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Ok, so I have a sticky situation and I would love some advice as to how to handle this:
We have a very interesting character in the campaign: a warforged Druid/Mage named BD-09. His background:
"A relic from the ancient Thassilonian empire, the malfunctioning botanical drone BD-09 spent thousands of years awake but immobile and exposed to the elements, where his subroutines degraded and restructured, rewriting themselves into a personality. Having only been recently excavated, he imprinted on the man that rescued him from his peaceful solitude, only to lose him several years ago during a spree of murders that haunted the town of Sandpoint. Since then, BD-09 has spent his days as the groundskeeper for the Turandorak Academy, adapting to life as a sentient creature."
He is slowly gaining access to corrupted data banks as he levels up, and remembers parts of his original history (so he doesn't know much about the runelords, etc). His personality is rather clueless with regards to social norms and he's quite literal. His sin is Pride, in the sense that he believes he was designed to be superior to most organic units. He's part plant, part ceramic, part flesh, part insect.
Here is his profile page (with pic)
As you can see, he has the sihedron rune emblazoned on his chest... He has been a curiosity in the town that most know about. He also collected the books from Thistletop, including a book on Lamashtu. During our downtime, he's been openly reading this book in public. See awkwardness in comic form
Ok, so going into the Skinsaw Murders... He has been chosen by the Skinsaw Man as the object of his obsession (Envy) since the Skinsaw Man noticed the Sihedron Rune on his chest and BD-09 is "immortal".
So when Hemlock approaches the party...
- he has 3 dead men in his garrison with the rune on their chest
- a new murder at the lumbermill with the rune
- a note to BD-09 saying, "We have spoken of this before, my master. Now it begins. Join the Pack and it will end."
- BD-09 with the rune on his chest, curious history,
- and BLATANT occult interest recently.
Ugh. I could arrest BD-09 but I don't want him to sit out the session. What do?
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He's been pretty trustworthy - they are the Heroes of Sandpoint after all, but his recent behavior has caused concern from the public, and the Scarnettis have been running a lot of anti-hero propaganda. The party's half-orc mated with the Vinder girl, for example, and the whole party is non-human, so there's a good bit of open racism now that the half-elf Tsuto turned out to be evil. Tensions are high in 25% of the population, while the rest love the group. BD-09, though, has always been a bit awkward and strange to people, and some would argue that he's a sociopath with his cold, robotic world-view.
Kalshane's recommendation is good - it seems like an ideal 'I must clear my name, and quickly' situation.
If you think the Sheriff should be more suspicious of him, then have their meeting feel like Hemlock is trying to trick him into a confession, and that he's not quite got enough evidence (yet) to arrest BD-09. His fellow party-members might have to try to persuade Hemlock that BD is ok, vouching for his integrity.
It does mean re-writing the 'Hemlock's plea' scene, and the PCs will have to be a bit more sneaky and resourceful doing the investigation, but if you're up for that extra work it's a good way to work BD's background into the story.
An alternative could be that Hemlock is suspicious but Brodert Quink calms him - by explaining that he's read about constructs similar to BD and very much doubts they'd be capable of murders like that. Hemlock becomes curious about BD and wants to gain his help, since his Thasillonian roots might come in useful given the Sihedrons on the bodies.
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Thanks for the suggestions!
Funny that you mention Brodert Quink, because the player already incorporated Quink into his background without knowing what would be in store for him (Jerick was the Pathfinder that found BD-09 and was killed by Chopper):
"Brodert Quink: Quink has held a grudge toward BD-09 for years, mostly due to Jerick having not called on his expertise when the drone was being repaired. After Jerick was found dead, Quink quickly tried to claim the golem's loyalty, to which BD-09 did not react as expected and rejected him. Since then, Quink has had a chip on his shoulder."
So that should make things interesting... LOL
Interesting indeed.
You could have Quink tell Hemlock (which then Hemlock admits to the PCs) that 'BD-09 wouldn't be capable of something like this, it just doesn't fit. Highly irregular, highly unlikely' and so on.
Then Quink comes to see BD soon after with a 'you owe me a favour now' perspective. About that grudge...
You're free to go whichever way you want but I would point out that of your 5 bullet points in the original post - all of them apply to just about every group of pc's going through the AP. (Substitute sihedron rune on chest for one pc wearing the sihedron medallion from Nualia.)
My interpretation has been that after Book 1 where the pc's presumably saved Sandpoint and dealt with Nualia and her various thralls, they have a lot of credibility with Hemlock. He sees the evidence "against" the pc's more likely a frame then a sign of insane incompetence. He approaches the pc's with a "I don't think you boys were involved in this but... it doesn't look good, others are talking... So I could use some help..." This way he gets their help and has an excuse to "keep an eye on them." Just in case they are involved.
You can create more friction with the town's power structures if that's a path you and your players will enjoy but it's not really needed based on how I read the AP and your "interesting character background."