The D&D 5e story continues, Conquest of the Goblin Hideout

This week the goblin cave near Phandelver was assault. Joshua Macy and Dan wasn't able to make it but Joshn or +Rhandom A  returned. He joined +Tim Shorts, and +Chris C. outside of the entrance of the goblin cave.

The Ongoing Story
Last week's adventure was a grind to get to the cave. But finally the party is standing outside of the den of iniquity known as the Goblin Hideout.

The Roster

• Sidwin the Sharp (Tim) - a native of the City-State, the human rogue senses opportunity in Phandelver and positioned himself to be hired as one of the caravan guards. 
• Squirrel (Josh)  - by all appearance a no-account street rat, but his cunning intelligence and a chance encounter with the possessions of a unlucky mage has allowed him to master arcane powers.  
• Vognur (Chris) - a warrior armed and ready to take his place in the world and to pursue the mystery of the box left to him by his family.

The Majestic Wilderlands

I elected to set the game within my Majestic Wilderlands. I am more familiar with the setting and by taking the original adventure apart and reassembling allows me to master the adventure better. On the map below each small hex is one league and takes one hour to walk. Each large hex is 5 leagues.

The Game

When we left the party they were standing outside of the Goblin Hideout having killed two sentries.

Having captured a goblin patrol in the previous session they knew that there was sentry over a bridge. That if the sentry raised an alarm a dam would be busted and the resulting deluge sweeping any invaders out of the cavern.

Electing to enter the cavern without any torchlight, Vognur and Sidwin relied on their own limited vision while Squirrel used his superior Elven vision to guide them. At first startled by snarling wolves they soon saw that they were chained. Sidwin quickly threw in two days worth of rations to quite them. Apparently goblins were used to the noise of the wolves as they did nothing but shouted for the wolves to quit down.

With Vognur hanging back the party spotted the bridge. Squirrel attempted to carefully climb up the wall but failed to find any handholds. The resulting noise alerted the goblin sentry on top of the bridge. Luckily Vognur heard the goblin moving out onto the bridge and drawing his bow. He rushed forward and in the dim light could see enough of the goblin to throw a hand axe. His hit staggered the foul creature leaving him bloodied. Reacting quickly Squirrel turned around and with arcane syllables and mystic gestures a icy ray of frost enveloped the goblin. Overcome with cold he fell to the bridge. The bow falling into the stream 20 feet below.

Just as the party finished climbing up to the bridge a goblin from the upper cave pools arrived at the bridge to investigate. Squirrel reacted quickly and with a pinch of fine sand and single breath put the goblin to sleep. The goblins throat was slit as the group proceeded into the upper cave.

Thankfully a single torch burned on the cave wall. Making the place bright enough to reveal two pools of water that were clearly the result of a dammed up stream. Also more light spilled from a southern entrance where the sound of an orc, his pet wolf and several goblins could be heard eating and talking.

Note: That in the Majestic Wilderlands I don't have a multitude of humanoids races. I pretty much used only orcs and goblins. In this case the orc had the same stat as the original bugbear.

 Quickly a plan was devised. Squirrel waded out into the pool and jammed the mechanism to break the dam and release the deluge. On his return, Sidwin poured oil all over the steps leading up to the southern entrance. Then with everybody in position he scattered ball bearings across the steps.

The noise of dozens of tiny metal balls attracted the attention of the orc and goblins. One of the goblins rose to investigate. Not noticing the oil and bearing he stepped on the stairs and immediately began to slip and slide. Luckily he managed to recover from falling when he reached the bottom of the stairs. Unluckily when he lifted up his head to look around he promptly met the edge of Vognur's blade. His head half severed the goblin fell to the ground dead.

Following up on their surprise attack, the group seized the initiative and positioned themselves before the southern entrances. Sidwin made an amazing shot with his bow burying his arrow into the orc's vitals. Vognur's follow up show did not help the orc chief's cause with burying an axe into the orc's thigh. Squirrel quipped

Boy Vognur you really wanted to axe that Orc a question.

 Then promptly followed up with a Ray of Frost that left the chief rimed in frost.
Staggered the Orc chief yelled for his pet wolf to attack as he staggered out of the party's view. Squirrel looked puzzled. He was the only party member to understand goblin,

Seriously you named your wolf, Fido?

