((One thing I learned the hard way is not to let only one person take Medicae and rather make it two. The Scholar is generally the smarter choice to do actual forensics, though. Scab will just "assist"

Fair enough...it's always bad when the group's apothecarius goes down first ;P

How do you to propose to handle the spending of the XP? In a usual game face-to-face XP are spend between adventure's...on the other hand we have here a complete different pace...

Btw I enjoy this game quite much

((however ya guys wanna, really. I'll just roll with it

She barely even takes a look at you as she accepts the bribe and hands over a VIP day pass before returning to her work. Numerous telephone devices buzz around her, so without much further interaction she is talking to some stuff noble demanding his neighbor quit mowing the edge of his lawn. Down the hallway, a guard wearing the local uniform (black form fitting clothes with red carapace armour) opens up the door and holds it for all of you.

Feel free to spend your experience whenever and however you like, just be sure to tell me what you spent it on so that I am aware of it. In between adventures is waaaay to long of a gap. IRL I tend to do it either before or after a major encounter and/or before or after a session, but PbP is much more... perpetual. So because of that, whenever you have enough XP to grab the thing that you want just go for it. And yeah, usually these are the kinds of games where it's nice to know how to apply a band aid Ack, had to go back and edit that whole first paragraph. Word to the wise: proof read your work!

I put the pass around my neck, gesture my colleagues to follow me and pass the guard with a quick nod to him. Behind the door I turn to my colleagues and speak with them in a lowered voice.

"So good so far. Shall we first examine the bodies? I guess the responsible officer or apothecarius may be able to tell us where the "devices" are stored."

Then I try to orientate myself where we have to go.

--------

You are probably right and have convinced me...so I buy:

- Parry Known (100xp)

- Athletics Known (100xp)

- Strength I +5 (100xp)

- Sound Constitution I (100xp)

- Security Known (200xp)

I change my character on the first page.

Btw you all can correct me, if I make mistakes, I am always trying to improve my English skills.

((Scab snags Medicae and Tech use as known skills for 200 each, so he can 'assist' in them and give Ashtaroth delicious boni. He also nabs Scrutiny, for woe is the psyker who relies on the warp alone!))

He dips his head, after pinning his VIP badge to his cloak, right above his chest where it was in plain view. "I would like to, hem hem, scan them individually, then maybe, hmm, have them all in one room? Compare them? It helps to be sure they, hem hem, really are our bodies and not some, yes, other cases."

"Agreed. I will look for someone who will arrange this for us."

I want to ask my way around to the appropriate officer or scholar and try to reserve a room in the morgue to examine the bodies. If possible I would also like to get the artifacts and other evidence delivered to that room.

Is it possible to do this?

That sounds possible. Make a Fellowship +10 (because of the VIP pass) check to see if the mortician will bring the relevant bodies to a room for you. Depending on that we can go from there.

Well...that went sideways...(45, 43 needed)

I think to intimidate him would maybe not the smartest move, even if a small flame of distaste for the mortician builds up in my chest.

I would like to ask then if it would be possible to transport them to a isolated room by ourselves...maybe Astaroth could convince him with his influence if he wants to block us.

The mortician, a lady in a grey laboratory style outfit, shakes her head. "Sorry, but all of our space is being used right now. At best I will be able to show you the most recent body to come in and whatever is on it. I haven't even had a look myself, yet."

She gestures towards an operating room. A cadaver is laying naked upon the table and its belongings are stuffed into a plastic box underneath the table.

I shrug in discontent, but try to stay friendly.

"Well, than this will have to suffice. Is the file with the body, so we can check if all the evidence is on hand?"

I wait for the answer.

Then I go to the room and take a first look over the body and what kind of objects are with it. If possible I close the door or draw a curtain to isolate us as much as possible, to enable us to talk freely. Than I start to look at the objekts more closely one after the other.

Shall I make a awareness or scrutiny roll?

If one of my colleagues wants to do any actions, I try to assist them, if I can.

"There is no file just yet. This body was delivered to us shortly before you people arrived. Say, what is your angle anyway? Is this a murder investigation? You don't look like arbiters."

Inside the white plastic box are the robes which the nobles around here would consider the equivalent of a suit and tie (these particular robes are red with lace made of stringed gold sewn through the fabric in "tribal" patterns), a stub revolver (presumably for self defense) which has not been fired recently, an address book with names and contact information, and a small figurine made of obsidian. The figurine is is a crustaceous body, complete with crab-like claws, bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or membranous wings and several sets of articulate limbs, and with a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered with multitudes of very short antenna, where a head would normally be. The quality and details of the object are very intricate and masterful. If you were to touch it, it would feel strangely warm... The body of the deceased appears to be a 60 year old male. He has no obvious cause of death.

There aren't any rolls to make here, aside from examining the artifact with a scanner like buddy said he intended to do earlier. That would be a +/-0 test on awareness, plus the auspex's bonus of course. Granted, I'm sure somebody might be able to think of something to do or say in this room.

The last sentence insults me. I do not look like an arbiter? I pump up my muscles and raise to my full size. Then I turn around to the mortician and growl:

"What did you say there? I do not look like an arbiter to you? Where do you think I got this armor from? Or my seal of office? Or this VIP pass granting me access? I was not aware, that simple mortician were to question real arbites!"

