Last time in the mystery campaign, the party interrogated George Turnbuckle about his hiring the turbanned figure; met, chased, and lost the turbanned figure, Tajana, due to her use of Lyssbetonk Cogswagon's Undoer; and shared their deepest secrets with one another. This time, they set out to begin investigating the several options before them and get closer to understanding the big picture. Read on for the full session notes.
We picked up in the interrogation room, which Beor had just smashed up in a rage. They left the guard headquarters quietly and headed to the Yamseth Market, but first, a chaos storm struck, and Beor didn't manage to evade the bolt. His next two rolls were changed to a natural 20 and a natural 1. They made it the rest of the way to the market, where they purchased a collection of new outfits for their alternate identities. When we were shopping, I had my players roll an Investigation check, and used that number to represent how effectively they would find what they were looking for precisely. All three players rolled over 20, so I told them they could find everything that they wanted and asked them to describe it. We spent several minutes going over what each new outfit would be, what color schemes they would use, and the reasons we wanted specific looks. From a storytelling perspective, it did not accomplish much, but the players seemed to really enjoy taking a moment to do some roleplaying and character building for the alternate identities. I think that any situation with a big market should allow for a wide array of options, so an Investigation check should work most of the time, unless you're looking for a very, very specific item.
Then the party went to a hair salon. Beor got a haircut and a beard trim, and he also bought a trio of tonics and oils to apply to his hair. Ais bought some wax to shine her horns. Impressed by the quality of the service they received, Beor offered to provide less expensive housing for her business, but she declined because the marketplace real estate brings in more customers than the area of town where the Misty Morning Healing Boutique is. Beor's natural 20 roll was spent stealthily slipping the hair stylist a gold piece as a tip. His natural 1 roll was spent trying to find a leatherworker, but Ais was able to steer the party in the right direction. Beor spoke to a leather craftswoman about a hammer holster, but because he didn't have his hammer with him, the party resolved to come back, especially since Montana was interested in getting a new guitar case as well.
Interested in finding the mysterious Seven Fifteen, corporate espionage agent to the Above, the party headed for the tavern called The World Map. Inside, amid sectioned rooms plastered with maps, they found a mustachioed gnome at the bar. They asked if he knew Seven Fifteen, and the gnome replied that he would refer them to Seven Fifteen for a gold piece. Once they had paid, he explained that he was Seven Fifteen and was testing their intentions. The party uneasily negotiated for information from the gnome. Initially, Seven Fifteen demanded 54 gold pieces for the five names of his employers (1 gold each for the first four and 50 gold for the last name). But with a promise of a secret of their own, the party managed to get Seven Fifteen to agree to trade all his names for the party's secret and 5 gold. The party revealed their secret: George Turnbuckle had been having an affair with his assistant Hildy, who was pregnant with his child when a mercenary under his employ killed her. Seven Fifteen tried to hide how surprised he was by this, but Beor could see that he was quite overwhelmed by the news. In accordance with their agreement, he revealed the names of his employers: Birt Wizzoom, Oscar Pliell, Norbert Corbell, Chester Higgins, and Riviel Jassimir. The first name on the list--Birt Wizzoom--is a person of interest already, as he is the best known connection to Tajana. Pliell, Corbell, and Higgins could all become more important if the story leans that way, but the sweet spot is really the last, expensive name. Seven Fifteen shared that he has been working for Riviel Jassimir for 12 years, carrying out sabotage against her competitors, investigating potential business partners, and otherwise keeping Seven Fifteen from being able to learn anything about her. He added that he suspected she was a powerful magic user and that only half of her tower seems accessible. Seizing on this last piece of information, the party offered to pay Seven Fifteen to find an answer for what was going on in Jassimir Tower, but he refused on the grounds that he couldn't promise results and that he wanted to stay as clear of Jassimir as possible. Their exchange of information complete, the party headed back to Ais' house to unload for the night.
At Ais' place, a discussion of the proper strategy in investigating the case turned into an in-character argument. I specify that it was in-character, as the players essentially agree, but are roleplaying characters who have different thoughts. Ais mostly stood back and watched, occasionally noting that she wasn't sure what the disagreement was, while Beor and Montana argued over how to approach the fact that there is a murderer and someone who hired that murderer to deal with. At its basics, Beor's argument was that because this crime stretched into the Above and seems to deal with its most wealthy individual, that the core issue is larger than just Hildy's death. If the wealthy can indiscriminately take life from the poor, shouldn't the whole system be addressed? In Beor's opinion, the case ends when people from the Above cannot control those from the Below. But Montana made a similar argument to what he argued when the two previously disagreed about where the case ends (whether or not catching the person who hired the murderer was their responsibility): he said that finding the person responsible for the murder was what they were tasked with, and that it was in many ways unrealistic to think that the party would be able to effect change in such a broad way. Montana was not prepared to accept the task of fixing the Above because he did not think the party could realistically do anything about it. In the end, they agreed that they will investigate the case beyond what is the bare requirement, but to make decisions as a team when they arise in the near future.
It's worth noting that this in-character argument took about 30 minutes. During that time, I did not speak. I try to treat the time that the players spend at Ais' house as DM-free time. Whenever they're here, they're doing their most concentrated roleplaying. It's a place to process and reassess and interact with each other rather than NPCs. So even though I was just sitting there, rolling my dice over and over, looking for matched rolls, it was good, important time in the game.
Before going to bed, Montana offered up a prayer for wisdom to his god, Fharlanghn. Whenever my players pray, I have them roll a d100. If the number strikes me as being special for some reason--double digits (33, 88), an athlete's jersey number (I always honor 36s because I was obsessed with Jerome Bettis as a wee kid), or just a number that gives you a good feeling (89s are good rolls in my game because I was born in 1989). Montana rolled a 77. As a double, I wanted to honor it, but I wasn't sure exactly what to give Montana guidance on. So in light of the argument, I put my take on the issue into Fharlanghn's parlance: "Two paths to different destinations that use the same road still use the same road," popped into Montana's head. I intended this as a reminder that the party is all in agreement that they're going to solve the crime; arguing about the destination while they're all together on the road doesn't change the fact that they're all working together still.
And this is where we called it for the night. This session marked a bit of a departure for this campaign. Where in the previous six chapters, I would prepare a series of clues that lead to one point, I am of the opinion that now that we're in the final stretch of the story, it's time to mix things up. Instead, I prepare lots of small bits of information everywhere they're going to look. The players are on to Jassimir, but they only have any of that information because I took their plans for investigation and and included some arrows pointing in her direction. And even though there are three more chapters after this, I'm not worried that the suspense is gone. The next three chapters each have big reveals that will shake things up, and investigating Jassimir won't be as easy as anything they've done so far.
That's all for this time. Next time on the mystery campaign, the party will investigate the abandoned shack in the marketplace deeded to Tajana and talk to Birt Wizzoom about how to reach Tajana. Until next time, happy gaming!
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