Despite the unfortunate name, the wolf did his master proud and lept onto Vognur. The beast's teeth ripping ragged wounds across the warrior's body. (A natural 20 for the wolf). The ferocity of the wolf's attack did not unnerve Squirrel as the elven wizard enveloped the wolf with his Ray of Frost spell. Unfortunately Sidwin subsequent rapier attack did not found its mark. Desperate Vognur hacked away at the beast and scored the hit that brought it low.

With the party exhausted from the battle, Squirrel extinguished the campfire in the orc chief's cave with a gesture. From behind him he heard Sidwin's voice.

Great like we can see well to begin with.

Luckily a single torch still burned in the upper cave.  Resolved not to be without light, Vognur put away his shield and grabbed the torch. Sidwin crouched in a alcove in the cave wall and drunk a potion of healing.

Suddenly was the sounds of a pack of wolves let lose and the orc chief's booming voice raising a hue and a cry calling the rest of the goblin to attack!

From one of the entrances burst out the wolf pack. Thinking on his feet, Squirrel distracted two of the three wolf with the sounds of a angry bear behind them. However the wolf he didn't distract was the one closest to him. Scrambling out the way, the wolf clawed the Wizard and knocked the elf to the ground unconscious. Vognur with sword and torch in hand attacked and left gash across the wolf's flank. In vain the wolf tried to bite Vognur.  Sidwin's rapier slew the leading wolf.  Vognur's followed up a with gash that nearly killed one of the remaining two wolves.

However no longer distracted by the sound of a bear attack the remaining two wolves flanked Vognur. In a full display of their age old command of pack tactics, the two wolves maneuvered Vognur badly out of position. In two lightning swift attacks the braved warrior lost his cod piece and fell to the ground dying. Sidwin stood alone.

Behind the wolves the remaining goblins of the hideout rushed into the upper cave with their bows drawn. Summing up his last reserves, Sidwin shouted.

Wait! Wait! Don't do this, Klarg will be pissed as I brought the beer. 

Immediately sheathing his weapons, Sidwin carefully explained in halting common and goblin that he brought beer for Klarg and has no idea of what the hell is going on. The goblin leader sent back a runner to get Klarg. Apparently the orc leader escaped through the fissure in the back of his room, released the wolves, and sent the remaining goblins in to attack the party.

Note: Tim rolled only a 14 for Sidwin's persuasion, but I rolled really bad for the goblin's gullibility (a 2 -1 = 1). This part was memorable because I just saw Guardians of the Galaxy. For a second I had an intense desire to hear Tim say "I am Star Lord" after the goblin asked him What?.

While this was going Squirrel's bleeding slowed and stopped. Then in a miracle, Vognur's eyes fluttered open. After taking note of the goblin and two wolves nearest him, he gathered in his reserves for a second wind. With a shout, he stood up and downed the injured wolf, surprising everybody.

This sudden onslaught broke the morale of the goblins as Sidwin and Vognur pressed the battle. Not the last remaining wolf raking Vognur's arms could stop the slaughter. The goblin's doom was sealed when Sidwin managed to revive Squirrel with the last remaining healing potion. Unleashed the fury of Burning Hands the last of the goblin died in magefire.

Hearing a human crying out in pain, the group rushes the last unexplored room. There they found a goblin holding a human prisoner hostage. However a display of the party magical power broke the creature's morale. He pushed the human down the ledge and tried to run. Once again with a pinch of fine sand and a breathe Squirrel ended ... everything.

A minute later everybody started to wake up from the close range sleep spell. Luckily Vognur woke first and killed the groggy goblin. Luckily the human didn't die from the shock of the fall and was stable.
The party looted the complex finding two more healing potion, some coin, and a strange statuette of a frog worth 400d (sp). After a hour long rest, the prisoner woke up. As it turns out he was Sildar Hallwinter on his way with Gundren Rockseer to Phandalin. Silder was to take service with Iarno Albek the recently appointed baliff of the town. On the way there, they were captured by goblins. Gundren was sent to the chief of the Troll Skull tribe along with all their gear and possessions. Including a map of to the Rockseer's mine at Wind Echo Cave.

After the rest, the party released they did not find Klarg's body. Searching the immediate area they found a bloody trail leading into the surrounding woodlands. They left Sildar with Lanar and Matilda and went off in pursuit of the orc.

