Decadent Arch Villainy First Draft

Introduction

 

Broad Overview

    Testers are commonly found among the barbarians attacking at the fringes of civilization on the frontier. They are found on pirate ships and in brigand encampments. They stalk the dark city streets or cavort with the subterranean monsters of Scarnoctis.   Most Testers live on the fringes of mainstream society. Most Testers are outcasts. Most Testers view civilization itself as a tool of the weak. Most Testers arise from the lower classes. Most disdain the very idea of social classes as a fraudulent usurpation of true power.   Most.   The Decadents are different. They represent a faction of Testers whose ranks are filled primarily from the upper classes. They hold debauchery-filled parties and revel in inflicting pain and death on people in the lower classes and then use their wealth and social privilege to avoid paying the consequences for their acts of cruelty.   This adventure deals with identify and unmasking a cult of Decadents. While any story involving Testers is going to have a fair bit of combat in it, this story is weighted more towards investigation and discovery then it is about swinging swords.    

How to implement this adventure in your campaign

  This is a self-contained episodic adventure that could be adapted to a wide variety of player character groups and campaigns. Ideally, it should not be an adventuring party's first adventure. It is easier to hook the PCs into this if the PCs already have a reputation as a heroic problem solvers. Also, in my experience as a Game Master I believe that mystery plots are often more effective when sandwiched between two relatively straight forward high action adventures.   Initially, a Game Master should not tell his players "We are going to take on some Decadents!" This story is mystery that should feel like peeling an onion. What starts as a single missing person case will gradually snowball into uncovering vast conspiracy.   At the time of this writing, Fumaya is the most developed location within Scarterra and this story module is part of my Fumaya has lots of problems metaplot. It incorporates characters and locations from that campaign, but this story does not have to be centered on Fumaya. This story could be adapted to any location in Scarterra because the Decadents can potentially show up in any noble family.   If you want to adapt this story to a world other than Scarterra, this story does not have to involve Maylar's Decadents. Any evil god or goddess will suffice if said evil deity could potentially be the center of a cult of sadistic spoiled and jaded young people with daddy issues.  

The Setting

  Fumaya is a country that on a map looks vaguely like a foot, which is why Fumayan humans are often nicknamed "Booters". The Duchy of Wiern makes up the "arch" of Fumaya's "Boot".   To start this adventure, you need to get the PCs into the Duchy of Wiern, ideally the County of Olessia which is the duke's personal fiefdom, but you don't have to go deep into the geography of Wiern if you don't want to. A basic overview is below.   As a whole, the land of Fumaya is pretty rugged with a lot of hills and forests. There is a lot of farms of course, but most farms are relatively to close to somewhat untamed frontier areas.. The Duchy of Wiern is the exception to the rule. It makes up the flattest section of Fumaya, and is by extension the most widely cultivated. The area has a great many clusters of villages but no large cities. There is a decent sized town named Olessia's Crossing, that is situated where two major roads Fumayan intersect and that is not far from where the ducal family lives in Castle Wiern.   Castle Wiern is located near a powerful magic font which fuels a well-guarded garden of reagents that provides a nice stream of income for Duke Wiern. The magic font also passively permeates the area with fire elemental energy which means those born and raised in Olessia tend to have mixed earth ethnicity and fire ethnicity which makes them stand out visually from other Fumayan humans. Most members of the Wierns have light brown skin and red or auburn hair and many of the nearby commoners look similar.   The area produces more surplus food than the rest of Fumaya combined, so the PCs may pass through Wiern lands just to replenish their basic supplies. That is a reasonable explanation for why the PCs would come here. Wiern is the "arch" of Fumaya's "boot". The main east-west road connects the "heel" with the "toe" of the boot. The main north-south road connects the "sole" with the "rim" of the boot. Both these two major roads cross each other in the County of Olessia. There is also a wide and slow moving river connecting the north and south of Fumaya to each other and and into the neighboring nation of Swynfaredia. The river is ideal for moving barges with bulk goods.   The PCs are traveling around Fumaya for any reason, they will probably pass through Wiern here at least once because it's such a transportation hub. That is another reasonable explanation for why the PCs would come here.  

