Dead Border Gameplay

Everything is in order in the room, except for the body on the tarpaulin. There doesn't appear to have been a fight and Karabekian sees no signs of forced entry. The furniture is upright and there are no bloody footprints. The only unusual trappings sit on the floor, in front of the corpse on the tarp: a piece of blood-stained paper lies between two black candles, which have both burned down to their stubs.

Inside the room, going clockwise from the doorway, are: a wardrobe, bed, nightstand with lamp, an ornate bookcase that divides the room into two living areas, a window, a small table set in the corner (with two chairs and another lamp), a fancy upholstered chair, overhead cabinets built into one of the walls, and another table along the wall to the left of the door.

Karabekian carefully steps on the tarp, trying not to step on the blood, to look at the body more closely. Gardiner appears dead and touching the body confirms it. Crouching, he looks to ascertain cause of death.

A note on skill rolls
All skill rolls have Regular, Hard, and Extreme difficulties - indicated by the numbers on each skill on your sheet.

If a roll is failed, that player has a choice:

• They can push the roll (perhaps taking more time to undertake the task—justifying another attempt); although if they fail a pushed roll the outcome will be worse (e.g. they could end up getting covered in blood, and so on).
• They can use Luck points to adjust the die roll to make it a success but they cannot use Luck points to adjust a pushed roll.

Larry and the old man Valentin examine the large table by the door. There are piles of organized correspondance and an attractive wooden holder for paper, pens and some envelopes. A man's hat sits on the corner of the table. Larry, being first in, grabs the top two letters and starts to read, while Valentin examines the rest.

Karabekian examines the body. There is a deep cut, freshly made, around the head, as if a knife has traced a spiral from the crown to neck.

His clothes are blood-soaked. As his shirt is unbuttoned, you see strange marks on his chest.

The blood is dry, suggesting all this took place some days ago.

The wounds on the head and neck are deep and appear to have been hastily made. Blood loss was severe and inevitably fatal once the neck was slashed. The older scars on his body, arms and legs appear to have been made over the course of some months (some are fresher than other)