Tracking the murderers

[HoboKnight]

Hey guys,
to me, Forgotten realms often seem a bit like the Wild West. Settlements are far apart, law is scarce and evil deeds often go unpunished. Heck, entire child-sacrificing cults can exist unobtrused.

So, here is my question: you are a group of lvl 6 paladins of Helm with mounts and everything. One day you are contacted by a guy who begs you for help - an entire settlement has been completely devastates by Vystani murderers, who then moved on with their caravan. Village was devastated a week ago and it takes you three days to reach it. Results are quite horrid: villagers were killed or driven insane, kids left without their parents.

Your goal is to find and punish the wicked. How can you track them down? What resources do you use?

Thanks

[Amnestic]

You can't easily hide the passage of a full caravan group, especially one large enough to butcher an entire village.

Some easy/moderate Survival checks would be more than sufficient to track them down, if you even need that much. There were some survivors too - they could point you in the direction they went. Caravans will travel slower than horses, it's just a matter of time until you catch up.

If anything was taken by the criminals, Paladins get Locate Object as well, for use when you're getting closer.

[Anymage]

Gods are real and can communicate with their faithful. Evil gods can also communicate with their faithful so don't expect to be able to get a perfect bead on them, but you can hope to at least be pointed in the right general direction. Characters with divination powers/spells can also give some sort of nudge.

Evil cultists committing mass slaughter are very likely to be very noisy about whose name they're doing it in. Holy symbols, prayers, whatever you can think of will be on very clear display. Knowledge of the beliefs and observations of whatever group can help point you in the right direction.

It's not clear whether the cultists are just a small part of the caravan or the bulk of the vystani, but in either case a caravan is noticeable. If it's a whole caravan of destruction, there'll be a clear path to follow. If it's just a small inner group, vystani are still very noticeable and caravans will have to take breaks to both restock and do whatever it is they do to make money. Lawmen on the trail can probably move faster and catch up with them.

All non-supernatural means contingent on the bad guys slipping up somehow, but then people who are hypercompetent enough to never slip up are unlikely to randomly attack towns in the first place. Once you have some sort of decent hint you can start to follow up on that.

[Silly Name]

So, the caravan has a ten-day advantage on our tracking party, right?

They probably left some tracks, and the survivors can likely point us in the right direction, but I would assume we need to really push forward with no rests for at least a couple days in order to catch up.

First order of business is following the tracks - which would be a Survival check. I would hope that at least one of us has proficiency in Survival from their background, since we've been assigned this mission. We can then spam Locate Object if we know of something peculiar the murders have on them to check if we're "in range" after a while.

Assuming that over the course of ten days of travel, the caravan must have passed some other settlements, ask every settlement we find along the road if they've seen our marks. Even an isolated farmstead may have caught sight of something.

Ideally, we find a lead to the exact reasons and goals of the caravan: your description makes it sound like they're not just average bandits raiding a village, so there ought to be some deeper goal here, and knowing it could help us locate the murderers.

[Unoriginal]

Assuming that over the course of ten days of travel, the caravan must have passed some other settlements, ask every settlement we find along the road if they've seen our marks. Even an isolated farmstead may have caught sight of something.

Ideally, we find a lead to the exact reasons and goals of the caravan: your description makes it sound like they're not just average bandits raiding a village, so there ought to be some deeper goal here, and knowing it could help us locate the murderers.

On top of that, by necessity a caravan will need to go somewhere to resupply, as all those animals and folks need at minimum food and water (unless magic is involved, but that is also a good way to track them). So looking at the map and the direction they went should give a good idea on where they're going.

But I have to point out that the Paladins in the OP have no confirmation the caravan did the slaughter yet. For all they know the person who asked their help is the perpetrator and is accusing the Vystani so that the Paladins track them and maybe attack them.

Or the person asking for help is genuine but the perpetrator is someone else framing the caravan.

[J-H]

Zone of Truth is a 2nd level spell on the Paladin list, so they should be able to validate truthfulness. The caster is aware of successful or failed saves against it.

They should be moving at least double the caravan's overland travel speed.

[awa]

You can't easily hide the passage of a full caravan group, especially one large enough to butcher an entire village.

Some easy/moderate Survival checks would be more than sufficient to track them down, if you even need that much. There were some survivors too - they could point you in the direction they went. Caravans will travel slower than horses, it's just a matter of time until you catch up.

If anything was taken by the criminals, Paladins get Locate Object as well, for use when you're getting closer.

now to be fair the number of people needed to butcher a whole village in d&d can be as low as 1 depending on the levels and classes involved.

[JackPhoenix]

Well, the good news is that local gods don't give a crap about Vistani, and vice versa, so it's unlikely there'll be any divine interference.
The bad news is they are Vistani, they are probably long gone by now, back in Domains of Dread.

