Method to His Madness: A Very Theatrical Murder Mystery

[roguerouge]

Since the wiki seems to have eaten this one, I thought I'd post my murder mystery here. Much thanks to the Enworld posters who helped me with the genre issues and brainstormed it with me and Green Ronin for the Freeport stuff.

Hook: The party bard has been cast in her first big role, in the opera “Tristan and Isolde.”[1] But this make or break part may end up breaking her as murders disrupt the rehearsals. Solve the mystery or miss your chance at stardom.

Adventure summary: The main murderer is the Method Actor. The motive is to advance his artistic agenda by getting his followers in the understudies to prominent roles. The means are "accidents."

Red herrings: the fight master, the child impersonator, the ghost.

 

[roguerouge]

The cast:

The Impressario: The gnome conductor owns the theater, although he draws from other musicians when the needs of the business or rehearsals take precedence. It's the 100th anniversary of the theater and he's running it's very first play: Tristan and Isolde. He's convinced that he can make the PC into a star, despite her being a mezzo soprano instead of a soprano.
• The Ingenue and the Aging Battle Axe are both upset with him over this casting choice (as he will admit with a Diplomacy check.)
• That play has a reputation akin to MacBeth. (bardic knowledge check)
• The theater and the Impressario are in financial difficulties. (This can be uncovered with a Gather Information 15 check in the right underworld circles, a GI 25 elsewhere, a Search check on the reviews and news coverage, or with a Sense Motive DC 26.) The money troubles motivate his unusual casting of the PC against vocal type and his PR use of her heroism.
• The Swan Street Slicer murders are dragging down sales. (Gather Info 10 results in idle conversation with box office gossip.) Success here gives +2 circumstance bonus to uncovering financial difficulties.
• The head of the Halfling Benevolent Association, placed a halfling child impersonator in the cast to keep an eye on things. If the show's going to bomb, he'd want to know about it before it happens. That loan will come due after the end of the big run.
• The Impressario will push to keep the theater open at all costs. The Show Must Go On!

The Aging Battle Axe: Hates you. This diva understudies for the PC and is pissed about it. "Stay out of my light and do exactly what I tell you, dear, and we'll get along fine." Hates the Ingenue for reminding her of her glory days and the PC for being an upstart. Will upstage, undermine, and sabotage the PC, who’s yet another threat to her fading career. In a rocky relationship with the Avuncular Drunk, but blames his infatuation for the Ingenue for breaking it up. (Her shrewishness and his drinking played bigger roles.) She causes a scene over the Maid-King love scene.

The Ingenue: Plays the maid who ends up sleeping with the King. Dislikes the PC because "That part was mine!" Otherwise, a trifle air-headed and vulnerable to the blather of anyone who praises her. Thinks the PC is simply an annoying bit of hucksterism by the Impressario that will not seriously block her career. Thinks this murder mystery is about framing her. “It’s all about me! Me, me, me!”
• Not a killer, but a motivation for killing: she creates backstage drama by sleeping around. Diplomacy among the main cast reveals rumors of her casting couch session with the gnome Impressario to escape being an extra, her rejection of the Lech, her October-May affair with the Avuncular Drunk and resulting blow-ups with the Aging Battle Axe, and her current affair with the Method Actor. A Gather Info check among the stage-hands finds her canoodling with a handsome extra behind the Method Actor’s back. A Gather Info check among the musicians finds rumors that Gorsky believes she’ll never be a star. A Gather Info check among the extras finds that she’s a believer in the Method, which she isn’t but they believe she is.

The Bore: Plays Kerwenal, the servant of Tristan. Voice of an angel but with the personality of wet cardboard off-stage. Believes in the Method, not that he advocates for it. Recently elevated to Kerwenal role, a lucky break for the Method Actor, which gives him credibility among the extras.

The Lech: Plays the Melot role, who kills Tristan and is second in line to the throne. Initiates on-stage "touch attacks," if you get my drift, depending on female actresses not wanting to ruin their performances. Sees something later while spying on women changing through a hidden hole in their dressing room. Was rejected by the Ingenue even though she slept her way up to rise from the ranks of the extras. Dies to prevent him from telling what he knows.

The Avuncular Drunk: Plays the King who marries Isolde and sleeps with her maid. He’s on the wagon until the curtain rises, at which point the stage hands start to frantically try to find his hidden bottles of liquor. He had been sleeping with the Ingenue, which wrecked his on/off again relationship with the Battle Axe, as it enraged her. Thought of the Ingenue as a sweet girl in need of saving from herself, especially from her poor choices with the Method Actor, who he sees right through.

