This is an idea I've been throwing around. I don't have anything substantial yet because of one problem:
There is this pirate named Teegan who likes to capture wealthy merchants or nobles and then bring them aboard his ship. He lures them into a false sense of security over dinner, telling them he won't kill them etc. but has secretly taken the captured gold/jewels etc and somehow (magically?) ground it up into several courses of food, literally filling the victim with his/her own valuables, and then tossing them overboard to drown.
I thought the idea kind of delightfully twisted. Thoughts?
Interesting. Unless you only want some of the ground wealth to enter their bodies before they die in this particularly twisted act, you'll probably have to do it with magic - in which case the sudden onslaught of a drastic amount of powdered jewel weight that comes from the spell would probably cause immobility, shock, and most certainly massive internal damage (the impression I got was you wanted them to be filled with their own wares to the point where it causes them to sink and thus drown).
The spell effects you'd be looking for would be a kind of teleportation effect if you wanted to throw the powder right into the body, but where you stated meals, it might be better for a very complicated kind of illusion/transformation combo - making the powdered jewels feel, taste, smell and such completely different; alternatively, the powder could be inside some sort of magical pocket focused on bits of regular food, which burst open and fill the target after an amount of time elapses.
I like the complex illusion idea. It seems like a pretty evocative idea.
I really like the idea and I agree that a complex illusion of some kind would probably be the best way to make it happen.
What is Teegan's motivation for doing this? I will except "for the lulz" because that would be perfectly understandable for someone on the outside of a heavily class based society.
I like sick and twisted.
But I need to understand the motivation better...most pirates like loot too much to grind it up. I had an patrician equestrian who had lost a race due to magical interference look up all the backers of the horse that won, and fed them their horses in a stew over a fine dinner, until he revealed himself...
How's he getting off by this?
Just so you're aware, it's going to take a LOT of eating to ingest enough ground metals and jewels (ignoring the possibility that they get sick and throw up for some reason) to actually sink. Like a ridiculous amount.
If he's going to use magic, why doesn't he just turn them into gold or something and chuck them overboard? Maybe that's not quite poetic enough.
Thanks for the replies. This was on a whim posting this idea here...
The point is, Teegan Noble Killer really enjoys seeing these people suffer. The story revolves around a conversation he has with a noble merchant while he is ingesting the food laced with his own wealth.
The probability of this act actually working is not really something I considered until later (and posted it here). The point is, Teegan absolutely despises merchants/nobles/wealthy folk. Obviously something detrimental happened to him to cause him to turn into this sadistic killer. Originally I wrote the outline from a different characters point of view, an inspector/constable type who is called to a small town on the coast to investigate a series of murders that involve drowned victims with jewels/gold stuffed in their bellies. He is perplexed because no incisions/trace of surgery etc. reveal how the treasures were actually put into the bodies.
I suppose there is some moral/philosophical meaning behind the act of a rich man literally eating his own wealth and thus dying as a result, but whatever.
Anyways, I like the idea of Teegan eating a casual dinner with his captive, soothing him into a sense of security, all the while filling his/her belly with treasure. Thats where I got stuck, and realized the story had that one major flaw.
Thanks for taking a crack at it guys!
Quote from: LlumIf he's going to use magic, why doesn't he just turn them into gold or something and chuck them overboard? Maybe that's not quite poetic enough.
The concept is a major focal point, and I didn't think it poetic enough.
Quote from: LordVreegI like sick and twisted.
How's he getting off by this?
Someone did something to Teegans' significant something at some point in time at a certain place.
Something like that.
Use sorcery to transform a big treasure into a small amount of food, feed it to the victim, then reverse the spell :demon: