Subject was an older male, over 50 turns of age. Trauma sustained to the back of the head, as well as laceration to throad initially implied cause of death. Further inspection revealed additional cause of death in residual substance found in aesophagus, dialated pupils indicating the introduction of a toxic substance.

Hold Infirmary and Healer Hall
With a faint smell of redwort, the room is astonishingly clean, even for an infirmary. Recently made tapestries cover the outer wall of the cavern, protecting the patients from the weather outside. Shelves line two of the walls, with healing supplies neatly placed on the labeled slots. Cabinets are above them, where herbs and medicines are stored, a few with locks that only masters have access to. Cots line the remaining wall, with sheets that can be pulled around the bed for privacy or surgery. Glows are fastened everywhere, giving this room an intense brightness.
Obvious exits:
Healer Passage

Poirot
This was a small and fastidious man, once neatly attired, and perfectly coifed. He had even trimmed his impressive black mustache. Even his tirelessly manicured fingernails show what might easily be viewed as an unnatural attention to detail, but not anymore. Someone had crudely slit his throat.
A white sheet has been pulled over his head draping over his lifeless naked body. His hands are folded across his chest and most of the blood have cleaned off as he awaits interment.
Poirot wears the knot of a Harper Master.
He is an older adult of about 53. He is sleeping.

Jueann enters quietly and nervously, "I've come to collect Master Poirot so we can send it on it's way."

Alain has been washing his hands in redwort and carefully preparing for the examination. A set of plain cottong clothes cover his regular ones and he pulls on a cloth mask before pulling on a pair of gloves and heading toward the table with a nod to the Harper master and one to the Healer master. "Alright--I think we should start recording." he adds for the benefit of the harper acting as scribe.

Jueann takes out her notepad and makes starts to make notes. She doesn't mention that she's one of the suspects but she's an honest harper.

Master Bader looks sufficiently dower and serious for the ocassion, but as always, his eyes hide a deep spark of smothered mirth. Now however is not the time for laughter and jokes. Instead, he returns Sr. Apprentice Alain's nod and perches upon a nearby stool. Merely watchful.

Alain steps up next to the table and pulls the cloth down to the man's waist. His eyes scan the body first, and he begins speaking clearly enough so that those acting as scribes can hear. "Male, age...about fifty--maybe a little more, very slightly overweight, not unhealthily. Dark hair, below average height and moustached." He turns toward Jueann, "Master Jueann, can you identify this man--just for the record, please--before I begin the examination."

Jueann pales as she looks on the contenance of the dead man, "uhhh He was Master Poirot, formly of Fort Hall."

Jueann gives a start as Radel walks in. "Over here, Radel. Here. Start taking notes." Passing him the notepad and stylus.

Radel comes trotting in through the door from the main hall. No longer does he run out of breath running places. Probably because he still hasn't broken his habit of being late to every single place he has to be in the Harper Hall, which means he's running all day long. Skidding to a stop right at the doorframe he bow slightly then walk over to the couple by the autopsy table,"Hallo. I guess you already knew Master Liesana was sending me to help." Taking a position at Jueann's left shoulder he takes the notepad and stylus and gets ready to write.

Bader is taking his own notes, of course, not even necessairly those that the healer apprentice would take. He is looking for his own interest and curiousity as well as the scientific end of things. A slight nod is offered the entering harper. "Looks like you have him well trained, master Jueann." suggesting others might not be so.

Radel grins a bit, knowing that Master Jueann and Master LIesanna both would probably disagree with that, considering they haven't been able to break him of his lateness habit. Craning his neck too get a better look at the body on the table he lifts the notepad up a little to try and hide the grin.

Alain glances at Radel, looking a little unapproving for his slightly late entry, "Thank you for joining us Harper, please note that this is--or should I say was--Harper Master Poirot of Fort. I am Senior Apprentice Alain of the Healercraft, witnessing are Master Jueann of Harper and Master Bader of Healer." He leans forward--close to the body, and looks closely at his hair, face, skipping over his neck for the moment and looking at his chest, and pulling the sheets up, and then off his feet to the waist. Every inch of the body is carefully looked at, but not touched, Alain muttering as he does so. "Slight bruising on the jaw--to be expected if the attacker was holding the victem's head--no bruising on the lower body or arms..."

