Exotic Methods for Executions?

[Houston GM]

Re: Exotic Methods for Executions?

 

For pure sadism, I'd use a deep telepathic probe to learn the criminal's deepest fears. Then I'd tailor the punishment to fit their fears.

 

Example #1

Slythe the Traitor is afraid of snakes. He is condemned to die by giant constrictor. The punishment is announced to Slythe, and the execution date is set a week or two in the future.

 

In the meantime, a giant constrictor is captured and put in the cell next to Slythe's (or somewhere else where Slythe can see it constantly). Every day, the prison guards bring a cage with a small snake in it and place it in front of Slythe's cage. They then feed a rat to the small snake as an "educational demonstration".

 

If Slythe deliberately avoids watching the snake dine, the prison guards can supply helpful commentary: "The snake has worked his way down to it's front legs now. Hey! Did the rat just kick? I thought it would be dead by now for sure."

 

When Slythe falls asleep, the guards can toss a small, non-poisonous snake into his cell. The snake will seek to keep itself warm by snuggling up under Slythe's blanket.

 

Minutes before the scheduled execution, Slythe is given a brief stay. "Slinkey doesn't look like he's quite hungry yet. I guess we better wait another three days."

 

After being allowed to agonize over his fate for a sufficiently long time, Slythe gets put into the constrictor's cage, and the snake enjoys a leisurely meal.

 

Example #2

Blanca the Aldulterous Consort is afraid of heights. She is condemned to die by falling. The punishment is announced to Blanca, and the execution date is set a week or two in the future.

 

Blanca is imprisoned in a small cage which is hung from a pole that extends two yards from the tallest tower in the keep. The courtyard below her is kept lit so she can see how far down it is even in the dark.

 

When Blanca falls asleep, the prison guards push the cage with poles in order to make it sway back and forth.

 

Minutes before the scheduled execution, Blanca is given a brief stay. "The Lord Magistrate wanted to view the execution, but he won't be back for another four days. We'll have to wait until he arrives."

 

After an appropriately long delay, the rope supporting Blanca's cage is slowly cut through while she watches, sending her falling to her death.

[Kilmore]

Re: Exotic Methods for Executions?

 

Keelhauling! The bad sailor would be tied to the bow of a sailing ship and chucked off the front. Then the ship would run over him and the condemned man would bounce and tumble over the nails, splinters, and especially the barnacles.

 

There was a good one in the movie Hawk the Slayer as well, where the giant tied up a slaver and laid him down on his back, slinging a mace on a rope over a tree branch and forcing the end of the rope into his teeth. When the slaver opened his mouth... smunch!

[gewing]

Re: Exotic Methods for Executions?

 

I really enjoyed "hawk the Slayer" but I had forgotten that one. Thanks.

 

Keelhauling! The bad sailor would be tied to the bow of a sailing ship and chucked off the front. Then the ship would run over him and the condemned man would bounce and tumble over the nails, splinters, and especially the barnacles.

 

There was a good one in the movie Hawk the Slayer as well, where the giant tied up a slaver and laid him down on his back, slinging a mace on a rope over a tree branch and forcing the end of the rope into his teeth. When the slaver opened his mouth... smunch!

[Jinx999]

Re: Exotic Methods for Executions?

 

A Chinese method I once read about:

Bury the executee up to their neck in the ground. Invite passers by to try sawing the head off with a bamboo saw.

 

From The Twelve Kingdoms

Tie the victims hands to a post and an ox to each leg. Drive the oxen in opposite directions. An ox is a lot slower than a horse.

[L. Marcus]

Re: Exotic Methods for Executions?

 

From The Twelve Kingdoms

Tie the victims hands to a post and an ox to each leg. Drive the oxen in opposite directions. An ox is a lot slower than a horse.

Wow! I bet this does wonders for your posture!

[Susano]

Re: Exotic Methods for Executions?

 

Keelhauling! The bad sailor would be tied to the bow of a sailing ship and chucked off the front. Then the ship would run over him and the condemned man would bounce and tumble over the nails, splinters, and especially the barnacles.

 

As I understand it, a line is tied to the ankles and the wrists, and the man is run along the keel of the ship. As he is face down, the ship's keel goes along his back, where the barnacles tear it to ribbons. I presume this is survivable, as it wasn't a form of execution, just extreme punishment. Of course, this the same navy that uses the cat-o-nine tails to lash people with, and it was possible to be lashed around the fleet, with every ship that you encounter during a voyage obligated to whip the victim.

 

As for bamboo swords -- there is the film HARI-KIRI where a samurai is forced to commit seppuku with a bamboo sword...

[L. Marcus]

Re: Exotic Methods for Executions?

 

As for bamboo swords -- there is the film HARI-KIRI where a samurai is forced to commit seppuku with a bamboo sword...

I've got this one on DVD . . . Pretty nasty scene! Good movie, too. Heart-rending drama and some sword-wielding action.

[Pfathai]

Re: Exotic Methods for Executions?

 

I think The chick who Ged rescued in the second Wizard of EarthSea book did this... Actually she may have turned their bones to salt.

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I've always found flaying people alive and then covering them in salt to be rather nasty.

 

I think it would be interesting if you had one of those "channel healers" (healers that channel sickness from the sick into some other vessel) get control of the people who have been sentanced to death. I mean growing thirty cancers in a day and then becoming a poster boy for the cities leper colonies would be nasty.

No, it was in the first one, at that tower place... this wizard guy made molten lead flow in the guy's bones.

[The Mad GM]

Re: Exotic Methods for Executions?

 

Most ancient forms of execution are both public and fairly inexpensive, so magic is probably not appropriate, even though there was a fair amount of ritual to it.

 

There was some story where a vampire who ruled an area would execute people by turning them and placing them in a cage where the sun would get to them. Or maybe the vampire was merely a courtier, I can't remember.

 

Another story that sounds alot like Dr. No on a budget involved an enormous lens that would focus the sun on a single burning spot that would travel across an arc every day, burning the pattern of it's movements into a steel sheet for astronomical study. Simply put the condemned individual somewhere in the 'afternoon' section of the path.

 

They could serve as targets for experimentation by the alchemist guild apprentices. If they survive a month of hourly imbibing, they are let free.

 

The Maenads tore Orpehus apart, and there was some story where the gods caused some ruler's wife and daughters to go berserk and tear him apart. Compelling violence against a loved one would be a possible punishment for complicity in treason (a crime where expensive methods might be allowable) and one party was less culpable. I'm not sure who gets off easier if the love is sincere.

 

Imprisoning them in a major bell tower that is tolling noon. Apparently the vibrations of that decibel for so long were enough to rupture arteries. There was a murder mystery with that as the premise, Lord Peter Whimsey series by Dorothy Sayers, though the title escapes me.

 

Have them watch as their character sheet is fed into a shredder.