COD 1: Session 20: Murder Mystery 3

 Pre-scene Notes

-

Scene setup/conflict: 

Party’s Day2 evening investigative session to question the Skornos again after discovery of an artefact at the crime scene.

Altered scene: I think the best way to alter this is that the Skornos aren’t as expected at their camp. I rolled for a location, which was the break room. It was hard for me to think why, until I remembered I had hardly any physical evidence. But now, I have an excuse to create one and put the Skornos in a bit of hot water as they are the only ones without a motive for now.

Scene:

The Sokornos were not at their tent at all and instead, the party found the Skornos tied up in ropes on the chairs in the break room. Basically everyone from the outpost was there and the Captain greeted the party as they entered. 

Hudri had actually been investigating the case as well in parallel to the party, and he had found a bloodied rake inside the Skornos’ tent. It was a four prong rake, and therefore was not beyond belief the rake was the murder weapon to emulate that of claw marks. The party asked how did Hudri know there was a rake in the Skornos’ tent, and the one-eyed man just said he was finishing searching everyone’s rooms as the party had not done so yet.

The party was slightly affronted by having their role discounted, but the Captain said it was all duplicity and offered the party the chance to question the Skornos now. The Skornos were obviously denying they murdered Malfie, and the party begun questioning: 

• Q: Was this Ladueth’s rake?
• A: (50/50) Yes
• Q: Did it ever go missing?
• A: (Likely) Yes
• Q: When was the last time the rake was seen? Before Malfie’s murder?
• A: (50/50) Random Event, NPC action, Vengeance Friendship. I can make one of the guards jump on Ladueth at this point to avenge Malfie, but there can be something more here…
• Q: Is there werewolf blood on the rake?
• A: (50/50) Yes. Another possibility: Can it be that maybe Malfie was the werewolf?
• Q: Did Ladueth borrow Malfie’s werewolf book because he suspects Malfie is a werewolf?
• A: (Unlikely) No… but maybe that raised Malfie’s suspicions…
• Q: Did Malbe know about the Jade of Silver
• A: (Likely) Exceptional Yes. Maybe it was hers? She did say she heard a conflict that night, but what if she was in the conflict?
• Q: Was Malbe in the conflict
• A: (Likely) Exceptional Yes. Like the fact that she was a church spy, I think this was more a question for me as a GM than the party, without more checks or evidence to confirm.
• Q: Did Ladueth know about the Jade of Silver?
• A: (50/50) No. So maybe he’s a completely innocent party after all?

At this point, I’m forming a hypothesis that Malbe realised Malfie was a werewolf, took her husband’s rake when the opportunity came that night with Alorin away, and killed Malfie. She was going to use the Jade of Silver, but it got knocked away from her during their fight. Of course, this was all circumstantial but ties in with a lot of opened clues so far, so I’ll go with this line of thinking for now. 

Ladueth confirmed the rake was his and said he did not know how it reappeared suddenly back at at his tent, and he must have been famed. The party asked Hudri how did he find this, as it was stupid for a murderer to hide a murder weapon in plain sight in their tent, and Hudri said he would not have found it without using a Detect Magic spell scroll. 

• Q: Did Hudri have a good cause for suspecting the Skornos despite the party’s investigations? 
• A: (50/50) No
• Q: Did the Captain instruct Hudri to look?
• A: (50/50) Yes
• Q: Was the Captain’s reason only the werewolf book?
• A: (50/50) Yes
• Q: Was there spy ware / weird artefacts along with where the rake was hidden?
• A: (Very Likely) No at this level, so definitely a hard No.
• Q: Was the rake hidden at all
• A: (A sure thing) No… Someone found/brought this out? Or really Ladueth is being famed?

The Captain admitted he gave Hudri the spell scroll and asked him to do the search, after figuring out in parallel to the party that the book found in Malfie’s tent was the one in question that Ladueth had wanted to buy a while ago. He just chanced to see if it brought up anything, and out came the rake. The Captain had cast the Identify spell on the rake and identified it as werewolf blood again. 

Ladeuth shouted again he had been famed. The rake was not there this morning in his tent and just turned up in the afternoon when Hudri searched it. At this point, Zimala jumped on Ladeuth trying to kill him to avenge Malfie, while the others tried to pull her back. (Just resolving the Vengeance Friendship random event rolled previously). Filli stopped her by deducting that if the blood was on the rake, then the person who killed Malfie cannot have been a werewolf, but instead the person that got hurt would be the cursed one. Malfie would have revertred back to orc form after he died, as all werewolves would. Zimala gave Filli the stink eye and would have set about them if she was not still restrained by Nirya and Kevolo.

