Last time on the mystery campaign, the players had a five-footer and did not directly advance the plot. I spoke last time about how this is a good thing--it means the players are invested in the gameworld and have agendas as characters. Such self-directed actions included playing live music shows, questioning a loose end, and learning that Beor is a werebear. In the fourth session, the players returned to the main quest but continued to establish their characters' places in the world. First, the notes from my outline again:
Secret to discover: An Above citizen (Clover Loom) was heard drunkenly talking about how Cogswagon deserves to die because of how the fledgling disease diagnoser could destroy their monopoly on the healing business in town.
Developments: Aaron Brown is going to visit the Briscoe Inn about his missing shipping manifest
Lyssbetonk Cogswagon is offering to repair one device to help the party seek the turban-wearer.
Setup: After Montana’s performance at Underhar Cuisine, Baldwin Weams reports that the previous night, a high roller from the Above was overheard talking about having someone killed, and he thinks he heard the name “Cogswagon.”
Characters:
First Guard - Portia Rockhammer, 160 dwarf, fighter
Inventor - Lyssbettonk Cogswagon, 189 gnome, wizard/artificer
Tavern keeper - Baldwin Weams, 29 human, commoner
Tavern Patron 1 - Quarsa Fielt, 145 elf, fighter
Tavern Patron 2 - Tane Stonehauler, 336, cleric
Tavern Patron 3 - Sally Cloudworth, 253, sorcerer
Clues:
Quarsa Fielt was at the table with Clover Loom two nights ago; she says, Loom was very drunk and said she wanted to have many people killed, but her tone was more serious when talking about Cogswagon. Fielt can be found at work as a bodyguard for Above citizen Khyrhm Coleman, a quarry owner.
Tane Stonehauler was in the tavern two nights ago and overheard Loom say that she’d buy drinks for life for anyone willing to “take Cogswagon down a peg or two.” He also heard Loom use the halfling word for “assassin” a few times. Stonehauler can be found working at a Loom Healing Center--he has become disillusioned about Loom’s profit-driven approach to healing.
Sally Cloudworth was in the tavern two nights ago and says that Loom offered her money to destroy all of Cogswagon’s devices. Cloudworth said no, and Loom spit on her. Cloudworth can be found at her enchanting shop (Cloudworth’s Wares) in the north sector of town. She is furious at Loom and would have attacked her if not for her status as a citizen of the Above.
Additional information:
If questioned, Loom is genuinely shocked that she is being investigated. She admits she has a temper when drinking but can be caught up and forced to admit that she has paid a thief (Sippikup Magee) to perform surveillance on Cogswagon to ensure that she is one step ahead. She willingly admits the party to her tower because she has no belief she is guilty of anything wrong. There is a magical trace that she has been mind controlled.
Bonus for keeping personal secret this session: +1 Persuasion/Insight checks
The session began in the morning in the game, each of the characters waking up and discussing their goals for the day. But for me as DM, there was little to nothing for me to do during this period. I could have had someone knock at the door or have the house shake, directing the players to leave and investigate. But instead I chose to let them be self-directed again. For half an hour, the player characters bantered, spoke in character, planned, theorized about the mystery, and moved between scenes, all without my input. All told, I said the word "yes" to confirm a player question and otherwise didn't speak for the whole time. This was actually what I wanted--for the players to feel comfortable and confident enough with their characters to guide things on their own in this way. So I sat back and let them gather momentum before leaving the house.
At two points, players got details about the world wrong. In both cases, I let the mistake stand uncorrected. The first time was when Beor's player was speaking about the city; he referred to the Below (the majority of the city of Yamseth which lies on the ground) as the Under. I might have gently corrected him--"It's the Below, actually"--but I did not. The reason was simple. Beor's player was into the world enough to refer to parts of that world by name, and it was perfectly clear what he was referring to. Correcting him would have emphasized my additions to the story as the DM, and I wanted instead to emphasize the players' additions to the story. So I recognized that the Under refers to the Below, referred to the Below correctly in a later moment, and moved on. It would not be worth removing the player from the gameworld in order to ensure they know just the right name.
The second mistake by a player actually resulted in the strengthening of the worldbuilding in the city. Ais' player was trying to recall what kind of shop one person of interest ran. Her name was Sally Cloudworth, and I had written that she owned an enchanting shop--little everyday items with helpful magical effects on them, plus some custom enchanting here and there. But Ais' player misremembered/ad-libbed that it was a book store, and an overpriced one at that. I wanted Cloudworth to be an enchanter--I was into the idea of my players getting to browse some magic wares and potentially pick up useful items. But I also didn't want to deny what Ais' player had said. It seemed unnecessary to flatly refute that Cloudworth sold books. So I made a tweak that expanded the world a bit. Now Cloudworth runs a shop with enchanted items which also has a sizable book store section. And I wanted to incorporate the overpriced comment into the shop as well, so I decided that all the books in the store are carefully hand-written with calligraphy and use artisanal bookbinding methods that account for the price. Then, when the party visited Cloudworth's Wares, they found both what I wanted them to encounter and what Ais had been expecting, plus the twist of the handbound books. The result was that none of the players even considered the enchanted items--everyone instead milled around the book store and bought one book each. Ais' player improvised that she had bought a book about the science and magic of music, Montana switched between various halfling literature, and Beor bought a book comparing the creation myths of different races. [You may know that I create in game documents for my players; I left Ais' player to write the book she had discovered, but I wrote Beor's book on creation myths because the player was so interested in what it would say.]
