001a: Grave Tidings

On/Under the streets of Yuggoth
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Joshua
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001a: Grave Tidings

Post by Joshua »

As a reminder, many places on the plates have dirt and soil going down 10 - 12 feet. Some places even have rolling hills*. The graveyards and parks are one of them.

The Royal Guild of Public Works has been called out regarding a welter, or a kerfuffle depending on who you talk to. Either way the constables who were called out are not happy about it, and not happy to have to get help. They're also not thrilled about being in a graveyard at night.

New arrivals are ushered into the old part of the graveyard, a relatively tranquil place, a favorite of picnics and small outings. It overlooks a pond, with fairly lush flowering trees that have grown up between the graves. Being early fall**, the leaves have started to change color.

"Yeah, I ain't going near that. Cause of death was being crushed by a half-ton gravestone." Ralph Gleason, a constable***, grumbles, "I don't care if it fell on him cause he was diggin' or if something... look, that's too Pandora to deal with****. He was grave robbing and it fell on him. Case closed."

"The grave is from 150 years ago," Ed Carney, another constable offers. "It could have something major in it. Either way, we gotta move the stone back into place. Exhumation of the body is deemed not my call... All we need is the stone out back and... well, maybe make sure it's stable enough to allow some detective or inspector to investigate, if they want. It's stuck in the mud over here..."
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*: And maybe 150 feet of clearance isn't going to be enough... On the other hand, most elevation changes happen at the parks, and 100 ft high hills isn't that bad?
**: So, Lastfell has two sets of seasons. Floors 1 and 2 (the farms) are opposite floors 3, 4 and 5... Basically, the seasons are created by channeling more energy to half the city in some seasons creating summer and winter. Seasons are referred to by what they are in the city. For the farms, they just deal with the city folk being obtuse.
***: Anyone got good ideas for how to give the police a Victorian feel?
****: Pandora / too Pandora to deal with: "I ain't opening that can of worms, 'cause they're probably tentacles." Or, smells like mythos and that's above my pay-grade.
misfit
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Re: 001a: Grave Tidings

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The conversation is interrupted by the sound of the approach of a figure pushing a wheelbarrow. The constables look up in trepidation, reaching for their truncheons and rattles (not that help would be likely to come in time even if someone heard them). A figure pushing a wheelbarrow in the cemetary in the middle of the night can mean only one of two things: someone up to something very nasty or...

“McKinnon, Public Works. I hear that there's a bit of work that needs doing out here.”

Miles pulls his lantern out of the wheelbarrow and turns it up to throw as much light as possible. He lights up his own face first so the police can be sure that he's who he claims to be. Then he holds up the light to see them more clearly.

“Ah, Gleason and Carney, I see that you drew the short straws too. Is there anything I need to know before I get to work?”

Miles turns and starts to examine the scene in more detail...
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Joshua
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Re: 001a: Grave Tidings

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Gleason declines to get anywhere near the scene. he's close enough, thankyouverymuch. He'll wait for the rest of your team.

Carney will lead you about fifty feet to the gravesite. He'll let it speak for itself initially.

A decrepit old man, looking somewhere between 80 and 120 lies on his back, beneath a large gravestone, perhaps 4 feet wide, 2 feet tall and 10 inches thick*. Several gravestone impressions in the ground nearby imply the gravestone fell on him... about 6 or 7 times. He's surprisingly intact, the ground must've been muddy when the incident occurred, as he's pressed almost completely into the earth. Only his face, turned sideways, and two spindly legs (on the other side of the gravestone) being above ground.

About a foot to the side, is a freshly collapsed grave. With a bit of imagination, one might think something crawled out of it... Again, recent rains seem to have caused the hole to slurp into itself.

Carney, quite by intentional force of will, does not have that bit of imagination. "So, yeah. What we have here is a clear instance of a graverobber accidentally upending a gravestone during the rains** from a few days ago. He looks like he mighta died of old age though."

The constable will pull out his nightstick and nudge the old man's face, clearing away some of the mud blocking the mouth. "Yeah, terrible tragedy. Kinda impressed, something that heavy coulda--"

Which is cut short by the old man sharply inhaling***, and whimpering.
________________
*: which by my math is 1067.2 pounds.
**: Ran, is a thing in Lastfell... caused partially by the steam condensing on the sun-lamps. I'll make up some technobabble later.
***: And that's a horror 2 check****. It's a fairly grisly scene.
****: Yeah, I'm calling for a lot of these initially.. I'll tone it down soon.
misfit
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Re: 001a: Grave Tidings

Post by misfit »

Miles gasps and takes several steps back. "That's not...he can't...but he is..." He looks around and takes a few deep breathes.

He turns and shouts, "Gleason! There are more of my people coming. Find them and get them here fast, then go find a doctor. Don't just stand there! Move!"

He turns to Carney and reaches into his coat. He pulls out a pistol. "Do you know how to use one of these? If so take and keep me covered. He might be more than he seems, and someone needs to be ready for that. If he isn't we need to get him out."

Miles quickly starts unpacking the necessary tools and getting ready to move the stone as soon as help arrives. He also makes sure that he has a very heavy wrench ready at a second's notice.
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Joshua
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Re: 001a: Grave Tidings

Post by Joshua »

Thankfully, the doctor and reenforcement arrive quickly. The old man is in bad shape, but isn't ... well, doesn't seem to be a vampire or anything and doesn't attempt to attack anyone. He's suffering from some malnutrition, and massive bruising. He's also near catatonic and completely incoherent. Mostly he makes gurgles and such once he's out, and covered in a blanket. He was only wearing rags prior to that.

