CSI: Sharn (Help create 100 corpses)

[TheAuldGrump]

90. Two corpses are found, entwined in the tomb of one of the prominent dragonmarked houses. The younger, daughter of the house, was 14 at the time of her death, apparently by poisoning, a few days prior. However, she lies here, with a dagger wound through the stomach, and enough blood to indicate she was alive when stabbed. Her hands are on the hilt of the blade. Lying next to her is a young man, son of a rival house, whose face is ashen, and whose breath smells of almonds. A small bottle lies on the floor nearby.


(Gotta throw one out there for the Bard...)

jtb

Not gonna miss the young man, he was fat and scant of breath, now he's fat and really scant of breath.

91.) The two bodies are entwined as lovers, but tight ligatures upon their limbs and about their throats show that the embrace was not of their own choosing.

92.) The corpse is emaciated, and pale - seated in the lotus position, hands lying palms up. Beside the body are an untouched loaf of bread and a bottle of sweet wine, its stopper coated with an unbroken wax seal. A gentle smile adorns the cadaver's face, and a faint odor of uncooked dough rises from the flesh.

93.) The richly dressed body rests in a coffin, laid across two sawhorses. silver pieces weight down the eyelids and the odor of the corpse is masked with floral scents. Powdery makeup breaths false life into the face, while the smile is maintained with deft stitches at the corners of its mouth. Rings adorn two of the fingers, and a thin band of gold is placed above slightly pointed ears. The lid of the coffin rests against the wall, and it is obvious that there was intended to be a name plaque upon its surface, but only four freshly drilled holes remain.

The Auld Grump

 

[Whimsical]

Any DM who is running a CSI-style D&D campaign should get the d20 system sourcebook Crime & Punishment. Those who make a DC 15 Knowledge(RPGs) check will note that this book is written by Keith Baker who is also the creator of the Eberron campaign setting.

Coincidence? I THINK NOT!

 

[TheAuldGrump]

94.) It isn't the withered and decayed body that is so strange, dressed in its burial clothes, it is the young woman bearing the corpse upon her back, talking to it, and pausing as though listening to answers.

95.) The body is ancient, the skin leathery and hardened like wood. The corpse's jacket is stiched tight, and a wooden post rises from a laquered base through a long pouch sewn in the garment, holding the body stiffly upright. An ornate helmet masks the face, and beneath the scarlet jacket a polished breastplate gleams through the thick dust that coats the figure. The hands are clasped and wired around a candle holder, but the candle itself has softened through countless summers and hangs like icicles from the fingers. The thick dust obscures what might be a name plate upon the laquered stand.

The Auld Grump

 

[Stormrunner]

96) A hygiene inspection of a (magically-chilled) butcher's meat locker reveals a serious health infraction - dangling among the slaughtered cows, sheep, and pigs is the naked corpse of a female centaur, hung by her heels and gutted like a deer. The butcher loudly insists he knew nothing of this (and magic shows him truthful).

The centaur's face would be pretty, if it wasn't twisted in a rictus of agony and swollen with blood (lividity) from hanging upside-down. Her coloration is unusual - blood-bay hide (dark brownish-red, shading to black on hooves, hands, and face) and curly mane/tail of a fiery reddish-orange color (natural, not a dye) - perhaps there was a little bit of fire elemental in her bloodline? In short, in life she would have turned heads and drawn attention even if centaurs weren't a rarity in the city. Yet no-one remembers having seen her alive, and the gate guards have no record of her entering the city.

There is no blood on the floor, and no sign of what happened to the internal organs. From the trails of dried blood adhering to her flanks and the rope marks on her wrists and pasterns, she was spread-eagled on her back by ropes tied to her arms and legs, then disemboweled alive. Lividity of the face and upper torso (and lack of lividity elsewhere) shows that she was hung up within an hour of death. Rigor mortis has come and gone (the locker is not cold enough to freeze her solid), so she has been hanging there at least a day. Other than the rope burns and the huge gaping slash in her belly there are no recent wounds - it seems clear that disembowelment was the cause of death. There are a number of faint, long-healed scars scattered across her body - the kind of marks one tends to acquire in an active life of adventuring (or just surviving in the wilderness).

Curled around the outer edge of her left breast is a complex black tattoo. It radiates moderate Evocation magic - and strongly resembles a Least Dragonmark of Fire, but with subtle variations. Could this be a new type of dragonmark? Can centaurs even have dragonmarks? The manner of her death is strongly reminiscent of some kind of ritual sacrifice - but why leave the body where it was certain to be found eventually?

