I find myself in an interesting situation.
The PCs are going to need to get information from a burglar. Basically "Who hired you; we need to find them, where did you meet them to negotiate/drop off the item/get paid?" But, the burglar isn't going to want to talk. The PCs intimidating/bribing the thief isn't going to get the information they want.
So I'm not sure how they could get the information from the thief in a reasonable way, given the thief's motivation.
The problem comes from this: the thief is a very skilled one - he managed to break into the vault/lab of a noble house who makes magical spy tech/super weapons, so he's clearly got the skills. However, if he talks, the thief is afraid that it will either 1) get back to the people he stole from, or 2) word will get out that he talked, and he'll gain the reputation of a squealer. If that happens, then the door is open for anyone to harass him over crimes he might have committed, and no buyer will ever trust him because he might roll over on them.
Anything the party threatens to do to him, or offers to pay him, is not worth the risk of his livelihood/his life at the hands of others down the road.
So what can my PCs do to get him to talk?
It's easy to say "His motivation is getting in the way, so don't have the NPC worry about that". That is easy, but I also want to challenge the party to come up with a solution that isn't "We'll break your face if you don't, we'll give you money if you do."
I want it to be a hint challenging, but I can't think of a solution ahead of time.
The PCs are going to need to get information from a burglar. Basically "Who hired you; we need to find them, where did you meet them to negotiate/drop off the item/get paid?" But, the burglar isn't going to want to talk. The PCs intimidating/bribing the thief isn't going to get the information they want.
So I'm not sure how they could get the information from the thief in a reasonable way, given the thief's motivation.
The problem comes from this: the thief is a very skilled one - he managed to break into the vault/lab of a noble house who makes magical spy tech/super weapons, so he's clearly got the skills. However, if he talks, the thief is afraid that it will either 1) get back to the people he stole from, or 2) word will get out that he talked, and he'll gain the reputation of a squealer. If that happens, then the door is open for anyone to harass him over crimes he might have committed, and no buyer will ever trust him because he might roll over on them.
Anything the party threatens to do to him, or offers to pay him, is not worth the risk of his livelihood/his life at the hands of others down the road.
So what can my PCs do to get him to talk?
It's easy to say "His motivation is getting in the way, so don't have the NPC worry about that". That is easy, but I also want to challenge the party to come up with a solution that isn't "We'll break your face if you don't, we'll give you money if you do."
I want it to be a hint challenging, but I can't think of a solution ahead of time.