Anything you want to examine? or Ask the police or the doctor who arrived?
misfit
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Re: 001a: Grave Tidings

Post by misfit »

Miles will do a more detailed survey of the area...or as best he can in the poor lighting. He's going to be examining the stone to see if there's anything unusual about it. He'll also check the indentations that it apparently made in the ground. He'll check the grave itself to confirm whether it looks like someone was digging in or digging out. Is there a casket, or is the hole not deep enough to have reached one (if indeed there is one)?

After the doctor has had time to tend his patient Miles will go check in with him. "Excuse me Doctor, Miles McKinnon, Guild of Public Works. How is he? I...I don't know what to make of this. How could he have survived having that much weight fall on him...and force him that deeply into the ground? It all feels terrible Pandora to me. I'm hoping you have a normal explanation for all of us."
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Joshua
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Re: 001a: Grave Tidings

Post by Joshua »

Miles is smart, but doesn't actually have investigation. From an engineering standpoint, The size of the sinkhole... Once the depression flooded form the rain, it collapsed. Before it collapsed, the original size was likely closer to a foot in diameter, instead of the size of a full coffin.

If there's still a coffin down there or not, you'd have to dig it up yourself. Between the rain and such, you'd need a skilled investigator to help*...

The name on the gravestone, if that's important is Sermon Bishop. And, yeah, it was beaten into the ground multiple times. Although, there's no evidence that the old man was beaten with it multiple times, he could have just been hit by the last swing.

Unfortunately, too much time has passed for you to really infer more, like if someone was holding the gravestone. There's been too much weather, and there's no deep foot-prints in the surrounding area. But they might have washed away.

The doctor will shake his head. "No idea. He's bruised, and has come broken ribs, if that helps? He's also clearly human, as far as I can tell. One heart, normal beats for someone in utter terror." The doc will sigh. "The bigger issue is his mental state. He's... fairly far gone. He might recover with treatment, but we won't know that for a few days. He might just remain near-catatonic.**"
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*: As a reminder, you do know the tea house PCs.
**: The old man is going to a local hospital to recover. They're getting a carriage.
***: Or ninjas... there's always ninjas.
misfit
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Re: 001a: Grave Tidings

Post by misfit »

"Well being out here in the rain isn't doing him a bit of good. If you're going to save him I would say that Sisters of Mercy is the closest hospital. Fastest way there from here would be the north gate."*

Miles gives the scene another long look and then turns to Carney. "I don't wanna tell you how do your job, but something isn't right here. He's too frail to be out digging up graves...and where are his tools? And that hole isn't wide enough for him. Doing it this way he'd have to dig down to the coffin, punch a hole in the top and then haul the body up and out. I couldn't do that so there's no way he could."

Miles sighs. "I normally have a lot more sense than this, but there's something here that's gnawing at me.** It's stupid but I think we need to dig down to find any real answers. We have the tools here at least. I don't suppose you have the authority to authorize that? And do you know of anyone close by who might be able to make any sense out of any of this?"

"Oh, and can I have my pistol back?"


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*Given that there's no sun or (as far as I know magnetic field) directions are probably fairly arbitrary here. I'm guessing the first settlers said "Let's call that way North" just so they would have a frame of reference.

**Miles comes close to having a lot of Flaws but falls a bit short of threshold of them. Curiosity is one of them. It's a flaw, not a Flaw.
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Joshua
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Re: 001a: Grave Tidings

Post by Joshua »

Yeah, you can get your gun back without issue. Carney isn't liking the situation and Gleason is more then wiling to pass things off onto someone who wants to be here*.

"Well," Carney will admit, "we did send for an inspector when we thought it was a murder. So, that's his call. At this point, they should be along shortly**."

"HER call," the inspector will insist with an american accent. She'll greet Carney, "Inspector Hawkins. I just got here, fill me in."

The inspector is a fairly attractive brunette with light brown hair in a rather masculine (for Lastfell) crew cut.She wears the uniform well, and clearly moves like she grew up on the streets*** and knows how to handle herself. She's got a simple pistol on a belt, with a billy-club, and presents herself with a strong confidence.

I won't recap what happened in the thread, just read back if you need.

Carney will finish with, "So, Inspector, if that's all you need, my partner wants to get the heck out of here, if we may?"

"Yeah, take off. I got this." She will shake her head and turn to Miles. "If you were eager to exhume, we might as well get on with it. Just let my associate help out. This is Berkley. He's... he's got a nose for things."
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*: Yeah, police hate being out after dark as much as anyone else.
**: As a minor point, radios are big and difficult to transport, except in the case of mad-science (which the police tend not to use). So, there was no way to call the inspector and say "Hey, send someone else, cause this isn't what we thought."
***: Miles has streetwise.
Draylen
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Re: 001a: Grave Tidings

Post by Draylen »

The timid, overweight man behind her is blinking at the scene having taken place, shaking his head. "Dear oh dear. This is quite the generated power, isn't it?" he asks, frowning. "the monument seems to be almost five hundred kilograms, and to create impacts like that would be-" He blinks rapidly, and then waves off something in his vision and shivers. 'ah. frightful*. Yes, yes, ah. sorry. I am Wallace Berkley, as the good Inspector mentioned. I, uh, haven't been here all that long?"

He rubs his beady eyes and frowns a bit. "sorry, sorry. uh. Dr. Mikkelson told me not to go into peering too deep into things, that science isn't really, uh, really, uh... helpful? here? Um... how can i help?"

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*His quick back of the brain math is indicating a force of at least 20 kN... per impact.
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