little slip ups

[Sunday]

Started a game of rise of the runelords and my players are loving it.But I've made some minor slip ups. I'm worried they might figure out Aldern is the killer in the next chapter too quick because they have found out his manor is haunted already and that his wife is dead. I forgot his excuse was that she had moved to another city because he is going down the 'love' route and I figured he would want his wife out the picture completely and so said she had drowned by throwing herself from the window just like his mother. Where the other NPC's are like "uuhh... I haven't seen her in three months...."
They might not put two and two together, currently they think the house is cursed in some way. And may end up going to it early to deal with the issue. in which case I am worried that they'll get in the deep end too quick by missing a large portion of the book. Any advise? My players are pretty damn smart.

[Nullpunkt]

They shouldn't have time to go there before they are supposed to. First there is the threat of another goblin attack and the whole Nualia issue, then the murders, then the cry for help from the outlying farms. All these things should put enough pressure on them to make them postpone their trip to the haunted house.

[Olliepoppet]

I agree with Nullpunkt. Also, depending on how you've been playing Aldern himself, you seem to have a pretty good setup for making the PCs believe Aldern is a potential victim, and not the culprit. You could always leave off reference to "The Misgivings" if you think that will spoil things too soon, but otherwise I don't think you've given them enough to go on just yet.

I know I was terrified from the beginning that my PCs would figure out that it was Aldern early on...it seems really obvious when you have the advantage of reading it. But despite my concerns, I had the privilege of having one of my players ball up the final note and chuck it at my head when they FINALLY made the connection, lol. The fact that he's a ghast now really helps; promise!

[Tangent101]

Here's a twisted idea... have a bloodstained note addressed to the PC show up. Inside is just the sentence "help me..." signed "Aldern."

Or it could be a rambling note about hearing things in his house and heading to his place in the city and hoping to see them again next time he's by Sandpoint. It could even be a note sent just prior to his being transformed into His Lordship.

[Sunday]

I think I'll have the NPC's say seeing he lives mainly in magnimar that he must of taken his wife's body back to there without telling anyone in sandpoint because he's not a 100% local local after all. Which will hopefully make them not question too deeply into his wife and what happened to her, so that they do believe the house responsible for her death. I guess I'm worrying too much. I've had Aldern stop being at the tavern about five days after the goblin attack. The next day one of the players is getting married to shayliss (shotgun wedding waaaay!)and I hope to have them notice that the banquet food isn't as great as it was at the festival because ameiko has vanished and have them get into the glassworks the next day when they get the note in the morning. And hopefully from there they may be too caught up with the glass works and the wrath dungeon for them to think much of Aldern by the time they get back from goblin slaying.

[Poldaran]

Sunday wrote:

I guess I'm worrying too much.

If any of your players are interested, you might consider getting them to write an in-character journal of your adventures. That way, you'll know at least what one of them is thinking on certain topics.

And you could post it. :)

[TempusAvatar]

Remember there are two stalkers living in his house in Magnimar keeping up appearances; one that looks like him and one that looks like his old lady. Anybody that knows of him from Magnimar (not from Foxglove Manor) could be able to verify that the two of them are home often. If you can convince your players that his wife is alive and fine in his townhouse in Magnimar, it could shift any suspisions away from Aldern being a murderer to Aldern being an adulterer.