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Mysterious Corpses

Mysterious Corpses Random Table


1. This elf wears tattered rags that were once silken finery. The right side of the corpse’s torso is just as shredded; a bloody flower of sorts dotted with shades of their pulverized ribs. One leg is caught in the knotted branches of the tree the elf dangles upside down from. The other hindlimb is caught around eight feet further up where a lone crow pecks at the rotting meat. The corpse’s expression is one of serenity despite the grisly circumstances. The crows have already claimed one of its eyes and their sun-spun hair is tangled with forest debris. A collection of silver bracelets studded with gems cluster on one of their wrists.

2. While the human’s body lies in the ditch, it doesn’t appear that they died there. The grass on the nearby bank is glued down by long-dried viscera and bug-colonized guts. If one follows the blood trail back they can even find the murder weapon; a shattered wagon wheel casually resting against a rock. The cadaver is dressed in ruined leather armor, the design of which is bland. Perhaps it was a caravan or town guard. The human has been robbed of its valuables and weapons, as well as teeth.

3. The dwarf burned to death. Its body is blackened to the point of its extremities being charred, hard gristle. Red ants crawl over and through the corpse searching for morsels. The insects’ density is such that they almost look like rivers of embers coursing through the cadaver. Not much of the poor soul's clothing remains. There are traces of a great coat that flakes away in ashen flakes when touched. On the right side of their chest, sunken into the seared meat, is a silver medallion. It appears to be some sort of sign of office, written in the dwarf's native tongue.

4. Bloated beyond recognition, the halfling's corpse lays in the middle of the field. Its clothing is still soggy and the flesh beneath spongy. Brackish water with coppery glints oozes through the pores whenever the moist flesh is prodded. Their hair is tangled up in a fishing net and adored with dead, yellow beetles not native to the area. The body clings to a corroded and sealed urn. Most of the body's facial features have been chewed away leaving an imitation of a smile that is a damp gash. Likewise its feet are long gone, save for a scraps of skin and the wispy hair that clings to it.

5. One thing is for sure, this dragonborn died instantly. Spread across a distance of ten meters, its scattered, green scales aren't half as shiny as the blasted sand-glass beneath them. It's hard to tell exactly where the explosion started. From one angle the strewn pieces seem to spread out in a cone, from another a central point. Bits of broken bone are caught in the hardened earth like flies in amber. Most of their jawbone is still intact as is their left arm holding a seared scroll case. Tattered strips of the orange cloak they wore are caught in nearby trees, fluttering akin to banners in the wind.

6. Sometimes a body is referred to as cold clay, and in the case of this human that description is never more apt. Partially melted and utterly petrified, their hands are frozen as they reach for a running face. Currently crafted from grey riverbed clay, the body's clothing is still intact. They wear a fine red doublet that sags here and there where expose organs hardened outside the body and a matching set of cotton pants. Their riding boots are tall and pristine, as long as one doesn't count the rivulets of clay-caught flesh spilling over the sides like candle wax. The corpse bears a short sword plunged through their gut. Surely it would have been a fatal wound had they not been petrified.


7. The gnome hangs from a noose of thorny branches. As one might imagine, their throat and jaw are ruined by the barbs and tell the tale of a last few minutes of total agony. Their hands are bound behind their bags with fingers swollen from a recent break. Someone made a point to push a copper piece into each of their eye sockets postmortem. The tree they hang from is not native to the area, it's pale bark marked with all manner of eldritch runes. The unfortunate victim wears only bed clothes, now stained ruddy from the rivers of blood that spilled from their mangled flesh. A meter below their still, bare feet, is a circle of violent-blue mushrooms grown from patches of the gnome's gore.

8. The lower half of this human's body is trapped in the mirror. The mirror itself is trapped within the lopsided growth of a deep forest tree. The edges of the glassy surface is riddled with cracks from the steadily-encroaching wood, its frame long-sense subsumed. The corpse's ruptured abdomen left a smear of viscera on both sides of the mirror. The freed guts on the real-world side show the same cracking that the mirror does. It's hard tell what manner of pants the human was wearing, but their boots are well-scuffed and worn. Their top half is garbed in a pitted breastplate and faded military finery beneath. The body's face wears a mask of confusion, their stiff hands grasping at thin air.

9. Flies glut themselves on this orc's corpse. Its skin sags in between crust-harden pustules that draw the insects in. The cloying smell the body produces isn't one of rot exactly, more like a fruit that is just starting to go bad. Whatever ailment struck the orc dead did so rapidly as they appeared to be in the middle of digging a ditch when they dropped. One hand still clutches an earth-smeared spade, the other tears at the orc's throat as if it couldn't catch its breath. The cadaver's eyes bulge from their sockets, ringed with the same hardened pus. In fact, many of the orc's teeth are displaced by the crystalized goo.

10. It's clear that a crossbow bolt slew this human. What isn't, though, is which of the five-dozen missiles was the killing blow. The pin cushion of a corpse prominently lays at the top of a granite outcropping mad ruddy by their running blood. The area around the body, however, harbors no stray bolts which didn’t' find their target nor tracks of those that would have fired them. In addition, the bolts are wholly unremarkable as to make or origin. Due to the trauma the human's clothing lays shredded. It appears to be made from mostly hides and furs, but there are a few silver buttons clinging to the material. None of the bolts struck the victim's face; a death mask of serene release.

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