Survey team's field notes¶

The survey team's field notes are the journal and contact list that the missing EPA/USGS survey team left behind at their lodgings in Marblehead, Massachusetts, and which the task force uses to start its investigation of the town.


Type	Item (document)
Aliases	Survey field journal; previous team's field notes; field journal
Holder	The task force
Origin	Left among the survey team's belongings at the Ram and Arms Inn
First appearance	Radford Horror 08

Description¶

The notes are a field journal, mostly empty but with a few entries, kept by the previous team of investigators, together with a list of local contacts and their phone numbers. The team were an EPA/USGS survey party sent to check Marblehead after the explosion (see EPA/USGS survey team). The journal turns up among the team's abandoned belongings: suitcases, clothes, IDs, technical manuals, chemical sampling equipment and several wallets. (Radford Horror 08)

Not the lighthouse notebook

A second, EPA-branded notebook is found later in the lighthouse basement. It is a separate item; see EPA field journal.

Contents¶

The explosion came from the ocean. The team tested some of the locals for gas poisoning and found no sign of carbon monoxide or methane. What they found instead was closer to mild nerve agent poisoning, with shakes, lightheadedness, digestive trouble, headache, restlessness and dizziness. (Radford Horror 08) This is the first hint of the synthetic nerve agent.
The last entry says the team wanted to talk to the town leadership about possibly evacuating the town until the cause was known. No later entries follow. (Radford Horror 08)
The contact list names the Cartwright family, Ma Gramoire, Lana (Lena) Scott and Denver O'Donnell, each with a phone number. Andre gives the name as "Lana Scott"; Dante calls her Lena. (Summer Service 01)

History¶

The innkeeper at the Ram and Arms agrees to send the survey team's belongings up once the task force explains that they are from the government. Dante helps him haul up a large cardboard box, and the group unpack it in Andrew's room. A successful Investigate a Mystery roll ("what happened here") turns up the journal, and the episode ends on its contents. (Radford Horror 08)

At the start of Summer Service 01 the team go over the notes in their motel room. Andre summarizes them for Zack: the team interviewed people who had symptoms after the explosion, found the symptoms inconsistent with natural gas poisoning, and planned to meet town leaders. Zack, whose character Huell lost his own notes in an earlier case, says he wants to keep better notes this time. Dante proposes working the contact list first, and the list becomes the task force's first set of leads. Kurt phones Ma Gramoire, who hangs up as soon as he mentions the FBI. (Summer Service 01)

The second notebook, found in the lighthouse in Summer Service 03, completes the story: it records that the team went before the Board of Selectmen, were threatened by senior town officials and the mayor, and then set out for the lighthouse on a local's advice. (Summer Service 03)

Trivia¶

The two briefings of the same journal differ on one point: Radford Horror 08 has the team planning to raise an evacuation with the town leaders, while Summer Service 01 only says they were going to meet the leaders to find out what was going on.
The timeline of the explosion differs between episodes; see The Marblehead explosion.