Creating fake bodies

[Arkusus]

So, soon the players in my campaign are going to start coming across the bodies of a few (seemingly) living people in town. The first body they find will obviously be the real body of an NPC they know, and will be able to easily confront the impostor and figure out he was a duplicate and do whatever they want to do to him. (I hope to push them to have him executed for precedent, will make the twist better)

So... After they catch the first impostor, and possibly one more... I want to have them come across at least 2-4 fake bodies. Bodies the bad guys put there INTENTIONALLY to make the party think the real people in town are impostors as well, and round them up (possibly for execution).

Then, after they have reacted to a few fakes, I want to have someone in the party stumble across their OWN body. Make em try to figure out what's happening... yada yada, so on and so fourth.




My question is this... I know at least a few ways to fabricate a complete dead body... But I don't really know any... well... "efficient" ways to do it.

The body does NOT need to count as a "body" for spells and the like (last I checked, nobody has speak with dead).
It does not need to qualify for being raised, or anything like that, it just needs to LOOK and FEEL like a real body, and look just like a living person in town.


Any suggestions?

[ramrod]

I would have thought that someone with a high disguise skill could do it. I know that you can hide an entire party at a significant penalty, I would have thought that it would be easier for a skilled disguise npc to disguise corpses than themselves.

Otherwise it would probably have to be some illusion. As DM you don't really have to explain how it is done, just that it is illusionary!

[ahenobarbi]

1) Get a corpse, make a Disguise Skill check to make it look as someone else's corpse.
2) Get a pig carcass and cast Polymorph Any Object on it to make it corpse of the person you want (duration permanent IMHO).
3) Get a pig carcass, Animate Dead it, put an item of Alter Self on it to transform it to zombie looking like he person you want, order the zombie to act like a corpse.
4) Cast * Image and stay around concentrating on it so it will react appropriately.
5) Planar Bind/Planar Ally a succubus and strike a deal with it to pretend to be the corpse you want.
6) Get a bit of the person whose corpse you want and cast Clone.

[Arkusus]

I would have thought that someone with a high disguise skill could do it. I know that you can hide an entire party at a significant penalty, I would have thought that it would be easier for a skilled disguise npc to disguise corpses than themselves.

Otherwise it would probably have to be some illusion. As DM you don't really have to explain how it is done, just that it is illusionary!

Hmkay, yeah, illusions would be a pretty easy way to do it, might be the best. I was hoping to get something a little easier to interact with, where poking around at the skin and such wouldn't cause clipping errors, and spark disbelief saves.

[Arkusus]

1) Get a corpse, make a Disguise Skill check to make it look as someone else's corpse.
2) Get a pig carcass and cast Polymorph Any Object on it to make it corpse of the person you want (duration permanent IMHO).
3) Get a pig carcass, Animate Dead it, put an item of Alter Self on it to transform it to zombie looking like he person you want, order the zombie to act like a corpse.
4) Cast * Image and stay around concentrating on it so it will react appropriately.
5) Planar Bind/Planar Ally a succubus and strike a deal with it to pretend to be the corpse you want.
6) Get a bit of the person whose corpse you want and cast Clone.

Bingo, thank you.

So far I am most amused with the polymorphing a dead pig into an identical human body... I think I may use that.




That being said... I think clone could be hilarious. After the good guys start rooting out all their impostors, they clone some key people in town... After their clone bodies are found in the bad guy's dungeon, they are executed in town, and they immediately revive in their clone body... still in the bad guy's dungeon, ready for interrogation.

This second plan hinges on the party not taking the body back with them. If I gripe about encumbrance limits, they may opt out of it, but I'll probably do one or two polymorphs to see what they do, before using a clone.

[captain fubar]

this same trick can be done at a lower level by substituting transmute stone to flesh in place of polymorph any object though it adds the requirement that a statue be made in the image of the fake, if this is commisioned or made by the person runing the scheme rather than made with fabricate then it would leave a few clues for the players to find.

even better since it is instentanious rather than perminant so the plot wont come undone if the fake body is subject to a dispell check

[cerin616]

So, soon the players in my campaign are going to start coming across the bodies of a few (seemingly) living people in town. The first body they find will obviously be the real body of an NPC they know, and will be able to easily confront the impostor and figure out he was a duplicate and do whatever they want to do to him. (I hope to push them to have him executed for precedent, will make the twist better)

So... After they catch the first impostor, and possibly one more... I want to have them come across at least 2-4 fake bodies. Bodies the bad guys put there INTENTIONALLY to make the party think the real people in town are impostors as well, and round them up (possibly for execution).

Then, after they have reacted to a few fakes, I want to have someone in the party stumble across their OWN body. Make em try to figure out what's happening... yada yada, so on and so fourth.




My question is this... I know at least a few ways to fabricate a complete dead body... But I don't really know any... well... "efficient" ways to do it.

The body does NOT need to count as a "body" for spells and the like (last I checked, nobody has speak with dead).
It does not need to qualify for being raised, or anything like that, it just needs to LOOK and FEEL like a real body, and look just like a living person in town.


Any suggestions?


this would be so awesome in the campaign im playing right now. Specifically if we stumbled upon my body.

I never told them I am a changeling.

[ahenobarbi]

this same trick can be done at a lower level my substituting transmute stone to flesh in place of polymorph any object though it adds the requirement that a statue be made in the image of the fake, if this is commisioned or made by the person runing the scheme rather than made with fabricate then it would leave a few clues for the players to find.

even better since it is instentanious rather than perminant so the plot wont come undone if the fake body is subject to a dispell check

How could have I forgotten about that one!

[CaladanMoonblad]

Bingo, thank you.

So far I am most amused with the polymorphing a dead pig into an identical human body... I think I may use that.



Would the corpse have a bacon-y flavor to it for a cannibal?