10 KiB
The Murder Mystery
Timeline of Events
Before the Session
- Weeks ago: Xarrul, summoned and bound by the Lambent Order, is sent to kill Sevra. The House of Scales intercepts the fiend during transit, breaks the binding (not knowing how to rebind it), and the fiend goes free.
- Weeks ago: Xarrul, now unbound, anchors itself to the thin point beneath the Burnt Tongue. It begins weakening the ward-sigils from the Ethereal Plane, scratching at them night after night.
- Days ago: Orenn notices the wards failing. He increases his checks, purchases holy water and ward supplies, and writes the contingency letter he puts in Mags's apron.
- Tonight, before the party arrives: Tension between the factions is at a breaking point. Kael has evidence that the Merchant Quarter kill — a guild contract — was done by someone else with ritual marks. He's ready to confront the cultists.
During the Session
Act 1 — The Tavern (before brawl)
- Players arrive, meet Orenn, explore the room
- Faction tension is palpable but contained
- Bren mutters in his corner, Vetch fidgets near the stairs, Tallow watches from his booth
Act 2 — The Brawl
- Trigger: Kael confronts Haddon about the Merchant Quarter kill. Haddon deflects. Kael calls him a liar. Rennt stands up. A cultist pushes Kael. Sevra tries to intervene. Someone throws a punch. Chaos.
- The brawl lasts 3-5 rounds. No one uses lethal force — the rules hold. It's fists, bottles, furniture.
- During the brawl: Xarrul uses the noise and distraction to jaunt partially into the Material Plane behind the bar. It brands Orenn with the Brand of Spite. Orenn dies instantly. Xarrul retreats to the Ethereal Plane. Total exposure: less than 6 seconds.
- Only witness: Bren. He saw a shape reach through the air behind the bar. Skein forces him to stay silent.
Act 3 — Discovery
- The brawl ends. Someone looks behind the bar. Orenn is dead.
- Mags emerges, sees the body, and locks the tavern down.
- Both factions immediately blame each other.
The Crime Scene
Orenn's Body
- Position: On his back behind the bar. He fell backward.
- Expression: Surprise. Not fear, not pain.
- The Brand: A black mark on his chest, hand-shaped, visible through his shirt. The shirt is not burned — the damage is beneath the skin.
- No other injuries. He was not struck, stabbed, or poisoned.
- Time of death: During the brawl. Within the last 10 minutes.
Examination DCs
| Check | DC | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine 10 | Easy | He's dead. Cause: massive internal damage to the heart and surrounding tissue. No external wound. |
| Medicine 14 | Medium | The damage radiates outward from the heart, as if something ignited inside him. Not natural, not any poison known to the examiner. |
| Arcana 12 | Easy | The brand radiates faint necrotic energy. This is magical damage. |
| Arcana 15 | Medium | Fiendish signature. The necrotic energy pattern is consistent with fiend-origin abilities, not mortal spellcasting. No one at the cultist table could have done this. |
| Arcana 18 | Hard | The brand contains a fragment of a true name — like a fingerprint. With additional research (Orenn's bestiary, Haddon's texts), this can identify the specific type of fiend. |
| Investigation 13 | Medium | No signs of struggle. Nothing knocked over behind the bar. Whatever killed him, he didn't see it coming. |
| Investigation 16 | Hard | Faint scratches on the floor behind the bar — not footprints, but claw marks. They appear and disappear, as if something was only partially present. (These are from Xarrul's partial manifestation.) |
| Detect Magic | — | The brand registers as necrotic/fiendish. A faint trail of the same energy leads downward — toward the cellar. It fades after 30 minutes. |
| See Invisibility | — | If cast immediately: a faint, smoky distortion near the cellar stairs, already retreating. Xarrul is leaving the scene. |
Clues — The Ambiguous Trail
The clues are designed to point at both factions while the truth (the fiend) hides behind both.
