It's mid-summer, and the caravan is about to leave. The human liaison- actually, the merchant princess has just popped up the first meeting screen, with whoever she meets with (it's the mayor if I have no baron, right?). I linger for awhile, then decide to go check on her to see how the meeting is and whatnot. Turns out she's quite dead, in the middle of my crafting area, with my town manager/broker innocently creating mechanisms nearby. There were no messages informing me of her death, I didn't have combat reports in dwarf companion (can't figure out how it works), and there's probably no stealth goblin ninjas hanging around in my crafting area. Absolutely no clue as to how she died. My mayor is an expert wrestler, and my organizing broker is a miner/mechanic/farmer.
I'm gonna continue my search in the mystery of the murdered merchant... and also annoying accidental alliteration.
EDIT: I checked my mayor for any incidental human blood coverings. All he's got on his +obsidian short sword+ is an interesting mixture of goblin, kobold, and werewolf blood. The fortress guard are questioning several witnesses, but have declined to talk to us.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION: None of her clothes have blood stains on them. There are no missing limbs, or any signs of violence whatsoever. Holy friggin crap this is weird.
CONCLUSION: Officer Keldor has solved the case. It turns out she probably just died from old age. The entire fortress guard slaps their forehead and give out a collective 'Duh!'.
This is why having corpse descriptions will be great.
TL;DR version: Human Merchant Princess died for no apparent reason, shortly after the meeting screen popped up. I freak out and make myself look stupid.
[ May 08, 2008: Message edited by: Ubersoldat ]