I'm Fishing for Red Herrings.

[Mistah J]

Hey all,

I'm developing a small mystery in my game - the party knows that one person in the nearby town is a sorcerer with an elemental [Cold] bloodline and that they are being hunted by the villain.

They do not know who it is, hence the mystery. Knowing my players, they are probably going to start asking around town, looking for anyone 'frosty' and I would like to give them a couple dead ends or false leads.

So far I have two:

1. A gnome with blue hair, answers to the name "Icy". He is really a smuggler/fence whose speciality is diamonds.
2. A grizzled explorer/survivalist whose 2nd home is the high altitude mountains. Despite claims of his extraordinary abilities, he really is just an expert in mountaineering.

I was hoping to come up with at least one more and was wondering what other people's ideas are on the subject. What other types of people in a large town/small city would the party hear about while turning the rumour mill?

If it helps, the actual sorcerer is the barmaid of the local, big tavern. The place does boast the coldest drinks in town but the bartender covers for her by claiming to use a custom-made, extra large, icebox that he can keep filled all year.

Any ideas come to mind?

 

[fba827]

It is said that the mayor's daughter has left her suitors cold with her icey stare.

They claim there is even a chill in the air wherever she goes. And there are rumors that some of those who do not take no for an answer are never heard from again.

In truth, she is simply a very beautiful woman that all the men in town want. But she spurns them all with no emotional response at all, and is therefore considered a real ice queen. Though no one would ever say that to her face for fear of what she would convince her father to do ...

 

[Mesh Hong]

Here are a couple of quick ideas:

A mad prophet walking around town occasionally stopping to pronounce tiding of doom. He talks of things like; the ill wind from the north, the wintery breath of the Raven Queen seeking out sinners, agents of heathen religions paralysing people by enticing them to look into their cold dead eyes, a coming apocalyptic blizzard that will drown the city in a shroud of snow, etc. This prophet is rather well known and pitied amongst the local folk so they pay him little attention. However if the PCs stopped to listen he might crave further attention and start following them round…. Hilarity ensues.

A new play at the grand theatre is to hold the opening night of its new play very soon. The play is called “the court in winter” and features the talent of a mysterious new principal actor called Richard Patchinson. Richard is a handsome but frail looking young man with delicate pale features, strangely his few brief appearances around town have all been at night but the ladies seem to find him irresistible and gaggle about him. This has already caused a minor scandal which is something the theatres owners have been quick to exploit to advertise the play. If the PCs go to the opening night they will have to endure a dull and thinly veiled satire on the current royal family portrayed as distant from the people and dragging the empire into decline through their uncaring, cold attitudes and beliefs. Even though it will be critically panned and dubbed as boarder-line treason the play is destined for a reasonably successful run due to the strange charisma and cult of personality surrounding Richard Patchinson.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The Ice Maker -- person that freezes blocks of ice and places them into a warehouse to keep goods frozen for shipping. In the past, every winter workers would go to lake or river and cut the block and drag them back to the warehouse (HISTORY: this use to happen in real life), now this person seems to manage a lot on his own. Answer, the person has come into a magical item that performs the freezing.

The hermit / witch or old person of the woods - hedge wizard and the person kids are warned to stay away from.

The new comer -- someone that has just settled into the area, they seem to be okay folk but hey they are new and still strangers.

 

[Cor_Malek]

The Ice Maker -- person that freezes blocks of ice and places them into a warehouse to keep goods frozen for shipping. In the past, every winter workers would go to lake or river and cut the block and drag them back to the warehouse (HISTORY: this use to happen in real life), now this person seems to manage a lot on his own. Answer, the person has come into a magical item that performs the freezing.

This red herring has the added benefit of being an actual lead. Two of them in fact.
1. He doesn't sell any ice to the bartender (if PC's ask).
2. A hint that there might be more to barmaids storage.

