Anyone have any suggestions for a one shot/short adventure for a party to investigate and track down an assassin? In classic fashion, my party latched on to something I said just as some flavor and color and now have to develop a story for it, lol. Basically they are in Baldur's Gate and have been hired to investigate and track down an assassin that has been operating in the city targeting members of the main organized crime group in the city. The whole investigation/crime sleuthing storyline has never been in my creative wheelhouse, so wondering if anyone has any suggestions for something similar they have done that I could use? I’ve tooled around on DMG and found a few somewhat similar things, but not really true investigation type adventures. I want the party to have to do a bit of sleuthing and find and consider clues and not just have NPC’s drive them from one place to the other.
I had a murder mystery in my previous campaign which could be helpful?
They were a vegetarian vampire who lived primarily on animals in the local woods and ran the local florist. A drought struck the land and everyone's plants were failing - resources were pulled from decorative gardens and focused entirely on keeping the farms going to prevent a famine. The vampire, devastated by the loss, started casting plant growth (the 8 hour version) to keep her greenhouse alive. This took a massive toll on her body so she ended up needing to feed on mortal blood - queue the murders.
The first clue was that one of the players had a secret admirer, so was frequently receiving bouquets of beautiful flowers. None of them clocked it was strange to receive frequent bouquets during a drought but when they solved everything they loved that detail
The second clue was when they examined the body. Classic vampire clues like the victim has been exsanguinated, puncture wounds on the neck, killed at night time. Depending on how high their Medicine checks or Investigation checks they roll you can feed them as much as you like to point them into the vampire direction
The third clue was visiting the florist itself. I put the florist in a shopping district they already needed to go too. The florist was closed in the afternoon (from midday onwards) which is odd and a change in hours (sign out the front had a hand written update with new restricted trading hours. The changed hours were so the vampire could cast plant growth for 8 hours a day, then hunt at night, barely sleep, and still sell their wares early in the morning). If they investigated the building they would discover the 'greenhouse' had all the windows boarded up which doesn't make sense as plants need sunlight. Local gossip in the market could tell the players that people are seeing the florist less, she looks gaunt and unwell etc. Detect magic etc could reveal traces of magic in the surrounding soil
My players got two nat 20s in their investigation around the building so to honour it, I pretty much let them crack the case there and fight the vampire.
Hope that helps a little bit and gives some ideas!
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Anyone have any suggestions for a one shot/short adventure for a party to investigate and track down an assassin? In classic fashion, my party latched on to something I said just as some flavor and color and now have to develop a story for it, lol. Basically they are in Baldur's Gate and have been hired to investigate and track down an assassin that has been operating in the city targeting members of the main organized crime group in the city. The whole investigation/crime sleuthing storyline has never been in my creative wheelhouse, so wondering if anyone has any suggestions for something similar they have done that I could use? I’ve tooled around on DMG and found a few somewhat similar things, but not really true investigation type adventures. I want the party to have to do a bit of sleuthing and find and consider clues and not just have NPC’s drive them from one place to the other.
I had a murder mystery in my previous campaign which could be helpful?
They were a vegetarian vampire who lived primarily on animals in the local woods and ran the local florist. A drought struck the land and everyone's plants were failing - resources were pulled from decorative gardens and focused entirely on keeping the farms going to prevent a famine. The vampire, devastated by the loss, started casting plant growth (the 8 hour version) to keep her greenhouse alive. This took a massive toll on her body so she ended up needing to feed on mortal blood - queue the murders.
The first clue was that one of the players had a secret admirer, so was frequently receiving bouquets of beautiful flowers. None of them clocked it was strange to receive frequent bouquets during a drought but when they solved everything they loved that detail
The second clue was when they examined the body. Classic vampire clues like the victim has been exsanguinated, puncture wounds on the neck, killed at night time. Depending on how high their Medicine checks or Investigation checks they roll you can feed them as much as you like to point them into the vampire direction
The third clue was visiting the florist itself. I put the florist in a shopping district they already needed to go too. The florist was closed in the afternoon (from midday onwards) which is odd and a change in hours (sign out the front had a hand written update with new restricted trading hours. The changed hours were so the vampire could cast plant growth for 8 hours a day, then hunt at night, barely sleep, and still sell their wares early in the morning). If they investigated the building they would discover the 'greenhouse' had all the windows boarded up which doesn't make sense as plants need sunlight. Local gossip in the market could tell the players that people are seeing the florist less, she looks gaunt and unwell etc. Detect magic etc could reveal traces of magic in the surrounding soil
My players got two nat 20s in their investigation around the building so to honour it, I pretty much let them crack the case there and fight the vampire.
Hope that helps a little bit and gives some ideas!