Gilladian
Adventurer
I'm thinking of running a murder mystery for my 3rd level PCs in the next session (which will not be for several weeks, possibly over a month, so I have lots of planning time).
My current ideas are outlined below:
I’m thinking that when the PCs return from their current adventure, with the children they rescued from some Kobolds, they will be greeted by the town with open arms and hailed as heroes. Even Thierry Creed, the evil logging consortium leader, will be happy with them (at least to some degree - he’s also suspicious and resentful of their popularity and rise in power) for a while.
I've got a good adventure that will present itself in a week or three and which feeds on things that happened in the kobold adventure, but I need to keep the PCs occupied in the meantime.
So - a nice change-of-pace murder mystery - who is the victim? One of the two Priests in the local temple (who are a couple). But who murdered him, and how, and why? I’ve got several candidates for the killer:
a) The grave-digger - The PCs met him briefly and know he’s a very lousy parent.
b) the other priest - just because you always look at the person closest to the victim. PCs have not met either priest.
c) Thierry Creed - probably via one of his minions with at least one cut-away between him and the victim, so doubtful he personally could be held accountable.
I’m thinking if it was the grave-digger, it was because the victim was threatening to have him removed from his position and evicted from his cottage, rendering him homeless and unemployed. But what did he do to deserve such a fate? And how did he kill the victim in such a way as to hide his guilt?
If it was the other priest, then the motive would probably be jealousy. Maybe the victim was cheating on him, or the killer thought he was cheating. With whom? And how did things go down?
If it was Creed, what was the motive? In this case, I’m presuming that the killing was a pretty violent “home invasion” type action, and the real mystery is not really who was behind it, but can it be proven?
Which of these three choices seems the most interesting? What could I do to make the motive and the method interesting? Any other suggestions? I could do this all myself, and my players would instantly figure out what I'm plotting!
If you're interested, you can find a description of the village, and the NPCs, etc... here: http://vishteercampaign.pbworks.com/w/page/110248900/Falcon's Hollow
My current ideas are outlined below:
I’m thinking that when the PCs return from their current adventure, with the children they rescued from some Kobolds, they will be greeted by the town with open arms and hailed as heroes. Even Thierry Creed, the evil logging consortium leader, will be happy with them (at least to some degree - he’s also suspicious and resentful of their popularity and rise in power) for a while.
I've got a good adventure that will present itself in a week or three and which feeds on things that happened in the kobold adventure, but I need to keep the PCs occupied in the meantime.
So - a nice change-of-pace murder mystery - who is the victim? One of the two Priests in the local temple (who are a couple). But who murdered him, and how, and why? I’ve got several candidates for the killer:
a) The grave-digger - The PCs met him briefly and know he’s a very lousy parent.
b) the other priest - just because you always look at the person closest to the victim. PCs have not met either priest.
c) Thierry Creed - probably via one of his minions with at least one cut-away between him and the victim, so doubtful he personally could be held accountable.
I’m thinking if it was the grave-digger, it was because the victim was threatening to have him removed from his position and evicted from his cottage, rendering him homeless and unemployed. But what did he do to deserve such a fate? And how did he kill the victim in such a way as to hide his guilt?
If it was the other priest, then the motive would probably be jealousy. Maybe the victim was cheating on him, or the killer thought he was cheating. With whom? And how did things go down?
If it was Creed, what was the motive? In this case, I’m presuming that the killing was a pretty violent “home invasion” type action, and the real mystery is not really who was behind it, but can it be proven?
Which of these three choices seems the most interesting? What could I do to make the motive and the method interesting? Any other suggestions? I could do this all myself, and my players would instantly figure out what I'm plotting!
If you're interested, you can find a description of the village, and the NPCs, etc... here: http://vishteercampaign.pbworks.com/w/page/110248900/Falcon's Hollow