Forget it, Jake; it's NOT Chinatown…
Aug 30, 2017 21:25:52 GMT -8
Post by chronovore on Aug 30, 2017 21:25:52 GMT -8
I set up a mystery-ish, conspiracy-ish situation in my FATE CORE campaign.
tl;dr version: A spymaster stole an ingredient useful to an arcane ritual. The arcane ritual will help shore up the city-state's defenses. The original victim of the stolen item stole it back, murdering the couriers to do so.
The PCs were called in by the assistant mayor to investigate the murders and find the current disposition of the cargo. The PCs were successful. The spymaster now has the cargo again.
The Assistant Mayor asked them to continue investigating why the cargo was stolen, and to what end it might be used.
…
This doesn't feel complicated at all to me, but the longwindyversion, the version the Players have been through, does: A caravan went missing; the party located the caravan, its guide had fled, and its drivers murdered. They were able to trace the cargo to a warehouse. There, a couple of Sidhe using a mild Fomorian scryguard to keep them magically hidden lay in wait with the cargo. A brief battle, one fae down, one escaped, leaving behind the scryguard charm.
Based on a suggestion from jonas, the cargo was a box filled to the brim with children's teeth. All baby teeth. In my head, I determined this is a year's worth of collected teeth from the Tooth Faerie, and in this world, the compact of trading teeth for a coin imbues the tooth with magical power.
I'd previously determined that a decade or so prior to the campaign start, a merchant family's defensive tower (think Siena), part of the whole city's infrastructure, was destroyed in a retaliatory attack by Sidhe, due to a broken contract with that family. It is not commonly known that the family broke the deal, but the party now knows this to be true.
The collection of teeth was originally stolen by the spymaster from the Tooth Faerie for the purpose of secretly using it in the mortar when rebuilding the tower, with the added benefit of using fae magic to replace something destroyed by the fae; I guess I feel it's "magically poetic," or something.
Right now, my players seem to feel lost. They're not sure what they're investigating or why, and I'm not sure how to get them back on track or renew their purpose without it feeling railroady.
Any advice, Happyjackers?
tl;dr version: A spymaster stole an ingredient useful to an arcane ritual. The arcane ritual will help shore up the city-state's defenses. The original victim of the stolen item stole it back, murdering the couriers to do so.
The PCs were called in by the assistant mayor to investigate the murders and find the current disposition of the cargo. The PCs were successful. The spymaster now has the cargo again.
The Assistant Mayor asked them to continue investigating why the cargo was stolen, and to what end it might be used.
…
This doesn't feel complicated at all to me, but the longwindyversion, the version the Players have been through, does: A caravan went missing; the party located the caravan, its guide had fled, and its drivers murdered. They were able to trace the cargo to a warehouse. There, a couple of Sidhe using a mild Fomorian scryguard to keep them magically hidden lay in wait with the cargo. A brief battle, one fae down, one escaped, leaving behind the scryguard charm.
Based on a suggestion from jonas, the cargo was a box filled to the brim with children's teeth. All baby teeth. In my head, I determined this is a year's worth of collected teeth from the Tooth Faerie, and in this world, the compact of trading teeth for a coin imbues the tooth with magical power.
I'd previously determined that a decade or so prior to the campaign start, a merchant family's defensive tower (think Siena), part of the whole city's infrastructure, was destroyed in a retaliatory attack by Sidhe, due to a broken contract with that family. It is not commonly known that the family broke the deal, but the party now knows this to be true.
The collection of teeth was originally stolen by the spymaster from the Tooth Faerie for the purpose of secretly using it in the mortar when rebuilding the tower, with the added benefit of using fae magic to replace something destroyed by the fae; I guess I feel it's "magically poetic," or something.
Right now, my players seem to feel lost. They're not sure what they're investigating or why, and I'm not sure how to get them back on track or renew their purpose without it feeling railroady.
Any advice, Happyjackers?