Isles of Emmon (25 June, 2009 Session)

Cast of Characters

The current characters in our Isles of Emmon campaign (using Castles & Crusades):

Illmari: Female 1/2 Elf (Human Lineage) Warden of the Six Stars (Cleric)
Keiren: Male Human Monk
Marcel the Mouse: Male 1/2 Elf (Elf Lineage) Rogue
Rathwynn: Female 1/2 Elf (Elf Lineage) Ranger
Thonosi: Webfoot Halfling Archer

What Happened Before

The party returned from the ruins northeast of the spider farm, arriving back in Melford to discover that their had been a murder at the Runestone Inn, their temporary domicile. The victim, Gerrik Wyke, was the popular co-proprietor of the Runestone, sharing ownership of this popular Melford institution with his sister, Lena. The village was shocked, to say the least, given that Gerrik was the one person in town who had no enemies. The party was shocked, to say the least, because many in town suspected these five outsiders (who happened to be staying at the Runestone) to be the chief suspects. Many of the most prominent citizens would be quite happy to sacrifice a few shady outsiders to the goddess of blind injustice. After all, it simply would not do to have a messy unsolved murder causing an uproar with Duke Rhudlokk and his court due to arrive any day.

The Session

With the Runestone closed for business, the characters were forced to stay at the home of Tomm and Felona Vedane, owners of the jeweler's shop. Being new to Melford themselves, the Vedanes were sympathetic to the characters' plight as outsiders. Early the next morning, the characters were summoned to a meeting with Marieka Wyke, a distant relative of Gerrik and head of the village constabulary. The characters were surprised to find that Marieka believed them to be innocent. She believed that this murder was committed by a villager, but she had no idea who it could be. She was willing to give the characters a crack at solving the crime. As she put it, it would give them a chance to save their own skins and perhaps endear themselves to villagers. She warned them that other leaders in the village would not be so open-minded about their guilt or innocence. And, as it turned out, she had other reasons to find the real murderer.

The characters started with an inspection of the crime site, the stables behind the Runestone Inn. It had rained just before the murder so the area around the stable was muddy and Rathwynn was able to determine that there were two sets of men's footprints going into the stables and only one set exiting (the exiting set went from the stable directly to the road). Both sets of footprints were about the same size but the footprints that entered AND left were closer together. A careful search of the stable showed no sign of struggle, no sign of a sneak attack, and no murder weapon.

Gerrik's body was preserved on a slab of ice in a stall and there were two stab wounds in his back, a slash on his chest that was not all that deep, and a nasty slash on his forearm. Keiren noted that Gerrik knew and trusted his killer. Marcel thought that perhaps Gerrik was stabbed twice in the back, turned to fight off his assailant and then died from the initial two wounds.

Marcel found a folded sheet of paper on Gerrik's body. It was a marriage license, signed by Eldon of the Arxoseem Temple, signifying that Gerrik and Savula Vogg were husband and wife. Savula was the 14 year old daughter of village outcast, Reiner Vogg, and it seemed odd that Gerrik would secretly marry a 14 year old. It seemed even odder that Eldon would officiate at the wedding. The characters went to the Arxoseem Temple, only to find a note on the door indicating that Eldon was on "Orc Patrol" with Droggo and Llorrinar.

Failing to find Eldon, the characters started interviewing those who were present at the Runestone the night of the murder (Marieka Wyke had provided this information). Those present included Lena Wyke, Irena Yar, Deborah Snaid, Brack Jennings, Tomm and Felona Vedane, and Magdalene Colerre. They started with Lena, who they had decided was the one person with a motive. Gerrik's death would make her sole owner of the Runestone. She cried through much of the interview and had indicated that she was serving customers while Gerrik had gone to the stables. She had an argument Magdalene Colerre, the local honey source, about mead and prices. She was so upset about the argument that she lost track of time. Trondlor and Bondlor had had stopped in around 9:30 while on their night watch rounds and she realized that Gerrik hadn't returned. She asked them to check the stable, which is when Gerrik's body was found. Lena did say that she saw the dark outline of a man on the road while she made a trip to the beer cellar (with Magdalene).

Subsequent interviews with the Runestone patrons by the characters supported Lena's story. There had been an extended argument coming from the beer cellar between Lena and Magdalene. Magdalene also reported seeing the dark outline of a man on the road while going to the beer cellar with Lena, but she didn't pay attention to him because she was in the middle of an argument with Lena. The characters discovered that Brack, Tomm, and Felona were very drunk that night, resulting in several trips to the outhouse. Tomm was still upset that Felona, his wife, had taken one of the trips with Brack, which made him more than a little jealous. Brack and Felona both reported seeing Reiner standing in the shadows out on the road in front of the Runestone. The timing of their sighting corresponded with Lena and Magdalene's glimpse of a man in the shadows and mist.

