Brainstorm needed for a mystery plot

[ajanders]

I'm thinking that he saw something in the stars that frightened him? or confused him perhaps and so he's secluded himself to work it out properly. Why he has to hide from everyone to do so is still a mystery to me.

Y'know, I'm gonna refer you to Schrodinger's Piratecat. Don't work the answer out. Every time the PC's ask, the cleric has a panic attack and gibbers. Just give the PC's another plot or two to play with. At some point one of your players will come up with a really good explanation that links in with everything else in the campaign they've considered important.
Use that explanation. They'll think you were using brilliant foreshadowing technique and feel very clever for having worked out the mystery. You don't have to tell them the truth.

 

[Sigurd]

1 - The priest's brother has just become a lich. In an act of generosity the brother has said 'I'll come by and show you my new found powers'. The priest does not want any of his flock to be killed by his lich brother. He secretly hopes he can convince his bro to go away and never return.

2 - The priest hates his job and the people he serves. He is in retreat trying to find guidance and perhaps a replacement. - The priest is being poisoned.

3 - The church is horribly poor and in debt. The priest is avoiding creditors. He thinks a local lord should cough up more money to help his church but he doesn't know how to make him. He is half heartedly thinking of staging his own kidnapping to get some money -- it is not a well planned thing.

4 - The priest has fallen in love with a summoned creature. He is failing as a priest.

5 - The priest's god told him to do it. The god is testing the congregation and\or community.

6 - The priest himself has taken on the sicknesses of the town and they are all plaguing him right now. He doesn't think he is safe to be with.

7 - A letter has arrived for the priest offering him a sizable inheritance in a far off land (not nigeria) and he has retreated from the world to consider his options.

8 - In a far off town the priest's only surviving heir has died. The priest is deep in prayer hoping for a miracle.

9 - The priest believes a member of the town is possessed\a demon\or???? He is convinced that his church will be attacked and desecrated if he doesn't go into hiding. The demon is waiting for a particular ceremony to disturb.

10 - The priest had a dream telling him to prepare a secret place - he's doing that.

11 - An important local is coming of age and must be sanctified in a holy service. The priest has his own reasons for delaying the service until a) another priest is sent to the village (reinforcements) or b) the child shows itself for being something nasty.

12 - The priest is simply insane, perhaps poisoned.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Hmm, Kinship and Community, and an astrologer... Hmm. Maybe one night while stargazing, the priest stumbles upon a child, perhaps someone who came from a falling star?. Due to some strange whim of the eccentric priest, he has seen raising the child as his duty, at least until he can find a safe place/family for the child to live.

However, the rest of the community would not approve of the priest raising the child. If they found out, they might have the child banished from the village, taken away, or worse. This could be for a number of possible reasons. Perhaps it is because the strange child just appeared out of nowhere, and is not part of the recognized kinship networks or social castes. Or maybe the child fell from the sky and signals the end of the world. Or for something truly twisted, the child may have some truly alien ancestry like something from the Far Realms or the Cthulhu Mythos.

Then again, perhaps the boy is perfectly normal but was abandoned. Or perhaps the child is a product of the priest's or somebody else's affair. This irony here is that these more "realistic" options don't have to keep the community from thinking any of the ideas in the paragaph above apply to this child.

 

[mgbeach]

ajanders suggestion is great. Everyone wins.. you get a plot, the players get to feel like they really accomplished something great

 

[Dragongrief]

I agree that ajanders's suggestion is the best option if you group will play along (mine wouldn't).

- The priest was once an initiate of a cult of (insert not-so-good deity). When the time came to be fully inducted, he could not do what was asked and fled. Years later he has seen signs in the stars that the cult has found him. Rather than endanger the community (the cult isn't particular about its targets), he has gone into hiding, and has let the Sheriff know that there are bad people who need to be taken care of (what exactly was said depends how much the priest trusts/is willing to put the Sheriff in danger). Enter the PCs.