The Nightingale

Channel 6: Six o’clock Evening News Channel.

The Story

A serial killer has been born making Martha Garbles the killer’s fifth victim. The media and police are referring to the killer as The Nightingale because with every victim is a single tail-feather from the nightingale bird. It is commonly in the hands of the corpse. Police have discovered his patterns to be almost elementary. However, the identity of the suspect is still unknown. The targets are always the same, female nurses around the age of 25 and 30 the killer kidnaps them while they are off-duty and places the body near a busy street or district three days later. In the victim’s left hand is a tail-feather from the bird known as the nightingale however the feather is coated with Rafflesia* pollen, a plant from Asia that has the smell of rotting flesh. The city of Old Hamberg is under high alert with curfews being enforced strongly. The hospitals are panicked as nurses’ fear for their lives with each waking day. Will you be the heroes who solve the crime? Or another victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time?

The Setting

The story will take place in the modern age society (think our time, technology and science). This is a realistic modern role-play so no super powers or super human strength. The main setting will take place in Old Hamberg the city of where the majority of murders are being committed. The neighboring cities have also had their share of the murders, but investigators have narrowed down the possibility of The Nightingale residing in Old Hamberg.

The Victims

Elisa Scurmdoldt – Physical Description: Picture

Age: 25

Time of Discovery: December 31st 16:00 (4:00 PM)

Time of Death: 00:24 (12:24 AM) December 28th

Cause of Death: Fractured skull, punctured liver, punctured kidney.

Police Report: Elisa Scurmdoldt was found in a dumpster near Humberg Central at 16:00. Jake Scurmdoldt, her brother found the victim’s arm hanging out from the dumpster with a bird’s tail-feather sewn on her left hand. The suspect is unknown, no finger-prints or DNA samples were found with the body. No finger-prints or DNA analysis on the tail-feather that was found with the victim however contained Rafflesia* pollen which gave the feather an unusual odor. Time of death estimated 00:24 (12:24 AM) on December 31st. She worked at Humberg Central Hospital and was a nurse stationed with Doctor Rosery. She was announced dismissed at 23:30 (11:30 PM) on December 28th and did not report back in the next day. A missing persons report was filed December 29th by Jake Scurmdoldt. No further information acquired.
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Alex Kirst -- Physical Description: Picture

Age: 30

Time of Discovery: March 6th 18:00 (6:00 PM)

Time of Death: 00:10 (12:10 AM) March 3rd

Cause of Death: Punctured heart

Police Report: Alex Kirst is the second nurse murdered. Her body was found at the Old Humberg National Park on a park bench. Her eyes were wide open while her mouth was formed in a distasteful manner, as if she was screaming but the sound never came out. An identical feather was found in her front sleeve pocket with the same putrid odor that was on a previous feather. No DNA or finger-prints were found with the victim or on the feather. The suspect remains unidentified. Time of death estimated 00:10 (12:10 AM) on March 3rd. Alex worked at Humberg Central Hospital and was a nurse with the same doctor, Doctor Rosery. She was announced dismissed at 18:30 (6:30 PM) on March 3rd and did not arrive into work the next day. A missing persons report was filed March 4th by Robert Rosery. Investigators are to suspect and interrogate Robert Rosery for the missing people’s case of Alex Kirst and Elisa Scurmdoldt.
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Kelly Clements – Physical Description: Picture

Age: 27

Time of Discovery: May 13th 15:15 (3:15 PM)

Time of Death: May 10th 22:45 (11:45 PM)

Cause of Death: Blood loss due to knife punctures.

Police Report: Kelly Clements is the third victim murdered. Her body was found at Old Humberg Lake near the north shore. Her clothes were torn and stained with blood due to the numerous amounts of cuts on her body. The tail-feather which has been identified as a nightingale’s tail-feather was found held by the victim’s left hand. The tail-feather contained the Rafflesia pollen that coated over the ruffles. DNA and finger-prints were absent on the victim’s body and the feather. Time of death estimated 22:45 (11:45 PM) on May 13th. Kelly Clements was another nurse working under Doctor Rosery. She was announced dismissed at 22:45 (10:45 PM) on May 10th and was absent for the next day of work. A missing person report was filed by Charles Clements, her biological father, on May 11th. Suspect has been narrowed down to Robert Rosery, investigators are to arrest Rosery for further interrogation.
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Elenor Hanson – Physical Description: Picture

