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menels
2014-06-20, 12:03 AM
I leeched this Idea from somewhere else... Trying to make a small adventure out of this.

My group is almost finishing running a couple of adventures, and I want to keep the dramatic horror genre (only 1/3 of my players is scared... so cannot call it horror) I need a new adventure.
On the way back to the city they will find the Eagle Inn, dedicated to The eagles "hotel California" (i might have read this idea somewhere in gitp foruns.... so many characteristics in this inn is due to the song)

Background:
The place was a brothel that with the curse started to work as an Inn. There are other guests that try to win the hostress (an ex prostitute) favor... However, these guests are other trapped travellers, some of them are charmed so it might be proven difficult to get any information from them.
The place became a planar prison after a lesser minor deity of lust(it must be weak enough for my lvl 3 adventurers... ) was slain in it, which will be represented by an Allip. It's murderer is an doppelganger that might substitute one of my players (i love screwing with them). To lift the curse they have to solve the murder... in which moment the minor deity will stop looking like an Allip and will allow their exit.
Still havent though about the reason of the kill.


These are my actual notes:

-Gorgeous hostress, "welcome in, my dears" (she is unaware of everything that happens... maybe she part of the curse, so killing her will be proven impossible since she will disappear and reapear when the players are not looking)

-After some moments, ring the clock bell. 11 times. (I'll ring it ocasionally until one of them get it that the time is always the same)

-If they sleep, they will wake up still will be night. (maybe wake them up with listen checks).

-After they make the check in, the door will lock. If they try to leave, they will find it locked and impossible to lock pick (poor rogue).

-The night man will say that it is unusual... but the man from the morning shift has the key (but but but... it will always be night!)

-If they try to leave using windows they will find themselves entering the inn through another room. Even though the windows show a completely different scenario from where the Inn should be.

- Only drink in the bar is a dark red liquid, which may look like blood but has no taste.

-in the master's chambers they will find the Allip, which wont hostilize the players, but will humm the hotel california melody, triggering its Babble hability (so they can have some chances of getting were it come from) (Kimberly Sloboda - Hotel California)


I'll try to run a pseudo horror once more, so the plan is pretty simple... run a lot of checks (there are voices coming from many places)....
and some allucinations that some players may see and others not...
for a cliche example: Like a fountain that for some looks like water and others like blood.
And others to try to place one against the other... as making checks in which they will notice small changes on their allies... to wonder if they are theirselves or not...
If the doppelganger substitute one of them, the objective will also be to escape, but he will try to incriminate the players and the other guests. (killing them if alone with them... or turning them against the others)


However I still lack some ideas to how to lead the clues to solve the mistery.
A few travellers may have gonne missing... and then reapearred slighly different... I don't know... lack good ideas...
Looking for suggestions and tips and anything might be nice =)

erikun
2014-06-20, 02:06 AM
If you are running D&D3e, then I would seriously suggest against an Allip. They are considerably overpowered for their CR, between incorporeal and permanent ability drain, especially at level 3. On the other hand, if they do have a way to damage it (Magic Missile + Spiritual Hammer most likely) then it's rather easy to kill off. I might just recommend some sort of Ghost, but if your intent is to make the creature very dangerous to face rather than just hard to kill, feel free to go with a "respawning" Allip.

You'd probably want NPCs to keep coming back as well, especially if they don't remember anything between hours.

Note that you'll need a Restoration spell (Clr 4 spell, so requiring a 7th level Cleric) to get rid of permanent ability drain, so you'd probably want an appropriate NPC after the adventure. It might be an interesting thematic point that a character killed by the Allip's wisdom drain (probably from attacking it) is how they get trapped and get stuck in the loop.


A few questions you might want to answer, though:

What happens if the PCs start breaking through windows/walls?
What happens if they start stealing stuff from partrons? (I would assume they note it missing, so no stealing from people twice)
What happens if they kill the Allip? (I would assume it will be back the next hour)
What happens if one of them dies?
What happens to the people in the adventure, including potential former PCs, when everything is resolved?



