The Beggar's Bodega (Campaign)/The Story So Far

X Worldbuilders:

GM James R

Case 1: The Case of the Corpse Astray

Client: Themselves (after being ambushed on a train ride)

Investigators: Ardemas, Roscoe , Mallen, Floux, Mauv, Dash

The Mystery: Pirates were being hired to collect corpses (that they themselves would generate in pirate-y schemes) and drop them off at Noble House in The Tangle.

Suspects:

• Precia Cointongue, famous pirate captainess and hired-hand.
• Donastra Valeri, resident and heiress of Noble House
• Lugo, the man the bodies are delivered to

Under the Mask:

• It turned out that the bodies were being dumped into the basement of Noble House, where they were being used to feed a massive tangle of flesh and bone. The sentinels snuck down and found Donastra entranced with a magical book named "Zelgrieb's Notebook of Dissection". Luckily for the players, they induced the inquisitors of Waukeen to enter the building, finding and arresting Donastra. The Book was then taken back to the Bodega where resident scholar Roscoe determined the book was influencing Donastra negatively with its own insidious magic.
• Follow up investigation and interrogation with locals of the area revealed the Valeri's dirty legacy, which resulted in Donastra's mother being banished from the family blood line and sent to live in squalor with her mason husband, who was actually the architect of Noble House. Sentinels believe the motivation was vengeance against her own family.

What they Missed:

• Donastra came across the insidious book in the first place thanks to a demon, Uxorioth, who was possessing her.

Case 2: The Case of the Dripping Throne

Client: Shawm Luzzechi (Jason Z. from Brooklyn)

Investigators: Mallen, Floux, Anastasia, Hari

The Mystery: A traveller in the city who was just hoping to purchase flutes was killed seemingly at random. But soon it became clear that while Shawm was randomly picked, the murder was anything but spontaneous.

Suspects:

• Eel and Lee, Fisherman
• Crow the Beggar
• Julianna Fishhall the Guild Leader and Sorcerous Adept
• The Badlanders

Under the Mask: It turned out that Al'Adeaf's fishing guild was actually run by a small sorcerous cabal who sacrificed human lives in exchange for a bountiful catch. Shawm may have been a random death, but he was only the latest in a long line of random deaths which helped the fisherman of the city catch great bounties. Is one life a month a reasonable trade for a hundred thousand people staying well fed? Well, ultimately the team decided it was a worthy trade, but they wanted a say, becoming a mediator to make suggestions of who to sacrifice for future months.

Case 3: The Case of the Sin Drinker

Client: Nightwatch Commander Antonio Teldi (Sam M. from Baltimore)

Investigators: Floux, Ardemas, Mauv

The Mystery: When a Nightwatch Commander believes he is being hunted down, the team works together to track down the killer, but more importantly, the killer's motivations that lead the team to re-think everything they know about Commander Teldi.

Suspects:

• The Pickle Vendor
• Vampires?
• Teldi Himself
• Merano's Pickles

Under the Mask:

It was the wife of the Pickle Vendor! She's a Penanggal who's decided to be a vigilante in the north Harbor. Teldi was the next target on her crosshairs, but he was convinced to skip town and never come back, or the Beggar's would happily let the Pennangal take her vengeance.

Case 4: The Case of the Double Dare

Newspaper clippings dug up to reveal Joe Canning's secret

Client: Adam Hersey (Jonathan H. from Texas)

Investigators: Floux, Mallen, Roscoe, Calvin

The Mystery: After being double dared to go into an abandoned prep school in Sag Harbor, Adam and his friend Blaine take the challenge....only to be ambushed by powerful dark magic that turns Blaine into a statue. Now it's up to Adam to recruit the city's best (and cheapest) investigators to figure out what happened, and see if the curse can be reversed???

Suspects:

• Bill Wessler
• Tanya Becker
• Adam???
• Joe Canning (Aka JOE MAMA)

Under the Mask: It was Joe Mama all along. He was over 100 years old and had been tricking school kids into going into the house every 19 years.

What they Missed:

• Quite a bit, due to nobody's understanding of sorcery or magic, and their lack of connections with the Sorcerous Cabal that they may have been able to call a favor from. Still not understanding the curse, or how this mysterious type of dark magic operates, they elected to keep Blaine's paralyzed corpse in the Bodega as a seasonal decoration.

Case 5: The Case of the Copper Door

Ledger entries that led the team to discover the old house on Qim Street where the Copper Door laid

Client: Marwan Abd-al-Aziz (John S. from Maryland), a supernatural investigator from The Seven Cities.

Investigators: Mallen, William, Elara, Drip

The Mystery:

Suspects:

• Kyriakos, an oppium addict
• The Demon of the Wastes, a jinn that served Kyriakos' orders
• al-Snobbit ("The Man from Snobbite") a strange cultist who frequented the Den of Smoke
• Majd al-Din, hired merchant who was also a frontman for several operations
• Tammo & Ponzio, guards working for Majd al-Din.
• Zubair, a swordsmith who created a magic item used in the ceremonies

Under the Mask: It turns out that almost everyone involved (Except for the genie) was in fact working for a cult dedicated to Serket, a god of the ancient Merca societies, and they planned to summon a Yuan-Ti anathema to attack the city and claim it in the name of Merca.

What they Missed:

• While they freed the genie, who subsequently helped stop the ritual, they did not understand that intricacies of the cult, or capture any cultists to discover what further machinations they were planning...

