Unsolved murder mystery

[DM Eberron D]

Greetings fellow Giants,

I am a new-ish DM, I am currently run a campaign with friends (the world is based on Eberron,not actually Eberron)
and because of my inexperience as DM I sometimes find myself unable to explain why a plot evolved in a certain way.

Some sessions ago, a "murder" event took place during the night at an inn, in a really small hamlet (30-40 people living there).
The victim was supposed to get help by the players, so they would escort him next day in order to explore some ruins he
was interested in. I decided to use the guy as plot-hook so that the players think that "someone does not want anyone
to go to the ruins, so he murders anyone that plan to go there".

The victim was found lying on the floor of his room, having a Cult Symbol carved with a sacrificial dagger on his chest,
and the room was full of bloodbath-splatter. Door locked from inside, window barred, second floor of the inn.
The same night of the murder, the warforged fighter of the group (never sleeps-always on guard) had a 1-second glimpse.
He had the same experience 3 nights now.

This was actually an experiment of a time-travel machine that an artificer tries to build. Of course the players do not know that.

I wanted the murder to happen in the past actually, during the time lapse, but it was a on-the-fly idea, that didn't receive much thinking.
The players left to explore the ruins next day, thinking someone tries to stop them, and the warforged never mentioned the glimpse he
had. Several sessions later - yesterday - the players return victorious but without ANY CLUE of the murder. After some discussion with the
villagers - and the artificer - the warforged remembers to mention the glimpse and they start thinking that maybe the murder happened to
the past. However the wizard, reasonably argues and claims that 1 second or even 10 seconds are not enough to kill someone with a ritual
and splatter blood all over the room.

It was already late and we called the session, but they are probably going to investigate the murder next session and can't come up with
any idea how to evolve this plot.

My question is: Does anyone have any idea how can I make it work? How can the time travel interfere with the murder?

The time travel was in the same place they are now. Meaning, the warforged saw for a moment how the inn was 3 years ago. That means that the guy
who died in his room, traveled in the past, in the same room 3 years ago, and something happened there!

[Nibbens]

Hola! First off, really cool idea - bridging murder mystery and timetravel into a fantasy setting. Bravo!
But i've got quite a few questions: Who is the artificer and how does he relate to the murder victim, the cult AND the ruins?
Who murdered this poor sod and why was he killed? Also, exactly why did he want to explore the ruins?
Why would the Warforged catch a "glimpse" (Whatever that is) three nights in a row? What was this glimpse of?
Besides the fascination with actually being able to go back to the past, what motive would the Artificer have for going back? This also might lead into why the guy was murdered.

Sorry that all I have a bunch of questions, but I feel if you were to answer these and try to draw links you might be able to solve this mystery yourself. :)

[DM Eberron D]

Thanks for your answer Nibbens and let's clear things up :)

THE PLACE:

A small hamlet. 50 villagers. Medium to poor economy (no fancy items on shops)

Major NPCs

- An elder Druid serves as protector and spiritual guide of the village
- The old Mayor, last survivor of an invasion 3 years ago, well respected
- The Cleric of the church of Sov.Host, newcomer, tries to work well with both followers of the Druidic faith and Sov.Host ofc.
- The Artificer, ex-adventurer that lives in the hamlet 2 years now, well respected and helpful, owner of a small tower he built for his experiments
he believes he can travel in time someday, and has devoted his life in a research of this. No personal reasons, for science.

- 3 more adventurers that reside in the inn, a hulking Fighter (AL CN), a Thief (AL NE) and a Wizard (the victim, AL CG)

The 3 adventurers have no connections or ties neither between themselves nor with the rest village

The Wizard is (was) a poor young guy, always reading and studying in research of new spells. Since he has his
spellbook stolen, he had now money and was stuck in the village waiting a chance to acquire some wealth or a new
spellbook. I used that as hook to lure the players in the ruins. The Wizard approached the players saying that he
intends to explore the ruins and if they will escort him they can keep the valuables they will find if they hand him
spellbooks or spell scrolls they may find.

THE TIME

During the nights the Artificer, in his tower, experiments on a machine he has built. It is supposed to be a time travel machine
which has never worked before. The last 4 days the machine indeed worked but only for a second, the Artificer did not even notice it.
The machine has a fixed range of effect - the village - and whatever is in that range travels in time (past or future). That 1 second
was the glimpse that the warforged had (and the Druid confirmed since he was awake one night and experienced it as well).
So the 4 glimpses the warforged had were 4 semi-successful experiments of the Artificer's time-machine.
The "murder" happened during one of these nights. The Wizard was in his room, alone, resting for the next day he and the players would
begin their exploration of the ruins.
During that time the Warforged was in the ground level (tavern) floor of the inn, following the command of his comrade (party's cleric)
to watch for potential danger. The players - and the NPC Wizard victim - all were sleeping at separate rooms.

