What do your players do with thier dead foes?

[Ibram]

It depends on who they were fighting... a bunch of random chumps are usualy left to rot on the ground. Named NPCs sometimes have their heads taken (if there is a bounty). Enemy spell casters are always dismembered and have their parts scattered about (never trust a wizard to stay dead in his grave).

In a recent game they killed an ogre blood sorceror and took his head back to a villiage he had been tormenting, it was still bleeding when they left several days ago.

 

[azmodean]

I'm with Seeten, my group often animates the bodies and uses them as meat shields.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

When intelligent, important enemies aren't captured alive for interrogation, their corpses are always taken back to the theurge affiliated with the party for speak with dead and other forensic examination. This "medieval CSI" routine has become standard operating procedure and sometimes a running joke -- but the party's learned a lot from it, and as the DM I like the opportunity to do post-mortem roleplaying of my NPCs!

Other enemies are often dismembered and/or cremated, since the adventure began in a catacombs (the ones under Zenopus's Tower, from the Holmes basic set) where I'd reanimate corpses as skeletons or zombies whenever they were left in the crypt overnight.

 

[Bryan898]

Loot them twice, then leave 'em to rot. Seriously, we've never even considered this. Occasionally it has come up in mass combats where bodies create veritable walls and cause balance checks to cross quickly, but besides that it's never been an issue.

 

[WayneLigon]

If they have the time and the ability, they normally bury the bodies after making sure they can't be animated. Burial is generally done by magic. At high levels they'll use something like Acid Pit or one of the various fire spells or some other means of destroying the bodies. Sometimes they've even disintergrated them. In general it's the best route to go; the bodies won't attract predators to the area and hopefully any allies won't stumble on them for some time.

If time is of the essence, then they'll usually place the bodies in a low-lying area if at all possible. They've had to cut and run from a battlescene before; if they can, they try to come back later and deal with the dead but it rankles them to just leave things to rot. I guess becuase one to many times, some enemy-allied spellcaster has come back and animated the bodies to serve as guards and scouts.

 

[JustKim]

What if the PCs culture burns their dead? The PC could be trying to perform the last rites. Most cultures don't grieve for the dead. They celebrate them. I suppose it would kind of strange for a PC in Christian Medieval Europe to burn all the dead, but given diverse cultures normally present in a D&D game, it seems quite reasonable.

If it had to do with culture I wouldn't mind so much, although I don't know where you're getting that outside a tight clique nobody is upset about death or wants to grieve for a body before it's destroyed. The last time it happened, it was because burning the dead was easier than giving proper burials as others wanted. There's no respect for the dead here. It's entirely methodical.

 

[Kemrain]

We often leave bodies to rot. The last 2 major villans, however were collected. Well, the top third of one and the ashes of the other (we didn't burn her, she just crumbled to ash). Many of the bodies are hidden as much as possible, and some are dismembered, depending on how angry they made the half-demon.

In general, we rarely think about it. We're often too pressed for time, and end up simply propping the bodies up in an alley or covering them with a few tree branches before continuing on. Some are blown apart by spells (a 'wand' that does 1d6 negitive energy/lightning damage without charges is very useful in these situtons). Some animals have parts collected (and placed in an airless extradimentional space to prevent decomposition), but we generally don't bother with such things. The few creatures I would have taken parts from tend to get too badly damaged to use properly. Such a pity.

- Kemrain the Gorey.

 

[DrNilesCrane]

The group I DM usually leaves em' for the vultures without ceremony, although occasionally they'll burn them. One PC refuses to use magic (a Forsaker) and carried around the corpse of a sworn enemy (without preservation magic) for about a week or so, much to the lament of the party and everyone they encountered.

Town Guard: "What's that...smell?"
Party: (nervous looks all around)

 

[Lasher Dragon]

My Pale Master always seems to find a use for them....

 

[TerraDave]

As much as I would like to say: "Eat their organs and decorate themselves with their bones", they basically leave them to rot.

In the past, some trophies where collected, and some parts gathered for use in magic items. Speak with dead was used recently, but with a murdered villager (guess what they asked..)