On Wed, 9 Jan 2013, Onno Meyer wrote:
Johannes replied to me:
[...] Much easier to give the pawns
a story they will believe -- there is a party so A can seduce
and compromize B, and Helga was invited so that Ingrun would
come because C (a friend of B) would like to meet a real
gladiatrix. Maybe C tries to hit on Ingrun, and spills the wine
mixture when he doesn't seem to understand a polite "no".
So the actors don't all know each other, and mostly beleive, they are
there to con each other, so they don't recognize Ingrun and helga as
primary targets. I like that version.
Or they believe that they are the "window dressing" for some
plot, but they are misled about what the plot is. No need to
give all the other pawns a fake mission, and to keep that
straight. Only C has to know about Ingrun, A has to know
about B, and possibly B would be told to play along with A.
<snip>
If you go with the scenario above, the mastermind only has to
take out three pawns. There could be a narrative how C killed
B and A and then suicided himself.
It would be rather hypocritical if C tried a pass at Ingrun
and then goes mad because B had an affair with A, but double
standards are quite common. Or introduce disposable pawn D
as the jealous husband/wife of B.
What the other pawns think they know:
* A (a pawn) wants to seduce B (the target).
* B will come to the party if C does.
* C will come to the party if Ingrun does.
* Ingrun will come to the party if Helga does.
* Helga got invited.
* They are all supposed to make B, C, Ingrun and Helga feel
welcome, in that order, but they should not meddle in the
mission that was going on.
* B got seduced.
* Later that night, jealous husband D kills A and B. C kills
D. C disappears.
The "window dressing" pawns all believe that Helga, Ingrun,
and C were only invited to get B to come, and are no part
of the conspiracy.
They are not surprised if C stays close to Ingrun, because
they were told that C has a crush on her. And since they
believe that C and Ingrun are not part of the plot, they
will give them some room.
The mastermind would have to sacrifice five operatives,
counting the assassin. Is the flamen election worth it?
Propably we can get it down to 2. The assassin and one party pawn. One
party pawn can invite Helga and Ingrun and to spill wine on Ingrun. Either
due to clumsiness, or maybe taking exception at something that Ingrun does
at the party. Or missing the "intended" target and hitting Ingrun instead.
Some other pawn are there to act out some story like the one you
suggested. They know that they have to act it out at the party at that
time and place, but are given no information who the audience will be.
Others are there as windowdressing and assigned a role to play.
The other pawns are shipped off somewhere distant to stay there for a
while. They have not been given an explaination what the party was all
about. The mastermind may tell them something like "It all worked well and
he is going to pay plenty. Here is your reward. Go to ... and stay there
for a while, just to make sure that he can only track down the legitimate
party goers." When the story of the flamen reaches them, they propably
don't work out the exact timing and even if they do, they would be too
late to give Ingrun an alibi and doing so would involve them to confess
taking part in a lesser crime. They might figure that Ingrun was framed
but figuring out, that they had been part of the frame is an extra step.
The PCs go to the tailor, show him the clothes, and ask "did
you make this, and who was the customer?" Why would that make
the tailor think that the PCs murdered the customer?
Because they come with the clothes of the customer and the clothes have
plenty of blood on them.
If they had killed the customer, they wouldn't have to
ask who he was.
It depends on how the pcs start the conversation. If it is "What can you
tell us about theese", he does not yet know, what they want to know. What
i want to go for is, that he has his theory what is going on (the customer
did something to insult the honour of the pcs) and is eager to cooperate,
answering their questions, before they ask them. And much too frightended
to pay too much attention to what they actually ask.
Regarding the bum, you gave me an idea how to set the pcs on him, i hope
it's not too subtle.
At some point the pcs will ask the investigators if they can look at the
evidence.
"Do you want all witness reports or only the relevant ones?"
"All"
"Lets see what we have:
Ingrun was seen running over rooftops in full arena armour.
Spent the night with Ingrun, recognized her by her missing eye.*
A polio suffering bum is wearing a badly soiled Ingrun costume and calls
himself the avatar of Apollo and begs for money to buy a lyre in the
gerneral area of the forum.
Ingrun was overheard to buy an enchanted dagger.
Shall i go on?"
*Ingrun does not have a missing eye
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