After first they ran into trouble with a stretch of forest that was wrecked by a recent storm. Sidwin and Squirrel made it through easily but it took a while for Vognur to force his way through. Pressing onward faster the party did not notice a rattlesnake in their path. Sidwin and Squirrel were able to quietly avoid the rattlesnake. Confident in armor, Vognur ignored the snake. This proved his undoing as he got bit. Too ill to continue, the rest of the party forged on. Luck was on their said as they found the former orc chief being plagued by bees. The orc tried a valiant last stand but fared no better than Custer at Little Bighorn.

Note: I used one of favorite gimmicks Paizo's chase cards. 

 With that final bit of business wrapped up the party headed back to Phandalin.

Comments

The death save mechanism steadily grows on me. Now that I have experienced its use in several session I feel adds a great deal of fun to the otherwise unpleasant situation of character death. And the revive to 1 hp on a natural 20 is pure gold for generating unexpected turn of events.

This was the first session with my new Player's Handbook. The book makes for an excellent reference during play. Although the index text is incredibly small it is complete and I found everything I was looking for quickly with it.

One thing that saved party this adventure was the fact they killed several sentries and patrols over the last two sessions. The failed first run proved crucial in whittling down their numbers for the successful second run.

Roll20 dynamic lighting and line of sight was awesome. But the big down side was it really bogged down Roll 20. When I switched it off for the party to loot the complex everything was way faster. I am going to need to do some reading on how to efficiently setup dynamic lighting.

One thing I was able to do was setup elven vision as distinct from how the human see things. Squirrel had a much easier time of it then the rest of the party.

So next week is back to Phandalin. See you next time!

Counting Hexes

Are hexes just traditional for hexcrawls or do they allow for fast and accurate measurements of distances? Take a look at following image.

This is a real world map with a winding path to the observation tower. It as a small scale so we are forced to use an odd measurement for a hex. One-eighth of a mile or 660 feet per hex. When I drew this over top of the image it each hex measured from top to bottom 0.365 inches. The purple path I drew over the original map path measured 6.027 inches. Making the true length of the path, if you hiked it, 10,899 feet or 2.06 miles.

At a game table you could have a device with a wheel that you could roll along to measure the true length of anything on the map. But that not a common piece of equipment a person is likely to possess.

The virtue of a hex grid is that from each hex there are circles of hexes surrounding it out to an arbitrary distance. This makes it very useful to measure distance quickly from a center hex to an arbitrary point.

So what if you have a hex filled with winding paths inside the hexes. Well if I counted up the hexes that the path touches it comes out to 13 hexes or 1.625 miles. (the red numbers) Not very close to its true distance. However if I double counted (or even triple count) hexes (the blue numbers) with particularly convoluted paths. Then I get about 17 hexes or 2.125 much closer to the true distance of 2.064 miles.

Like any tool you need to use your best judgement in using this. In this case you need to estimate by sight whenever a convoluted path inside of a hex means you double or triple count it.

5e PHB in hand

Went up to my FLGS last night and picked up a brand spanking new 5e Player's Handbook.

The cover

Interior page

There is no great revelations in this over the 5e Basic PDF. The main additions as far as I can see that this point is expanded everything (races, classes, spells, etc.), multiclassing rules, feats, and an appendix of stats for creatures that are relevant to various classes. Like familiars, druid animal forms, etc.

The actual rules themselves pretty are what they are in the Basic PDF. So Wizards wasn't kidding when they said that the 5e Basic PDF is the same game.

Explaining 5e mechanics in as few words as possible

• In 5th edition, your attributes give a bonus. 
• When you try something you roll a d20 equal to or higher than a target number. 
• If it is combat the target number is armor class. 
• If you are in advantageous situation you get to roll twice and take the highest roll. 
• If you are at a disadvantage you roll twice and take the lowest. 
• If you are proficient in a weapon, tool, or skill you get to add a bonus based on your level. 
• Hit points are considered a measure of fatigue as well as injury and every character can "take a knee" for an hour and regain a small amount of hit points. 
• The ability to "take a knee" erodes unless you have extended downtime. 
• As you level you have the option of increasing your ability scores or taking a feat. 
• Saving throws are based on the six attributes and rolled using a 1d20 equal to or greater than a target number. 
• Initiative is a d20. 
• Combat rounds are six seconds, and consist of a move and a action. 
• If you roll a nat 20 you double the dice of damage rolled (not the bonuses). 
• If you rolled a nat 1 you missed.
• Spell casting has slots that you use up during the day and are only reset after a 8 hour rest.
• You don't memorize specific spells for specific slots. Instead you prepare a limited list of spells that you can cast from during the day.
• Many spells are designed to be cast through higher level spell for greater effect. For example there is only one cure spell which heals for greater amounts when cast through a higher level slot.
• The rest are class details which are as about as complex and detailed as ADnD 1st sub classes like the Druid, Monk, or Ranger.
• To hit bonuses and Armor class have a limited range and are scaled on a absolute scale rather than by challenge level. This is called bounded accuracy.
• Higher level creatures and character are tougher because they have more hit points, do more damage, in more ways, and have more chances of attacking. 