Cast of Characters

 

Meet the Wierns!

  NOTE: All of the Wierns have a hyperlink to a personal article. The aforementioned articles cover events that occur AFTER this adventure as part of my ongoing Scarterran campaign "Torches in the Twilight". Your campaign's versions of these characters might be different and your outcome of the story probably will be slightly or perhaps drastically different from what the Torches crew. For the purpose of you running this adventure for your players, use the character details in this article only. But you can check out the Torches links if you are curious.   Garland believes that the Queen of Swynfaredia is most likely saber rattling for political theater, but he is not taking any chances. The duke is making sure that his soldiers are well-trained, well-equipped and highly visible. He hoping this show of strength will dissuade Swynfaredia from attacking in the first place.   Garland is in his late forties and his four children range from their late teens to mid twenties. Note that in most of Scarterra, humans are legally adults at sixteen, not eighteen. Garland's eldest child is Janah Wiern, she is famously beautiful and intelligent. Diplomatically polite but strong and firm when she needs to be, everything an upper class Fumayan wants his daughter to be. Janah's impressive traits did not go unnoticed. The king of Fumaya who was approximately her same age courted and married her.   Garland is delighted with this turn of events, and he loves to talk about his amazing daughter, the queen. This given Garland a huge blind spot for other three children which only got worst after his beloved wife (who was also named "Janah") passed away. Garland is so busy taking a victory lap that his daughter married the king that he has barely put any effort at all into finding spouses to his other children who all remain unwed with no immediate prospects. This is the least of Garland's shortcomings as a father.   Garland a blind spot towards problems in his own fiefdom and he has more concerned with the machinations of the royal court and establishing himself as a valued confidant to the king, that he he has become less attentive to the problems in his own backyard.     Given that the Duchy of Wiern is staring down the possibility of a full-scale invasion, being okay at martial skills and managerial leadership is probably not enough.   Lord Bohdan's diplomatic skills are less than okay. Bohdan is polite and good natured, but he is more than a little naïve for someone born into high level politics. He is nigh oblivious to nuance and subtext, and this is not a great trait in a future duke.   Story wise, Bohdan makes a good red herring. Players who are mystery-savvy might assume that Bohdan is merely playing the part of a fool and assume that he is actually knows more than he lets on.     Tacitus is shrewd and ambitious. Fortunately for the Wiern family, Tacitus is not so ambitious that he would turn to fratricide to eliminate his brother and become the hair to the ducal title. There are some lines Tacitus won't cross.   One advantage of not being the presumptive heir is that he has more freedom of movement than his elder brother. Tacitus often travels to other courts on behalf of his father or on behalf of himself. He is looking for a political marriage that would qualify as "a smart match", and he is trying to secure a juicy court position somewhere where he has the flexibility to quietly build a network of influence. If the PCs have been traveling in high end political circles before this adventure, they might have run into him already.   Tacitus is another good red herring. His intelligence and ambition are fairly obvious to those who meet him, so it's easy for one to suspect Tacitus is hiding something. Tacitus is hiding a few things, but none of them are part of this story, but if a Game Master wants to tie this story into a wider narrative, he can and probably should insert Tacitus into previous and future political based stories.     Felijca cannot realistically seek revenge against her sister or her father, so she will take to bullying anyone beneath her.   A recruiter for the Decadents found her and found Felijca pretty easy to win over by telling her what she wanted to hear. Maylar teaches that birth order and fancy titles doesn't matter, only strength and ruthless matter. Felijca is the stronger sibling, Felijca is strongest Wiern. Felijca is above lesser mortals and therefore she can do whatever she wants to whomever she wants.   Felijca is the daughter of a duke, and she doesn't have a lot of oversight or supervision making her an ideal operative for the Decadents. Felijca's recruiter thought she would be easy to manipulate, but much like Tacticus and Janah, Felicja has smarts and ambition. Within a fairly short time, Felijca was in charge of the cult in all but name.  

Who are the Cultists?

  The Game Master can adjust the size of the cult to fit his or her needs based on how many PCs are in the player troupe and how experienced are the PCs and players. Making the cult larger of course makes the adventure module a bit tougher, and making the cult smaller will make the adventure a bit easier.   Lady Felijca is the true leader of the Wiern-based Decadent cult who sets the general policies and decides the major actions on the cult. The cult incorporates party masks and code names during their ceremonies a lot and as added layer of anonymity, Felijca makes heavy use of potions of Disguise Self to hide her appearance if glimpsed without her mask. Only a small number of the cultists know that Felijca is a member of the cult, but many cultists have put two and two together and deduced that she is probably in the the cult.   "The Reveler" is the cult's figurehead leader and is the man-on-the-ground to handle the details Felijca finds are beneath her. He wears a mask during worship ceremonies. Outside of these, he is hard to peg down. He is a good actor capable of mimicking many accents and dialects and he is skilled with various non-magical disguises. He uses a lot of aliases, and even Felijca doesn't know his real name. In Fumaya his default alias is "Cemach the musician".   Reveler Stats     Lady Edzia is the cult's best spy. She is High Steward for the Duchy of Wiern which means she was appointed by the duke to keep track of his finances. Edzia has used her position of trust to "cook the books" and embezzle money and supplies from the duke's treasury and storerooms. She can also help Felijca and the Reveler roadblock any investigations into the cult's many crimes.   Lady Edzia's backstory is fairly similar to Lady Felijca's. Edzia is the daughter of a minor noble house that produced a few notable knights and courtiers, but the house is relatively cash poor by noble standards with a lot a less land than the Wierns have and the fact that the house tends to have a lot children streteches the resources a lot. Edzia has a lot of older siblings who she is often felt overshadowed by giving her daddy Issues and this is gave Edzia and Felijca something to commiserate over.   Lady Edzia Stats     Felijca, the Reveler, and Edzia are the only three cult members that possess exceptional skills. Game Masters are of course free to add a fourth or fifth cult named cult member with special talents but this will increase the difficulty of this module.   The rank and file cultists are a varied lot. There is roughly a 50/50 split of men and women in the cult. Roughly 80% of the overall population of the Duchy of Wiern are humans, but the Decadents tend to be somewhat racist, so it's unlikely that the cult would have more than one or two token non-humans at most. The cult members skew young, most of them are in their late teens and early twenties with the Reveler being the eldest in his early thirties.   The cult includes some sons and daughters of wealthy merchants and minor noble families. Pragmatism means the cult had to recruit useful members from the lower classes too. The cult includes a few members of the Wiern family's personal staff plus and a few informants in the town of Olessia's Crossing and some of the surrounding villages. These lower class cult members all have day jobs working various professions, whatever profession the Game Master thinks fits his or her story best.   The Reveler is a reasonably competent fighter due to years of hard experience. Lady Felijca is a reasonably competent swordswoman because the daughter of a duke, she has access to excellent instructors. The rest of the cultists have a lot of enthusiasm but not a lot of skill.   The cult has made some modest effort into training for battle, but very few of the cultists come from a martial background. The cult might have managed to recruit a corrupt a few of the duke's soldiers and the cult probably recruited one or two strong hardy street thugs, but in violent scenarios, they mostly rely on base trickery or raw numbers.   The one thing unifying all the cultists of the varied backgrounds is that they all are mad at their parents for real or imagined slights. Their daddy issues and/or mommy issues ultimately led them to turn to Maylar worship as a form of rebellion and the cult's conditioning has pushed them to greater and greater acts of sadism and decadence.   Rank and File Cultist Game Stats    