 

[Azzy42xy]

97) Elderly man, bright russet hair tied in large plate. A small silver symbol seems to be weilded to his neck. On closer examination of the symbol it will dissapear ( plane shift ) leaving a small gap in the mans neck. Left eye cut out and replaced with a silver orb. He carries no visible weapons. Clothes very normal - dark browns. On his back lies a basic map of the cosmos and planes. The only thing truely remarkable is a gauntlet of peculiar shape on his left hand. Clearly designed to carry a very non conventional weapon. Cause of death: Brain extraction , very bloody and messy.

 

[Imhotepthewise]

98. The corpse is a short human with an elaborate organ grinder. The organ grinder radiates magic if detected. If the organ handle is turned, the music causes the corpses "pet" to come out of the shadows and dance...

 

[Wraith Form]

I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. I apologize if I **BUMP**ped you...

(I have a gift for subtlety, what can I say?)

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

99. A thin trickle of liquid courses out of an alley and across the party's path. It is exactly like any of a hundred other such things the party has seen while walking the streets today except that every few seconds a bit of the liquid sparkles, as if a brilliant diamond had floated to the surface, caught the light, and receded. As the flow of water is no thicker than a few pieces of stacked paper, this is not likely to be literally true.

Should the party follow the trickle into the alley, they find that both it and the alley turn ninety degrees to the left a few paces in, and a further few paces beyond the turn is a body. The trickle appears to originate from a puddle of liquid surrounding the body.

The body, when examined, appears to be that of a human male of Karrnathi descent. His clothes - well made, but otherwise unremarkable - are soaking wet. If carefully examined, it can be determined that the poor man's back and chest are covered with lesions, which weep the same fluid. The fluid, if it is ingested or comes into contact with an open wound, inflicts a supernatural disease (Infection DC: Ingested or Injury 20; Incubation: 1d3 days; Damage: Con 1d4+1, make a second save or 1 point of damage is permanent drain, as slimy doom [SRD]).

The body and the fluid, if examined with Detect Magic, radiate a moderate aura of Necromancy. Likewise, anyone infected with the disease will radiate such an aura after one half of the incubation period. The area around the body will have a lingering aura of Transmutation for five minutes after the body is found: the remnants of the Greater Teleport spell which deposited the body here. There are, therefore, no readily visible tracks to follow to determine how the body got here.

 

[Gulla]

[There seems to be two 98, so then this should be 100, right?]

100. The pile of rubble is neatly placed on the rich carpet. The room seems otherwise neatly cleaned. It is not until you examine the pile closer you notice the top stone closer that you notice it is a stone head. Perfectly sculpted with a look of pure terror. And then it is quite obvious that this is a smashed statue of [important person], wh have been missing for a week.

Håkon

 

[Hand of Evil]

101. Shiny black swashbuckler boots, red suit with white fur trimming, button nose, rosey cheeks, a portly stout man or elf with a dwarf beard of snowy white, his sky sled in wreakage around him, packages of toys and other small items about. On the wall in bold letters, 'Save Santa a trip, be naughty'.

 

[Robbert Raets]

Some 'high' society murders.

102. As you enter the upscale appartment, you see a man's corpse lying in the middle of a well-decorated living room. The kitchen is off to the left. The corpse's face is covered by a pillow, which is pinned to his head with a crossbow bolt. Further investigation reveals the the dead man is a pale-skinned human with blond hair. He is grasping a Watch Inquisitive's badge, and doesn't have any tindertwigs on him.
The appartment belongs to a well-to-do half-elven lady of negotiable affection. She and her skycoach cab are missing.

103. As you enter the upscale appartment, you see a Goblin in a dress lying in the middle of a well-decorated living room. Further investigation reveals the Goblin to be male, and unmarked by violence or (obvious) poison. The appartment belongs to a single male scion of a Dragonmarked House....
A representative/spokesperson of said House is awaiting you as you leave the site of the murder....

 

[Wraith Form]

*Coughbumpcough*

 

[Wraith Form]

A quickie: Body found (I'll leave details up to you) on rooftop. Looks to be a few hours dead. No obvious cause of death.

If someone lays even the barest touch on the corpse, it literally dissolves into a liquified, runny mass of fluids and organs that seep down the roof and slides in a crimson smear down the side of the building.

