How do you find the body of a dead god?

[Captnq]

Assuming a god's body is immune to all mortal magic, and it's lying under a sea of gray muck, how would you find a dead god's body?

[XionUnborn01]

Well, the lame answer is that a god would find it if it's immune to mortal magic.

The more fun answer is that there's always someone looking for something to do, so swimming through this gray muck might just be a thing that happens and someone stumble up on it.

Or a wizard found it.

[Captnq]

Assume the grey muck is the size of say Brazil.
No god is looking. You are mortal.

[zlefin]

Lead a nation, put people to work.

Or find a suitable spell (or make one): you want a spell that covers a large area and just detects stuff, specifically, you want something that won't reveal the dead god, due to it being immune, but will effect everything else, then you find it by finding the spot that isn't showing anything.

[Telonius]

I can think of a few methods, depending on how much time you have and the exact nature of the muck...

Friendly Elementals could scout out the muck for you.

Discern Location on an object the god was carrying. The object is now unattended, meaning it shouldn't be subject to the magic immunity.

Dominate a few Beholders, Disintegrate your way through the muck. (Since the body is immune to mortal magic, it wouldn't be disintegrated).

[Alent]

I can think of a few options:

1) Prestidigitation the goo to be clear, systematically turning the entire pile of goo transparent.

2) get Blindsense, turn into something with earthglide and good movement, surf under the bottom of the goo until you feel something in the goo above.

3) Know the Path. "Lead me to the only place in this goo that's immune to divination".

[ZamielVanWeber]

Craft an item that pings for depth. The immune god would create a "hole" in the spell when it is intercepted.

[Rubik]

The Hypercognition (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/hypercognition.htm) power affects the manifester (rather than the corpse) and uses mundane knowledge and faster-than-light deductive processes to function, and is explicitly able to bypass immunities to magic and divination practices.

[Brookshw]

I wouldn't because dead god bodies go to the astral plane.

[Rubik]

I wouldn't because dead god bodies go to the astral plane.Maybe the gray muck is ectoplasm.

[Captnq]

Maybe the gray muck is ectoplasm.

Actually, Yes. Sorry for short answers. The campaign has taken a wierd turn tonight.

[Zweisteine]

Find a way to make a shrunken Locate City Bomb, and bomb the sea of muck. The god's body will be the only thing not destroyed, as every (or at least many) component particle of the muck will have been obliterated by the damage. Warning: this may not work, and may cause enormous collateral damage.

What type of muck is it, exactly? Is it like mud, or more like earth, or is it just murky water? If it qualifies as dirt, the Earth Dreamer PrC could let you see through it.

The spell Commune contacts a deity or deity's servant, who will answer some yes/no questions. Be careful to have this planned out ahead of time, as taking a break will end the spell, and it costs XP.
Divide the sea of muck into a grid of some sort. Cast the spell: Question 1: Given that the sea of muck right over there (point at it) is divided as shown on this sheet of paper have paper pre-set up on the table, is [dead god's name]'s body in this half A of the sea of muck? Question 2: Is [dead god's name]'s body in quarter A1 of the sea of muck? And so forth. Just make sure you have a good, unambiguous system.

Miracle could simply ask your god where the body is, or even pull the body up from the lake (though the latter would surely be a greater miracle, with an XP cost). As your god is doing it, not you, it would not truly be mortal magic.

[Slipperychicken]

Assuming a god's body is immune to all mortal magic, and it's lying under a sea of gray muck, how would you find a dead god's body?

Cast an epic spell to find it. I think gods are affected by those because it isn't mortal magic.

Or get a detection spell as an (Ex) special ability. Then put on your best trollface.

Drain the sea via magic? Put a grate over the opening (presumably made of riverine or something) so the god's corpse gets stuck on it?

Get another god to do it for you?

[Rubik]

Actually, Yes. Sorry for short answers. The campaign has taken a wierd turn tonight.Hypercognition should get you the location instantaneously, and all it takes is looking at the wave patterns in the muck, or seeing mild distortions in the ectoplasmic "air" around the outer edges. You immediately guess where it is, and that guess will almost certainly be correct.

If you don't have a seer psion in the group to manifest from a power stone (or his powers known), go find a major metropolis, such as Sigil, hire a seer to manifest the Soul Crystal power (from Magic of Incarnum) with Hypercongition as the power it produces. Then use it as soon as you reach the ectoplasmic sea and can guess where it is. Note that the crystal produced by Soul Crystal lasts 1 hour/lvl and can be used multiple times.


