D&D General "infidelities and secrets kept from wives"

[CapnZapp]

Hi,

I'm using a fantasy adventure module that features some kind of vigilante, behind how "less honest husbands have had their affairs, hidden stashes of gold, or embarrassing secrets made public" (keeping things vague here, see spoilers for... spoilers).

Now I am asking for your best examples of "infidelities and secrets kept from wives" for the purpose of... anything from providing detail and context to the rumors, "background color" should the heroes ignore this particular lead and go do other things with their time (I'm running an open sandbox here)... to creating a small adventure when and if the adventurers attempt to track down the vigilante, by following in his footsteps, interviewing victims or witnesses and so on.

So far I've gotten two suggestions, which is a good start but I would ideally need more to form a proper "trail". So I am asking you for your best ideas!

• A man who settled into civilized life in the city with a wife and child but he also has a wife and child back in his home country and tells the other that he has to go work for a few months.
• Another man claims to be a shipper but is actually a smuggler doing most of his work in [this other town] and spends his family money gambling.

PS. If you think you could do better if you knew the specifics, I will reveal the true story behind spoilers in the next post.

 

[CapnZapp]

Spoiler: No really, this spoils everything in full

The module is Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast, by Paizo for Pathfinder 1

It features a shopkeeper's daughter operating under the male persona of "Shroud", spending "his" nights finding out what the thread title says: "infidelities and secrets kept from wives"

The module goes on to offer a dungeon adventure once "he" makes contact with the adventurers, but I find that a bit unsatisfying and unrelated to the idea of a vigilante righting wrongs, and so I want to go into a bit more detail on the actual affairs.

After all, if the adventurers ask, I need details. Names, who did what to whom, that sort of thing.

For credits on the two examples I've gotten so far, see this thread:

paizo.com - Forums / Lost Omens Campaign Setting: General Discussion: Sandpoint Secrets

paizo.com

Once I got a good list of suggestions, I hope to be able to use that for inspiration on how it all leads back to the vigilante in question. Do note this vigilante is not evil and not necessarily the character's foe, even if they manage to get themselves hired to find the vigilante from some embarrassed nobleman or whatever.

The vigilante himself is fairly well detailed by the module. It is his deeds that aren't.

 

[Leatherhead]

So, a list of juicy secrets someone would want to hide from their spouse then?

If that's the case:

• Churchgoing man is actually member of a secret cult.
• Man sneaks out to eat a delicious meat pie every lunch, which is a problem due to his strict diet.
• Man is actually three kobolds in a trenchcoat, somehow has been fooling everyone for years.

 

[Coroc]

Now, here is one from my campaign. One of the players plays a half elf dandy with no good looking woman being safe from him. But everything has consequences.
I ruled that one of the women would be the wife of the city watch captain (carefully stated champion to balance out his Battlemaster build) So this captain would get hints that his wife is untrue and challenge my player to a life and death duel.

This duel in my greyhawk campaign requires a cleric of Istus to geas the duelists to submit to a geas that they will not be raised by clerical means-

Here comes the twist:
The captain is unsure whether he wins so he intends a safeguard, he hires a wizard to make a clone of him
(No clerical magic) so in case he dies he gets an auto-resurrection.

Now here comes the real twist:
Wife gets the captains plans and bribes the wizard to clone her lover (the PC) instead (she got enough genetic material of him on the sheets) and camouflage the wrong clone who is kept in a cabinet at the captains home as looking as her husband by an illusion.

So I diced this out with my PC and I got two lucky crits and ruled he got killed and decapitated in the duel by the captain. This was the outcome I hoped for because it is the option which is more fun.

I told my player: "You are suddenly in a Cabinet with a glass door, something is not quite right with your body although you feel quite normal you look like the captain..."

The situations resolution ended with the captain to be executed because he tried to fraud the geas, but still the looks of my group when I explained how captains wife got the genetic material for the clone was priceless.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

• A nobleman has an Oblex (MToF) trapped in his locked cellar. He ''feeds'' it his favorite ''conquests'' so the oblex can later take the form of his desires for that night.
• A man has retired with his new wife in the city under the guise of a veteran of many great wars. In reality, he's a laborer who found the corpse the a soldier in his fields.
• A devout man married to a devout woman, both worship the god of healing. In reality, the man fake worshiping the god in hope of being cured of a shameful disease.
• A man lost all his family's money to a fake cult of Asmodeus
• A man's family dog is in reality a hellhound (or barghest). He doest know why the creature has chosen him.
• A man fakes having to displace his family frequently for business reasons. In reality, a Grey Render (MToF) elected him as its bounded creature, so the man has to flee the chaotic nature of the beast.
• A nobleman's fortune's is made by selling Korred's hairs (VGtM) cut with golden shears.

 

[CapnZapp]

So, a list of juicy secrets someone would want to hide from their spouse then?

• Man is actually three kobolds in a trenchcoat, somehow has been fooling spouse everyone for years.

• A nobleman has an Oblex (MToF) trapped in his locked cellar. He ''feeds'' it his favorite ''conquests'' so the oblex can later take the form of his desires for that night.

 

[CapnZapp]

• A man has retired with his new wife in the city under the guise of a veteran of many great wars. In reality, he's a laborer who found the corpse the a soldier in his fields.

Hmmm... so is the wife in on the scam? Given the thread title, I'm going to guess "no", which begs the question...

"how?"

 

[Sacrosanct]

Based on personal observations in my own life:

Man is soldier, gets deployed, and cheats on wife and ends up with kids everywhere
Wives, while soldier is deployed, hang out in clubs picking up men
Church leader takes money to buy extravagant good for himself.
Super Uber patriot who constantly talks up soldiering and nationalism like he’s a bad*** never served themselves, and got kicked out of basic training both times they tried in disgrace.
Stolen valor: people pretending to be a decorated veteran when they never served.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Hmmm... so is the wife in on the scam? Given the thread title, I'm going to guess "no", which begs the question...

"how?"

Nope, she's not. Its a new wife the man met in the big city. Maybe his first wife is still alive, maybe he killed her, maybe he's just a widowed man who wants to live the fantasy of being a badass warrior etc

 

[Guest 6801328]

I'd make all these men part of a secret society, and it seems like the King (or Baron, whatebver) is their leader. It turns out the Queen is their leader and is keeping more secrets, and being more unfaithful, than anybody else.