The Method Actor: Plays Tristan. "I have to use my fear of these horrible murders to get into my character..." Major interests seem to be advancing his career, advancing his theory of the Method[2], and advancing you into his bed. Think Donald Sutherland in Animal House. He’s not above using his body to convert actors or actresses to his beloved Method style of acting. He will make a pass at the PC. Overconfident in his ability to pull off the role of a lifetime. Knows about the ghost stories around this play and this theater and figures to use it as cover. Knows that any artistic failures will be blamed on the Impressario and the PC.
• He kills the Avuncular Drunk and the Aging Battle Axe off because he’s starting small and everyone has motive to kill her and/or want him out of the way. Subsequent victims should be chosen based on their roles and their order will depend on the opportunities presented by their daily routines. Understudies should all have ironclad alibis for their main's demises, as the plan goes kaput if the Method Man's proteges are arrested for murder instead of getting to step into the roles.
• But if he finds out about the HBA-Impressario connection and is not feeling pressure, he’ll start blackmailing the gnome to cast his people, threatening to tell his other investors of his true financial position or to inform to the HBA about how badly rehearsals are going. He’d offer himself as the solution to Finn, never realizing the danger or admitting the possibility of being wrong about his acolytes. If he finds out and he’s feeling pressure from the PC’s suspicion, he’ll kill the Impressario hoping to push attention on the HBA.
• The Method Actor is murdering to advance his artistic agenda: he kills people based not on who they are, but based on who their backup is. If their backup has been converted to The Method, then he tries to advance their career....

Aasimar costume designer and stage manager: Tall, shock of blonde hair, trimmed close to scalp, violent eyes. Disowned due to wasting his talents in the theater, but, it’s in his blood. Totally devoted to the Impressario, who’s pulled the theater through worse troubles than this one and brought culture to pirates. Self-conscious in front of strangers. Has actually seen the ghost and is terrified of her. Secret: sleeps with one male stage hand or musician each season and only for that season. “Oh no you di-int!”

The Disgruntled Stage Hand: An actor who got fired for a poor performance and is now gleeful that his performance as a stage hand is so masterful. Hoping to ruin the theater. If there is dirt, backstage, he will spill it to the worst party possible.

The Ghostly Composer: The original elvish female composer comes back to watch performances of Tristan and Isolde. When pleased with performances, one sees her as she was, a “well-preserved” old lady. When angered by talentless hacks, her hair blows in a non-existent wind, her face partially rots and her eyes enlarge and flash. In the past, invariably one or two deaths occur, either due to a person fleeing from her frightful moan into an accident, her telekinesis causing something to fall on someone or hit them, or dying of “stage fright” from her withering gaze. Protecting the legacy of her masterpiece is her sole motivation. Her presence may precipitate deaths by heightening the emotions that lead to it, but ultimately she wants the show to go on. Might very well target the PC if the PC fails perform checks during rehearsals frequently. If the PC needs help, she might provide information or direct combat aid if the Method extras are not working out. She will do what is necessary to protect her masterpiece.
• A GI check 10 reveals ghost tales and speculation that it’s the composer, a neglected extra, or the spirit of an anguished Ingenue seduced and abandoned. Told in a manner of kidding around, theatrically, or to scare the Noobs and extras.
• A Search check 20 of the archives of a good temple’s library or a Diplomacy 15 of the gossip or the drunk leads to the knowledge of a ghost. Every 5 by which this succeeds, reveals an extra clue: never someone with good reviews, death by a panicked flight through the theater, death by accident (a falling axe), or a visiting performer who died of stage fright before her first performance. There’s also more than a few reports on backstage drama in EVERY performance.
• Each week of rehearsals, have the PC make perform checks with an unannounced DC of 28. The Ghost starts with an attitude of Indifferent, having not made up her mind. Each failed check moves her attitude one spot worse, with successes improving her mood. A hostile reaction or any critical failure will cause the Ghost to start targeting the PC.
• A helpful attitude will cause her to manifest and offer aid to the PC. The PC can win her assistance by persuading her to view the new arrangement as the highest possible compliment, but could also push her over to the dark side by offending her, so that the outcome of the investigation depends on her capacity to understand and communicate with her. The ghost’s Sense Motive score is +0; due to her devotion to art and imagination, she doesn’t have much real-world experience.