Jueann's face grows even more paler as she backs away from Alain, the body and away from Radel. She definitely isn't cut out for this type of harpering. She prefers her dry books and records. "he was found sitting slumped over the desk by me, there was no sigh of struggle."

Radel quietly nods to Alain, carefully avoiding smiling at his disapproving look by looking down at his notepad and starting to scribble. 'Autopsy: Former Master Harper Poirot of Fort. Witnesses: MasterHarper Jueann, MasterHealer Bader. Performing: Healer Senior App. Alain. Master Poirot (vistim) shows bruising around the jaw, possibly from his attackers hold. No other visible bruising on the arm or lower body.' His hand writting is neat and clear, even if it does wiggle up and down on the page a bit. As he write he continues to flit his eyes from the autopsy itself to the page to Master Jueann...

Alain moves the sheet back to it's former position covering the lower half of the Master's body, and moves to examine his neck. "Neck region: looks like a very clean wound--probably a blade--most likely a knife. The angle is at approximately...mm...ninety degrees to the skin of the throat--larynx severed...though it doesn't look extremely deep. He bled to death, it looks like. But the wound isn't too deep to have been made by a weak person--" Alain glances up, looking around the room before returning to his examination.

Master Bader mumbles .. "could be a healer's work, for the neatness.." but possibly not loud enough for any to hear. A flick of eyes to the Master harper. Her falling over could give rise to mirth.

Radel continues writing in his pad, making sure to keep an eye on the visibly pale Masterharper. 'Neck wound: clean, possibly inflicted by a knife. Shallow, cut the larynx at a 90 degree angle...' Here he stops and look up at Alain questioningly,"So, are you saying even a weaker person, like say a young woman, could have inflicted the knife wound?"

Jueann presses against a blank wall, as far away from the corpse as she can get. She really don't want to be here. Frowning at Radel, "you aren't to give out opinions Radel, not yet. Take your notes and make your observations and keep the opinions to yourself."

Radel frowns slightly and looks back at Master Jueann, nodding. "I'm sorry Master. I wasn't giving an opinion. I was actually trying to clarify what Senior Apprentice Alain said so it would be clear in my notes and not open to misinterpretations..."

Right, like anyone in the room is really going to believe that's /all/ he was doing. even if it /was/ part of the reason for the comment.

Alain frowns a little at Radel's question, not seeming to notice the dialogue between the two harpers, "Yes--it could possibly have been a slightly more blunt weapon, but a quick slash...but if the weapon was sharp...at least partly sharp, it could have been done by a fairly young person--maybe thirteen...fourteen years old with average arm strength." He continues to peer, "Interesting...looks like a little of the aesophagus was cut as well...some sort of residue..."

Jueann turns away from the scene, hiding her face. "Facts, we need facts and not theories. Speculations can be hashed out later with Liesana and Siallon. You are getting everyting done Radel? Liesana will be quizzing you later."

Radel returns to his notebad and starts scribbling at it again. 'Wound could have been made even by a young person of average strength, given a sharp weapon. Wound reachs slightly into the aesophagus.' Then he holds his stylus over the paper waiting to see is Alain is going to add anything else about the residue that might be in the wound. He takes the small chance to lean a bit closer to the body, trying to get a good look at the cut without getting in the way.

Radel nods, his eyes roving over the body Alain is working on as he answers Master Jueann without really turning to look at her this time, "Yes I am Master Jueann. Hopefully I'm gettin' all'a the fact, even while shortening notes so I can keep up without slowing the process down."

Jueann sighs and nods. "make sure Liesana and Sgt Siallon get a copy of your notes. Radel."

Radel takes a moment to turn around and make sure that Master Jueann is holding up relatively ok, using answering her as an excuse,"MAster Liesanna and Sgt. Siallon. I'll make sure of it Master."

Jueann is holding up very well and wishes this to be over. "Are we about done?'

Radel nods, his eyes roving over the body Alain is working on as he answers Master Jueann without really turning to look at her this time, "Yes I am Master Jueann. Hopefully I'm gettin' all'a the fact, even while shortening notes so I can keep up without slowing the process down."