REASON

The apparent reason of the murder was that someone does not want nosy humans near the ruins. The ruins are supposed to be the lair of
a secret cult, and the players walked in and cleared it. However they found no clue of the murder there, since the murder happened during another
timeline and none in this timeline is responsible. That was the initial idea. But that 1 second was not enough for a ritualistic murder, and I'm loosing
my campaign consistency if I cant provide a reasonable - well fantasy reasonable - way for the murder to happen.

[DM Eberron D]

With some help I will probably exploit the unawareness of the players and claim that 1 second in this timeline
equals an hour or so in the other timeline, giving the murderer the time to do the ritual.

A simple solution, maybe inadequate, but could not come up with anything else, and we got a session tomorrow :)

[weckar]

I'm still a little unsure how the players even figured out time travel was at all involved, or in what way it would be their responsibility to deal with this murder (aren't there local authorities for that sort of thing?), but it seems to me you're on the right track regardless in that you got the players to do what you want. Soooo what are you asking now?

[With a box]

Why they not just resurrect the vic and ask about it?

[Segev]

Alternate timeline? That's easy to explain the "one second" business.

One second is the length of time the two timelines overlapped. The murder happened over a longer period, but something about the time machine's activation - that one time - dropped the murder victim and his blood-splattered room into this timeline. If the murder victim was swapped with his alt-timeline double, there's probably a very confused cultist "over there" who's wondering how this man survived his brutal assassination.

[Nibbens]

With some help I will probably exploit the unawareness of the players and claim that 1 second in this timeline
equals an hour or so in the other timeline, giving the murderer the time to do the ritual.

Sounds good, however certain planes of existence have time that moves faster or slower. Maybe, just maybe you can introduce a little plane hopping by saying that the Time Machine did 'work' but transferred the subject to another Plane as well as time (seeing as how time/space are relative). This could account for the shift in time and give you an excuse for a cult to murder him ritualistically (or at least give you time to come up with one).

[Nibbens]

Why they not just resurrect the vic and ask about it?

Easy solution, unless the players are low level. The village is poor, so there may not be the resources for this.

[DM Eberron D]

Why they not just resurrect the vic and ask about it?

In my world (Based on Eberron, as I said) certain spells (like Resurrection etc) are working in a different way.
Instead of ruling them out, I require something more, maybe a holy quest line or retrieving a special component from somewhere.


Easy solution, unless the players are low level. The village is poor, so there may not be the resources for this.

Village is poor and players are low level indeed.


Alternate timeline? That's easy to explain the "one second" business.

One second is the length of time the two timelines overlapped. The murder happened over a longer period, but something about the time machine's activation - that one time - dropped the murder victim and his blood-splattered room into this timeline. If the murder victim was swapped with his alt-timeline double, there's probably a very confused cultist "over there" who's wondering how this man survived his brutal assassination.

Now, the plane is a good idea. Maybe Pandemonium or Limbo would fit, since the "time travel" may require the passage through one of these planes. Good one, thanks Segev!

[Coventry]

The innkeeper should be convinced that the man in the room was a thief. His evidence is that property "stolen" from the inn three years ago was found in the dead guy's room.

Also, the some of article of clothing ... an argyle sock, perhaps, that was found in the inn on the very same night of the theft exactly matches the clothing worn by the dead guy. Maybe a piece of his cloak, which was torn away in the attack, and fits perfectly with the cloak he is wearing now.

Then, when pressed about the "thefts", someone else asks the innkeeper, "three years ago? Isn't this the same room that had all that screaming and sounds of fighting three years ago and made everything think that room was haunted?". The innkeeper should shush the person, but by that point, a nice mystery hook should be dangling in front of your players.

"That was the night before that stranger tried to pay with fake money? You remember, don't you?" except when the "fake money" is pulled out, it exactly matches the brand new coins that have just been minted in the kingdom ... and the coins that had been in the dead guy's purse until he lost them in the fight back three years ago.

If the dead guy was a wizard, druid or ranger, his now-older familiar/animal companion could show up and become a pest trying to get the party, or *someone* to investigate. Kinda tough when it can't speak Common. "Yeah, that old cat has been here for about three years. No idea where it came from, or where's it's been hiding these past few days. It's almost like it KNEW that something bad was going to happen here ...

[DM Eberron D]

We did play the session, thing took a whole different plot way.

After discussing with a friend also, I decided to keep time travel for later in the campaign, since we are at 3rd level.
I made the murder seem like a ghost story, based on an old myth. Of course someone exploits the ghost myth, for
his purposes. And the idea is that there is a leak in the Sovereign Host priesthood, which creates lots of hooks
for future session.

I thank you all and everyone for the contribution, I really appreciate the help.

Cheers