More to the story as a focus, the players interrogated Cloudworth over her drinking buddies and the comments they had heard about regarding Clover Loom threatening Lyssbetonk Cogswagon. Cloudworth explained that Loom occasionally comes down from the Above to get wild and drink heavily, and that she did indeed offer a bag of money to several people for the deed of stealing and destroying various devices from Cogswagon. Cloudworth corroborated that her other drinking friends would be willing to speak on the matter to differing extents.
Done with the books at Cloudworth's Wares, the party went to the Loom Healing Center to find Tane Stonehauler. The party was alarmed to discover the size of the healing center as well as how profit-driven it was; healers require payment before assisting their patients. Stonehauler agreed with the facts that Cloudworth set forth, but he suggested that Loom was just blowing off steam and did not mean to really inflict violence against anyone. The conversation revealed the Stonehauler had saved Loom's life long ago and once been a close friend to Loom, but that she has since become distant. The party was dubious of Stonehauler's hedging and tried to convince him that Loom meant business. They succeeded to a certain extent, and Stonehauler ended the conversation unsure of what to think of his friend.
I want to break down Stonehauler's information because it reveals the line we walk with red herrings. We never want a red herring. But Stonehauler tells the party that Loom did not really mean what she said, which directs the party away from the truth, which is that she did mean it. Does this constitute a red herring? Almost, but not really. Stonehauler tells the party that Loom did say that she wanted Cogswagon robbed and potentially harmed, so the facts remain consistent. His tone tells us that he has reservations about considering Loom a wrong-doer, though. But the party has a lot of reasons to doubt him. They've just spoken with Cloudworth, who gave a clear-eyed and consistent account of Loom's behavior, so they're more likely to question Stonehauler than believe him outright. Additionally, I provided the information that Stonehauler was an old friend of Loom's, which makes it seem more likely that he is seeing her in biased light. And out of game, the players had already agreed with some finality that they would visit third person of interest Quarsa Fielt afterward, and I had determined that Fielt would be outspoken and the most damning toward Loom of the three. So since the party would then have access to two matching accounts and one supporting but biased account of Loom, which is enough to grant some confirmation to the information. All this to say, Stonehauler is not a red herring because he doesn't push the players away from solving the mystery--he just complicates it. And complications can be good, especially when you're telling a mystery story.
The party then headed to Coleman Tower to investigate Quarsa Fielt, the bodyguard of Above citizen Khyrym Coleman. Using their affiliation with the city guard, the party made it into the lavish chambers of Coleman Tower, where they were disarmed and placed in a room with Fielt. She corroborated Cloudworth's story with a number of details that made it clear they had both witnessed the same things. Fielt also added that in the same drunken rage, Loom had called for violence against two other people; Dimly Sadpockets and Trall Kort. Though at first, Fielt had been hesitant being interviewed by unofficial guards about something outside her pay range, she took a liking to the directness with which they communicated. In the end, Fielt accepted a fistfight challenge from Beor, to take place at the Briscoe Inn that evening. With the information they needed, the party left Coleman Tower, intending to check in with Portia at the guard headquarters.
As they left, a chaos storm struck. Ais was struck and began to teleport uncontrollably across the street, which chain lightning struck Beor and sprang to the rest of the party and an unlucky nearby orc. Feeling terribly guilty about the lightning strike, Beor healed the orc and sent him on his way. With the smoke still rising from the lightning strikes, Dirk St. Patrick approached Montana and said, “Send my regards to Beauregard.” This final note is the beginning of phase two of putting pressure on the player characters' secrets. I'll leave this particular mystery open for now, but suffice it to say that Dirk has learned enough to give the party a hard time.
Compared to the first two sessions of this campaign, which I very carefully prodded along to be paced in a pleasing way, the third and fourth sessions became much more freeform. I let go of the reins narratively speaking, trusted my outline, and let the players do as they wish. It worked very well from my perspective. True, it took two sessions to complete the same amount of adventuring that they completed in only one session before, but that's natural. There are more people to interact with, theories to hatch, details to consider, and opportunities to roleplay. If anything, we want our players to expand their place in the world a bit.
Next time we play, we'll be taking the training wheels off. It will be time for the players to begin investigating without the assistance of confirmable information. They'll be deep in the realm of following hunches. My challenge as a DM will be to balance true information and false information so that they can choose them intelligently. See you next time!
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