Fun with PC intrigue going awry [Players stay out, please]

[Scharlata]

I'm very excited to see what will happen to a PC's plans to inform people of notice... *evil grin*

We are now in between What Lies in Dust and The Infernal Syndrome and the PCs are up on their toes because the female ranger PC with close ties to the Ghival family visited the mayor to get her fingers on information regarding one "special guest" showing up in the last AP installment...

Spoiler:

The ranger from house Ghival visited the mayor in disguise of the actress of the Larazod play and spoke to him about more information about some member of the house Ghival [a.k.a. Vuiper Ghival, whom I was foreshadowing as a superior of the PC cleric of Abadar to strengthen the ties to the last adventure installment]. Instead of getting the information directly, the mayor told her to wait for a notice he would be sending to an inn in Miratanza. Two days later the ranger showed up (with the PC tiefling paladin at her side) for the appointed letter but instead of a letter she met with Vestus Savaska whom the mayor had told to investigate about the actress behaving a little suspicious (bad Bluff check result). The cleric of Asmodeus put up a lose/lose investigation scenario the hot-tempered ranger didn't like, just to be arrested by some hellknights Vestus had in tow for further information in House Taranik. At the end of the very embarrassing investigation she agreed upon being put under a mark of justice spell to avoid contact with "tieflings and other criminal elements". We'll see how this will change the intra-party behavior between her and the tiefling paladin.

The next PC (a sorcerer/wizard from a noble house with lawful evil tendencies and strong political interests) wrote three letters to noticeable persons in Wescrown - one of them to the mayor - alerting him "anonymously" of impending danger that saboteurs are about to free "a pit fiend in his basment". He signed the letter with his personal arcane mark! The sorcerer/wizard doesn't know that Crosael is the one who gets to read letters to the mayor first and that she is on the "wrong side". So I thought it would be "fun" to go after the sorcerer/wizard at behalf of Crosael to impress Chammady with one of the "unknown" anti-saboteur's zombie after summoning a salikotal to investigate the source of the anonymous letter and kill the author.

Too hard?

What goes around comes around... :o)

[CapeCodRPGer]

I don't think so. Keep the PCs on there toes.

[Deidre Tiriel]

Why punish her for asking about him? Abadar isn't banned from Westcrown, cause he's lawful and is all about the wellbeing of cities. As far as I can tell. As for information, this shouldn't be too much:

knowledge checks on Vuiper Givel:

A DC 20 Knowledge (nobility) check is enough for a PC
to know that the Ghivel family has been on the decline,
despite the fact that their businesses seem to have been
doing quite well. A DC 30 Knowledge (nobility) check
reveals the rumor that Vuiper has been withholding
money from his kin, claiming to be saving it to better the
city—yet he has never funded a major public work in the
few years he’s been the Ghivel patriarch.

[Scharlata]

Deidre Tiriel wrote:

Why punish her for asking about him?

I wasn't punishing her for asking for someone ...

Spoiler:

... being a cleric of Abadar but because in the interview she behaved very suspicious. So the mayor liked to get more information about the one who questioned about someone he didn't know himself (because Vuiper is from Egorian). I just put up a typical "bad cop interrogation scenario" and "pulled her strings" (I player upon her hot-tempered nature), and the situation went awry (as I expected).
The ranger knows "all" about the official rest of the house Ghival, because she IS the eldest daughter of the last Ghivals in Westcrown. (Her father didn't told her "all" of the truth because he is ashamed of Vuiper.) The ranger should investigate and someday she WILL stumble upon the full truth. That's all OK. I used her background to foreshadow Vuiper. It's just that the ranger made bad Bluff checks (she liked to get the information from the mayor asking "suspicious" questions) and the mayor is no fool. So he let investigate the background of the ranger who lives in town.

But thank you kindly for your opinion and your help.