Zar asked whether Ladeuth knew Malfie was a werewolf, which would have been the reason why he tested Malfie by offering to buy the werewolf book. Ladeuth continued to deny knowing anything about werewolves at all. Zar exchanged glances with the others, who nodded.

Zar pulled out the Jade of Silver and asked whether it was the Skoronos’. Yankovic and Filli had trained their eyes on the two adults respectively. Ladeuth continued to look confused and indignant but his wife however showed surprised and recognition for the artefact.  

Yankovic asked Malbe if she knew what this artefact was. She, knowing Yankovic’s religious knowledge, knew it was a rhetorical question and she had to answer yes as a previously high-ranking Lambert follower. She explained the fable behind the artefact and even elaborated, saying if they crushed it, a wisp of silver will allow the user and adjacent members to be immune to a werewolf’s bloodlust and frightful presence, as some werewolf could freeze an enemy with those alone.

The party would like to further question Malbe, but it was clear she would not be cooperate any further. If they said she was at the scene of crime, she would just say the Jade of Silver had been there and she had lost it long before. Same with the family’s alibi, even though it did not seem  like Ladeuth lied. Their son Brant, had almost coughed a lung out at this point, but seeming completely confused at what was going on. The Captain finally took charge of the scene and said the Skornos would be locked in his quarters until the escorts arrived, and it would  give the party more time to gather any evidence. The party could interview them later in there if they liked. Ladeuth agreed, shouting he would do anything to prove his family’s innocence.

This rake evidence did come out of left field from me not having enough material evidence, so I rolled to see if there will be another twist… Mythic said no. There will be no murder tonight.

It had been a long day and the party went back to their tent outside to gather their thoughts and discuss what needed to be done the next day before resting for the night.

My spreadsheets at end of Day2. I’d added some highlights to show the importance of the clues list

In order to convict and corroborate the current leading hypothesis for Mable to have killed Malfie, a werewolf, the party will need:

1. 1.Show Malbe can actually take on the werewolf (ie opportunity)
• Show Ladueth was lying about staying in the same tent as Malbe (ie false alibi)
2. 2.Show Malfie was a werewolf, even though that explains the book (ie motive)
3. 3.Show someone tried to fame Nirya with the button (or why Malfie was holding the button, as Niry has the most Evidence at the moment actually)

The top one is hard to prove but most important, so the next investigative session has to be to try and find that out. 

#

The party had probably unconsciously avoided it as it was a younger version of the person they knew, but considering they needed to find any clues as to whether Malfie was a werewolf, Soke was likely the most likely person who would know something. Having Kevolo bring them to the kitchen in the morning, they found Soke making breakfast with Zimala for the outpost. Soke glanced up briefly,  then went back to what she was doing and told the party to make it quick as she still had bread to bake. Zimala stared at them throughout with a warning gaze.

• Q: Had Malfie ever showed any signs he was a werewolf in anyway?
• A: (50/50) Yes 
• Q: Was it uncontrollable outbursts?
• A: (50/50) Exceptional Yes 
• Q: Was he able to hide it because of an artefact?
• A: (50/50) Yes
• Q: Do you have the artefact? 
• A: (50/50) No
• Q: Is it because the artefact was lost that he ran wild as a werewolf?
• A: (Very Likely) Exceptional Yes.
• Q: Did someone steal the artefact?
• A: (50/50) Yes
• Q: Is this what Alorin’s blackmail is about?
• A: (Likely) No. As you can see, I was trying to tie that loose end here, but it wasn’t meant to be. 
• Q: Was Malfie investigating who stole it?
• A: Near sure thing (Yes)
• Q: Did he know who?
• A: Yes. Random event, PC negative, Inspect The Physical. Considering the only physical piece of evidence left is the button, and it was Nirya’s, I’m going to say that Nirya stole it and now I’ve came up with an explanation of why that button was in Malfie’s dead hands… And I think all the pieces are in place for me to ramp up to a finale now.

It hardly took any questioning as the young girl voluntarily told the party all she knew. She knew Malfie was a werewolf and would transform at full moons involuntarily. Before joining the army, he would lock himself away those nights. However, a wandering mage gifted him a jewel that could allow him to transform, or not transform, at will. This was how he was able to hold down the job of an army cook without suspicions. Soke just called it the Round Jewel as it was round shaped. 

A few months ago, Malfie warned Soke to hide during the full moon, as he realised someone stole the Round Jewel. Malfie was on the case but progress was slow, and he could not make excuses to go out of the camp at night every month. This was the reason why Alorin had something to blackmail Malfie by for his booze - because the night guard lets him out.

Soke did say Malfie finally found out who stole the Round Jewel on the day of his murder, and it was Nirya. 

