Questions and Answers

This game uses a modified version of the Monster Hunters Investigation rules. This allows the players to pose questions, have their characters investigate for clues, have their characters think about the answer to the question, and hopefully have the GM tell the players the answer to the question whether or not the players have figured things out.

# Open Questions

Who is behind the attacks on Daffy's Casino?
*Difficulty:* Hard. Intelligence Analysis -2, Current Affairs (Grand Arroyo), or Area Knowledge (Grand Arroyo).
*Clues:* 7. Someone paid a lot of money to start a fight here. Deputy Houghton barely investigated. Sheriff Gage approached Daffy about selling the bar. The Sheriff is protective of Daffy and doesn't have a great deal of money. Rough characters have been starting fights in the casino for several nights in a row. Houghton knew some of the goons, but didn't take the ones that Teddy beat up to jail nor to Doctor Harris. When confronted, the goons strongly implied that Killeen suggested they attack Daffy's.
Who is anyone behind the increased incidence of cheating at Daffy's, or is it just a case of people taking advantage of an honest and riggable game?
*Difficulty:* Moderate. Intelligence Analysis -2, Current Affairs (Grand Arroyo), or Area Knowledge (Grand Arroyo).
*Clues:* 1. The known cheaters were almost certainly working as a team (Athena and Hank).
Why is anti-nonhuman prejudice being whipped up in Arroyo Grande?
*Difficulty:* Very Hard. Intelligence Analysis -2, Current Affairs (Politics) -1, Current Affairs (Grand Arroyo) -2, or Psychology (Applied).
*Clues:* 3. The Grande Times newspaper focuses hard on the anti-nonhuman angle. Shepherd Bell is preaching the anti-nonhuman parts of the Faith's doctrine a lot harder than most preachers do. There appears to be a connection between the Fosters and Shepherd Bell, and between the Fosters and Burnsides.
*Hints*: Knowledge of the Rapturous Faith's doctrine and organization may help.
What was shipped to the Boars Head?
*Difficulty*: Moderate. Intelligence Analysis -2, Criminology, or Smuggling.
*Clues*: 4. No one would ship food to the Boar's Head as it was a cheap tavern. Deputy White was strangely protective of the shipment, volunteering to watch it overnight. Deputy White sent a message to Shepherd Bell that he wouldn't be able to make it to a scheduled dinner that night, but that may have been a coded message. The announcement of the proposed Blue Laws was made the next day. The crates stored at the Boar's Head were about 4' long by 2' square, and apparently fairly heavy but contained something robust as they were not handled with care.
Why was Deputy White so protective of the shipment for the Boars Head?
*Difficulty*: Moderate. Intelligence Analysis -2, Current Affairs (Grand Arroyo) -2, or Psychology (Applied).
*Clues*: 2. Deputy White was strangely protective of the shipment, volunteering to watch it overnight. Deputy White sent a message to Shepherd Bell that he wouldn't be able to make it to a scheduled dinner that night, but that may have been a coded message.
*Hints*: Deputy White could be investigated or subtly interrogated.
What was taken from the shipment at the Boars Head?
*Difficulty*: Moderate. Intelligence Analysis -2 or Smuggling.
*Clues*: 3. Vic saw someone signal to Deputy White while the Deputy was watching the Boar's Head. Multiple people took several heavy things from :*Hints*: Deputy White could be investigated or subtly interrogated.the Boar's Head. Vic saw that the crates were still at the Boar's Head 2 days later, but the crates had been opened and quickly closed again.
Who currently owns Daffy's mortgages?
*Difficulty*: Beyond Impossible Difficulty. The answer cannot be deduced, but only answered by direct questioning of Daffy or the current owner, or by checking the actual bank records.
*Clues*: 0.
*Hints*: Daffy would need to be very close to summon to confide on her personal financial dealings. No one has even tried to investigate the bank.
Why was the demon that killed Athena summoned?
*Difficulty*: Very Hard. Intelligence Analysis -2 or Hidden Lore (Demon).
*Clues*: 1. The only person Athena had offended was Phil, and he wasn't that offended.
*Hints*: Demons provide wide variety of supernatural powers, both blatant and subtle.
Who is the diabolist in Arroyo Grande?

*Difficulty*: Very Hard. Streetwise -4, Intelligence Analysis -2, Area Knowledge (Arroyo Grande) -1, or Occultism.
*Clues*: 0.
*Hints*: There are vague indications that someone in Arroyo Grande is buying diabolism grimoires, but no one has made any attempt to investigate the trade.
# Game Mechanics

## Posing a Question

Any player, at any time, can ask a question that needs to be investigated. The GM will record the question and give an apparent difficulty to solve it and the relevant skills for deduction.

Deduction penalty levels
 Impossible | -10 or worse

Some questions are so complicated that they cannot be answered in a single deduction. Deducing the answer gives a partial answer and reveals another, more detailed question that can be investigated.

## Investigating Clues

A clue is a concrete fact that aids in deducing the answer to a specific question. Clues are found by investigation. Investigation is any process that uncovers more information, but is generally a series of skill checks. Interviewing witnesses, interrogating prisoners, acquiring and examining computer records, and similar actions are all examples of investigation. A particular act of investigation may result in clues for more than one question.

The GM will generally record what clues have been found, but sometimes the characters will uncover clues without the players recognizing them as clues. These will just be noted as clues without specifics.

The answers to some questions are often clues to help solve other questions. If a question is answered and would provide a clue to another question, the GM will generally announce this at the time.

