Caravan Calamity, Session 3

[Nevermet]

FInished my 3rd session of my online murder mystery game.  Here is a bulleted list of what happened:

 

• MURDER SOLVED: The PCs kept circling the mystery of 1+1, so I asked them to make some rolls for help putting pieces together.  The players seemed totally ok with it, though I'm not sure that would have been the right move for all groups.  Anyhow, because of this, things moved VERY quickly, and they solved the murder!
  • Put simply, the Caravan boss was blackmailing many of the people on the caravan, including the PCs.  One of the NPCs, a scholar from Saltcastle, who was being blackmailed did not appreciate the situation: he was given a very slow-acting but lethal poison, and was being forced to translate ancient texts for the caravan boss in exchange for the antidite.  The NPC decided to turn the tables on the boss, poisoning him with something that was just as lethal but much quicker.  In exchange for his freedom, the NPC would give the boss the antidote to HIS poison.  ...The Caravan Boss, seemingly out of a heroic level of spite, decided to die instead.  The NPC was not expecting this, and put him into a panic.
     
• Weekend at Bernies.  One of the things the PCs all agreed to which I did NOT SEE COMING is that they have kept the murder of the boss from the rest of the caravan.  Play has been a bit too fast for me to really make this an issue, but it's still hilarious to me.  In the 3rd session, they FINALLY informed the caravan's head of the watch, a hulking pralori warrior with a hyper-intelligent elk.  They learned how to use Hero Points in their attempts to chill the Pralori out, who was feeling very unhappy about being lied to.
   
• Those poor, innocent... Ogres?  One of the other NPCs on the caravan is noblewoman and a cacodemon cultist.  An actual ogre had infiltrated the caravan as a hunter to make contact with her to set up Cannibalistic Schemes (tm) for the city they were arriving in (Yolanda).  Unfortunately, a murder occurred they had no part in.  Worse, the noblewoman's personal servant witnessed the poisoning and murder.  Worse, there were rumours on the caravan about ogres already.  All of this has made the ogres start to panic, and they have fled into the wood.
  • When the PCs realized people had fled the caravan camp, they immediately searched the tents, and found cacodemon ritual items.  They are now convinced the ogres had something to do with the caravan boss' death, and they are putting together a posse to go into the deep upper woods of Maniria, chasing after chaotic cultists, cuz PCs gonna PC.

It's very easy for me to find things I didn't do well, but the fact remains my players are having a blast.  Next session will be the last of our little mini-campaign, and then we'll decide what to do next.  At least definitely wants to keep his current PC.  It is entirely possible I will spend the entire summer running a relatively light-hearted, social skill-heavy Manirian caravan campaign.  And that makes me happy.

[Nevermet]

I have also kept things very rules light so far: No extended contests, no momentum rules, and no community resource rules.

 

If we keep moving forward after next week, I'll add those in.