The Gnome F/X Coordinator: Gnome illusionist responsible for all the strange noises, fog, illusions, etc. Thinks its funny to try and get the actors to break character during rehearsals.

The Child Impersonator: This halfling child impersonator has been assigned to keep an eye on things for the head of the Halfling Benevolent Association. If the show's going to bomb, he'd want to know about it before it happens. That loan will come due after the end of the big run.
• Seeing through the disguise requires a Spot 22. Clues to real identity include: Perform (sing) +0 skill (although he is a good actor, he’s got a thin, reedy voice) and he has to re-roll his Disguise +12 when around cards at a -2 modifier due to his addiction to gambling. This is how the Method Actor knows his real identity.
• The PC might have the good luck to meet another child understudy, Rajya, who knows the real Timothy on sight, as he belonged to an Easterners rival group of kids until recently. “He used to pull her hair and throw rocks, but otherwise he was kinda nice. You know. [Nods]” If pressed, she gives a story that starts in the middle, rockets right to the beginning, then off-handedly mentions the end.
• The Child Impersonator is nearby or one of the first on the scene for every death and, therefore, a suspect, once the HBA connection is turned up. After a few murders, he’s seen the murderer in action and is on his way to impart this knowledge to the HBA when he is killed in a hasty improvisational way to prevent the giving of evidence.

The Fight Master: Frequent lines: “What’re you doing?” and “Do me a favor: shut up and watch.” This ex-mercenary owner of Otto’s Magic Shop in the bad part of town is brought in to choreograph stage fights. He's a retired adventurer who loves stories, but has charisma as his dump stat. Hence the reason he's selling magic weaponry in the red light district. He does this gig for the lucre and the free tickets to the opera. The connection to the bad part of town and his personality makes him a red herring.
• Old man, grizzled face, crew cut hair, sinewy gristle for muscles. Always wears a breastplate +3 and carries an bastard sword +3 (45’ radius light). In stage fight rehearsals, he’ll use a dulled stage weapon, for an AC 18 and an attack at +12. Assume he has every weapon fighting trick but the power attack ones.

The Box Office Gossip: Full of gossip, utterly sunny disposition, natters on. “My father was a sailor, but I got started selling lemons on the dock 65 years ago when someone offered me money for one of me lemons, for more money than I ever had, and well, let me tell you, I marched right back and bought some more fruit and sold that and eventually I needed to have Balthazar haul around the fruit until he died. Who was Balthazar? He was a donkey and let me tell you…”
• The Swan Street Slicer is dragging down sales. (Gather Info 10 results in idle conversation with box office gossip.) Success here gives +2 circumstance bonus to uncovering financial difficulties.
• A GI check 10 reveals ghost tales and speculation that it’s the composer, a neglected extra, or the spirit of an anguished Ingenue seduced and abandoned. Told in a manner of kidding around, theatrically, or to scare the Noobs and extras.
• Possible murder victim because her Spot and Listen scores are +10 and +12. Might not tell what she knows until it’s too late, because she got the after-hours info when she was skimming a little pocket money off the receipts, as she does each night.

The cop: The city's cops are distracted by the Swan Street Slicer (a serial killer targeting the aristocracy, as in the great Dungeon adventure, “Shut In”). They're not likely to send their best man. Someone Lawful is assigned to this case because he's low in the cop hierarchy and thus not trusted with the top case in this corrupt town: the manhunt for the killer of the aristocracy. Play him as a thorough, methodical, unimaginative drone. If the PC succeeds in unraveling this plot, then she gains a low-ranking ally who will rise after the Cult’s demise. A competent, trust-worthy within limits contact.

 

[roguerouge]

The Understudies:
Bina (The PC’s and the Aging Battle Axe’s understudy): ready, acrobatic, crafty, and earthy. An excellent actress. Elevated to Understudy at death of Aging Battle Axe. Inside track to be cast in the comic female sidekick role in the next play.

Jardin (understudy Avuncular Drunk’s King role): pedantic to give impression of greater learning than he has, attracted to the Method because it’s a new theory, clumsy.

Edwin Drood (plays shepherd, understudy to Lech’s Melot role): young, hopeless idealist for the Method, completely wrapped around Ingenue’s finger, dumb hunk of a man.

 

[roguerouge]

Crimes:
If you need a crime on the fly, consider: The fallen chandelier or sandbag, the slip on the catwalk, the malfunctioning special effect, the half-cut-through board or rope, dust wiped away, a shoe scuff (for the cop to figure out), the original dulled weapon “misplaced” backstage and the fight master’s real one taken up, the crystal goblet that wasn’t there before the rehearsal, the whispers of a curse...

