Hi,

I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I'd like a DM to clarify this, so I'm guessing this is where to put it.

I'm confused about how the death system works. I did a full search of the forum for both "corpse" and "death", and haven't found anything that clearly and fully explains things. Bits and pieces of the system, as well as offhand comments by players, seem to be the best I can find. If there's a full explanation of it on the website somewhere, please feel free to just point me to it. Much appreciated. I understand there may be a couple of IG placeables with this info., but I don't know where they are? It would be much easier if it was here (on the website / in the forums), especially since it is OOC info.

My query comes from the fact that I was playing a quest about a week ago with about 8 people in the party... we did the Ettercap quest, given by the Sergeant at the gate entrance to Sanctuary. (sorry, I don't have the full name of the Sergeant right now, but I'm guessing that's enough to figure out what I'm talking about) Some of the players (most?) were experienced with EfU, and ended up complaining about the difficulty of this quest. As a relative newbie to EfU, I don't think I can really complain, but I can say that it was obviously very difficult, possibly more difficult than it is "rated" for. Anyways, at least half of the party was killed. One of the PCs retrieved the body of Milo Quickhands (player: TheOneBrick), and I put it in my pack. Being very new to the game, and with other players being concerned about the other dead, I didn't really get a clear answer as to what to do with the body... I was hoping to get it raised somehow, as Milo had been very helpful my first day in Sanctuary, and a friend ever since. This was our first quest together. TheOneBrick decided he didn't want to revive Milo, so he logged and logged back in as another character.

I carried the body around for a while (not encumbered, but I knew it was there because in RPing with other PCs I pulled it out of the pack a couple of times). It was my intention to meet with Linda Kelssa IG, and discuss what to do with the body. Due to the server crashing, this didn't happen as planned. When I next logged in (a day or two later), I assumed the body was still in the pack, and I RPed for some other PCs to accompany me to the House of Light (due to the tensions in Lower with the Tigereyes confusion). When I got there, I found the body was not in my pack any longer. Eco1 (Linda's player) explained to me that the body should be in the Mausoleum. The server crashed again, and I didn't bother to log in for a couple of days while I did other things.

When I logged again, Linda was at the Mausoleum, and was waiting for Chell to log in so she could get his body and do a funeral service. I asked to check if Milo was there, and Eco1 told me he wasn't.

So, I'm confused... what happens to the corpse when a person dies? Why was it in my pack so long, without Milo logged in, if it's supposed to disappear / go to the Mausoleum if a player logs? Where is Milo's body now?

This is the background for why I want to have complete details about the death system, and what happens in various scenarios (player logging, server resets, etc.) Ultimately, I hope to find Milo's body IG, so that Linda can do a funeral service for him.

Thanks!

Hello there,

When someone dies, their corpse drops to the ground where they died (actually two things drop, a non-selectable image of the corpse and an invisible placeable called "Corpse")

If they log off, the corpse disappears (we may change this at some point).

If they log back in, the corpse appears in the Mausoleum.

If the server has reset and the player is not logged on, the corpse is not in the game world.

The corpse of every single dead PC can't be stored in the mausoleum unless the character is logged on in the fugue, since there would probably be thousands of corpses.

If you'd like to perform a ceremony or funeral, you should feel free to RP collecting the corpse from the mausoleum (or wherever) but be advised it will not acually exist as an object unless the player is logged in with their character.

I hope this answers your questions.

(Incidentally, regarding the Ettercap Quest, unfortunately quests grow exponentially more difficult in NWN when larger and larger parties go to do them since the monsters scale, and this quest in particular seems to get very hard with big parties. I'm sorry your group had trouble.)

Yes, thank you, this does answer many questions.

I'm not sure how Milo's body remained in my pack for so long (even after the player logged), considering it's supposed to disappear, but things are much clearer now. Does the corpse appear if the player is logged on, regardless of which character, or only if they log on with that character? I'm pretty sure Milo was never logged on again, but the player did log on as another character, which is why it's confusing as to why it was in my pack up until the server reset.

In any case, I'll figure out how to RP the funeral with this information. I'll also make a suggestion (in the proper forum) about the corpses and the Ettercap quest.

A corpse will only appear when the player logs in a character in the fugue. Basically, when you log in and are dead, it places your corpse in the mausoleum so that people can retrieve it to raise you. If you never log back in, your corpse isn't needed.

Another character doesn't affect it. I'm not sure why you kept the corpse to be honest.

Thrawn A corpse will only appear when the player logs in a character in the fugue. Basically, when you log in and are dead, it places your corpse in the mausoleum so that people can retrieve it to raise you. If you never log back in, your corpse isn't needed.

Another character doesn't affect it. I'm not sure why you kept the corpse to be honest.

1. New to the server, and didn't know how the death system worked. Figured I might need the corpse at some point to raise the person.

2. RP reasons. Can't really RP someone is dead without a corpse, unless you're RPing a murder mystery. :) This is an RP server, right? ;)

What Thrawn meant is that we're puzzled why the corpse remained in your inventory.

I actually strongly suspect it didn't, actually, and you just assumed it did... or possibly confused it with another item. Because it really should disappear if he logs off.

Oh, I see... sorry, misunderstanding of what was meant how it was worded! :)

I really don't know myself. No, I didn't confuse it with another item. I even, IG, took it to the Hold and dropped it on the floor to RP my anxiety with another PC of what to do with it, well after the player of the dead PC had decided to log and log back in as another PC. This was a very long time (at least 30 mins.) after the PC died, because of all the RP that happened in between (my character struggling to get back to the city with a STR of 3 due to spider bites, convincing other PCs to come "rescue" the fallen, etc.)

Maybe try something like that... put the corpse in your pack, then have the player log off (and maybe back on as another PC?). Maybe it was just a weird set of events that allowed the corpse to stay, I don't know. It was definitely gone after the server reset, but up until the server crashed, I'm sure I had it in my pack (I checked my weight as well, and the weight of the corpse, to be sure). It's hard to confuse a limp body in your pack with something else. :)

That was how I meant it. Sorry for the confusion. I was looking at why you kept it from the technical aspect, not RP.