Intercepted Letter Communication

[daiorchid]

Hello,

I am DM'ing for a small group. We have recently decided to start the Curse of Strahd adventure. There are some letters in the back, i have also gotten my own letter communication that I wish to share with the PC's.
However!: The letters contain actual (ingame time) communication between alive NPCs and I need the NPCs to remain alive so the PCs can deal with them.

I need ideas on how i can present the PCs the letters in such a way that the NPCs will receive their communication as well.

Regards,

[Safety Sword]

Are you saying the mere mention of an NPC's name will cause your characters to hunt them down and kill them?

Other than that, I'm not quite clear on what you're asking for.

[gloryblaze]

Are you saying the mere mention of an NPC's name will cause your characters to hunt them down and kill them?

Other than that, I'm not quite clear on what you're asking for.

I think s/he means that s/he needs a way for the players to be privy to the contents of a (presumably private) letter, but the letter still needs to reach its destination. For instance, if Alice sends a love letter to Bob, and the letter contains key info the players need to know, how can the players get a chance to read the letter? Once they do read the letter, how do we ensure that Bob gets his letter? Most players would be inclined to simply hold onto a letter they found, not deliver it to its intended recipient, so the latter question becomes a problem.

If I had to offer advice, it would be to have the players act as the delivery service for the letters. Have Alice offer to pay one of them to deliver a letter to Bob, then offer hints that maybe sneaking a peek at the letter before delivering it would be a good idea.

Another possible way to go about it is if there are multiple copies of the letter. This sounds silly, but it can work if you set up the circumstances. For example, in the film The Princess Bride, a girl and her lover are separated and the girl does not know where her lover is. She requests that four ships be sent out, one in each cardinal direction, each bearing her letter, so that one might find him and be able to return with a response.

If you were to use that scenario, you could have the players intercept the northbound ship, for instance, and the letter would still arrive if Bob was to the east. You just have to be flexible about retroactively moving Bob to one of the places that still has a letter on track for delivery.

[Saiga]

My first thought was to have the players be given a copy of the letter. Have another NPC intercept the letter, copy it for the PCs, and send the original on its way so the receiving NPC does not get suspicious.

Edit: The multiple copies of the letter suggested above is a much more elegant solution. Another way is if the letter that the PCs receive is the original letter, and is quite old before they get it. By the time they have, a second copy has already been sent when the sender found out the first was lost.

[Nifft]

Yeah I came here to suggest multiple copies, perhaps their copy of the letter labeled with "copy three of five" (or whatever) so the PCs know that they didn't prevent the message from going through.

This is a time-proven method for improving the chance of successful message delivery.

[daiorchid]

I think s/he means that s/he needs a way for the players to be privy to the contents of a (presumably private) letter, but the letter still needs to reach its destination. For instance, if Alice sends a love letter to Bob, and the letter contains key info the players need to know, how can the players get a chance to read the letter? Once they do read the letter, how do we ensure that Bob gets his letter? Most players would be inclined to simply hold onto a letter they found, not deliver it to its intended recipient, so the latter question becomes a problem.

Exactly that. The problem is that Alice and Bob are exchanging devious plans for an attack and I need the players to help defend against the attack. However in one of the letters Alice suggest using a personal ghoul as it seems more reliable in delivering letters.
I cannot simply multiply the letters as they contain sensitive information which is not to be dispersed freely (e.g. many letters in different directions).

I have been considering the scenario where an infiltrator has replaced the paper pads of Alice and Bob with "Sending papers". Hence when one of them writes a letter it is "copied" by the underlying "sending paper" pad to the infiltrator/PCs.
Do you think this can work as in RAW?

Regards,

[DeTess]

I have been considering the scenario where an infiltrator has replaced the paper pads of Alice and Bob with "Sending papers". Hence when one of them writes a letter it is "copied" by the underlying "sending paper" pad to the infiltrator/PCs.
Do you think this can work as in RAW?

Regards,

You're the DM, it doesn't really matter if something is RAW or not. Just make sure you've got rules and prices for the things in case the PC's want to get their hands on some at a later point.

[Zanthy1]

You're the DM, it doesn't really matter if something is RAW or not. Just make sure you've got rules and prices for the things in case the PC's want to get their hands on some at a later point.

This right here. As a DM, you can literally change the game however you like, just make sure that if you do make a change, that the PCs can utilize it too if desired.

[Unoriginal]

Making several copies of one letters, or copying a letter once received, was something relatively common in the periods where written communication was the mainstream.

Or you could create a spell that let one reproduce a message written by a given quill/pen/pencil, if you manage to get your hand on it.

[Sorlock Master]

I would say the best solution is the old letter solution. It will make it easy to slip it into the storyline since any sentient being can have it on them where as some of the others require the player to take a certain routes take by the players which they may decide they dont want to do.

[smcmike]

The fact that the PCs have intercepted a letter can be used to set up all sorts of scenarios. If Alice sends Bob a letter, and the letter gets intercepted and never reaches Bob, this does not mean that Alice and Bob are now incommunicado.

Maybe Alice expects a reply, and when she doesn't get it, she realizes the first letter never made it. Maybe Bob is the one who realizes the letter he was expecting didn't arrive. Maybe they figure that someone else saw the letter, or maybe they don't. Maybe they test their letter conveyance system with another letter that conveys false information. Maybe the first letter conveyed false information, in the expectation that it might be intercepted, with some sort of coded subtext.

Maybe the players do something proactive, rather than just intercepting the letter. Maybe they forge a new letter, and arrange to have it delivered to Bob. Maybe they send a reply to Alice. Maybe they send the letter to Charlie.

[Zanthy1]

Maybe the players do something proactive, rather than just intercepting the letter. Maybe they forge a new letter, and arrange to have it delivered to Bob. Maybe they send a reply to Alice. Maybe they send the letter to Charlie.

Never underestimate what a PC may think up. The best laid plans can be thwarted easily. Do not be afraid if the party does something like these ideas listed above, in fact I think that would be even more awesome than the regular story. Perhaps Alice and Bob, due to the forged letters, do not end up teaming up, and instead they Party only has to deal with one of them or something. I feel like this level of cunning should have some form of reward, though not in the standard "treasure and experience" tier.