So a session ago my players were robbed by and NPC during the night. We will call her Sarah for these purposes. They found out who she was and went to confront Sarah at her shop. When they arrived she was gone so they ransacked the place looking for clues and when they found none lit the place on fire by knocking over a still lit candle. The fire got a bit out of control and burned down two other buildings while doing damage to other homes and businesses. My players put forth little effort to fight the fire but in the end helped put it out, during the fire they elected to rob a blacksmith while he was fighting a fire on the outside of his shop. After the fire had been put out the players were cornered by crowns guard who then attempted to interrogate them. One of the players cast Suggestion on the crowns guard captain and told him that Sarah had started the fire and ran out of town. The towns guard captain went after her and brought his guards with him. (apparently suggestion lasts up to 8 hours so he went pretty far away with his troop). Since this session the players have left the town and done a few other things, one of these includes the finding and fighting of Sarah. They killed her in battle. The guard captain does not know Sarah is dead and suggestion has obviously worn off several days ago. I want suggestions for what the guard captain should do from here. The players in the campaign are largely good/neutral, but definitely not lawful good, with the exception of the paladin who was not directly involved with the robbery/fire. I've cursed one of the items they stole as an "Anti-theft" measure. But I also think that the guard captain will likely be looking to find Sarah/confront the players again. I was planning to make the guards employ blood hounds-ish dogs using Sarah's belongings to track her. Since she was incinerated in combat it is unlikely they will find her. However, the players are holding several of her belongings and the dogs could be made to find the players. What I want ideas for is, what exactly would the guards captain do in this situation and how to approach it with the players without it instantly leading to combat/someone casting suggestion again.

Thanks!

This largely depends on the nature of magic and law enforcement in your world.

A quick review of the situation from the captains view: Someone committed arson, a witness (the PCs) told me who it was and so I chased them (they cast suggestion on him), I assume the captain didn't know where Sarah was so he just picked a direction and headed off looking for her, the suggestion wears off and now I'm 8 hours away from home and realize that I have no good leads for finding this person so I return home, what now?

I could use bloodhounds to track the arsonist, but I'll need an item from Sarah to give the dogs the initial scent, if all her remaining possessions are burnt to cinders then there's no way to give the dogs the initial scent lead. If they do have a Sarah item to give to the dogs then make a perception roll for the dogs, set a DC for the dogs check based on how old the scent trail is, if they succeed then its just a matter of time until the cops catch up with them, at which point the PCs will just cast suggestion on the cops again and get out of it.

If the Guard Captain has access to magic it would be better to use that instead of dogs. Does the City Watch have an Arcane Investigations Unit? can they cast Scry, Contact Other Plane, Clairvoyance, Detect Thoughts, Zone of Truth, Speak with Dead, Find the Path? Even if the Arcane Investigations Unit can cast these spells is this arson and burglary worth directing those resources to solve it? Maybe the Arcane Investigations Unit is busy with more important things.

A good idea might be to simply put a bounty out for the arsonist, create a bounty hunter team competent enough and capable of enough magic to be a challenge to the party, have those bounty hunters start tracking them, maybe they cast Speak with Plants on local fauna to learn where Sarah went, when they find her crispy corpse, maybe they cast Speak with Dead on her corpse, I wonder what they might learn from her?

If Sarah is a well known personality in the town, the Guards or Bounty Hunters can cast locate object looking for something she always had with her - assuming they looted the body.

Quote from Wysperra >>

If Sarah is a well known personality in the town, the Guards or Bounty Hunters can cast locate object looking for something she always had with her - assuming they looted the body.

 Oh yeah forgot that one, that's a nifty utility spell. Just be sure not to cheat the players, remember that the spell has a maximum range of 1,000 feet.

Thanks for the great responses guys! I have another question for you!

I have a rogue in the party with the assassin archetype. Not your standard edge lord evil assassin. The kind that does work for largely benevolent forces and has a strong set of moral statutes despite being O.K. at murdering bad people. Part of her character tie-in/background is that her father went missing (presumed dead) do some sort of work for the governing party of a nearby city (royal family). This royal family definitely operates in shades of grey but their intentions are good. I want to make the father be secretly alive (faked his own death/hid away for some reason). I want him to start leaving secret messages/gifts for her in various places or with people letting her know he is alive. I am wondering what kind of interesting ways I could possibly do this, largely without allowing the rest of the party to know in the short run. Also, one of the first things I give her I want to be a weapon of some kind. Cool weapon ideas would be awesome. They are 6th level.

I think when doing these kind of narrative beats it's important to make a clear distinction between who is surprised. What I mean is do we want the character to be surprised their father is alive, or do we want the player (and the character) to be surprised? Are the clues for the character or the player?

If we just want the character to be receiving clues and being surprised then you can work with the character's player to figure out what kind of clues/items would work for their character, what people in the characters backstory could convey these items and clues, and why their father is doing this secretly rather than openly.

If we want the player to be surprised too the task becomes much harder. Without being able to closely collaborate with the player we would have to really milk whatever background details the player has already given us and find a way to work those details into clues and items.

How those clues/items/people manifest specifically in your game is gonna be very dependent on the particulars of the characters background.

On weapons I like making weapons that tie into seasons in the game world, for example an Ice Spear that gets stronger in winter and weaker in summer. A Thunder Hammer that gets stronger during storms, a righteous sword that gets stronger on Holy Days. These kinds of items get players to suddenly care very much about the seasons and the passage of time in the game world, giving it a more immersive feel.