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

[Agemegos]

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.)

Perhaps the family want to know whether the deceased died of old age. If he or she died of another cause they will shell out for a Resurrection. But they don't want to blow the considerable cost of that spell only to have it fail because their granny died of superannuation.

Or maybe the life insurance payout depends on whether the deceased died of natural causes/violence or through some cause to which his or her own behaviour was contributory. Eg if the fatal cough was brought on by smoking, the deceased's ex-employer owes nothing, but if it was brought on by miner's lung he or she owes a weregild to the deceased's family.

The cause of death may give you time of death, and that could give you sequence of death, and that can determine several important points of law. For example, if the eldest son burned to death before the landowner died of smoke inhalation, then the second son has inherited from his father and the estate only owes one merchet. But if the landowner died of a heart attack in his bed before the fire started, then the eldest son inherited before he died, the second son inherited from his brother, and the estate owes two merchets.

Under some circumstances and laws the sequence of death can even determine who inherits. If the eldest son was already dead before his father died then the provisions for a predecease in the father's will may come into effect. But if the father died first then the property may go to the estate of the son and then be distributed according to his will. Under some laws and conditions, even the succession to a title and public office may hinge on the sequence of deaths (not if the law provides for representative inheritance, of course, but that is a fairly modern arrangement).

Another possibility is that religious law and custom might dictate that the funeral arrangements depend on the cause of death. For example, if a person has died as a result of the action of undead, it might be compulsory to bury the corpse in specially Hallowed ground. And the family might prefer that young Sir Michael be buried in the vault of their family chapel rather than jammed into the 'Vampire's Corner' of the graveyard at the Archtemple of Pelor. Hence they wish to estalished that he was killed by the Dark Priest's Cause Fatal Wounds spell and not by the archivambrite's soul-sucking slam attack.

 

[ConnorSB]

EDIT: Monkeys! Someone got to the religion question first... and right as I was typing, too! I need to learn to type faster before all my thunder gets stolen...


Perhaps the dead in question is of a certain religion that has different (and spiritually important) burrial rights based on cause of death.

Maybe a great barbarian leader is found dead in the streets, but the only way he gets to Valhalla (or wheverever) is if he died in battle. Since no one actually saw him die, the way in which he died becomes quite important if his tribe is to know whether to burn his body on a pyre (so that he may ascent the smoke into the heavens), or bury it under a cairn (so that his ultimatly cowardly corpse can sink into the pits of hell).

Those indentations on his chest- was he run over by a horse and carriage, or are those the result of being repeatedly hit with a spear-but?

That kind of thing.

Plus, perhaps the tribe wants revenge on his killer. It then becomes important to know WHOSE carraige ran him over, or whose staff has a but-guard with a flaming tiger on it. (apparent when the skin starts its whole post-mortum bruising thing)

 

[Greatwyrm]

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.)

How about being slain by an undead that creates spawn? You couldn't use something that rises instantly, like shadows. A vampire or something like that takes at least a day to spawn, IIRC. Maybe they need to bury the body in consecrated ground to stop the spawning, but need to realize they need to do it in the first place. Any of that make sense?

 

[GreyShadow]

Just to confuse the issue, perhaps there are two causes of death?

Your guy had just been offed by the psychic doodad, 5 minutes later the butler notices his boss is resting and then hits him over the head with a bedpan.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Perhaps this person is not important at all, but is the one real chance the PCs will have of finding out the cause of death before other deaths begin to occur. I'm reminded of an episode of The Threat Matrix, where the bad guy was planning a gas attack, and did a test on two hitchhikers before attempting the real thing.

Lets say someone developed a cool new spell. Instant death, no save, HIGH XP cost. They will only be interested in using it a couple of times, due to the cost, so future victems will be few. They will also be important people with wealthy enemies to fund the assasin. This will lead to odd, but not implausible deaths, say an apperant drowning, a hunting accident, etc. Since the victims will be important, the PC should have little chance of really poking around the crime scene or questioning witnesses, (depends on how important they are in your world). Thats even if they would be considered murders, as there is no evidence.

Save that single, tell tale sign that the spell leaves, that no one but the PCs notice in this crime scene.


"Just to confuse the issue, perhaps there are two causes of death?

Your guy had just been offed by the psychic doodad, 5 minutes later the butler notices his boss is resting and then hits him over the head with a bedpan. "


PS, Nice.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Simple.

The NPC in question had a simple run of the mill heart attack. Lame?

Not at all if your players are like most players. If they are then there is no way in hell that they are ever going to believe that the NPC just plain croaked. They may drive themselves nearly insane looking in shadows and hunting down conspiraces over what really happened to the NPC. This works especially well if the NPC is important since no one important ever "just" dies.