(I want to intimidate her, so she will leave us alone)

-----

Something else...I was woundering...do I post too much here? I feel like I'm pulling the action towards me...which is not my intend. I do not want to exclude the others, please tell me, when you feel/think something should be done differently. As I am new to pbp I don't know if there is some kind of post etiquette.

((I'm waiting on the sage to start the autopsy, personally!))

The mortician leaves quite hastily. As for post etiquette, I think part of it is that you're just the most vocal person in the group. If y ou want to cut up the body and do stuff on it that will be a 0 medicae test.

Ok, I grab Medicae +10 for 600 xp

_______________________________________

-You have performed admirably, enforcer! See, this is all about being natural: a small lie for a big truth, laying there, waiting to be uncovered.

If there is a clean medicae robe in this room, I put it on. Scribe-tines bury themselves within Astaroth's fingers, and a narthecium takes their place on his arm.

-Now, please, make a step back...

Narthecium's chain-scalpel awakens with a sickening sound.

-... in case you don't want sanguine splattering over your clothes.

I roll a 22 - 4 DoS.

Scab takes out his auspex and flicks it on, scanning the corpse in the meantime, and noting any irregularities he may spot upon the body, as well as, if possibly, hooking the auspex' up to a projector or monitor on site (if such exists), to provide Ashtaroth with a viable reading of the body. While "scanning", he gives off an intensely concentrated expression, perhaps because the first few moments aren't spent paying attention to the readout, but rather to the feeling his gut gets by focusing his throneforged mind on the corpse.

((Assisting Ashtaroth's medicae test to add another +10 to his roll; Also, a brief psyniscience, to check if there is anything still active on the dead person.

Roll vs. Per + known skill of summa summarum 37

=

What a pleasant autopsy this has been. You discover that there are no natural causes to the death: the brain appears to have simply ceased functioning. Furthermore, it appears to be warm to the touch in much the same way the artifact is. Almost like the presence of heat without a source.

The auspex picks up strange signals emanating from the hands of the corps. The auspex also manages to find these exact same frequencies radiating from the artifact. It is such a powerful emanation that it overwhelmed the body, almost refusing to be ignored. The auspex registers these as a type of psychic energy, but cannot pinpoint anything specific beyond that.

----------------------------

I'm trying my best to improvise all of this, so I hope it's working. Strangely, the book is incredibly vague about the causes of death for the nobles and seems to have forgotten to actually talk about it... Or maybe I'm just failing my skill checks in reading

Scab frowns deeply, as he surveys the reading, mumbling, half distractedly, as he hastily turns dials and knobs on his device and punches buttons on his way through the various interfaces: "Troubling...very troubling. Milord, sir, we have a, hrrrn, psychic device here. It is definitely, hemhem, heretical, yes. I am attempting to, hmm, see if I can isolate the signal to track it with, ah yes, the auspex."

((Trying to isolate and save the psychic signal into the auspex, to track it using the device.

Tech Use Int + TU = 33 sans mods of any kind

The artifact feels satisfied. For some reason you know this, but you do not know how you know that the artifact is satisfied, nor are you aware of the reason why it has this emotion. Within seconds, your vision of the reality around you is mutilated and replaced with that of a twilight landscape: The ground is that of a moon bathed in blue light. A purple and green aurora streaks the sky. Most importantly, there are living pinkish versions of the artifact buzzing around the sky. They take notice of you and right as they are closing in your vision quickly returns to that of the morgue. Take a Fear 1 test, adding 1D5 sanity if you fail by 3 DoF or more.

With all of that said, you do discover that it is a form of telepathy that the artifact possesses.

Could you specify who you mean with you? Scab you, as he scans the artifact or all you

WP 27 (+0) - 87..., which would be bad if I would not be adding (in)sanity ;P of which I would gain 4.

------

When Astaroth and Scab start to open up the body, I pray a silent and fast prayer to the God-Emporer to protect me from any evil, which might rise out of this corrupted man.

While they work on the body, I would like to examine the address book and copy it with my pict recorder.

Do I find any interessting persons? Do I know who else was found dead and might I find such a name in there? And most interessting would be, if I find the name of Lans Guljian in there.

(( WP 43 + Resistence fear = 53

=

When the vision fades and reality sets itself right in front of his eyes, he clasps his face with his palms and remains utterly silent for a few seconds, panting and sweating heavily.

Hehe, Cthulhu points Only Scab was affected by it. In the address book you find numerous scratched out names, but mostly names that are still clearly legible. Lans Guljian is indeed in the book and his information is circled with red ink.

I turn around to Scab, concern showing on my face. I let the adress book fall back on the table, my left hand traces the aquilla on my armor's breast plate, my right hand wanders automatically to the hilt of my shock maul. You never know when one ot the touched snaps, said my old Brother-Confessor Copper. Be always prepared. Cautious I ask:

"Is everything alright with you, Scab? Should we worry?"

It takes a while for the small psyker to answer, his eyes moving from one person to the other in the room. Once he's determined, to his satisfaction, that they're all apparently human and not horrible xenos, he gives a slow nod in response. "The, hemhem, auspex shows they are linked, gnn, telepathically. Worse: They noticed it, and, gah, me....I think...I think the devices are...alive."