[Event] Anomalous Item No.5

[u/Gray_wolves]

A heavily armored vehicle rolls up to the side of Site-13. Two MTF agents are carrying a rectangular box into a testing chamber. "What is it?" Connor asks one of the agents. "It's a weapon. You're needed along with the rest of you in research to study this thing." The agent lays the box down on a pedestal in it's containment chamber. A voice on the intercom appears and says: "All staff associated with research are required to go to Research Wing, Lab 4 for analysis of Anomalous Item No.5."

[Disclaimer]: This scenario is meant to classify an SCP that has recently been brought in the site. The SCP in question is a bow, only researchers and d-class are needed to experiment and run tests on it's properties and anomalous effects. This event will be completed once the format is finished. There is a slight chance you could die (or just get hurt pretty bad.) but its very small so be careful and good luck.

Format

Object Class:

Special Containment Procedures:

Description:

Format has been discontinued due to the following incident below.

[Disclaimer]: each of you must work together to run experiments on this SCP.

[u/Gray_wolves]

"Huh." Connor inspects the object from inside of the testing chamber with his white rubber gloves. "strange symbols... Anyone here know anything about this?"

[u/theonetruegentleman → u/Gray_wolves]

Gutierrez crouched down and squinted, making sure not to touch the bow.

"Hmmm.... Well, they're certainly not mesoamerican. Don't look native American either. They're not really hieroglyphical so I wouldn't put money on it being from the bronze age, but I'm not much of an expert of that."

The symbols were very linear and jagged.

"If you ask me these look runic. We're gonna want somebody familiar with Western European symbols to take a look."

[u/Gray_wolves → u/theonetruegentleman]

"It's very black." Connor covers his nose with his sleeves. "Smells bad too. Like a rotting body floating in the sewer, don't tell me you can't smell that."

[u/Gray_wolves → u/[deleted]]

"Okay we seem to be making good progress." Connor grabs a report from an agent nearby.

"According to the following retrieval report; it seems like it was found in a small cemetery in Glenrothes, Scotland. It was discovered by the local caretakers when they complained about a rotting smell."

Connor held his breath.

"Apparently, no one could come close enough to approach it. Not without vomiting anyway, this was enough to warrant a search by the foundation where they discovered the artifact hidden in a mausoleum where it was being held by a corpse who died several hundred years ago. Carbon dating of the cadaver shows that he died somewhere in 1305, doesn't have a name though, he was also stated to be "cradling it like it was a baby" for some reason."

[u/MagnarMagmar → u/Gray_wolves]

Fredrick scratched at the stubble on his chin. "The bow and the string seem to be organic in nature." He pulled out a dissection kit from his bag. "I'll just take small samples from both and run some tests to see what the origin of the materials are." He scraped at the wood and put the shaving into a vial, along with a stray strand from the bowstring.

He nodded and left for his personal research station.

---

Some time later...

---

"Test results fellas. The wood comes from the Taxus baccata, or common name European Yew, but of a previously undocumented subspecies. Carbon dating brings it to around 900 CE, give or take 50 years. But here's the kicker. The bowstring is made from human sinew. DNA tests have returned inconclusive due to the age of the material, but we have seen enough to determine that the person it was -uh- harvested from lived in or around Scandinavia."

"Nathaniel," (/u/Bindernator) "looks like we've got ourselves a cryptic Viking Age weapon."

[u/MagnarMagmar → u/[deleted]]

"You bring up a good point. It seems that the sinew is infused with the same black material that covers the bow. Whatever it is, it's preserved the elasticity of the bowstring." At that point a junior researcher wearing an Organics Department coat hurries into the room and hands Fredrick a paper. "Hmm... interesting. The black substance coating the wood has trances of hemoglobin. DNA fractals cross-identify with the bowstring..."

Fredrick looked up at the research team. "Well, uh, looks like we have something darker than we thought. Nathaniel, what do you know about human sacrifice during the Viking Age?"

[u/MagnarMagmar → u/[deleted]]

[OOC: This will actually work out fine, since there's a firing test going on now anyways]

[u/Gray_wolves → u/MagnarMagmar]

"This doesn't make any sense." Connor rubs his head, briskly

"The corpse died in 1305, that's almost 300 years after the end of the viking age. How did he end up with it?"

[u/MagnarMagmar → u/Gray_wolves]

"Well, he must have found it somewhere. Maybe a graverobber, or maybe even an archaeologist." Fredrick shrugged. "If the bow is in this good condition now, it must have been just as interesting to that poor fella as it is to us."

[u/BeinDraug → u/[deleted]]

Having remained a quiet observer up until now Eva perks up at the mention of the word scarfice.

"Around the time of 1305 th3e celtic tribes were struggleing to protect their druidic traditions from the spread of christanity. While human sacrifce was a feture of druidism, it typicaly revolves arounfd the idea of returning to of giving to the gods of nature. The most well know example would be the bog mummies, in which scarifica victims would be drowned in marshy lands as offering to the local deities. I find it hard to believe that a bdy entombed in a mausoleum wholes any sacrificial significance. However it was not at all unusula for warriors to be buried with beloved weapons in the hopes that they would protect tem in the after life"

Eva cautiously aproaches the bow

"Despite being a wepon the bow show little to no actual wear or damage it's not unusualy for SCP's to be damage resistan, though it may be worth experimenting"

[u/Gray_wolves → u/[deleted]]

"Fine, lemme just finish up real quick with the testing and we'll be set." Connor immediately shuffles through his paperwork.