## Deducing the Answer

Any time after the characters have discovered at least two clues for a question, a character can spend an hour attempting to deduce the answer. The character can not take extra time to get a bonus. Deducing an answer is a secret skill check against the character's best applicable skill from the list of relevant skills, with a penalty relative to the difficulty of the question and a +1 bonus per clue. Particularly important clues may be worth more than +1. Other characters can help review the character's logic by providing secret complementary rolls against other deduction skills, but each character must use a different skill from the main roll and from each other.

On success, the GM answers the question, with more detail depending on the margin of success. Failure consumes two clues and gives a cumulative -2 penalty on repeated attempts. There is no extra penalty for critical failures.

### Confirming a Suspicion

Players can attempt to figure out the answer to a question. If they mostly put things together themselves but aren't entirely certain of the answer, they may use the deduction rules to get the GM to confirm their suspicions. The deduction roll is at +4 if the players' suspicion is correct and at -2 if the suspicion is wrong.

Although confirming a suspicious is fun and satisfying, ***it is not necessary to have attempt to answer a question before attempting to deduce an answer.*** These rules are meant to let the characters, who are often smarter or more knowledgeable than the players, have a way to answer questions that the players are struggling with. It is precisely intended that the characters be able to look a collection of random data and deduce the answer to a question that the players cannot figure out.

## Hints

Hints are rumors, hearsay, and background facts that don't provide enough information to be a clue, but suggest possible avenues for further investigation.

# Closed Questions

Who is Daffy, where's she from?
*Difficulty:* Easy
*Clues:* 3. Daffy is a Sunflower Elf (her full name is Sunflower Daffodil Whitebow). The Sunflower tribe are the original owners of the land that Arroyo Grande is built on. They still own their graveyard and sacred grove. Teddy knows that the local tribal chief was 'Lightbow, or something'.
*Answer:* Daffy is probably the chieftain and has stewardship of the tribal land.
How has Daffy managed to keep the casino afloat?
*Difficulty:* Moderate
*Clues:* 3. Daffy manages the Sunflower tribal land, which is high-value real estate in Arroyo Grande.
*Answer*: Daffy must have sold some of the land to finance the casino, and might be willing to sell more of it to keep it afloat.
Who is hiring goons to menace Daffy?
*Difficulty*: Moderate difficulty. Intelligence Analysis -2, suspect appropriate skills at no penalty (could be Streetwise, Area Knowledge, or Hidden Lore depending on the suspect.
*Clues*: 3: Someone left notes at the jail, giving a prisoner a double eagle and telling to follow and menace Daffy without hurting her. The notes were signed with a B. The notes were specific that Daffy was not to be harmed.
*Answer*: It's almost certainly Gage, using the note to throw suspicion on someone else.
Who/what killed Amos Ford?
*Difficulty*: Moderate Difficulty. Intelligence Analysis -2, suspect appropriate skills at no penalty (could be Streetwise, Area Knowledge, or Hidden Lore depending on the murderer).
*Clues:*: 7. Amos' house wasn't ransacked. He was bloodily murdered by cutting weapon. The killer was very strong, capable of reaching the ceiling joists 8' overhead and cutting partially through the 4x4" billets. There were deep, bloody footprints outside the window, partially obscured by a large movement of air. There were no other tracks outside the shack. Ren detected that something magical had happened in the room at some point but not who or what or when. Amos had no enemies at all.
Solving the Athena murders provided a +4 bonus to solving this question.
*Answer*: Amos was likely killed by a summoned demon.
Why was Amos Ford killed?
*Difficulty*: Hard Difficulty. Intelligence Analysis -2, suspect appropriate skills at no penalty (could be Psychology or Hidden Lore depending on the murderer).
*Clues:*: 4. Amos' house wasn't ransacked. His shack was somewhat distant from other buildings. Amos had no enemies at all. There was no evidence that ritual magic had been performed inside the shack.
Solving this question will provide many clues for the previous question, and may provide clues for the Athena questions.
Solving the Athena murders provided a +4 bonus to solving this question.
*Answer*: Amos was likely killed by a summoned demon as payment for services rendered to a diabolist.
Who/what killed Athena?
*Difficulty*: Moderate Difficulty. Intelligence Analysis -2, suspect appropriate skills at no penalty (could be Streetwise, Area Knowledge, or Hidden Lore depending on the murderer).
*Clues:*: 7. Athena's house wasn't ransacked. She and her roommate were bloodily murdered by cutting weapon. There were deep, bloody footprints outside the window, partially obscured by a large movement of air. The footprints were suggestive of a unreasonably large harpy-kin taking flight. There were no other tracks outside the shack. Ren detected that something magical had happened in the room at in the last night. Athena and her roommate Carol were last seen the night before.
Solving this question provided a +4 bonus to the question of why she was killed and to the questions involving Amos Ford's murder.
*Answer*: Athena was likely killed by a summoned demon as payment.
Why was Athena killed?
*Difficulty*: Hard Difficulty. Intelligence Analysis -2, suspect appropriate skills at no penalty (could be Psychology or Hidden Lore depending on the murderer).
*Clues:* 4. Athena's house wasn't ransacked. Her house was somewhat distant from other buildings. There were possible demon related markings in blood inside the house, but Vic thought they may have been signatures, not summoning symbols. Vic has a vague recollection that bound demons need to be released to hunt.
Solving the question of who killed Athena provided a +4 bonus to the question of why she was killed and to the questions involving Amos Ford's murder.
*Answer*: Athena was likely killed by a summoned demon as payment for services rendered to a diabolist.