With so many false leads on ice bloodline in one town, you might want to use, um... red lampshade? Lamp herring?
A wizard researching ice spells has several hirelings watching all possible suspects 24/7. He wants to find the sorcerer as well, but much to his annoyance there's too many possibilities. He'd have to get precisely the right one in the first go, or the place would get too hot* for him.
If they press any of false leads too hard, they get a line along of "So that wizard finally made a move?", "Eh, so you're done skulking the shadows?" or something.
Alternatively, if you don't want to provide PC's with possibility of his help, he might be just interested in reason why so many people have something to do with ice around here, and that's why he observes anyone fitting the profile. In this case, if found he'd be surprised by the very idea that there was a sorcerer under his nose, as he thought he had everyone figured out.

*heh.

edit:
Damn, I rolled one badass mage!

 

[Mistah J]

The Ice Maker -- person that freezes blocks of ice and places them into a warehouse to keep goods frozen for shipping. In the past, every winter workers would go to lake or river and cut the block and drag them back to the warehouse (HISTORY: this use to happen in real life), now this person seems to manage a lot on his own. Answer, the person has come into a magical item that performs the freezing.

This red herring has the added benefit of being an actual lead. Two of them in fact.
1. He doesn't sell any ice to the bartender (if PC's ask).
2. A hint that there might be more to barmaids storage.

This is perfect! I appreciate the help guys.. thanks a lot!

 

[krupintupple]

perhaps an old draconic skull was dug up in a nearby quarry, and was largely ignored until someone "connected" it to the recent cold-based capers? the general belief is that it's the skull of a old white dragon, but it's ironically a badly-damaged blue dragon's grin - perhaps the expert who appraised it rolled a 1 while doing so and accidentally set off a trail of lies? of course now that people are convinced the "magical skull" is causing all manner of icy things to happen, it's locked away tight where no-one can actually see or get to it, thusly ensuring that no snooty 2nd level PC mage with high ranks in arcana can ruin the secret for everyone?

 

[Mesh Hong]

perhaps an old draconic skull was dug up in a nearby quarry, and was largely ignored until someone "connected" it to the recent cold-based capers? the general belief is that it's the skull of a old white dragon, but it's ironically a badly-damaged blue dragon's grin - perhaps the expert who appraised it rolled a 1 while doing so and accidentally set off a trail of lies? of course now that people are convinced the "magical skull" is causing all manner of icy things to happen, it's locked away tight where no-one can actually see or get to it, thusly ensuring that no snooty 2nd level PC mage with high ranks in arcana can ruin the secret for everyone?

Ah the old NPC rolls a 1 in an important knowledge check. Its funny because it happens, back at the beginning of my campaign the PCs found a small crystal statuette of the "aspect of destruction" that had sent the dean of a university mad. They realised it was important so they took it to the high priest of the temple of Corellan, who examined the item (rolled a 1) and thought it would make a good paperweight!

For the rest of the campaign that temple was considered to be staffed by fools and it was one small factor in the warlock from the town in question eventually becomming a new rival god of magic as his ultimate Epic Destiny.

 

[krupintupple]

another favorite that i used to sometimes introduce into my campaigns was the "monster" that was scaring the rural shepherds and peasants. basically, a winged beast would randomly steal into their fields and make off with their sheep and goats, and they'd find the remains messily devoured nearby. naturally, everyone was sure that it was some terrible beast, and thusly started begging PCs to help them.

however, there was a monster, but it wasn't entirely monstrous: the beast in question was a half-bronze dragon wyvern. although beastly looking and dim-witted at times, it was actually chaotic good and genuinely had no idea that it was stealing other's property. it found human customs strange, but enjoyed that they kept all of their tasty sheep in a large wooden box for it. having an Int of like 6, it figured that there were so many, that it'd just sneak in every few nights and no-one would really notice.

this presented the dual "problems" of hot-headed PCs accidentally slaying a powerful good-aligned creature, and the added benefit of dying horrible due to wyvern poison or acid breath. if negotiated well, this dim but noble beast could definitely be a boon to the local town. if not...well, feeling your heart stop from wyvern venom as acid melts your skin is a truly terrible way to die. clearly, negotiations are needed, but as far as everyone knows, when the moon is barely a sliver in the sky, a winged horror comes down from the hills and steals away the townsfolks' livestock - it's just a matter of time before it comes for us too!