Find a way to make a shrunken Locate City Bomb, and bomb the sea of muck. The god's body will be the only thing not destroyed, as every (or at least many) component particle of the muck will have been obliterated by the damage. Warning: this may not work, and may cause enormous collateral damage.Alas, according to the wording on Locate City, you'll only destroy an infinitely-thin layer of muck in the diameter of Locate City's area (which is a circle, rather than a sphere).

[Zweisteine]

Alas, according to the wording on Locate City, you'll only destroy an infinitely-thin layer of muck in the diameter of Locate City's area (which is a circle, rather than a sphere).
Use a spell besides locate city, as that spell would cause enormous collateral damage.

Also, I edited my previous post with more suggestions.

[Rubik]

Check to see how much energy damage it takes to destroy a 5' cube of ectoplasmic sludge. Then Teleport a few hundred miles out (but still within sight) from the ectoplasmic sea, then Summon or Call a dragon with a reasonably powerful, conical breath weapon and command it to submit to a manifestation of Psychic Reformation, choosing Enlarge Breath as one of its feats. Then command it to use its breath weapon, Maximized and Enlarged a few million times. The conflagration will envelop the entire ectoplasmic sea, destroying every 5' cube of matter therein, since the cone is now quite large, and the damage should be enough to disintegrate all of it.

The fact that it loses its breath weapon for the next hundred years is regrettable, but it totally isn't your problem.

[Brookshw]

Find a cleric of Annubis (sp?) And have them commune?

[Deophaun]

Follow the god-awful stench?

[kardar233]

Gamey, but tender.

[ko_sct]

Using the corpse immunity to mortal magic is probably your best bet.

Similar to arcane city bomb but less cheesy would be the apocalypse from the sky spell, maybe with a few metamagics through rods or sudden metamagic feats.

Basically, it does a 10d6 damage over a zone of 10 miles/lvl, whit a greater maximise rod that's 60dmg in everything in the zone (for the small cost of an artefacts, so not exactly free)

Whit a custom-made rod of energy admixture and the feats sudden maximise and sudden enlarge, we are talking around 155dmg to everything in an area of maybe 200 miles. Far from being as good as a locate city bomb, but a lot less cheesy too.

[ericgrau]

Legend Lore (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/legendLore.htm) it. You aren't targeting the body. Rather, if anyone once knew, now you do too.

[Jack_Simth]

The fact that it loses its breath weapon for the next hundred years is regrettable, but it totally isn't your problem.
However, the little issue that this dragon might just take umbrage to your abusing him (or her, I suppose) this way IS your problem....

[Psyren]

Legend Lore (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/legendLore.htm) it. You aren't targeting the body. Rather, if anyone once knew, now you do too.

Better yet, Vision (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/vision.htm) - even if it doesn't show you exactly where it is, it will point you in the right direction, and it won't take weeks per casting.

[Rubik]

However, the little issue that this dragon might just take umbrage to your abusing him (or her, I suppose) this way IS your problem....I suppose you can always Geas it so it can't mess with you, and if it was summoned, it won't remember what happened in either case.

[Jack_Simth]

I suppose you can always Geas it so it can't mess with you, and if it was summoned, it won't remember what happened in either case.Geas is not permanent. It's 1 day/level or until discharged (inherited from Lesser Geas). Your patsy can still come after you, it just has to wait a while.

As to Summoning: Where, exactly, is it written that the Summoned critter doesn't remember?

[lord_khaine]

Better yet, what summoning spell are you using to get dragons?

Because normally you need callings for that.

[Jack_Simth]

Better yet, what summoning spell are you using to get dragons?

Because normally you need callings for that.

The Dragon Ally line. In the Draconomicon, they're [Summoning] spells; in the Spell Compendium, they're [Calling] spells. Both are Conjouration.

[123456789blaaa]

You may want to consider also asking this in the current iteration of the APQT (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317316) (if you haven't already considering doing so of course).

[danzibr]

Follow the god-awful stench?
lawlz

Not that I have anything to add, but can I ask about the situation? Why you're doing this, who the god was, what the corpse is like.

[Vhaidara]

Hire a group of Warforged. They don't need to breathe, I doubt they are buoyant. They also don't need to eat or drink, so you literally just hire them to walk along the bottom of the sea until they run into something.

[Icewraith]

Is the muck liquid enough to count as water? There's a few druid spells that can lower the water level in an area.

Divine the "bottom" of the muck and create a small (or multiple small) one-way vortex(es) to the astral plane or other mostly empty plane. You'll drain the entire brazil-sized area and the body will show up at some point.

If you have a reliable description of what the god's body looked like at the time of death, in your mind you picture a giant glowing corpse of the deity sunk in the middle of a sea of muck and cast teleport.

