I need advice on letting the cat out of the bag

[Morghen]

So we've just started the campaign and it's your standard "You've been press-ganged into solving the bandit problem" starter but I've twisted it some.

They're not just bandits. They're goblins. The goblins are led by a 4th-level MU and his half-orc sister (F3).

Also, they're not really marauding at random. They were wandering around near the border with the wilderness pillaging the occasional farmhouse, wagon, and goblinoid hidey-hole, but the MU has recently been manipulated (by agents of Country 1) into finding Merchant X and killing him. The marauding is to avoid the look of a hit.

The hit has been set because Merchant X is a defector from Country 1 and now is... sort of like a Sky Marshall for Country 2. (He poses as Just Another Dude but is a badass-in-disguise and helps keep the peace on the road.)

Country 1 is looking to destabilize the South of Country 2 so Country 2 has to send troops that would be on the border with Country 1 away to the South. Invasion to follow (several levels from now).

I've got this set-up but it suddenly occurred to me that if this set-up is going to draw them into this intrigue between nations I'll need them to actually know about it. And if the hit is successful and the getaway is successful then they'll never know about all this.

The PCs are about to kill all or most of the goblins (the session will start with initiative) while the MU and his sister are holed up in town. The PCs have no idea that the MU and sister even exist at this point.

So.

• Does Merchant X die and have some stuff on his body that points to who he is? If that's the case, the PCs may not figure it out. And that would be a pain.
• Does Merchant X avoid the hit entirely and tell the PCs all of the above?
• Does Merchant X kill one of the siblings and Discover The Truth? (By searching the body or whatevs.)
• Something else?

I'd kind of like to have Merchant X die and the MU live. The PCs (two sessions in) are kind of attached to Merchant X and I get the feeling they think I'm setting him up as a connection for them. Having the MU live but the sister die would let me set up a recurring villain for a couple of levels down the road.

Typing this out has helped. I'm kind of leaning toward Merchant X killing the sister (when the siblings attack) and then dying because she was using poison (and also because he's being attacked by two at once).

But I'm totally open to suggestions.

[Friv]

Two questions:

1) How much does your MU know about what's going on?
2) How much do the PCs know, in-character, about the two nations?

If Merchant X has something which is less of a clue and more of a "anyone with the appropriate knowledge knows of this", and the MU doesn't have the appropriate knowledge, well - I've never known an adventuring party to not loot corpses.

Perhaps Merchant X has a sealed letter he was planning to send to his superiors right before he got crushed, but the goblins who crushed him couldn't read Common, so they were going to take the letter back to MU. When the players kill the goblins, they can find the letter and backtrace to the merchant.

[ActionReplay]

In my experience, cats are rather testy when let out of bags. Best to do so from a distance or let another open it for you. Barring that, catapults usually solve the problem one way or another.

Although before giving a serious answer, I'd like to ask about the party itself. What kind of party would this be? Not asking for what they are playing mind you. Rather, what kind of play style do they prefer? From the description, they sound like a more straightforward party. The kind who might not care for all the intrigue and work you've put into it. If thats the case it won't matter how many clues you set in their path. They can and will find a way to ignore it.

My advice is to keep the Merchant alive for the time being. If the PCs are attached to him then you already have a good point to go from. I would think it may prove more useful to you keeping him alive for the present. The best railroads are the ones you don't even need to try keeping the PCs on. Instead, let him be the guiding point for this intrigue at least until the party has a semi-solid grasp and drive to follow through. Killing him thematically as a memorable part of the story then would be better than dying in ye olde nameless starting village. His death would then serve as a good drive to push the players onwards.

[Arbane]

I'd advise trying to stick to the 'three clue rule' - always make sure there are at least three possible clues to lead the PCs to the next part of the plot.

[Another_Poet]

If the PCs are about to kill the goblins but the MU is holed up elsewhere, here is my solution:

One of the goblins begs for his life. "Please! I have information! I can tell you where our leader is!"

Additional clues can be on the MU, or he just fesses up; if the PCs kill the goblin without getting the information, have a tangible clue amongst the goblins' possessions. For example, bottles of wine made by the innkeeper where the MU is staying.

[Morghen]

1) How much does your MU know about what's going on?
2) How much do the PCs know, in-character, about the two nations?

He knows that Merchant X is a Road Marshall and knows who is manipulating him. The PCs know that Country 1 are expansionist jerks and that Country 2 barely has its **** together and has been going downhill for some time.

Perhaps Merchant X has a sealed letter he was planning to send to his superiors...

I like that. That may be it.

What kind of play style do they prefer?

I doubt that they'd be interested in a No-Action All-Politics game, but we've done this Figure-Out-The-Connections kind of thing before.

One of the goblins begs for his life. "Please! I have information! I can tell you where our leader is!"

None of them speak Goblin, but I'm totally doing that. That's a nice touch.

Have a tangible clue amongst the goblins' possessions. For example, bottles of wine made by the innkeeper where the MU is staying.

That's AWESOME. Using that.

So:

The Merchant is currently with the PCs. (He's probably the only thing that is going to keep them from getting killed because there are 15 goblins, 5 PCs, and 4 townsfolk.) I'll give 'em some skill checks to see if they notice that Merchant is a badass. They kill/disperse the goblins and find bottles of wine from town on a couple of the dead ones. If they don't figure out that the goblins have somebody in town, I'll have Merchant do it.

They all return to town for accolades and high-fives. The MU has been hanging around with the Mayor and Sheriff (both are Charmed) since the start of the adventure and I'll make sure the PCs notice that he's pissed. Also, Who's that half-orc with him? Oh, that's his sister? Merchant invites PCs to hang out and regales them with stories of his former days as an adventurer (but will NOT confess to being a Road Marshall).

In the middle of the night, Merchant will be attacked on his way home. Merchant and Sister will both die, and Merchant has his scalp taken as evidence of the hit. If the PCs don't stay up with him, townsfolk will. In either case somebody hears a fight but is too late to get to it in time. They ARE in time to see somebody bending over a body and then run off into the darkness. They find a scalped Merchant and dead sister.

On Merchant's body is an un-sealed letter that doesn't have an addressee on it yet. On Sister's body is a description of Merchant and a specification to retrive the scalp as identification (because Merchant is blonde).