DMs should look at this section as a guideline rather than a recipe. Respond to how your players are doing in this environment.
0. The Method Actor begins hiding easily-found liquor bottles throughout the theater, hoping the Avuncular Drunk gets rid of himself.
• Can be discovered by a search check, especially after he falls off the wagon.
• 1 or 3. Murder of the Avuncular Drunk: Falls down stairs, due to a shove while liquored up on the catwalk. Killing advances career of Jardin or killed because he’s taking too long to drink himself out of the part, if the PC stops him.
• If he’s second, he’s been drinking more heavily in mourning for the Aging Battle Axe, so it looks like an accident. It throws suspicion on the Impressario, on the Lech whom he drunkenly and publicly embarrassed for his lack of manhood during a stage fight rehearsal, and, perhaps, on the Ingenue (if people put together the relationship with Edwin, or if there’s an embarrassing scene on stage). Who doesn’t want the unreliable lead replaced by his understudy?
• Extra bottles indicate malice aforethought, physical evidence leads to murder, re-examining physical evidence eventually indicates prior accident was murder, footprint moves investigation away from HBA.
• 1 or 3. Murder of Aging Battle Axe : Midway through rehearsals, killed by falling sandbag DSL to advance career of Bina after the PC’s gone. Declared an accident by people at theater, but the cop takes his time with the body and the scene.
• Murdered first because any number of understudies, Ingenue, Avuncular Drunk, Impressario, Ghost, and the PC could have wanted her dead. Also throws suspicion towards those who hate the PC too, as it could have been the PC, especially since the PC was sick that day of rehearsal, resting her voice.
• Can be discovered as murder by checking the ropes themselves. Could guess motive from the Bore, Bina, and conversation. Couldn’t prove anything, however, without slipping the murderer an elixir of love and a kickin’ Diplomacy check to get him to recruit the PC. Confession likely thrown out in court under these circumstances.
1. Blackmail of the Gnome Impressario: Method Actor next finds out about the HBA-Impressario connection, he’ll start blackmailing the Impressario to cast his people, threatening to tell his other investors of his true financial position or to inform to the HBA about how badly rehearsals are going. He’d offer himself as the solution to the HBA, never realizing the danger or admitting the possibility of being wrong about his acolytes.
• If he’s feeling pressure from the PC’s suspicion, he’ll kill the Impressario later hoping to push attention on the HBA.
• Can be uncovered through gathering info in underworld and figuring out precarious finances, increasing desperation for show to go on, guessing that understudies had some help from watching them, speaking with dead on the Lech, or intimidating it out of the Impressario.
• 4. Murder of the Letch : Killed due to blackmailing, but also advances Edwin’s career. He saw the Method Actor hiding liquor in the Avuncular Drunk’s room while he was returning from spying on the Ingenue and Edwin. Tried to blackmail the Method actor for some lovin’ from the extras. He was expecting a girl to visit him when he died. Has cost of throwing suspicion on to the Ingenue, which the Method Actor doesn’t want. Suspects include every woman who ever met him, and the Impressario.
• Could be murdered on stage in a sneak preview after the original dulled weapon is “misplaced” backstage and a real one is used by the Bore, who really does kill him on stage. It’s the performance of the Lech’s life. Killing in this way also aids the Bore, who may become a better actor due to the trauma of the experience.
• Hidden passage indicates forbidden knowledge, Speak with Dead details attempted blackmail, lack of an extra who was going to meet him indicates premeditated murder. Find the missing weapon!
• Murder of Child Impersonator: Strangled hastily for what he saw. Use if the PC still isn’t getting it.
• Murder of Janis the Gossip: Falling axe from wall mount kills her for what she heard. Use if the PC really isn’t getting it.