[HoboKnight]

@Unoriginal
I like your paladin morality spider sense. Things will not be black and white and I intend to make things interesting that way.
@JackPhoenix
How would one track them to the domain of dread? How would one even know if they went there?

[Slipjig]

@JackPhoenix
How would one track them to the domain of dread? How would one even know if they went there?

The short answer is "you probably can't". The vast majority of people aren't even aware that the Dread Domains exist. I don't think any of the books ever discuss the possibility of going there on purpose, but you would need teither 1) the Dark Powers to choose to pull you in, or 2) help from a Vystani. And then once you ARE in, you'll need a Mist Walker to move from one Domain to another.

Of course, if your PLAN is to go to Ravenloft, you can just say that following their tracks leads them into Ravenloft.

If we're back to normal tracking means, this is actually quite a challenging problem. A ten-day lead means that most physical tracks will be gone. And there have probably been other wagons/carts walking across the tracks in the meantime. Even if you can get a "they went that way" from survivors, ten days of travel almost certainly takes them past multiple crossroads. Also, Vystani are probably used to not being welcome, so they probably set up camp in relatively hidden areas. It's probably more productive to figure out their motives and anticipate where they are going next.

[Anymage]

Can vystani actually enter and leave Ravenloft on a whim? I haven't read the 5e stuff but from what I remember their special trick was being able to travel between domains. Not being able to worldhop.

If the vystani can hop between worlds, especially when their home base is hostile to anyone else, that does make them much harder to track and bring to justice. I don't know how much of a commentary that is on the realms, though, when a key part of the bad guys is their ability to hide out in places that aren't the realms at all.

[JackPhoenix]

@JackPhoenix
How would one track them to the domain of dread? How would one even know if they went there?

You're pretty much out of luck when and if that happens. Vistani are the only ones who can navigate the Mists reliably, everyone else can more-or-less hope (weird word to use when talking about Ravenloft) they'll get swept up by the Mists and end up in the right domain, and the Vistani can just escape elsewhere much easier than the paladins can follow. Other Vistani are unlikely to help a giorgio against their own kind, even if they are from different clans. If you're in the same domain, you can try to convince (hah) the local Darklord to close the borders before the Vistani escape, but good luck with that, even if you know that's an option. But hey, it worked for dr. Van Richten, maybe it'll work a second time, even if Azalin is gone now.

As for knowing they went there, you just use other methods mentioned to track them, and if they seems to vanish without a trace, that's probably what happened. But I imagine few people even know DoD and the Mists are a thing, so it'll be just unexplained disappearance.

[Demonslayer666]

I would first gather information at the village and get detailed descriptions and eye witness accounts. Anything that will identify the murderers and which way they went is a good start. Try and figure out there next destination.

Follow their wagon tracks as best you can (as mentioned, Survival checks cover this). Talk to anyone along the way to confirm you are on the right track. Bribe or intimidate anyone reluctant to talk about them. Travel fast, and as far as you can every day, and hope you catch up to them.

Find faster modes of transportation: boat, flying, horseshoes of speed, etc.

[HoboKnight]

If they flee to the domain of dread: get some other Vistani, intimidate them(better bribe them), have this Vistani help you to get to domains of dread and take targets down this way? Thoughts?

[Slipjig]

That presumes a level of understanding of the mechanics of Ravenloft that PCs probably wouldn't have. Heck, even if the PCs are natives of Ravenloft, they probably won't understand the mechanics that well when the campaign starts. Most inhabitants of Ravenloft never leave their home Domain (and the Soulless majority of them probably CAN'T).

I think we need to establish: is this SUPPOSED to be the setup for a Ravenloft game? Or did we sidetrack the conversation bringing it up?

[Sorinth]

Since the Paladins probably don't have a good Survival check they probably hire a tracker/guide/ranger to help them follow the tracks. After that it all depends on the how the adventure is planned out. It could be track them to a portal to Ravenloft and then not only dealing with the group but finding a way back home (Especially if it wasn't a clear portal and more of a wake up one misty morning in Ravenloft). It could be the tracking leads to a gathering of 6+ different Visanti/Visanti-like groups and it's a mystery adventure to figure out which group is the evil one.

So my question is are you asking because you are looking for adventure ideas past the initial plot hook or are you looking for player ideas on how to handle a situation where you are a week+ behind a group?

[Sigreid]

Caravans are almost certainly going to follow the roads. Crossroads are going to be near settlements of some kind in almost all cases. The easy answer is to ask the locals when you get to a crossroad. Surely either somebody noticed the caravan or you're following the trail of ruined villages.