Accomplices

  The Reveler entered Fumaya with a couple black market contacts, and with the aid of Felijca and his other recruits, he was able to greatly expand the cult's criminal network.   The cult mostly uses their criminal contacts primarily as sources of additional information, but they can contract out various lowlife thugs for muscle work on a temporary basis. All of these people work for coin, not out of true loyalty. There are also members of the duke's household staff and army that are taking bribes to look the other way to the cult's activities which technically makes them criminals even if they maintain respectable facades.   Most of these accomplices operate through the Reveler via one of his alter egos. A few of these corrupt individuals work for Fellicja or Edzia directly. Very few of the cult's criminal accomplices actually know they are working with Maylar cult, preferring not to ask questions. They think they are working for a generic criminal or the spoiled daughter of a corrupt duke. Either way, it's best not to ask too many questions.   Even most criminals don't like Maylar's Testers much. If the PCs can prove to a criminal that he or she is working with the Testers, some of them might be willing to outright betray the Testers, but the majority of them will just abandon them (and then go hide). Some criminals are jaded enough not to care, and a few might actually be sympathetic to the Testers, so the PCs should not get careless.   If the PCs capture a cultist, he or she will be probably be very hard to intimidate or bribe. If the PCs capture one or more criminals, they will probably be relatively easy to intimidate or bribe.   Hired Thug Stats    

How Does the Cult Operate?

  The cult does not operate on a rigid schedule, the better to stay undetected.   The group tends to meet in full about once every ten days on average. Not all of their gatherings involve someone being ritually murdered. The non-murderous rituals basically drunken parties thinly veiled as Maylar praise festivals and maybe include some drunken sparring matches between cultists.   The cults rituals are usually done out in the woods at night away from prying eyes. The cult and their confederates know where the nighttime guard patrols in Wiern are or aren't, so they are good at remaining undetected.   It's up to the Game Master to decide if these Maylar villain festivals are rated "PG" or "R" based on the preferences of his or her gaming group though the odds are that the PCs will probably not personally witnesses these rituals. They are more likely to poke around these sites for clues after the latest ritual is over and the cult initiated a hasty clean up.   In between these festivals, the cultists work their day jobs and otherwise act like normal Scarterrans. When they can do this without attracting undo suspicion, they train their combat skills. A fair few cultists have Wrath ●, so the cultists can potentially wail on each other with weapons without accidentally killing each other.   Felijca and the Reveler operate a network of spies in Castle Wiern, the town of Olessia's Crossing and a several of the surrounding farming villages. The main goal of this spy network is to find victims for the cult that they can "disappear" without anyone missing them. Or at the very least, without anyone important missing them. They will also run interference to make sure none of Duke Garland's men come across evidence of the cult's crimes.     The cult doesn't have as much money as you'd think. Felijca can only embezzle so much money from her father without him noticing, and a lot of the cult's money goes toward fancy food and booze. Despite all this, the cult has managed to obtain a modest stockpile of weapons, armor, potions, and spare coins for bribery.   The cult hasn't been operating very long, so they are barely into the double digits when it comes to ritual murders, but their murder count is limited to just ritual killings. They have had to eliminate a few people who were asking inconvenient questions.   The cultists are reasonably good at covering their tracks, but the more crimes they commit, the more loose ends they leave behind for enemies to find and tug at. It's up the PCs to tug at the loose ends until the cult's tapestry rips apart.  

Act One: Setting up the Board

 

Part One: Meet the Wierns!

