I'm curious as to what red herrings other GM's have thrown at their party. I'm planing to include Jubrayl as one. Also I got lucky the PC who is the obsession target (lust) has a name that starts with Z. In my party of 6 half my players have names that start with Z. So the first note will be addressed to Z. Which is great because another player with a Z name was Shayliss's target and some of the party had to intimidate her last game to get her to stop spreading nasty rumors. So they are going to be quick to jump on Shayliss especially with her familial connection to one of the victims. I however am always looking for more.. So lets hear it.
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I've seen people including Jubrayl on the handout note, but saying he sent a representative (Grayst Sevilla) instead, which is pretty cool. It makes him a good early suspect.
Ven Vinder makes an interesting option, particularly after he takes a swing at Hemlock. Sure, he's a grieving father, but he was incredibly overprotective and what happens if the next murder is shortly after he's released?
Brodert Quink is well-established in my game, but I bet he has a couple books or relics with Sihedrons on them. If you haven't introduced him yet, some of the guards could remember the symbol and suspect him (maybe even toss his house and discover some scary Thassilonian relics).
Shayliss is definitely an interesting one. If Erylium or Nualia were around after she was scorned, they could also introduce her to worshiping Lamashtu. She might go off the deep end, even committing copycat murders to help exonerate her father.
Ibor Thorn probably suspects the Scarnettis having killed his friend as revenge for embezzlement. The others were con-men, chances are pretty good they tried to run on con on a Scarnetti at some point. Titus Scarnetti is unlikely to take kindly to questions about his whereabouts, even though he had nothing to do with it.
Chopper reborn or Chopper's ghost seems like an obvious choice for the townsfolk to suspect once news gets out. People will want to check out the isle, unless the PCs stop them or preempt them. For extra creepiness, include undead ravens (individuals from the murderer's carrionstorms) hanging out at the crime scenes. They could easily be seen as Chopper's or Pazuzu's minions.
One of the guards brought up from Magnimar could mention that these murders were going on down there before he left. If one of the other guards from Magnimar found the bodies, that might implicate him. You can also use this to slip in a mention of being taken off that case by Justice Ironbriar.
As foreshadowing, someone with enough religious knowledge (whether a PC or Father Zantus) could recognize the style of carving, though not the symbol, as reminiscent of the Skinsaw Man's cult. It's not a true red herring, but they'd be looking for the cult way too early.
Some or all of the victims could have Midnight Milk on them. Tracing that back goes to Jubrayl, but also to some of town's movers and shakers. See City of Monuments for some great ideas there.
I made a point in my game of saying that the carved victims obviously didn't resist. In reality, this is from the murderer's touch, but it made my players consider they were doing it to themselves, which is creepy and an interesting red herring.
Cheers!
Landon
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I didn't have to add anything, the players added it all for me. We've just got to the part where the party confronts Grayst in the sanatorium. The party killed him and the doctor freaked an ran off, alerting the necromancer who came up to try and stop the players.
Based off the clues so far, the players believe that a criminal group is summoning undead to put a crimp in the Scarnetti's operations or the scarnettis are doing it to eliminate the competition. They think the Necromancer was the brains behind it in Sandpoint and at this point are getting ready to head to Magnimar to look for more clues about the events.
The funny part is when I gave them the info on Foxglove manor they completely missed the connection to Aldern (despite haveing two encounters with him and the npc making a pretty memorable impression on them). They completely wrote off the manor as a red herring or possibly a minor base or operations.
So they're going to head to Magnimar, I'm going to throw a few tidbits at them and while they're gone, Aldern is going to slay the people the PCs hired to tend the farm they inherited. I'll probably play up on the Scarnettis some and see if the PCs may start a gang war.
Ahhh.. good times, good times.
My party guessed the identity of the Skinsaw Man on receipt of the first note pinned to a corpse. Skinsaw Murders then became less a "whodunnit" than a search for "why" and "how."
The red herrings I put out were in Magnimar. The party met with Justice Ironbriar on an unrelated matter (homebrew content) and he mentioned that there were similar murders being committed in Magnimar. Timing was such that the Skinsaw Man could not have also been committing the murders in Magnimar, so someone else was also at work. Ironbrar gave them a false lead that he thought the Sczarni gang "The Gallowed" were behind the murders. In actuality, the leader of the Gallowed had stopped bribing Ironbriar, so the corrupt judge figures that he could try to set two sets of his enemies against each other and that any body count would be a good one.
Of course, the party saw throught that, too.
Interesting Haladir I might include the Justice Ironbriar/Gallowed content when they get to Magnimar. I've decided not to include the signatory --Your Lordship on the first two notes. As the only real noble outside of Sandpoint's nobles they've met is Aldern.