Stabbed? In the Chest? Behind the Screen

This was the hardest session to prepare so far.

This chapter starts out like a murder mystery, only it gives you almost no material to go on. The worst part, though, is the bizarre and unrealistic railroading. The players are expected to see a doppelganger of a corpse communicate with some evil looking undead types and just look on without attacking. And then think to follow them? It’s bizarre. There’s no easy solution other than showing your players the rails and telling them to pursue rather than fight. You could cut the jaunt into Set’s Realm and skip ahead to the last few pages of the chapter either. I have plans for Set’s Realm though so my solution is there’s some kind of tiny Visage hideout near the portal and NPCs will direct the players there.  

From then on it’s kind of a murder mystery. With murder mysteries you need to work backwards as a DM. The end point in this instance is the players following the visage into the portal. Get them there by signposting it, either through NPCs or found items/knowledge. My rough plans are this:

  • Renik hid a dewcollecting device in the pillow in his room (DC 15 Perception check). The device was a secret prototype. Either made by him, or given to him to mass produce. He got it from the dewcollectors. Speaking to the dewcollectors, they’re a bit pissed. One of them was collecting dew from collector sheets further out of Crux (towards the portal, they can give directions) and saw Renik wandering there two days ago. They chased him down, said hello, asked for the collector device back, and Renik fobbed them off. 
  • Renik’s room contains a travelling backpack containing a business card reading the following: “Dymvasis Ren, Crux’s Premier Mercer and Trader. We branch out so you don’t have to! Crux Market and Storehouses”. Renik approached Dymvasis a few days ago to seek a trading partnership. Dymvasis, being an aloof berk, said no. Renik approached him again more recently, asking if he would be interested in a lavish dinner at his house, at his own expense. Dymvasis would’ve said yes, but had already agreed to dine with Veridis Mov that night. 
  • Renik’s room contains a leather carrying case/toolbox containing: Knives, an axe, small sheets and ingots of metals, tongs, shears, hammer, a pick, and a grappling hook. These were loaned to him by Targas Vid, the tool seller, so Renik could inspect their craftsmanship and quality. Targas spoke to Renik more recently on the outskirts of town (in the direction of the portal) and asked for the tools back. “Renik” fobbed him off, too.

 

On the whole, this session went okay. The players had just finished the peak of the last chapter, and spent a fair while talking to NPCs before the next event could set the tension level back on an upward trajectory. I didn’t describe the murder scene in great detail first time round, so the PCs’ investigation was a bit slow and uncertain. Also everyone forgot that Andres’s character can cast speak with dead, which was a source of minor frustration for me. If I ran the session again I’d ask “Are there any last places anyone wants to investigate, or any spells or abilities anyone wants to use, or are you ready to move on?” and hopefully that’d be reminder enough.

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