(Calling all Rat Bastards! It's CRUNCH time!) Adventure ideas on the Lightening Rail

[Lordnightshade]

RG? I could really use your twisty ratbastardly mind here? Any advice?

 

[Radiating Gnome]

RG? I could really use your twisty ratbastardly mind here? Any advice?

Wow, that just made my day. Thanks for the compliment . . .

Here's a truly rotten idea. The death is Staged.

Jax is stumped on this one. He knows there there are several people on the train who wouldn't mind seeing him dead, and he has grave suspicions about many of them regarding the train heist, but he can prove nothing. So he comes up with a cunning plan. He is going to stage his own death, set up some clues that will lead to many of the factions on the train -- a confusing web of clues that will make your plays THINK of the Orient Express . . . . but the dead body isn't Jax at all, and he's skulking around invisibly trying to figure out who is really responsible.

Given that the body is disguised as Jax, but isn't really Jax, any sort of raise dead magic will be mis-addressed and fail (after all, you can't raise Jax, he isn't dead!).

So then the real fun is watching the PCs try to deal with the three or four factions on the train that are trying to avoid being charged with the murder -- and other crimes by extension. Jax's cohort and some guards are stomping around the train bellowing "what's all this then" every once in a while, makeing sure everyone knows that they are ALL under "official investigation".

The Clues . . .

The Dagger is not a special twisty nasty evil thing, but it is of Hobgoblin manufacture. The ambassador insists that the dagger is not his, and that it is being used to frame him.

The face of the body has makeup smudged on it -- suggesting a passionate session with a woman in makeup, but the colors don't match the Princess's -- they are Vanessa's.

The Princess fell asleep -- remembers a porter bringing a decanter of brandy to her chambers, but that porter is not a member of the train's staff -- and he's nowhere to be found. She passed out soon after her first drink of the brandy, and believes it was drugged. (It was, Jax drugged it).

The body seems to have all of Jax's belongings, but observant PCs will notice that the eyes of the Investigative (I may have the name wrong, the dragonshard item that helps investigatives do their thing) are a fake (Jax needed his to continue his clandestine investigation -- and he couldn't afford a spare set of eyes for the body). The body is also a bit older than it should be, but not by much (it's a mugging victim from Sharn that Jax requisitioned and kept in a portable hole until he was ready to use it).

Vanessa can report seeing the missing/fake porter that the princess reported in the passageway late at night -- but no one trusts her.

Speak with dead with the body will report that he was killed by a warforged (he was, but he's not Jax . . .). Not a lot more detail there. This will throw suspicion on Ash, who will claim to know nothing about it.

A scrap of paper in the body's hand will match a torn pamplet in Ash's compartment -- a pamplet of the quasi-messianic ramblings of the Lord of Blades (planted by Jax after staging his own death).

And so on.

The idea is a paranoid, frustrating mess, all very event based -- each of the NPCs will have their own personal realization that they are being framed for the murder, and will go to certain lengths to try to eliminate that bit of framing evidence and find out who is framing them -- which will lead to ANOTHER set of clues -- clues Jax will leave behind to throw more suspicion on the various characters. A porter's uniform in the PC's compartment. A house orien passkey in the colonel's rooms. etc.

It's a start, anyway. Now I've got to run, or I'd putter some more, but you get the idea.

One thing, though -- a lot may depend upon figuring out how Jax is getting around in the train. He can be invisible, that's easy. But that's also not perfect. He may also have a passkey so he can enter any room. Maybe that's good enough.

-rg

 

[Radiating Gnome]

One more thought --

Before his "death", Jax will have to hint broadly that he has solved the case. He is very close to having irrefutable proof, and he expects to get the last piece before the train arrives at it's destination (all true, actually). This will set the stage for the murder being an effort to keep him from revealing what he knows about the heist. Jax will claim to have resources that the PCs and NPCs can't imagine, and will do his best to lead them to believe that he's ready to pronouce his findings, but he's enjoying toying with everyone a bit too much -- playing the part of the great detective, etc.

-rg

 

[Lordnightshade]

MY GOD!! I'm in AWE of you RG!! That's the EXACT thing I was looking for!!! OMG!!! Wow, and an hour before my game too... you are THE MAN!!! Your Ratbastard Fu is strong indeed my man!!

 

[Radiating Gnome]

You're too kind.