Jueann sighs and nods. "make sure Liesana and Sgt Siallon get a copy of your notes. Radel."

Radel takes a moment to turn around and make sure that Master Jueann is holding up relatively ok, using answering her as an excuse,"MAster Liesanna and Sgt. Siallon. I'll make sure of it Master."

Jueann is holding up very well and wishes this to be over. "Are we about done

Alain raises an arm to indicate that Radel should stay back, and steps over to take a small instrument--a bit of wood similar to a tongue depressor--and prod lightly at the opening. "Looks like he had something to eat before he went down for his nap." Alain murmurs, grimacing a little and gathering some of the residue onto the end of the tool and turning to carefully deposit it in a jar and cover it. He turns back to the body, carefully shifting the man to his side and working his way along the back of the body. "No dorsal injuries...it was a pretty deliberate thing, it appears--a single laceration to the neck, bruising where the perpetrator would have stablized the head. I'll take a look at what ever it was he had to eat, but other than that--" he shifts the body back to it's back. "Master Bader, would you like to look at anything more closely?" the senior apprentice asks, opening first one of the man's eyelids, and then the other, and frowning. "Dialated pupils--that's odd--pupils tend to Constrict with hemmoriging."

Jueann makes a gagging sound at the mere thought of them examining his stomach and turns to face the wall.

Even Radel pales a little bit when Alain sticks the piece of wood into the wound to take out the residue found in there. Almost too quickly he looks down at his pad and starts scribbling again, taking a step back at the same time to make sure to stay out of the way. 'Residue found in the throat, probably food. No other wounds or bruising found on the rest of the body. Contents of digestive track pending further examination. Cause of death: Preliminary theory, bloodloss. Dialated pupils do not match the cause of death.' By the end of this bout of notes he's regained enough control to look back up at the body and the Healer working on it.

Alain glances toward Jueann, "Based on the coagulation around the wound, I'd say he's been deceased...what, three days? Three and a half--probably the evening before?" He turns back to the body, expecting confirmation and gently pulling the man's mouth open, "Hm...a little build up on teeth--did we have stew about four--" he breaks off, grimacing, "We did. Herdbeast, that would make sense." He feels around in the man's mouth a moment, then carefully closes it, reaching for another instrument to prod gently at the man's neck, then lets out a deep breath. "Well, I'll take a look at the residue that was in his throat tomorrow morning and let the Harpercraft know my conclusions--as well as the Healercraft."

Jueann sighs and nods as she listens but no longer watches. "yes if you please do that. Make sure there is an extra copy for Sgt Dashvard. or is it Sgt Siallion?" Rubbing her forehead, "Are you finished for now?"

Radel scribbles those last couple of details down,'Posible lunch of heardbeast stew, given residue founds in mouth and throat, unconclussive. Death is estimated at about days prior to the autopsy examination.' Turning his head around as he finishes that last paragraph he smiles at Master Jueann,"Sgt Siallion according to what you told me a while back Master."

Alain pulls the sheet back up and turns back toward the Harpers, carefully pulling his gloves off and setting them on the examination table before pulling his mask down. "For the moment. If the Harpers or guards know anything about cause of death, weapon, anything like that--anything that may even seem consequential--I'd appreciate being informed. It could influence my judgements--especially where it comes to force of attack--things like that."

Alain glances up and then snaps to attention, soldier-like, as Masterhealer Ageron steps into the room. "Masterhealer, sir." he offers the man a slight bow. "This is Harper Master Jueann, and Apprentice Radel. I was examining the Harper Master who..." he trails off, nodding toward the covered figure on the table.

Jueann sighs and turns around, peeking to see if the body is covered and gives a huge sigh of relief. "Radel, I'm going to assign you to write up your reports, passing them on the Liesana and the Guards..." Seeing the new master walk in, nods, "I am craftmaster Jueann. This is Radel, he's going to help record the rest of the healer findings for you."

Ageron is his usual pompous self as he strides in, looking quite important. His clothes are impeccable - rather odd, really, for a healer - and his knot hangs quite prominently on his shoulder. "Apprentice, apprentice.. I hear you've been busy," he begins, only to frown slightly at the introductions. "Jueann," he greets familiarly with obvious relish. "And.. apprentice. How goes the work then, eh? Finding.. much?" And he's not even started yet.

