Help with dropping hints

[Talesin]

If you know my forum name from the other forum we frequent and think you're a player in my group, please stop reading now.

I apologise for the wall of text in advance.

I've run one session of a zombiegeddon type campaign that was meant to be a bit of fun for a session but the group loved it so much i'm going to run it for a few months. Originally I was intending there to be no real story and they just had to survive, however it has evolved from there and I currently have 6 characters who could be responsible for this zombie outbreak and they form the city council.

The 6 characters are:

A Cleric, A Ranger, A Mage, An Elven Maiden, Head of town guard and A General.

Their motives, that i've set out in a background:

Cleric: He's fed up of not being listened to and being disrespected as he's a cleric of Boccob.
Ranger: He's never really been a fan of the city. He was just drafted on to the council after he saved the town from an attack.
Mage: He's a mage, they're all crazy and out for ultimate power right?
Elf Maiden: She's never really explained what she does or how she came to be a noble. Always had people on the back foot around her. She's actually a powerful spellcaster.
Head of town guard: Told the council the city was ill equipped to deal with danger, did this little test to show the problems get out of hand?
General: He's a powerhungry mad man who would do everything to end up more powerful than he currently is...does that include raising a zombie army?

The problem i'm having is how to get any information about these characters to my players in game. The background I set for them is just what they've picked up from knowing of the city and from the few days they've spent here. I've thought of leaving notes and, as explained a little further down, there is one big clue pointing to who did it in one of the other characters houses. But there's gotta be a better way than them finding a letter saying "Yes X, the ritual is almost complete, we just need the Y".

They're currently stuck on the roof of the Inn they were staying at, with several other NPC survivors and have explored one of the adjacent building by jumping to it and smashing through the roof. They've also cast hide from undead and snuck about ground level taking note of some of the buildings in their surroundings.

They're fortified the upper level of the inn they are staying in, barracading the two doors that lead to the second floor, but they are too scared to really spend much time down there just in case they get stuck and prefer to hide on the roof. I envisage they'll spend the next session or two exploring the nearby areas and attempting to equip themselves with better equipment to deal with the threat. They are going to lose the inn at some point just to push them to find safer places to hide and keep them on their toes.

Just to add a bit more to the 6 characters and how I expect them to find each one:

Cleric, he dies on the first day defending his temple and on a very low% roll each day there is a chance they'll see him wandering the streets. He is known to wear an amulet that is left in the temple covered in blood. If they take it one of the survivors will notice it and say he'd assume that he's died.
Ranger, If they really really get stuck, i'm going to have him come in over the city walls looking for survivors. But i'm not planning on having him feature at all.
Mage, They won't be able to find anything about him as they cannot get into the mage tower (magically locked and warded) but I think he's suspicious enough that they'll try.
Elf Maiden, She will eventually be found dead in her house, having taken her own life through guilt at helping start this plague up. If they find her early enough then they'll be able to interrogate her and maye stop her from committing suicide.
Head of the Guard, After a week or so he and some of the guard will attempt to retake the city. This will be close enough to the Inn that the PCs can see it and might be able to assist. However they quickly realise that lack of food, fatigue and just sheer numbers of enemies overwhelm the guard killing all of their number.
General, he's actually responsible for this. He's forced the elf maiden to research the spell, and is in the sewers of the city having it cast as they speak. It takes several weeks to perform, with rest periods, that slowly power up the zombies over time.

Does anyone have any way I could get information to my group about any of these characters and on top of that, how can I get them to not just focus on surviving but look into solving the zombie crisis? I realise i'll probably need to eventually drop something in their lap that says "If you stop this ritual, all the zombies will die" but I need a more subtle way of doing it.

[ClothedInVelvet]

That is indeed quite a wall of text. However, I think it would be important to understand how it became about more than surviving. Is the party trying to figure out what happened? From your description, it sounds like they're just hanging out on the roof, trying to survive.

