CSI: Sharn (Help create 100 corpses)

[TheAuldGrump]

139. The woman's body is undeniably dead, flies gather in her eyes, and have laid their eggs in her mouth. Yet the chest still rises and falls as though with breath, and her abdomen swells in pregnancy for a child not yet born....

140. This is the fourth body found, the wrists and ankles nailed to the walls of the basement with crude spikes, the number 5 carved in its forehead. The previous bodies bore the numbers 1, 2, and 4. Is there a yet undiscovered corpse?

The Auld Grump

 

[Agent Oracle]

141. The smell of alcohol hangs heavy in the air around this corpse. The body is of a human male, somewhere between forty and fifty years in age, though highly bloated and decomposed. Nearby is a freshly opened barrel of rum.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

141. The smell of alcohol hangs heavy in the air around this corpse. The body is of a human male, somewhere between forty and fifty years in age, though highly bloated and decomposed. Nearby is a freshly opened barrel of rum.

Admiral Lord Nelson I presume?

142. The skin has has been stretched tight against the wall, held in place by hundreds of small brass nails. A Dragonmark is centered on the back, but no one can recognize its origin... No sign of the body it was stripped from has yet been found, though the fairness of the coloring would indicate that it was taken from an elf.

The Auld Grump

 

[Agent Oracle]

Admiral Lord Nelson I presume?

Actually, it's based on a Bavarian Tourist who died on vacation in Jamaca, and then his corpse went missing. Ten years later, some Hungarian laborers were kicking back after a hard day of working, and one of them cracks open an aged cask of rum. Guess where the tourist's body had gone The story is true, but it's about fifteen or so years old. You see, the family of the deceased was very poor, and they couldn't afford a burial in the tropics, nor could they afford to send him home legally, so instead, they packed his corpse in a barrel of alcohol, and shipped him home air-freight. But the barrel never made it home. I just felt really, really sorry for the workers, since they had drank quite a bit of the rum before they found the body inside ~

143. This disturbingly fresh skeleton was tied to a crudely-made torture rack. It's joints are still held together by cartilage and some ligaments, but almost everything has been torn off the bone by animals. The tattered rags of clothing it wears indicate that the victim was female, or else a man in woman's clothing. when there's this little left to work with, it takes some deeper study to determine what occured,

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Actually, it's based on a Bavarian Tourist who died on vacation in Jamaca, and then his corpse went missing. Ten years later, some Hungarian laborers were kicking back after a hard day of working, and one of them cracks open an aged cask of rum. Guess where the tourist's body had gone The story is true, but it's about fifteen or so years old. You see, the family of the deceased was very poor, and they couldn't afford a burial in the tropics, nor could they afford to send him home legally, so instead, they packed his corpse in a barrel of alcohol, and shipped him home air-freight. But the barrel never made it home. I just felt really, really sorry for the workers, since they had drank quite a bit of the rum before they found the body inside ~

143. This disturbingly fresh skeleton was tied to a crudely-made torture rack. It's joints are still held together by cartilage and some ligaments, but almost everything has been torn off the bone by animals. The tattered rags of clothing it wears indicate that the victim was female, or else a man in woman's clothing. when there's this little left to work with, it takes some deeper study to determine what occured,

Heh, you may want to look up what happened to Lord Nelson as well then...

144. The corpse is sitting at a small table in one of Sharn's gardens. A lit cigar smolders in a tray that rests beside a sumptious meal. Fine brandy has been poured into a cut crystal snifter, lightly held between his stiff fingers. Four other settings are at the table, the meals consumed, the cigars smoked, and the glasses empty. The corpse itself seems strangely... satisfied, smiling gently, eyes closed. Though the cigar still smokes, and the food is still warm the corpse is cool to the touch. [Going away party.]

The Auld Grump

 

[Angel Tarragon]

145. This fully clothed corpse has slight yellow tinge to its coloring, its face is contorted and its lips have swelled to twice their original size. The corpse is clutching a scroll case in one hand and a silver dagger in the other. Opening the scroll case reveals the identification papers of the corpse. The corpse is one Thaddeus Daywood, the las heir of the Daywood estate.

 

[Agemegos]

Just quoting (from memory, so I could be wrong) a sign painted on a wall at a Jack the Ripper murder scene (and no, the sign said "Jews", not warforged

"Jewes", not "Jews".

 

[Agemegos]

A stout casque, its top removed occupies the furthest corner of the chamber, two tankards lie on the floor, their dregs spilling across the stones. A comfortable chair completes the ensemble...