They (only) made it to the Goblin Cave, another D&D 5e tale.

This week the search for the Lost Mine of Phandelver was continued. Josh wasn't able to make but +Daniel McEntee returned. He joined +Tim Shorts, +Chris C., and +Joshua Macy in their adventures around the mining village of Phandelver.

The Ongoing Story
Last week's adventure was a near party kill. But the group rallied back and managed to get Gundren Rockseer's supply to Phandelver. After a good night's rest at the Stonehill Inn, they were ready to return to the ambush site and track down those nefarious goblins.

The Roster

• Ara (Joshua Macy) - an Elven wizard dwelling in human lands in order to return to his people's lost cities that lies in ruins within Dearthwood. 
• Keyar Nailo (Dan McEntee) - an High Elven Archer seeking to keep the elven refuge of Losthain safe.
• Sidwin the Sharp (Tim) - a native of the City-State, the human rogue senses opportunity in Phandelver and positioned himself to be hired as one of the caravan guards. 
• Vognur (Chris) - a warrior armed and ready to take his place in the world and to pursue the mystery of the box left to him by his family.

The Majestic Wilderlands

I elected to set the game within my Majestic Wilderlands. I am more familiar with the setting and by taking the original adventure apart and reassembling allows me to master the adventure better. On the map below each small hex is one league and takes one hour to walk. Each large hex is 5 leagues.

The Game

During breakfast at the Stonehill Inn the party met Keyar Nailo. After finding out their mutual interest in killing goblins they agreed to join forces. During the breakfast they discussed finding a hireling to carry their stores and any treasure they found. Talking with Toblin Stonehill the innkeeper they hired Lanar a local miner down on his luck. Then it was off to Barthan's Provision where an assortment of iron spikes, and other equipment was purchased including two healing potions.

With a confident air the party returned to the ambush and found the trail that the goblin ambushers used. They avoided a basic snare trap, but Keyar missed the pit trap on the trail while scouting ahead. Confident of the trail's safety Vognur fell through the flimsy screen on top of the pit trap suffering several severe bruises.

The party rested and continued to follow the trail. Finally by noon they spotted a cave. (G on the map above) From the heavy traffic leading to it, it could only be the goblin trail. Sidwin used his skill in stealth, honed in the back alleys of the City State of the Invincible Overlord, to sneak up to the cave entrance. However he failed to notices the  goblin sentry watching him. Nor the other goblin sentry who was creeping along and at his back. Probably why Sidwin got away from the alleys of City-State.

The goblin stabbed him in the back running him through his spleen. With the blood gushing out of his mouth muffling his cry, the rogue collapsed to the ground. The other goblin took aim at Keyar, moving carefully up the left bank of the stream, and shoot an arrow through the archer's thigh.

The wounded elf couldn't react fast enough and the two goblin sentries fired their arrow into him. One arrow pierced his shoulder and the other his stomach. The archer collapsed, his life bleeding onto the ground. Keyar has successfully passed his Boromir audition.

Nearly stunned by the sudden onslaught, Ara pulls himself together and rushes up to the stream. Through force of will he draws in the ambient mana and sends it hurtling through memorized arcane forms, directing the spell with his hands towards the two goblins. With a noiseless cry they fall to the ground in a deep slumber.

With victory at hand, Ara steadies Lanar and with Vognur manages to stabilize their fallen comrades and bore them away before the goblins could come out and investigate. Along the way the goblin awoke but a timely Shocking Grasp spell put an end to any escape spell.

Luckily they were only an hour's walk away from civilization and manage to stumble onto a peasant's cottage. There in the toft (the enclosed yard around a cottage) the party recuperated. Ara questioned the goblin harshly and managed to convince that he was the Dark One personified. The goblin quickly babbled all that he knew.

