Writer Storm - A Brainstorming Community

 Hi all! I've been meaning to post this up here for awhile, but I need some ideas for faking someone's death.

Same world as I've been talking about before, approximately late-19th century style technology, with magic included. Also, my characters are in a different part of the world than they were before, so I'm also open to ideas  that might be new to them. 

So  two of my characters are traveling together on their quest (they heard a  rumor about a drug or herb that they think can help detox their friend (T) who is suffering from nevethe (magic) poisoning, and must pass through a country called Rengroth to get to their destination. The younger prince of Rengroth is a poor excuse for a human being, and my characters stand up to him when he's bullying someone in a tavern. He ends up backing off, but his cronies kidnap one of the two (E) and take him to a pirate island to be sold into slavery. They set things up to make it look like he's dead to his friend (J).

I'm trying to figure out how they might fake E's death, so that J will actually believe it and move on. On the one hand, J will definitely not want to waste time and press on to see if the cure for T amounts to anything. On the other hand, J and E are best friends and have been like family for over half their lives. I don't think he would abandon E unless he was absolutely sure that E was dead, and that there was nothing he could do to save him. Basically, I need J to move on (at least physically from that location, if not emotionally), because there's nothing he can do there,not because he's choosing one friend over another or anything like that.

I considered a poison or drug that would render E unconscious, and would look like death from the outside. But even in that case, if J just sees that his friend is dead, he'd probably want to make sure the remains were taken care of. I think there ought to be some other way to prove he's dead without J seeing the body, but can't think of any.

Rengroth is similar to the Middle East in climate, although probably not quite as technologically advanced as the country J and E are from. I think the prince is less likely to really understand how to use the magic of that world, although I wouldn't put it past him to get some black market drug made with magic or something where the work had already been done for him. He's a somewhat regular visitor to the pirate island, and enjoys himself there regularly.

Thoughts?

I'm having some issues with this plot point in my book.

I'm in revision right now, but the original way I had this going was that my Female Lead sneaks into a small group of soldiers in disguise, so that she can join them, and hopefully prevent them from doing anything she doesn't approve of to her fiance when they find him (because that's the mission they're set to do. She is disguised as a man (not because women weren't allowed in the army, but because that was the only uniform she could get a hold of, and the guy was pretty close to her size and coloring), who was supposed to go on the mission and was a bit of a newbie, and this was going to be his first mission (She and her friend bribed and bullied him into skipping town and staying out of the way until she got back. I'm sure that will have other consequences for him later, but not important for my story at this point). I pretty much didn't address any issues as to why they believe she's this other soldier (My original thought was that the people for this mission had been pulled from several different squads, and hadn't actually met each other before), and just accept her into the group. Yes, I know I stretched that a bit. At the very least, I figured these people should have met before going on this mission together, and I don't think they have access to special polymer masks that conform to your face, and can imitate someone else's perfectly. (This is my society that has a magical/electrical energy force, but otherwise the technology would be similar to late 1800s America).

There is the issue that she is still a complete rookie (she can fence with a sword, but she's never fired a gun in her life), and it seems odd that someone like that would be sent on a mission to arrest someone accused of murder. I don't have as much of an issue with that as I do with the just accepting that she's this other person that I would think they've met before, if not trained with before. I explained it away in my head by saying that even though it's a serious crime her fiance has been accused of, he's well known and been brought up by an aristocratic family, and they're not actually expecting much trouble out of him,, so they're sending the newbie along on a "training mission" with the more experienced soldiers. But it's still a bit weird, an I'd like to find a way to make that work better.

At this point, I'm thinking she doesn't have to replace that soldier specifically (and by that, I mean, she doesn't have to pretend to be him - she still can't be herself, exactly - plus, I really like having her pretend to be a guy). She could be someone completely new suddenly joining the team, and replacing the other guy. I'm assuming she would need some sort of paperwork - false ID, orders from above, etc. In my revisions, there is the possibility that the captain of the squad does have a way to communicate quickly with his superiors. I have a not widely available form of communication that's basically a copper plate infused with revtha (my form of magic), that's attuned to another plate, so that messages traced on one plate will show up on the other one. So far, I have public transportation using this in an emergency, and I have my female lead with one because her friend stole a prototype out of the laboratory so they could communicate. But again, not widely available. I was thinking the captain might have one if his mission is considered important enough (and I figured it is). That complicates things a bit since it means he can't find out who she is until after they've found her fiance and she's broken her cover.

What would you need to believe the sudden switch in personnel? Reasons for sending someone inexperienced on an important mission? The fact that they believe her and take her under their wings for this mission? I can probably get her forged papers, but what would they need to be? What else would she need to deceive them?

This is a semi-Victorian, semi-steampunk-ish alternate world fantasy setting.

Background: T has been kidnapped by pirates led by M, who are using her as bait to get J. J, E, and I (along with 3 soldiers, who are meant to escort J back to their city for trial) plan to rescue T, of course, despite knowing that it's a trap meant for J. They have to go to Muir (a bit like Tortuga in PotC, but worse - actually,there's probably a fair amount of this book that's PotC ispired), the island where T is being held captive by the pirates.

One of their problems in getting to Muir is that there is a large maelstrom surrounding the island, where the island stays ok mostly because it's in the eye of the storm (I'm still working out the mechanics on this). There's a passage that's difficult to navigate, and fairly impossible if you don't know what you're doing. J knows about it, but hasn't gone that way since he was twelve, so he's a little rusty. To get through this, theyve found S, an old friend of J's and M's, to help get them through (even though she hasn't taken that path in even longer than J, probably still knows it better).

I've got some ideas for the series of events that goes next, but it starts with them trying to rescue T, and I think they need to have some sort of plan for rescuing her. Not a foolproof one, but something better than "let's charge in there and hope no one notices." Most likely, I and S will turn back once they've gotten the others through (S because she doesn't really want to have anything to do with M, and I because she's not a fighter, and since she and S are both the scientific geniuses, everyone figures it would be safer and more useful for her to go back with S). J, at least, and possibly E (maybe the others) will get captured and find T. T, meanwhile, has become addicted to a new drug M is making, so her willingness to leave is compromised by the fact that she can't get the drug anywhere else. That could be where their plan fails, except I don't know if I want to reveal her until after J gets captured.

My first problem is trying to figure out their plan, though. It should be easy to sabotage, since M is expecting J to come, and one of the soldiers with the group has betrayed them in the past, and might do so again.

Any suggestions for decent plans, or how I might possibly go about trying to create one?

I need some random, crazy ideas here.

The setting is an alternate world, a bit remniscent of Victorian America, but with steampunk elements. Magic/energy in this world is evthene, composed of revtha (physical) waves, and kethna (spiritual) waves. There has been a lot of research into manipulating revtha (think kinetic energy, temperature, electricity, etc.), but not much is known about using/controlling kethna.

I need ideas for a guy trying to politely discourage a girl who wants to marry him, without offending her or her father (who has a lot of political influence, and is bad to offend, basically). He has a sister who likes to invent things, and is pretty good at manipulating revtha.

Good and bad ideas are welcome. Actually, bad ideas might be even better than good ones, though I'd appreciate some heads up on the ways the bad ideas could go wrong (For the most part, at this point, this is for conversation pieces, as the guy and his sister brainstorm ways for him to get out of his betrothal, as neither of them can really stand the bride-to-be for long periods of time). I'm thinking that later on, they might try one or two of them.

Help!