It's important to know why this person died. Why?

[Enkhidu]

Look up "Abyssal Vivisection".

Urk!

 

[Hand of Evil]

Could have been killed by a jealous lover or a lover's lover.

Hooks to this is that a PC was the real lover of the person and it was a case of simple mistaken ID.​

Could have been killed because of knowkedge known.

What information could he have known and may have been wanting to get to the PCs? Maybe the PCs gave him information to look up.​

Could have been killed because of an item owned.

Nuff said​

 

[kenjib]

He was assassinated as part of a political plot or because he knew a secret. There are other people likely to be assassinated soon for the same reason. The PCs need to know how he was assassinated so that they can help prevent the next assassination.

 

[BlackMoria]

The dead person was an assassin that noone knows about; being a freelancer brought in from out of town for a particularly tricky assassination.

The contractor wanted to ensure the assassination details never comes to light so part of the assassin's payment is a gem with Trap the Soul on it.

The contractor has collected the gem after the assassin succumbed to the soul trapping.

Who the assassin, who the contractor was and who the assassination victim was is up to you.

 

[Cavalorn]

1) He was about to act as a key witness in an important murder trial. Somebody had him silenced.

2) He unfortunately has the same name as somebody powerful, who an out-of-town assassin was hired to kill. It's a case of mistaken identity.

3) Superstitious builders have sacrificed him according to ancient rites so that a structure they are erecting will stand, after the last two attempts have crumbled to the foundations.

4) He's the illegitimate child of a local cleric who is supposed to be celibate on pain of death, and who he has been blackmailing. The cleric has killed him in desperation, to keep his secret.

5) He was a randomly selected victim, whose death was intended to demonstrate the wonderful efficiency of a new brand of poison, recently brewed up by a practicing alchemist. A local rogue lord has offered to pay the alchemist a goodly sum for exclusive use of the stuff, but wanted to be sure of its effects first.

 

[buzzard]

My best suggestion would be that the NPC has some notable enemies with resources at their disposal which would be characteristic of different methods of assasination.

Such as Enemy 1 would have your normal assasins

Enemy 2 would have necromantic spells

Enemy 3 might have psions

Thus the method of killing would be indicative of the source.

Of course you could get all twisted and make it a frame up, but that may be getting far afield.

buzzard

 

[Kesh]

The victim was simply a random target. The killer has an assassination plan against someone else and wanted to test their delivery method and killing method on the NPC first. Perhaps the NPC and the target share a similar history, lifestyle or something else that would make the circumstances of their murders very similar.

 

[Greatwyrm]

How about being scared to death with a phantasmal killer ? That shouldn't leave any obvious cause of death. Even after an "autopsy" like you're planning on, it could easily be mistaken for a run-of-the-mill heart attack, I'd think.

 

[Psion]

Just to be clear, guys, I'm more looking for situations in which it is important that the cause of death be discovered, not the less than obvious causes of death themselves (though the situation may imply a certain cause of death.)

 

[Thanee]

Well, it could be a trace to the murderer. It's basically only important if you have to prove that it was murder and to find the assassin.

So, to have this, the dead person has to be at least somewhat important.

If the method to find out is extremely rare and/or costly, the dead person has to be a very important figure (the child of a noble, for example).

Bye
Thanee