Radel turns slowly around to look first at Jueann then at the haughty MasterHealer that's just walked in. Courteously he bow to him when introductions are made but says nothing else.

Rubbing her forehead at the headache that's coming on. maybe it's all the healer smells, maybe it's because even in death, Poirot is still causing problems. "We are about done right?"

Alain nods, stepping aside to make way for the Masterhealer. "Yes sir. Laceration to the throat, dialated pupils...otherwise relatively free of markings." he sums up quickly, still standing at something very reminiscent of attention. He glances toward Morallen, offering him a stiff nod in the presence of the Masterhealer, and turning back to motion toward the body, "He's...well, it's a delicate matter, you know, sir."

"Ah," Ageron states knowingly, stroking at his chin in apparent thought as he circles the infirmary and stops to peer downward for a moment before looking back toward Alain. "And did you check the.. er.. gugnil area?" he asks before lifting a hand to wave it dismissively toward Jueanne, as if she were a mere apprentice herself. "Oh, we're done, we're quite done. Run along." Oh my.

Morallen appears a few moments behind the MasterHealer, slipping in silently in the wake of the chaos and nerves that seem to follow the scraggly man like a pet cloud. An eyebrow lifts at the tone the man takes with Harper Jueann, and the lanky apprentice simply settles for giving Alain a nod and picking up a tray of instruments to clean.

Alain leans forward, as well, then blinks at Ageron in surprise, "I beg your pardon. The...-what- region, sir?" He half-gapes at the man a moment, then clears his throat. "The aesophagus was incised, as you see, and the bruising is light--indicating it was just prior to death--" and he promptly pulls the sheet back to the body's mid-chest.

Jueann makes a gagging noise and runs out of the Infirmary. Healers they dissect bodies as harpers dissect music.

Radel opens his notepad again and writes a little extra snippet on a new page. 'Ask about the examination suggested by Master Ageron (pompous one): Gugnil area? Look up word.' As he writes he's careful to do so in a way that its not possible for those standing in front of him, which includes all the new arrivals, to read what he's writing..

Ageron glances absently back down at what /was/ a covered body - and promptly blanches and take a swift step backward as he notices that the sheet's been pulled back again. What? Surely the Masterhealer isn't thrown off by a bit of blood and the sight of a dead body? "The... er.. gunist area," he repeats... kinda. "Did you check it? Er.. bruising or.. er... discoloration. Can mean many things." And then he fixes a Look on Alain that states quite clearly that the apprentice had better have checked it - whatever it is.

Alain gapes a moment, and sputters, "Sir, I'm...I'm sure I did. I checked everything usually looked over in a proceedure such as this." He peers a the man a moment, "If you'd like to take a further inspection we could find some robes and a scalpel and some gloves...I wasn't going to attempt an internal inspection, but if you'd like to conduct one, of course I wouldn't object."

"Something the matter, Master Ageron?" is Morallen's query as Ageron pales, schooled to be almost bland as the senior apprentice tries desperately to keep any of his usual smirking tone out of his voice. He steps forwards a little, then draws back as the man seems to be all right, mouthing over to Alain 'gunist area...?'

Radel arches an eyebrow at the MasterHealer's reaction to the body and starts to take notes again. 'MasterHealer Ageron... recoils from a dead body? Spotless clothing?' Again he's careful to keep his notes away from prying eyes, especially since he /was/ told to limit himself to making factualy notes on the autopsy.

"No, no, apprentice, I'm sure you did.. I'm sure that's just fine," Ageron continues just a tad too hastily as he brushes perfectly-clean hands against perfectly-clean trousers, as if he's contaminated himself merely by looking. A deep breath regains his composure, and he manages to offer a distinctly condenscending look to Morallen. "Nothing at all, apprentice. Not a thing. I was merely wondering, you see, if one of you were free..." Ah. Evidently he had a reason for barging in here and babbling about gungal areas. Or gungist. Or something.

Alain shakes his head almost imperceptably at Morallen to indicate his loss, and looks back to the Masterhealer. "Well, sir, I was going to go ahead and clean up the...er...deceased. Before the ceremony, you know. But if you'd like to...well...watch until I'm done, I'd be glad to help with anything you need." He shoots a tiny glance toward Morallen before looking back to the Masterhealer.