Find a higher-ranking cleric of a god of secrets and beat him up until he tells you where the body is.

Use Tsunami to clear the area of muck.

Called water or earth elementals, depending on how liquid the muck is.

Bardic knowledge.

Legend Lore.

The other way to think about this is that this is the corpse of a deity. There should be some sort of horrific deific corruption related to the nature of the deity's portfolio or the nature of it's death in the area. If there's some phenomena causing a previously rare type of monster to continuously spawn forth from the depths of the swamp, you just fight your way into the swamp, grinding xp the whole way, and work your way back to the center of trouble.

[Rubik]

A Jack B. Quick build with a necklace of adaptation and Touchsight (www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/touchsight.htm) running back and forth as fast as he can go? The ectoplasmic sludge shouldn't block LoE so long as he's submersed.

[HaikenEdge]

Find a way to remove the sludge?

[Cuaqchi]

Weird option, and what I would do in this situation if I were the DM is have the muck itself as the deity's remains. Thus unless you can transport the entire Brazilian sized slab of goo with you whatever you want the body for would likely need to be done on site - given that what are you looking to do with the body?

[Clistenes]

How big is the dead god's body? giant, normal-sized, island-sized?

Can the sea of muck be sailed? If it can be sailed, making ships throw chains or ropes with hooks attached while crossing it could do the job. If somewhere in the middle of the sea hooks start to get attached to something and when you raise them they are bloodied, you have found your god.

If it can't be sailed, you could always use some kind of flying ship, or flying carpets, or something similar, instead.

If the body of the god is normal-sized, you could use huge trawling nets and try to catch the corpse.

If you are f*cking rich, you could use an army of some of the cheapest constructs like tin golems to explore the bottom of the sea. Or skeletons; I think skeletons would be able to recognize flesh when bumping into it.

Or you could hire warforged, or bind earth elementals to do the job.

[JaronK]

Cast Guidance of the Avatar for a +20 to your Knowledge Religion check, and then just know where the god is.

JaronK

[avr]

If there are currents running through the ectoplasmic muck, map them. That should give you a clue where the ectoplasm is coming from, which is likely to be where the god is (or at least something of interest).

If it's more static for whatever reason then you want a way of seeing thru ectoplasm. Spell research time probably; touchsight's range is too low to be useful.

Oh, and if there are any inhabitants of any kind, find a way to communicate and ask them.

[Telonius]

Get yourself 10 cubic feet per level of twine. Fabricate it into a gigantic net. Time to start fishing! :smallbiggrin:

[Slipperychicken]

How big is the dead god's body? giant, normal-sized, island-sized?

Can the sea of muck be sailed? If it can be sailed, making ships throw chains or ropes with hooks attached while crossing it could do the job. If somewhere in the middle of the sea hooks start to get attached to something and when you raise them they are bloodied, you have found your god.

If it can't be sailed, you could always use some kind of flying ship, or flying carpets, or something similar, instead.

If the body of the god is normal-sized, you could use huge trawling nets and try to catch the corpse.

If you are f*cking rich, you could use an army of some of the cheapest constructs like tin golems to explore the bottom of the sea. Or skeletons; I think skeletons would be able to recognize flesh when bumping into it.

Or you could hire warforged, or bind earth elementals to do the job.

That's a good point: You could use conventional fishing.

And water/mud elementals. Those guys should be able to find the god.

[Psyren]

Cast Guidance of the Avatar for a +20 to your Knowledge Religion check, and then just know where the god is.

JaronK

This is basically asking the deity itself (or another one) where he/the dead one is. Which is certainly direct, though the effectiveness may vary if he can't reply or you don't have one.

[JaronK]

This is basically asking the deity itself (or another one) where he/the dead one is. Which is certainly direct, though the effectiveness may vary if he can't reply or you don't have one.

Mechanically, it's just a +20 bonus, which should be sufficient. There are plenty of other skill boosters to use too, some of which stack rather impressively. In the end, you should be able to hit a DC 40+ check, which should do the trick.

JaronK

[Bronk]

You could various methods of tracking by scent...

[Shining Wrath]

I'd say someone with Luck would find it. Luck trumps everything in the end.

[Coidzor]

Follow the MoneyGithyanki.

Ask whoever put the corpse there.

Get a deity or other non-mortal's assistance.

Destroy the sea of muck or relocate it.

[Slipperychicken]

I'd say someone with Luck would find it. Luck trumps everything in the end.

Translation: If the GM wants you to find it, you'll find it.

[StrangeLooper]

Start a cult for the dead god with yourself as the lead priest. Wait for him to appear to you in a vision or something of that sort. Congrats, you have now found his body (with the possible downside that he is no longer dead).