I think you need to let the party guide it. If they start scouring the city for clues, that's one thing. If they're just trying to escape the city with as many NPCs as possible, then leave the story about that. It's better to have a huge backstory that is never used than to railroad the party into an adventure they didn't want.

[Amoren]

Well, one idea that came to mind was them coming across one of the General's soldiers/guards, likely trapped in the city - perhaps loyal to the General's plan or naive of it, he might drop a hint about how the General had the strange habit to disappear at nights.

As for how to make them get the hint to stop the ritual... Perhaps make each session of the ritual obvious, magical power washes through the city and the zombies get noticeably stronger? Or perhaps allow someone to make a knowledge religion or arcane, or perhaps spellcraft roll to realize that powerful, unfinished magic is still working on the zombies after a few days, or if they investigate this lead themselves.

[Talesin]

That is indeed quite a wall of text. However, I think it would be important to understand how it became about more than surviving. Is the party trying to figure out what happened? From your description, it sounds like they're just hanging out on the roof, trying to survive.

I've only had 1 session so far and in that session they had the first encounter, which involved them running upstairs in the inn and barracading the upstairs door. They then found a roof hatch and made their way up there. They rested and then went down into the inn using hide from undead to bring supplies up to the roof. The day after they investigated a nearby house and then ran around on the ground, with hide from undead, to look at the nearby buildings.



I think you need to let the party guide it. If they start scouring the city for clues, that's one thing. If they're just trying to escape the city with as many NPCs as possible, then leave the story about that. It's better to have a huge backstory that is never used than to railroad the party into an adventure they didn't want.

I was thinking that. I'm not the normal DM of this group and when speaking to the DM after the session ran, he's playing in this game as a break from our main campaign, he said its good to have some kind of story behind it all that the players can find.

Overall though his campaigns tend to be the classic start at level 1 and move on up through the levels through questing and gathering magic items. While this one i'm running is different. If the characters want full plate armour at level 1, there is a shop with it there you've just got to get hold of it and bring it back. There's no magic mart for obvious reasons.

Cheers Amoren for the advice too, it hadn't occurred to just have someone have seen the general acting suspiciously and still be alive somewhere in the city. I'm planning of having a few 'mad' people, like in the Dead Rising games, so he could definitely be one of those and spout rubbish that they shouldn't ignore during the fight.

I like the idea of the spellcraft checks as well. Would be interesting as they won't notice it until they've gained a level or two, barring a really strong roll.

[ClothedInVelvet]

I was thinking that. I'm not the normal DM of this group and when speaking to the DM after the session ran, he's playing in this game as a break from our main campaign, he said its good to have some kind of story behind it all that the players can find.

Overall though his campaigns tend to be the classic start at level 1 and move on up through the levels through questing and gathering magic items. While this one i'm running is different. If the characters want full plate armour at level 1, there is a shop with it there you've just got to get hold of it and bring it back. There's no magic mart for obvious reasons.

Cheers Amoren for the advice too, it hadn't occurred to just have someone have seen the general acting suspiciously and still be alive somewhere in the city. I'm planning of having a few 'mad' people, like in the Dead Rising games, so he could definitely be one of those and spout rubbish that they shouldn't ignore during the fight.

I like the idea of the spellcraft checks as well. Would be interesting as they won't notice it until they've gained a level or two, barring a really strong roll.

It doesn't exactly sound like they've been searching for the cause of the plague yet. That could change. It all comes down to whether they play this like Resident Evil or 28 Days Later. In Res Evil, Alice is basically working against the zombies and their creators. In 28 Days Later, they're just trying to get out of Dodge.

Waves of magical energy washing through the city are definitely going to get noticed, but you'll still have different parties do different things. Some will try to stop the waves, others will just speed up their escape. You should note that players only get to increase a maxed skill by 1 per level. So they're only going to have a 5% better chance of making the check.

Taking another cue from Res Evil, you could have the general monitoring the situation. He could show up in a nearby building with a platoon of heavily armed guards, checking out the area. Your players might notice and even try to contact him. Then he disappears back into the sewers or tries to kill them so they don't thwart him, etc.