Crimson Fish

[JellyPooga]

Drow art might be interesting: they may have a painting that has one meaning when seen in full light, but the patterns of light/dark colors tell a different story when seen in grayscale using Darkvision, as a simple optical illusion.

I really like the idea of a bunch of PC's wandering through a Drow art gallery; most of the paintings are well lit, in all their grisly glory, but there's this one painting in a room all of its own, a dark, unlit room. The humans are scratching their collective heads over why this one painting is separated from the others with no light; it's not even that good, just some splodgy greys and weird colours. Maybe it's super old and valuable and the Drow don't want it being damaged by light or smokey torches, maybe there's something special about it, or there's a secret door. They spend ages searching the room for some clue, but it's just a "Darklight" painting, designed to be viewed with Darkvision only.

Inspired by the above, I thought it might be interesting to discuss/share other red herrings you have used, come across or can think of.

[Dudewithknives]

The group spent half a game investigating the shady meeting the elven mayor was having with a half-orc.

The mayor was just cheating on his wife.

[Tiadoppler]

How about using the darkvision thing for Drow propaganda? In full light, the poster is garish and clashing, a bloody battlefield full of horrible surfacers. In the dark, when seen with darkvision, the grays flow smoothly into one another and showcase a far happier scene in the dark. Something like Fallout propaganda: "When surfacers attack! The best life. The only life. The Underdark life."



Other red herrings:
Amulet of Highly Detectable Magic. This is a necklace that glows extremely brightly when someone uses a Detect Magic spell near it. An Arcana check reveals that it is magical, but you cannot determine what properties it has.


I've had a (private, misanthropic, but non-hostile) spellcaster NPC use Shape Stone to create broken statues of terrified adventurers frozen in time all around his home. It's really just a "Keep Out" sign, but the neighboring village is terrified that there's a basilisk nest or something.


Also, an intelligent, spellcasting dragon can Disguise Self to change their color and cast spells of the opposite damage type to mislead people who might try to capitalize on their weaknesses. Your players get a quest to avenge the frozen village and destroy the white dragon, load up on Fire damage and Cold resistance, then the WhiteRed Dragon dispels his illusion. :smalleek:


If a small village has a werewolf problem, and they leave their weapons to be silvered by the local blacksmith, the Werewolf Blacksmith can nickel-plate them instead :D Not a red herring, unless the Werewolf Blacksmith is actually innocent, I guess.

[Asmotherion]

Tiefling gets the mission to steal a stuff from the throne room for the local thives guild, to get in. After using his skills as a Warlock to get in (mask of many faces), he gets discovered as he gets the stuff, and has to battle. He eventually gets the guard unconsious, and disguisses into him. He gets recognised nevertheless (because he is holding the stuff, dah), and has to run again. Once he leaves the throne room, he decides to hide the stuff for the night in the local stables. He meets at the Inn with his Accomplice, and tells him he wants to get paid, and out, because it's too dangerous. They agree on half payment for now, and the other half once the tiefling takes him to the stuff.

The Thives Guild guy takes the stuff, and proceeds to use it... to cast Dimension Door from it, and never be hear from again (or deliver the rest of the payment) :P

I was DMing this one, and since the guy was a new player, I tried to give him enough subtle hints to actually examine what the stuff's functions might be, but he was completely focused on the chase and completely forgot he was proficient in Arcana.

[Consensus]

I tried to give him enough subtle hints to actually examine what the stuff's functions might be, but he was completely focused on the chase and completely forgot he was proficient in Arcana.
I don't really think this is the player's fault, being focused on the exciting and intimidate events in the game. It can even feel a bit metagamey to do that sorta thing during a chase.

[danpit2991]

my players were chasing down info on the big bad who in this case was using goblins as bandits , well anyway they tracked a suspect to a cave system in the first chamber they slaughtered the goblins that were there ....and spent the next 45 minutes ,real time, inspecting- testing and talking to the guy they were chasings horse they were convinced that it was a magic horse or something when in reality i only said it was there to let them know they were on the right track in finding the guy. it went like this


player1- i check out the horse
dm- its a normal riding horse with a saddle and saddle bags

player2 i check the bags
dm they are empty

player1 i see if the horse understands me in elvish
dm it continues eatin its hay

player 3 i cast detect magic
dm you dont see any effect

45 minutes of this i got tired of it and had the darn thin evaporate in a puff of smoke thats when the players all said "see it WAS a magic horse"

[PhoenixPhyre]

I don't know if this is a trap or a red herring, but I did the following (in the lair of a boss where they were looking for a McGuffin):

Side corridor, obviously well-guarded. Ends in a big vault door. Sign says "No unauthorized access." They manage to kill the guards and pick the multiple, difficult locks. Fortunately they're a bit paranoid, so they used mage hand (from the AT rogue) to open the door from 60 feet away. Behind the door was a blank wall with writing on it. The writing? Glyph of Warding

https://cdn.drawception.com/images/panels/2014/12-14/FyB1AXOPgj-4.png

[Joe the Rat]

A had a little Cluedo/Assasination Bureau scenario - party invited to dinner party at the Twofeather Estate, lots of suspicious characters and characters with their own agendas... and barrels of red herrings.

The hostess ends up dead, with lots of suspicious behaviors abound, and plenty of murderous mayhem. but a lot of them are distractions:

The cook who came from the monk's Not-Fantasy-China homeland with a love for red-pepper seafood. Who is just a cook and not trying to kill the monk
The maid with a red koi tattoo. Who is an assassin trying to kill the monk
The obnoxious noble and his red-hatted retainer. The former is boffing one of the maids, the latter is a shapechanging redcap.
The weird redheaded lady and her fez-wearing cat. The cat is a Rakshasa with no interest in killing anyone today.
A known spy. Who was on their side, until they let him die.
And a barrel of red-pickled herring. Where the slithering tracker responsible was hiding.

[sir_argo]

We entered a cave and there was a line of white crystals across the floor. We thought, glyph of warding? Magic circle? We spent probably an hour trying to figure out what it was when one of our players just got frustrated and said, "I taste it." It was just table salt. The line was put there because the next room had giant Dragon snails in it and the salt kept them from leaving the cave system. We spent and hour trying to figure out table salt.