Amara goes to the morgue in the company of Dr. Gourdie. She attires herself appropriately and sterilizes her hands.

There are several nurses present. Gourdie stands to the side, looking uncomfortable.

Note: this is a fully equipped police laboratory (but not as well equipped as the FBI lab in DC). That means optical and electron microscopes, centrifuges, and so on.

Soon, Nancy Hardy lies naked on the table. Your equipment -- saws, knives, scalpels -- is to one side.

There are visible wounds on the arms and hands as well as in the middle of the chest. The head would loll to one side if it hadn't been clamped into position.

The corpse stinks, but less than it did last night.

I don't know how much you know about performing autopsies, but here is the standard procedure.

***

The doctor examines the body before opening the cadaver.

A scalpel incision opens various areas of the body, starting with the chest and abdomen. The head is opened with another cut, and a bone saw is used to cut through the skull (it stops at brain matter, being able to distinguish hard from soft tissues). Another saw is used to cut through the rib cage.

Blood samples will be taken, as well as urine. The samples will be sent along with tissue samples for analysis drug screens, infections, malarial antigens, etc.

Internal organs will be inspected, with tissue samples taken. The doctor will free up the large intestines etc. The organs are taken out and weighed. They will then be dissected to observe for any overt indications of disease process, e.g. cirrhosis of the liver. Samples of the tissue of organs are taken for analysis as well.

The stomach contents are often analyzed to see if there are toxins in the fluid. The external and internal genitalia will be examined for signs of sexual trauma, and samples will be taken to determine if the deceased recently had sexual intercourse.

The brain is often preserved in a fixative for a few days so that it can be neatly dissected.

Finished, the doctor stuffs the body with its organs again (nicely), unless some are being retained for further analysis, or are to be cremated as per family wishes or the law.


Dr. Gourdie and the nurses stand to one side.

Your task is before you, the body described as above.

How do you proceed?

(This will probably require a great many Medical Forensics rolls.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:30, Tue 14 Dec 2021.