So the initial evidence pointed to Reiner as the killer--perhaps he was upset that Gerrik had secretly married his young daughter. Deborah Snaid, for example, suspected that Gerrik had a thing for Savula (she admitted that she had no evidence to support this). The characters thought that the marriage license might be a forgery and it also sounded as if some villagers would be happy to pin the murder on Reiner. Of course, the other villagers suspected the characters, which spurred them on to continue their investigation.

Next up was an interview with Reiner, proprietor of Melford Livestock, town skulker, and 1/4 orc. The characters found Reiner to be grumpy, sarcastic, and--in their opinion--honest. Gerrik had not married his daughter (Savula also confirmed this). He was, in fact, standing in the shadows outside the Runestone. He was there to meet Marieka Wyke, as he was intending to court her. She failed to show and he came home. He did see others coming and going, mainly to the outhouse. And he witnessed Felona Vedane throwing herself at Brack Jennings, only to have him gently but firmly push her away.

Reiner's interview led them back to speak again with Marieka Wyke, who was now a possible suspect. Marieka reluctantly confirmed that she was to meet Reiner but was afraid of the town's backlash and so she stood him up. She was embarrassed to admit all this (and this hinted at Marieka's reasons for wanting to find the real murderer). She also gave the characters permission to head back to the Runestone and search Gerrik's living quarters. Marieka told them that Gerrik's rooms had not been searched yet because Lena was the only person with the key (besides Gerrik) and no one wanted to disturb her mourning.

The characters returned to the Runestone in the early evening to find that Lena had left the inn to visit Magdalene, her neighbor. The characters decided to search Gerrik's living quarters without her, but took Trondlor (of the night watch) along as a witness. Gerrik's living quarters are accessed by a door near the kitchen and beer cellar doors. An inspection of the lock on the door by Marcel showed no tampering with the lock. Marcel picked the lock and the characters searched the two rooms comprising Gerrik's apartment. They found two suspicious items--a pair of very muddy boots and an empty secret compartment behind a painting. The characters agreed that these facts made Lena the #1 suspect. She could have worn Gerrik's boots to commit the murder and this would possibly explain the shorter stride in the second set of footprints by the stable.

The characters decided to search Lena's room and found that her clothes were strewn about and the window open (2nd floor). Perhaps Lena has packed up and left. There were no boots or shoes in her room, a fact noted by Rathwynn. You take your extra shoes when your going on a trip.

The characters paid a visit Magdalene. Lena was not there and Magdalene had not seen her since having breakfast with her that morning. Reiner's livestock stable was nearby so they stopped by again and asked him if he had seen anything. Yes, in fact, Lena had left Melford in a hurry on foot just a few hours before with a backpack and another large sack. Reiner offered to lend the party four horses, which they gladly took with them.

Rathwynn had an easy time tracking her and pointed out, with some satisfaction, that the length of Lena's stride matched the stride length of the second set of footprints near the Runestone Inn stable. A few miles out of Melford, Lena's tracks were replaced by a set of horse tracks. A small tree bore the marks of horse reins where a horse had been tied.

For the next several hours, Rathwynn led the characters on the road north from Melford to a small farm house. It took most of the night to make this trip but it was still very dark when they arrived. The farm house looked abandoned and was in bad shape. There were holes in the roof, plants growing out through the vacant window frames, and the door was falling off the hinges.

After a lot of discussion regarding the horses, the dark and scary night, and the lack of information about the farm house, the characters decided to take their chances and enter. They found very little, upon first glance. Just a small abandoned farm house (20' x 20') with a rotting wooden floor. A careful search, however, netted the location of a trap door in the floor. Rathwynn was able to lift the door and they found a ladder leading down to a deep cellar. Sending their flying magic bullseye lantern on ahead of them, the characters climbed down into a room filled with webs and broken jars. A search stirred up several misshapen spiders, about the size of a human hand. A scuffle followed, with Illmari suffering a bite from a 13 legged spider but receiving no damage beyond two small painful puncture wounds.

After killing about 1/2 dozen of the creepy little creatures, the session ended for the night.

Afterword

It was interesting to do a murder mystery as an adventure. The players rolled no dice until the last few minutes of the session. However, they loved it. I used a Dragonsfoot module, The Melford Murder, and modified it to fit my campaign setting. Despite the heavy plotting, the characters could have easily messed up. At this point, it seems likely that Lena is the murderer, but they haven't captured her yet, so who knows?

This module was designed for 1st level characters but it could easily be used for higher level characters, although it could quickly be short-circuited by any number of spells.

The other challenge with this module is awarding experience. I have been tracking experience per encounter. The adventure is not completed so I will be interested to see how that works out. I have a post in the works about awarding experience in Castles & Crusades based on encounters (points per encounter and points for monsters/opponents overcome).