  Like most nobles, Duke Garland Wiern likes to keep track of newcomers in his land. At some point, one his agents reports the PCs are passing through his land and shopping for supplies or doing whatever they are doing.   Hopefully at least one or two of your PCs took some social Merits, so they are part of a priesthood, knightly order, trades guild, mage coven, noble family, or some kind of organization that is at least moderately respectable and has some influence over something. Duke Wiern is a politician and wants to maintain cordial terms with as many political and economic powers as possible, so that's enough reason to invite the PCs to his castle to share a meal. Specifically midday meal, which is the main meal of the day   If none of the PCs have any social connections that would interest a duke, then the duke has heard tales of the PCs most recent heroic adventure, and would like to hear a first hand account of their deeds. Dukes and other political figures like to show to the commoners that they are friendly with heroes, but beyond this, inviting interesting strangers to dinner is the main way that Scarterrans get news from distant places and events and offering strangers free food, is a simple way for hight status Scarterrans to appear generous and therefore respectable..   Ideally, some of the PCs have useful social connections AND the duke wants to hear tales of their latest heroic adventure. If both of these things apply to any character , that PCs can enjoy a bonus die on social rolls with the duke and his family, at least for the purpose of this dinner.   The duke is not going to throw the PCs a lavish feast or anything like that. The duke invites prominent strangers to dinner at least once a week and he cannot afford to roll out the red carpet every time, but he's a duke of a province known for producing quality foodstuffs, so an ordinary Tuesday dinner is probably better than the PCs are normally accustomed to eating.   It is possible that the players want to learn about the duke's family before they meet for dinner. Time permitting, the PCs can ask around the grapevine and pick up the following gossip fairly easily. The readily available scuttlebutt is below.     From a strategic standpoint, this makes sense, but from a storytelling perspective it might be better to go with "show don't tell". Rather than the Game Master dumping an exposition what the various Wiern's core traits are, it probably be more fun to show the players how the various Wierns are by how they act at dinner.     If one of the characters makes a bad roll, another character can step in, "What my friend meant to say was...." Wits + Etiquette, difficulty 7.   But don't just throw a bunch of dice down and call it a day. It's probably not desirable to roleplay out the entire dinner, but you should definitely roleplay some of it. How much of a roleplay event out of this depends on how much the Game Master and various players enjoy the thespian aspects of tabletop RPGs. This could be wrapped up in five minutes or you can spend an hour on this.   Since they players know that the duke is at least mildly interested in the PC's last adventure, the players can plan this out a little ahead of time. How are the PCs going to describe their last adventure? Are they going to be very matter of the fact or they are going to embellish things?   The duke also wants to press the PCs for news that they might have heard, but the duke and his retainers probably know some things that the PCs don't know. If the players are wise, they will ask some questions of their own. If you are the sort of Game Master that likes to plan two or three adventures ahead, you can drop some foreshadowing for future stories by having the Wierns or their servants bring up tidbits of news and rumors connected to what is coming up later..   The PCs can also try to butter up the duke with flattery and/or they can make a deal. If one of the PCs is a potioneer or alchemist, they might be able to buy some reagents from the duke. If the PCs want to get reagents and butter up the duke, they can deliberately overpay for the reagents. Or you can go the opposite route and try to impress the duke by being a no-nonsense negotiator, though this is easier said than done.   The duke has other things that the PCs could negotiate for, but reagents is the most obvious resource that he has for trade. If you want to play hardball, the duke has a six dice pool for Manipulation + Commerce, seven dice if reagents are involved.   Lord Bohdan is going to be polite and friendly, but not have much to say. He will politely agree with whatever his father or Tacitus says and will at least pretend to laugh at the PCs jokes even if he doesn't get them. If there is an awkward silence, Bohdan might talk about the weather or how good a job their chef did on the beef and potatoes. The PCs can probably get on his good side simply by being polite and friendly.   Lord Tacitus is the most widely traveled, and the most politically ambitious. If the PCs want to hear news and rumors about what's going on in Fumaya and beyond, he's probably the best Wiern to chat up. The best way to get on Tacitus' good side to demonstrate intelligence and quick wit.   Lady Felijca is probably going to be bored and disinterested for most of the meal. If one of the PCs is a human male with a high Appearance and Etiquette rating she might try some low key flirting, but that might not stop her from insulting him later. Getting on Felijca's good side is a Herculean feat.   They might be able to get Felijca's good side if they can figure out a way to cast shade on Garland heaping praise on Queen Janah (who is obviously not in adventure because she is with the royal court now). That will be very difficult to do without upsetting Garland. It's not enough to say "Oh Lady Felijca is beautiful and smart too!" Felijca hears that a lot and finds that sort of rhetoric hollow and unconvincing.   If you really want to go all-in on roleplaying dinner with the Wierns, you can introduce some of the duke's courtiers such as Lady Edzia, but that is probably unnecessary.   At some point during the meal, it's time to throw in a little bit of an awkward encounter.   Felijca is probably going to starts some drama simply because she is bored and mean-spirited. She is going to try to push one or more of the PCs' buttons. She might say something racist, or insult someone's religious affiliation, their parentage, their profession, or their appearance. But she is going to thinly veil the insult as a compliment for a bit of plausible deniability.   "Oh, that's such impressive focus for a satyr!"   "Oh, it was great that your priesthood took you in and helped elevate your status!"   "I don't see a lot of ladies as hardy and muscular as you are!"   It's a good idea for the Game Master to plan one or two of these insults ahead of time, tailored to the PCs character traits. Felijca keeps up with the high class rumor mill. If one of the PCs is highborn Fumayan, Felijca will probably already a fair bit about him or her through the rumor mill. In which case she might even know a bit about that character's backstory and can drudge up past failures or insecurities.   Tacitus will try to diplomatically cover for her insult and Bohdan will take the comment at face value and assume it is actually a compliment. Depending on how offended they are, the target of Felijca "Mean Girl" antics may need to roll Willpower or Wits + Etiquette to maintain composure. Another PC can try to politely change the subject with a bit of role playing and a good Manipulation + Etiquette roll or Wits + Etiquette roll.   If Tacitus and/or the PCs defuse the insult and change the subject, Felijca may still try again, either against the same PC or a different one. At which point Duke Garland will get visibly upset and scold her causing her to hastily apologize. But a PC who makes a good Perception + Empathy can figure out that this probably want she wanted all along. She is thirsty for a little bit of her father's attention, even if it's negative.   Chances are, the PCs did an adequate job at impressing the duke. The meal will end with the duke thanking the PCs for their time and the PCs thanking the duke for the nice dinner. This is the default assumption for the rest of the adventure.   If the PCs did an especially good job at winning the duke's favor, he will invite them to stay a while. Probably on the castle grounds, not in the castle itself. Maybe, a night, maybe even a couple nights. This will make the upcoming investigation aspect of the adventure a bit easier.   Even if the PCs become honored guests, this doesn't mean that they are going to become permanent dinner guests. The duke prefers to take his breakfast and evening meals in private and the rest of the family usually follows suit. Garland only has only uses meals as a social tool for the midday meal, and not every day. He also doesn't spend all his time in the castle. The duke will still feed his guests, but they will usually have to eat with the servants, but that actually might make investigations easier because the PCs can chat up the servants for info without looking like they are running an investigation.     If the PCs did an especially poor job at winning the duke's favor, the polite exchange at the end of the thankyou will be a little cold and forced. The duke might assign some of his men to "keep an eye" on the PCs as long as they are in his lands. This make the upcoming investigation aspect of the adventure a bit harder as they will sometimes have to lose their shadows.   Having the duke's men shadowing the PCs turn into an advantage later. They might be able to trick the duke's agents and cultists into fighting each other. Or they could present hard evidence of the cult's activities directly to the duke's men and convince them to actively aid the PCs.     Regardless of whether the PCs made a good impression or a bad one, Duke Garland is going to be absent for most or all of Act II. Garland is spending a lot of his inspecting the troops either in the training yards or at the Fumayan-Swynfaredian border, while he leaves his children in charge.    