Clues Pointing at the Cultists
| Clue | Location | DC | What It Suggests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fiendish damage signature | Orenn's body | Arcana 15 | The cultists deal with fiends and dark magic |
| Binding circle page | Kicked under table, post-brawl | Arcana 14 | A cultist book about binding fiends — were they summoning something? |
| Planar diagram on cultist table | Cultist table | Investigation 12 | They're mapping planar weaknesses — including the tavern |
| Lethe-marrow sale | Tallow (for a price) | — | Tallow sold them binding components recently |
| Cultist pin in private room | Under bench, private room | Perception 13 | Cultists have been using the tavern for secret meetings |
Clues Pointing at the Assassins
| Clue | Location | DC | What It Suggests |
|---|---|---|---|
| The brawl timing | Witnessed | — | The brawl (started by Kael) provided perfect cover for the murder |
| Assassin code violation | Conversation with Kael | — | If the guild is willing to brawl in neutral ground, are they willing to kill? |
| Dace's helpfulness | Social observation | Insight 16 | Dace is too eager to help — steering investigation toward cultists |
| Contract dispute motive | Both factions | — | The guild has a financial motive — Orenn's neutral ground protects the cultists too |
| Mole evidence | Kael, Tallow | — | Someone in the guild is selling kills — how deep does the corruption go? |
Clues Pointing at the Truth (The Fiend)
| Clue | Location | DC | What It Reveals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claw marks behind bar | Bar floor | Investigation 16 | Something partially manifested here |
| Bren's testimony | Bren (agitated state) | Persuasion/patience | "A hand that wasn't a hand, reaching through the thin place" |
| Cracked ward-sigils | Cellar foundation | Arcana 13–15 | Something has been breaking the wards from the Ethereal Plane |
| Vetch's observations | Vetch (if given dust or befriended) | — | Something dark and hungry in the Ethereal Plane |
| Ethereal trail (timed) | Behind bar → cellar | Detect Magic within 30 min | The killer went down — toward the thin point |
| Partial manifestation scratches | Private room table | Investigation 14 + Arcana 16 | Someone mapped the wards to break them |
| Orenn's preparations | Storage compartment, bedroom | Investigation 15+ | Orenn was preparing for something fiendish |
| Orenn's letter | Mags's apron | — | "If something happens to me in the bar, it came from between." |
Investigation Flow
Early Phase (First 30 minutes)
Players will likely:
- Examine the body → learn it's magical/fiendish damage
- Question both factions → get conflicting accusations
- Talk to eyewitnesses → nobody saw anything (they were brawling)
Expected result: Confusion. Both sides have motive. The evidence is contradictory.
Mid Phase (30–60 minutes)
As players dig deeper:
- Bren becomes agitated if questioned about the murder → partial truths emerge
- Tallow offers information for a price → connects the dots between factions
- The cellar and back rooms reveal Orenn's preparations → fiendish angle opens up
- Vetch mentions the Ethereal Plane → alternative explanation emerges
Expected result: The fiend theory starts competing with the faction theories. Players have a choice of which thread to pull.
Late Phase (60+ minutes)
If players pursue the fiend angle:
- Ward-sigils in the cellar confirm long-term ethereal interference
- Veil Dust trip reveals Xarrul (and Skein, and the thin point)
- Orenn's letter and bestiary confirm he knew something was coming
- Essek (if gotten alone) reveals the summoning
Expected result: Players understand what happened. Now they have to decide what to do about it.
Red Herrings (Deliberate)
These are Xarrul's work — the fiend actively planted or encouraged these:
-
Xarrul whispered to Kael (using Voice Thief, mimicking a cultist's voice) that the cultists were laughing about taking guild contracts. This is what pushed Kael over the edge into starting the brawl. The brawl was engineered.
-
A cultist component pouch was left near the bar (Xarrul moved it from the table during the chaos). It contains ritual chalk and dried blood. DC 17 Investigation to realize the pouch was placed deliberately — the blood is old and doesn't match the murder.
-
An assassin's dagger under a barstool near Orenn's body. It fell during the brawl — genuinely accidental, not planted by Xarrul — but its proximity to the body is suspicious.
Resolution Paths
The murder can resolve in several ways. None of them are clean.
Path A: The Fiend Is Found and Destroyed
Players identify Xarrul, confront it, and destroy it (see The Reckoning). The Brand of Spite fades from Orenn's body. The truth is known. But:
- The cultists summoned the fiend → they're complicit
- The assassins freed the fiend → they're complicit
- Everyone is guilty. No one is the murderer.
Path B: The Fiend Is Found but Escapes
Players discover the truth but Xarrul retreats into the Ethereal Plane and leaves the area. The truth is known but justice is impossible. Mags now has a target — she'll hunt it alone.
Path C: The Factions Are Blamed
Players don't find the fiend. One or both factions are blamed for the murder. This leads to violence — the assassins and cultists fight for real. Mags tries to stop it but she's one woman. Several people die. The fiend watches from the Ethereal Plane, satisfied.
Path D: Stalemate
No one is conclusively blamed. The lockdown ends at dawn. Everyone leaves with suspicion and unresolved tension. The thin point keeps growing. Mother Vyre's Phase Two continues. Nothing is resolved — but the players know things, and knowledge has consequences.
Path E: Negotiated Peace
Players reveal enough truth to make both factions realize they've been played by a third party (the fiend). Temporary alliance. Joint confrontation. This is the hardest to achieve and the most satisfying — it requires players to have engaged with both faction subplots deeply enough to broker trust between groups that hate each other.