"I'm not a cause-of-death specialist, sir," replies Morallen, weighing the benefits of Ageron's company over a bloody corpse's. Ageron wins... narrowly. "If you need any assistance, I'd be glad to be of service," he comments glibly, old Fort training coming in handy. Unspoken is the thought that it might give Alain a break.

Radel keeps quiet and unobstrusively starts backing up so that he's even further out of the healers' line of sight. This Master Ageron is an intruging man and he wants to see what else happens with him and Master Poirot's corpse.

Him and Master Poirot's corpse? As little as possible, thank you. Ageron is now safely on the other side of the infirmary, and his gaze locks on one person at a time, without much wandering to places where he might see a little more blood - or dead bodies - than he cares to. "Nonono," the Masterhealer denies quickly with a shakes of his head toward Alain. "You will do.. you will do nicely, apprentice." That, of course, to Morallen. "I've another suit of clothes due to be picked up, you see, from the Weavers, and I need someone to stop by and see if they've finished." And isn't that what Healer Apprentices are for?

Alain pulls a face at Morallen behind the Masterhealer's back and straightens immediately, leaving no hint of the expression in it's wake. He turns toward the Harper, "Maybe you wouldn't mind giving me a hand getting out of my clothes?" he asks cheerfully and completely seriously.

Morallen is about to manufacture another faultlessly-polite and utterly-inane reply to the MasterHealer when Alain's 'innocent' query sets the tall young man to coughing. After a moment he manages a reasonable smirk and the glib reply of "I'm afraid you'd have better luck asking my sister..." before turning to Agaron. "Clothes? Er... can you describe them, sir, so's I know what they look like?"

Radel arches an eyebrow ever so slightly at Alain's suggestion then give him a friendly, if cryptic smile and shakes his head,"Regretfully I must get back to the Harper hall and start transcribin' all these notes so that I can send them to all the people I was charged with sendin' them to. But I'm sure if you wash your hands well enough before you take them off you won't ruin them." He slowly closes his notepad and starts to slowly makes his way out of the room, playing dumb about the insinuations Alain is throwing his way,"Please do tell me when you finish analyzing what the deceased had in'is stomach. And I would like to attend any other examinations done on the body to take down further notes on the findin's."

Alain sighs and shakes his head, "Faranth, I'll be stuck in these rotten robes all night." The words are murmured as Alain reaches behind his back, trying to reach the ties that keep the plain cotton clothes on over his regular ones--it really wasn't as suggestive as it sounded.

If Ageron were /really/ a Healer Master. Alain's innocent suggestion would probably have gotten a sharp glance. As it is, he simply frowns at Morallen and swells his chest up importantly. "Tell them you've come from the Masterhealer, my boy. They'll know! They'll know me!" Probably because he's ordered more than his fair share of clothes from them, of late, all ridiculously fancy and expensive.

Ok, so this time Radel doesn't even try to hide the arch of the eyebrow and the disapproving look he gives the 'MasterHealer'. It all probably stems from the shameless way the man seems to be using apprentices as drudges...

Radel Stops at the door to the room and looks back around at the gathered Healers in general and at Alain in specific before speaking,"Anything else I should include in my notes before I leae or are we done with this session? By the way, do the size of the bruises give any indication of the possible size and or sex of the culprit?"

Alain sets to cleaning up, replying, "Nothing else you should add--and the bruises are too light--they wouldn't have had long to form. We could guess about how far of a stretch the fingers of the culprit could make--excepting that there's no guarantee the their fingers would have been spread out. The coagulation is what formed the bruises in the first place--there's really no way to tell the amount of force used." After explaining, he returns to his job until the others have either filtered out or gone about their own business. Once the infirmary is tidy, he draws curtains around the table, careful that the sheet is up, and gathers his jar, heading off out the door.

Radel nods to Alain and then bows to the various Masters in the room,"Thank you for your help, one and all. I will make sure to send a copy of the edited notes to the Healer Hall also." With that, unless someone stops him, he turns around and heads out to see if Master Jueann has left without him or not.