I actually sat through dinner trying to figure out if I should be giving some credit to Agatha Christie or something -- it seems vaguely similar to, I think, the Mousetrap, maybe . . . Oh, I don't remember it very well. Odds are it's stolen from something . . .

-rg

 

[Pbartender]

Also the murder weapon will be… what? Perhaps a horrifically evil dagger that makes being raised from the dead nearly impossible by doing something horrific to your soul?

That's easy...

Reincarnate, "With this spell, you bring back a dead creature in another body, provided that its death occurred no more than one week before the casting of the spell and the subject’s soul is free and willing to return. If the subject’s soul is not willing to return, the spell does not work; therefore, a subject that wants to return receives no saving throw."

Raise Dead, "You restore life to a deceased creature. You can raise a creature that has been dead for no longer than one day per caster level. In addition, the subject’s soul must be free and willing to return. If the subject’s soul is not willing to return, the spell does not work; therefore, a subject that wants to return receives no saving throw."

Resurrection, "This spell functions like raise dead, except that you are able to restore life and complete strength to any deceased creature."

True Resurrection, "This spell functions like raise dead, except that you can resurrect a creature that has been dead for as long as 10 years per caster level."

The key to all these spells is that the subject's soul must be willing to return. Create a magical dagger called the 'Dagger of Celestial Harmony'. Perhaps in ancient times it was used by ascetic mystics in their unending struggle to gain nirvana... The mystic monks who achieved mortal perfection used the sacred knife to commit suicide and ascend to the next level of enlightenment. Now, the spirit of anyone killed by the dagger gains a portion of those ancients' eternal perfection. The soul now shuns the mortal world and is forever unwilling to return to it. It is impossible to bring the subject back to life using any of the spell mentioned above.

What's more, the soul also considers any concerns and events within the mortal realms to be utterly insignificant. It has no concern for the interrogations of mortals, and will answer any question asked via a speak with dead spell with calm proselytizations of the great benefits of gaining an enlightened peace with the universe and advice on who to achieve said enlightenment.

The dagger would be neither Good nor Evil, but would radiate an exceedingly strong aura of Law... What a handy tool for a Lawful Investigative to carry around, eh?

If you are using RG's false-murder idea, then the Dagger of Celestial Harmony is the weapon Jax actually used to kill the bum he's using as a decoy (that makes it a little more difficult find the actual truth), but a completely different weapon is used as the 'obvious evidence'.

 

[shilsen]

What's more, the soul also considers any concerns and events within the mortal realms to be utterly insignificant. It has no concern for the interrogations of mortals, and will answer any question asked via a speak with dead spell with calm proselytizations of the great benefits of gaining an enlightened peace with the universe and advice on who to achieve said enlightenment.

Just for the record, Speak with Dead does not actually access the departed soul. So the spell should work just fine whether the soul has achieved nirvana, been consumed by a demon, already been reborn in another body, etc.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

This isn't exactly an idea for the train itself, but since the train is a way of getting from place to place, it's an easy way to transport between site-based adventures.

The one that's been running around in my head is:

The rail stops at a small village that was once a bustling tourist attraction due to the beauty of the falls in the local forest, but has since fallen on hard times -- abandoned buildings, etc. When pressed, the owner of the general store, who makes all his business from Lightning Rail tourists, says that locals and tourists have been disappearing in the local woods -- which has put quite a damper on the trade (not counting the effects of the war and all). The local druid has said something evil and unnatural is haunting the woods, and most of the locals blame a warforged hermit who comes into town about once a year for supplies. He's there that day, just leaving town, and as the PCs observe is taunted by the locals (finally attacking one and fleeing if the PCs do not interevene). If they seem willing to help, the locals deputize the PCs to search down the killer and restore their prosperity..

The secret is ... revealed in this post.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

So, LNS? What happened?

-j

 

[Lordnightshade]

Sorry for the delay in letting you guys know how things went down with my Murder on the Orien Express, but I was away on Business in Florida (this was cut short by Hurricane Jeanne! LOL). So now I'm back, and my game is this Friday or Saturday. Things didn’t go EXACTLY as planned.

First, Jax the NPC investigator didn’t manage to hook up with the princess, it was one of the PC’s instead. He sent her a bottle of wine and she had him to her quarters at Midnight. The next morning he found out she was on her way to marry one of the king’s cousins and that if anyone found out about the affair things could go very badly for the both of them.