Considering that was the latest clue, it seemed like Nirya’s testimony were mostly full of lies. Soke however commented that Nirya the Mouse would never be able to murder her uncle as an Orc or werewolf. This was why she did not say anything about Nirya until now, but also because she would have preferred not tarnishing his uncle’s good man image by people knowing he was cursed. 

Zimala was incensed and the party chased after her as she stormed to the shared bedroom of Kevolo and Nirya. Zimala was truly trying to kill Nirya with her blade, and Nirya fled. Climbing up a tree near the fence, he was able to scale the outpost fence and disappeared into the forest. 

#

The party spent the afternoon trying to track Nirya, the outpost now no longer under lockdown considering there were no werewolves any more. (Filli made a 21 Nature check) The party found Nirya without almost no trouble as Filli recognised how animals scattered, having lived in the outbacks with his parents previously. He guided the party towards a nearby lake, where Nirya was drinking and recovering from his run. The party did not need to fight him as Filli masked their approach through some foliage, and when within range, the party rained cantrips down on the fugitive. (I might have considered making it a battle, but considering Filli’s good roll, I’m just pressing ahead)

Giving Nirya a kick for good measure, Zar started asking questions with a longsword on Nirya’s neck:

• Q: Tell the truth about what happened the night of the murder. Did you ask Malfie out to the pantry?
• A: (50/50) Yes
• Q: Was it about the Round Jewel?
• A: (Has to be) Exceptional Yes. I’d pretty much mandated it as a given Nirya has the Round Jewel 
• Q: Do you know about Malfie being a werewolf?
• A: (50/50) Yes
• Q: Did you trade it back to him for him staying away from Zimala?
• A: (Very likely) Yes
• Q: Did you kill Malfie
• A: Yes (Very unlikely) Random Event, Move away from a thread, Control Hope.

Maybe the last question was a dumb one to ask and the roll foiled my plans. However, it did trigger a random event so I may be able to explain it away saying that was Nirya’s answer to the question instead of the actual truth…

Nirya was in tears as he did steal the Round Jewel, thinking it was something valuable. When he knew Malfie found out, Nirya asked him out to the pantry. He swore he really was just going to give it back and ask for forgiveness, but before he could, Malfie explained why the Round Jewel was important. It kept Malfie from transforming into a werewolf and Malfie said he needed to have it back to keep the whole outpost safe from him. Nirya recounted that night as if there had been a devil whispering in his ear, and he made the worst mistake of his life. 

He said he would trade the Round Jewel back to Malfie if he stayed away from Zimala. Malfie was pained to accept the unfair trade, but even at that, Nirya’s greed was untempered. During the trade, he took the Round Jewel out of a pouch, and made a sleigh of hand trick to deceive Malfie. Instead of putting the Round Jewel back in the pouch, he traded just his tunic’s button in a pouch. He had wanted Malfie to lose control and transform at the next full moon so Zimala would never be with Malfie. Malfie still punched him on the nose on his way out, but was none the wiser about the bait-and-switch. 

Nirya never would have though Malfie could not last until the next full moon, but instead commit ted suicide as he could no longer be with Zimala. Malfie was a good man and Nirya had forced him to kill himself. 

The party of course ignored Nirya’s stupid hypothesis at the end. They were not sure if impressed was the word, but from Nirya’s perspective, the mousy man really might have committed suicide for Zimala, but Malfie had Soke to take care of. It was more likely that something happened to Malfie when he went back out into the training fields from the guard house, and had wanted to use the Round Jewel to transform. However finding it to be a dud, he was unable to transform and whoever killed him was stronger than his Orc form. 

Finally at this point, Filli rolled a 20 at Investigation and I was able to have him come up with a hypothesis I’d left a back door open for through all this.

“But what about the rake with the werewolf blood? If Malfie could not have transformed that night, and it was not a full moon, then where did the blood come from?” Zar asked.

“No,” Filli broke out in cold sweat. “We’ve never cast Identify on the blood. Every time, it had been the Captain.”

“You’re saying the blood on the rake isn’t werewolf?” Yankovic asked.

“But my Divine Sense?” Zar asked, “I guess for the Jade of Silver, I only sensed celestial, but I did sense a fiend that first day we arrived.”

“For the blood on the rake, I would be more scared if that really had been werewolf blood… Because only the Captain was there with us in the tent with Malfie’s body. As we know, with Malfie dead, you shouldn’t detect any werewolf signs from the corpse. And so the only other person Zar would’ve sensed fiend from on the first day was the Captain…”

#

The party dragged Nirya as fast as they could back to the outpost, but as he had ran pretty far and fast, the sun was already setting by the time they got back. Dropping the sorry sack of a man for Kevolo to deal with, the party asked where was the Captain. Kevolo did not know and had not seen him, suggesting the only place he had not been to was the Captain’s quarters where the Skornos were locked up.