 

[roguerouge]

Clues:
• Why’s the Battle Axe on the Warpath? A diplomacy check on the Ingenue, Impressario, or Drunk discovers that she’s upset with the Impressario over casting the PC and having a love scene between the Ingenue and the Avuncular Drunk, who were once lovers.
• Search for bottles: A Search 20 of the entire theater turns up way too many bottles for even the Avuncular Drunk to have hidden them himself.
• Motive: That the replacements are all Method actors can be discovered by asking them the right questions or gathering information about this issue directly. Nobody volunteers the acting philosophy because they regard it as irrelevant unless directly asked.
• The Avuncular Drunk Knows: He was trying to advise the Ingenue to drop the Method Actor, whom he suspected of unchivalrously using her. A Listen check catches the end of a blow-up argument between himself and the Method Actor.
• Cops/Physical Evidence: On 2nd murder scene, Search 25 sees a scuff mark from a shoe not of the Child Impersonator’s size and identifies it as significant because it is roughly of the same age of the scene by the amount of dust there.
• Cops/Physical Evidence: On 2nd murder leads the cop to test ropes similar to those from the first murder with fraying and with knife. Concludes after a day the rope was cut with a very sharp knife. Immediately fixates on following up the Fight master’s bad side of town connection, then on the Ingenue.
• Cops/Physical Evidence: The coroner discovers a pin-prick hole at the cartoid artery in the Avuncular Drunk’s neck while preparing his body for cremation. This is inconsistent with a fall and points to murder after the fall left the man helpless.
• Cops/Physical Evidence: The coroner notes at the scene of the crime that the strangulation marks come from a human man with below average strength, wielding a rope from behind.
• Cops/Physical Evidence: The coroner notes at the scene of the crime that this body is that of a halfling, not a human boy.
• Cops/Physical Evidence: The cop finds a broken piece of string near the axe that killed the Box Office Gossip, which was how the axe fell.
• Search: The Lech spies on women in their dressing room. Search to find hidden passage or holes in walls.
• Search: The Lech has sketches of various female actresses and extras in various states of undress. Very definitely potential blackmail material.
• Search: the Avuncular Drunk has a large collection of past stage weapons in his dressing room.
The Ingenue’s Sex Life:
• Diplomacy among the main cast reveals rumors of her casting couch session with the Impressario to escape the extras, her rejection of the Lech, her October-May affair with the Avuncular Drunk and resulting blow-ups with the Battle Axe, and her current affair with the Method Actor.
• A Gather Info check among the stage-hands finds the above plus that she’s been seen canoodling with a handsome extra behind the Method Actor’s back. o A Gather Info check among the musicians finds none of those rumors but instead that Gorsky believes she’ll never be a star.
• A Gather Info check among the extras finds the current affair and that she’s a believer in the Method. She isn’t, but they believe she is because she tells the men she’s sleeping with what they want to hear.
Presence of a Curse:
• Tristan and Isolde has a reputation of being haunted by ill-fortune. (Bardic Knowledge)
• A GI check 10 reveals ghost tales and speculation that it’s the composer, a neglected extra, or the spirit of an anguished Ingenue seduced and abandoned. Told in a manner of kidding around, theatrically, or to scare the Noobs and extras.
• A Diplomacy 15 of the gossip or the drunk leads to the knowledge of a ghost. Every 5 by which this succeeds, reveals an extra clue: never someone with good reviews, death by a panicked flight through the theater, death by accident (a falling axe), or a visiting performer who died of stage fright before her first performance. There’s also more than a few reports on backstage drama in EVERY performance.
• A Search check 20 of the archives of the good temple reveals all such information, given enough time.
Finances:
• The Swan Street Slicer is dragging down sales. (Gather Info 10 results in idle conversation with box office gossip.) Success here gives +2 circumstance bonus to uncovering financial difficulties.
• The theater and the Impressario are in financial difficulties. (This can be uncovered with a Gather Information 15 check in the right underworld circles, a GI 25 elsewhere, a Search check on the reviews and news coverage, or with a Sense Motive DC 26.) The money troubles motivate his unusual casting of the PC against vocal type and his PR use of her heroism.
• The Box Office Gossip is skimming lightly off the top, which prevents her from coming forward later. Can be uncovered by catching her in the act, after hours, or by a search through the financial records of the theater by a professional.
The Child Impersonator is on the scene for every discovery of the murders.
• “That’s No Boy!”: Seeing through the disguise requires a Spot 22. Clues to real identity include Perform +0 skill (although he is a good actor) and he has to re-roll his Disguise +12 when around cards at a -2 modifier due to his addiciton to gambling. This is how the Method Actor knows his real identity.
• The Cabin Girl: The PC has the good luck to talk to an understudy or a girl about town, Rajya, who knows the real Timothy on sight, as he belonged to an Easterners rival group of kids until recently. “He used to pull her hair and throw rocks, but otherwise he was kinda nice. You know. [Nods]” If pressed, she gives a story that starts in the middle, rockets right to the beginning, then off-handedly mentions the end.