Age: 25

Time of Discovery: July 20th 16:11 (4:11 PM)

Time of Death: July 17th 21:05 (9:05 PM)

Cause of Death: Internal bleeding

Police Report: Elenor Hanson is the fourth nurse murdered. Her body was located near Highway 7 in a ditch located near the road. Her clothes were absent and not found near the body. The nightingale tail-feather was found on the victim’s left hand. The signature pollen was present as well. Any sign of finger-print analysis and DNA identification was absent. Time of death estimated 21:05 (9:05 PM) on July 17th. Elenor Hanson was the replacement nurse for Kelly Clements working under Doctor Robert Rosery. She was announced dismissed at 13:10 (1:10 PM) on July 17th and did not come to work the next day. A missing person report was filed by Kelly Hanson, her biological mother on July 19th. Robert Rosery has also been filed missing after release of custody. All officers are to search for Robert Rosery and detain him in the detention center when found. Doctor Robert Rosery is our prime suspect.
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Character Skeleton

Character Name:
Age [Minimum age of 18]:
Height / Weight:
Gender:
Occupation:
Appearance [Pictures may be acceptable] [However give good one or two paragraphs describing your character.]:
Personality [Include Likes / Dislikes]:
Connection with ‘The Nightingale’: [Ex: Police detective working the case, nurse fearing for her life, husband to a murdered spouse, be creative]
Biography [Define your character, what have they done up to this point?]:

The Rules

Rules:
1. No God-moding (I think this is almost a brain-dead rule, however some do like their character being flawless.)
2. Literacy; Please post at least a paragraph per post and check grammar and spelling mistakes. We all make them; however re-reading posts in never a bad thing.
3. Mature Audiences; this is a world of fantasy and creation, I would not like to restrict posts and graphic situations, however if there is a time where romance interests are involved, please send it via PMs for the curtsy of others.
4. Absents; be sure to inform myself or other role-players if you are going to be absent for a long period of time (3 days or more) so that the role-players can continue without you. I'd like to keep things organized so certain players do not jump ahead of others.
5. Respect; Respect others. Role-playing is meant for creativity and fun. If you cannot respect fellow role-players I will kill
6. Do not kill off another's character unless given permission to. I'd like to keep this a good aligned RP. However some occurrences and tensions might form with player characters.
7. No meta-gaming; definition of meta-gaming – meta-gaming often refers to having a character act on knowledge that only the player has access to (such as tricking a medusa to stare at a mirror when the character has never even heard of medusas and should not be aware of their petrifying stare).

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*Rafflesia - A flower commonly grown in Asia. The pollen has a similar odor of a rotting carcass. If you are unsure of what it looks like and do not care enough to google an image, it looks like a Vileplume from pokemon.

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I will be adding Main Plot characters, Minor Plot characters as the story progresses below.

Character Name: Jonathon Hamilton

Age [Minimum age of 18]: 39

Height / Weight: [Tall/Slim]

Gender: Male

Occupation: Writer

Appearance [Pictures may be acceptable] [However give good one or two paragraphs describing your character.]: Jonathon is a tall and extremely thin man. His pale skin gives him an almost sickly appearance gained from spending little time in natural light, and is well known for being an obsessive worker. He has a messy bush of blond hair atop his head and a fringe that just reaches his tired, green eyes. To the side of his mouth is a small scar that reaches from the edge of the mouth to nearly an inch towards the left cheek. He often wears a white shirt and tan brown trousers with black shoes.

Personality [Include Likes / Dislikes]: [Can't I just show this through posting? I find it much easier that way...]

Connection with ‘The Nightingale’: Is fascinated by the murders and the serial killer. He wishes to base a new novel off of them, but in order to do that, he must first understand the puzzle that is the Nightingale case.

