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My group just finished up in Thistle top and are about to begin The Skinsaw Murders. I am a bit worried that they will suspect Aldern right from the time they get the first note. He wasn't played up a ridiculous amount, but the players haven't had any other particularly flirtatious run ins (besides Shayliss, but that was a different PC)
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1) You can develop your own red herrings based on who you think your party will be inclined to suspect.
2) Often the Sanitorium will throw people off.
3) People suspecting Aldern immediately isn't a problem, as the unfolding mystery will often make people doubt themselves or think that someone is setting Aldern up.
Furthermore, if they conclude that it IS Aldern immediately, then the recourse they have to check on him is to go to Magnimar (unless they've gone to the Sanitorium already, in which case they're effectively running through all of Book 2 as planned), wherein they will find him and Iesha very much alive and very much not serial murdering the people of Sandpoint.
Oh, and, as always, if the PCs are getting ahead of the curve on a mystery, just shorten the timeline of events. Have a farmer run to town about the scarecrows sooner than expected, for instance.
IMO, the 'mystery' of the first half of Book 2 is now "Who did this?" so much as "Why would someone do this?", given the esoteric ritual, the removal of people's jaws, and the seemingly random nature of the killings. Figuring that out is KEY to putting Book 2 and Book 3 in perspective, so they might as well get to work.
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The only problem with that is that Iesha was murdered 3 months prior to the start of the campaign, and Aldern didn't start the killings until he already became a ghast.
I do like the sanatorium as a way to throw them off though.
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I was musing on potential extra red herrings but this was a little while back. I am pretty sure some I came up with were:
- Playing up Titus Scarnetti early on. Especially as he owned the mill
- Linked to that perhaps introduce a rival
- If Tsuto gets away they may assume he considers himself a lord?
- Have some elements involving the Szarni leader and have someone refer to him as “Lord of the Streets” or something like that
If you haven’t started book 2 perhaps play off some downtime inbetween? Maybe get the sandpoint book where there is loads of detail including quests for almost every notable person in the town (but be careful as some are N/A due to being set after the AP concludes)
I'm pretty sure Askar is talking about the faceless stalkers.
OH yep! That's my mistake. I hadn't finished reading the book and missed that there are faceless stalkers mimicking those two. That will certainly help give him an alibi
I was musing on potential extra red herrings but this was a little while back. I am pretty sure some I came up with were:
- Playing up Titus Scarnetti early on. Especially as he owned the mill
- Linked to that perhaps introduce a rival
- If Tsuto gets away they may assume he considers himself a lord?
- Have some elements involving the Szarni leader and have someone refer to him as “Lord of the Streets” or something like thatIf you haven’t started book 2 perhaps play off some downtime inbetween? Maybe get the sandpoint book where there is loads of detail including quests for almost every notable person in the town (but be careful as some are N/A due to being set after the AP concludes)
The part with Tsuto would be excellent! The PCs managed to capture him and get him thrown in jail. Since they haven't discovered that he killed himself yet I might alter that a bit and instead have him escape. I will take a look at the Sandpoint book and add in a bit there too. It would help to slow the pace a bit after Thistletop anyway.
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What I did to throw the party off is not mention the PC name or initial on the first note they find (in Sandpoint's sawmill). Only on later notes like the one in Hambley's farm do they find the name of the PC written on the note.
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What I did to throw the party off is not mention the PC name or initial on the first note they find (in Sandpoint's sawmill). Only on later notes like the one in Hambley's farm do they find the name of the PC written on the note.
My solution was to use the character's initial but pre-sprinkle in a handful of NPCs with the same initial that might be relevant, and it's worked like a charm so far!
In my campaign, the character that's the object of the obsession was a well-loved PC rogue named "Jean" that had incidentally fallen and died in the Catacombs of Wrath. I decided it would make sense that Foxglove would not know that she perished and would still remain obsessed with her. Like others, I thought my party would love the "true crime" aspect of the game, and having her name spelled out on the note would ruin that.
So in Sandpoint I really played up characters whose name begins with J during roleplaying scenarios, like Jasper Korvaski for example, and I just used the initial on the note. During mini roleplaying vignettes I introduced some NPCs like so:
* The party alchemist needed to rent space for his lab, and the only space available was a loft above the Pixie's Kitten. While there he learned of an Osirian courtesan working there named Jeitil.
* The party cleric met a street urchin selling fish who wore a clasp that seemed to be from his village of origin. I named her "Jundri" and she helped drive the character toward Madame Mvashti, saying she had been looking after her.
* The bard learned of a new diva in town after Allishanda left, an elven dancer named Jannae Moonviolet that was going to be dancing in an opera/ballet at the theatre.
* With Ameiko taking time off to mourn her half brother and father and take care of the Glassworks cleanup, Bethana hired a new pretty barmaid named Jarissa. She sticks out because she dresses very conservatively, borderline puritanically, which seems odd for a barmaid. Men leer at her over their cups in the Rusty Dragon.
* I gave Larz Rovanky a blonde and powerfully-built woman working for him, explaining she is a distant Scarnetti cousin named Jazzika. She is his only consistent employee because she takes his foul mood and gives it right back to him. Also gives the characters another tie into learning about the Scarnetti family, which is a little light in book 1.
I am working out a deeper level for the red herrings here; each one needs to be aware of a suitor or stalker of some kind that might fit the Your Lordship persona. So like one of Jennae Moonviolet's co-dancers might be someone that plays a noble in the opera they are in at the theatre. The Scarnetti woman already has noble blood, so that could work. The courtesan could have a regular customer that is an aristocrat, maybe one of Vana Deverin's sons. I don't want characters going too deeply into any of these red herrings, but it establishes that there are multiple possibilities, they need more evidence, and should try to obtain it by following the trail to Habe and Hambley, and then onward.
This all just happened last session for me, and the players ATE IT UP! As soon as they saw the "J" on the note, they all started listing off every J character they knew of, including a bunch of the red herrings, Korvaski, the dead PC, and even Jervas "Chopper" Stoot! It worked better than I could have imagined. It requires a bit of pre-work and patience laying these crumbs in advance, but the payoff is awesome.