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/casque

 

[Slife]

146 The skeletons of a kobold and a viper are here, flesh blasted off their bones. Investigation will reveal they were simultaneously incinerated by several gods... but why?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/casque

However it was, in its time, also an alternative (though not preferred) spelling of 'cask' - see Poe's 'Casque of Amontillado' for the term being used in this sense. (And for the scene that I described for that matter, it was shamelessly cribbed from the Bostonian. My choice of spelling was not accidental. ) Both refer back, if I recall correctly, to a Latinate noun meaning 'head'.

The Auld Grump

 

[TheAuldGrump]

147. Each of the three bodies is seated rigidly in an ornate chair, a woman, a man, and a small girl, all bear an unmistakable family resemblance to each other. A grey cat, subject to expert taxidermy, sits in the girls lap. Beside each chair is a formal portrait of the chair's occupant, framed in a style that matches that of the chairs. In the portaits each is wearing the same attire that they now wear in death, the cat is also featured in the portrait of the young girl. In all of the portaits the subject's eyes are closed.

The Auld Grump

 

[Angel Tarragon]

148. Six skeletons of orcs lie in the gutter, each one clutching scraps of paper. If all the scraps of paper are reassembled, it turns out to be the identification form of one Thaddeus Myritil, resident roden warlock and member of the Royal Eyes of Aundair.

If the PCs do their homework, they find Thaddeus to still be alive and will reward the pcs if they give him the scraps of his identification paper with 25 gp per character.

 

[Rechan]

149. The underside of this bridge is coated with dense webbing. Twelve cocooned bodies are found throughout the webbing. Each body is of a half-elf, and after thorough examination, the cause of death is old age.

150. The body is a halfling woman with a shaved head, middle-upper class clothes, and a single, deep puncture wound in the lower abdomen.

The identification papers accompanying the body are for that of a man, with every aspect of the papers fit the woman - from the eye color to height, the birthmark on the upper left arm, and the shaved head.

(Yes, I know 129 had an apparent cross dresser. The trick to this one is: play up that it isn't an obvious case of cross dressing.)

151. A pool of blood is in this otherwise empty lightning rail car. Looking at the pool, it appears to be smeared by something having pressed down onto it. A search (15) DC finds an invisible body on top of the pool.

152. The zombie of a headless shifter walks in a circle. His head is in his hands. It does not attack when disturbed. The decapitation appears to be perimortem (pre-death) (Heal check 15).

153. A Circle of Protection (from Chaos) is etched in the center of the alley. Just outside of the circle, the body of a Kalashtar male stands. There is no apparent reason for his up right nature, and a search check 17 (with the Investigation feat) or Heal 17 shows the cause of death to be drowning.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

154. There is no secret or mystery as to where either of the bodies came from. The first floats in the air, held in place by a rope. The other is hanging from a rope, the victim of an upset band of adventurers. They should have known better than to ask a gnome sorcerer to raise dead....

The Auld Grump (ducks)

 

[Rechan]

155. The bodies are of three men. The first has a dagger stuck in his stomach. The other two are curled up in fetal positions, and next to them are two shattered bottles of wine. Close by, a coffer filled with 500 gold can be found buried an inch beneath the surface.

(Name the source, get a cookie.)

 

[Rechan]

Bump. Er, "Raise Thread".

 

[Gundark]

Shouldn't there be a sign on the wall saying "The warforged are not people to be blamed for nothing" "

You're getting two different killers mixed up.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

156. There are parts of corpses scattered about the room in a fashion that at first seems random, but then the signs of careful sorting become apparent.

The bodies are all of people who went missing within the last three days, stripped and disassembled - save for the most recent, a halfling who bears a dragonmark of house Jorasco, garbed in surgical gown, his head twisted around and his neck snapped.

Open upon one of the tables is a book on the crafting of flesh golems, in the margins minuscule handwriting reads 'fresher is better'. Enough parts are missing from the gathered corpses to assemble an entire body, and the side door gapes open into the alley....

The Auld Grump

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

157. This body is of a middle-aged human male, with sticking plaster stuck to his back to make a crude, makeshift knife sheath. He is barefoot, with what seems to be wounds from glass shards on the soles of his feet. They've been crudely badaged from the sleeves of the man's shirt. His clothes are bloodstained and dirty, but of decent quality. He seems to have died from a stab wound to the chest.

(You get a cookie if you get the reference.)

 

[Rechan]

157. This body is of a middle-aged human male, with sticking plaster stuck to his back to make a crude, makeshift knife sheath. He is barefoot, with what seems to be wounds from glass shards on the soles of his feet. They've been crudely badaged from the sleeves of the man's shirt. His clothes are bloodstained and dirty, but of decent quality. He seems to have died from a stab wound to the chest.

(You get a cookie if you get the reference.)

McClain is too badass to be taken out with a knife.