The party went into the locked room and all three of the Skorno family were intact. Malbe stood up from the chair and asked what happened, as if she knew something would. The party started their last round of questioning:

• Q: Did you know Malfie was a werewolf?
• A: (Very likely) Exceptional Yes. Considering the exceptional roll, I’ll use it to close out that clue with Ladueth trying to buy the book off Malfie.
• Q: Did you kill Malfie?
• A: (50/50) Exceptional No. 
• Q: Were you in that confrontation at the training ground you said you’d heard?
• A: (50/50) Exceptional No. So it seemed like Malbe wasn’t lying at all from her testimony previously! 
• Q: Did you know about the Round Jewel?
• A: (Likely) Yes . This led me to another idea now.
• Q: Did you fight another werewolf apart from Malfie?
• A: (Very Likely) Yes

Malbe upon questioning doffed the shawl that covered her, and it was clear that she actually had a hideous battle scar on her forehead. It was a marvel she did not die from how it looked. Malbe, now considering herself compromised, revealed that she was actually a spy for the Church of Lambert. She was working for a branch within the Empire though, so it was nothing like treason, but the church needed all sorts of information from the front lines regardless, and she was it. As the party could see, the scar on her forehead was from a battle where she nearly died and barely escaped with her life. Ladueth had no clue when he picked up the stray who she was, and she fell in love with him after he healed her back to health all those years ago. Knowing what Ladueth did as a profession, Malbe talked to the church and was reassigned to this post to be with Ladueth. That was almost two decades ago and Malbe was more an informant than a spy at this point, updating the church of the front lines’ happenings. 

She stated very clearly that she did not kill Malfie, and would swear on Lambert on it. She knew Malfie was a werewolf almost when he arrived at the outpost. He explained about the Round Jewel, and considering Soke as well, Malbe had kept a close eye on him. However through the years, without incident and Malfie proving himself to be a good man, they became friends. 

The business with Ladueth and the werewolf book was Malbe’s way of telling Malfie she knew something was wrong when she had seen him sneaking out of the post on the first full moon. Malfie immediately confessed to Malbe the Round Jewel was stolen. As they had become friends through the years, Malbe was the one who helped Malfie find out Nirya was the one who stupidly stole the Round Jewel with her investigation skills. 

Malbe stated she told the truth about hearing a conflict but thought nothing of it the night of Malfie’s murder, assuming it was just the confrontation between him and Nirya. However, it was the week before Malfie’s murder that was the problem. 

The week before any of this happened, it was the full moon. Alorin was blind drunk anyway and Malfie had left the outpost, but much to Malbe’s surprise, she had sensed a fiendish presence within the outpost. Investigating, she had found a werewolf out in the open. They fought, and in the battle, the werewolf swiped the Jade of Silver from her hand before she could use it, and the werewolf escaped out of the compound.

She confirmed that it was not Malfie, but had no further luck tracking that particular werewolf down, so sped up her investigation to find the Round Jewel. She just never thought the night after she told him of the culprit, that was the last night Malfie was alive.

If I played this scene out, there’d be much more back and froth, but I’d just wanted to round out the clues here. It was time for the final reveal and therefore it was time to list out the final hypothesis and see if my mechanics worked out.

As expected I had to change a few things. Basically, for each Evidence/Alibi count, I just added 20% likelihood of it to be true, then rolled for each NPC a d10 for each Hypothesis. 

Ending tables

It seemed like the only false piece of evidence was just Malbe not fully asleep at the night of the conflict, and went to investigate. Likely seeing Malfie’s body. I’m just going to assume she did not want to muddy the waters in her testimony. 

From the results, 93% of Evidence held true under the random rolls, so generally saying this was a successful investigation. This is before the pre-session criteria where >70% means the ending is ‘the Party finding the werewolf and killing him’… The only twist is that the werewolf isn’t Malfie! 

I did go a bit easy on the party towards the end, giving more way to telling a better twisting story than solving a whodunit. If I had changed the modifiers lower than a +20%, maybe there’d more red herrings, which may revoke the whole case? Regardless, I had fun though so this format is something that I’ll revisit at some point, but maybe outside of using the DND system. It’s a long way from standing on its own as a new RPG system, but I may try that out once I have time and want to start another project for the blog.

Scene close-out:

• Chaos factor goes up to 7 now as the plot twist happened
• - party thread: Investigation ended and time for a final showdown with Malfie’s killer

Post-scene Notes

Thanks again for reading.