Victim's clothes look utterly mundane. In hidden, padded pouch in left shoe there are 500 GP worth of small cut amber-colored gems. On a sheet of vellum in a belt-pouch, the words "SEA FLAT 7" appear written in Common on one side, and a scrawled handwritten message saying, "Thank you, and gods be with you--Varith" on the other. Also found in belt-pouch is a small, plain reed (flute-like instrument).

(DM: If the note C-flat is played 7 times consecutively, a magic mouth at the end of the reed appears and gives instructions for a mysterious midnight rendezvous with someone named Kellnor about "the goods". This meeting is days old, and the dead man already met with Kellnor [who won't be showing]. Kellnor may be found in Sharn. He is a little-known but powerful arms dealer, but doesn't know anything about the dead body...or why it liquified. Varith is a blacksmith in a town several miles away and knows equally little about the victim's condition. It's obvious that the blacksmith knew the victim, but he's not talking.)

 

[Sejs]

Powdery makeup breaths false life into the face, while the smile is maintained with deft stitches at the corners of its mouth.

Man, my compliments to the embalmer. A smile that looks even vaguely natural would be really tricky to pull off. Definitly a cool idea, though.

 

[Wraith Form]

92.) The corpse is emaciated, and pale - seated in the lotus position, hands lying palms up. Beside the body are an untouched loaf of bread and a bottle of sweet wine, its stopper coated with an unbroken wax seal. A gentle smile adorns the cadaver's face, and a faint odor of uncooked dough rises from the flesh.

Bastards.

They killed the Pilsbury Zen Boy! (pout)

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Man, my compliments to the embalmer. A smile that looks even vaguely natural would be really tricky to pull off. Definitly a cool idea, though.

Heh, notice I didn't say that you had to search for the stiches. More like a 'nice try' on the embalmer's part...

Bastards.

They killed the Pilsbury Zen Boy! (pout)

The corpse of someone who has died of starvation/dehydration is often described as having a 'doughy' odor.

Most of my descriptions are taken from real world analogs.

104.) At first they had thought the corpse to have been manufactured from paper mache for the funhouse, covered with bright orange wax and left hanging. It was only after the arm fell off, revealing the white knob of bone that it was realized that the carnival had a corpse on their hands, one that had been with the carnival at least since the current owner purchased it twenty years ago. Beneath the orange wax a hole can be made out, about the size of a crossbow bolt's head.

105.) Cause of death is pretty obvious in this case, the corpse is blackened from the fireball, and the remains of the wand still jut from his left nostril.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* And another odor item - it is possible to judge if a set of bones is recent (fifty years or less defining 'recent' in this case) by whether or not they have a tallow or suet smell.

 

[Wraith Form]

The corpse of someone who has died of starvation/dehydration is often described as having a 'doughy' odor.

Most of my descriptions are taken from real world analogs.

Aww. c'mon Grump--I was just playin'. No offense meant, just a little dumb humor!

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Sorry, I'd actually taken it as such, but what I was aiming at in the Pillsbury Zen Boy was suicide, not murder. (Yep, a real Zen ending for our beloved guru...) So I wanted to mention why the odor was there, not because I was in any way, shape, or form upset.

106.) A finger bone was caught in the lead drain trap. The bone is pitted, only the broad gold ring protected it from complete dissolution. A dark grey sludge nearly fills the trap, which is why a plumber had been called.

The Auld Grump, and some are specific cases...

 

[Wraith Form]

Is this thread dead now?

I want more..! Gimme gimme gimme!

Don't make me pout in order to get what I want...!

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

107: In an alley, beneath garbage and muck, lies the partially decomposed body of a goblin, dressed in typical rags. However, this goblin was garrotted, the barbed wire garrotte locked behind his neck and left behind, and the body carefully concealed. On the thick calloused soul of one foot is a tattoo of the silver flame. A Search Check (DC: 20) of the body reveals that the hands are extensively calloused like a monk's, and the body is ropy and with well defined musculature. Magic interroragation reveals nothing more than a black masked women whispering: "Mind your own business, meddler." and a speak with dead gains only the same voice and message. The goblins right hand has had all of the fingers broken, perhaps to have something removed from a death grip. There is also a fragment of crystal somehow merged with the skin of the goblin's forehead that refuses to come off and detects psionics only.