I forget where I read the passage (I'm fairly certain that it was in the sigil chapter of the new PSCS). But I remember reading that as much fun as the Sodkillers and the Sons of Moercy have while they go out and merit justice, Sigils official police force is (as I read it) the equivilent of a large organization of council funded Neigborhood watches.
Im kinda creating a campaign about this (starting at level 5) and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of what could make a few short, but challenging/entertaining things to 'investigate.' While starting small, I'm leaning toward the idea of them stumbling onto a few small matter that eventually lead up to finding major dirt on a politically powerful NPC. The mob that is so good that no one even knows its in town kind of thing.
So... Have at it!
- A tiefer notable is found one fine antipeak with her head caved in. The two suspects, a hound archon and a bralani, are also the two key witnesses - each implicating the other. The PCs must discover which of the two (if either) is the real guilty party.
- Something small, furry and stealthy is casing homes and businesses in the local neighborhood. Is it a cranium rat? A polymorphed mage? A quasit? A gnome's pet weasel? Something else entirely? The PCs must trap the perpetrator and find some way of closing the thefts down at their source.
- Colleagues/predecessors/superiors of the PCs are accused of bungling an investigation - using flawed divination magics, accepting forged evidence and self-serving testimonies, and similar miscarriages of justice. The PCs must investigate these charges themselves - but carefully, so that if the charges are true they can provide their own proof and if they're false they can prove that too without being accused of "joining the cover-up". Discovering who's most likely to benefit if the accused parties get a reputation for mismanaging their cases is likely key.
- Some minor knight of the cross-trade has been fingered by the PCs - an absolutely open and shut case, except that the villain in question has taken refuge with one of the city's big players. Said powerbroker basically doesn't care about the PCs' authority, their collected evidence, or anything else that could force a straightforward resolution of the problem. So how do Our Heroes get their man? Offer a favor in return for protection being withdrawn? Plan a caper to spirit the guilty party out from under his patron's nose? Find some way to embarrass the patron enough to cuff the SOB? Or something else entirely?...