The Skinsaw Murders (GM Reference)

[Skip Jack]

My crew has just cleared out Foxglove Manner but they decided to stay put in Sandpoint. The AP says that If the PCs don’t take the bait, though, Xanesha and the Skinsaw Cult sends a new proxy to the region to pick up Aldern’s murder spree where it left off. This new agent is most likely one of the faceless stalkers who serve Xanesha, since this choice allows her to also seek revenge on those who robbed her of a useful undead tool. After some research, she picks one of the PCs and orders her faceless stalker to assume that PC’s form and to periodically allow citizens to witness its murderous acts. It shouldn’t be long before the PCs will be forced to act to clear their own name.

I was wondering if anyone had written out a scenario for this. I am just pressed for time and my creative juices aren't flowing this week.

Thanks

[Askar Avari]

Skip Jack wrote:

My crew has just cleared out Foxglove Manner but they decided to stay put in Sandpoint. The AP says that If the PCs don’t take the bait, though, Xanesha and the Skinsaw Cult sends a new proxy to the region to pick up Aldern’s murder spree where it left off. This new agent is most likely one of the faceless stalkers who serve Xanesha, since this choice allows her to also seek revenge on those who robbed her of a useful undead tool. After some research, she picks one of the PCs and orders her faceless stalker to assume that PC’s form and to periodically allow citizens to witness its murderous acts. It shouldn’t be long before the PCs will be forced to act to clear their own name.

My group was vaguely interested in heading to Magnimar, but decided they had plenty of other things to do first - it took over a month for them to leave and investigate.

In my case, I had a faceless stalker impersonating the hunter pick up the murders with Titus Scarnetti, as the party very publicly hated him, had threatened his staff, and was on the greed list.

In general, I think there's two ways to go about this:

- Kill someone the party has publicly made their enemy, then drop a tip to the local newspaper (or whatever source of information your version of Sandpoint has) that it's VERY suspicious that some copycat killer is targeting the PC's enemies, OR suggest the PCs never actually stopped the killings, and just pinned it on an already-outcast family for clout.

- Kill a few people from the greed list, but in increasingly obvious ways, ensuring that they're seen doing it. Simultaneously, plant some piece of evidence in that PC's living quarters or place of work connecting them to one of the original murders or the Chopper. In this case, there's no need to tip anyone off - the city council and guard should be informed pretty quickly.

Once the PCs are in hot water, I think it would be good for Xanesha to taunt them, maybe hoping to get some revenge for the loss of Aldern and Nualia.

Last idea... if the PCs do end up seriously implicated in some murders and one or more of them is arrested, that can send them to Magnimar. Ironbriar could even review their case, declare them innocent, ask for their help, and otherwise progress Book 2's second half.

[ajw]

Is this thread still alive? I see the last post is nearly two years old. I was hoping to get some discussion going, but I'm afraid I opened the door to an abandoned building. :-(

[Jhaeman]

There's always folks paying attention. What's on your mind?

[Cori Marie]

Yup always happy to help, especially as I prep to run this AP again.

[Bellona]

ajw wrote:

Is this thread still alive? I see the last post is nearly two years old. I was hoping to get some discussion going, but I'm afraid I opened the door to an abandoned building. :-(

As you can see, there are still people who keep an eye on the older AP threads! (I try to check the forums at least twice a week, more frequently if I'm following a particularly active thread.)

I've run RotR for two different groups at the same time (not the sessions of course, just the same years).

To quote Jhaeman above, what's on your mind about RotR? :)

[Y3s7erday]

So... my group just set fire to the Humbley farm. We did the rolls and they got them. It all went. Scarecrows, gouls, the farm -everything. They have solidly embraced chaos in this campaign. Looking for some advice on what to do. Do I just move them on or do you think I can salvage some part of the mystery?

P.S. They also burnt down the sanatorium. First time DMing so maybe letting the dice do too much.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

It really depends on how you want this to go. If you want the players to follow the rails, tell them so before next session and hope they agree. If you want them to have complete freedom - especially if they go burning down everything they come across - published adventures are going to be hard to run. In that case you will have to jump in the deep end with your DM improv and react to whatever the PCs do, and say goodby to the plans of the adventure.

One thing I have learned about GMing is the maxim that 'plans are useless but planning is indispensible'. No plan survives contact with the enemy PCs but you can have a good idea of what sort of things to do in any given situation. Know the situation the PCs will encounter, make plans for what the NPCs will do in a variety of likely situation (arson, in this case) and you will be far better able to handle the players' actions.

[Jhaeman]

My perspective is that the beauty of a role-playing game (as opposed to a novel or a computer game) is that the players are genuinely in charge of what their characters do, and the GM has to respect that--while making sure the PCs face the consequences (good or bad) of their choices. So try to think of various plausible options about what could happen next in the campaign--chances are there's a way to get them roughly back on track.

As an side point though, it is good to talk to players out-of-session about the difference between a sandbox campaign and an adventure path. They may be thinking they're playing in the former when the GM was intending to run the latter.