The Unseen Servant forums

Whoever invented the alarm clock should be subjected to some hideous torture!

The minutiae of the morning routine precipitated by this assault on the senses pass in a blur as Windwalker makes his way from bedroom to Crime-Scene. Fortunately it includes a hot beverage and sustenance. His arrival is anticipated by the Police Sergeant (Sergeant Junker) and his Constable who appear to be performing a shift-handover in the parking area.

Ah - My assigned helper arrives, and early too!
Well lets get started so that the bosses can claim we have minimised impact on the economic output of the facility!

The work is, essentially, tidying the lab and collecting what remains of the work from Friday into Completed Items, Unstarted Items and Items in progress. The fourth pile - unexpected items remains stubbornly empty (or rather full of items that are easily explainable as things the lab workers would have brought in). For a clean-ish room, it contains a lot of stuff in that last category. The first three categories appear to be almost empty too. Two samples from a regular customer flung under a desk unopened. One sample in the "Contaminated" bin. Piles of empty vials awaiting sterilisation.

The waste-bin in which the fire was lit turns up a small selection of more interesting bits - no order and partially decomposed by heat. The bottom of the bin also holds the remains of a thermal grenade - Only the ceramic portions having survived the hellish temperatures generated by its ignition - and a pool of melted sample tubes.

You can find no obvious clues to the perpetrators. They seem to have omitted to leave a physical calling card.

I'm disappointed to be an Officer of the Law if this is the best we can come up with in your hour of need, mutters the Sergeant. Still it beats sitting on the tourist trails ticketing the poor idiots for improper collection of their personal waste. That's a proper shitty job!

And with that you move the lack of findings slowly upstairs.

So how do we reconstruct the list of what was destroyed/taken? Start with orders taken and cross reference with what we have found so far.

Your work on the computer yesterday gives you a partial list - the lab computer is going to need to be taken away for reconstruction for a full list - and the pair of you quite quickly tick off items recovered. Less than 1% of the prior day's list have been recovered and only the two discarded, un-started items are unlisted on the central record. Which suggests that there are some, possibly a majority of the missing items remaining on the damaged computer.

The next stage in the investigation will clearly be getting each of the customers to supply a list of submitted samples for last week and cross reference against what is known about. The Sergeant looks at you with glee when that task is suggested. You mentioned your Billing and Insurance teams are going to be interested, so let me know the results

He starts to pack up.

And let me know of items they claim to have sent that we don't have but are on the lists that are intact - It's always useful to know if they are inflating their claims too

And after getting the electricians to disconnect the lab computer for "Further Analysis" (You insist on a receipt - for Admin purposes) the room is cleared by the police for corporate use.

---

The afternoon is spent checking inventory against cupboard stocks and compiling a requisition for materials - but at least you can have some of the lab staff aid in that task.

By early evening, the Lab is ready to run again. And you retire to home - for a quick refresh before heading out to meet Midori.

I'll try to find out from Billing who is going to have to be repaid because their samples are missing. And I'll get the surviving items onto the top of the queue to be processed when we can.

Windrunner will see if he can get an idea about the police officer as a person. It seems bad that there is no interest at all from outside the town. What does he think?

This break in was clearly not kids - so who has an interest in the testing that needed the results suppressed? Did they do it themselves or hire someone? How do you hire a burglar/arsonist? Does the police officer have a usual suspect in mind?

Who knew the samples were here? How? If they are worth suppressing then they must know that they are worth suppressing. How?

MeteorMiner wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 12:58 pm I'll try to find out from Billing who is going to have to be repaid because their samples are missing. And I'll get the surviving items onto the top of the queue to be processed when we can.

Your trip to billing finds the room manned by Agatha - the formidable dragon who guards the place like a hen with one chick. Your approach will need to be administrative in nature I'm afraid - unless you have a better plan

MeteorMiner wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 12:58 pm Windrunner will see if he can get an idea about the police officer as a person. It seems bad that there is no interest at all from outside the town. What does he think?

Carousing with the police officer and persuading him to comment on the internal police organisation takes you most of the rest of the day - longer if you want to be careful not to look like you are digging!

MeteorMiner wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 12:58 pm This break in was clearly not kids - so who has an interest in the testing that needed the results suppressed? Did they do it themselves or hire someone? How do you hire a burglar/arsonist? Does the police officer have a usual suspect in mind?

The usual suspects are the team guides and wranglers. They tend to be casual labour and drift in and out of the area. As to finding an Arsonist - that wouldn't be easy. We haven't had an Arson incident for ages. So out of town or do it yourself. Burglars are easier. With not much going on here there are a number of people who seem to have gained drugs habits they can't really afford. But I'm not sure they would have been so careful - we usually catch them quite quickly as they just drip evidence. Whoever did this has left nothing we can find. So if you want an Arsonist - at least a difficult Streetwise roll Burglars are relatively easy

MeteorMiner wrote: ↑Thu Jun 03, 2021 12:58 pm Who knew the samples were here? How? If they are worth suppressing then they must know that they are worth suppressing. How?

As the sergeant puts it: Isn't that the point of this investigation?

he continues, musing

So who knew they were here...the sender, the owner, the courier (if they looked), the staff here?
Who knew they were worth destroying...the collector, the sender, the owner, the staff here (if whatever it was was odd)?

Administrative approach for the Billing Department: + 1 for Admin +1 for EDU drags it across the line for average tasks

The Persuasive approach to the police doesn't seem to have been too successful: even with +1 for Persuade +1 for EDU doesn't work too well

---

Windwalker pushes on with the day - The administrative option looks to at least have been successful. He'll try again when he next sees the Policeman.

Meanwhile, with Midori - the aim here is to impress her...so go slowly. +0 for Carouse +0 for INT +2 for Cautious.

The Sergeant has gone before you get the final papers for him from the Admin department - so you secure them in your desk and head off to meet Midori.

And how was your day with the police? she asks My day with the surveyors was slow. But we got them all sent out so there will be some of our own samples to test from mid-day tomorrow. They aren't happy at having their weeks work undone by a mad arsonist. I suppose you haven't found this idiot?

You break the news to her that all you really achieved today was to get the lab sorted and get lists of things to do.

And so you continue the evening talking about other stuff - The cheery news about the big shooting in Touchdown (that was the Other Sapphire, right?) and the fire; The story that Janni (one of the farmers from near the lab) drove his tractor into a marsh while drunk at the weekend and nearly drowned; What January is like.

The evening winds up with the promise of another evening

And so you retire to your own bed, alone.