That the cave was home to many goblins led by a fearsome Orc named Klarg and his second in command Yeemik. That the hideout consisted of a long cave alongside the stream. At the top of which are dammed up pools of water that can be released to sweep out any invaders. To the right of the entrance was a wolf kennel. On the left was a little used rubble filled passage leading to the main goblin quarters. There also a bridge over the long the cave. The bridge could be accessed by going to the end of the cave, up some stairs to a room. Off of the room was Klarg quarters and access to the bridge. Beyond the bridge was the main entranceway to the goblin quarters.

During this the party spotted two peasant (a man and a child) returning to the cottage. The peasants spotted the party and ran in the direction of the local manor. Everybody except Ara climbed a ridge to keep an eye out. Ara soon learned that the goblins were holding a human captive and that they sent a dwarf to the tribe's castle.

When Ara joined the party and relayed all that he found, the group spotted a small party of peasants being lead by a warrior on horseback. As the warrior approach they could see he was a small thin man and his chainmail armor was ill-fitting. Then quite unexpectedly they were greeted in a high pitch whiny voice. "Who are you and what are you doing on my land.".

The party explained their mission and what they were doing. The warrior was Sir Varius, the lord of Highgarden Manor. (M on the map)  The knight went to see the goblin. The creature tried to escape during Ara's absence but got tangled up in the hedge. The knight looked at it with contempt and proceeded to kill it with his spear.

Then noticing that two high elves in the party he immediately started sniveling, trying to curry their favor. He invited the party to dine with him at the manor house, the group accepted needing a place to rest. There they found a decrepit wooden manor house. With mold and moss growing on the walls everywhere. The great hall wasn't much better except for the lord's chair. The ale was two days too old, the mutton tastless, and the cheese partly green. In addition the knight was unkind to his servant particularly his cook Matilda.  After offering lodging in the great hall, the knight went to bed.

At dawn the party awoke and the knight remained in bed. Matilda greeted them with fresh bread and breakfast far better than the previous night fare. When asked about her situation, she explained that she was debt bound to the knight in the tune of 100d (sp). The party became determined to free this woman. They had the knight woken and convinced him that it would be in his interest to be "friends" with the elves. That they wish to pay off Matilda's debt and retain her services. At first the knight tried to overcharge them and get 200d. With Sidwin's silver tongue and Ara asking him point blank does really want to be remembered among the fair folks as dickering like a Dwarf, the knight brought the price down to her true debt of 100d.

Rested, the party ventured into the wild hills and sought the goblin cave. However the goblins discovered the dead sentry and now sent out patrol. One of which managed to waylay the party. Keyar, scouting ahead, was the unfortunate victim of their ambush. With two arrow shots, Keyar was shot down once more, confirming that he was indeed the right choice to play Boromir.  Ara spotted them during the ambush and summon forth a Ray of Frost. But the site of his new compatriot must have shaken the elven wizards as the spell missed. The goblins bolted and Vognur and Ara gave chase. After a few tense seconds, Sidwin managed to stabilize Keyar. The goblin chase was short as they ran afoul of a bear. In trying to avoid the animal they doubled right back to their pursuer and Ara downed them with a sleep spell. The goblins were killed and the two returned to the party to find Kaylar up, taking the knee to summon up his reserves to make the final push onto the goblin cave.

A half hour later the cave was in sight. This time the party halted a hundred yards out. Sidwin and Kayar carefully picked their way through the thicket. This time luck was on the party's side and they caught two more sentries unawares. Within six seconds they laid bleeding out on the ground.

With that we called it a night and the epic journey to the entrance of the goblin cave was done.

Comments

Man goblins stealth is nasty. While I was lucky in my rolls the +6 they get really makes goblins deadly when they have time to prepare. The group had some great moments roleplaying. With the PHB coming out next week I might have to turn this into a full campaign and put it into the Monday Night rotation.

The only bummer is that we didn't get to experience Roll20's dynamic lighting. There also a technical hiccup where I tried to use the new Line of Sight feature. The problem turned out to be that you not only have to enable Line of Sight for the map. But tell Roll20 that the characters had sight as well. The screen was black because I left the character blind. But we got it sorted it out and next week looks to be a great game.

I also played 5e at Gold Star Anime with a much larger group. While it is too early to be conclusive, I think spotted a quirk of 5e. That the effectiveness of larger groups isn't a linear progression, it is geometric. The group had 10 players and despite adding four times the creatures they still had a far easier time of it then the Monday Night crew. We will see how it goes.

