Death animation for swirling object

I'm making a monster that is made up of rocks. The head hovers while several other rocks swirl around it. The problem is if I do a normal death animation with the rocks dropping down and what not it'll look jerky. I'm picturing the player landing the deathblow in midrotation of the rocks and suddenly they jerk back into place for the death animation. I was wondering if it'd be possible to do the death animation through torque's physics. If I could just make all the rocks become affected by gravity when the death happens and they fall down by themselves without an animation making it look more seamless than jerky. I'm doubting Torque could do it, so if anyone has tips about doin an animation like this, it'd be greatly apperciated.