Also, after Jax questioned Vanessa about the train robbery one of the PCs (the Wizard) decided everyone would be better off if Jax died, so he sent his 3 assassin shrews (figurines of wondrous power)to kill the investigator.

These were things I didn’t predict happening when I was planning, but I went with it.

Here is what happened:

Murder events as witnessed and retold by Fixxr:

We boarded the Lightning Rail without any incident and
took seats as we pleased. Also boarding was one Cyran
princess and her entourage, one Hobgoblin ambassador
and his entourage (most likely related to House
Deneith), assorted other passengers, and one warforged
named Ash from Sharn. Before it could clear the
station the train was stopped and Jax, an Orion
investigator boarded with a contingent of Orion Elite
guard.

That first evening Vanessa was detained by Jax and
questioned about matters concerning our previous train
trip. She definitely did not want to be questioned,
but, being unable to overcome the guards myself, I
sought the aid of my companions. At about this time my
clearly insane and delusional companion made me aware
of his lost shrews. He claims they were in Jax's
quarters. Attempting to use this as an opportunity to
gain access to Vanessa, we returned to the car with
Jax's quarters (where Vanessa was being questioned),
and found her emerging unharmed, but agitated. We
retired to other portions of the train without further
incident.

I spent the night engaged in conversation with Ash
about our travels. Turns out he now resides in Sharn
at a blacksmiths named the Red Hammer in the Black
Bones district. Few people came and went in the night.
Early the next day the train was upset by the Orion
guard who locked it down and siezed the Hobgoblin
ambassador under suspicion of murder. Apparantly Jax
had been killed in the night. Vanessa and Ash were
also implicated in the matter.

After some brief negotiation with the guard captain,
we were allowed to aid in the investigation. I traded
out my Type I long distance amplification eyepieces
out for Type I near-ranged amplification eyepieces and
began a careful sweep of Jax's quarters. Outward
appearances were simple, the ambassador's well-crafted
hobgoblin dagger protruded from the body. There was
also lipstick similar to that which Vanessa used in
evidence on the face of the corpse. A subsequent search
showed this lipstick to be missing from her person.
Several small shrew bites were also in evidence in the
flesh of the corpse. My medical knowledge was
insufficient to determine whether any of the above
wounds were inflicted post-mortem, or to determine
whether or not the dagger was the immediate cause of
death.

A search of the body also yielded a pamphlet
pertaining to the Lord of Blades, and was propagandist
in nature. Also on the body was a pair of goggles
resembling those used by Orion investigators to aid in
crime scene investigations. The captain of the guard
verified this fact and stated that he had seen Jax
using them before. I had an inherent interest in
examining these goggles for possibility of learning
something of use to improve my own lenses of the same
nature (that I was now currently wearing). Upon closer
inspection they turned out to be a non-functional and
very cheap replica. They were non-magical and useless.


At this point I felt questioning the corpse would be
of value. I created a simple spell storage item to
allow us to do this task. Our questioning yielded that
the corpse was killed 3 days ago. Before our arrival
in the town. As such, we were exonerated from any
immediate wrongdoing. The corpse also verified that he
was in fact poisoned which resulted in his death. This
exonerated the Hobgoblin ambassador for now as well.
Seeing the shrew bites as a cause of death was never
on the table, but this fact also exonerated them. The
corpse became agitated and it was becoming
increasingly difficult to question when we began to
inquire about it's identity (was it in fact Jax).

Remaining questions:

Who killed the corpse [Jax]?
Who questioned Vanessa and boarded the train with the
guards?
Are the guards actually Orion Elite guards, or are they
in on some sort of scam involving the corpse?
If the corpse is not Jax, who is it?
What was the purpose of the LOB pamphlet, further
misdirection?
Where are the real goggles?

Current plan of action:

We are currently engaged in searching the train for
the real goggles. As they are magical, some simple
detect magic should make this task much easier. We
would also like to find Vanessa’s lipstick.

Ash was with me nearly the whole time he was on the
train. As such did not have time to enact an elaborate
murder. The hobgoblin ambassador was a high profile
passenger. Unlikely that he managed to perpetrate a
murder, though worth questioning.

Thus ends this initial report.

So, now I’m not sure where to go with all this… I need help figuring out what Jax’s real motivation is, and figuring out where to go from here.

Any ideas?