So far 5e is a very solid system and even tho the party remains stuck at 1st level. They are able to recover from disaster and continue to progress. Soon we should see how higher levels fare. I hope.

RAW in D&D Basic 5e

While answering 5e questions over on RPG Stack Exchange, I noticed something interesting about the DnD 5e Basic PDF. They don't spend a lot of wordage on what you shouldn't do, deliberately leaving things in a way that is open for interpretation.

For example Arcane Focus, in the PDF it is described as,

 An arcane focus is a special item—an orb, a crystal, a rod, a specially constructed staff, a wand-like length of wood, or some similar item—designed to channel the power of arcane spells.

Note the a specially constructed staff, a wand-like length of wood, and especially or similar item. A player asked me whether his elven wizard could use his bow as a arcane focus. My ruling was that yes it could provided you paid the cost as outlined in the price list. And with the understanding it doesn't allow you to use it as a weapon when you are casting a spell. In other word you couldn't finagle it so you can cast and attack without another rule or ability coming into play.

I posted this on Stack Exchange. And got two answers. The more popular answer was that RAW doesn't allow it. The other answer was to embed a crystal that is a Arcane Focus into the bow.

What I found interesting that the popular answer assumed that if it was not permitted it is forbidden. I looking through various forum posts and google+ posts I seem many answers to rules questions are like that. And then reread the Basic PDF. And that not how it come across. The tenor of the rules is to present options at every point. To make the game your own.

For me personally I viewed the list of Arcane Focuses in the price list as a sample implementation of the rule on page 48. It is there not to limit what Arcane Focuses are but rather to give you something that ready to play out of the box.

Not to say there are not hard and fast rules in the Basic PDF. For example the fact you roll a 1d20 for your initiative is pretty straightforward. But in the backgrounds, various aspects of the characters classes, and other areas of the rules, the vibe is one of making it your own.

In the end I think Mearls and his team did a good job in balancing hard and fast rules with the stuff that can be interpenetrated in a variety of ways.

The key takeaway is that if you are starting out with DnD 5e, look at the rules as guidelines for your own campaign. Don't get trapped in thinking that DnD 5e is meant to be run RAW in the way that 3e and 4e. Even if you don't want to house rule much there is a lot of flexibility in how you implement the rules for your campaign. Particularly in backgrounds, and equipment.

5e Investigation skill.

Over on the Hack and Slash blog and other sites discussing 5e there some talk on the Investigation skill.


Perception. Wisdom (Perception) check lets you spot, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of something. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings and the keenness of your senses. For example, you might try to hear a conversation through a closed door, eavesdrop under an open window, or hear monsters moving stealthily in the forest. Or you might try to spot things that are obscured or easy to miss, whether they are orcs lying in ambush on a road, thugs hiding in the shadows of an alley, or candlelight under a closed secret door.

Investigation. When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon dealt it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse. Poring through ancient scrolls in search of a hidden fragment of knowledge might also call for an Intelligence (Investigation) check.

The way I view it is that Perception is about knowing that something exists. Doesn't tell you anything about it other than the fact it is there and whatever information your sense gives you.

Investigation is about deducing a larger picture from the things you perceive. In GURPS Perception would be coupled with a specific knowledge skill. For example you use perception to find a shiny golden rock and geology to tell whether it is fools gold or real gold. In 5e Investigation is what would be used in place of the Geology skill.

I would recommend limiting Investigations to deducing any information on specific objects. Leave it to player skill to figure out the larger picture that connects the details that are uncovered. It very easy for a referee in a crime scene encounter to allow his player a Sherlock Holmes moment via a simple successful investigation check. I think this would take too much away from the experience of being there as the characters.

For example a party discovers Mr. Peabody dead in the foyer. Through a successful series of Perception, Medicine, Wilderness Survival and Investigation checks. They find

• Mr. Peabody was killed by a blunt instrument (Medicine)
• The instrument was a candlestick (Investigation)
• The candlestick was in the bushes (Perception)
• A bloody footprint in the mud nearby (Survival)
• The footprint was of a man of medium height and weight (Investigation)
• They met earlier Miss White a older heavyset women.
• Met earlier Colonel Mustard a middle aged man of medium height and weight
• Met earlier Miss Black a young petite women in her 20s.
• Met earlier Professor Plum a middle aged man of medium height and rather thin.

I would leave it up to the players to put this information together to deduce that it was Colonel Mustard in the foyer with the candlestick who killed Mr. Peabody rather than have them make another investigation check.