What is the difference between wood or trash ash and ash from burned human bodies?
The chemicals left in it.
Wood (and most trash, I guess) burns better too, so I suspect ash from human bodies will usually have burnt at higher temperatures, which may have some effect. (Note: I slept my way through Physics, and had an incomprehensible Norwegian for a Chemistry teacher, so I'm probably talking out of the wrong orifice here.)
Burned people usually don't become charcoal.
Burned people usually don't become charcoal.
Contrary to Minecraft logic, neither does burned wood. Usually.
Charcoal requires a relative lack of oxygen, low temperatures and long time. It's a very specific thing.
Human ashes are not something that is easy to achieve. You need high temperatures and long times. If you merely put someone on a jumble of sticks and burn them, you're at most going to end up with a burnt corpse like those found in apartment fires and the like - superficially crisped, but nothing like ash. Then, even if you do have enough heat and time, you will still end up with blackened bones. Calcium isn't good at burning.
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People are greasy.
So people ash would be greasier? I need the physical difference to the naked eye. Its for a game i'm running.
People ash is more powdery and less flaky like wood ash. Probably due to the extreeme temps it takes to turn a corpse into ash.
Its for a game i'm running.
Yes, a "game you're running." Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more, eh?
What burned the corpse?
Magically created fire.
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*peeks in*
Sorry I thought this thread was about that dude from "Evil Dead"
I was going to say it really is his boom stick...
Ok. That's not all that helpful. Is the fire particularly hot?
Although, in all honesty, this is the wrong direction.
Do you, as GM, want the remains to be identifiably different from other burnt meat and bones or biomass?
If you do because it's a clue, ask for a easy knowledge check or just give the players the info if they're examining it.
If you don't want them to figure it out by inspecting the leftovers, they don't.
The fire was hot enough to reduce the flesh to ash and not leave any bones left.
In all probability, there would be NOTHING visible left, except serious burnmarks on the ground, the walls, and the ceiling. All the ash would have been tossed around and spread out by movement of hot air.
O.k. so have the pieces ground up then burned. Interesting. Chances are fire produced by 4th or lower probably wouldn't reach the high of temperature I was thinking of.
I doubt it. Plus, you'd want to burn the remains and then grind them up. In Real Life, I've seen a case where someone tried to cover up a suspicious death by burning the remains, but failed to realize how hot and prolonged the fire had to be.