Case 6: The Case of the Missing Landlord

Blueprints to the club which revealed the secret elevator and chambers underground

Case 6 in Full

Client: Adrian Moore (Jayme A. From LA)

Investigators: Mallen, Ardemas, Mauv, Elara

The Mystery:

Under the Mask:

Case 7: The Case of the Darkson Princess

The ship's manifest was key to discovering who on board wasn't where they should have been.

Client: Zelda Brandt (Ali M. From Harlem)

Investigators: Floux, Calvin, Mauv, Charlie

The Mystery:

Suspects:

• Harvey Cooper
• Dr. Coombes
• Security Chief Georgia May
• 1st Officer Kilkenny
• Cruise Director Thornhill

And then after it was determined some sort of creature might be on board, the list of suspects became drilled down to a number of creatures that could possibly be responsible:

• Dybbuk - a type of posessive jellyfish, looking for a good host
• Maezel - Maybe the ship crossed its territory and it gets vengeance
• Sword Wraith - Maybe was someone who died on the ship, haunts the ship trying to kill others.

Under the Mask: It was a Deep Sand Scion who had snuck on board and was slowly absorbing the faces of all the important cruise ship members in an attempt to convince the captain to take the ship out to the badlands where a Kraken pit sat, ready to devour everyone on board whole.

Case 8: The Case of the Nymphsview Neighbour

Leo's map of Nymphsview used to guide the Bodega Investigators around

Client: Leopold Amor (Craig R from Scotland)

Investigators: Calvin, Tragdor, Ardemas, Jacques

The Mystery: A mystery NOT in Al'Adeaf!?! When Brigadier Gaba, good friend to Leo, is killed in his own home, the rumor mill tells Leo that a crack team of investigators just rolled into the city on the Darkson Princess. With their help will Leo be able to find the mysterious reason why his superior officer was killed?

Suspects:

• Nick Ehrmann, the suspicious up and comer who may just win the mayoral race
• The Agent of Hell, a literal devil running a literal law firm over at Franklin & Stein.
• Bruno Carmena, Hitman for Hire, he ain't saying NOTHING
• The Meleagris Family, owners of the Don's Ark Italian-style restaurant.
• Johann Schmid?! - Lover of spaghett at Don's Ark and friend of Leo's

Under the Mask: Bruno Carmena, the actual hitman, was connected to a yet-unrecognized shadow agency with fingers in every pot around town...cough DarkSons...was hired by the Melagris family (who had put much of their money into Nick Ehrmann) to take out the nosey Brigadier after they found out he knew too much and was piecing together the dark money.

What they Missed: Despite discovering the killer, I don't think the team actually tried to turn Ehrmann or the Meleagris crew in to the authorities. Finding the answers and closing the case was enough to keep Leo and his weird friend Johann happy.

Also there was literally a massive talking Turkey that was part of this mystery that the players definitely did not come across. He was part of "The Turkey Guard" which protected the city.

Case 9: The Case of the False Friend

Client: Heimeric Winkler (Cody M. from Boston)

Investigators: Dash, Charlie, William, Mallen

The Mystery: Clara Winkler -- The daughter of the client, did not return to her dormintory according to a call made to the Winkler Villa. Last seen studying the occult with a cute boy, the investigators put on their best University Student personas and investigate what supsicious going-ons are happening at Al'Adeaf U.

Suspects:

• Arthur Schenbrink
• Ferdinand Fazzo
• Konrad Scinco
• The Caretaker
• Jenkins!

Under the Mask:

What they Missed: Jenkins the Winkler's servant was dead! Or...was he?! Turns out Jenkins was the shapeshifting monster all along, and without being caught by the investigators, he slunk back into the city unnoticed.

Case 10: The Case of the Season Finale

Client: The Lich (Lich Omoi from the Void)

Investigators: Dash, Charlie, Calvin, Mauv

The Mystery: A missing Hydra Hydrangea?! Not on our watch! When the Lich's magical mystery plant gets stolen by adventurers filling out a mission order from the mega corp AgraWealth, it's up to the team to track down who put out the hit, and where the plant was delievered, and where this mysterious "Site B" is...

Suspects:

• Katharine Altone, the CFO and vice president of AgraWealth
• Owen Altone, the missing husband
• Yousef Prakseesin, the mysterious Sheik who was asked to come to the city to meet with Owen
• Mr. Darvall, agent of the 7 Cities working closely with AgraWealth

Under the Mask:

• While Owen was certainly working on his own mysterious evils on the side, planning his own kidnapping and trying to extort AgraWealth, it turns out it wasn't the Altones, but instead the mysterious Mr. Darvall and his agents (Especially Anthony Caul) working inside of AgraWealth, who hired out the adventures via Owen, who believed doing this dirty act for the company would help him get a promotion (and be with his secretary and affair more)...but throwing the Altones under the bus also threw a huge red herring into any attempts to investigate the plant-napping, leading to the trickiest mystery to solve yet. Thanks to the magic of the Lich and Calvin combined, was Site B discovered deep under the quicksands of Al'Adeaf, and the plant recovered.

What they Missed:

• They didn't talk to the maid Azzah, but that's not a big deal. I'll mark this one 100%'d

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Mystery Outlines

To demonstrate how much more free-flowing (and difficult to run) RPG mysteries can be in the GUMSHOE system, here are a number of example mysteries from The Beggar's Bodega (Campaign).

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  Session 10