Part Two: The adventure hook

  Since the PCs presumably have a reputation of being heroic adventurers, once it is known that the PCs are in the area, a Wiern peasant approaches them for help, and hopefully the players take the bait, otherwise the rest of this adventure can't happen.   If the PCs are staying as guests in Castle Wiern, they are approached by a stable boy or chambermaid or some other low ranking household servant. If the PCs are no longer on the castle grounds, they are approached by a farmer or craftsman while at an inn or tavern.   Either way, Mr. or Ms. Peasant says that his/her friend is missing. They tried reporting this to the duke's men, but they got blown off. The duke and his men are too focused on the Swynfaredian situation to worry about a missing poor person. Behind the scenes, various secret members of the cult are working behind the scenes to make sure requests for aid are lost in the shuffle.  

Act Two: The Investigation

  As a Game Master, your goal is not necessarily to have the PCs find out everything about the cult and then report the information to the authorities and shut the cult down in its entirety. That might be the characters goals, but as a Game Master, the end goal is that the cult feels the walls closing on them and initiates a desperate attack on the PC which can serve as satisfying third act conclusion.   Rather than unravel the entire conspiracy in one swoop, it's best to spoon feed the players clues a little bit at a time at a pace that the will keep the air of mystery going and ramp up the suspense.   Castle Wiern has a small walled village around it. In the event of a siege, they will pack as many people as possible into the castle complex. Since Wiern is not currently under siege, most of the Castle Wiern staff and even the duke is spending more time outside of the castle than in it, so even the PCs don't have access to the castle, they still make inquiries of most of the staff without much difficulty.  