Biography [Define your character, what have they done up to this point?]: Jonathon used to be a journalist but quick after 5 years due to the amount of stress the work entailed and the utter disgusting behavior of the public towards members of the press. [He was often reporting crimes, and scandals.]
When he left his job he had little to do, and found it hard to find any real work that involved his love of writing about people that wasn't journalism. He decided that he would try to write a novel about a woman and an estranged stalker. When it was published it didn't make much money until nearly a year later. He became a recognised name, and fell into the world of Horror Fiction. To date he has done only one interview and that was with a talkshow host. Many internet comments about his ill-looking appearance left him self-conscious so he rarely talks to people offering interviews.
When someone on his street fell victim to the Nightingale he started to look more into the case. There was little he could find out, and the less information he could find, the more determined he became to unravel the mystery. He wishes to base a new book about a killer based off of the Nightingale murderer, but first he must find out everything he can about him, most importantly, he wants to know the identity of the killer.

Looks awesome RZ.Rob. I think I'll be joining =D. I'll try get my sheet up later today but not feeling all that good so it might end up been tomorrow.

@ Moonman - Character is nicely arranged, it will be an interesting turn out in the end. I place the personality in the character skeleton just as a personal benefit for me, knowing what type of characters are involved in the roleplay. Is he Brash? Reckless? Spiteful? Lazy? In terms of this roleplay, your character's personality is the key to making this a successful one.

@ Crim, I'm glad you'll be joining us mate :) Can't wait to see what character you dish up.

Character Name: Dr. Melanie Hart

Age: 28

Height / Weight: 5’3” 115 pounds.

Gender: Female

Occupation: Medical/Crime Scene Examiner

Appearance: Lanie is naturally rather petite; boney and small it seems almost as though the slightest of winds could knock her off her feet. Her intense pure blue eyes gleam with intelligence and seem to analyze even the slightest of things around her from behind a pair of black rimmed glasses that she wears as opposed to contacts. She normally keeps her medium length light brown curls up and out of her face, as it is unruly and hard to manage when left down.

When investigating a body at a crime scene she’ll often wear a dress suit of some sort, and while working in the lab is never seen out of her white lab coat. Her overall appearance seems effortless, while she maintains a professional and pulled together look she is rather low maintenance when it comes to such things like make-up, dressing up and cosmetics…After all, she works with dead people, she doesn’t really have anyone to impress.


Personality: Lanie has a cynical sense of humor, though it’s necessary in her line of work. To be successful in her profession she needs to be thick skinned and even a little compassionless at times; while cutting open someone’s dead body might seem wrong sometimes it was the only way to find out what truly happened to them and she was willing to push her morals, or lack of, aside and get the job done. She is a very blunt, and to the point kind of woman sometimes a little too much so. Her hardy and tough persona often takes a hit on her personal life and showing affection has never been a strong point for her. Aside from that she is friendly for the most part and extremely laid back.

She dislikes people questioning her opinion, and often takes ‘constructive criticism’ to heart more than she should. She also really can’t stand to be referred to as a doctor; it’s not a title she flashes around except when on the job. She enjoys her time off, spending it peacefully and usually quietly at home…her job is stressful enough, she could use any time to relax she could get.

Connection with ‘The Nightingale’: Melanie has been working on the case of the ‘Nightingale Killer’. She is still a young and inexperienced Medical examiner, however already holds a prestige in her line of work and has been the first to examine the past two victims of the case…It’s only left her stumped, and extremely frustrated.

Biography: Lanie was born to a father who was a surgeon and a mother who was a school teacher. She had a rather pleasant childhood and her early years were full of love and being doted upon. She was her parents only child and her mother could have no more children so at times she could have even considered herself spoiled by them. She went to school and was an average student graduating high school and moving along to university soon after. While she was away at school her parents would call every night to check in and fill her in on their daily activities…it was a routine she’d grown to love, even when her mother’s chatter grew tiring.

When Lanie realized her parents hadn’t called to tell her about their weekend vacation they’d took she grew concerned. It wasn’t like them to not get a hold of her and they wouldn’t pick up their phones when she called them. It wasn’t until the next day that she got the call stating that her parents had been mugged and killed while away and that she needed to identify their bodies…They never found the person who killed her parents, or even her father’s wallet or ID. It was the most life changing moment for her, a moment where she had no doubt what she wanted to devote her life to. She wanted to help family members, like herself, see justice and get an answer for what happened to the one whom they loved. She was never lucky enough to get answers, and she didn’t want anyone to have to suffer through the same constant wondering…

Looks good Kay, glad you'll be joining us. I will post the IC once we have 2 more characters or so.

^ Okay great! Looking forward to this...I was just watching Law and Order and it got me more excited for it. :]