the organs.

"Yes, very eh interesting doctor. Agent MacGregor this look like anything you are familiar with?

This lab you've sent the samples to doctor, where is it? Local enough?"

Winters signs a 402 to the others. OSR code for "containment protocol". If the webbing is directly supernatural itself, rather than a by product of the supernatural process, he wants to keep track of it.
 
"Hmm. How far does this stuff extend?" Adam grabs another instrument and starts prodding the head wound, intending to see if the webbing is also on the brain.
 
OOC: Rolling 2d6+Sharp (2) = 8. One question.

Let's go broad-level: What happened here?
 
After shakily handing over the forceps, Winters goes weak at the knees as the chest cavity is opened up and can barely stomach looking at the netting over the organs.

"Yes, very eh interesting doctor. Agent MacGregor this look like anything you are familiar with?

This lab you've sent the samples to doctor, where is it? Local enough?"

Winters signs a 402 to the others. OSR code for "containment protocol". If the webbing is directly supernatural itself, rather than a by product of the supernatural process, he wants to keep track of it.
You can have a containment unit here for the body in an hour or two.
 
OOC: Rolling 2d6+Sharp (2) = 8. One question.

Let's go broad-level: What happened here?
After poking around, you figure out that the fungus(?) is also present in the cranial cavity and seems to penetrate the brain in multiple places, as well as all the major organs. You're pretty sure it is a fungus, but not like any you're ever seen, the infestation does seem significant though. You also notice that the blood in the body is somewhat thicker than it should be, perhaps as a result of dehydration. As for cause, that's not obvious. A natural fungal infection? Something delivered a serum? Something magical? Those are all possibilities. The impact on and penetration into the brain does put you in mind of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the so-called zombie-ant fungus, although this case lacks some of the larger brain growths of the insect variety, and doesn't present quite the same generally either.
 
Leslie leans over the body cavity, takes a sip from his coffee.
 
"So, it kinda looks like souped-up zombie fungus," says Adam, as much to himself as anyone else in the room. "Not sure who would be playing with that. Lab would probably tell us more . . . " He trails off for a moment, and then begins again: "But the bigger question is, why them? What was it about Howard that attracted the attention of -" He suddenly turns to the coroner. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but I might have missed it - has there been any progress in identifying the attacker?"
 
Very Quietly, "Would you like me to remove this fungus for you?" Hew asks, coding the Cast Out Evil ability as he watches the ongoing investigation. He's watching and trying to figure out what he can "My specialty may not apply, I'm not sure I can, but I can attempt it." indicating he doesn't immediately recognize this as supernatural. (If it's extra natural/terrestrial he has no clue. No no aliens for him.) He scans the bodies. [2d6+Sharp: 8)
 
"So, it kinda looks like souped-up zombie fungus," says Adam, as much to himself as anyone else in the room. "Not sure who would be playing with that. Lab would probably tell us more . . . " He trails off for a moment, and then begins again: "But the bigger question is, why them? What was it about Howard that attracted the attention of -" He suddenly turns to the coroner. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but I might have missed it - has there been any progress in identifying the attacker?"
"Not even a little bit, "Dr. Shelley says, "although it's only been 24 hours. I'd imagine that the huge number of tourists in town isn't helping. There are thousands of people in town that no one knows." She walks over to Howard's body and thinks for a minute. "I didn't know him very well, and I can't think of why anyone would want to kill him. I mean, he is an important guy in town, he runs the only local bank, but it's a small town and that doesn't exactly make him important generally."
 
'Which bank is that?' Leslie asks, drawing an old fashioned, small notepad and pen out of his pocket to scribble notes.
 
'Which bank is that?' Leslie asks, drawing an old fashioned, small notepad and pen out of his pocket to scribble notes.
"Landry Savings and Loan," she replies. "They handle the banking for most of the people and businesses in town. The small-town personal touch, you know? The bank's been in the Howard family for years, at least since the 20's I think. When Roy retired form the Marines he took over from his father, maybe 8 or 10 years ago."
 
Winters looks to the others.

"How about we split up? One pair chats with the cops a bit more, the other takes a look at this bank?

The fact that the perp's body shows signs of a struggle is reassuring, means these shroom-zombies can be somewhat hurt by a regular person"
 
'Off to the bank we go... thanks Doc.'
 
Wait, who's going where?
 
Alright, I'll get those locations underway tonight or tomorrow. Just an FYI, this is likely the last trip you're likely to get within normal business hours today. Depends on the trip, but there's not a lot of day left before quitting time at 5. (Don't read anything into that, I'm just engaging in some Gygaxian timekeeping).
 