Investigative Legwork

  Going around asking questions of people is Charisma + Investigation (default difficulty 6). If you are trying to ask questions without tipping off what you are actually looking for roll Manipulation + Investigation (default difficulty 7). In either case, you can swap in Appearance for Charisma or Manipulation if the PC is meeting an informant for the first time.   But don't just let the players say, "I'll make an investigation roll" and throw some dice down. At the very least, they should say where they going, who they are going to try to talk to, and what kind of questions they are going to ask. You can give a bonus die on various rolls for good roleplaying ideas or clever ideas, especially they managed to incorporate their Social Merits in some way. Did I mention I like Social Merits, cause I really like utilizing them in my games.   Three or four successes can get the character a useful tidbit of information. Five successes can reveal an extremely useful piece of information.   One or two successes can get the character a bit of information if they follow up their regular questions with some additional incentive. They need flirt with, bribe, or intimidate the information sources to get them to loosen their tongues.   A failed roll means they wasted some time and/or bribed someone for nothing. A botch means they have a false piece of information that the characters are convinced is true or managed to offend someone they'd rather not offend, or they tipped off a cultist exactly what the PCs are doing.     Looking for physical clues is Perception + Investigation roll, but in most cases this is not useful until after a Charisma + Investigation first to help narrow down where the PCs should start looking for physical clues. Wiern is a very large place, so you can't just start digging in a random bit of woods and uncover a buried corpse.     If the PCs have a questionable source or an uncooperative suspect, the PCs can make an opposed Perception + Empathy against a pool of five dice to see if they can figure out if their target is lying or withholding something.   Players are likely to come up with a means of investigation that the Game Master has not thought of, but that is to be encouraged, so if the players come up with a good justification for investigating some way you haven't considered, try to roll with it.   Here are some potential avenues of investigation of they may attempt.  

Scuttlebutt: Noun, rumor or gossip.

   

Forensic Accounting

   

Necromancy isn't just for villains!

     

Stuff they are probably to find out early in their investigation

  There is more than one missing person     Eliminating the Usual Suspects   Once the PCs find out that there are multiple missing people, the players will probably brainstorm some plausible theories as to who might have the means and motive to kidnap or murder several people. The next phase of the investigation is to probably to start eliminating plausible theories for who might be doing this.   Make a hypothesis: "Maybe ______ did the crime. But if ______ is responsible for the missing people, we would probably be see X, Y, and Z" "No Y or Z, so guess it's not them."   Rinse and Repeat, at least until the PCs find evidence that puts them on the trail of the real culprits. At which point the PCs graduate out of the "Early Investigation" and enter the "Mid Investigation."   Once the PCs transition from collecting general information on the cult and move to finding ways to actively attack the cult's members and assets, then they official in the "Late Investigation".   Once the cult gets tired of playing defense, they will gather up their people and what resources to force a confrontation with the PCs. This is the Third Act.   Are Swynfaredians spies behind this?     Is Greymoria behind this?       Are rogue necromancers behind this?     Are cannibals behind this??     Are slavers behind this?     What about the Fair Folk?     Hungry Monsters?     Did ordinary criminals do this?    

Things the PCs are likely to find out mid-investigation

  Maylar is Behind this!     He goes by "The Reveler"     Body of evidence    

Things that the PCs are likely to find out late in the investigation

  Once the PCs figure out that a Decadents cult is responsible for the disappearances than the next question is "Who is in the cult and who is not?" Then it quickly turns into, "How do we stop them?".   Going after the "Big Fish"     Going after the "Little Fish"     Maylar theurgy     Show me the money!     The cult plays defense    