As for clues...
Right now, we have a doppelganger who killed a minor deity of lust. My first question is "Why is it a doppelganger?" as any human could work, but beyond that...

The most obvious use for a doppelganger would be for an assassination, which means that it was most likely hired by somebody else (or working for somebody else) opposed to the deity. The most obvious solution would be to work for a rival cult of another deity, perhaps a minor deity of chastity or something similar. Pretty much any other deity might work for various reasons; even a deity of commerce could work as disliking lust in messing with business. Or perhaps a high-ranking priest of the lust deity tricked something out of the other deity/deity's followers, which is why the conflict happened.

Anyways, it means that the doppelganger probably belongs to a chruch, and probably still has assassination gear stored somewhere. Both of these would tip the party off to who they are. This is especially true if the other partrons are familiar with such a conflict and openly talking about it: talk about how arguments between two cults have escalated "recently" would tip off people to keep an eye open for anyone related to the other cult.

Anyways, going with the idea behind the three clue rule (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule) you'll want to point out what is happening here (minor deity was killed), who did it (doppelganger assassin), and what needs to be done to resolve it (kill the assassin).

The first one should be easy enough: if the brothel has a number of (failed) adventurers who came to solve the problem and are stuck in a loop, then they will be fully aware of what has happened. They might not be familiar with their own fate, but they would be familiar that a deity was killed here and that something strange has been happening sense. The original partrons would also likely be familiar with the deity being killed, assuming they got trapped sometime afterwards rather than beforehand. This probably shouldn't be a puzzle as much as something made obvious to the PCs.

The second problem would be identifying the assassin. One tip off will be the rival cult giveaways. There might be more than one partron who is part of the rival cult, although the others would just be there to divulge information ("I hear the cult of commerce is behind what happened here. Good.") Another tip would be that the doppelganger isn't stuck in the "loop" - although they are still trapped in the brother - because they haven't died yet. As such, they'll be one of the few partrons doing something different hourly, rather than the same actions over and over. A third tip would probably just be fore the doppelganger to attempt to kill the party, or even try working with them to get out of the building together.

As for the third problem, you'll want some idea that killing the doppelganger will resolve the situation. Magical divination would probably return a hint of "kill the killer" from the dead lust deity, perhaps even overriding normal responses. There could be something in the allip's singing or phrases that hints that the assassin must be killed to resolve the problem. There could be messages to that effect somewhere in the brothel, perhaps written on paper and stuck into pockets or notes of adventurers tucked into cabinents in the other partrons' rooms. There could even be other adventurers who aren't stuck in the "loop" yet and trying to aid the party, knowing that they would have no chance against fighting the doppelganger.

Eh, sorry about the long post.

menels
2014-06-20, 03:41 AM
Eh, sorry about the long post.

sorry? you gave me some crucial points i had not yet though about!
and a great set of ideas!

Later today i'll update my notes and make a proper history plan...
then i'll update here once more for critics...

Thank you very much!
(i'm used to playing... not to dming... so I still have to learn how to think properly when planning the adventure)

GGambrel
2014-06-25, 08:47 PM
-After they make the check in, the door will lock. If they try to leave, they will find it locked and impossible to lock pick (poor rogue).

-The night man will say that it is unusual... but the man from the morning shift has the key (but but but... it will always be night!)

-If they try to leave using windows they will find themselves entering the inn through another room. Even though the windows show a completely different scenario from where the Inn should be.


I don't see why you don't just have the door behave similarly to the windows. Though I'd probably go with some unnaturally think, opaque fog that the PCs stumble through for a bit before finding themselves back in the hotel, perhaps in a different room (maybe the cellar).

I heard somewhere that the key to suspense is the things you don't see or hear. Though I don't have much experience in implementing it, you might consider having opportunities for players to see (or not see) things that may (or may not) attack/harm them. Maybe stealing some of their favorite items (later found in the doppelganger's possessions), if they fail to notice things. Also, combat in total darkness or obscuring conditions with an unknown opponent could be interesting (or annoying).

Just some ideas. Best of luck!

And I like the overall concept. :smallsmile: