Could you figure this out? (3.5)

[Balor01]

I have a creature in my campaign, that is stealing people from their homes. Because I would like to see if my PCs have any chance of finding this creature, I'd first ask playgrounders to try and present me with ways how would they find this assailant? I will explain limitations as we go along, because even I do not know all of them on the fly. (PCs are lvl 5 but may seek out people with higher lvls to help them)

Anyway, Imagine that your exploration team (fighter, rogue, cleric and sorcerer) arrived in a house, where a person disappeared from. Tennants are desperate, so is city militia.

How do you seek out a culprit?

[von Tortrix]

Have the rogue search for clues where ever the missing person was last seen?
Have the Cleric interview potential wittnesses?
Have the team hide and wait for the possible return of the Creature?
Have the Rogue and Sorcerer leave traps for the Creature?
Gather info in the town to see if anything similar has been reported?
if so try and deduc a pattern?
Predict next move of the Creature based on possible pattern?

[Keld Denar]

Case the place for evidence. Is there blood? Signs of a struggle? A body? If a body, what condition? Any other disturbances (frost on windows in the summer, candles melted suddenly, ritual markings on the walls/floors/ceiling, etc). Maybe cast a Commune if the PCs are high enough, and ask if the victims are still alive, still on this plane, still in this kingdom, still within X miles of the city, etc. Speak with Dead on any corpses. Speak with Plants on any shrubberies in the yard. Speak with Animals on any house cats or mice or other animals that might have been around.

[suhkkaet]

Search the house. And since the tennants and the militia are desperate, this means it's happened before, so look for witnesses. Someone's got to have seen it (depending on just how often it's happened).
See if there's a pattern somewhere. Try to figure out where it'll happen next, or just go straight to the source (if it's obvious).

Or go the PC way and just kill everything that moves. Yes, that includes the militia. :P

[Piggy Knowles]

There are some decent divination spells at low levels...

1. A level 5 wu jen could probably figure it out pretty easily via Commune with Lesser Spirit, but the chance of a wu jen in the party is pretty low.

2. Look for anything remotely resembling a pattern. Cast Spymaster's Coin (level 2 Wizard or Bard spell) on enough coins to distribute to anyone who potentially fits the profile and might disappear. If any of them do disappear, activate the Spymaster's Coin to determine where they are and who has them.

3. Scrying is tough at that level but possible, either via scroll or by hiring someone. If you are in their house, you can probably find a personal effect or even a part of their body (hair, nail clipping, whatever), making you very likely to succeed on the scrying.

4. Divination is also a little bit high level for level 5 characters, especially since to get the most out of it you generally need multiple castings, but if you can get them, some intelligent questions can absolutely lead you to the right place.

5. Also, scan the house with every available bit of detection magic. Detect Magic/Arcane Sight, Locate Object (search for something you know a missing person had on them), Detect Thoughts - any of these can potentially pick up something, if there's a clue nearby. Of course I'd also thoroughly search via mundane means for any clues. I'd first do these searches in the house itself, and then work in a gradually expanding radius outside the house. Unless planar travel is involved (which would be my first Divination related question), they're probably close by, if this was something that happened fairly recently.

[JoeYounger]

2. Look for anything remotely resembling a pattern. Cast Spymaster's Coin (level 2 Wizard or Bard spell) on enough coins to distribute to anyone who potentially fits the profile and might disappear. If any of them do disappear, activate the Spymaster's Coin to determine where they are and who has them.

What book is Spymaster's coin in? After finding it online, I'm not familiar with it, but I'd like to be! :P

[Piggy Knowles]

Complete Scoundrel. Basically, you cast it on a coin or other small object, and it stays dormant for up to 1 hour per level. At any time during that period, you can use a standard action to "activate" it, at which point it turns on Clairaudience/Clairvoyance for 1 round per level.

[JoeYounger]

Awesome, thanks!

[Balor01]

Allrighty. I see this thing can be tracked. If you want answer what it is, just PM me. I do not want to explain this here, because my PCs may be reading the thread.

[nedz]

Adopt a disguise:
Attack the Militia, kill all the witnesses, and frame someone else.

What ? Not that sort of party eh ?

The don't have a Ranger, what sort of party is this ?
Can't Track then I suppose.

Basically:
Case the joint for evidence. Talk to the neighbours: Ask about the victim; did they have any enemies, etc. ? Go around the town and see if anyone else has any information. Has this happened before ? Check out the libraries, temples, guilds. Then, and only then, hit the divination spells. Hopefully this will turn up a few leads, if not then wait for it to happen again - ideally setting up a trap if possible.