Finding Allies

  The PCs may or may not try to call on reinforcements or allies.   It's one thing to ask someone for information (that usually takes an Investigation roll). Mechanically, this can boil down to a Manipulation + Expression roll but it should be roleplayed out a bit. The difficulty depends on how sympathetic a person or group is to the PCs cause and if what the PCs are offering.   Given that Maylar's Testers are generally hated and feared and that most normal people are against murder, the best approach is usually appeals to morality, but the PCs can sweeten the deal by throwing in other incentives.   Allying with the House Wiern     Allying with the Nonagon   Maylar is one of the Nine and there are eight other deities. The other eight gods and goddesses may tolerate Maylar, but they don't like him.   On the mortal plane, this drama is played out among the Nine's core followers (aka the Nonagon). The PCs might be able to find a representative of any of Fumaya's various Nonagon factions in Wiern but four religious groups have a permanent temple in Wiern.   Fumayan Guardians     Fumayan Rovers     Fumayan Tenders     Fumayan Stewards     Allying with Ordinary Peasants    

Allying with Low-life criminals

   

Act Three: Confrontation

  Ideally, this story should end with a dramatically satisfying physical confrontation. The hard part as a Game Master is setting this up logically so as not to violate the Rule of Realism while serving the Rule of Cool.  

Crowd Control

  The four scenarios below are "Ritual Interrupted", "Fake Ritual Interrupted", "Road Warriors" and "Worst Case Scenario" differ in small ways but they all rely a fairly simple set up: The cultists and PCs are going to fight, and the cultists are going to rely on quantity over quality.   How the Fight is likely to play out         Weapons   The Rule of Realism states that a ragtag undisciplined cult like this is going to have a wide variety of weapons. the Rule of Playability states that the cultists should have mostly the same weapons to give the Game Master less to keep track of. It's up to the Game Master what he or she wants to do.   Rule of Realism Weaponry     Rule of Playability Weaponry     Armor Matters     Breaking the Will to Fight    

Ritual Interrupted

   

Fake Ritual Interrupted

   

Road Warriors

   

Worst Case Scenario

   

Act IV, the Epilogue

    Whether the cultists are dead, unconscious or tied up, it's time to unmask them. The players may or may not be surprised by who is revealed or not revealed.   Now what?  

Courtroom Drama

  The immediate aftermath is probably going to be some kind of courtroom drama. The Game Master could wrap up the courtroom drama in a two-minute narrative epilogue, or you could milk the roleplaying aspects of a courtroom drama and make an event out of it. It all depends on if the players like those kind of stories or if they find them boring.   Maylar is a very unpopular god, but worshiping Maylar is not illegal in Kingdom of Fumaya. Normal Scarterran usually venerate him at least once or twice a year if only to placate his wrath. Just because some of the cultists are demonstrating Maylar based theurgy isn't enough to implicate them as criminals either.   Kidnapping, murder, and theft are highly illegal, with or without theurgy or religion.   Duke Garland Wiern has the feudal rights to judge and sentence any criminals on or from his lands. Technically the king of Fumaya can override him but King Henryk prefers to give his vassals a lot of autonomy. The PCs may try to turn their evidence and/or prisoners to the king instead of to Duke Wiern, but even then the king will probably let the Duke run the trial as a sign of respect. If the PCs try to sidestep Garland serving as judge in this case, he will take it as an insult. If insulted, the Duke is not likely to try to kill or imprison the PCs or anything like that, but he can passive-aggressively make things difficult for them.   Proving guilt beyond any reasonable doubt is a very modern Western legal tradition that didn't usually apply to medieval justice. Garland is not the greatest father in the word, but he does love Felijca even if she's not the favorite child. Odds are that he will as lenient as possible with Felijca and will be very harsh with any suspect who is not Felijca.   The PCs on Trial     If the player characters captured a few prisoners, they shouldn't have any problem clearing their names of accusations of wrongdoing, especially if they have physical evidence or additional witness testimony to back up their claim. If the PCs interrupt a murder ritual and save a victim, the rescued victim will of course testify on the PCs behalf which will help things a lot, but the biggest source of corroborating testimony is probably going to come from captured enemies, not rescued victims.   Rank and File Cultists on Trial     The Reveler on Trial     Lady Edzia on Trial     Felijca on Trial    

Ramifications to Future Adventures