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[Willfor]

I'm in a freeform roleplay where we are using a video game magic system that works on a more realistic scale. (Fire magic doesn't take away HP, because there is no HP. IT SETS YOU ON FIRE, AND YOU DIE PAINFULLY ) My character is going to be killed by another player's character, and I have to start writing up the death, but I want to do a nice death description. I've come up against a problem though:

I can write descriptive deaths well enough, and the words are not the problem. What I am having problems with is figuring out exactly what is going to happen to my character's body when the deathblow hits.

The deathblow I want to do (still need to work it out with the other player, but she's pretty cool with this stuff): A beam of light-based magic is going to rip through the right side of my character's chest slightly below the fourth rib. Since it's not entirely focused like a laser, the light burst is probably going to temporarily effect my character's sight. The beam isn't going to carry any weight behind it, but it's strong. The entire right side of my character's chest would be charred by the beam.

The only thing I don't know is the kind of internal damage that would do. I kind of want it to compromise the lung underneath, but how long would someone survive after that? What organs start shutting down in what order? Is shock going to take him instantly, or would he still be alert enough to know he's a goner?

[Cthulhu]

That's gonna completely destroy his lung.  I'd imagine he'd go into immediate shock from the burns, and the lack of lung, but I don't know how long it would take him to actually die.

[ChairmanPoo]

A beam of light-based magic is going to rip through the right side of my character's chest slightly below the fourth rib.

The entire left side of my character's chest would be charred by the beam.

Right or left? you contradict yourself :p

[Willfor]

Right, sorry. I'll fix it in the post too.

On a somewhat amusing note, this is what it's like trying to take directions from me. >_>

[Ampersand]

I imagine it would be sort of like having heat bore a hole through one's chest. Keep in mind though that unless the heat is both focused and extremely hot, it will take some time, agonizing time, for it to get through. I can tell you that the character would pass out from pain long before dying.

[ChairmanPoo]

actually, I'm pretty sure the volume loss would kill you pretty fast as well.

[Ampersand]

You wouldn't die of bloodloss because the heat would cauterize the wound.

[Willfor]

It's a pretty fast attack laid out like so:



The centre beam is highly focused laser-like energy with enough concentration to punch through and irradiate. The second set of lines are very hot light that isn't as focused, but can cause surface damage. the outer lines are unfocused runoff that is about as bright as looking at the sun for a second.

[ChairmanPoo]

EDIT. saw drawing
well, I'm pretty sure you'd have a guaranteed pneumotorax, and I think that kind of hit would likely hit one of the major vessels. Depending on which unconsciousness would settle either fast or immediatedly. (assuming it didnt hit the heart, I guess)

EDIT 2: got you some images so that you can decide on the basis of this

[Willfor]

Between this and wikipedia, I think I have what I need. I'll leave this open in case someone has a wildly differing opinion, because I like reading these kinds of hypothetical discussions and such. Yes.

Thanks for the help guys.

[Duke 2.0]

 One possibility depends on how hot the light it. If it is hot enough to vaporize the organs all the way through, then the expanding superheated gas would be like a small explosion. I don't know how powerful flesh and blood instantly turning to hot vapor would be, nor how strong the human body is. However, one could assume the side of their chest would explode.

 In gore.

[ChairmanPoo]

I dont think so. Bear in mind that the lung is basically a gas bag. It would be capable of allocating the volume increase (and it wouldnt be that much of an increase, either, methinks)

[Willfor]

I didn't really picture it vaporising as much as soaking through towards the other side, and leaving cooked flesh in its wake. Like a very hot X-ray. Not that I would be opposed to explosions, but the other player's character wouldn't be carrying around the spellbook to the spell that WOULD vaporise things...

[Jualin]

Spoiler: An amateur medical diagnosis of the cause of death (click to show/hide)

The loss of a lung, plus what is most likely to be an elevated heart rate in addition to major internal bleeding from severe inflammation (from having their insides bathed in searing nigh-magma heat) would point to death by asphyxiation, which assuming for an accelerated pulse, such as under combat conditions, would likely kill someone within the 3 minute period for death ascribed by wikianswer to asphyxiation. I would put my money on death within 2 minutes.

You don't have to really care about any other organs because of the brevity, but heat as hot as you ascribe might even go so far as to cause minor heat damage to the heart, other lung, and liver. The right arm might be a bit more impaired at the shoulder than the left arm due to the heat, but the anemia would make both arms shaky enough to useless for anything other than obscene gestures. Y'know, just in case, against all odds, your guy is awake through his last moments.

I hope when or if we can approximate and render damage like this in 3d on the level of individual organs, we will not still be using HP all the time to approximate how many times a person has to be whacked in the face before they die.

[ChairmanPoo]

It's not a full lung-loss, but a pokehole, apparently (according to his drawing).

I think that if it was to that degree it would be the fluid loss what killed you. And probably sooner than 3 mins.

BTW: as for asphyxiation-due-to-lung loss rather than hypovolemia, the loss of a lung is not as important as the compromise of the integrity of the thoracic cavity. Air would penetrate into the pleural space, compromising the ventilatory function.