CSI: Sharn (Help create 100 corpses)

[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.