The Fight Master: Under diplomacy, will admit that he dislikes the Lech (lack of manliness), the Bore (lack of charisma in his fighting), and works in the bad part of town (Knowledge: Local).
• Who was last seen with the missing dulled weapon?

Divination Spells:
• Speak with Dead is easy. The victims don't know much about the murderer: the Aging Battle Axe was due to a trap, the push from behind for the Avuncular Drunk, the falling axe was a remote controlled trap for the Gossip, the strangulation from behind of the Lech… The spell does reveal the Lech’s blackmail scheme, the blackmailing (only) of the Impressario by the Method Actor, and that he was waiting for some lovin’.
• The method actor will probably be immune to Detect Thoughts most of the time. It only detects surface thoughts, and he can use his acting training to "get into character" in a way that moves any thoughts of guilt away from the forefront of his mind. His training means that he can use his Disguise/Performance check instead of his Will save.
• Zone of Truth might be foiled through half-truths or refusals to answer or appeals to their physical relationship.
• The theater itself detects as evil while the ghost remains. The Method Actor, the Lech, the Child Impersonator, and the Ingenue all read as low-powered, selfish evil.
• Charm person makes someone friendly, not suicidal. The Method Actor won’t give himself up because of this spell.

 

[roguerouge]

Possible unscheduled events:
• A card game amongst the extras that the Child Impersonator’s too interested in.
• The Impressario is seen late in the office, going over a stack of papers.
• The Avuncular Drunk berates the Lech for his poor combat skills.
• The Aging Battle Axe and the Avuncular Drunk fight over his love scene on stage with the Ingenue.
• The PC takes a weekly Fort save that increases in difficulty. If failed, the PC has to take a day off to rest her voice from the strain of this infamously difficult opera.
• The Impressario plans PR scenes for the PC to drum up ticket sales, leading to frosty reception from the Aging Battle Axe and the Ingenue. But the Avuncular Drunk takes the PC under his wing, gives tips on how to husband her energy and save her voice.
• Weekly perform checks by the PC influence how the cast and the Impressario treats her.
• The Method Actor flirts with the PC, invites her out for after-rehearsal drink, and if things go well attempts to seduce the PC.
• The first two murders produce newspaper coverage that increasingly features “the ghost angle.”
• One of the understudies or musicians heard something that the PC failed to uncover.
• Have a near-miss on the PC.
• The Impressario comes up with the brilliant idea to have a scene described in the original version be shown on stage in his version. The early capture of Isolde and killing of her fiancé should happen on stage to take advantage of the PC’s sword skills. How will this play to the ghostly composer?
• The Impressario comes up with the brilliant idea to have the chase of Isolde occur in an illusion with orchestral backing and more combat from Isolde.
• The Aging Battle Axe met with an outside investor in the theater. She was trying to get a better part, but perhaps someone suspects that she was spilling the beans on how rehearsal were going?
• The ghost possesses an extra forced into a role beyond their abilities so as to force them to give the “performance of a lifetime.”
• Rehearsals of the love scene between Tristan and Isolde get the Ingenue unaccountably jealous.
• The opera does feature a love potion and a potion of poison. I’m just sayin’.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Awesome-ness!

Just one criticism: Why would the Child Impersonator bother impersonating an actual person and risk exposure? Child actors are a dime a dozen in a poor city full of orphans who need to do something to get by. Then having the PCs just bump into a random who happens to know that "Timothy" is an impostor is bit... contrived.

You've already got means for the PCs to see through his disguise (good old spot checks, the gambling, legwork following up the debt.) Randomly bumping into Rajya is superfluous.

But that is my one (small) criticism. It really is a great plot. I love the ghost. If I ever get a chance to run this I'd use her early and lots. Also like an endearing(ish) avuncular drunk. They call to me.

XP to you sir!

 

[roguerouge]

Honestly, the PC never ended up seeing through the disguise, so it never got used. It was a fail safe in case the player got frustrated with the mystery. If she was stuck, the cabin girl or the PC identifies him and then you've got some clues to work with to restart the plot. (The cabin girl wasn't a random: the PC was her captain.)

Fortunately, the PC Bard slept with the Murderer, heard his philosophy of The Method, and remembered it once he became a suspect after an investigation. It worked out quite nicely, actually.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Cool.

Just curious, how many sessions did it take to play it out? Because in theory there's enough there for a several sessions. Especially with all the NPCs not ust to meet ut to get a feeling for. Personally I'd be happy to stretch this out for 2 or 3 sessions if the players were enjoying it.