"I'm good either way, though I'd like to see the site more than speak with people. You know they don't tend to take kindly to me..."
 
OK, so we have a three'fer...

First, Dr Shelly catches you right before you leave. "Pardon me agents, there was one other bit of forensic evidence I forgot to mention, although I don't know how important it is. The perp had soil of some kind under his nails. That's not odd on his hands, but it also present on his feet, and he had socks and shoes on when he came in. The soil is off for analysis, but it looked like some kind of mixed soil, like potting soil, or something like it."

Second, Landry Savings and Loan

This is couple of blocks from the coroner's office, so you're there right quick. It's right on the main drag in what might be described as the town square. It's a older Georgian-looking building, complete with columns out front, and the name Landry Savings and Loan is carved into the front. This seems to match Dr. Shelly's recollections about the bank's age. The interior is cool and dark-ish, obviously the lighting hasn't been massively upgraded. It's a pretty swanky looking place, lots of marble, brass, and dark wood, with velvet ropes to mark the teller lines rather than the standard black nylon. There is only one teller on duty, and you don't see anyone else in the place. The name tag on the counter says Grace.

Third, Landry Sherriff's Office

This is also just a couple of blocks away from the coroner's office. It's a small low building, probably 80's vintage office space. There's one set of double doors and a fenced-in parking lot where you can see two cruisers and an SUV parked, all with official police decals. The building and lot are a little run-down, but the vehicles look shiny. When you enter through the double doors you get a welcome hit of air conditioning. The waiting room has a long desk to your left, and a glass wall and door straight ahead leading into what looks like the ward room. There are some tatty looking chairs, one sad looking house plant, and the usual collection of eight-year-old magazines. Behind the desk is perky young woman wearing a headset who's name tag reads Betty. She looks up as you enter and says "Hi y'all!" with a lot of enthusiasm, "what can I do for you today?" She's blonde, and very pretty, and probably spends a lot of time time fending off drunken advances from the deputies and random assholes and the local bar.
 
OK, so we have a three'fer...

First, Dr Shelly catches you right before you leave. "Pardon me agents, there was one other bit of forensic evidence I forgot to mention, although I don't know how important it is. The perp had soil of some kind under his nails. That's not odd on his hands, but it also present on his feet, and he had socks and shoes on when he came in. The soil is off for analysis, but it looked like some kind of mixed soil, like potting soil, or something like it."

"Thank you, doctor - that may be more important than you realize." As she goes back into the building, Adam remarks, "We've got someone coming to secure the body, right?"

Third, Landry Sherriff's Office

This is also just a couple of blocks away from the coroner's office. It's a small low building, probably 80's vintage office space. There's one set of double doors and a fenced-in parking lot where you can see two cruisers and an SUV parked, all with official police decals. The building and lot are a little run-down, but the vehicles look shiny. When you enter through the double doors you get a welcome hit of air conditioning. The waiting room has a long desk to your left, and a glass wall and door straight ahead leading into what looks like the ward room. There are some tatty looking chairs, one sad looking house plant, and the usual collection of eight-year-old magazines. Behind the desk is perky young woman wearing a headset who's name tag reads Betty. She looks up as you enter and says "Hi y'all!" with a lot of enthusiasm, "what can I do for you today?" She's blonde, and very pretty, and probably spends a lot of time time fending off drunken advances from the deputies and random assholes and the local bar.
Summoning up all his charm, Adam begins, "Hello, we're Federal agents investigating the Howard case. Would it be possible to speak with the officers involved?"
 
"Thank you, doctor - that may be more important than you realize." As she goes back into the building, Adam remarks, "We've got someone coming to secure the body, right?"


Summoning up all his charm, Adam begins, "Hello, we're Federal agents investigating the Howard case. Would it be possible to speak with the officers involved?"
I thought Winters was on containment, we'll get him to confirm.

Betty beams up at you like you've made her day. "Ohh, y'all must be from the FBI." she says, pronouncing each letter as if it were its own word. "I'll just buzz you through and let him know you're here. He won't be a sec." The glass door ahead of you buzzes.
 
Following Adam MacGregor, he's more comfortable when someone who understands, humanities quirks. "You are a many-blessed one aren't you? " Commenting on her enthusiasm rather than any attractiveness she may hold. He smiles at her cautiously. "Thank you for directing us." He reaches out to gently pat her hand. Before turning to head through the door.
 
'Hey there Gracie,' I say sauntering up to and leaning on the counter. 'You knew Mr. Howard right?'
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top