Event #1 - Slain Townsfolk - any suggestions for improving this

[noblejohn]

The first event in Rivers run Red is the PCs come back to find some slain townsfolk. A shepherd and a maid are both dead. There are some inquiries and investigations that must be done via dicerolls to find the culprit. However, there is really only one guy mentioned as a possible suspect. And he happens to be the murderer.

Has anyone come up with other suspects that might be thrown in as red herrings? How could other suspects be used to throw off the party?

Just looking for some ideas to jazz up this event.

Thanks,
John

[DM_aka_Dudemeister]

Before this encounter have a seemingly random encounter with a werewolf, and if any PCs fail their saves then have this event occur on the first full moon after that.

>:-D.

It's what I did.

[Thomas Gerlick]

I'm thinking of having Saki's body turn up as a set of bloody clothes and bits of meat, as though she was completely eaten. Then set up the suspect as a red herring and have it been Saki the whole time.

[Talon Moonwalker]

I was lucky enough to be able to make the whole thing into a big old CSI Pathfinder episode. It started with them finding out about the killings and they got all the right questions, went to the inn and asked about who was looking weird in the area, acting strangely etc. From there it went to a case of checking out the nearby caravan that Kundal had been hired for and finding them there, taking him into an interrogation suite in the castle etc and solving it all. Unfortunately they ended up having to kill the man, but it was worth it all the same

[Gator the Unread]

If you look in "Stolen Lands" book (page 13), in the sidebar it is mentioned about the Iron Wraiths. As a "group of experienced adventurers" I took to mean group-of-named-NPCs-I-get-to-play-with.

In my game, Captain Ulric leads the Iron Wraiths, and is far from what he seems. In truth, he is an ancient white werewolf (built with the "resilient" template from the "Book of Templates Deluxe Edition by Silverthrone Games) who has ties to the history of the Stolen Lands. Ulric is also an life-long rival to "Night Howler", an ancient worg that runs the wolf packs in the area, and has been killing any lone werewolf he finds.

The Iron Wraiths are entirely made up of werewolves created and controlled by Ulric. The Iron Wraiths are his current tool used to hunt his foe, but isn't panning out as well. One of his werewolves- Samual Balant- failed to kill their prey last month, leading to the "Slain Townsfolk" adventure.

So while the unfortunate still living victim is suffering from his first change, Samual is trying to track down his mistake and finish him off before Ulric finds out. Meanwhile, a 600 year old, arcane enhanced worg is prowling just out side of town, waiting for one to two werewolves to leave the city. And now the PC's are looking to the new werewolf as well.

[noblejohn]

Thanks guys, we are getting some good ideas. I might take your idea and change it around to fit my campaign. I had some NPCs in Stolen Lands that were using the PC's to find ingredients for a resurrection potion. They may all come down with the werewolf disease and may have formed a pack that needs to be hunted down.