The Witcher D&D: The Beast (part 2)

We started the hunt for the murderous beast in our previous session, but it was too much for a single evening. Today, we’ll solve the mystery once and for all!

The adventure was created to set the players on the wrong foot, but they were smart enough to completely figure out the mystery!

If tabletop role playing games are completely new for you, then I suggest that you start from the beginning, with our very first adventure.

Household help

Before continuing the quest itself, the party decided to go on a side quest that they found on the notice board.

The players decide to send Radagast in first to lure the wraiths out. But – as expected – Radagast fumbles again, and get’s knocked down. So the players have to enter his house and have to fight in close quarters.

Sherga get’s wounded when an arrow flies straight through an immaterial wraith, and Radagast is accidentally set on fire.

But in the end, all ends well. The wraiths are defeated, everyone is healed, and Radagast rewards everyone (without a single fumble!)

Into the cave

After that, it’s time to continue the search for the beast!

In the previous session, Vincent the mayor gave a clue that Paul the bard saw something strange when Joe was murdered. When the party visits Paul, he says that he saw a hairy beast entering a cave nearby.

They cautiously enter the cave, and meet a troll, disable a trap, find some treasure and so on. In one room, they find a couple of mysterious notes and a rock with strange inscriptions.

One of the notes leads them to a hidden room. The room has both human and wolven footprints. Besides that, it also contains various books on herbs and healing.

All of this points to Jaana the healer! Could she be a werewolf?

The werewolf

When Jaana’s confronted with these accusations, she admits that she’s a werewolf. Whenever there’s a full moon, she hides in the cave until she’s human again.

But she strongly denies that she has murdered Joe. She still sticks to her point, even after the necessary intimidation. Maybe someone wants to frame Jaana for a murder she didn’t commit?

Who pointed our party in Jaana’s direction? It was Paul the bard!

The butler bard did it!

It happens to be full moon, so the party follows the bard to his house, and watches him all night long. If he turns into a werewolf, then he must be the one who caused the claw marks on Joe, thereby killing him.

But the night passes, and nothing has happened. So they decide to interrogate him, and he eventually confesses: Paul the bard was in love with Elsa (Elsa’s selling animal skins in the village), but she only has eyes for Joe the lumberjack.

He murdered Joe in the woods, and left some claw marks on his chest using a wolf skin. Then he made some subtle references pointing to Jaana.

Unfortunately for him, the party was clever enough to find the real culprit! The mayor takes Paul to jail, and rewards our heroes.

On the way to jail, they pass Elsa, and she bursts out in tears when she sees that Paul will be imprisoned. Could she be in love with him after all? There’s only rarely a happy ending in the Witcher’s world!

Inspiration

My inspiration for this story came from a particular X-files episode (s10e03), called Mulder and Scully meet the were-monster. There’s also a murder in this episode, and all clues point to a monster. But in the end, the monster is just innocent.

The runes come from the Ultima games, where you often need to read them in order to finish the game.

The side-quests’ inspiration came from a Reddit post about a clumsy mage, but unfortunately I didn’t note the reference.